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<p class="tab-1">In going over the last two chapters, where we met with so many good things that the apostles did, I wondered what was become of the scribes and Pharisees, and chief priests, that they did not appear to contradict and oppose them, as they had used to treat Christ himself; surely they were so confounded at first with the pouring out of the Spirit that they were for a time struck dumb! But I find we have not lost them; their forces rally again, and here we have an encounter between them and the apostles; for from the beginning the gospel met with opposition. Here, I. Peter and John are taken up, upon a warrant from the priests, and committed to jail, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.4.1-Acts.4.4" href="/passage/?search=Acts.4.1-Acts.4.4">Acts 4:1-4</a>. II. They are examined by a committee of the great sanhedrim, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.4.5-Acts.4.7" href="/passage/?search=Acts.4.5-Acts.4.7">Acts 4:5-7</a>. III. They bravely avow what they have done, and preach Christ to their persecutors, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.4.8-Acts.4.12" href="/passage/?search=Acts.4.8-Acts.4.12">Acts 4:8-12</a>. IV. Their persecutors, being unable to answer them, enjoin them silence, threatening them if they go on to preach the gospel, and so dismiss them, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.4.13-Acts.4.22" href="/passage/?search=Acts.4.13-Acts.4.22">Acts 4:13-22</a>. V. They apply to God by prayer, for the further operations of that grace which they had already experienced, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.4.23-Acts.4.30" href="/passage/?search=Acts.4.23-Acts.4.30">Acts 4:23-30</a>. VI. God owns them, both outwardly and inwardly, by manifest tokens of his presence with them, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.4.31-Acts.4.33" href="/passage/?search=Acts.4.31-Acts.4.33">Acts 4:31-33</a>. VII. The believers had their hearts knit together in holy love, and enlarged their charity to the poor, and the church flourished more than ever, to the glory of Christ, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.4.33-Acts.4.37" href="/passage/?search=Acts.4.33-Acts.4.37">Acts 4:33-37</a>.</p>
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