Acts 8:26

But it will suffice to have thus called at the outset those points in which withal is recognised that primary principle of baptism, which was even then fore-noted by the very attitude assumed for a type of baptism, that the Spirit of God, who hovered over (the waters) from the beginning, would continue to linger over the waters of the baptized. But a holy thing, of course, hovered over a holy; or else, from that which hovered over that which was hovered over borrowed a holiness, since it is necessary that in every case an underlying material substance should catch the quality of that which overhangs it, most of all a corporeal of a spiritual, adapted (as the spiritual is) through the subtleness of its substance, both for penetrating and insinuating. Thus the nature of the waters, sanctified by the Holy One, itself conceived withal the power of sanctifying. …

As, then, we have shown that the beginning of the Gospel, according to one interpretation, is the whole Old Testament, and is signified by the person of John, we shall add, lest this should be called a mere unsupported assertion, what is said in the Acts about the eunuch of the queen of the Ethiopians and Philip. Philip, it is said, began at the passage of Isaiah: “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb,” and so preached to him the Lord Jesus. How can he begin with the prophet and preach Jesus, if Isaiah was not a part of the beginning of the Gospel? From this we may derive a proof of the assertion made at the outset, that every divine Scripture is Gospel. …

Acts VIII. 26, 27 “And the Angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went.”

“And the Angel of the Lord,” etc. (Recapitulation, v. 26 .) ( b ) See Angels assisting the preaching, and not themselves preaching, but calling these (to the work). But the wonderful nature of the occurrence is shown also by this: that what of old was rare, and hardly done, here takes place with ease, and see with what frequency! ( c ) “An eunuch,” it says, “a man of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.” ( v. 27 .) For there women bore rule of old, and this was the law among them. Philip did not yet know for whose sake he had come into the desert: ( d ) but what was there to hinder his learning all (these particulars) accurately, while in the chariot? “Was reading the prophet Esaias.” ( v. 28 .) For the road was desert, and there was no display in the matter. Observe also at what time: in the most violent heat (of the day). ( e ) “And the Spirit said unto him.” ( v. …

1. That God gives more than we ask Him for, and that He often grants us things which “eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man,” I knew indeed before from the mystic declaration of the sacred volumes; but now, dearest Rufinus, I have had proof of it in my own case. For I who fancied it too bold a wish to be allowed by an exchange of letters to counterfeit to myself your presence in the flesh, hear that you are penetrating the remotest parts of Egypt, visiting the monks and going round God’s family upon earth. Oh, if only the Lord Jesus Christ would suddenly transport me to you as Philip was transported to the eunuch, and Habakkuk to Daniel, with what a close embrace would I clasp your neck, how fondly would I press kisses upon that mouth which has so often joined with me of old in error or in wisdom. …

54. Now of the rest of the Powers each is believed to be in a circumscribed place. The angel who stood by Cornelius was not at one and the same moment with Philip; nor yet did the angel who spoke with Zacharias from the altar at the same time occupy his own post in heaven. But the Spirit is believed to have been operating at the same time in Habakkuk and in Daniel at Babylon, and to have been at the prison with Jeremiah, and with Ezekiel at the Chebar. …