The Fourth Sermon on the First Chapter - Ephesians 1:7-10
communicates Himself to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us keep straight on to Him, acknowledging that as we are chosen in Him, so also we are maintained and preserved for His sake, and that He will show His power more and more in us until we have finished our race and come to the heavenly heritage whereunto we are going.
Beseeching Him that although we are yet far from it, yet, He will vouchsafe to give us a steady and invincible strength to hold out continually, so that we fully renounce the world and, being quite consumed in ourselves, are renewed in the image of God, as the same may shine perfectly in us, until we are made partakers of the glorious immortality, which He has bought dearly for us. May it please Him to grant this grace not only to us, but also to all people and nations, etc.
End of Section Three
The Fourth Sermon Upon the First Chapter God hath accepted us in His well-beloved.
7. By whose blood we have redemption, that is to wit, forgiveness of sins, according to the richness of His grace.
8. Whereof He hath shed out abundance upon us in all wisdom and understanding, 9. By making us to know the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
10. To the intent to deal it forth when the time was fully come, that is to wit, to gather all things together by Christ, as well the things in heaven as the things on earth, in the selfsame.
I have declared already that we cannot be beloved of God but by the means of His only Son. For if the angels of heaven are not worthy to be taken for God's children but by the means of a head and mediator, what shall become of us who cease not to provoke God's wrath daily by our wicked doings, as folk that do indeed fight against Him? God then must be fain to look upon us in the person of His only Son, or else He must needs hate us and abhor us.
To be short, our sins set God and us so far at odds that we cannot soon come toward Him without feeling His majesty utterly against us and, as it were, armed to put us to utter confusion. But now it remains to see how God receives us into His favour by means of our
Lord Jesus Christ. That is the thing which Saint Paul means in adding that in Him we have redemption through His blood, that is to wit, forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of God's grace.
Here we are first of all made to understand that the enmity which God bears us is not in respect of our nature, but in respect of our corruption. I say it is not in respect of nature, for in respect that God has created us, it is certain that He cannot hate us. But inasmuch as mankind is utterly marred and given over to all naughtiness, God must needs be as a mortal enemy to us and as an adversary against us till the remembrance of our sins is buried out of His sight. For we are subject to everlasting death till we are restored again, by reason whereof, God, being the fountain of all justice and righteousness, utterly hates and abhors the evil that He sees in us. Therefore, until such time as our sins are blotted out, it is impossible for us to hope that God should either favour or love us.
But let us mark here how St. Paul uses two words to express how we are reconciled to God. First, he speaks of the ransom or redemption, which is all one, and afterward, the forgiveness of sins. How does it come to pass that God's wrath is pacified, that we are made at one with Him, yea, and that He accepts and adopts us as His children? It is by the pardoning of our sins, says St. Paul. And furthermore, because redemption is requisite, he matches that with it also. It is that, as in respect of us, God wipes away our sins of His own free goodness and shows Himself altogether bountiful without respect of any recompense at our hands.
And in good sooth, what man would be able to make amends for the least fault he has committed? If every one of us should employ his whole life in making satisfaction for any one fault alone, and by that means seek to win favour at God's hand, it is certain that the same would far surpass all our abilities. Therefore, God must be inclined to receive us to mercy without looking for any recompense or amends at our hands. But yet for all this, the atonement, which is freely bestowed as in respect of us, did cost the Son of God very dear. He found no other payment than the shedding of His own blood insomuch that He made Himself our surety, both in body and soul, and answered for us before God's judgment to secure our release and discharge.
Our Lord Jesus Christ employed Himself wholly, both body and soul, for it would not have been enough for Him to have suffered so cruel and slanderous a death in the sight of men. It behooved Him also to endure such horrible anguish in Himself, as if God had become a judge to Him. For He came to the point that He sustained the person of all sinners, to make full amends for them all. And so you see why
St. Paul has matched those two words together in this strain.
Therefore, we have to mark first of all, that we can obtain no favour at God's hand, nor be received by Him until our sins are wiped out, and the remembrance of them completely put away. The reason for this is, as I said before, that God must need to hate sin wherever He sees it. So then, as long as He considers us as sinners, He must need to abhor us, for there is nothing in ourselves, nor in our own nature, but all manner of naughtiness. Thus, being in confusion, we are enemies and adversaries unto Him until we come to the remedy that St. Paul shows us here, which is to have our sins forgiven.
