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Ev pov. Syr. 8, in the mouth or edge of the sword.' Vul. Lat. In occisione gladii, cæde gladii occubuerunt, they fell or died by slaughter of the sword.'

Пeginλov. Vul. Circuiverunt, they went about.' Syr. They wandered,' oberraverunt.

Ev unλwraiç. The Syriac interposeth was, induti, amicti, clothed,' which is necessary unto the sense. Vul. Lat. In melotis. All suppose that translator understood not the sense of the Greek word, and so retained it. And Erasmus makes himself very merry in reflecting on Thomas, who gives some wild interpretations of it. Mnλov is 'a sheep.' In sheep-skins.'

Εν αιγείοις δερμασιν.

Ev ayεlois depuаow. The Syriac transposeth this word, and prefixeth it unto the other, 'In the skins of sheep and goats;' without necessity, for unwrn is a sheep-skin.

'YOTEρOVμεvoi, Vul. Egentes. Syr. p, wanting, poor;' properly, destitute, deprived of all.'

Coμεvoi, Vul. Lat. Angustati, 'straitened.' Syr. px, 'oppressed,'

pressi, afflicti, pressed, afflicted."

KakovXovμεVOL. Vul. Lat. Afflicti. Syr.

; Conquassati, con

turbati; shaken, troubled:' malè habiti, malè vexati; tormented," say we, as I suppose, not properly: Evilly entreated,' vexed with evils.

VER. 37.-They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, (died by slaughter of the sword;) They wandered about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, (evilly entreated.)

Two sorts of persons, and two sorts of sufferings, are here represented unto us. 1. Such as fell under the utmost rage of the world, suffering by death itself. 2. Such as to escape death did expose themselves to all sorts of miseries, to be undergone in this life.

The same faith works equally, in them that die by violence, and them who, to escape death, expose themselves to other miseries, provided that the call unto the one or the other be of God.

First. Those of the first sort were killed three ways, or died three kinds of death; that is, some of them one way, and some of them another, as the Syriac translation distinguisheth them, by prefixing 'some,' or 'others,' to each sort. Some were stoned, some were sawn asunder, some were slain with the sword.' Amongst these outward sufferings of the body, the apostle interposeth the inward sufferings of their minds: they were tempted.' Or whether this denoteth a peculiar kind of suffering, we shall afterwards consider.

1. The first way of their suffering death was, that they were arnoav, 'stoned.' This kind of death was peculiar unto the people of the Jews; and therefore it is not amiss applied unto Naboth, 1 Kings xxi. 13, and Zechariah, 2 Chron. xxiv. 21. This punishment was ap pointed by law only for blasphemers, idolaters, false prophets, and the like profaners of the true religion. But when the persecuting world grew unto the height of impiety, it was applied unto those that were

the true professors of it. So was the blood of the first Christian martyr shed under pretence of that law, Acts vii. And indeed the devil is never more a devil, nor more outrageous, than when he gets a pretence of God's weapons into his hands. Such bath been the name of the church, and the like.

2. Erpionoav, 'they were sawn asunder;' some were so, although their names and the particular fact are not recorded: a savage kind of torture, evidencing the malice of the devil, with the brutish rage and madness of persecutors.

3. It is added, Enεiрaonoav, 'they were tempted.' This seems to be a trial of another kind than those wherewith it is joined. For it is mentioned among various sorts of violent deaths. But we are not to question the order or method of the apostle's words. The expression may denote either a distinct kind of suffering, or what befel them under their other sufferings, with which it is joined. In the first way, it lets us know how great a trial there is in temptations in a suffering season, and what vigour of faith is required to conflict with them. They are the fiery darts with which Satan in such a season fights against the souls of believers; and whereby ofttimes he more prevails than by outward and bodily pains. And when a season of persecution approacheth, there is nothing we ought to be more prepared for and armed against. Or the words may denote the temptations wherewith they were attempted by their persecutors under their sufferings, and the threatenings of death unto them. For, as we declared before, in all such seasons, the craft and malice of the devil and his instruments, ignorant of the hidden power of faith, endeavoured to work upon human frailty, by persuading them to spare themselves, requiring but little of them for their deliverance, with promise of rewards if they would forego their profession. And that this proceeds from the subtilty of Satan, our Lord Jesus Christ declares, in that when his apostle Peter would have dissuaded him from suffering, he lets him know that it was not from himself, but from the suggestion of the devil, Matt. xvi. 22, 23. This temptation therefore was the engine whereby he wrought in all these sufferings; that which gave them all their power and efficacy towards his principal end, which was the destruction of their souls. For he will willingly spare the lives of many, to ruin the soul of one. Well therefore might this be reckoned among their trials, and in the conquest whereof their faith was eminent. And therefore it is an especial promise of our Lord Christ, that when persecution cometh, he will keep his from the hour and power of temptation, Rev. iii. 10. This word therefore may keep its station in this place against all objections.

