← Back to the beginning of Acts 24
Ver. 11. There are yet but twelve days] And therefore in so short a time I could surely do no such great matters as they charge me with.
Ver. 12. And they neither found me in the temple] As he had argued from the circumstance of time, Acts 24:11 (to disprove their empty allegations), so here of place. It fared with the apostle as the historian saith it did with Cuthbert Tunstal, bishop of Durham, who was sent to the Tower for concealment of (I know not what) treason written to him (I know not by whom), and not discovered until (what shall I call) the party did reveal it. False accusers, as they affirm without reason, so they may be dismissed without refutation: unless we will answer them with a downright denial, as here. It happens often, that plain dealing puts craft out of countenance.
Ver. 13. Neither can they prove the things] And if to be barely accused be sufficient to make a man guilty, no man shall be innocent. It is happy if we can write (as the Lady Elizabeth did in Woodstock windows), “Much alleged against me: Nothing proved can be.”
Ver. 14. Which they call heresy] Haeresis est vex Eccleslae peculiaris. Antiquitus enim dicebatur, In hac haeresi sum, id est in hac sum sententia vel sic sentio. (Tull. Paradox.) Ecclesiastical writers take it for an error in religion, for an opinion repugnant to the word of God. There must be in it, Error in ratione, et pertinacia in voluntate. Fevardentius, that fiery friar, feigns 1400 erro rs and heresies, all which he fathers and fastens on the Calvinists. Genebrard imputes to Calvin as an error, that he taught Christ to be αυτοθεος, God of himself. It is not so long since, whosoever among us was not an Arminian, was eo nomine a doctrinal Puritan, as he was then termed; and now, he that was the old English Puritan, cried out upon as the worst of men, and greatest Heteroclite. — pudet haec opprobria noble et dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli.
Ver. 15. And have hope toward God, which themselves also allow] The Jews generally believed no article of the faith more than this, John 12:24 Ac 23:8. The primitive times yielded some that denied it, 1 Corinthians 15:12-19; so do these unhappy times of ours: we must all look to our standing, and get our hearts ballasted with grace (as the bee, when she is to fly against the wind, ballasteth her body with some little stone carried between her feet), that we be not whirled about with every wind of doctrine. A man is to expect, if he live out his days, to be urged to the breach of every branch of the Decalogue, and to be put to it in respect of every article of the creed. Provide for a storm: shipmen in a calm, or at a haven, look to their tacklings: see the ship be well ballasted, victualled, watered, &c.
Ver. 16. And herein] Or, meanwhile (εν τουτω, i.e. χρονω, ασκω), for this cause do I exercise myself: or, I use diligence, skill, and conscience; I lay my policy, or bend my wit, I discipline and inure myself.
Ver. 17. To bring alms to my nation] And therefore should have been better welcomed; a present makes room for a man, Proverbs 18:16. But it is God alone that fashioneth men’s opinions and affections: and therefore, Romans 15:31, St Paul prayeth that this service of his might be accepted by the saints themselves. The Jews at this day send their alms yearly from all parts to Jerusalem for the maintenance of the praying poor that live there.
Ver. 18. Purified in the temple] Therefore surely not profaning of it: unless they will say of me, as Diogenes did of Antipater (who being vicious, wore a white cloak, the ensign of innocence), that he did virtutis stragulam pudefacere, put honesty to an open shame: or unless they will concur in opinion with their utter enemy Florus, who calleth the temple at Jerusalem impiae gentis arcanum, libidinum sacrarium, &c. secret place of a wicked nation, a shrine of lust. Virgil.
Ver. 19. Who ought to have been here before thee] For those that are here to accuse me, speak but by hearsay, which is tam ficti pravique tenax quam nuntia veri, a loud liar, for the most part.
Ver. 20. Or else let these same here say] This is the best defence, that is thus fetched from the accusers themselves, who are apt to make the worst of everything and to aggravate faults beyond truth. This is no small prejudice to Luther’s adversaries, said Erasmus, that they cannot but say he lives honestly. And the like is recorded of Bucer, Bradford, others; the Papists could not find fault with their lives, only they taxed them for heresy; but so they could not Paul, unless they would conclude themselves also heretics, Acts 24:21.