Hereby, we see that no man can be loved by God for any worthiness that is in himself. For wherein lies the love that God bears us?
I have told you already that God must cast His eye upon our Lord Jesus Christ and not look at us at all. Yet, it is further declared that God does not favour us until He has released us from our debts and adopted us as His children, notwithstanding that we are worthy of death before Him. Thus, you see that the assurance of our salvation
(as is said in the song of Zachariah) is that God is merciful to us and forgives us our sins, whereby we had become His enemies. However, let us also bear in mind that the clear release of our sins through God's free goodness is not done without the ransom that was paid by our Lord Jesus Christ, not in gold or silver (as says St. Peter in his first epistle) but in such wise that He, who was the unspotted Lamb, was compelled to serve that purpose Himself.
Therefore, whenever we intend to seek God's favour and mercy, let us focus all our thoughts upon the death and passion of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that we may find there what is needed to appease God's wrath. Furthermore, seeing that our sins are done away with by such payment and satisfaction, let us understand that we cannot bring anything of our own for which we should be reconciled to God.
Herein, we see how the devil has by his cunning cut off all hope of salvation from the world, by leading men to believe that each must ransom himself and make his own atonement with God. This is precisely what men call good works, merits, and virtues in papistry.
For what purpose do all the inventions they have forged serve? Why do they martyr themselves in so many fashions, never ceasing day nor night, but continually creating new schemes and paths? The aim of all these things is to pacify God. Thus, all the so-called good works in papistry are merely means to make amends for sin. However, this defaces the ransom of which St. Paul speaks here.
There is, as it were, an inseparable bond between these two things: that God puts our sins out of His remembrance and drowns them in the depths of the sea, and moreover receives the payment that was offered Him in the person of His only Son. Therefore, we cannot attain one without the other. Hence, if we intend to have God's favour, let us consider that we are His enemies until He pardons all our sins of His own free goodness. Yet, nonetheless, our Lord Jesus
Christ must intervene. For the sacrifice of His death serves to purchase us an everlasting atonement, so we must always seek refuge there. True, the whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ is our ransom, for the obedience He yielded to God His Father in this world was to make amends for Adam's offence and for all the iniquities whereby we have incurred debts. However, St. Paul speaks here specifically of His blood because we must resort to His death and passion as the sacrifice that has the power to blot out all our sins.
For that reason, God represented in figures under the law that men could not be reconciled to Him except by that means. Now, it is true that Jesus Christ did not only shed His blood at His death but also felt the fear and terror that ought to have fallen upon us. But St. Paul
here, in one phrase, comprehends the whole matter after the ordinary manner of the Holy Scripture.
To be brief, let us repose all our righteousness in God's showing of Himself merciful towards us of His own free goodness. Let us not presume to face Him with any virtue of our own to bind Him to us.
Instead, let it suffice us that He receives us into His favour freely without any desert of ours, solely because the remembrance of our sins is buried out of His sight. Again, let us understand that this can be done only by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that this is the foundation upon which we must wholly rest.
Hereupon St. Paul adds that all is done according to the riches of God's grace. Not without cause does he magnify God's mercy in receiving us into favour. For we see, on one side, how men wilfully overreach themselves through their foolish overweening. Most men have always imagined that they might make their atonement with God by their own satisfactions and various other shifts. Seeing then that men are so far deluded in their own imaginations, St. Paul, to exclude all such dealings, says that we must be enraptured by the richness of God's goodness. He could have simply said that God does all according to His grace, but he highlights here His great treasures, to the intent that men should not be so foolish as to bring, as it were, a mere farthing to discharge a debt of ten hundred thousand crowns.
