Acts 7

6. Is invocation proper to the Deity? This is given to Christ (Acts 7): Lord Jesus receive my spirit. 7. Is recumbency and trust peculiar to God the Father?

Resp. There is a twofold glory: 1. The glory that God has in himself; his intrinsic glory. Glory is essential to the Godhead, as light is to the sun: he is called the God of Glory (Acts 7:2). Glory is the sparkling of the deity; glory is so co-natural to the Godhead, that God ca…

It is hard to find both: if one would seek for a faithful man, questionless he may find many; if for a wise man, he may find many; but if he seek for one both wise and faithful, this is rara avis, hard to find: yet it is possible, though not common. Moses, a man learned in all t…

Sure then this kingdom is worth praying for, Your kingdom come. Would God give us a vision of heaven a while, as he did Stephen, who saw heaven opened (Acts 7:56), we should fall into a trance, and being a little recovered out of it, how importunately would we put up this petiti…

As if the patient should be angry with the physician when he gives him a receipt to purge out his bad humors. (Acts 7:54): When they heard this they were cut to the heart, and gnashed on Stephen with their teeth. (2 Chronicles 16:10): Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in…

A pagan sins less than a baptized renegade. (9.) To persecute religion makes sin greater (Acts 7:22). To have no religion is a sin, but to endeavor to destroy religion is a greater.

He that injures me shall add to my reward; he that clips my name to make it weigh lighter, shall make my crown weigh heavier. Well might Stephen pray for his enemies: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60). He knew they did but increase his glory in heaven; every sto…

Now Abraham, at God's commandment, went out of his own Country into this place, to inherit it, and to take possession of it. But it may be objected, He inherited it not; yea furthermore, Stephen says, Acts 7:4. God brought him in, but gave him no inheritance in it, no, not the b…

At Moses' prayer, God's judgments were taken from Egypt: Exodus 7:12, 13, 30, and his wrath appeased toward his people, Exodus 32:11, 14. And some think that Stephen's prayer at his death for his persecutors, was one means for mercy unto Saul, that then consented to his death, A…

We must know that the Mother was the chief doer in this work, and the father though he was not a doer, yet he gave his consent. Now we must remember, that consent is a kind of doing, whether it be in good things, or in evil: for, when Saul did but keep the persecutors clothes th…

Surely, if Moses had written a book of his own, as he was a mere man, and as he was Moses brought up in Egypt: or Paul writ a book, as he was a Pharisee, and Doctor of the Law; they would both have been full of all excellent learning: for Paul was brought up, at the foot of Gama…

2. Question: Whether are we to pray to the Son and the Holy Spirit as to the Father? Answer: Invocation belongs to all the three persons in Trinity, and not only to the father, Acts 7:59. Stephen prays, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. 1 Thessalonians 3:2. Now God our father and ou…

Have you any other gift or blessing of God, be it wisdom, strength, riches, honor, favor, or whatever, then look you use it so, as you may be always ready to make a good account thereof to Christ. Lastly, every one must in such manner lead his life in this world, that at the day…

Answer: The word does not afford any particular direction. Our Savior and his disciples prayed in various gestures: kneeling, standing, groveling, looking to heaven, looking down to the earth, sitting, lying, etc. (Luke 11:41; Acts 7). God respects not the gesture, but the affec…

Isidore says that the heathen used the names of image and idol indifferently in one and the same signification. Stephen in his defense in Acts 7:41 calls the golden calf an idol. Jerome says that idols are images of dead men.

But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. To give light to this, Paul had represented the story and case of Abraham, and the rest of the Patriarchs, in the verses before, t…

Fear to strangle the beginnings of the life of grace, for grace may begin at little; and if you quench any motion, conviction, or challenge, you know not if ever you shall meet with the like again, because when He knocked hard at your heart you held Him out and kept Him at the d…

First, for clearing of its meaning. 1. You would not take up our meaning in it so, as if we made every common work that lively means may have on the hearers of the Gospel, to be conversion; the preaching of the Word will sometimes make folks tremble, as we see in Felix, and will…

He is the object of faith (John 14:11): You believe in God, believe also in me. He is the object of prayer (Acts 7:59): They stoned Stephen, calling upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit — and frequently elsewhere in Scripture he is prayed to, though these two are not…

The fourth and last article, or part of the condition required of the Mediator, is, He made intercession for the transgressors; there was more required of him than to die, and to die such a death for the Elect's sins; He must also make application of his death; and he will do th…

And for clearing of this, we would propose these considerations. 1. That it is a certain truth, that the person that is the Mediator, is the object of our worship, and may be prayed to, because he is God, the second person of the Godhead: And therefore, in Acts 7, at the close,…

The man sees the crown; he is come to the stone wall or the hedge of paradise, and sees the apples of life hanging on the tree, and hears the music of heaven. Stephen (Acts 7:56) said, I saw heaven opened. He goes not away pulled by the hair, but willingly, gladly (Hebrews 11:8,…

Just as Paul complains of the Jews (Acts 13:46), since you have put it away from you, lo, we turn to the Gentiles, we purge and cast out the motions of God's spirit, and cannot endure that any Ordinance should bring us nearer to Christ. (Acts 7:51) You have always resisted the H…

He prays for pardon of their sin, when they use him most wickedly, one that had never done them wrong. And so you read of Stephen, the first Christian Martyr (Acts 7:60), when they flung stones about his ears, he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice: Lord lay not this sin to…

For Moses and the people heard God speaking in the Mount Sinai: that is to say, they heard the angels speaking in the person of God. Therefore Stephen in Acts 7 says: You have received the law by the ministry of the Angels, and you have not regarded it. Also the text in the thir…

Steuen vpbraids the Iewes, that the law was given by the dispensation of Angels, and yet they brake it. Act 7:53. Thirdly, if you offend and breake the law, repent with speede: for that is the desire and ioy of Angels.

