admired them, and spake honourably of them, and said what the damsel had said of them, Surely, these men are the servants of the living God; to recompense them for, and confirm them in, their good opinion of them, they share in the miracle, and have their bands loosed; as afterward God gave to Paul all those that were in the ship with him, (ch. 27. 24.) so now he gave him all those that were in the prison with him. God hereby signified to these prisoners, as Grotius observes, that the apostles, in preaching the gospel, were public blessings to mankind, as they proclaimed liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison-doors to them that were bound, Isa. 61. 1. Et per eos solvi animorum vincula—and as by them the bonds of souls were unloosed.
II. The persecutors designed to stop the progress of the gospel, that no more might embrace it; thus they hoped to ruin the meeting by the river-side, that no more hearts should be opened there; but here we find converts made in the prison, that house turned into a meeting, the trophies of the gospel's victories erected there, and the jailer, their own servant, become a servant of Christ. It is probable that some of the prisoners, if not all, were converted; surely the miracle wrought on their bodies, in loosing their bands, was wrought on their souls too; see Job 36. 8, 9, 10. Ps. 107. 14, 15. But it is only the conversion of the jailer that is recorded.
1. He is afraid he shall lose his life, and Paul makes him easy as to that care, v. 27, 28.
(1.) He awoke out of his sleep; it is probable that the shock of the earthquake waked him, and the opening of the prison-doors, and the prisoners' expressions of joy and amazement, when in the dark they found their bands loosed, and called to tell one another what they felt; this was enough to wake the jailer, whose place required that he should not be hard to wake. This wakening of him out of his sleep, signified the awakening of his conscience out of its spiritual slumber. The call of the gospel is, Awake, thou that sleepest, (Eph. 5. 14.) like that, Jonah 1. 6.
(2.) He saw the prison-doors open, and supposed, as well he might, that the prisoners were fled; and then what would become of him? He knew the Roman law in that case, and it was executed not long ago upon the keepers out of whose hands Peter escaped, ch. 12. 19. It was according to that of the prophet, (1 Kings 20. 39, 42.) Keep this man; if he be missing, thy life shall go for his life. The Roman lawyers, after this, in their readings upon the law, De custodia reorum—The custody of criminals, (which appoints that the keeper should undergo the same punishment that should have been inflicted on the prisoner if he let him escape,) take care to except an escape by miracle.
(3.) In his fright, he drew his sword, and was going to kill himself, to prevent a more terrible death, an expected one, a pompous ignominious death, which he knew he was liable to for letting his prisoners escape, and not looking better to them; and the extraordinary strict charge which the magistrates gave him concerning Paul and Silas, made him conclude they would be very severe upon him if they were gone. The philosophers generally allowed self-murder; Seneca prescribes it as the last remedy which those that are in distress may have recourse to. The stoics, notwithstanding their pretended conquest of the passions, yielded thus far to them. And the Epicureans, who indulged the pleasures of sense, to avoid its pains chose rather to put an end to it. This jailer thought there was no harm in anticipating his own death; but Christianity by this proves itself to be of God, that it keeps us to the law of our creation—revives, enforces, and establishes that; obliges us to be just to our own lives, and teaches us cheerfully to resign them to our graces, but courageously to hold them out against our corruptions.
(4.) Paul stopped him from his proceeding against himself; (v. 28.) He cried with a loud voice, not only to make him hear, but to make him heed, saying. Do not practise any evil to thyself; Do thyself no harm. All the cautions of the word of God against sin, and all appearances of it and approaches to it, have this tendency, "Do thyself no harm. Man, woman, do not wrong thyself, nor ruin thyself; hurt not thyself, and then none else can hurt thee; do not sin, for nothing but that can hurt thee." Even as to the body, we are cautioned against those sins which do harm to that, and are taught not to hate our own flesh, but to nourish and cherish it. The jailer needs not fear being called to an account for the escape of his prisoners, for they are all here. It was strange that some of them did not slip away, when the prison-doors were opened, and they were loosed from their bands; but their amazement held them fast, and, being sensible it was by the prayers of Paul and Silas that they were loosed, they would not stir unless they stirred; and God shewed his power in binding their spirits, as much as in loosing their feet.
2. He is afraid he shall lose his soul, and Paul makes him easy as to that care too. One concern leads him to the other, and a much greater; and being hindered from hastening himself out of this world, he begins to think, if he had pursued his intention, whither death would have brought him, and what would have become of him on the other side death—a very proper thought for such as have been snatched as a brand out of the fire, when there was but a step between them and death. Perhaps, the heinousness of the sin he was running into, helped to alarm him.
(1.) Whatever was the cause, he was put into a great consternation; the Spirit of God, that was sent to convince, in order to his being a Comforter, struck a terror upon him, and startled him; whether he took care to shut the prison-doors again, we are not told; perhaps he forgot that; as the woman of Samaria, when Christ had impressed convictions on her conscience, left her water-pot, and forgot her errand to the well; for he called for a light with all speed, and sprang in to the inner prison, and came trembling to Paul and Silas. Those that have sin set in order before them, and are made to know their abominations, cannot but tremble at the apprehension of their misery and danger. This jailer, when he was thus made to tremble, could not apply himself to a more proper person than to Paul, for it had once been his own case; he had been once a persecutor of good men, as this jailer was; had cast them into prison, as he kept them; and when, like him, he was made sensible of it, he trembled, and was astonished; and therefore was able to speak the more feelingly to the jailer.
(2.) In this consternation, he applied himself to Paul and Silas for relief. Observe,
[1.] How reverent and respectful his address to them is; he called for a light, because they were in the dark, and that they might see what a fright he was in; he fell down before them, as one amazed at the badness of his own condition, and ready to sink under the load of his terror because of it; he fell down before them, as one that had upon his spirit an awe of them, and of the image of God upon them, and of their commission from God. It is probable that he had heard what the damsel said of them, that they were the servants of the living God, which shewed to them the way of salvation, and as such he thus expressed his veneration for them. He fell down before them, to beg their pardon, as a penitent, for the indignities he had done them, and to beg their advice, as a supplicant what he should do.
