CHAPTER III. What is meant by these words in Philip
at the latter day; and when a man hath studied to get much knowledge, he is thereby (if he will be answerably holy) further and anew put upon a far greater and more exact study, exercise, and meditation; and that is, how to walk up to the light of what he knows.
And that this Paul made his glory, the Scripture everywhere testifies upon all occasions: Acts 23:1, 'And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.' So 1 Cor. 4:4, 'For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord.' It is as if he had said, I am not conscious to myself of anything, though I am not hereby justified; that is, I do not say I am without sin (for we must accord Paul with John, who says, 'He that says he hath no sin deceives himself'), because God knows that sin in me for which I cannot be justified; yet I have not to my knowledge in any action gone against my light. Also, 2 Cor. 1:12, he thus speaks, 'For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-wards.' And 2 Tim. 1:3, 'I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing
I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.' And Heb.
13:18, 'Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.' This blamelessness himself having kept, he prays might be in these Philippians, and ought to be in all
Christians, and possibly might be, for it was in Paul.
CHAPTER III
What is meant by these words in Philip. 1:10, 'until the day of Christ.'
The different significations of those phrases used in Scripture, 'unto the end,' and 'until the day of Christ.'
The next words to be considered in the text, Philip. 1:10, are these, 'till the day of Christ.'
I should come next, according to the order of the division of the text given, to the positive part of holiness, 'being filled,' &c.; but these words coming in between, I had rather handle them as the Holy
Ghost hath placed them. And indeed, these words come in in the midst between both, and so appertain in common to both, and that as to this sense and purpose, both, 'that you may be without offence until that day,' or 'in that day,' and also, 'that ye be filled with the fruits of righteousness in and at that day.' This is inserted as a matter of greatest moment, both, 1, in itself, as a necessary requisite, that holiness in us be continued until that day without interruption, and also crowned with perseverance. And also, 2, in that relation which holiness hath unto that day, or the stead which in that day it will stand us in; that day is the special time and season which holiness and blamelessness is ordained and serves for, the day when it will stand us in most stead, and shine in its greatest lustre. Which therefore, 3, we should have most in our eye, as a great incentive to abound in it, that in and at that day we may be found to have been blameless, that in and at that day we may appear filled with the fruits of righteousness, &c.
Now, 1st, to clear this phrase itself, as the words refer to that first import, being blameless until that day, there is a difficulty hath often presented itself to my thoughts which I will endeavour to assoil: why the apostle should not rather have said in his petition, till the day of death; but still almost everywhere in his epistles, should mention the day of Christ. Now that he should assign that day to bear the date of his prayers and consolation to expire at, not extending his petitions to that eternity after that day, it looks as if he supposed, even after death, some danger to remain until that day, which after that day
they are for ever free from, and after which they would not need any such petition, but were secure for ever.
1. Some make the foundation of these and such like phrases to be, that Paul was of the mind and opinion that the day of judgment would fall out in his and their days. And that this was his opinion they allege other like expressions that seem to look that way, 1 Cor.
15:51, where, speaking of the judgment-day, he says, as in the person of himself, and them of that age, 'we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed;' why did he not rather say, they then living shall not all die, but he says, we, &c. And he again utters himself in like manner, 1
Thes. 4:17, 'Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.' And to the same purpose (say they), he supposing that Timothy might live to that day, it was that he says,
1 Tim. 6:4, 'That thou keep this commandment without spot unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.' All which is further backed with that of Christ's speech, 'Watch ye; you know not what hour;' &c., 'and what I say to you, I say to all.' He speaks not as* if he would have those his disciples then living and present, to apprehend the day of judgment might fall out in their time.
But (1.) on the contrary, it seems evident that Paul did think and judge that the day of judgment would not be in that age, and that therefore this is not the import of this and the like phrases. And to that end compare we but his speech in two epistles to the same persons, the Thessalonians: in the first of which he maketh the same prayer that is here, 1 Thess. 5:23, he prays for them in the same style that here: 'I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Yet again speaking to the same persons, 2 Thess. 2:2, he exhorts them
'not to be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as
from him, as that the day of Christ is at hand.' That one particular enumerated, not by letter, sufficiently cuts off any expression in his former epistle written, to import so much, and therefore cuts off too that fore-mentioned prayer, to keep them blameless to that day. And this reason is the same by which we may argue the like even in these latter days, that this day cannot fall out in this age, because there is yet so much business to be done in the world, for which there is express prophecy unfulfilled, as it will ask more than the time of an age: 'For that day (2 Thess. 2:3) shall not come except there be a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.' And so we may say, the ten kings must destroy the whore, and the Jews be called, and the whole earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, ere that day come. As therefore, as he says, so say I, they deceive you that tell you so; and for those phrases, 'We that are alive,' &c., they are easily solved. He considers the succession of Christians in all generations as one body and community, in distinction from all others reprobated, and accordingly says, we shall not all die.
