Chapter III
What is meant by these words in Philip, i. 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, i. 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,
* in that day,
both, that you may be without offence until that day, or
150 OF GOSPEL HOLINESS [BOOK I.
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 holi
ness 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 consola
tion 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. xv. 51, where, speaking of the judgmentday, 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, ice, &c. And he
again utters himself in like manner, 1 Thes. iv. 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
* That thou keep this commandment without spot unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
day, it was that he says, 1 Tim. vi. 4,
* Watch ye ; you know not what hour; &c., and what I say to you, I say to all. He
All which is further backed with that of Christ s speech,
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. v.
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. ii. 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
* Qu. speaks as ? ED.
CHAP. III.] IN THE HEART AND LIFE. 151
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 pro phecy unfulfilled, as it will ask more than the time of an age
: For that
day (2 Thess. ii. 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
* We that are alive, &c., they are easily solved. He con
those phrases,
siders the succession of Christians in all generations as one body and com
munity, 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 %/, as at the 6th ver., nor ^f^ot, as 1 Tim. vi. 14, but it is slg, which is often put for sv, and so signifies in that day, as 1 Cor. i. 8 ; sv rfj r^tea, in the day of
Christ, and 1 Thes. v. 23, kept blameless, sv Kaoovtia, 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, i., where, expressing his confidence that God would perfect the work he had begun, he says manifestly, until the day of
Christ, %/. For the perfection of glory (whereof grace is the founda
tion) is not till then and there both in body and soul accomplished ; but
here in 1 Thes. v. 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
ev rfi w sga,, against that day of wrath, Rom. ii. 5 ; so it is there trans
lated, and might be here.
( That thou
There is only one place, 1 Tim. vi. 14, hath (J>e%gt t until:
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 evan
gelist, 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 direc
tions 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.
iii. 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. iv. 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
152 OF GOSPEL HOLINESS [BOOK I.
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. vi. 13, is not barely personal, but to others after him to the end of the world ; and so he might well lay a charge psy^i, until the day of Christ, and the command ment there is all the doctrine in that epistle, where church institution and rules for worship and government take up a great part. Thus command ment is taken for the whole doctrine delivered : 2 Pet. ii. 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. iii. 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 A"f 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 blame less 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, s/s for usque ad (as Beza explains it), as noting the con tinuance 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 interpre tation two places do warrant : the first is Rev. ii. 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 imme diate ^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. iv. 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 TO Xo/Vov (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. i. 8, Who shall confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
CHAP. IV.] IN THE HEART AND LIFE. 153
Here is both the one and the other mentioned together, to that sense which
1 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 day of our death. And thus it is necessary to distinguish these two phrases, to the end, as meant of death, from that other, as of the
day of Christ, for else it had been a tautology, when yet the latter is made
the end of the former ; and the reason why yet these two are one in the
issue and reality and event is, because as the tree falls it lies, qualis hinc
exit, tails judicandus in isto die, there being indeed no account to arise from all that passeth between the day of death and this of judgment ; for, 2 Cor. v. 10, we are to be judged only for what the soul doth in the body :
4 For we must all appear before the judgmentseat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. The account is not for what is done out of the body, which is alike common both to wicked and godly men, to those
that have done good or evil ; and therefore Paul, Heb. ix. 27, makes no more between, but that it is appointed for all men to die, and after this the
judgment ; and he speaks of the general judgment, for it is brought as a
parallel instance, to prove Christ s coming the second time, as it followeth
there, ver. 28, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many : and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.
But if the question be asked why, since these two phrases, to the
end, and to the day of Christ, come both to one sense in reality, he should choose rather and more frequently to use this latter, till the day of
Christ ? the answer is, Because holiness is of more concernment to us
at that day than at all times else ; therefore he contents not himself here, nor also, 1 Cor. i. 8, to have said, who shall confirm you to the end, viz.,
till death, but adds also, in the day of Christ.