Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.— The original is emphatical; literally, Weigh not out to them this sin, that is, "The punishment due to it;" alluding to passages of Scripture where God is represented as weighing men's characters and actions in the dispensations of his justice and providence. Compare 1 Samuel 2:3.Job 31:6. Proverbs 16:2.Isaiah 26:7. Daniel 5:27. This prayer of St. Stephen was heard and remarkably answered in theconversion of Saul, of whose history we shall shortly hear more.
Inferences.—Do any call us to account concerning our faith and hope in Christ? Let the law and the testimony be our defence; they all along spake of him, and by them we are assured that he is in himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who appeared to Moses in the flaming bush without consuming it, was with him in all his dangers, and wrought all the wonders of Israel's deliverances by his hands; and who was typified by that celebrated prophet, and by Joshua their leader into the land of Canaan, and by the tabernacle and temple, and is now exalted, in our nature, to the highest dignity of his office in heaven, and is worthy of all faith, religious worship and adoration.—How true and faithful is God to his promises; though we, alas! are dull of understanding, and do not observe his way and time for fulfilling them! But how sure are his performances of all his promises, in due season, to them that trust in him; and how graciously does he accept them and their services, according to his own institution, of what nation, or in what place soever they are! And, O how much better is it to have God dwelling in our hearts by faith, and in our religious assemblies by his Spirit, as his temple upon earth, till we get to the throne of his glory in heaven, than to imagine that his special presence is confined to any material temple! But, ah! how prone are hypocritical professors to be more fond of rites and ceremonies, than of his law and gospel! How sadly have many revolted from him, resisted his Spirit, persecuted his servants, and rejected him and his salvation, to their own dreadful perdition! But the Lord Jesus will stand by the true confessors of his name at the worst of times, will fill them with the Holy Ghost, and give them seasonable manifestations of his glory; and when his enemies cast them out, and cruelly put them to death, he stands ready to support and comfort them, to take them into the arms of his love, and to receive them into heaven, that they may live with him for ever. And O! with what holy liberty, zeal, and courage, will they speak for him, and in his strength suffer even to the worst of martyrdoms for his sake, when he calls them to it! With what humble confidence and assuring satisfaction may they invoke his name, and commit their departing souls to him; and with what peace and pleasure may they die, with a forgiving spirit towards their enemies, and with a joyful assurance of their own souls' going immediately to Jesus, and of their bodies sleeping in him, till they shall awake to everlasting life, and appear with him in glory!
But, O Saul! couldst thou have believed, if one had told thee, while thou was urging on the cruel multitude, while thou wast glorying over the venerable corpse of pious Stephen,—couldst thou have believed that the time would come, when thou thyself shouldst be twice stoned in the same cause for which he died?—That thou shouldst triumph in having committed thy soul likewise to that Jesus, whom thou wast now blaspheming! In this instance his dying prayer was illustriously answered for thee! In this instance, the wolf lies down with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid, as Isaiah has foretold. And it is most delightful to think that the martyr Stephen, and Saul the barbarous persecutor, (afterwards his brother—both in faith and in martyrdom,) are now joined in bonds of everlasting friendship, and dwell together in the happy company of those who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb, Revelation 7:14. May we at length be joined with them, and, in the mean time, let us glorify God in both!
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Stephen, that noble confessor, is before his judges assembled in full council, with the high-priest at their head, all his known, avowed, and inveterate enemies: yet, in answer to the high priest's demand, Are these things so? he boldly undertakes his defence. The scriptures are the armoury whence he draws the weapons of his warfare, and we find him a complete master of his subject. Being a Hellenist Jew, he quotes the septuagint, as the version commonly in use in their synagogues, though containing some variations from the original Hebrew. He begins,
1. With a respectful and affectionate address, entreating their unprejudiced attention; Men, brethren, and fathers hearken.
2. He lays before them a concise view of the patriarchal history, in order that they might remember, that God had a visible church and people in the world before the law was given, and still would have one when all the ceremonial institutions were abolished.
[1.] He opens with the call of Abraham, to whom the God of glory appeared, in some visible display of his presence, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Char-ran, in an idolatrous land, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee: accordingly he immediately left his country, and removed to Charran, and after his father's death receiving a second call, he came into the land of Canaan, and abode there where they now dwelt.
