1. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple, at that hour of prayer which is the ninth hour.

There were three hours of prayer in a day, nine o'clock, twelve, and three in the afternoon, or the ninth hour. This was the last of them.

2. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they placed daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

3. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms.

4. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him, with John, said, Look on

us.

He intended hereby to awaken his attention, and, by leading him to consider who they were, to prepare his mind for the exercise of that faith in the divine power which was necessary for receiving the favour of a miraculous cure.

5. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. He misunderstood their meaning, imagining that they intended to prepare him for receiving alms.

6. Then said Peter, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give

I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

As a disciple and follower of Jesus, who is the Christ, I say unto thee, Arise. It has already been shown that to pray in the name of Christ, is to pray as his disciples; and to perform a miracle in his name, signifies the same thing. In each case the authority of Christ for what is done must be understood. The name of Christ is mentioned on this occasion, not as a charm for effecting a cure, but to awaken the faith of the lame man, who had probably heard of the fame of Jesus, and to point out the design of the miracle, which was to confirm his divine mission.

7. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength.

8. And hẹ, leaping up, stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God.

It was perfectly natural for a man who had just recovered the use of his limbs, to try them in every way, in order to be assured that they were restored to perfect soundness; and it was no less natural for a devout mind to offer public thanks to God for so great a favour. We learn from this last action, by whose power, according to the man's idea, the miracle was performed.

9.

And all the people saw him walking and praising God;

10. And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful

gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

This miracle was well adapted to make a strong impression upon the minds of spectators; for the subject of it was so completely a cripple as to be unable to move, and to make it necessary for him to be carried to his station; and on this account he was particularly calculated to excite the pity of beholders. He was well known to all those that frequented the temple, having been placed there daily, many years, being forty years old at this time. Yet in an instant his limbs are restored to perfect soundness, without the application of any natural remedy. If such a miracle had not excited amazement, human nature could not have been then what it is now.

11. And as the lame man who was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them, in the porch, or, "portico," that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.

Solomon's portico was a part of Solomon's temple, left standing when the rest of the temple was rebuilt by Herod. The man upon whom the miracle had been performed was probably induced to lay hold on Peter and John to prevent his benefactors from leaving him, when they showed an inclination to depart. This afforded the multitude an opportunity of gratifying their curiosity, by assembling round them. Peter takes occasion hence to explain the cause and design of the miracle.

12. And when Peter saw it, he answered "he said," unto the people, Why marvel ye at this? or why look Vol. 3.]

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ye so earnestly on us, as though, by our own power or holiness, we had made this man to walk?

By the eagerness with which the multitude gazed upon him and his companion, Peter concluded that they must suppose that the man was healed either by some extraordinary medical virtue, existing in themselves, or by the power of God, as a testimony to the excellence of their characters; he takes care, therefore, to undeceive them, by declaring that the miracle was intended principally to do honour to Christ, whom they had lately crucified, being performed by power which God had conferred upon him for that purpose.

13. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son, rather, "his servant," Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him, or, " rejected him,” in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

The word which is here rendered "Son," in its primitive sense signifies a boy, and as boys were generally employed as servants, it came, in course of time, to signify a servant. In this sense it frequently occurs in the New Testament. Thus we read in Luke, "if that servant say, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men-servants;" in the original the same word which is used here. But our translators, who believed Jesus to be God, equal with the Father, were shocked at the idea of calling Christ a servant of God, and therefore called him his Son; a name which he undoubtedly sometimes bears, but which Peter had no intention of giving him in this place. A similar observation may be made on the translation of the next verse.

14.

But ye denied, " ye rejected," the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

The proper translation of the first clause of the verse is undoubtedly the holy man, and the just man, in opposition to the murderer; but the translators were not prepared to follow Peter in calling Christ a man, and therefore have adopted a phrase which may imply that Christ was something more than human.

15. And killed the prince of life, rather," the leader of life," whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.

When Christ is called the leader of life, there is an allusion to the situation of an officer of an army, who goes before, or, leads, his men. In like manner, Jesus is the leader of Christians to eternal life, being the first of the human race who rose from the dead to that condition. It was to remove the imputation cast upon the character of Jesus by the Jews, who preferred a robber and crucified the Messiah, that God conferred upon him the honour of bestowing miraculous powers upon his disciples, and particularly, that of enabling one of them to produce the present cure. And this is what Peter refers to, when he says, (verse thirteen) that the God of their fathers had glorified his servant Jesus. It was to Christ principally, and not to the two apostles that God meant to do honour by this event. He next explains how so great a favour came to be conferred upon the man who was cured of his lameness: he derived this benefit from his faith in Christ.

16.

And by faith in his name hath he given strength to this man, whom