Ver. 1. And Saul yet breathing] As a tired wolf, that wearied with worrying the flock, lies panting for breath. [See Trapp on “Ac 8:3”]
Ver. 2. Letters to Damascus] The high priest, it seems, then had power at Damascus, and elsewhere out of Judea, to bind and beat his Jews, for misdemeanour in point of their religion. See Acts 18:15.
Ver. 3. And as he journeyed] So Petrus Paulus Vergerius, the pope’s nuncio, dum confutationem Evangelicorum meditatur, fit Evangelicus; moved, perhaps, by the fearful example also of Francis Spira, whereof he had been an eyewitness.
Ver. 4. Fell to the earth] Christ unhorsed him, but did not destroy him. He is not such a monarch as loves to get authority by sternness, as Rehoboam, but by gentleness. And though gone to heaven, yet hath he not changed his nature with change of honour; but together with beams of glory, there are still in him the same bowels of pity that he had here upon earth. Why persecutest thou me?] As unskilful hunters, shooting at wild beasts, may kill a man? so those that shoot at the saints, hit Christ. Their sufferings are held his, Colossians 1:24; their reproach his, Hebrews 13:13. God is more provoked than Nehemiah, Nehemiah 4:3,5. Christ retaineth still compassion, though freed from personal passion; and, though freed from feeling, he hath still yet a fellow feeling. Let such among us take heed what they do, who, while they pronounce our Church antichristian, &c., strike at the beast, but wound the Lamb. Manet compassio etiam cum impassibilitate. Bernard.
Ver. 5. To kick against the pricks] A metaphor from oxen pushing back upon the goad, when they are pricked therewith, as Beza showeth out of Aeschilus.
Ver. 6. It shall be told thee] Christ teacheth him not immediately, but sendeth him to a preacher; so to grace his own ordinance.
Ver. 7. Hearing a voice] Not Christ’s voice, but Saul’s only, Acts 22:9.
Ver. 8. He saw no man] This bodily blindness was a means to open the eyes of his mind, as Gehazi’s leprosy cured his soul.
Ver. 9. And he was three days] In this three days’ darkness, some gather by computation of time, that he was now rapped up into the third heaven, and heard those wordless words, ρηματα αρρητα, 2 Corinthians 12:4, after that he had been thoroughly humbled. Luther likewise lay (after his conversion) three days in desperation, as Mr Perkins remembereth in his book of Spiritual Desertion, his temptations were so violent, ut nec calor, nec sanguis, nec sensus, nec vox superesset, as Justus Jonas reporteth of Luther, that was by and saw it. (Epist. ad Melancthon.) The like is recorded concerning Mr Bolton, by Mr Bagshaw in his Life.
Ver. 10. And there was a certain] See here the necessity and use of the ministry: “If there be a messenger with a man, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness,” &c., Job 33:23. Unus e millibus. The Vulgate translation corruptly hath it, unus e similibus.
Ver. 11. The street called Straight] God’s people are so dear to him, that their walls are ever before him, Isaiah 49:16; he loveth the streets the better they dwell in, the air the better they breathe in, Psalms 87:5,6. For behold he prayeth] He never prayed till now, though a strict Pharisee. So Daniel 9:13. The captives in Babylon prayed not in those 70 years; because they fasted to themselves, and prayed more to get off their chains than their sins, Zechariah 7:5,6. Prayer is the breath of the spirit, Romans 8:26 Jude 20. And prayer without the spirit is but an empty ring, a tinkling cymbal.
Ver. 12. And hath seen in a vision] It is not certain whether these be Christ’s own words, or St Luke’s; neither is it much material.
Ver. 13. Then Ananias answered] The best have their unnecessary fears, and think they have reason on their side; but convinced, they soon subscribe to God. Veniat, veniat verbum Domini, said one, et submittemus ei sexcenta si nobis essent colla. How much evil he hath done] And is therefore not lightly to be trusted. It is a rule in the Civil Law, Semel malus semper praesumitur esse malus: but God can soon alter a man’s mind and manners, as he did Saul’s.
Ver. 14. And here he hath authority] Therefore he was more than 20 years old (as Ambrose and Theodoret make him to be) at his first conversion. For here he hath authority committed unto him, not incident to so very a youth.
Ver. 15. A chosen vessel to bear] In matters of holiness we are rather patients than agents, that we may ascribe all to God’s grace; therefore he compares us not to active instruments, as tools in the hand of a workman, but to passive instruments, such as dishes or vessels (as here) that bear and carry treasure, meat, or such-like, 2 Corinthians 4:7 Ac 13:15 “Ye men and brethren, if there be in you” (as in so many vessels of honour) “any word of exhortation, say on.” But what a mouth of blasphemy opened. Quintinus the libertine, who scoffing at every apostle, Paulum vocabat vas fractum (as Calvin testifieth), called Paul a broken vessel: so in the year 1519, Scioli quidam Tiguris iactabant haec tria, scilicet, &c. Quis tandem Paulus? nonne homo est? Apostolus est sed suburbanus tantum, &c. Ego tam cuivis Thomae vel Scoto credo quam Paulo. Some, no wiser than they should be, cast out slighting speeches to this purpose: What was Paul more than another man? an apostle, indeed, but of an inferior order; none of the twelve that conversed with Christ; neither made he any one of the articles of the Creed. I would as soon believe Thomas or Scotus, as Paul, &c. I tremble to relate how basely some Jesuits have spoken of St Paul, as savouring of heresy in some places; and better perhaps he had never written. Before the Gentiles and kings, &c.] Μεγιστη του κηρυγματος σαλπαγξ ο Παυλος, saith a Greek father. Paul was God’s chief herald, the gospel’s loudest trumpet. Instruct. adv. Libert., ix.