Truly, when the Papists prattle of their satisfactions, they do not claim to fulfill everything thoroughly. Still, they believe that with the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, they can also contribute something of their own, and by bits and pieces, satisfy and content
God. Thus, you see what a devilish opinion reigns in Papistry. They insist on holding masses, reciting many prayers, going on pilgrimages, keeping this or that feast, performing various devotions,
and wearing sackcloth next to their skin—all to supplement the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, as if it were not sufficient by itself. But St. Paul tells us that God's goodness, as shown to us in Jesus Christ, is such a great treasure that all other things must necessarily give way and be thrust underfoot. Seeing that God uses such great bountifulness, we ought to be wholly enraptured by it. Is it not outrageous presumption when we bring our own paltry efforts, as though our pilgrimages and other devotions had any value or estimation? Is it not as if the blood of Jesus Christ were not a sufficient price and ransom for our salvation?
You see then, on one side, how St. Paul intended to cut off all occasions for the foolish imaginations that lead men to believe they can pacify God's wrath by their own satisfactions and payments. On the other side, he intended to succour our feebleness. Although we tend to believe in our own virtues and bear ourselves in the belief that God is greatly beholden to us, when it comes to calling upon God in earnest and putting our trust in Him, if Satan drives us to despair and we are tossed with troubles and temptations, we become so dismayed that all the promises of Holy Scripture and all that is said to us of the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot make us have any hope. St. Paul, therefore, to remedy this vice of unbelief deeply rooted in us, sets before us the great treasures of God's goodness, so that all the distrust we can conceive may be, as it were, swallowed up, seeing that God vouchsafes to use such great bounteousness towards us.
And hereupon he adds that He has made this grace abound towards us in all wisdom and understanding. By these words, he signifies by what means we come by the things he had specified before. Behold, all our happiness and all our sovereign welfare consist in being at one with God, so that He may take us for His children, and it may be
lawful for us to call upon Him as our Father with full liberty. But how shall we obtain that thing from which we are so far off? It is said that although we are worthless and can do nothing, yet we shall find all things in Jesus Christ that are wanting in ourselves, and that His death and passion will be a sufficient sacrifice to put away the remembrance of all our misdeeds.
However, does it follow that all men partake in this benefit which is purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ? No, for the unbelievers have neither part nor portion in it. Thus, it is a special privilege for those whom God gathers to Himself. Also, St. Paul shows that either we must have faith, or else Christ shall not profit us at all. Although
Christ is generally the redeemer of the whole world, yet His death and passion advantage only those who receive what St. Paul shows here. Hence, when we know the benefits brought to us by Christ and which He offers us daily by His Gospel, we must also be knit unto
Him by faith.
For the Turks, Jews, Papists, and all others like them are cut off and estranged from Christ and rot away in their own filth because they presume to work wonders of themselves. It is a common principle among the Papists, Jews, Turks, and all heathen men that they must appease God's wrath. And how? By various means of their own devising, each according to his own imagination. Such men, therefore, have no part in Christ. Wherefore, if faith is the key that opens the door for us to enjoy the treasure whereof St. Paul spoke just now, then it is the means to make us rich, so far as is requisite for our salvation, ensuring we lack nothing if we are knit unto Christ by faith.
Notwithstanding, it is not for naught that St. Paul has here set down these two words of wisdom and understanding. For they make us
aware that the learning of the Gospel is enough to bring us to all perfection and that whatsoever is added more is but dung, filth, and rottenness. To be brief, St. Paul's use of these two honourable terms for the Gospel is to the end that every man should quietly give ear to the things that God teaches him by the means of His only Son, and that we should yield ourselves so teachable to Him, as not to take upon us to know anything other than that which comes out of His mouth, but simply receive whatsoever He speaks and continue in the same to the end, though the whole world despise us, and all men set themselves against us, and not be swayed by the sights of the world, as many men do, who have itching ears and are always desirous to hear some new thing.
To the end, therefore, that we are not so wavering, nor led astray by a foolish desire of knowing more than is lawful for us to know, let us mark well how St. Paul says here that if we have once profited thoroughly in the Gospel, we shall find there all wisdom to the full, so that we may reject all other things, not only as needless but also as noxious because by them we shall be turned from the pure doctrine by which it is His will to have us knit unto Him. To be short, St. Paul meant to show here that God does us an inestimable good turn when
He vouchsafes to call us to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, His only Son, and that when we have Him, we must despise all other things and not be troubled with a foolish desire of knowing this or that because the full perfection of all our knowledge is there, that is to wit, in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And here you see also why it is said to the Colossians, that He had been a faithful teacher, even to bring men to the perfection of wisdom. Indeed, he confesses that he was rude and homely of speech and that he had neither the wisdom nor the eloquence that was highly commended in the world. Yet, he declares that if his doctrine
were received, there should be found a full substance in it for the nourishment of men's souls, and that there need not be any more to be added to it.
