Acts 19

Five ways: God has exalted Christ, 1. In his titles. 2. In his office. 3. In his ascension. 4. In his session at God's right hand. 5. In constituting him Judge of the world. First title, 1. God has exalted Christ in his titles: 1. He is exalted to be a Lord (Acts 19:17). The nam…

By Scripture is understood the sacred book of God — it is given by divine inspiration; that is, the Scripture is not the contrivance of man's brain, but of a divine original. The image of Diana was had in veneration by the Ephesians, because they did suppose it fell from Jupiter…

The minister's work is to part between men and their sins; and this causes opposition. When Paul preached against Diana, all the city was in an uproar (Acts 19). This may stir up prayer for Christ's ministers, that they may be able to withstand the assaults of the enemy (2 Thess…

Unbelief hardens men's hearts against the Word. (Acts 19:9): Divers were hardened and believed not. Men hear many truths delivered concerning the preciousness of Christ, the beauty of holiness, the felicity of a glorified estate; but if through unbelief and atheism they question…

We are baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost, therefore either we must believe his Godhead, or renounce our baptism in his name. Methinks it were enough for such men, as have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost, or no (Acts 19:2), to deny his deity; but that any…

2 If the persecutors do specially aim at the Minister's life, then with the consent of his flock, he may go apart for his own safety, for a time. So it was with Paul: when the Ephesians were in an uproar about their Diana, Paul in zeal would have entered in among them; but the D…

This faith has one degree more than historical faith. Examples of it we have in Simon Magus (Acts 8:13), who is said to believe, because he held the doctrine of the apostle to be true; and withal professed the same: and in the devils also, who in some sort confessed, that Christ…

And the commandment of the Holy Spirit — confess one to another and pray one for another, James 5:17 — binds as well the priest to make confession unto us as any of us to the priest. And whereas it is said in Matthew 3 that many were baptized confessing their sins, and in Acts 1…

James commands not such a confession. Daniel's, Ezra's, Peter's confession were some other thing (John 1:20; Acts 19:18; Hebrews 11:13; Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 4:2; Mark 3:6; Joshua 7:19; Daniel 9:4; Romans 10:10; 1 Timothy 6:13; Psalm 32:5; James 5:16; Leviticus 5:5; Leviticus 1…

When we undertake things above bodily strength, all will condemn us; so to undertake things, that we have no ability to perform, is unlawful. The sons of Sceva would take upon them to exorcise the Devil, and the man in whom the evil spirit was, leapt on them, and overcame them,…

Yet if a church shall err in the foundation openly and obstinately, it separates from Christ and ceases to be a church, and we may separate from it and may give judgment that it is no church. When the Jews resisted the preaching of Paul, and had nothing to say but to rail, Paul…

The first is, of which of his journeys must this be understood? (for he made five journeys to Jerusalem.) The first, from Arabia: the second, when he and Barnabas were sent by the church of the Gentiles to carry alms to Jerusalem: the third, when he went to the council at Jerusa…

Thirdly, v. 8. he says, he will abide at Ephesus till Pentecost, therefore he was not then at Philippi. Fourthly, that it was written before the tumult in Ephesus raised by Demetrius and his complices, and so consequently before his comming to Philippi▪ as also that it was sent…

By the visible gift of the Holy Ghost invested into his ministry and Apostleship. And finally by great signs and wonders confirmed in the same (Acts 9:3; Acts 19:6). By which things as the dignity and authority of the holy man is confirmed to us, so all men are taught with what…

O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? And men's rejecting Christ, and opposing Christianity, is laid to this principle; Acts 19:9. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude;

Joh. 16. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. And it is on this Design of God, that the Person of the Spirit may be singularly exalted in the Church, to whom they were so in the dark before that some none of the worst of them professed they had not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost…

But this Dispensation of the Holy Ghost whereof we now proceed to treat, is so peculiar to the New Testament, that the Evangelist speaking of it sayes, The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified, Joh. 7. 39. And they who were instructed in the Doctrine…

See Eph. 1. 17. Act. 19. 31. Rom. 5. 5.

Repentance in its more general abstracted nature, is only a sorrow for sin, and forsaking of it, which is a duty of natural religion; but evangelical repentance, or repentance for remission of sins, has more than this essential to it; a dependance of soul on the Mediator for del…

There be many persons employed in sinful Trades and Arts, meerly to furnish other mens lusts: they do not only sin in their Imployments; but their very Imployments are sinful: they trade for Hell, and are Factors for the Devil. Demetrius and the Crafts-men at Ephesus, got their…

Some go about business, and they know not why, they visit their friends, and they know not for what. That was justly called a confused assembly (Acts 19:32) when the most part knew not why they were come together. Though no man can know the end of his action, respecting the even…

