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…

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…

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,…

First, man was created and framed by the hand of God, and made after the image of God: for Moses brings in the Lord speaking thus, "Let us make man in our image, etc." in the image of God created he them (Genesis 1:26), which also must be understood of angels. The image of God i…

The other title: Of whom the whole family, which is in heaven and earth, is named: In which words is set down a description of the church: first it is a family, because it is the company of God's elect children under the government of one father (1 Timothy 3:15). It is called th…

1. He lives by a more spiritual rule than others. A sinner either lives by no rule, or by a false; he walks according to the course of the world (Ephesians 2:2). But a righteous man goes by the canon of Scripture, as a well made dial goes exactly by the sun: God's Word is the or…

Reason 3. Thirdly the Holy Ghost affirms (Ephesians 2; Colossians 2:13) that all men by nature are dead in sins and trespasses: not as the Papists say, weak, sick, or half dead. Hence I gather, that man lacks natural power not to will simply, but freely and frankly to will that…

Again, whereas they teach that we are saved by the works of Christ which he works in us and makes us to work, it is flat against the word. For Paul says we are not saved by such works as God has ordained that regenerate men should walk in (Ephesians 2:10). And he says further th…

For if a sinner, after that he is justified by the merit of Christ, were justified more by his own works, then might he have some matter of boasting in himself. And that we may not doubt of Paul's meaning, consider and read (Ephesians 2:8-9): By grace (says he) you are saved thr…

Again (Titus 3:5): We are saved not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. And (Ephesians 2:8-10): By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works which God has prepared that we…

And so, Philippians 1:6, termed, the good work. A frame of spirit, created to good works: Ephesians 2:10, we are his workmanship, created to good works. The text here says, Who has wrought us: there similarly, We are his workmanship.

An infinitely surpassing art then has the Spirit himself (who is the immediate worker in this) shown in the framing, and hewing, and curiously carving and engraving those living stones, that grow up into a temple to God (1 Peter 2:5), especially considering the utter remoteness,…

Againe the Scripture noteth him, to be a powerfull spirit, whose strength farre exceedeth and surpasseth the might of any man or creature, that is not of an Angelical nature, as himselfe is. For he is tearmed a Prince of the aire, and the god of this world, his power reacheth ev…

It's true, these comparisons are not to be extended and applied in every respect, yet they hold out that man being naturally dead, can no more contribute to his own quickening and raising, and to the begetting of spiritual life in himself, than a dead man can contribute to his o…

Now, lay these four words together, they clear this truth to our judgment, and serve to point out to us the necessity of a mediator. Again, consider them in a second notion, and they tell us, that even the elect themselves, are by nature in the same sinful and rebellious conditi…

3. And more particularly, from the first part of the words, which is the main thing to be marked, observe, that all men, even the elect themselves not excepted, are naturally in a most sinful and desperate state and condition, so that if you would know what they are by nature, t…

3. It is implied here, that even the Elect or God's people are considered as sinful in the Covenant of Redemption, For the transgression of my people was he stricken; They were considered as sinful as well as others when they were bargained for: We need not here dispute whether…

Second, it is so ordered, that His grace may shine the more conspicuously; when the person is found guilty, and obnoxious to the curse by the law, grace shows itself to be wonderful, in pulling the sinner from under the lash of the law; as Isaac was set free, and a sacrifice was…

He lies under the covenant of works, and is condemned, as considered in himself, though God may have a purpose to make a change of his state. So, (Ephesians 2:1-3) You has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein, in time past you walked, and were children of…

A second place is (Philippians 2:8-9), Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the death, even to the death of the cross, therefore God has highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every k…

2. Indeed, to say we see justification more clearly, when we see no sanctification, is to make the water and the Spirit (1 John 5:8) dumb or false witnesses, that either speak nothing, or tell lies. 3. It is against the office of the Spirit, which is to make us know [illegible],…

6. But for the ground, reason, and cause on Christ's part of drawing, it is free grace, and only free grace, which are held forth in these positions. Position 1. As there is no merit, good deserving, work, or hire in the miserable sinner dying in his blood, dead in sins, out of…

The principle of drawing on Christ's part, is great love. (Ephesians 2:4) God rich in mercy, for his great love, [illegible], with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, quickened us in Christ. (Titus 3:4) But when the bounty, and man-love, or rather, the man-kindness…

5. He grants believers are called men, and I hope to prove that the elect and believers, are called "all," and "all flesh," and "us all," etc. though it be true, believers are called men, because of their human passions and carnal walking, and some more, to wit, sons of God, sai…

So it follows in the next verse of that Romans 3:25: 'Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.' And though it be true that God justifying is the ultimate object of our faith (for Christ leads us by the hand — as the word is, Ephesians 2:18 — to God…

His argument lies thus: Adam was the first-fruits of them that died; Christ, of them that rise. Hence therefore we are elsewhere said (though in respect to another life) to be risen with Christ (Ephesians 2:5-6), and (which is yet more) to sit together with him in heaven: becaus…

He took our flesh and carried it into heaven and left us his Spirit on earth, both as pledges and earnests that we should follow. Further yet, he is not only said to sit as our head, but we are also said to sit together with him — that is made the upshot of all in the next chapt…

It is a coming to God [by Christ:] which phrase is used in this Epistle in an allusion to the worshipers of the Old Testament; who when they had sinned, were directed to go to God by a priest, who with a sacrifice made an atonement for them. Now Christ is the great and true High…

Find him not, but be estranged from him, and find death. So (Ephesians 2:12), In times past you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, and (Ephesians 4:18-19), There…

We come now to another use from this doctrine. Use 2. It is to teach us the dangerous and uncomfortable estate of every such soul as has not Christ, for the text says, he that has not the Son, has not life; no life in us, if there be no Christ in us, this is that which the Apost…

As here when he would make his last onset upon Christ, he sets before him the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, as the matter of the temptation. 1. There are three enemies of our salvation: the Devil, the World, and the Flesh; they are reckoned up together (Ephesians…

2. That he is well-pleased with us, who have an interest in him. In our natural estate we are all displeasing to God; whatever we are in the purpose of his decree, we must look upon ourselves as we are in the sentence of his law — so children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3), enemies by…

Fear none of those things which you shall suffer, behold! the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and you shall have tribulation ten days. Mark how they are comforted against the persecution coming upon them; partly because the cause was clearly God'…

Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So (Ephesians 2:18) He preached peace to you which were far off, and to them that are near, for through him we both have an access by one spirit to the Father. See the breach made up, between you an…