When we hear these things nowadays, we must take warning to bridle ourselves and to repress the fond over-curiousness that is rooted too deeply in us, that we may hold to the pure doctrine of the Gospel and rest wholly thereupon. Thus you see, in effect, what we have to gather upon that strain.
Herewithal let us mark the thing that I have touched already: namely, that as often as the Gospel is preached, so often is God's grace spread out upon us. If we acknowledge His goodness and liberality, which He makes us perceive by His moistened of the earth, to the end it should yield us fruits to the sustenance of our bodies, much more may we understand that when God sends us the word of salvation, He not only waters us for the welfare of our souls but also gives us so largely thereof to drink that we may be thoroughly satisfied therewith.
For St. Paul thinks it not enough to say that whereas we are barren, we have some refreshing by the Gospel, but he says that it is as if God should pour down an abundance of water upon us, and that we might be so watered and refreshed with it, as we might gather substance and lustiness from it to hold out to the end. And so you see in what wise we ought to esteem God's goodness when He vouchsafes to draw us to Him by means of His Gospel, and that therewithal we enter into possession of the benefits that have been purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, according as He offers them to us by His word, and will have us also to receive them by faith.
Now for a larger opening of the matter, he adds immediately, "That His doing is because He has uttered the secret of His will to us,
according to His own good pleasure which He had purposed afore in Himself." Here is another thing that ought to advance the dignity of the Gospel yet more: which is, that there we have the secrets which were hidden heretofore in God. And it is not here only that St. Paul speaks after this manner, but we shall see yet a larger discourse of it in the second chapter. And not only in this epistle, but also everywhere else, he shows how we ought to be as it were ravished at the preaching of the Gospel because God does there open the things that were incomprehensible to all men before, and which no man would ever have believed or once thought of.
For He seemed to have chosen only the line of Abraham, in such wise as if He had cast away all the world besides. Therefore, it was a wonderful thing when He poured out His grace in common upon all nations. Yet notwithstanding, we know that at such time as Jesus
Christ came into the world, the very same people were grown out of kind, and God's doctrine was so corrupted that there was nothing but superstition among the Jews. It seemed then that all had been past hope of recovery when suddenly, beyond the opinion of all men, behold, salvation was offered to all nations. Behold, Christ, who had erst been hidden in deep darkness, yea, and in so deep darkness, as there was no hope that He should ever have come out of it, rose up as the Dayspring of righteousness, to give light to the world. For this cause, therefore, does St. Paul say that in the Gospel we are made privy to the secrets of God's will.
True it is that at first sight there seems to be nothing but simple stuff in the Gospel. And that is also a cause why many scoffers think that the things contained in the Gospel serve only for idiots, and they bear themselves in hand that they are able to devise many wittier things in their own dreams and dotages than all the doctrine that concerns
Jesus Christ. But such folk are unworthy to taste of the thing that is
shown us here, for their pride utterly blinds them and makes them stark dolts. Notwithstanding, however they fare, yet the faithful perceive full well that there is a divine majesty in the doctrine of the Gospel.
For that cause, St. Paul gives us to wit in this same text, that our coming thither must not be to learn any common thing, but to lift up ourselves above the world. For we shall never be good scholars to God, nor ever be in any readiness to profit in His school, except we mount above the world and reverence the things that God speaks with His own holy mouth. To be short, the beginning and entrance of our faith is lowliness. But how can men well humble themselves unless they know that the things God tells them far surpass their own wit and capacity?