Ver. 21. Except it be, &c.] And if this be a fault in true account, why are not all the whole nation of the Pharisees faulted, that hold the same thing? Is that Naevus in me that is Venus in them? Or is that a vice in Gaius that is a virtue in Titus? Are they not apparently partial in themselves, and become judges of evil thoughts? James 2:4. If Dioscorus the heretic could cry out in the Council of Chalcedon, I am cast out with the Fathers, I defend the doctrine of the Fathers, I transgress them not in any part; may not I more truly lay the like claim to the Pharisees, those fathers of our nation?
Ver. 22. He deferred them, and said] Truly and timely spake the orator, De vita hominis nulla saris diuturna cunctatio esse possit [see Deuteronomy 17:3] In a case of life and death there cannot be too much caution and cunctation. (delay)
Ver. 23. And to let him have liberty] This shows that Felix himself found that it was malice, more than matter, that moved the Jews to prosecute. And the same perhaps is hinted in the former verse, “having more perfect knowledge of that way”; that is, as some sense it, being well acquainted with their courses, and knowing it to be their common practice to accuse innocent men of mere spite. But why then did not Felix punish those malicious men, and let Paul go? why is he still a prisoner, though a free prisoner, under a keeper, or with some chain on him? Oh, it is a mercy to have judges modo velint quae possint, modo audeant quae sentiant, so they be willing to do what they may, and dare do what they judge fit to be done. (Cic. pro Milone.)
Ver. 24. With his wife Drusilla] The sister of King Agrippa, and wife of Abidus, king of Emesenes, whom she had basely forsaken, and came and joined herself to this Felix (Joseph. Antiq. 20), worthy therefore to have been hanged, as Joan queen of Naples, was at a window for like treachery by Lewis, king of Hungary. (Heyl. Geog. 167.)
Ver. 25. Of righteousness, temperance, &c.] Whereas Felix did many things there tyrannously and had greater regard to gain than to justice; and whereas Drusilla, a Jewess, was not only married to an uncircumcised man, but also a filthy adulteress,—Paul in a certain kind of grave wisdom, which yet had joined with it great liberty of speech, reasoneth and disputeth of things that he knew principally lacking in his hearers. Felix trembled] See the force of conscience, which, like Samson’s wife, conceals not the riddle, Judges 16:17; like Fulvia a courtesan, who declared all the secrets of her foolish lover Gneius, a noble Roman, bewrays (maligns) and betrays those that harbour her. She is a watch and will at length give warning. (Sallust. Bell. Cat.) Go thy way for this time, &c.] The president of St Julian’s being sent to Angrogne would have forced a poor man to rebaptize his child. He, after he had prayed, required of the president that he would write and sign the same with his own hand, that he would discharge him before God of the danger of that offence, and that he would take the peril upon him and his. The president hereat was so confounded, that he spake not one word a good while after. Then said he, “Away, thou villain, out of my sight.” After that he was never called more. (Acts and Mon.)
Ver. 26. He hoped also, &c.] Fuit Felix inexplebilis gurges, as Tacitus testifieth. He trembled, and yet gaped after money. A man may as soon find a harvest in a hedge as the least goodness in a covetous heart. Privatorum fares in nervo et compedibus oetatem agunt; publica in auro et purpura visuntur. (Cato apud Gell. lib. xi. 18.) Public thieves are gallant fellows. And covetousness is a dry drunkenness. Justice is often made a hackney by them to be backed for money; and a golden spur brings her to the desired journey’s end of injury and wrong. Whereas a judge, as he should have nothing to lose, so he should have nothing to get, he should be above all price or sale; and justice justice, as Moses speaketh, that is, pure justice without mud should run down amain, Deuteronomy 16:20.
Ver. 27. Willing to show the Jews, &c.] Politicians care not to gratify others and serve their own turns with the loss of right and good conscience. In the reign of Henry II of France, A. D. 1554, many were there burnt for religion, not without the indignation of honest men, who knew that the diligence used against these poor people was not for piety or religion, but to satiate the covetousness of Diana Valentina, the king’s mistress, to whom he had given all the confiscation of goods made in the kingdom for cause of heresy. (Hist. of Council of Trent.)