Front matter (continued, part 2)
fearless trust in truth, no less than a sincere love of it. How few of
us have full confidence in truth !
This Series, it is believed, supplies a lack. It comes forth in no
ordinary crisis of the Church s history. If anywhere, within the
Church the war of opinion rages. The ancient landmarks are being
removed. The very foundations are threatened. The inspiration of
the sacred oracles is controverted ; their infallibility denied. The
penmen of the Holy Ghost are deemed not to have been so inspired as
to be preserved from error. Moses, Isaiah, and Paul history, pro
phecy, doctrines are alike assailed. Man brings his Maker s Book
verifying faculty" of his own inner light and moral conscious
to the
"
ness. The death of the Son of God is an heroic self-sacrifice not a
penal satisfaction to the outraged law of the Moral Governor of the
universe. Under our new interpreters, much of what we have re
ceived from our infancy, and have taught our children, as facts re
corded in an inspired history, is relegated to the region of myth and
ideology. At such a crisis, it is no slight boon to the Christian Church to make the voices of these witnesses to the truth be heard.
Their testimony is, for the most part, silenced, because buried in
costly folios; or comes to us only in the echoes of plagiarists. They will now speak in the library of many a pastor, upon whose
shelves they have never yet found a place. And, while it is never
to be forgotten that neither Father, nor Beformer, nor Puritan, is to
share, much less to usurp, that homage which is due to the Scrip tures of Truth alone, we believe that when the student and the
preacher descend to the study of those uninspired, but gifted men
who, in successive ages, have been raised up as exponents of those
Scriptures and witnesses to that Truth, none are more calculated, under the divine blessing, to elevate and to deepen the tone of our
theology, to preserve us from the deadly perils of old errors now
revived, and to give distinctness, substance, unction, and experi mental richness to our preaching, than the Puritan Divines.
PEEFACE TO THE EEADEE,
AS CONTAINED IN THE FOLIO EDITION, 1681.
rl*HE design of this preface is not to acquaint the world with the worth of
this great person j his works already extant sufficiently praise him ; but to
give the reader our just apprehensions of his eminent fitness for so great an
undertaking, and of his happy performance of it.
Besides his eminent endowments, as to natural and acquired abilities, he had the happiness of an early and more than ordinary conversion, in which God favoured him with a marvellous light, especially in the mysteries of
corrupt nature and of the gospel, which afterward shined through most of
his works, and especially through this comment.
This light was attended, so far as we can judge, with an inward sense of
spiritual things, with a yustus spiritualis judicii, which, after long experience, grew up into senses exercised to discern good and evil, and into an abound
ing in all knowledge and sense. And, indeed, that person is the best inter
preter, who (besides other helps) hath a comment in his own heart; and he
best interprets Paul s Epistles, who is himself the epistle of Christ written
by the Spirit of God. He best understands Paul s Epistles, who hath Paul s
sense, temptations, and experience.
He religiously observed the light he arrived to, and greatly abhorred to
hold any truth in unrighteousness ; but lived over the truths he knew, even
to the hazard of what was most dear to him. And according to Christ s own
aphorisms, the truest way of understanding his doctrine is to do it : as on
the other side, there is no great distance between shipwreck of faith and a
good conscience.
He had a genius to dive into the bottom of points which he intended to
" study them down," as he used to express it, not contenting himself with superficial knowledge, without wading into the depths of things. His way was to consult the weightiest, if not all the authors that had written
treat of ; to
upon the subject he was upon, greatly valuing the light which every man
afforded, according to the manifold grace of God, and the various dispensa tions of his Spirit ; yet confined himself to no man s sentiments, but made an advance from his own light and experience to the notions of others.
As he consulted with books, so he had the advantage of intimate con
verse with the greatest Christians of his age, those living and walking Bibles> And thus from reading the living word in himself and others, he rose up to a great improvement in the truths of God, and was able to speak more parti-
PKEFACE TO THE KEADEK.
cularly and experimentally in cases of conscience and practical points, which
did not a little qualify Mm for this work.
"la peln much addicted to retirements and deep contemplation,
by which means he had the advantage of looking round the points and scrip
tures he was upon, and filling his head and heart with spiritual notions, as
the sand of the sea. , . He had the happiness of high and intimate communion with God, being
a man mighty with him in prayer, to whom he had a frequent recourse in
difficult points and cases; and such men wade further into the deep things
of God who have such, a leader.
He delighted much in searching into points and scriptures which were
more abstruse and neglected by others, and removed from vulgar inquiry;
and was very successful in opening such difficult texts, in discovering the
depths of Satan, in anatomising the old man in himself and others.
