after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles, whom he had chosen ;

3. To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

4. "And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

5. "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.

6. "When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

7. "And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power!

8. "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

9. "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

10. "And while they looked stedfastly towards heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

11. "Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

12. "Then returned they unto Jerusalem, from the mountain called Olives, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey."

Luke writes this some years subsequent to his gospels, after having had it in his power to learn from eye-witnesses many circumstances of which he was ignorant at the time he wrote his gospel. He had travelled for some time in company with Paul, and from him he may have learnt what that apostle mentions, Corinth. xv. 5, 6, 7. He does not, it is true, repeat the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection, because they do not properly belong to his second history, but he states the commands of Jesus to his disciples, because they actually do belong to his history; but it may very well happen, that he supposes that to be known at the time of his writing the Acts, which he did not know,

and therefore did not relate, when he wrote his gospel.

1. "The former treatise have I made."] That the word in pure Greek signifies " a book," has been sufficiently exemplified by Wetstein and by Kypke. It should be read, therefore, "book,” and not "discourse," as it is in some translations.

"Of all."] No one can reasonably expect from a writer, that he has not omitted anything of what Jesus did or taught: in such a small space it would be impossible: he merely seems to imply, that he has written generally the life of Jesus, without entering into all the minutiæ. Began."] As opposed to the further extension of the Gospel, through the medium of the apostles, and which he now proposes describing in the second book.

2. "Through the Holy Ghost."] Two constructions of these words are possible, but between which, I remain to a certain degree doubtful.

1. Taken in connexion with the preceding words, it would be thus;-he gave them commandment through the Holy Ghost, that is, through divine inspiration. The meaning then

would be, that he gave them commands with respect to the will of God, and being himself inspired by God, his commandments were, therefore, the commandments of God.

2. But taken in connexion with the words that follow," whom he had chosen through the Holy Ghost," the meaning would be, that Jesus did not choose his disciples, according to his own discretion, but through divine inspiration. See Matthew xx. 23, and Luke vi. 12, 13. I have entered upon this, further, in my observations upon the Syriac Acts of the Apostles. This construction has been the least adoped, but it is the one most strenuously defended by Kypke. I prefer, but reluctantly prefer this last interpretation. I do not entirely adopt it, and I could have wished the text had been, "that he had given them commands with respect to, and on account of, the Holy Ghost," with reference to the promise given, that the Holy Spirit should be poured out upon them, and that they were to remain at Jerusalem, until the promise should be fulfilled. No manuscript, at least no one that has yet been collated, or ancient translation, has this reading, and to translate it so, with the present text, would be contrary to grammar or to custom.

Two constructions are, however, decidedly to be rejected.

1. Those who translate it "after he had given them commandments through the Holy Ghost," and who contend that it was given them, John xx. 22. He gave them their commandments, verbally, and not through the Holy Ghost, but promised that they should receive it, after his ascension.

2. Those who consider it as bearing this sense, "that he was taken up through the Holy Ghost unto heaven:" a most extraordinary construction, and one which will not bear examination.

3." Forty days."] Whether this connects with that which precedes, or that which follows, I know not'; nor is it, in fact, of much consequence, since the sense remains the same. It would appear, that, independent of the times that have been named, and have been recorded by the four evangelists, Jesus had other and familiar intercourse with the disciples, and, perhaps, in Galilee, but as Luke is not more particular upon this subject, I will rather profess my ignorance, than hazard conjecture.

Being seen of them."] Not that he ap

peared to them, but that his presence was of