Hence it appeared, that Abraham was in God's favour before he was circumcised, and that God's Shechinah had visited Ur of the Chaldees, before it appeared in Canaan; and therefore they might see, that neither the dispensation of the law, nor the land of Israel, were needful for the acceptable worship of God. Note; (1.) Though we may not see clearly whither God is leading us, yet, when we have his call, we may confidently go forward. (2.) They who are travelling to the heavenly Canaan, cheerfully turn their backs on earth with all its allurements.
[2.] Though God had promised Abraham the land of Canaan for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child, yet he gave him not a foot of land for a present inheritance: nor for four hundred years afterwards, reckoning from the birth of Isaac, did any of his posterity enjoy the promised inheritance, but lived unsettled, and afflicted, under the tyranny of strangers, till, at the expiration of the time appointed, God judged their Egyptian oppressors, and brought them at last to serve him in this place. And this Stephen suggests, in order to lower their pride on their original; and, from the length of time which elapsed between the promise and the fulfilment of it, as well as from the hardships which their fathers endured in the intermediate space, to shew them that the principal object to which the Lord intended to lead them, was the heavenly Canaan, of which this was but the figure; and therefore it could be no blasphemy to say, that Jesus could destroy this country, when he promised to bring his faithful servants to the heavenly Canaan, and the Jerusalem which is above. Note; (1.) Though God's promises may be long in their fulfilment, they are sure to the faithful. (2.) The children of God may be, and very frequently are, called to endure the severest afflictions here. (3.) He will finally avenge them on their oppressors.
[3.] Having called Abraham to be his servant, God gave him the covenant of circumcision, as a seal of the righteousness of that faith which he had, being yet uncircumcised; and this rite he transmitted to his posterity, circumcising his son Isaac on the eighth day, according to the divine command. And Isaac begat Jacob and the twelve patriarchs, in whom the family of Abraham began to enlarge; yet even then did the same spirit of envy break forth against Joseph, as they who boasted themselves descendants from these patriarchs afterwards shewed to Jesus, of whom Joseph was an eminent type, both in his sufferings and exaltation. The patriarchs, moved with envy, sold him into Egypt: but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions; and endued him with such wisdom as recommended him to Pharaoh's favour, who constituted him governor over Egypt and all his house. And thus had God exalted his Son Jesus, whom they had brought to the lowest state of ignominy and abasement, to a throne of glory. A dearth, which Joseph had foretold, drove the brethren of Joseph shortly after from Canaan to Egypt, where, through his care, provision had been laid up against the years of famine. There at the second interview, to the astonishment of his brethren, Joseph made himself known to them; and Pharaoh being acquainted with his kindred, Joseph, at his desire, invites his father and all his family into Egypt, consisting of seventy-five persons. There Jacob, with the patriarchs, died, and, in the faith of the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham, the bones of the patriarchs were carried out of Egypt, and laid in the sepulchre that Jacob the grandson of Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. (See the Annotations.) Thus they might observe, that the land on which they set so high a value, was afflicted with famine; that the patriarchs, of whom they boasted, all died in a strange country, and never got possession of Palestine; and yet the faithful among them were nevertheless accepted of God, and their faith was carried out to the heavenly inheritance, which Jesus has brought to light, and has obtained for all that perseveringly believe in him.
2nd, Stephen proceeds with the history of the Jewish people.
1. When the time of the promise drew nigh, they multiplied exceedingly. Then a new king arose, which knew not Joseph, nor remembered what a Saviour he had been to the land; but, jealous of the increase of the Israelites, with hellish craft he sought to extirpate them by a bloody edict to kill all the male children which should be born; while by the most servile and incessant toils and labour he sought to harass to death their fathers. And thus were they acting against the disciples of Jesus and his infant church; but their subtilty and malice would be equally abortive; the followers of Jesus but increased and multiplied the more.
2. In this state of distress Moses was born, designed of God for their great deliverer; for when God's people are at the last extremity, he is ready gloriously to appear on their behalf. The child was exceedingly fair; something peculiarly beautiful appeared in his infant countenance. After being concealed three months, he was at last exposed; and so Providence ordered it, that Pharaoh's daughter, coming down to the spot to bathe, found the babe, and was so struck with his beauty and tears, that she took and brought him up as her own son, giving him the most accomplished education; so that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds; remarkably judicious in his counsels, and eminent for his courage.