He had been much exercised in the controversies that had been agitatec
in the age he lived in, having a piercing understanding, able to find out
where the pinch and stress of controversies lay, when he stated them in his
own heart from Scripture and experience, and had a peculiar faculty to bring
them down to ordinary capacities in Scripture language, without hard and
pedantic terms.
He had a deep insight into the grace of God, and the covenant of grace
a darkness in which was anciently, and still is, the cause of great errors in
the Church. The ignorance of the Greek Fathers of the grace of God gave
great occasion to the Pelagian errors, as Jansenius observes.
He had, before his undertaking this province, gone over, in the course of
his ministry, the grand points of religion, and concocted them in his own
head and heart. And this he had done in frequent and intelligent audi
tories, which greatly draws out the gifts of men, and fits them for such a
work as this.
He had this farther advantage, that God had exercised him not only with
inward conflicts, but with sufferings for the truths he owned, leaving not only
preferments, but, which was more precious to him, the exercise of his ministry
: only he had this benefit by his recess, to review and
in his native country
study over again his notions and principles. And we never find God wanting
in the discoveries of his secrets to such friends in their retirements.
After his return, he was made choice of to interpret this Epistle, to which
work he was eminently suited upon all accounts, having a light into the deep and profound mysteries contained in it, beyond the elevation of those times.
As to his comment, it sufficiently commends itself, and therefore needs
not our encomium. We shall only give you some remarks on it, which oc
curred in the perusal of his papers.
According to our observation, no man who hath been exercised in the
same province doth more happily pitch upon the true, genuine, and full
scope of the text. He is frequently guided to a scope unobserved by others,
as to the latitude of it, and was much delighted to interpret Scripture into
the most vast and comprehensive sense which the Spirit of God aimed at,
PREFACE TO THE READER. XXxi
adoring still the fulness of the Scripture, being curious and critical in ob
serving the various references and aspects one place had upon others.
We find him dexterous at the opening of dark scriptures, having a peculiar
faculty in comparing spiritual things with spiritual, one obscure place with
another more clear and perspicuous ; fetching light, as men do in optics, by various positions of glasses into a dark place ; bringing light to gospel truths from dark types and prophecies, and reflecting back light again upon those dark shadows from gospel truths : that what places singly send out
but some small rays, being happily gathered by him into a constellation,
give now a glorious light.
He passeth by no difficulty of the text, till he assoils it and makes the
place plain. He values the least iota, and makes it appear what great and momentous things depend upon little words in the Scripture, which others
too carelessly pass by.
His observations are clear, genuine, and natural, and many times not of
vulgar and common observation, which he usually confirms by one or more
pertinent apposite scriptures, which he interprets as he goes along, to the
great benefit and delight of the reader; still founding what he treats of
upon Scripture, which is a way most satisfactory and blessed of God, and
abides more on men s hearts.
He brings down the highest controverted point, and the most sublime
mysteries of the gospel, in a plain and familiar way to discerning Christians, without affectation of hard and scholastic terms. Having stated those great controversies in his own heart, he makes them easy to the sense and expe rience of others.
He makes use of variety of learning, though in a concealed way ; studying to bring his learning to Scripture, and not Scripture to his learning.
His language is natural, and expressive of his conceptions, being adapted to convey truths into the minds of men with clearness and delight.
He speaks the intimacies of things from an inward sense and feeling of them in his own heart, to the particular cases and experience of others.
He hath a vein of strong spiritual reason running through all these dis
courses, carrying its own light and evidence with it. He discovers a deep insight into the mysteries of the gospel, and a great
light in the discovery of them, such as is great in this age, but was much
greater about forty years ago, when he preached these lectures. He breaketh
open the mines of the glorious grace of God, and the unsearchable riches of
Christ ; and the further you search into them the greater treasures you will
find: Plenius responsura fodienti, as one saith in a like case. No man s
heart was more taken with the eternal designs of God s grace than his; and no man makes clearer schemes of it to others. None more clearly resolves the plot of man s salvation into pure grace than he.
His discourses all along are very evangelical, carrying the soul to a higher
holiness, and from a higher spring and arguments than what are to be found
in philosophers, from the great pulleys and motives of the gospel, which are
higher and nobler springs than what Adam himself had in innocency.
xxxii PEEFACE TO THE READEK.
In the whole, he shews himself a "man of God throughly furnished to
every good work," skilled in the whole compass of true divinity, speaking
fully, clearly, and particularly to the points he undertakes to handle.
