spiritual welfare we are concerned for; for our children, for our friends, for our ministers; we should pray, and pray earnestly, that they may receive the Holy Ghost; for that includes all blessings.
2. They laid their hands on them, to signify that their prayers were answered, and that the gift of the Holy Ghost was conferred upon them; for, upon the use of this sign, they received the Holy Ghost, and spake with tongues. The laying on of hands was anciently used in blessing, by those who blessed with authority. Thus the apostles blessed these new converts,, ordained some to be ministers, and confirmed others in their Christianity. We cannot now, nor can any thus give the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands; but this may intimate to us, that those whom we pray for we should use our endeavours with.
II. How they discovered and discarded him that was a hypocrite among them, and that was Simon Magus; for they knew how to separate between the precious and the vile. Now observe here,
1. The wicked proposal that Simon made, by which his hypocrisy was discovered; (v. 18, 19.) When he saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given, (which should have confirmed his faith in the doctrine of Christ, and increased bis veneration for the apostles,) it gave him a notion of christianity as no other than an exalted piece of sorcery, in which he thought himself capable of being equal to the apostles, and therefore offered them money, saying, Give me also this power. He does not desire them to lay their hands on him, that he might receive the Holy Ghost himself, (for he did not foresee that any thing was to be got by that,) but that they would convey to him a power to bestow the gift upon others. He was ambitious to have the honour of an apostle, but not at all solicitous to have the spirit and disposition of a christian. He was more desirous to gam honour to himself than to do good to others. Now, in making this motion, (1.) He put a great affront upon the apostles, as if they were mercenary men, would do any thing for money, and loved it as well as he did; whereas they had left what they had, for Christ, so far were they from aiming to make it more! (2.) He put a great affront upon christianity, as if the miracles that were wrought for the proof of it, were done by magic art, only of a different nature from what he himself had practised formerly. (3.) He shewed that, like Balaam, he aimed at the rewards of divination; for he would not have bid money for this power, if he had not hoped to get money by it. (4.) He shewed that he had a very high conceit of himself, and that he had never his heart truly humbled. Such a wretch as he had been before his baptism should have asked, like the prodigal, to be made as one of the hired servants. But as soon as he is admitted into the family, no less a place will serve him than to be one of the stewards of the household, and to be intrusted with a power which Philip himself had not, but the apostles only.
2. The just rejection of his proposal, and the cutting reproof Peter gave him for it, v. 20—23.
(1.) Peter shews him his crime; (v. 20.) Thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money; and thus, [1.] He had overvalued the wealth of this world, as if it were an equivalent for any thing, and as if, because, as Solomon saith, it answers all things relating to the life that now is, it would answer all things relating to the other life, and would purchase the pardon of sin, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and eternal life. [2.] He had undervalued the gift of the Holy Ghost, and put it upon a level with the common gifts of nature and providence. He thought the power of an apostle might as well be had for a good fee as the advice of a physician or a lawyer; which was the greatest despite that could be done to the Spirit of grace. All the buying and selling of pardons, and indulgencies in the church of Rome is the product of this same wicked thought, that the gift of God may be purchased with money, when the offer of divine grace so expressly runs, without money and without price.
(2.) He shews him his character, which is inferred from his crime. From every thing that a man says or does amiss, we cannot infer that he is a hypocrite in the profession he makes of religion; but this of Simon's was such a fundamental error, as could by no means consist with a state of grace; his bidding money (and that got by sorcery too) was an incontestable evidence that he was yet under the power of a worldly and carnal mind, and was yet that natural man which receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. And therefore Peter tells him plainly, [1.] That his heart was not right in the sight of God, v. 21. "Though thou professest to believe, and art baptized, yet thou art not sincere." We are as our hearts are; if they be not right, we are wrong; and they are open in the sight of God, who knows them, judges them, and judges of us by them. Our hearts are that which they are in the sight of God, who cannot be deceived; and if they be not right in his sight, whatever our pretensions be, our religion is vain, and will stand us in no stead: our great concern is to approve ourselves to him in our integrity, for otherwise we cheat ourselves into our own ruin. Some refer this particularly to the proposal he made; what he asked is denied him, because his heart is not right in the sight of God in asking it; he does not aim at the glory of God or the honour of Christ in it, but to make a hand of it for himself; he asks, and has not, because he asks amiss, that he may consume it upon his lusts, and be still thought some great one. [2.] That he is in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity; I perceive that thou art so, v. 23. This is plain dealing, and plain dealing is best when we are dealing about souls and eternity. Simon had got a great name among the people, and of late a good name too among God's people, and yet Peter here gives him a black character. Note, It is possible for a man to continue under the power of sin, and yet to put on a form of godliness. I perceive it, saith Peter. It was not so much by the Spirit of discerning, with which Peter was endued, that he perceived this, as by Simon's discovery of it in the proposal he made. Note, The disguises of hypocrites many times are soon seen through; the nature of the wolf shews itself notwithstanding the cover of the sheep's clothing. Now the character here given of Simon is really the character of all wicked people. First, They are in the gall of bitterness; odious to God, as that which is bitter as gall is to us. Sin is an abominable thing which the Lord hates, and sinners are by it made abominable to him; they are vicious in their own nature; indwelling sin is a root of bitterness, that bears gall and wormwood, Deut. 29. 18. The faculties are corrupted, and the mind imbittered against all good, Heb. 12. 15. It speaks likewise the pernicious consequences of sin; the end is bitter as wormwood. Secondly, They are in the bond of iniquity; bound over to the judgment of God by the guilt of sin, and bound under the dominion of Satan by the power of sin; led captive by him at his will, and it is a sore bondage, like that in Egypt, making the life bitter.
(3.) He reads him his doom in two things:
[1.] He shall sink with his worldly wealth which he overvalued; Thy money perish with thee. First, Hereby Peter rejects his offer with the utmost disdain and indignation; "Dost thou think thou canst bribe us to betray our trust, and to put the power we are intrusted with, into such unworthy hands?
