I have left out the words, "according to the flesh he would raise up Christ," which are found in our translation of the thirtieth verse, because they are evidently spurious, being omitted in the best manuscripts and versions.

"I may freely speak unto you of the patriarch David." This kind of apology was necessary in addressing Jews on the subject of this patriarch, by whom he was held in high estimation, and who might be offended at any thing which seemed derogatory from his honour, as this application of his language to another person, and not to himself, might appear to some.

66

And this

"That God had sworn with an oath." This oath is mentioned in Ps. cxxxii. 11, and is referred to in several passages of the historical books. "To set up the fruit of his loins upon his throne." This expression plainly implies that Christ was to be a natural descendant of David, by the male or direct line. It was in that line that all genealogies were reckoned among the Jews. He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ." It is plain hence, and indeed from the whole of Peter's comment upon the language of this Psalm, that he considered the words of David as a direct prophecy of the resurrection of Christ, and not in any degree applicable to himself. Paul likewise refers to them with the same view, in his address to the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, recorded in chapter the thirteenth of this book. interpretation seems to have been admitted as just in both cases by the Jews; for in consequence of the apostle's reasoning upon this subject, many of them embraced Christianity. Yet it has been observed by some, of no small reputation for sagacity, that in reading the Psalms, without any knowledge of this interpretation, all persons at the present day would have concluded that David was speaking of himself only, and intending to say, that God would not suffer him to perish by the hands of his enemies, or at most, that if he should die, God would raise him from the dead, and admit him to a state of greater happiness in a future life. It has likewse been said, that in the whole Psalm there is not a single expression which David may not well be supposed to have used concerning himself, and that no second person is mentioned or alluded to. What weight these circumstances ought to have, in opposition to the authorities before mentioned, I shall leave to the reader to determine.*

33. Therefore being by, "at," the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.

These words are

"Being at the right hand of God exalted." not to be interpreted literally, as if the Supreme Being were seated upon a visible throne in the sky, and had a right hand and left, where beings are stationed according to the degree of favour which they enjoy; but, to be exalted at the right hand of God, is to be understood metaphorically, for enjoying the first place in his favour

"Theological Repository, Vol. IV. p. 113.

and confidence. The language is evidently borrowed from the practice of the courts of earthly princes, where men are placed at the right hand or left, according as they possess more or less of the prince's favour. That it is a metaphorical exaltation which is here referred to, is evident hence, that the proof, which is adduced of his possessing it, is not his being seen lifted up on high, but his shedding forth these extraordinary powers.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are called the promise of the Father, because they had been promised to Jesus by him; and they are said to be shed or poured out by Christ, because given at his request, and through his agency.

34. For David is not ascended into the heavens ; but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

35. Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

Peter now produces a fresh proof of Christ's exaltation, which is borrowed from Ps. cx. 1, where David seems to be favoured with a prospect of the future Messiah, in the same manner as Abraham saw Christ's day, and to hear the language which God, the great Lord of all, addresses to him, desiring him to sit at his right hand, in the place of chief honour until he should bring all his enemies to his feet, or make them his footstool; that is, bring them to a state of the lowest subjection. This, Peter observes, David could only have said by the gift of prophecy; for he was not in heaven to hear the language, but was now lying in the grave.

36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Not Lord of the whole creation, a title which belongs to Jehovah alone, but the Lord just spoken of in the prophecy of David; his Lord or superior, or the head of the Christian church.

REFLECTIONS.

1. LET Christians rejoice in the exaltation of their Master. He who was treated with contempt and scorn by the world, who was condemned and crucified as a malefactor, is raised to a post of the highest dignity and honour, the honour of bestowing upon men those miraculous powers by which superstition, idolatry and vice, were to be overthrown; and by which virtue, truth and righteousness were to be established in the world. A glorious prince, more honourable than any who occupied the throne of his father David ! A happy triumph, not obtained by blood and slaughter and the many evils of war, but by the sacred energy of truth; the willing subjection of the mind to laws which it approves! It is the emancipation of slaves from the tyranny of vice. Such a triumph is as

honourable for the vanquished as for the victor. Let us rejoice that our Master has obtained the joy set before him, the glory which he desired, the only object worthy of the ambition of a truly virtuous and benevolent mind, that of conferring upon mankind the most extensive blessings. He has now a name given him above every name; he stands first in the list of virtuous characters and of the benefactors of the human race. And well does he deserve this distinction; for although in the form of God, although possessed of a power of working miracles at pleasure like God, he restrained the exercise of this power, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and became obedient to death, the death of the

cross.

2. After beholding the exaltation of Jesus, let none of his followers be discouraged from persevering in the path of virtue. Whatever difficulties you have to contend with, you will one day surmount; whatever afflictions it my seem fit to Divine Providence that you should now endure, they shall at length be exchanged for joy. Never can your condition be more unpromising than that of your MasIn his reward and triumph you may see a pledge of your own. It is a faithful saying, "If we be dead with Christ we shall live with him; if we suffer we shall also reign with him ;" but "if we deny him he will deny us."

ter was.

