The Progress of the Gospel; Acts 5:12 – 16 – Part-2

Church History: The church increased in number. Believers were drawn to the Lord, and became members of the church, even multitudes both of men and women. They were far from being deterred by the example that was made of Ananias and Sapphira. They were instead drawn by it into a society that kept such a strict discipline
The apostles had an abundance of patients, and gained a reputation both to themselves and their doctrine by the cure of them all, (Acts 5:15-16). So many signs and wonders were performed by the apostles that all types of people asked for the benefits they could give them, both in city and country.
In the city: They brought forth their sick into the streets; for it is probable that the priests would not allow them to bring them into the temple to Solomon's porch, and the apostles did not have time to go to the houses of them all. And they laid them on beds and couches (because they were so weak that they could neither go nor stand), that at the least the shadow of Peter, passing by, might overshadow some of them, though it could not reach them all; and, it should seem, it had the desired effect, as the woman's touch of the hem of Christ's garment had; and in this, among other things, that word of Christ was fulfilled, Greater works than these shall you do. God expresses his care of his people, by his being their shade on their right hand; and the benign influences of Christ as a king are compared to the shadow of a great rock. Peter comes between them and the sun, and so heals them, cuts them off from a dependence upon creature sufficiency as insufficient, that they may expect help only from that Spirit of grace with whom he was filled. And, if such miracles were wrought by Peter's shadow, we have reason to think they were so by the other apostles, as by the handkerchiefs from Paul's body (Ac 19:12), no doubt both being with an actual intention in the minds of the apostles thus to heal; so that it is absurd to infer hence a healing virtue in the relics of saints that are dead and gone; we read not of any cured by the relics of Christ himself, after he was gone, as certainly we should if there had been any such thing.
In the country towns: Multitudes came to Jerusalem from the cities round about, bringing sick folks that were afflicted in body, and those that were vexed with unclean spirits, that were troubled in mind, and they were healed every one; distempered bodies and distempered minds were set to rights. Thus opportunity was given to the apostles, both to convince people's judgments by these miracles of the heavenly origin of the doctrine they preached, and also to engage people's affections both to them and it, by giving them a specimen of its beneficial tendency to the welfare of this lower world.