15.) which hundred and twenty were
probably a little association of believers, met together not merely as
believers in Christ, but as personally connected with the apostles, and
with one another. Whatever was the number of believers then in
Jerusalem, we have no reason to be surprised that so small a company
should assemble: for there is no proof that the followers of Christ were
yet formed into a society; that the society was reduced into any order;
that it was at this time even understood that a new religion (in the
sense which that term conveys to us) was to be set up in the world, or
how the professors of that religion were to be distinguished from the
rest of mankind. The death of Christ had left, we may suppose, the
generality of his disciples in great doubt, both as to what they were to
do, and concerning what was to follow.
This meeting was holden, as we have already said, a few days after
Christ's ascension: for ten days after that event was the day of
Pentecost, when, as our history relates, (Acts ii. 1.) upon a signal
display of divine agency attending the persons of the apostles, there
were added to the society "about three thousand souls.
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