A. D. 33. of the disciples unto them, and faid, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.

3. Wherefore bre

thren, look ye out a

mong you seven men
of honest report, full

lievers of the several Countries, and told them they had so much and conftant Work of preaching the Gospel, that they could no longer attend the Distributi ons to the Poor.

3 & 4. And therefore advis'd them to chuse out seven of the

most eminent and proper Per

of the holy Ghost fons, that should make this their

and wisdom, whom

we may appoint over

this business.

4. But we will give

our selves continually

chief Business, to receive and dif

pense the Charities equally, and

prevent all Disputes for the future; that so they might not be

interrupted in their Preaching.

to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

5. And the saying

pleased the whole

multitude: and they

chose Stephen, a man

5. To which they readily agreed, and accordingly nominated the Seven of whom Stephen was the most eminent, for the Strength and Sincerity of his Faith, and

full of faith, and of

the Power of working Miracles.

the holy Ghoft, and
Philip, and Procho-
rus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas
a proselyte of Antioch.

6. Whom they set

before the apostles:
and when they had
pray'd, they laid their

hands on them.

them to it by Prayer
7. And the word of
God increased; and

the number of the dif-
ciples multiplied in Je-
rufalem greatly, and a
great company of the
priests were obedient
to the faith.

8. And Stephen full of faith and power, did great wonders and

and miracles among tures, and Courage in Preach- A. D. 33. the people.

9. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the * Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of Afia, disputing with Stephen.

10. And they were not able to refift the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

and baffled before all 11. Then they sub

orned men, which faid, We have heard him speak blafphe mous words against Mofes, and against

ing, and doing Miracles.

9. Against whom there came a Set of Jews, that had a particular Synagogue by themselves, and who from their being Freemen * of Rome, were called Libertines, and pretended openly to contradict, and challenged to dispute with him.

10. But by the Strength of his Reason, and the Gravity, Courage, and Freedom of his Discouse, they were filenced the People.

11 & 12, Which instead of convincing, did so enrage them, that they hired or perfuaded Witnefses to accuse him of dishonourable Words against the Jewish Religion; and under that Pre12. And they stir- tence got him apprehended and red up the people, brought before the Council. and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council.

God.

13. And fet up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not

to speak blafphemous words against this

holy place, and the

law.

14. For we have heard him say, that

13 & 14. And the Testimony they gave in against him, was, That they had heard him affirm, that JESUS would cause their Temple to be finally deftroyed,

and the ceremonial Law to be

abolished, which they said was
Blasphemy.

this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall
change the customs which Moses delivered us.

D 3

15. And

* Ver. 9. Λιβερλίνοι, Freemen, or more properly such as were born so of Parents that had Roman Freedom, and so diftinguished from Liberti, who were not born, but made fuch by Purchase or free Gift.

The High Prieft fums up the Charge of Blasphemy against
the Jewish Law, and demands of Stephen, what he
had to say to it. Stephen's famous Defence, and Re-
taliation upon the Jews. The Court exasperated. He

is stoned to Death.

A. D. 33. 1.T

HEN faid the

high priest, Are

I.

S

TEPHEN

being thus

charged with Blasphemy
these things so?
against the Jewish Religion, for
affirming, That CHRIST would destroy the Tem-
ple, and abrogate the ceremonial Law; the High
Prieft asked him, what he had to say for himself?

To which he answered, That it ought not to be
interpreted as Blafphemy against their Religion, or
against God the divine Author of it, to affirm either
or both of these Things. And this he proved to them,
by showing from their own Scriptures, in the several
Periods from Abraham to Mofes, and from Mofes to
the building of the Temple, That God never intend-
ed to confine his true Worship and Religion to the
Land of Canaan, nor his Divine Prefence to the Tem-
ple of Ferufalem; that the ceremonial Law was not
given to be of necessary and perpetual Obligation; and
that by the frequent Examples of Judgments upon the
Sins of their Fore-fathers, it was but just for them
who now followed, and exceeded them in obstinate
Wickedness, to expect the final Destruction of their
Temple and Nation. *
2, 3,

:

* The READER may take Notice, That this pretty long Paraphrafe of the first Verse, is intended as an Abridgment

of

2. And he said,

Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken, The God of glory appearEd unto our father Abraham, when he was

in Mefopotamia, before he dwelt in Char

ran.

