And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, (2) Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. (3) And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. (4) Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
Reader! Mark in the awful characters of those men, the malice of hell, at the success of the Gospel. Can the imagination conceive any higher proof of the desperately wicked state of the human heart, than is here shewn? To imprison those Servants of the Lord, for so illustrious a miracle as Jesus had wrought, by their instrumentality. But, Reader! you will stop at the surface of this matter, if the Lord the Spirit doth not lead you deeper, to see, that all men by nature, and unawakened by grace, are the same. Both Sadducees, and Pharisees; Priests of the law, and mere Professors of the Gospel, unacquainted with the plague of their own heart, are all the same. All such as are grieved, as well as those of old, whenever, and wheresoever salvation is freely and fully preached, in the alone name of Jesus, without complimenting their good works; but solely ascribing salvation by grace alone, to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But turn from such characters, to behold the blessedness of those servants, whom the Lord so highly honored. Oh! happy Peter, happy John! surely your prison became a palace, and your chains, chains of gold, while the Lord was thus loading you with such distinguishing honors! I apprehend, that the five thousand, here said to have believed, were in addition to the three thousand, recorded on the day of Pentecost: so that both together, made eight thousand. Oh! the wonders of that wonder-working God the Holy Ghost? Well might the Evangelist close his Gospel with saying, that the Apostles went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following, Mark 16:20. Reader! think what a melancholy contrast the present hour of the Church affords. Here we read but of two sermons, and what a harvest of souls were gathered in. And what multitudes of sermons are now preached, and no conversion follows. To what cause are we to ascribe it? Is it not because, unaccompanied with the ordination and blessing of God the Holy Ghost? And can it be otherwise? If the Holy Ghost be not honored. If men preach unsent by Him, and his presence be not implored, neither his blessing asked; no, nor his Almighty ministry acknowledged: can it be a matter of surprize, that Ichabod is on our Church doors, and the glory is departed from Israel? 1 Samuel 4:21. Oh! that the Lord the Spirit would give us a little reviving in our bondage; that he that hath ears to hear, may hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches, Revelation 2:29.