Matthew Poole and continuators on Acts 16:15

15 And when she was baptized , and her houshold, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide [illegible: 1 letter]here. And she constrained u[illegible: 1 letter].

When Lydia had right to Baptism, by reason of her Faith in Jesus Christ, all her Family, whom she could undertake to bring up in the knowledg of Christ, were admitted to that Ordinance also; as all the Servants, and such other as were born in his House, or bought with his Mony, were Circumcised with Abraham, Gen. 17.12, 13. Now the Gospel does not contract in any respect, but enlarges the priviledges of Believers in all things. And if they might under the Law have their Children and Servants admitted into a Covenant with God (which could not but rejoyce Religious Patents and Masters, who value the Relation they and theirs have to God, above all Earthly things) surely under the Gospel none of our Families are excluded, unless they wilfully exclude themselves.

As the two Disciples that were going to Emaus constrained our Saviour, Luke 24.29. with all earnest intreaties, and loving violence.

Marginal references: Gen. 19.3. & 33.11. Judg. 19.21. Heb. 13.2.