Acts ii. 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesiis, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
WHEN we consider the advantages possessed by the Apostles, we are astonished to find how slow of heart they were to receive and understand the great mystery of the Gospel salvation. Not only before the death of their Lord, but after his resurrection.
yea, and after all his appearances to them, and the fresh instructions given them during the space of forty days, they could not divest themselves of the idea of a temporal kingdom. Not an hour before his ascension to heaven, they asked him, " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" But from the day of Pentecost there was no more of doubt upon their minds respecting any fundamental point of our religion. For some years indeed they retained their prejudices about the Gen- tiles, not conceiving that they were to be admitted to a full participation of the blessings of the Gospel : but, respecting Christ, and his salvation, they were fully instructed, and never spake but with the most unshaken confidence. This appears from the very first sermon which was delivered by any one of them. St. Peter argued with as strong a persuasion of mind as he possessed at any future period; and without hesitation affirmed, in the presence of thousands of his countrymen, that Jesus, even the very person whom they had crucified, was indeed the Christ, the true Messiah a.
His words are evidently the close of an argument : and, as they are delivered with peculiar confidence, it will be proper to consider,
I. The force of his reasoning —
Our Lord, according to his promise, had poured out the Spirit in a visible manner on his Disciples, whereby they were enabled to speak a great variety of languages, which gift was emblematically repre- sented by the appearance of cloven tongues, as of fire. The circumstance of their immediately address- ing all persons in their native tongues, excited the greatest astonishment: but those who understood not the particular language which they spake, represented them as in a state of intoxication. In vindication of himself and his associates, the Apostle justly observes, that such an imputation was absurd, since none but
a The order of the words in the Greek makes the expression very emphatical.