And at Ephesus when the great tumult was about Diana, Paul would have thrust himselfe in among the people, but the Disciples seeing it would be dangerous unto him, kept him backe, and would not suffer him. Act. 19. 30. vers. 7.Aske, and it shall be given you: seeke, and ye shall…

3. There may be in that one visible Church, many more real converts in one part thereof, than in another; spices in beds are not in every place of the garden. 4. Though Christ has a singular care of, and respect for, his whole Church, and has a peculiar presence there where ever…

But the most remarkable pouring out of the Spirit in a particular city that we have any account of in the New Testament, seems to be that in the city of Ephesus, which was a very great city. Of this we have an account in Acts 19. There was also a very extraordinary ingathering o…

They had no notion of any other sort of repentance put into their heads, that they could suppose John called them to profess in Baptism, but this accompanied with Faith in the Lamb whom he called them to behold; for he preached no other to them. The people that John baptized, pr…

After the way which they call heresy (says St. Paul, Acts 24:14) so worship I the God of my Fathers. The sect of the Nazarenes, so Tertullus calls it in his opening of the indictment against Paul (Acts 24:5), it is called this way (Acts 9:2) and that way (Acts 19:9), as if it we…

The continuance of the Christian religion in the world to this day is a standing miracle for the conviction of its adversaries, and the confirmation of the faith of those that adhere to it. When we consider what a mighty force was raised by the powers of darkness against Christi…

Hence that practice of Baal's priests (1 Kings 18:26): they called on the name of Baal from morning till night; O Baal, hear us. They were repeating and crying again and again, O Baal; as if their clamor would awaken their god; from where Elijah's sarcasm, He sleeps, and must be…

In the primitive times sometimes the Christians were exposed to the hatred and fury of the people, Lapidibus nos invadit inimicum vulgus: at other times exposed to the injuries of laws, and persecutions carried on by authority against them. There was an uproar at Ephesus against…

There it grew into an open contest and quarrel. And then between the Christians and the Pagans, which was the occasion of that uproar at Ephesus (Acts 19). And after Religion had gotten ground, and the way of truth had prevailed in the world, then the difference lay between Chri…

A fool utters all his mind, but he that is wise keeps it in till afterward. Paul was at Ephesus two years before he spoke against Diana (Acts 19:10). Only intimated in general terms, that they were no gods that were made with hands.

We are too prone to comply with, and to be drawn away by them we get by, and have therefore a kindness for them; but consider what God says (Exodus 34:12-15): Take heed lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest it prove a snare to you, that when they do sac…

For 1. A man may suffer for Christ, for that profession of religion that is upon him, the world hates the show of religion, times may come, that it may cost a man as dear to wear the livery of Christ, as to wear Christ himself. Alexander had like to have lost his life for the go…

When Judas saw where his covetousness had brought him, he flung away his thirty pieces (Matthew 27:3). And it is certain, all the scribes and Pharisees in the synagogue, and all the money in the country of Judea, could not have prevailed with him had they been then tendered to h…

Who can [reconstructed: bear] it? Acts 19:28 — see what an uproar, and what a dust Demetrius raises against Paul's doctrine: Masters, you know, that by this craft we get our living — therefore what they wanted in argument, they would carry it in clamors. There was an [illegible]…

Happy for Onesimus that Paul was sent to Jaile; God had an errand for Paul to do to him and others, which the devil never dream't of. Nay, he does not only preach in prison, but that he may do the devil all the mischief he can, he sends his Epistles to the Churches; that tasting…

The Israelitish women, who had been dressing themselves by the hour, and had abused their Looking-glasses to pride, afterwards by way of revenge as well as zeal, offered their Looking-glasses to the use and service of Gods Tabernacle, (Exodus 38:8). So those Conjurers who used c…

If ignorance do so corrupt a former Baptism, that it must be amended with a second Baptism: the Apostles should have been rebaptized first of all, which in whole three years after their Baptism, had scarcely tasted any small portion of purer doctrine. And now among us what river…

That under such ceremonies is contained no higher mystery, they shall easily judge who note how great liberty the Lord and his Apostles used in these outward things. The Lord going about to restore sight to the blind man, made clay of dust and spittle, some he healed with touchi…

1. The Lord says (Zechariah 13:2), I will cut off the names of idols out of the land, and they shall be no more remembered; and I will cause the prophets, and the unclean spirits to pass out of the land; but this cannot be done but with great violence (verse 3). The father and t…

You say, How shall I hate sin, as sin? First, you hate all sin, as well gainful and pleasurable sins, as any you have least benefit by (Acts 19:19). When you hate sin, as it is a dishonor to God, and a piercing of Christ, and a crucifying him (Psalm 51:5).

And especially is it fitting, that at such an extraordinary time, when God appears unusually present with a people, in wonderful works of power and mercy, that they should spend more time than usual in religious exercises, to put honor upon that God that is then extraordinarily…