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4. The third instance of the ways whereby they suffered death, is, that, εν φονῳ μαχαιρας απεθανόν, they were slain with the sword, or died by the slaughter of the sword. The sword intended, is either that of injustice and oppression in form of law, or of violence and mere force. Sometimes they proceeded against these holy martyrs in form of law, and condemned them unto decollation, or the cutting off their heads by the sword, a way of punishment in use among the Grecians, and the Romans afterwards. And if this be intended; it refers

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probably unto the days of Antiochus, wherein many were so destroyed. Or it may intend the sword of violence, when persecutors in their rage have pursued, fallen upon, and destroyed multitudes by the sword, for their profession. So Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord with the sword, 1 Kings xix. 10. And in all times of the general prevalency of persecution, multitudes have been so destroyed. And the same course hath been continued under the New Testament. Many have been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, Rev. xx. 4, as his forerunner John the Baptist was, Luke ix. 9. And innumerable multitudes have been slain, both under the Pagan and anti-christian tyranny, with the sword. All sorts of death have thus been consecrated to the glory of God in the sufferings of the church. Christ himself, God's great Martyr, the Amen and Faithful Witness, was crucified; John the Baptist, his forerunner, was beheaded; Stephen, his first witness by death, was stoned. Nero first invented torments in the case of religion, which afterwards the devil and the world placed their greatest hopes of prevalency in. But,

Obs. I. No instruments of cruelty, no inventions of the devil or the world, no terrible preparations of death; that is, no endeavours of the gates of hell, shall ever prevail against the faith of God's elect.

Secondly. The latter part of the verse gives us an account of others, who, though they escaped the rage of their adversaries, as unto death in all the ways of it, yet gave their testimony unto the truth, and through faith bare that share in suffering, which God called them unto. And two things the apostle declares concerning them: 1. What they did; and 2. What was their inward and outward estate, in their so doing.

First. As unto what they did: wɛpinov, 'they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins.'

1.They wandered about.' They went about from place to place. To 'wander,' as we have rendered the word, is to go about from place to place, without any fixed residence, or design of any certain quiet habitation; so was it with them. They were driven from their own houses by law or violence: cities, boroughs, corporations, were made unsafe for them, yea, and sometimes villages also, on one pretence or another. This cast them on this course of life, to wander up and down, sometimes flying from one city unto another, sometimes forced to forsake them all, and betake themselves unto the wilderness, as the apostle immediately declares. However, they had not any fixed quiet habitation of their own. The best interpretation of this word and place, is given us by the apostle in the instance of himself, 1 Cor. iv. 11; aoraTOUμεV, we wander,' we have no abiding place, but move up and down, as men altogether uncertain where to fix. And indeed the representation he makes of the state of the apostles in those days, 1 Cor. iv. 9— 13'; and 2 Cor. xi. 23-27, is a full and plain exposition of this place. And,

Obs. II. It is no small degree of suffering, for men, by law or violence, to be driven from those places of their own habitation, which the providence of God, and all just right among men, have allotted unto them.-A state whereof many in our days have had experience, who

being conscious unto themselves of no evil towards any sort of men, yet merely for the profession of the gospel and exercise of their ministry, have been driven from their own houses, driven from all places that might accommodate them with any refreshment, to wander up and down that they might find a place to lodge a night in peace.

2. But it may be said, that although they did thus go up and down, yet they travelled in good equipage, and had all manner of accommodations, which is not the worst kind of sojourning here in this world. But all things were otherwise with them. They thus wandered ev μnAwrais, ev alɣelois Sequari, 'in sheep-skins and goat-skins.' There is no more intended in these expressions, but that, in their wandering, their outward condition was poor, mean, and contemptible. For as he declares it fully in the next words, so he gives an instance of it in the garments they wore, which were of the meanest and vilest sort that can be made use of, the unwrought skins of sheep and goats. Some indeed did voluntarily use these kinds of garments, as a testimony of their mortified condition. So did Elijah, who was said to be an hairy man, girt with a girdle of leather;' not from the hair of his face or body, but from the kind of his garments, 2 Kings i. 8. So John the Baptist had his raiment of camel's hair, Matt. iii. 4, when his meat was locusts and wild honey. And therefore the false prophets that were among the people did many of them wear garments of hair, which we render 'rough garments,' Žech. xiii. 4, to beget an opinion of that mortification which they pretended unto. Nothing here is intimated of choice, but necessity. They They were poor men, that wandered up and down in poor clothing.