Abraham could use no stronger argument to pacify Lot, than this, Let there be no strife between you and me, for we are brethren (Genesis 13:8). Moses used it as a motive to accord two Hebrews: Sirs, you are brethren; why do you wrong one to another? (Acts 7:26). For it is a sham…

Pliny says it was a city of Arabia: but it is commonly placed in Mesopotamia. Which is confirmed by Abraham's voyage, who came from there with his father, when he departed out of Chaldea (Genesis 11:31; Acts 7:4). The profane historians call it Charras in the plural number, and…

And this manner of reprehension is often found both in the Prophets, as also in the book of Psalms: for they knowing themselves to be the holy nation, they swelled in pride against the Lord; as if this honor had been due to them, either in regard of the excellence or merits of t…

So far were they off then from mounting up to heaven by them through faith, that they kept their minds groveling here below, and made themselves believe that God was bound and tied to them: for which cause they served him by halves, indeed, they toyed with him at their pleasure.…

19. Powerful in deed and in word. Luke has employed nearly the same form of expression in reference to the person of Stephen, (Acts 7:22,) where he says of Moses, by way of commendation, that he was powerful in words and in actions. But in this passage it is uncertain if it is o…

“C’est à dire, de l’avis qu’ils en avoyent desja donné en leur conseil;” — “that is to say, by the opinion which they had already given respecting him in their council.” For the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:59) took place in a seditious manner, as happens in cases of tumult; but i…

Let us now remember that it was not in reference to himself alone that Christ committed his soul to the Father, but that he included, as it were, in one bundle all the souls of those who believe in him, that they may be preserved along with his own; and not only so, but by this…

Acts 14. 15, 16, 17. Acts 7. 24, 25, 26, 27. leaving only on the Works of his Hands some obscure Impressions of the distinction of Persons, subsisting in the Unity of that Being, whose Properties he had displayed and glorified. But in the Work of the New Creation, God firstly an…

Moses indeed is called a Mediator between God and the People, Gal. 3. 19. as he was an Internuntius, a Messenger to declare the Mind of God to them, and to return their Answers to God; but to limit the Mediatory Work of Christ to such an Interposition only, is to leave him but o…

In this Christ sets us a pattern, Luke 23:46 Father into your hands I commend my spirit; and having said thus he gave up the Ghost. So Stephen at his death, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and immediately fell asleep, Act. 7:59 There be two signal and remarkable acts of faith, bo…

There was a time prefixed by God himself for the performance of that Promise of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt; and it's said, Exodus 12:41 At the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self same day it came to pass, that all the host of the Lord went out of the L…

They never satisfy a man as his Portion, nor will the soul accept all the prosperity in the world upon that score, Hebrews 11:26 Esteeming the reproach, of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. Nor do they make m…

When Dauids enemies laid snares for his life, uttered sorrowes, and imagined deceit against him continually; yet by this virtue he suffered all patiently, beeing as a deafe man that hears not, and as the dumbe which opens not his mouth: so farre was he from priuate reuenge. And…

Ans. Yes: for Stephen prayed to the Sonne, Act. 7. 59. Lord Jesus receive my spirit: and Christ bids hi[] Disciples, Goe teachall nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Sonne, and the Holy Spirit: that is, calling upon the name of the Father, Sonne, and Holy Spir…

But to us God has vouchsafed more clear and lively discoveries of himself; declaring to us those attributes by his word, the knowledge of which we could never have attained by his works alone. And therefore the Scriptures are called the lively oracles of God (Acts 7:38). And the…

(1 Corinthians 10:7) Neither be you idolaters; as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. (Acts 7:41) They made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol. Again, secondly, Micah and his mother were certainly g…

Therefore it is better for us in this state of weakness, that God speaks to us by ministers, men of like passions and infirmities with ourselves, whom we may be able to bear, and whose words notwithstanding our weakness, we may be able to hear. 2. God does now also speak to men…

1. They offer violence to the Spirit of God. The Spirit knocks at the door of sinners' hearts; he waits till his head be filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night; but sinners repulse and grieve the Spirit, and send away this Dove from the Ark of their souls (Ac…

Being such a type of Christ, he bore the name of Christ. Joshua and Jesus are the same name, only the one is Hebrew, the other is Greek: And therefore, in the New Testament, which was originally written in Greek, Joshua is called Jesus, Acts 7:45. "Which also our fathers brought…

Thus these remains of the old inhabitants of Canaan continued unsubdued till David's time; but he wholly subdued them all. Which is agreeable to what Saint Stephen observes, Acts 7:45. "Which also our fathers brought in with Jesus (that is Joshua) into the possession of the Gent…

No — false teachers, who are clouds without rain, are more likely to enjoy that, than I. Which of all the Prophets have not been tossed and hurried worse than I (Acts 7:52)? He that will not let men alone to be quiet in their lusts, must expect but little quiet from men in this…

The Father and the Son — he who sits on the throne and the Lamb — are held out jointly yet distinctly as the adequate object of all divine worship and honor forever. And therefore Stephen in his solemn dying invocation fixes his faith and hope distinctly on him, Acts 7:59-60: Lo…

In this sense is it used in that frequent expression, if I have found grace in your sight: that is, if I be freely and favorably accepted before you. So he gives grace, (that is, favor) to the humble (James 4:6; Genesis 39:21; chapter 41:37; Acts 7:10; 1 Samuel 2:26; 2 Kings 25:…

The third caution concerns him and his work in the dispensation of that great ordinance of the word. Stephen tells the Jews in Acts 7:51 that they resisted the Holy Spirit. How did they do it?