3. And faid unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I

shall shew thee.

4. Then came he out of the land of the

Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he

removed him into this

land wherein ye now dwell.

5. And he gave him

none inheritance in it, no not so much as to fet his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him

for a poffeffion, and

to his feed after him,

when

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8. He be- A. D. 33.

gan with Abraham the Father of
the Jewish Nation, to whom,
for his eminent Faith and Vir-
tue under all the Influence of an

epidemical Wickedness and Ido-
latry, God was pleased in special
Manner to communicate him-
self; to give him an absolute
Promise of being the Head of a
Nation, from whom the Messiah
should be born; and of the Land
of Canaan, which his Posterity
should possess, as a separate and
peculiar People for his Worship.
And yet neither Abraham him-
self, when he was removed into
this Land, had the leaft Foot of
Ground in it, nor did his Poste-
rity enjoy it till above four hun-
dred Years after the Birth of
Ifaac, living in the mean Time
in foreign Countries, under a deal
of Hardship and Oppreffion. The
all that while the Faith and Vir-
tue of Abraham, and the Service
and Worship of God, performed by
Jacob, and the twelve Patriarchs
his Sons, was every Way as ac-

D 4

ceptable

of this famous Apology of St. Stephen; and that as the Criticks have laboured much about the Phraseology and Synchronisms of several Passages of it, I have made it my Business to shew the Strength and Argument of its several Parts, as a juft Defence of himself against his Accusation, which I thought the chief Business of a PARAPHRASE, and toward which I found but little Help from COMMENTATORS.

• When bis Father was dead be removed Note, There ariseth a great Difficulty about the Age of Abraham at the Time of this his Removal, as the History records the Circumstances of it in Gen. xi and xii Chapters. But the Account of Terab's Age in the Samaritan Pentateuch clearly reconciles St. Stepisen to Moses. See Sir Norton Knatchbul in loo

A. D. 33. when as yet he had no child.

6. And God spake on this wife, that his feed should sojourn in

a strange land, and

that they should bring
them into bondage,
and intreat them evil

four hundred years,

7. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage, will I judge, faid God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.

8. And he gave him

ceptable to God as ours in the Land of Canaan ever was fince. Then again, when God appointed the famous Rite of Circumcifion to Abraham, it was after * the grand Promise made to him, and therefore had nothing in it that could make Abraham more worthy, but was only an external Mark, and a Badge of the Covenant, and Relation he bore to God, and fo being of no intrinsick Virtue of itfelf, was capable of being omitted or abolished; and if that, then confequently so must any other of the ceremonial Ufages be.

*Rom. iv. the covenant * of circumcifion: and so Abraham begat Ifaac, 10, 11.

and circumeised him the eighth day and Ifaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

9. And the patriarchs moved with envy, fold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,

10. And delivered
him out of all his af-

flictions, and gave him
favour and wisdom in

the fight of Pharaoh
king of Egypt; and
he made him gover-
nor over Egypt, and
all his house.

11. Now there came
a dearth over all the
land of Egypt and

Canaan, and great af-
fliction; and our fa-

thers found no fufte-
hance.

12. But when Ja-
cob heard that there
was corn in Egypt,
he sent out our fathers
rt

9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16. His next Instance in the Course of their History, was in Jofeph, his being fold into Egypt by the Emulation of his Brethren; his Wisdom, Piety, Success, and Advancement there, as the providential Means of preserving his Family under the great Famine; who all lived and died in Egypt, and had no other Benefit of the promised Land, but to be carried over and buried there. By all which it was clear, That the most despised and perfecuted Persons might be yet the most glorious Inftruments of delivering and saving God's People. That the Favour and Love of God toward his most eminent Servants, has no Respect to any particular Country; but that in every Place he accepts of, and rewards the Services and Vir