They of the circumcision—were astonished, &c.— The Jews had a proverb among them, that the Holy Spirit would not dwell upon any heathen, nor even upon any Jew in a prophetic or miraculous manner in a heathen country. The Jewish Christians, therefore, who camewith St. Peter from Joppa, to be eye-witnesses of this great event, were quite surprised to see that the divine gift of the Holy Spirit was poured down upon the Gentiles; for they presently found that this effusion produced like effects upon them, as it had done upon the Jewish converts; Cornelius and his companyimmediately exercising the gift of tongues, most probably in repeating and explaining some part of the Old Testament in the original language, and magnifying God, by singing psalms or hymns and spiritual songs, by immediate inspiratio

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