Acts 15

Mystery of faith in a pure conscience. Faith is in the soul as fire among metals, it refines and purifies: morality may wash the outside, faith washes the inside (Acts 15:9). Having purified their hearts by faith.

Moses could not plead perfection. Paul was an elect vessel; but there fell out a sharp contention between him and Barnabas; and they grew so hot in their words, that they parted each from other; and we do not read that they had any more friendly visits (Acts 15:39). Paul himself…

All this moderation is commendable, and shows the wisdom of the serpent; but remember to join the dove with the serpent: we must so exercise moderation as also to cherish zeal. Saint Paul in some things was moderate, he did not press circumcision (Acts 15:25). He was tender of l…

The Word is both a glass to show us the spots of our soul, and a laver to wash them away; the Word has a transforming virtue in it, it irradiates the mind, and consecrates the heart. 2. Get faith in Christ's blood (Acts 15:9). Having purified their hearts by faith.

Moral virtue may wash the outside, faith washes the inside. Acts 15:9. Having purified their hearts by faith. Faith makes the heart a sanctuary or temple, with this inscription, Holiness to the Lord.

What is the meaning of Satan's sowing tares in the parable (Matthew 13:25), but Satan sowing error instead of truth? How quickly had the Devil broached false doctrine in the Apostles' times — that it was necessary to be circumcised (Acts 15:1), that angel-worship was lawful, and…

And hence such excellent things are spoken of faith: it is called the victory that overcometh the world: 1. John 5.4. And God is said by faith to purify the heart: faith strengtheneth the heart: Acts 15.9: And through faith we are kept by the power of God unto salvation. 1. Pete…

Secondly, the remembrance of God's promises serves to be a means to keep a man from sin: for man's nature is as ready and prone to sin, as fire is to burn when fuel is put to it. But when by faith he calls to mind God's merciful promises, especially those which are made unto him…

And it is as impossible to be otherwise, as it is for fire having fuel not to burn. Acts 15.9. Faith purifies the heart; namely, from careless disobedience to God's word: for if from any corruption at all, then from it especially, because it is most contrary to the pureness of t…

Now, if we would die in faith, we must live in faith; else it is not to be expected: For, so these holy Patriarchs lived long in this faith, wherein they died. For, their holy lives showed plainly, that they lived in that faith, which (the Apostle says) does purify our hearts, A…

Can you maintain your peace and not have so much as any foundation in the truth and faithfulness of God to build it upon? Love never that faith that hungers not after the Word, that is supposed to be lively without being ever fed by the Word, that cannot claim either its rise an…

A second ground is taken from the opposition which the Scripture makes between the Elect, and others who are not elected, which shows clearly that election cannot be understood of all, as if there were a general and conditional election; hence it is said Jacob have I loved, and…

(Galatians 3:10) For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Then there must be none redeemed under the Old Testament, nor any justified, contrary to express Scriptures: (Psalm 32:1-2; Romans 4:1-6; Galatians 3:14; Acts 15:11; Acts 11:16-17; Romans 10:1-3). N…

Now the Law had a promise of life, if you do this, you live eternally, but God neither did work, nor was tied by the tenor of that Covenant, to work in us to do, to will, to continue, to abide in all written in the Law of God to the end, and therefore it was a broken Covenant. N…

If the living by faith did exclude works, and keeping of the Law in any respect at all, as the keeping of the Law is a witness of the life of faith: then to do the things of the Law, as it is an eternal rule of righteousness, should also involve us in the curse, and argue that w…

5 Another end was, that so by this means they might be strengthened in the faith, according to what you read in the words of the text, to them that did believe, he wrote that they might believe, meaning that they might be confirmed and established in believing. 6 Also, to the in…

2. Implicitly, or by interpretation, which is a more secret way of tempting God; when the act speaks it, whatever be the intention of the doer. As those who were about to lay the burden of the rites of Moses's Law on the new converts of the Gentiles (Acts 15:10). Now therefore w…

Hereby it may easily be gathered, that these false Apostles had condemned the Gospel of Paul among the Galatians, saying: Paul in deed has begun well, but to have begun well it is not enough: for there remain yet many higher matters. Like as they say in Acts 15, it is not enough…

But these popish Sophisters put no difference between faith in Christ to come and in Christ which is already come. Therefore if Cornelius had died before Christ was revealed, yet had he not been damned, because he had the faith of the fathers, which were saved by faith only in C…

Now, because reason judges that there can be no danger in preferring the righteousness of the law before the righteousness of faith: therefore with a certain indignation he inveighs against the law, and with great contempt he calls it a yoke, yea a yoke of bondage. So Peter call…

For they be weak and beggarly of themselves: that is to say, they are by nature the children of wrath, subject to death and everlasting damnation: and yet they lay hold upon that which is nothing else but mere weakness and beggary, seeking to be strengthened and enriched thereby…

Hence I gather, that there is but one Gospel, one in number and no more. For there is but one way of salvation by Christ, whereby all the Elect are saved, from the beginning of the world to the end (Acts 15:11; 1 Corinthians 10:3). It may be demanded, how they of the Old Testame…

Again, it is to be observed in this text, that James, Peter, John, are made equal, all being pillars; and James is first named: and that not without cause. For not Peter, but James was the President of the council of Jerusalem: because he spoke the last, and concluded all (Acts…

Thirdly, Paul here sets down the way to make a pacification for religion in these last days: and the way is, that the pastors of the Church be assembled together by the authority of princes: and being assembled, they temper their voices one to another according to the written wo…

The third part of this bondage is the obligation to the ceremonial law. It pertains not to all mankind, but only concerns the Jews, to whom it was a yoke of bondage (Acts 15). The sign of this bondage, whereby it may be discerned, is to keep a course or practice in sinning (John…

Besides, the patheticall exclamation of Paul, O miserable man that I am, &c. Rom 7:24. and that saying of Peter, in calling the Law a yoke, which neither we nor our fathers were able to beare, Act. 15. should be childish, and ridiculous, if that which is impossible in the law (a…

The same we read also of Saint Paul, Acts 9, and of Apollos, Acts 18, how they convinced the Jews, and proved by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ: in whom whatever the Prophets had foretold, was now accomplished and fulfilled. [reconstructed: Moreover], Acts 15, the Apostles…

(3.) Faith is the Instrumental Cause of our Sanctification, so that where it is not, no Holiness can be wrought in us. God purifyes our hearts by Faith, Acts 15. 9. and not otherwise. And where the Heart is not purifyed there is no Holiness.