But (2.) in the original, the word translated until, is not ἄχρι, as at the 6th ver., nor μέχρι, as 1 Tim. 6:14, but it is εἰς, which is often put for ἐν, and so signifies in that day, as 1 Cor. 1:8; ἐν τῇ ἡμέρ̣ᾳ, in the day of Christ, and 1 Thes. 5:23, kept blameless, ἐν παρουσίᾳ, in the coming of Christ; and so it is all one as to say, in, at, or against, that day—a day for which holiness is mainly designed, when blamelessness and holiness will be at the highest value, and of more use to you than at all times else. And so there may be an observable difference made between the phrase he had used in the 6th ver. of Philip. 1, where, expressing his confidence that God would perfect the work he had begun, he says manifestly, until the day of Christ, ἄχρι. For the perfection of glory (whereof grace is the foundation) is not till then and there both in body and soul accomplished; but here
in 1 Thes. 5:23 it is, 'that you may be blameless, in or at the day of Christ.' And in this sense wicked men are said to treasure up wrath ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ, 'against that day of wrath,' Rom. 2:5; so it is there translated, and might be here.
There is only one place, 1 Tim. 6:14, hath μέχρι, until: 'That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.' But the answer to that one place is ready and easy, and carries a great truth with it. Paul wrote to Timothy as an evangelist, who being set over churches in that age, when churches were to be constituted, to set them in order, they accordingly received directions from the apostles according to Christ's institutions; yet so as their offices ceasing (which, whether they did or no, I will not here dispute), the same directions were intended to all ordinary officers of churches settled. Now then, in speaking to him, he in him speaks unto all saints and officers betrusted, how to guide and govern churches in the ordinary way unto the end: 1 Tim. 3:15, 'That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God.' To instruct all saints and officers betrusted with the government of churches to the end of the world, and to shew he intended the succession of officers and Christians in what he wrote to Timothy, he gives him, and in him them, warning of what should fall out in several successions at the latter days of the church: '1 Tim. 4:1, 'Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some should depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils;' wherein he forewarns them of the apostasy of popery, which fell out in the latter days, the middle age of Christianity, when Paul and Timothy were dust. He speaks here too of carnal protestants, that have a form of godliness; and he speaks too of all that fry of errors that should infest the churches; from all which his counsel is to turn away and separate from them, ver. 5. I allege these places for this, that he speaks to
Timothy, as bearing the person of them that should come after him many hundred years (as Peter also did in receiving the keys), and so that charge, 1 Tim. 6:13, is not barely personal, but to others after him to the end of the world; and so he might well lay a charge μέχρι,
'until the day of Christ,' and the 'commandment' there is all the doctrine in that epistle, where church institution and rules for worship and government take up a great part. Thus 'commandment' is taken for the whole doctrine delivered: 2 Pet. 2:21, 'For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.' Thus also in chap. 3:2, 'That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour.' And the truth which I said this explication carries with it, is this great and manifest one; that church institution for worship and government contained in that and other epistles (I say other also, for who shall put the difference of these in this, from those in other epistles?) are the commandments of Jesus Christ, the charge of which lies upon the churches of God to the coming of Christ. Similarly unto the style of which injunction here in Timothy, Paul elsewhere speaks, when he says of the great ordinance of the Lord's supper, 'ye shew forth his death till he comes;' and Christ answerably gives forth his promise, reaching to the same date that Paul's charge doth. And as he speaks to the saints under Timothy's name, so Christ under his disciples' names speaks to all others: 'Go, teach and baptize' (synecdochically put for all outward administrations); 'I will be with you to the end of the world.' so then ordinances and the command for them continues to the end. This we have only gained by the way, to give an account why μέχρι, until, is used in that passage, more especially as noting out the whole continuance of time till the day of judgment, which yet is not in these other passages of Paul's prayers, which are rather to
be understood of being kept blameless in the day, and in the coming of Christ.
But a third satisfaction to the objection mentioned is, that if the reading be retained until, εἰς for usque ad (as Beza explains it), as noting the continuance of their being preserved all the time until then (which, because the word may signify, I would take in), yet for the thing itself, both phrases come all to one, as in the reality of the event; and it is all one to say, to be kept till the day of death, or till the day of Christ. And this interpretation two places do warrant: the first is Rev. 2:10, 'Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown of life,' which manifestly argues that the faithfulness which is continued until death hath an immediate reward of a crown of life, and is completed then, so as to admit no addition of flowers to that crown by any faithfulness after; for only so much as till death is rewarded, and no more accounted. And thus Paul reckons his account finished, his computes perfected at death: 2 Tim. 4:7, 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.'
When I come to die, there is an end of, a finishing of all, unto which any degree of glory is accounted; when I come to die, I shall have done my part, I shall have finished my course. As for that τό λοίπον
(which we translate 'henceforth'), that remainder for ever after, that noway lies in me, it is God's part, I shall have done all mine; nothing remains but for him to give me a crown of life. So then to be kept blameless to the day of death, as it is enough for our parts, so it is all one with this here, until the day of Christ. The second text is 1 Cor.
1:8, 'Who shall confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Here is both the one and the other mentioned together, to that sense which I have given; for to confirm to the end, is to the end of our lives; and if we are so confirmed till the end of our lives, we shall be blameless in the day of Christ. For such we shall be found at the latter day, as we were in our lives to the