The Sadducees maintained that the angels mentioned in scripture were not permanent existences, but beings, or rather phantoms, raised up for the occasion on which they were employed; and as they de nied the existence of angels, so they did likewise that of any other beings of a like nature, which men have called spirits, and asserted that the Deity was the only immaterial Being in the universe. In these opinions, with the exception only of that which regards the resurrection, many professors of Christianity of the present day will think that they were not far from the truth. The reason why angels are mentioned here by the historian is to account for the language of the next verse.

9. And there arose a great cry, and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.

In saying that an angel might possibly have spoken to Paul, they refer to the story which he had told of his conversion, of his having seen Jesus in the way to Damascus, and having heard him speak to him.

10. And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.

11.

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And the night following the

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Lord, i. e. Jesus Christ our Lord, stood by him and said, Be of good of good cheer, Paul, "take courage;" for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

This seems to have been an appearance of Jesus Christ to Paul, not in vision, like that in the temple, but in person, and will serve to explain 1 Thess. iii. 11. "Now God himself and our father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you;" for he prays for such a miraculous appearance of Christ to him to direct his journey as he had enjoyed upon the present occasion. It must be remembered that the apostle was called to the profession of Christianity; was instructed in its doctrines and invested with the apostolic office by Christ; and he appears from this and other passages to have been in all his progress under his special direction. It might, therefore, be very proper in him to offer up this address to Christ: but this is no warrant for our addresses to him, which would indeed be contrary to his express authority, and idolatrous. The apostle's circumstances were peculiar; and he is not in this repect an example to Christians in general.

REFLECTIONS.

1. How happy was the apostle, in being able to say, when a prisoner, accused of crimes before the Jewish Sanhedrim, "I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." It is, indeed, his own testimony in favour of himself; yet the history of his life proves the truth of his declaration. Nothing but a supreme regard to the convictions of his

It

own mind could have induced him to abandon all worldly prospects, and to embrace a cause which was every where opposed and its advocates persecuted, by his countrymen. For all his sacrifices and dangers he received no other return than a consciousness of integrity, and the approbation of his own mind. But this return was a sufficient recompense: it was a pledge of the divine favour and of an everlasting reward. furnished him with a secret joy which was a continual feast, and which he might in vain have looked for from wealth or honour or any temporal enjoyment. It made the prisoner at the bar, more to be envied than the judge who sat upon the bench. Happy is the man who can adopt this language, not only with respect to one action, but to the whole tenor of his life! The censures of the world cannot wound his heart or distress his mind: he possesses a treasure of which he cannot be deprived by any temporal calamity. If you, my brethren, wish to obtain this prize, pursue the same course; follow the dictates of conscience, whithersoever they may lead, although they may expose you to calumny, suffering and death.

2. How odious the character of those who pervert the forms of justice, which were established for the protection of innocence and the punishment of guilt, to gratify their private passions! Such was the conduct of this high-priest, who took advantage of his situation as a judge to offer a cruel and unprovoked insult to a helpless prisoner; and if other judges have not often been guilty of the like indecency, yet they have suffered themselves to be biassed by motives which have proved alike injurious to the cause of justice. They have allowed their opinions and language respecting the guilt or innocence of the persons brought before them to be governed by a party spirit, by the prospect of favour or of gain. To such men, the language of the apostle, however improper to be addressed to them in the exercise of their office, is justly applicable. They are whited walls; they bear the fair show of candour, equity and truth; but they are in reality the reverse of all this; being full of

pride, passion and self-interest. Let such men know that a day is coming, when their evil deeds will be examined by a superior judge, and receive a just recompense of reward.

Acts xxiii. 12. to the end.

Paul being rescued a second time from his enemies and lodged in the castle, they form a new plot for destroying him, which being discovered to the chief captain by Paul's friends, he sends him away by night to Cæsarea, to Felix the Roman governor.

12. And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, rather, "met together," and bound themselves under a curse, or, "bound themselves with an oath of execration," saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

They imprecated the most dreadful calamities upon themselves if they violated their oaths.

13.

And they were more than forty who had made this conspiracy, "had entered into this joint oath."

14. And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves with an oath of execration that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul.

15, Now, therefore, ye, with the

council, signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you tomorrow, as though ye would inquire something more perfectly concerning him: and we, or ever, 66 before ever, he come near, are ready to kill him.

Paul's enemies, finding that they could not reach him so speedily as they wished by the slow forms of justice, and fearing that he might ultimately escape, resolve to take away his life with their own hands, and to have recourse to stratagem for that purpose. They persuade the chief priests and Sanhedrim, or at least a certain number of that body, who seem to have approved: of their wicked project, to send for Paul again, under pretence of further examination; intending to lie in wait for him by the way and to put him to death. That their zeal in the execution of this diabolical design might be quickened, they resolve to abstain from food until it should be accomplished. From the circumstance of forty persons immediately entering into this conspiracy, it seems natural to conclude that the lawfulness of putting to death an apostate from their religion, without waiting for the forms of law, was a prevailing opinion among the Jews at this time. Accordingly we learn, both from Philo and Josephus, Jewish writers, that such was their sentiment. The former recommends the practice to his countrymen from the example of Phineas, mentioned in the Old Testament, and persuades them, when they meet with such persons to reckon themselves to be all things, senators, judges, prætors, serjeants, accusers, witnesses, the laws, the people. The latter mentions an instance of zeal dictated by the same principle, very similar to the present, in which ten men bound themselves by an oath to kill Herod, who had de parted in many instances from the customs of the country*.

* Lardner, Vol. i. p. 212.