Stephen shewed hereby, that, far from dishonouring Moses, he regarded him with the greatest admiration, and spoke of him with the highest encomiums. He was also an eminent figure of Christ, exposed to like danger in his infancy, and raised up of God to be an infinitely greater Saviour to his faithful people.
3. And when he was full forty years old, being arrived at the prime of life, and almost at the height of grandeur and affluence, moved by a divine impulse, he resolved to leave the court of Pharaoh, and visit his afflicted brethren. And seeing one of them most unjustly abused and beaten, he interposed in his behalf, and slew the Egyptian, as a specimen of that authority with which he was invested, as their appointed deliverer; supposing by this action they would understand what God intended to do for them by his means; but they understood not. The next day he shewed himself again unto them as they strove, and, as a peace-maker, would fain have reconciled the two Hebrews who quarrelled with each other, suggesting their near relation, and how unbecoming it was in them to abuse and fight with one another. But he who was the aggressor, impatient of the rebuke (as those usually are, who are in the wrong), insultingly rejects his interposition, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? as if he assumed an authority to which he had no title; and upbraids him with what he had done the day before; Wilt thou kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday? Perceiving hereby the danger in which he was, and the ingratitude and baseness of his brethren, Moses fled, lest, the fact being published, he should be arrested as a murderer; and taking up his abode in the land of Midian, he spent another forty years there, where he begat two sons.
Now Stephen insinuates that it was no new thing with them to reject and ill use their divinely-appointed deliverers. As their fathers perversely shut their eyes against the pretensions of Moses, so had they refused Jesus the Prince of glory, who came to deliver them from a worse than Egyptian bondage, even from the tyranny of sin and Satan, and from the power of death and hell.
3rdly, Stephen proceeds in his account of Moses, and, far from speaking ought that could be construed into blasphemy against him, none could ever make more honourable mention of this great lawgiver.
1. At the expiration of forty years, the great Angel of the covenant, who in the fulness of time was to come into the world as God incarnate, in the person of the man Christ Jesus, appeared to him in a bush, which seemed all on fire, yet remained unconsumed. Struck with astonishment at this strange sight, when Moses approached to take a nearer view, the voice of God was heard from the midst of the bush, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, remembering his covenant, and now about to fulfil his promises to their seed, after so long a time. The doctrine then of a resurrection, at which the Sadducees were so offended, has Moses for its voucher: and God had not limited his presence to the temple, but had here displayed his glory in a wilderness; and that very covenant of promise made unto the fathers, which God spake of to Moses, Stephen preached, shewing its most evident and glorious accomplishment in the spiritual salvation of Jesus; so far was he from contradicting, and much more from blaspheming Moses, as they alleged.
2. Struck with sacred reverence, his eyes fixed on the earth, Moses durst not behold the glory. Then God bids him put off his shoes from his feet, as standing now on holy ground; and gives him his commission: I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. Though God suffer his believing people to be in distress, he hears their cry, and in his good time will help them. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the Angel which appeared to him in the bush; and thus had God the Father exalted his Son Jesus, whom they had in like manner rejected, to be a Prince and Saviour.
3. Moses faithfully executed his commission, and brought them out from the house of bondage, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red-Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. So highly does he speak of Israel's deliverer; nor was it any derogation from him, that a greater than he should arise, accomplishing a more glorious redemption for them, since of such a one does Moses himself prophesy.
4. This is that Moses, the very person for whose honour they were so jealous, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; a new lawgiver, who should introduce another dispensation; or as me, as he hath raised up me, so shall there arise another, invested with divine authority and power: him shall ye hear, submitting to his word, and obedient to his voice in all things. Far therefore from dishonouring Moses, Stephen shews the accomplishment of his prophesy, and that they ought to testify their real veneration for his memory, by obeying his injunctions, and submitting to that new and spiritual dispensation which Jesus the great Prophet came to introduce.
