Acts 16:27 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

He drew out his sword, &c.— By the Roman law, if a prisoner escaped, the gaoler was to suffer what the prisoner was to have suffered. When therefore this man apprehended that all the prisoners were fled, and remembered what strict orders he had received the day before concerning Paul and Silas, he was afraid of the most rigorous treatment from the magistrates, for having executed their orders no better; and, on this account, in his hurry and consternation, was about to have killed himself. Though it be true that some of the philosophers condemned self-murder, yet it was not only justified by many others of them, but had, in fact, prevailed much among the Romans, especially about that time; and had, in the memory of some then living, been dignified, as it were, in Philippi, by the examples of those great men, Brutus and Cassius, who fell on their own swords there. Such is the religion of nature, so called by the infidels, in its most polished state!