Acts 4:27,28 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, &c.— We must here observe, that the hand of God most frequently in the Old Testament relates not so much to his power, as to his wisdom, and providential dispensations. So Job 27:11. I will teach you by the hand of God, that is, by his wisdom, in his providential dispensations. Ecclesiastes 2:24. That a man should enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God: here the hand of God, is his favour, or gracious providence. See also Ezra 7:9; Ezra 8:18; Ezra 8:22.Nehemiah 8:18. The phrase being here joined with God's counsel, and applied to what was done by Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers, and also by the Jews, toward the crucifixion of the holy Jesus,—to which actions so highly displeasingto God, his power could not actually concur, or effectively incline them,—we have great reason here to prefer this import of the phrase before the other; and then the meaning of the words will be, that Jews and Gentiles were assembled to accomplish those sufferings of our Saviour for mankind, which God had foretold, and by foretelling had determined should come to pass, according to those words of St. Paul, Acts 13:27. They that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets,—have fulfilled them, in condemning him, fulfilling all that was written of him, Acts 4:29. As therefore St. Peter and St. Paul, by calling the Jews to repentance for this sin in crucifying the Lord of life, evidence that their sin was not the less, because they did by it fulfil the counsel of God's holy will and kind intentions to mankind, so do they consequently evidence, that God's foreknowledge and determination of a thing future, does not impair the liberty of men's wills in the accomplishment of it; as all the antient fathers have declared in this particular. At the same time we fully grant, that it is grace alone which gives to man the will or power to think, speak, or do any thing that is good.