3. If Jesus is made lord in his church, let us be careful to render him due obedience in that character. Let us take our rule of faith from his gospel, without adding thereto or taking from it. In matters of religion let us submit to his authority alone. To follow the imaginations of our minds, or to receive the dictates of fellowcreatures, whether one or a greater number, is to renounce the allegiance which we owe to Christ, and to choose another master. Such conduct cannot fail to be highly offensive to him, as well as injurious to his religion.

THE historian now proceeds to give an account of the impression made upon the multitude by the miracle of the effusion of the Holy Spirit, and the reasoning of Peter upon the subject.

37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, "to the heart," and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, "brethren," what shall we do?

How shall we escape the calamities which are coming upon the Jewish nation, and repair the error which we have committed in rejecting and crucifying the Messiah? By the quotations which Peter made from Joel, in which the prophet speaks of the sun being turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, and of blood and fire, and vapour of smoke preceding the terrible day of the Lord, which the apostle applied to the present occasion, they understand that great and uncommon evils were about to befal their country, and they are anxious to be informed in what manner they

themselves might be delivered from them.

in the next verse.

This Peter tells them

38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus. Christ, for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The repentance to which Peter here exhorts his hearers, is not a general reformation of character and conduct, although the word sometimes undoubtedly has that meaning, but a change of principles upon a particular subject, namely, the divine mission of Jesus. Nor does the remission of sins, here promised as the consequence of repentance and baptism, signify the removal of moral guilt in general, but merely a recovery from that sinful state to which all men, whether Jew or Gentiles, are represented as being reduced, so long as they are out of the Christian covenant. This sense of the word repentance occurs in other parts of the book of Acts, as xvii. 20. "But the times of this ignorance God winked at," where heathen idolatry is spoken of, "but now commandeth all men every where to repent ;" that is, to abandon their idolatrous errors, and to embrace the Christian religion. And in the same manner, xxvi. 20, when Paul says of himself to Agrippa, that he showed first to them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance, he means that they should forsake their errors as Jews or heathens, receive the Christian religion which God now offered to them, and walk in a manner becoming their new profession. The remission of sins is here connected with baptism, in the same manner as, in other passages, with the blood of Christ; not because the one, any more than the other, removed the guilt arising from the commission of crimes, but because men who were before reckoned sinners, ceased to be esteemed so, upon their profession of the Christian religion, or upon their entering into the Christian covenant. It may be further observed on this passage, that men are exhorted to be baptized into the name of Christ only; which affords a strong presumption that this was the original form of baptism; and that the Holy Spirit is called a gift, which implies that it was a power and not a person. The gift was usually bestowed upon believers in early times, and was regarded as a proof of their being the covenantpeople of God.

39. For the promise, i. e. of the Holy Spirit, is unto you and to your children, "to your offspring," and to all that are afar off, to the Jews in foreign countries, even as many as the Lord our God

shall call.

By "afar off," some suppose Peter to refer to the Gentiles, who are so described by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians, where, speaking of Gentiles and Jews, he calls them those who were afar off, and those who were nigh. But Peter

could have no idea of the communication of miraculous powers to the Gentiles at this time; for it required an express revelation from God to instruct him in that part of the Christian dispensation, His design was evidently to encourage the Jews to expect miraculous powers upon the profession of Christianity, because the promise of the Spirit had been made to them and to their offspring, in whatever part of the world dispersed, to whom the gospel was offered. This was part, but by no means the whole, of what Peter said to them on the present occasion; for he instructed them further in the Christian religion, and exhorted them, by embracing it, to save themselves from impending calamities.

40. And with many other words did he testify, i. e. bear testimony to the truth of Christianity, and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

It appeared, from the above prophecies of Joel, that dreadful calamities were threatened to the Jews, and that the time for inflicting them was now arrived, because the miraculous powers which were foretold as preceding the event appeared to be bestowed. The apostle, therefore, exhorts his hearers to separate themselves from their countrymen, by embracing Christianity, and to save themselves from the calamities which were coming upon unbelievers. Christians, it seems, were promised exemption from the sufferings of the Jews, and actually escaped them.

41. Then they that received his word were baptized, not upon the spot, but in some other place, and the same day there were added about three thousand souls.

That is, so many persons were added to the number of one hundred and twenty before mentioned. The word " 'gladly," which appears in our translation, is omitted in some of the best manuscripts and versions, and is, therefore probably an interpolation.*

42. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, "constantly attended to the apostles' doctrine," and to fellowship, and to breaking of bread, and to prayers.

The word we render fellowship has two senses, and may either signify friendly intercourse, or the distribution of property, a virtue for which the first Christians were remarkable, and which is noticed below. There is a like ambiguity in the phrase, breaking of bread, which may either signify eating their common meals, or celebrating the Lord's supper, but, as it accompanies prayers, it is most probable that it refers to the Lord's supper,