So have the saints of God in sundry seasons been reduced unto the utmost extremities of poverty and want which any man can be exposed unto. And there is a proclamation herein to all the world of these two things. 1. That there is a satisfaction in faith and obedience to God, there are such internal consolations in that state, as do outbalance all the outward evils that may be undergone for the profession of them; without them the world may know, if they please, that those who do expose themselves unto those straits and difficulties for the preservation of their consciences entire unto God, do know as well as themselves how to value the good things of this life, which are needful to the refreshment of their natures. 2. That there is a future state, that there are eternal rewards and punishments, which will set all things aright unto the glory of divine justice, and the everlasting glory of them that have suffered.

Secondly. The apostle more particularly declares their state, in those expressions, destitute, afflicted, tormented, or evilly entreated.

He useth many words to express the variety of their sufferings in their wandering condition. Nothing was absent that might render it troublesome and afflictive. Wherefore, although it may be, we may miss it in the especial intention of each word or expression, yet we cannot do so as unto the general intention, which is to declare all the properties and concomitants of a calamitous condition. And they are here so set forth, that no believer at any time may faint or despond on the

account of any thing which it may fall under the power of the world to inflict upon him. In particular, they are said,

1. To be vorεpovμEvoL, 'destitute.' The Syriac and Vulgar render the word by egentes, or indigentes, pauperes, 'poor,' 'needy,' 'wanting.' All good Latin interpreters render it by destituti, which word is by use more significant in our language than any to the same purpose, for which cause we have borrowed it of the Latin, as we have done other words innumerable; destitute. Ύστερεω and ὑστερεομαι, are used in the New Testament sometimes in their proper signification, which is, 'to come behind,' and so to fall short or to be cast behind, Rom. iii. 23; 1 Cor. i. 7; 2 Cor. xi. 5; but most commonly to want or lack in any kind, to be deprived of what we stand in need of, Luke xv. 14; Phil. iv. 12. Being referred, as it is here, to a course of life, it is to want, to be deprived of necessary accommodations; to be kept without friends, relations, habitation, and such other supplies of life as others do enjoy. So voTEonua is penuria, 'poverty,' a poor, wanting condition, Luke xxi. 4. That I judge which is most particularly intended in this word, is a want of friends, and all means of relief from them or by them. And this, as some know, is a severe ingredient in suffering. But, as our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples, they should all forsake him and leave him alone, but he was not alone, for the Father was with him,' John xvi. 32, so is it with suffering believers; though they are outwardly destitute, left and forsaken of all means of comfort and relief, yet they are not utterly so; they are not alone, for Christ is with them.

2. In this condition they were Boμevol, afflicted.' The former word declares what was absent, what they had not, namely, outward supplies and comforts; this declares what they had, what was present with them; they were straitened or afflicted. The Vulg. renders the word by angustiati, 'brought into straits: the Syriac by pressi or oppressi, pressed,' 'oppressed.' We constantly render this word in all its variations, by affliction' and afflicted.' But this is of a general signification of every thing that is grievous, evil, or troublesome. Here the word seems to have peculiar respect unto the great straits which they were brought into by the great dangers that continually pressed on them. This state was very afflictive, that is, grievous, pressing and troublesome unto their minds. For when we are called to suffer for the gospel, it is the will of God that we should be sensible of and affected with the evils we undergo, that the power of faith may be evident in the conquest of them.

3. It is added, that they were kakovɣovμɛvoι, tormented.' So we render the word; the Vul. Lat. reads afflicti, which is the proper meaning of the foregoing word; the Syriac by conquassati, conturbati, 'shaken,''greatly troubled.' Others properly male habiti, or malè vexati, 'evilly entreated,' which is the signification of the word, and not 'tormented,' as we have rendered it. In this wandering condition, they met with very ill treatment in the world. All sorts of persons took occasion to vex and press them with all sorts of evils. And this is the constant entertainment that such wanderers meet withal in this world. Whatever is judged evil and vexatious unto them is on all occasions cast