He hath frequently things out of the road and vulgar reach, and beyond
the elevation of common writers, and unobserved by others ; and yet well
founded upon Scripture. There are diversities of gifts, dispensed by the
same Spirit to divers persons, for the edification of the Church.
And if at any time he steps out of the road, he doth it with a due regard
to the analogy of faith, and a just veneration for the Reformed religion ;
wondering greatly at the daring attempts of some men of this age, unskilful
in the word of righteousness, upon the great and momentous points of our
religion, which are the glory of our Reformation ; but these points will prove
gold, silver, precious stones, when their wood, hay, and stubble will be burnt
up. These will have a verdure and greenness on them, whilst the inventions
of others will be blasted and wither. These will be firm, whilst others,
wanting somewhat within, it will be with them as it was with the Jewish
and heathenish worship, when a fate was upon them, all the efforts and
endeavours of men could not make them stand.
Upon the account of what of this excellent author hath been already and
will hereafter be published, (by the good providence of God,) we think he
may be looked upon as a person raised up by God for some eminent service
in that age he lived in ; as Augustine and others were in their times. And,
therefore, we are not a little astonished at the unworthiness of some persons
in this age, who have made use of all their arts and interest to suppress the
light of this and other great luminaries of the Church ; who have done what
in them lay to eclipse stars, and of the first magnitude, and for little niceties
and nothings, which the best and purest times of the Church were unac
quainted with. But it is hard to dispute men out of corrupt interests; these
controversies will have an easier decision at the great day.
We have added in the close some weighty discourses upon some other
texts in the Ephesians and Colossians, (a parallel epistle to this of the
Ephesians,) and upon some texts in the Hebrews, and other scriptures; either
because of their congenialness to this comment, or the suitableness to the
times we live in ; and because his comment did not rise up to that bulk in
the first projection, mentioned in the proposals.
That these discourses are his own, we need say no more, than that they bear his own signature ; he having drawn to the life the picture of his own
heart by his own hand.
THANKFUL OWEN.* JAMES BARRON.t
For notices of these excellent men
See * Owen
" The Nonconformists Memorial
" of Calaniy, (by Palmer, 2d edit., 1802,) i. 235, iii. 128. Hanbury s
" Historical Memorials relating to the Independents," (1844,) iii. 422, 595. Also, Wood s
"
Athense." fBarron "The Nonconformists Memorial," supra, i. 288.
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xxxiv PUBLISHER S ADVERTISEMENT.
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EDINBURGH, April 1BQ1.
AN EXPOSITION
OF THE
FIEST CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE TO
THE EPHESIANS.
A PREMISE CONCERNING THIS EPISTLE.
SOMETHING of custom uses to be premised by interpreters concerning the
epistles or books tliey interpret, touching the argument, division of the whole, and occasion of the writing, and about the persons written to.
I shall only speak of two of these, as most necessary.
1. The excellency of this epistle. 2. The occasion of Paul s writing of it. In the handling of which two, I shall yet wrap up all those other men tioned briefly.
1. For the excellency thereof, It hath been esteemed among the choicest, and is accordingly placed in the midst of his epistles ; as the most sparkling gem useth to be in a carkanet of many jewels: or, as Hierom s comparison of it is, Quomodo cor animalis in media est; as the heart in the midst of the body, so he likened it, for the difficulties he observeth in it : but I rather, because, as the heart is the prime seat and fountain of spirits, and the fullest thereof; so this Epistle contains more of the spirits, the quintessence of the mysteries of Christ, than any other, and is made up of the most quickening cordials to the inward man. I shall say only, that I find our Apostle himself boasting, as it were, of none of his other writings but of
this; and let his own judgment cast it, by what himself esteemed his master
piece. Thus expressly in the third chapter of this epistle, at the third verse, lie mentioning the grace of God vouchsafed him, in that rich treasury of knowledge dispensed to him as a steward for others, (as that word signifies,) and that transcendant way he came by it, more extraordinary than other
Apostles, (who yet were in part taught it by Christ on earth,) Have you not heard (says he, by the common report went of it,)
< how that by revelation (namely immediate) he made known to me the mystery ? And thus far, indeed, I find him elsewhere speaking, as well as here, Gal. i. 12. But then in the following words he goes on yet further, and makes this very epistle the highest instance of this his knowledge and revelation : As I wrote afore, irpotypa-^a cv oAiyo), a little afore, (namely in the two first chapters hereof, especially this first,) whereby in the reading you may under stand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ ; that is, yourselves, not by hearsay only, as afore, but by and upon your own knowledge. There is not the like speech uttered by himself of any of his epistles ; he makes this very epistle at once the most full evidence and demonstration of that transcendant
VOL. I. A
2 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
way of his receiving the gospel by immediate revelation. And so sublime
was the matter contained in it, as it argued this original, and that it could
come no other way but by immediate revelation, as afore he had affirmed of
it, and likewise withal refers unto it, as the highest specimen of the depth and profoundness of his knowledge, and as his choicest exercise to shew his
Christian learning by; so that, as elsewhere he professed to these same
Ephesians that he had (when present with them) declared all the counsel of God to them, Acts xxvi. 27, so now absent, to have singled out to utter
in this epistle the utmost depths of that counsel.
