Ephesians 2

If God in conversion should only morally persuade, that is, set good and evil before men, then God does not put forth so much power in saving men, as the Devil does in destroying them. Satan does not only propound tempting objects to men, but does concur with his temptations, th…

If we are not justified for our faith, much less elected for our faith; but we are not justified for it. We are said to be justified [Greek text], through faith as an instrument (Ephesians 2:8), but not for faith as a cause; and if not justified for faith, then much less elected…

All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever. (Ephesians 2:3) And were by nature the children of wrath. Adam left an unhappy portion to his pos…

They proceed from evil to evil, and know not me, says the Lord. Unbelievers are dead in trespasses (Ephesians 2:1). God has no dead children; and not being children, they have no right to inherit.

Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and if we do not please him by believing, he will not please us in saving of us. Faith is the condition of the Covenant of Grace, without faith without covenant, and without covenant without hope (Ephesians 2:12). 2. U…

The Papists say we are justified by works. But the Apostle confutes it, Not of works lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:9). But the Papists say, The works done by an unregenerate man indeed cannot justify him, but works done by a regenerate man may justify.

God visits iniquity only to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 20:5), but he shows mercy to a thousand generations. The Lord has treasures of mercy lying by, therefore he is said to be plenteous in mercy (Psalm 86:5), and rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4). The vial of God's wra…

3. If you would enter into the bond of the covenant, get faith in the blood of the covenant. Christ's blood is the blood of atonement; believe in this blood and you are safely arked in God's mercy (Ephesians 2:13). You are made near to the blood of Christ.

The king's proclamation is fixed on the pillar, the pillar holds it out that all may read, but the proclamation does not receive its authority from the pillar but from the king: so the Church holds forth the Scriptures, but they do not receive their authority from the Church, bu…

He has his throne (Revelation 2:13): "You dwell where Satan's throne is"; and his throne is set up in the hearts of men. He does not care for their purses but their hearts (Ephesians 2:2). Satan is served upon the knee (Revelation 13:4): "They worshipped the dragon" — that is, t…

Sanctification is the evidence of God's love; we cannot guess at God's love by giving us health, riches, success, but by drawing his image of sanctification on us by the pencil of the Holy Ghost. Branch 2. It shows the misery of such as are destitute of a principle of sanctifica…

A person unregenerate cannot act spiritually, he cannot pray in the Holy Spirit, he cannot live by faith, he cannot do duty out of love to duty; and if he cannot do duty spiritually, then much less perfectly. Now that a natural man cannot yield perfect obedience to the moral law…

2. God's mercy is an overflowing mercy, it is infinite (Psalm 86:5): Plenteous in mercy. (Ephesians 2:4): Rich in mercy. (Psalm 51:1): Multitude of mercies.

There is no going to heaven per saltum, one cannot leap out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom. The sinner is dead in trespasses, (Ephesians 2:1) is it easy for a dead man to restore himself to life? Is regeneration easy?

Know that we are not to go by God's secret will, but by his revealed will; look into God's revealed will, and there we shall find enough to cherish hope, and encourage us to go to God for the pardon of our sins. God has revealed in his word, that he is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2…

For conversion is a new creation (Ephesians 4:24). The Pelagians talk much of free will; they say the will of man is by nature asleep, and conversion is nothing but the awakening a sinner out of sleep, which is done by a moral persuasion: But man is by nature dead in sin (Ephesi…

(Ephesians 4:18) Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13) Thirdly, that in this state all men continue in sin against God, nor of thems…

There was also another time, namely, at Christ's Resurrection, when there was a solemn act of justification past for, or in the behalf of all these when our great High Priest had, on the day of Atonement, born the names of his Israel upon his shoulders, and breast plate before G…

And the comeliness and beauty of Gospel worship, consisteth in its relation to God by Jesus Christ, as the merciful high-Priest over his house, with the glorious administration of the spirit therein. The order also of it lies in the due and regular observation of all that Christ…

But it would be somewhat strange, that if what the Lord Christ has appointed in his Church to be observed in particular, in an especial manner, for especial ends of his own, has in the general nature of it an agreement with what in like cases the light of nature seems to direct…

Quest. 19. What is an instituted Church of the Gospel? A society of persons, called out of the world, or their natural worldly state, by the administration of the Word and Spirit, to the obedience of the faith, or the knowledge and worship of God in Christ, joined together in an…

Being converted by the word, and making profession of that conversion in their Baptism, they gave up themselves to a stedfast continuance in the observation of all other ordinances of the Gospel. Besides the Church is an house, a Temple, the house of God (1 Timothy 3:15), the ho…

(1) Matthew 10:2; Luke 10:1; Galatians 1:1; Acts 1:26; Acts 6:3; Acts 14:23. (2) John 20:21, 22, 23; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14; Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5, 7. (3) Matthew 28:18, 19, 20; 2 Corinthians 11:28; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:2; Colossians 4:17.

And therefore they are all to be at his disposal, to confirm or remove, as he saw reason and occasion. And this he did virtually in the sacrifice of himself, or the blood of his Cross, fulfilling and finishing of them all (John 19:30), breaking down the middle wall of partition,…

Q. Having spoken of the state of man by creation, and his estate of corruption, let us now come to the third estate, the state of grace in this life; and first tell me whether there be any ability in man to deliver himself from his sinful and miserable estate? A. None at all; be…

Q. What is the effect and benefit of his mediatorship? A. Hereby God and man that were at enmity are reconciled together again, and made one (Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 2:14, 15).