You see then that the thing whereat St. Paul aimed is that we should reverence the Gospel, assuring ourselves that it is not for us to judge whether God has spoken well or ill. For it becomes us to be fully resolved that all that ever comes from Him is infinite wisdom, yea, and such wisdom as is utterly faultless. To the end, therefore, that all glorying may be beaten down in ourselves, and we learn to reverence soberly and modestly the doctrine that is preached to us in God's name: St. Paul has purposely set down this secret.
To help us understand how much we are bound to God, St. Paul repeats the phrase, "according to his good pleasure," which he had mentioned before. This is done to eliminate any notion of our own worthiness. For God's good pleasure can have no place unless men are barred from all deserving and come to Him utterly empty. As soon as we presume to bring anything at all to God, it is surely an advancement of ourselves to the defacing of God's grace, so that it may no longer have the beauty and preeminence among us that it
ought to have. Therefore, to prevent such presumptuousness, St.
Paul sends us back to God's good pleasure.
He essentially says that there was no other cause for the preaching of the Gospel to the world than the sheer and free goodness of God. Yet, to repress all the overboldness of men, he adds that God had purposed the said ordinance and the high incomprehensible determination of His will beforehand in Himself. What is the cause that men take such great liberty in questioning, disputing, and going to law with God? It is because they think they are dealing with matters that ought to be open and manifest to them. So then, St.
Paul, perceiving us to be so foolish and rash as to presume too boldly to be inquisitive about God's purpose, says it is a sealed letter, and that God has His purpose in Himself. It is not lawful for creatures to mount so high; if they do, it is the next way to cast them down and break their necks. True, we may well apply our whole endeavor to know God's will, but that must be no further than He has revealed in His word, for His word is our light.
If God holds His peace, He will have us bridle and, as it were, imprison ourselves, not starting out any further. For if we desire to know more than is granted us, more than we ought to know, and more than is imparted to us by His word, it would be but an entry further and further into a maze or rather into the bottom of hell.
Therefore, let us mark well how St. Paul means that whenever God keeps His purpose to Himself, it becomes us to stoop and be content to be ignorant of it. For it is a cursed wisdom, such wisdom as sends us to the pit of hell, when we take leave to know more than God has taught us. Conversely, we are wiser in our ignorance than all the wise men of the world when we do not presume to know anything further than God's word guides and governs us.
True, there is only one single will in God. Nevertheless, He utters the same to us according to our capacity and as far as is expedient and profitable for us. For example, we have seen that the forgiveness of sins is a point that we cannot overlook or forbear. Therefore,
Zacharias calls it the knowledge of salvation. Again, it stands us in good stead to know where the forgiveness of our sins is to be sought.
For if we have not Jesus Christ, we continue still enemies to God, we have no agreement nor rest in ourselves, and God's justice must needs pursue us. But Jesus Christ is our peace.
Furthermore, when we know the things that are witnessed to us by God's word, we must also reverence the mysteries that are hidden from us, as has been said already, and will be said again when we come to God's election. St. Paul again sets down the word
"foreordaining" or "forepurposing" to show that God had predestinated us before the making of the world, and yet that the same was hidden. Yes, indeed, but now the same is discovered to us, he says. Thus you see, in effect, that the thing we have to bear in mind is that we are not called to the knowledge of the Gospel by our own inclination, nor because any of us put himself forward to it of his own accord, nor because we have bound God to us by any virtue of ours, but because God of His own infinite goodness chose to enlighten us.
He did not do it because it suddenly came into His mind to do it, as men are wont to do, who are carried with sudden impulses, but because He had determined the same in His own purpose, even from before all time. If our minds are ticklish and provoke us to be inquisitive and say, "How so? Had God chosen us beforehand? And why then did He not reveal it to us sooner? How did it happen that it was not perceived before this?" To the end that we should not so overshoot ourselves, St. Paul says that this purpose was in a sense
locked up in God until it was revealed to us. To be brief, it is not lawful for us to know any more than is revealed to us in the Gospel.
Whatever is shown to us there, we must revere it. For this reason, it is added that His doing was to set forth the same in the fullness of time.
Herein he shows that men may well vex themselves, yet they shall come short of their purpose, and all their wits and imaginations shall fail them if they go about to know more than God has given them leave to know. For if any man demands why God hastened not sooner to do it, therein he shows that he would be wiser than God.
