BURKITT : | Mr 16:1-2 | Mr 16:3-8 | Mr 16:9-14 | Mr 16:15-16 | Mr 16:17-18 | Mr 16:19 | Mr 16:20 | KJV
Reference
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:17-18 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Here we have a gracious promise of Christ, that in order to spread and propagate the gospel, as far as may be, the Spirit should be poured forth abundantly from on high upon the apostles, and thereby they should be enabled to work miracles, to cast out devils, to speak strange languages, which we read they did, Acts 2.
And this power of working miracles, continued in the church a hundred years after Christ’s ascension, until Christianity had taken root in the hearts of men. Iraeneus, lib. 2. chap. 58. says, that many believers, besides the apostles, had this power of working miracles; as new-set plants are watered at first, till they have taken fast rooting, so, that the Christian faith might grow the faster, God watered it with miracles at its first plantation.
Yet observe, That all the miracles which they had the power to work, were healing and beneficent; not terrifying judgments, but acts of kindness and mercy. It was our Saviour’s design to bring over persons to Christianity by lenity, mildness, and gentleness, not to affright them into compliance with astonishing judgment, which might affect their fear, but little influence their faith: for the will and consent of persons to the principles of any religion, especially the Christian, is like a royal fort which must not be stormed by violence but taken by surrender.