But what the reason should be, why Paul was thus more profoundly
enlarged to them than others of the Gentiles to whom he also wrote, is worth
our inquiry and observance. Some attribute the difference unto Paul s
(the author s) own spirit, and the condition he was then in. It smells, say
they, of the prison; Paul was a prisoner, as chap. iv. 1, and so more enlarged when most straitened, as in sufferings our spirits use to be. But I rather
ascribe it to some difference in these Ephesians written to. Philostratus
gives testimony of this city of Ephesus, that it excelled all other cities in wisdom and learning, and over-abounded in thousands of learned men.* And
this their exquisiteness in human learning and search after knowledge was
that which made them so addicted to curious arts, (as the Holy Ghost, speak ing of these very Ephesians, calleth them, Acts xix. 19,) which were partly human, but vain, partly magical and devilish, as the Syriac renders the words ; whence also Ephesince literce, the letters of Ephesus, grew into a
proverb. And Chrysostom says that, even unto his time, it abounded with
philosophers above any other city, and that the chiefest philosophers and wise men of Asia had had their original and dwelling therein, and allegeth
(in his preface of this epistle) that as the reason why Paul should write this
epistle with more study and exactness, and why he uttered more profound ness of knowledge to them than unto others. But sure this his reason falls short of that which may theologically be supposed the true ground of his sublimeness therein, and it will be useful to improve it higher. To me it seems that that supereminent self-denial which appeared in many of these converted Ephesians, even in point of knowledge, in their renouncing all that excellency of learning which was then the glory of that city in the eyes of all the nations, the great Diana of their brains and hearts, (as the goddess was of their blind devotions,) as a testimony whereof they sacrificed the very books themselves unto the fire ; as the Holy Ghost hath given testimony to their self-denial in this particular, Acts xix. 19; this might be the reason why God honoured them with an epistle so sublime, by way of recompense. And it affords us this observation, grounded upon like instances
06s. Whatever excellency any one hath been eminent in, or prized most, afore conversion, but now doth undervalue, and, as Christ s word is, hates and forsakes for Christ s sake, in that very thing Christ as apparently maketh recompense an hundred-fold. These Ephesians forsook the most exquisite wisdom earthly, yea, the deepest that hell afforded ;
< depths of Satan/ as John speaks in another case ; and God therefore honours them with this divine epistle, made as public as their self-denial, to all the world, in which
Opd from heaven enlarged this Apostle s heart, to make a professed discovery of the sublimest and deepest mysteries that heaven affordeth, that were to
>e communicated to any of the sons of men, and that were lawful to be
* < Abundat bonarum artium studiis, philosopliis, oratoribusque redundat, ut vere dici earn cmtatem non equitum robore, sed clarorum hominum millibus cameras superare, in eaque plunmum vigere sapientiam, Lib. 8, de Vita Apol cap. 3.
TO THE EPHESIANS.
uttered, as himself speaks, 2 Cor. xii., by him that was in heaven. They burn their very books, valued at many thousands, (for their price is on pur pose valued, Acts xix. 19,) and therefore our Apostle s heart is enlarged to wards them, to bring forth the bottom of that treasure of knowledge hid in Christ, the unsearchable riches of Christ, as ver. 8 of the third chapter. He calls them thus also himself, (the author of it,) having reckoned his learn ing when a Pharisee, wherein he profited above many of his equals, at so high a rate^as the account of the world then went ; but now when converted, he accounting all but as dung and dogs meat, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, Phil. iii. 8, was therefore accordingly enlarged and filled with an excellency in this knowledge above his fellow-apostles ; though he complains of himself as born out of time, and as one put to this school long after them. Thus Moses also, undervaluing the Egyptian learning where in he excelled, Acts vii. 22, as well as the pleasures of that court, having an eye to the recompense of reward to come, was accordingly in a proportion recompensed even in this life ; as with being exalted to be a king over the people of God, a greater dignity than Egypt afforded, Dcut. xxxiii. 5, for his
leaving the Egyptian court, so with being made the prophet of the Old Testament for his renouncing of their learning ; to whom God revealed him self and his law, as never to any other prophet, Num. xii. 6. He was the
giver of that law, which by the confession of all the heathens excelled theirs ; and therein made such an eminent type of Christ s prophetical office as no prophet was afore or after him, Dent, xviii 15. And so much for the excellency of this epistle. Yet let me add tliis, that of all epistles, that to the Colossians comes nearest to it in the matter and argument thereof ; and in many things the one is a comment upon the other ; only in the doctrine of God, free grace, and everlasting love, which is that mystery of the mystery of Christ, this far excels it.