5. Notwithstanding all the services which Moses did them, and all the honour that God had conferred upon him, their fathers had treated him with the highest contempt and ingratitude. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, as their captain and leader, with the angel, that uncreated Angel of the covenant, the great Jehovah Jesus, which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers, face to face, as a man talketh to his friend; who received the lively oracles to give unto us; oracles, as being of infallible certainty; and lively, sharp, and piercing the conscience, or leading those who truly understood them, and perseveringly obeyed them, to eternal life. Yet greatly as Moses was honoured of God herein, our fathers would not obey him, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt; murmuring and mutinying against him, and sinking into the grossest idolatry, at the very time when, as their mediator, he was in the mount with God,—saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. So disrespectfully did they speak of their great deliverer. And accordingly, they made a calf in those days in imitation of the Egyptian god Apis, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Instead therefore of charging Stephen with blasphemy, they would do well to remember what their own ancestors had done.
6. For these abominations God was justly provoked. Then he turned, withdrew from them his grace and favour, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, leaving them in righteous judgment to their own inventions. In consequence of which they neglected God, and all the newly-instituted ordinances, and relapsed, after they came into Canaan, into the grossest idolatry; for which he quotes a prophet's words, whose authority they would not dispute, (Amos 5:25-27.) Have ye offered to me slain beasts, and sacrifices, by the space of forty years in the wilderness? No: they neglected his worship, and what they offered was to devils, and not to God, (Deuteronomy 32:17.) so that they themselves disused for forty years those very customs which Moses had delivered to them. And, worse still, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the image of this idol inclosed in a shrine; and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made, to worship them, in express contradiction to the commands of God: and for this he threatens them with condign punishment; I will carry you away beyond Babylon, (see 2 Kings 17:5-8.)
Now if God dealt thus severely with them for despising Moses' law, of how much sorer punishment, than even their ancestors received, would they be counted worthy, for rejecting the dispensation of grace which Jesus, so far greater than Moses, came from God to reveal to them!
4thly, The accusation lodged against Stephen was for speaking against the temple, as if he was guilty of blasphemy thereby; whereas he shews, that their fathers worshipped God acceptably for ages before any temple was built.
1. It was not till they came into the wilderness, that the tabernacle of witness was reared, according to the model which God shewed to Moses in the mount. God accepted his faithful worshippers before there was any tabernacle; and they might again serve him as acceptably, if the holy place, the temple, was destroyed: and the very care shewn in the making of this tent according to the divine model, intimated, that it was a shadow of good things to come, being typical of the incarnation of the Son of God, and of his spiritual and gracious presence in his church.
2. This tabernacle Joshua brought into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before him; and if it was set up in that polluted land of Canaan, why might not God now erect his spiritual tabernacle among the nations of the heathen?
3. Till David's time, God was pleased to dwell in this mean and moveable tent, above four hundred years; and when David was desirous to build a temple for the Lord, he forbade him, reserving that honor for Solomon, who built him an house. It therefore appeared evident, that God was not solicitous to have a temple for his abode, as if that was necessary for their acceptable worship; and also, that if Solomon might change the tabernacle for a temple, God might no doubt, if he pleased, destroy that, and make his abode in the spiritual temple, the church of the faithful.
4. Though God ordered the erection of the tabernacle, and the building of the temple, it could not be conceived that his immensity could be circumscribed by these narrow bounds, when as the prophet (Isaiah 66:1-2.) had observed, Heaven is his throne, and earth his footstool. No house made with hands can then be comparable to that glorious temple the universe, which himself hath reared: nor can he need a place to repose himself, when all things and creatures whatever are the work of his hands. Therefore it was no disparagement to the temple, to affirm, that Jesus should destroy this temple, and set up another, into which all nations should flow together, and their worship be acceptable to him.
5thly, Perhaps Stephen was proceeding to shew that the temple and its service must come to an end; but perceiving the rage that fired the bosoms of his enemies sparkling in their eyes, and expecting soon to be interrupted, he closes with a word of piercing application.
1. He charges them with their obstinacy and stubbornness like unto their fathers. Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears; in profession God's servants, but hardened in pride and prejudice against the clearest intimations of his will; ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; rejecting the evidence of his miracles, wilfully blind to the clearest prophesies, and fighting against the convictions of your own consciences. As your fathers did, so do ye; refusing to hearken unto us the inspired servants of Jesus, as they turned a deaf ear to the warnings of the prophets: and just is it in God to devote those to ruin, who will not hearken to his admonitions, but obstinately harden their hearts.