And is not that a devilish pride? Is the creature worthy to go upon the ground when it advances itself so high? For this cause, St. Paul says that the appointing thereof belongs to God. For if a man may set order in his own house and say: I will have my people to fare thus, I will have them to drink such drink, I will have them to eat that kind of bread, I will have them lodged in this manner, how much more ought we to let God do so? Why should He have less privilege than worms of the earth? Therefore, let us give God leave to dispose of His church, and of the welfare of His chosen, as seems best to Him. And as for the time, let us take that for the full time which it shall please
Him to show us. For it is not for us to be either judges or umpires in this case, to measure the times, years, months, or days: but it ought to content us that God wishes to have it so.
Some man will argue the case and say: What, I pray you? Behold, four thousand years passed between the fall of Adam and the coming of Christ: and could not God have remedied the matter by sending the redeemer of the world sooner? See what a number of wretched folk wandered away in darkness: behold the destruction of mankind as a water flood that swallowed up all things: and yet in the meantime, Jesus Christ was hidden. Besides this, a small number of
men tasted of Him, only by figures and shadows. For none but the Jews waited for the redeemer to obtain salvation by His means: and yet even they were fain to use calves and sheep and other brute beasts to ascertain themselves of the forgiveness of their sins, and that God was merciful to them. If a man asks how this comes to pass, let us repair to that which is said here in one word: namely, that the time was not yet fully come. And why? Because God had so appointed it. And this is the very same thing that we have seen already in the Epistle to the Galatians, where St. Paul repressed all the foolish gadding, whereby men wander away in mounting up higher than is lawful for them to do. Therefore, let us conclude that it is God's peculiar office to appoint times and seasons, and that we must not think any other to be due than that which He appoints.
For albeit that winter and summer are ordinary with us every year, yet if summer comes late, we must bridle ourselves, and not grudge against God. We may well say, alas, if it pleased God to send us heat, it should be welcome. But yet in the meantime, we must fully resolve ourselves thus: It belongs to God to govern, and all sovereignty and authority pertain to Him. If we ought to behave ourselves so modestly in respect of the order of nature which is common among us, and wherein God shows Himself familiarly to us, what ought we to do when we come to the scanning of the heavenly secrets, as of the everlasting salvation of our souls, and of this high mystery that the Son of God is come to set things in their state again which were lost and perished?
Does it not become us to stoop in that case, and humbly to take in good worth whatsoever God tells us, and to like that which He likes?
Thus, you see why St. Paul spoke here expressly of the fullness of time, as if he should say that we can never profit in the Gospel until we yield God so much honor as to hold ourselves contented with His
only will. We should not step forth to reply against Him, nor face Him with our jangling, but glorify Him by acknowledging His will to be the rule of all wisdom, all right, and all equity.
And for the better declaration hereof, he adds immediately, that it was to gather all things together, as well in heaven as on earth, by Jesus Christ, in Himself. As touching this word gather, St. Paul meant to show us thereby how we are all horribly scattered until such time as our Lord Jesus Christ sets us in order again. This is verified not only of us but also of all other creatures. To be brief, it is as if he had said, the whole order of nature is as good as defaced, and all things decayed and disordered in the sin of Adam, until we are repaired again in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For although we behold God's wonderful wisdom, power, goodness, justice, and righteousness in all creatures, yet nonetheless, there are marks of sin both above and beneath, and all creatures are subject to corruption. All is disordered because God hates and rejects us.
Therefore, a restoration must be made by Jesus Christ. That is the meaning of the gathering together St. Paul speaks of here. We should learn to dislike ourselves and to be ashamed of the disorder within us, and with which the whole world is filled through our sinful life.
Moreover, we should learn also to magnify God's goodness so much the more.
Thus, the Holy Ghost warns us in this text that not only we ourselves are out of order, but also that we have brought the whole world to the same point. We keep it still in the same state daily by our sins, and there is no other remedy than that Jesus Christ must be fain to amend all again and make such a gathering and union that we may be knit again to our God. You see the first point that we have to mark upon this text.