2. In the second place, for the occasion of this epistle, Interpreters are much put to it to find what it should have been ; nor need we trouble our thoughts much, if we find not any ; for perhaps the Apostle took one, as a good heart is apt when there is no set occasion given, for to do good ; which seems all the occasion of that other Apostle s writing his, 2 Pet. i. 13, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up, &c. But for any special one of this, the best and most probable which I by conjecture can find, is that which the Apostle by the spirit of prophesy foresaw, Acts xx., where calling all the elders of Ephesus together, (even the elders of this church which here he writeth unto, as you may see, ver. 17,) he tells them, ver. 29, I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you ; also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. He forewarns both that some of their own elders should rise up, (for oftentimes so it falleth out in
churches,) and also that others from other churches and places should enter in among them, (wolves he calls them,) teaching perverse things. And I know this, says he ; he knew it by the same spirit of prophesy and revela tion that, ver. 25, he says he knew they should see his face no more. And although he perhaps knew not the particular errors which they should teach, yet in general you see he knew that gross errors, overthrowing the founda tion of the gospel, should arise among them and be taught. Now therefore,
to^ prevent their being carried away with any of these errors, whatever they might prove to be, he writeth this epistle in a positive way, to establish them aforehand in the greatest truths of the gospel. And what is the great and main argument of this epistle, especially in the first part of it 1 It is to
4 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE
1 e Pod s eternal love in, and redemp-
lay open thedoctrine of free Face a^ therefrom and the dependence that
t 3 b^ g T^e Ap0stle not knowing what particular
.. J \ _ -.L ^A +ITA Wftssmss issuing ineieuuui, a r
_ , ,,IM icvj vpn. -"7
. -LUadTio-ci issuina; tnereirom, ciuu. u**^-
tion by Christ,^and
3, he
Spirit, which he enumerates to ^w ^
ej then ^ venture them
, ^ ^^ shod with the preparation feW* ver 15) Then, as they are tenta-
that Trill fence them agamst aU
""^^ ;_their souls being well from taking in any falsehood ot y g^t
in any dangerous heresy,) and tins ^^ d ^ divers and
directs, Heb. xm. ^ ^^^ or ious doctrines, for though
in ^ Sive outward abstinence from some meats rather to othe
i n
(so in the next words.) But what any one thing was there
others, fix and balance their minds against this and aU
in the soul itself, (for the new creature tastes and^* Palate doth meat;) as also with the doctrines of free grace witJ P
doctrines and waverings towards such superstitions] He adds,
is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. Both
grace
God s heart towJ us, as it is declared and taught in the Sc nree^
heait* be os ear ,
this chapter, and in the second of this epistle. And let then
established and ballasted, and made steady with these, and they w^
not
easily be tossed to and fro, and carried away with every wind of doctrme
by the sleight of men/ &c., as the Apostle speaks, ^.^^jV^rJ
epistle. And the latter sense of grace, in that Heb. xin., I
^erstand
be principally meant ; for the doctrme of God s grace revealed to us i tne
gospel is eminently styled the grace of God bringing salvation/ Titus nil
But yet withal, take in those blessings and blessed operations wrough
within us which our Apostle here enumerates in chap. L, and goes on to a
it in chap. ii. to ver. 11 of that chapter ; the working of which in tJ
Ephesians he all along ascribes unto the grace, the exceeding riches ot grac
mercy and love in God, founded in election and redemption ; and tnes
together with his doctrine of grace, will keep you steadfast and immovable.
I should now add, as the custom of expositors likewise is, some mor
general analysis or division of the whole epistle; but let that sutn
which in going over the particulars, will arise naturally to every man s obse
vation : that the half of it, to the end of the third chapter, is doctrina
laying down the mysteries of salvation and man s misery ; the other halt t
the end, is wholly practical, exhorting to several duties in all sorts of rel;
tions. I hasten to the exposition itself.
TO THE EPHESIANS.