2. They were persecutors and murderers, like their fathers. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? more or less reviling or opposing them? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One, the divine Messiah, Jesus, the holy one of God, sent to bring in an everlasting righteousness, through his infinite merit and intercession; of whom ye, treading closely in your ancestors' steps, and exceeding them in wickedness, have been now the betrayers and murderers.
3. They had rejected God's word, as their fathers before them, who have received the law, delivered in the most august manner, by the disposition of angels, whose ministry God employed on mount Sinai, when in shining ranks they graced that solemnity, as attendants on the king of glory; and have not kept it; have, like them, broken its most essential precepts, and added to all their guilt the rejection of the gospel also, notwithstanding all the glorious evidences wherewith it has been attended; and how then can you hope to escape the vengeance of an offended God?
6thly, We have the glorious and triumphant death of the first Christian martyr.
1. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, so filled were they with envy, indignation, and malice, as if sawn asunder; and they gnashed on him with their teeth, as if they would have devoured him alive. Note; Wicked men carry their hell about with them, in those diabolical tempers and raging passions, which make them their own tormentors.
2. Stephen, unterrified with their malice, and being full of the Holy Ghost, receiving an abundant increase of grace and consolation suited to his present condition, looked up steadfastly into heaven; appealing to God, confidently expecting divine support, and eagerly longing after that crown of glory which now shone bright in his view, and enabled him to look down with contempt upon the malice of his enemies; and, by a miraculous manifestation, saw the glory of God, some visible emblem of the eternal majesty, such as the Shechinah, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, in his human nature as Mediator, exalted to the highest honour and dignity, appearing as the advocate of his suffering saint, to strengthen him boldly to resist unto blood, to crown him with martyrdom, and shortly to avenge him of his bloody persecutors. Transported with this beatific vision, he said, with wonder and delight, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Note; (1.) In times of suffering, our eyes should be lifted up to heaven, for thence cometh our help. (2.) As our tribulations for Christ abound, he is pleased, by the most gracious manifestations of himself, to cause our consolations to abound also. (3.) A sight of Jesus, at the right-hand of God, will carry us triumphantly through death armed with all its terrors, and enable us to defy the stroke.
3. Concluding now that they had full cause for his condemnation, They cried out with a loud voice, to drown his speech, to express their detestation of what they heard, and to sharpen each other's fury; and stopped their ears, as if shocked at his blasphemy; and ran upon him with one accord; the whole multitude of the people rising in tumultuous rage; and cast him out of the city, as a wretch not fit to live, and who defiled that holy place where he stood, and stoned him, as a blasphemer (Leviticus 24:16.) and the witnesses, whose hands were first upon him (Deuteronomy 17:6-7.) laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul, a fiery zealot, who with pleasure saw the bloody execution of this holy martyr. Note; (1.) The cause of Christ is often run down with clamour, and rage supplies the place of reason. (2.) Many of the dearest saints upon earth have been counted as the off-scouring of all things, and thought unworthy of the air they breathed.
4. They stoned Stephen, calling upon God; though cast out from earth, as unworthy to live, he had a sure interest in heaven, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; and, now ready to expire, he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, expressive of the vehemence of his desire, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, copying closely his divine Master's example; and when he had said this, he fell asleep; as these words dropped from his lips, the mortal blow reached him, and in the arms of everlasting love he sweetly rested from suffering and sorrow for ever. Note; (1.) In a dying hour, we cannot be better employed than in commending our souls into the arms of Jesus. (2.) If our immortal part be safe, it little matters what becomes of the fleshly tabernacle. (3.) Jesus is very God, the object of his people's adoration; and as it is only by faith in him that we can live comfortably, so only by an eye to him, as the resurrection and the life, can we die happily. (4.) Our bitterest persecutors must share our prayers; and the more wicked they are, the more they need them. (5.) When we come to die, it will be essential to our salvation, that we are truly in charity with all men. (6.) Death to the faithful is but a sleep: their bodies reposing awhile in that bed of dust where our Lord has lain, HIS voice shall waken them up in the resurrection morn, and they shall arise to share with him the triumphs of that eternal day, when their sun shall no more go down, nor their moon withdraw itself, but the Lord shall be their everlasting light, and their God their glory.