(Acts 11:30) They sent their collection to the Elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul, that is to the ministers, of whom it is said (Acts 14:13) ([in non-Latin alphabet]) they ordained them Elders in every Church. And (Acts 15:2) a main question of faith is proposed to the Apo…

We have yet a greater evidence than all these. Men live in sin, and therefore they do not believe forgiveness of sin. faith in general purifies the heart, Acts 15:19. Our souls are purified in obeying the truth, 1 Peter 1:22. and the life is made fruitful by it, James 2:22. fait…

But for the bookes of Apochrypha, they are not Canonicall Scripture, because they were not penned by Moses or any of the Prophets: which is plaine by this, that all of them were first written either in latine, or in Greeke, & none in Hebrew originally; where as al the old Prophe…

He is gone there, 1. To feed in the gardens. By gardens, in the plural number, are understood the subdivisions, and particular plots of that one garden, formerly mentioned; the Jews had their synagogues, where the people did meet, and the law was read (as we have our distinct co…

And concerning the abolition of this Ceremonial Law, we must understand the Apostle, when he frequently and earnestly asserts the liberty of believers, and their freedom from the law; that is, the believing Jews were positively freed from the necessity of observing it; and the b…

Secondly; our reverent and attentive hearing of the Word of God, either read, or preached, is another public duty necessary to the sanctification of the Sabbath. This was observed also in the times of the Law, before Christ's coming into the world (Acts 15:21): Moses of old time…

Lessons were read out of the Old Testament, as made up of both the law and the other parts of the scripture then extant, in all the synagogues, which were set up in every city, and everywhere, wherever the Jews in any considerable number dwelt, as our meeting-houses are. Thus we…

"And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together, praying." He was the companion of the apostles Barnabas and Saul: Acts 15:37. "And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose…

The learned Pharisees were but painted sepulchers; gifts are but as a fair glove drawn over a foul hand. But now grace is incompatible with sin in dominion, it purifies the heart (Acts 15:9), cleanses the conscience (Hebrews 9:14), crucifies the affections and lusts of the flesh…

However, it may be mistaken and misrepresented, it is very far from being really a sect. There were sects of religion among the Jews; we read of the sect of the Sadducees (Acts 5:17), which was built upon peculiar notions, such as overturned the foundation of natural religion, b…

It was for this present world; he was not acquainted with the powers of the world to come, and therefore he forsook Paul, rather then he would suffer in the cause of God with Paul. Certainly, those that fall off in the time of suffering, are such as never had a taste of the powe…

2. That which is pretended, is the power of any whatever over the conscience, when once made free by Christ. First then, believers are freed from the instituted law of ordinances, which upon the testimony of the apostles, was a yoke which neither we nor our fathers (in the faith…

2. It is the work of faith; the peculiar work of faith; now if there be a work to be done that will be effected by one only instrument, it is the greatest madness for any to attempt the doing of it, that has not that instrument. Now it is faith that purifies the heart (Acts 15:9…

Without Faith in Jesus Christ we have no Interest in his Salvation. True Faith must be such as purifies the Heart, Acts 15:9. And produces Good Works as the necessary Evidences to prove our Faith true, James 2:17, 18.

Hereupon I am bold to affirm, that those Persons whom all these Reasons cannot draw to the sincere Practice of Holiness, may be sure they never believed in Christ, and are not Partakers of the Salvation of the Gospel; for the great and necessary Duty of Christianity is Faith whi…

Make sure this election as it is here (for that is the order) — your effectual calling sure — and that will bring with it assurance of the other, the eternal election and love of God towards you, which follows to be considered. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father.]…

The chief point of obedience is believing; the proper obedience to truth is to give credit to it; and this divine belief does necessarily bring the whole soul into obedience, and conformity to that pure truth, which is in the word, and so the very purifying, and renewing of the…

Now these first actings of faith have in themselves an evidence, that distinguishes them from all that is counterfeit, a light of their own, by which the soul wherein they are, may discern them, and say this is the right work of faith — especially, when God shines upon the soul,…

Faith alone, therefore, purges all immoderate affections in us; and first it accomplishes this: that we are not ungrateful toward God—but in such a way that we need the Spirit of God, who works in us and daily confirms us. Therefore in Acts 15, God is said to have purified the h…

He has purchased the Spirit to bless us, and turn us from our sins. And it excites faith to apply and improve this remedy, and so conveys the power of God into the soul (Acts 15:9). Purifying their hearts by faith.

There should be a union in heart, way, and scope (Romans 14), but often it does fall out that passion, because of lesser differences, may occasion an unkindness between very brethren. Acts 15:37-39: And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul…

But because it was done not only with pain, but the foreskin was cut off, so it notes the purging the heart from that fleshliness and carnality that cleaves to us. Acts 15:9: Purifying their hearts by faith. Sin is wrought out more and more by the blood of Christ applied to the…