Truly, this thing is spoken in few words, but it needs to be pondered at greater length. For it is the matter on which we ought to occupy ourselves both early and late. When we look into ourselves, we might reflect in this wise: who are you, wretched creature? You see you are separated from your God even from your birth. Behold, you are His enemy and inheritor of His wrath. On the other side, there is nothing in yourself which tends not to naughtiness and frowardness. You ought not only to feel this disorder in your own person but also to perceive that all things else are out of order through the whole world by reason of your frowardness. Therefore, let us sink down and be ashamed of it, and confess how much we are indebted to God for His vouchsafing to gather us together in the person of His only Son, even us who have so torn asunder the things that He had set in such goodly order.
For this reason, St. Paul speaks here not only of men, who were estranged from God by reason of sin, but also of all things that are in heaven and on earth. He comprehends even the very angels. For although God's glory shines forth in them, and they were never yet separated from Him, yet nonetheless, it was necessary for them to be gathered together by our Lord Jesus Christ, and that in two respects.
Although they never swerved aside nor fell from what they were at first, and that God's righteousness always shows itself in them, insomuch that they are as mirrors and patterns of it, yet notwithstanding, if God chose to look upon them with rigour, they would find themselves far short of the perfection of righteousness that is in Him, as is said in the book of Job.
Furthermore, there is yet another reason to be matched with this: the angels should not have such constancy and steadiness as is requisite unless Jesus Christ had so established them that they might never fall. Thus you see one way how they were gathered together. But this
gathering, whereof St. Paul speaks here, is in respect of their uniting again to us. For we know that inasmuch as we were banished out of God's kingdom, we were cut off from all hope of salvation, so the angels were immediately fain to become our enemies and should be so still were it not for the atonement we have with them again by means of the head common to us both.
Here you see also why in the ladder shown to Jacob, it is said that God stood upon the top of it and touched both heaven and earth, and that the angels went up and down on it. Now our Lord Jesus Christ is the true living and everlasting God who touched both heaven and earth because in His person God has knit His own divine being (or substance) and the nature of man together. Thus, you see that heaven is open, so the angels begin to acquaint themselves with us, and become our servants, as is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews, because the care of our souls is committed to them. They, as is said in the thirty-fourth Psalm, encamp about us, watch over us, and are our keepers.
You see then how we are united again to the angels of heaven by our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the cause also why He said, "From henceforth you shall see the heavens open, and the Son of Man coming down in His majesty with His angels." By this, He makes us understand that heaven was shut against us, and we were unworthy to find any favour at God's hand. Yet notwithstanding, now that He has come to be our head and has made the atonement between His
Father and us, and taken upon Him the office of mediator, and become the head not only of the faithful but also of the angels, He has gathered all together again in such wise that whereas the devils make war against us and practice our destruction without ceasing, the angels are armed with infinite power to maintain us.
Although we see them not with our eyes, yet we must certainly believe that they watch for our welfare. Otherwise, what a thing would it be? For we know that the devil is as a roaring lion, seeking nothing else but to devour us. We see what a number of wiles he has to wind about us with. Therefore, the angels must have infinite power to defend us. Also, it must need be that we are preserved under the protection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is both their head and ours too. Thus, you see briefly that the thing which St. Paul meant to tell us in this text, where he says that we are gathered together again, is that we were scattered asunder before. We are not only reconciled to God by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but also now henceforth knit again to the angels, so they become our brethren and fellows. God has given them charge to guide and maintain us in all our ways, to watch over us, and to be in continual battle to withstand all the enemies that make war against us until we are all gathered together into the rest of heaven.
Now let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our faults, praying Him to make us feel them so deeply that it may draw us to true repentance, and make us continue the same all the time of our life. Yet, notwithstanding, may we not cease to trust in Him and to offer ourselves boldly in His sight, forasmuch as our sins are scoured out by the blood that was shed for the washing of them.
May we so frame ourselves to this doctrine that we may all the time of our life acknowledge, that seeing He has purchased us so dearly, we ought to give ourselves wholly to His service. Seeing He has shown Himself to be such a good Redeemer towards us, may we not doubt that He will continue His goodness from day to day, to the full finishing of the work that He has begun, and strengthen us in all assaults, until He has delivered us from the cruelty of Satan and all