Acts 12

Death smites a believer, as the angel did Peter, it made his chains fall off. So death makes all the chains of sin fall off (Acts 12:7). Believers at death are made perfect in holiness (Hebrews 12:23).

But at last omnipotent grace overcame you. When Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, an angel came and beat off his chains (Acts 12:7). So when you were sleeping in the Devil's arms, that Christ should by his Spirit smite your heart, and cause the chains of sin to fall off,…

God grant we may thus glorify him, if he calls us to it: many pray, Let this cup pass away, but not, Your will be done. 16. We glorify God when we give God the glory of all we do: Herod when he had made an oration, and the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a God, a…

2. We may know we pray in faith, when though we have not the present thing we pray for, yet we believe God will grant, therefore we will stay his leisure. A Christian having a command to pray, and a promise, he is resolved to follow God with prayer and not give over; as Peter he…

If a man digs for gravel, much more for gold: (Philippians 3:14) I press toward the mark. Heaven gate is not like that [reconstructed: iron]-gate, which opened to Peter of its own accord (Acts 12:10). Heaven is not like those ripe figs which fall into the mouth of the eater (Nah…

12. When a man's afflictions are upon a good account, that he suffers for Christ, he has the prayers of God's people. It is no small privilege to have a stock of prayer going; it is like a merchant that has a part in several ships: suffering saints have a large share in the pray…

That God will have his name glorified by us, appears in this; that he punishes those which of obstinacy set themselves to dishonor him, or by negligence did not sanctify him, when they should have done so. Herod sitting in his royalty, made such an oration, that the people cried…

Cast out devils (Matthew 17:21). Opened prisons (Acts 12:9). Shut heaven (James 5:17).

Peter had led the way to the rest in that notable confession of Christ (Matthew 16:16), and is conceived to have some primacy for the orderly beginning of actions in the College of the Apostles. James was the first apostle who shed his blood for Christ (Acts 12:2), and John was…

And he said, at the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth. While many of the disciples were gathered together praying, God sent Peter to them (Acts 12:12-13). While Cornelius was in the act of prayer, at the ninth hour of the day, which was the hour of praye…

When soldiers are said to watch for a city, it is not meant that every citizen has a soldier to watch for him. The only place, which seems to countenance that opinion, is Acts 12:15. Then said they, it is his Angel.

5. They do not only keep off hurt, but there are many blessings and benefits, that we are partakers of by their ministry. As the angel of the Lord delivered Peter out of prison (Acts 12:7): And behold the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison; and he…

Mr. Mede has undertaken to prove, from (Joshua 24:26). That the Jews of old, and Christians in Gospel-times had their [Proseuchae, or] praying places, which he thus describes (as to the Jews of old:) Proseucha, says he, was a plot of ground, encompassed with a wall, or some othe…

The fourth is, the false flattering, and applause of men, which sooth vs vp in our humours, in perswading vs to be that which in truth we are not, as the people flattered Herod, when they gaue a shout, and said, The voice of God, and not of man. Act 12:22. The third point is, th…

For, that James before whom Christ was transfigured in the mount, was James the son of Zebedee, and brother of John (Matthew 17:1): After six days, Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain, and was transfigured before them. Which…

When Ahitophel shall go and hang himself, just upon that prayer of distressed David, 2 Samuel 15:31 When Haman shall fall and his plot be broken, just upon the Fast kept by Mordecai and Hester, Esther 4:16 Our own Speed, in his History of Britain, tells us, that Richard the Firs…

(6.) The respect and relation Providence bears to our prayers, is of singular consideration, and a most taking and sweet meditation. prayer honors Providence, and Providence honors prayer. Great notice is taken of this in Scripture, Genesis 24:45 Daniel 9:20 Acts 12:12 You have…

When angels strike, they strike to purpose. It is said (Acts 12) that an angel of the Lord smote Herod, and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. Spirits have mighty power.

