religion is always ready to admit; Produce your cause, saith the Lord, bring forth your strong reasons, Isa. 41. 21. But why did they dispute with Stephen? And why not with the apostles themselves? (1.) Some think, because they despised the apostles as unlearned and ignorant men, whom they thought it below them to engage with; but Stephen was bred a scholar, and they thought it their honour to meddle with their match. (2.) Others think, it was because they stood in awe of the apostles, and could not be so free and familiar with them, as they could be with Stephen, who was in an inferior office. (3.) Perhaps they having given a public challenge, Stephen was chosen and appointed by the disciples to be their champion; for it was not meet that the apostles should leave the preaching of the word of God, to engage in controversy. Stephen, who was only a deacon in the church, and a very sharp young man, and of bright parts, and better qualified to deal with wrangling disputants than the apostles themselves, is appointed to this service. Some historians say, that Stephen had been bred up at the feet of Gamaliel, and that Saul and the rest of them set upon him as a deserter, and with a particular fury made him their mark. (4.) It is probable that they disputed with Stephen, because he was zealous to argue with them, and convince them. And this was the service which God had called him to.
2. We are here told how he carried the point in this dispute; (v. 10.) They were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake. They could not either support their own arguments, or answer his. He proved by such irresistible arguments, that Jesus is the Christ, and delivered himself with so much clearness and fulness, that they had nothing to object against what he said; though they were not convinced, yet they were confounded. It is not said, They were not able to resist him, but, They were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake, that Spirit of wisdom which spake by him. Now was fulfilled that promise, I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist, Luke 21. 15. They thought they only disputed with Stephen, and could make their part good with him; but they were disputing with the Spirit of God in him, for whom they were an unequal match.
III. At length, he sealed it with his blood; so we shall find he did in the next chapter, here we have some steps taken by his enemies towards it. When they could not answer his arguments as a disputant, they prosecuted him as a criminal, and suborned witnesses against him, to swear blasphemy upon him. "On such terms (saith Mr. Baxter here) do we dispute with malignant men. And it is next to a miracle of providence, that no greater number of religious persons have been murdered in the world, by the way of perjury and pretence of law, when so many thousands hate them, who make no conscience of false oaths." They suborned men, instructed them what to say, and then hired them to swear it. They were the more enraged against him, because he had proved them to be in the wrong, and shewed them the right way; for which they ought to have given him their best thanks; was he therefore become their enemy, because he told them the truth, and proved it to be so? Now let us observe here,
1. How with all possible art and industry they incensed both the government and the mob against him, that, if they could not prevail by the one, they might by the other; (v. 12.) They stirred up the people against him, that, if the Sanhedrim should still think fit (according to Gamaliel's advice) to let him alone, yet they might run him down by a popular rage and tumult; they also find means to stir up the elders and the scribes against him, that, if the people should countenance and protect him, they might prevail by authority. Thus they doubted not but to gain their point, when they had two strings to their bow.
2. How they got him to the bar; They came upon him, when he little thought of it, and caught him, and brought him to the council. They came upon him in a body, and flew upon him as a lion on his prey; so the word signifies. By their rude and violent treatment of him, they would represent him, both to the people and to the government, as a dangerous man, that would either flee from justice if he were not watched, or fight with it if he were not put under a force. Having caught him, they brought him triumphantly into the council, and, as it should seem, so hastily, that he had none of his friends with him. They had found, when they brought many together, that they emboldened one another, and strengthened one another's hands: and therefore they will try how to deal with them singly.
3. How they were prepared with evidence ready to produce against him; they were resolved that they would not be run aground, as they were when they brought our Saviour upon his trial, and then were to seek for witnesses. These were got ready beforehand, and were instructed to make oath, that they had heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God, (v. 11.) against this holy place and the law; (v. 13.) for they heard him say, what Jesus would do to their place and their customs, v. 14. It is probable that he had said something to that purport; and yet they who swore it against him are called false witnesses, because, though there was something of truth in their testimony, yet they put a wrong and malicious construction upon what he had said, and perverted it. Observe,
(1.) What was the general charge exhibited against him—that he spake blasphemous words; and, to aggravate the matter, "He ceases not to speak blasphemous words; it is his common talk, his discourse in all companies; wheresoever he comes, he makes it his business to instil his notions into all he converses with." It intimates likewise something of contumacy and contempt of admonition. "He has been warned against it, and yet ceases not to talk at this rate." Blasphemy is justly reckoned a heinous crime, (to speak contemptibly and reproachfully of God our Maker,) and therefore Stephen's persecutors would be thought to have a deep concern upon them for the honour of God's name, and to do this in a jealousy for that. As it was with the confessors and martyrs of the Old Testament, so it was with those of the New—their brethren that hated them, and cast them out, said, Let the Lord be glorified; and pretended they did him service in it.
He is said to have spoken blasphemous words against Moses and against God. Thus far they were right, that they who blaspheme Moses, (if they mean the writings of Moses, which were given by inspiration of God,) blaspheme God himself. They that speak reproachfully of the scriptures, and ridicule them, reflect upon God himself, and do despite to him. His great intention is to magnify the law, and make it honourable; those therefore that vilify the law, and make it contemptible, blaspheme his name; for he has magnified his word above all his name.
But did Stephen blaspheme Moses? By no means, he was far from it. Christ, and the preachers of his gospel, never said any thing that looked like blaspheming Moses; they always quoted his writings with respect, appealed to them, and said no other things than what Moses said should come; very unjustly therefore is Stephen indicted for blaspheming Moses. But,