Q. What is another difference? A. The one belongs to Adam, and all his posterity; the other belongs only to the elect, or at the most only to such as have the Gospel preached to them (Ephesians 2:12). Q. Is there not some difference in regard of the blessings promised to either…

Q. What ought to be the life of them that are in Christ? A. A course of holy obedience, and service to God all the days of their life (Luke 1:74, 75; 1 Peter 1:14, 15, 16, 17; Titus 3:8; Ephesians 2:10). Q. What is the general rule of obedience?

And yet the Scripture phrases go far in ascribing to Satan herein, when it says of those that believed not the gospel, that 'the god of this world has blinded their minds that believe not' (2 Corinthians 4), which notes a superadded working of blindness to their own natural blin…

Or else 3. when this ordinance is not in the case of such sins administered, then God himself (who works without an ordinance sometimes the same effects that with it) does excommunicate men's spirits from his presence and gives them up to Satan by terrors to whip them home to hi…

Colossians 1:26-27. Which is the mystery hid since the world began and from all ages, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of this glorious mystery among the Gentiles. Ephesians 2:12. You were at that time without Christ, and ha…

And sanctification (Ephesians 1): He has chosen us that we should be holy and blameless. Hence good works (Ephesians 2): Which he has prepared, that we should walk in them. And perseverance (John 6): All that the Father gives me, shall come to me, and him that comes to me I cast…

This first resurrection is spiritual, wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost; causing him that is by nature dead in sin, to rise to newness of life: whereof whosoever is truly partaker, shall undoubtedly rise to glory. For, they that are quickened in Christ from the death of sin,…

All things are yours: whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's (1 Corinthians 3:21, 22, 23). Hence the unbelieving wife is sanctified to the use of the bel…

Doctor Amesius in Medullam Theologiae, lib. 1. Cap. 26. Recepti Christi. Paul Banes on the Ephesians 2. Vivificant. He quickened us, since he acknowledges a passive receiving of Christ, he must acknowledge a passive faith: for there is no receiving of Christ, but by faith.

So that with the Prophet Habakkuk they can glory in Christ, in their greatest extremities (Habakkuk 3:17, 18): Though the vine does not yield her fruit, and the fatness of the olive fail, and the herd perish from the stall; yet will I joy in the Lord, and rejoice in the God of m…

First, to take a man's sanctification, for an evident cause or ground of his justification, is flat Popery. Secondly, to take a man's sanctification, for an evident cause or ground of that faith whereby he is justified, is utterly unsafe; for faith is built upon Jesus, the Chris…

And the other, thus; (1 John 2:22) Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is not the Christ, He is Antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. And when I thought to understand the difference, it was too hard for me, until I went into the Sanctuary of God; where the F…

(2.) In that the whole Church of the Elect was dedicated to God, which privilege they are called into the actual participation of, through faith in the blood of Christ. (3.) In that thereby all the old legal sacrifices, and all that yoke, and burden, and bondage wherewith they w…

The Kingdom of God is peace (Romans 14:17). To lay the foundation of this Kingdom, the Lord Christ both made peace, and preached peace, or declared the nature of the peace he had made, tendering and communicating of it to us (Ephesians 2:14, 17). And this peace of Evangelical Co…

So the ⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩ of the Law is its abrogation, in taking away all its power of obliging to obedience or punishment. The Apostle elsewhere expresseth the same act by ⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩ (Ephesians 2:15; 2 Timothy 1:10). It is therefore plainly declared, that the…

They now all of them draw nigh to God. And in all their worship, especially in their prayers and supplications, they have by him an access to God (Ephesians 2:18). There is a similitude in these things, and an allusion in the one to the other; yet so as that the one does far exc…

From henceforward the Old Covenant, and all its administrations, having received their full accomplishment, did abide only in the patience of God, to be taken down and removed out of the way in his own time and manner. For really and in themselves, their force and authority did…

With the instruments, with the fire, with the incense that belonged to the Tabernacle, were they to be offered and no otherwise. And it is now by Christ alone that we have an access in one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:18). He is the only way of going to him (John 14:6).

The being and essence of a divine covenant lies in the promise. Hence are they called the Covenants of Promise (Ephesians 2:12), such as are founded on and consist in promises. And it is necessary that so it should be.

Of this nature was the Atonement and Reconciliation which he made by his blood, and peace with God for sinners thereon. See (2 Corinthians 5:19, 20; Ephesians 2:14, 15, 16). The benefits which hereon are actually collated on the Church, whereby it is brought into its consummate…

He was the Lord from Heaven; who is in Heaven, who speaks from Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:49; John 3:13). (2) All spiritual and eternal grace, mercy, blessings, whereof the souls of men are made partakers by the mediation and sacrifice of Christ, are heavenly things, and are const…

This state of things is now changed under the Gospel. It is one of the principal priviledges of Believers, that, being made Kings and Priests to God by Jesus Christ, this distinction as to especial gracious access to God is taken away (Revelation 1:5; Ephesians 2:18; Romans 5:2)…

It is no where used but in this place, and Chap. 9:14. And he uses it in answer to what he elsewhere declares, concerning men being dead in sin by nature (Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13). That which he there ascribes to their persons, here he attributes to their works.

As, (1) Because they proceed from a principle of spiritual death, or are the works of them who have no vital principle of holiness in them (Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13). (2) Because they are useless and fruitless, as all dead things are.