You shalt be a man, and no God in the hand of him that slayes you. And when Herod prided himself in the acclamations of the vain multitude, (the voice of God and not of a man.) The Angel of the Lord filled that God immediately with worms which slew him and devoured him, Acts 12:…

Secondly, many other sinnes preuaile in the wicked, but pride is the sinne that troubls the children of God, and when other sinnes die, then will pride reuiue, yea it will arise out of grace it selfe: for the child of God will be proud, because he is not proud: therefore Paul' m…

It is all up hill to Heaven, and it will make us sweat before we get to the top of the hill. Indeed Hell will be taken without storm: the gates of Hell, like that iron gate (Acts 12:10), open of their own accord: but if we get to Heaven, we must force our way: we must besiege it…

He that wrote the gospel of Mark, is supposed to be he whose mother was Mary, in whose house they were praying for Peter, when he, brought out of prison by the angel, came and knocked at the door; of which we read. Acts 12:12. "And when he had considered the thing, he came to th…

Basil in his Sermon upon the forty Martyrs, calls them the stars of the world, the flowers of the Church. And Chrysostome upon Acts 12. speaking of those who were praying for Peter in the night, says, That they were made by afflictions more pure then the Heaven. And some of the…

We would have a powerful friend, especially if we need him. (Acts 12:20): "They sought peace with Herod, because their country was nourished by the king's country"; so should we do, we cannot live without God. If sin be pardoned, then we are at peace with God, and may have free…

2. Irrational, God can raise an Army of Flies, as he did against King Pharaoh, Exodus 8:24. An Army of Worms, as he did against King Herod, Acts 12:23. O what a Lord is here who has so many Hosts under his Pay and conduct!

This is all our condition by nature. Now when God loosens the bolts, and shuts back the many locks that were upon us, as the Angel made Peter's chains fall off (Acts 12:12), then are we said to be enlarged to run the way of his commandment, or as it is expressed (Luke 1:74), to…

We continually depend upon him every moment; in him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28); and surely dependence should beget observance, and therefore men should be loath to break with God, or careful to reconcile themselves to him, on whom they depend every moment…

The Angel that was merciful to Balaam's Ass, was ready to slay Balaam, but that he was reserved to fall by other hands. When Herod was so wicked as to assume glory to himself, which of right is God's, the Angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not glory to God (Acts 12:23)…

So when Demetrius had pressed his companions with such prevailing arguments of profit [illegible], you know that by this trade we have our living, presently they were all upon a flame, and the voice prevailed by the space of two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians (Acts 19:28…

He will with the temptation make a way to escape. Thus he did to Peter (Acts 12:10). Peter's prayers had opened heaven, and God's angel opens the prison; God can either prevent a snare, or break it (Psalm 68:20).

The Lord enriches them with Wit and Parts suitable to the places he calls them to, and Pride fumes from their heart into their head, and makes them giddy. Herod was proud of the Oration he made, and assumed that glory to himself, which he should have given to God, and his pride…

Stephen, that was one of the first of the family from where your husband sprang, was knocked on the head with stones (Acts 7:59-60). James, another of this generation, was slain with the edge of the sword (Acts 12:2). To say nothing of Paul and Peter, men anciently of the family…

Isaiah 39:2: the vain glory of good Hezekiah rose like a froth or scum upon the pot, when heated by prosperity. It was such a refining pot to Herod as discovered him to be dross itself (Acts 12:23). How did that poor worm swell under that trial into the conceit of a god?

Moreover, what became of Herod the Great, who was so fond of this companion? Did he not bring God's heavy wrath upon him in such a fearful manner, that a blessed angel was sent to smite him with death immediately, and he was eaten of worms (Acts 12:23)? Have you not read, that t…

It was not Ahasuerus, nor the grace that Esther found in the eyes of the King, that saved the whole Church of the Jews from destruction, but the prayers of Esther and her maids. It is true, an Angel brought Peter out of Prison (Acts 12), But what stirred that wheel in Heaven (ve…

Especially considering that most of them were poor men, therefore impossible it was, that three thousand of them should meet at one man's house, but some in this, and some in that; and so divided themselves, that in several families they did all meet. Read the same accomplishmen…