Ephesians 4

It argues lightness; feathers will be blown any way; so will feathery Christians: Triticum non rapit ventus, inanes paleae jactantur, Cyprian. Therefore such are compared to children (Ephesians 4:14). That we be no more children tossed to and fro. Children are fickle, sometimes…

God has given them up to strong delusions, to believe a lie, that they may be damned (2 Thessalonians 2:11). 2. If there be but one God, then there can be but one true religion in the World (Ephesians 4:5). [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], one Lord, one Faith.

Though Christ teaches by his Spirit, yet he teaches in the use of ordinances. Wait at the gates of wisdom's door; ministers are teachers under Christ (Ephesians 4:11). We read of pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers (Judges 7:16).

So the Hermians. But the Scripture is plain he ascended into heaven (Luke 24:51), and (Ephesians 4:10) far above all heavens: Therefore, above the firmament. He is ascended into the highest part of the Empyrean heaven, which Paul calls the third heaven.

It turns a man into a devil (John 6:20): Have not I chosen twelve, and one of you is a devil? 2. Sin is a grieving of God's Spirit (Ephesians 4:30): Grieve not the holy Spirit of God. To grieve is more than to anger.

Such as are patterns of mercy, should be trumpets of praise: Thus Saint Paul being called of God, and seeing what a debtor he was to free grace, breaks forth into admiration and gratulation (1 Timothy 1:13). Use 4. To the called, walk worthy of your high calling (Ephesians 4:1).…

1. Because God accepts no man but where he sees his image. The new creature is called the renewing of God's image (Ephesians 4:24). When they [reconstructed: brought] Tamerlane a pot of gold, he asked what stamp it had on it: and when he saw the Roman stamp on it, he refused it:…

So that to bring Scripture to uphold you in your sin, is a high profaning of Scripture, and a taking of God's name in vain. Second Instance, if we tell a man of his inordinate passions, that he may be drunk as well with rash anger as wine; he will bring Scripture to justify it:…

God lives forever, and as long as God lives, he will be punishing the damned — this, one would think, should be as that handwriting on the wall (Daniel 5:5), it should make their joints to be loosed, etc. The sinner takes liberty to sin, he breaks God's laws, like a wild beast t…

7. The evil tongue is the unclean tongue, that vents itself in filthy and scurrilous words. Men's language is such as if they came out of hell: this is forbidden (Ephesians 4:29): "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth." Better be born dumb than to have the devi…

This is our holiness, when we are suitable to God's nature, and submissive to his will; this should be our great care to be like God in holiness. Our holiness should be so qualified as God's; God's is a real holiness, such should ours be (Ephesians 4:24), righteousness and true…

He speaks the truth from his heart. Truth in words is opposed, 1. to lying (Ephesians 4:25). Putting away lying, speak every one truth to his neighbor.

Hebrews 5:4: No man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called of God. Christ gave not only the Apostles and Prophets a call to their office (who were extraordinary ministers), but even pastors and teachers (Ephesians 4:11). Question: But if one has gifts, is not this suf…

This original concupiscence is called, 1. The Old Man (Ephesians 4:22). It is said to be the Old Man, not that it is weak, as old men are, but for its long standing, and because of its deformity.

God the Son, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). God the Holy Ghost is a Spirit of Peace: it is called the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3). The more peaceable the more like God.

These are lamps without oil, whited sepulchers, like the Egyptian temples, which had fair outsides, but within spiders and apes. The Apostle speaks of true holiness (Ephesians 4:24), implying, there is a holiness which is spurious and feigned (Revelation 3:1). You have a name to…

Such wilfully go about to murder their souls, who have no sense of God, or the other world. They are past feeling (Ephesians 4:19). Tell them of God's holiness and justice, they are not at all affected.

(1 Peter 1:16) Be you holy, for I am holy. The soul cannot be lovely to God, till it has Christ's image stamped upon it, which image consists in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). The soul must especially be kept pure, because it is the chief place of God's reside…

Response 1. Live in a calling. Ephesians 4:28: Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, etc. Such as stand idle, the Devil hires them, and puts them into the pilfering trade.

A sinner has the symptoms of death upon him. First, he has no sense; a dead man has no sense: he has no sense of the evil of sin, of God's holiness and veracity; therefore he is said to be without feeling (Ephesians 4:19). Second, he has no strength (Romans 5:6).

God imputes not iniquity to him in whose spirit is no guile. 9. He whose sins are forgiven, is willing to forgive others who have offended him (Ephesians 4:32). Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

2 Position. When God converts a sinner he does more than use a moral persuasion. 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 sle…

Neither, secondly, is it to be meant of walking in ignorance, as John 12:36 it is taken. For one that has no light in that sense can never truly fear God nor obey him; the heart that lacks knowledge is not good, says Solomon; and so to walk in darkness is accompanied with walkin…

First on carnal reason, on which he chiefly works in this sort of temptations, the strength whereof lies in false reasonings, wherein, if in anything, he has the advantage. First, his abilities to forge and invent false reasonings and arguments to overthrow our faith are (as the…

For the Story says; When he was risen again, he led them to Bethany (where he ascended) and lift up his hands and blessed them. And Saint Paul declares this blessing of Christ more at large, saying; Ephesians 4:8, 11, 12: Christ ascended on high, and led captivity captive, and g…

But alas, this may be spoken of old men in these days, that in regard of this wisdom, they are very babes; a thing greatly disgraceful to their condition. For, Paul bids the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 14:20, that they should not be children in understanding, but of ripe age: yea…

Many think it no sin to provide for their families in such order, but in saying this petition they pray against themselves (2 Thessalonians 3:10). He which labors not, let him not eat (Ephesians 4:28). He which stole, let him steal no more, but rather labor with his hands the th…

Understand this day and consider in your heart, that Jehovah he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath: there is none other. (Ephesians 4:6) One God, one faith, one baptism. If it be alleged that the scripture mentions many gods, because Magistrates are called Gods, M…

(Ephesians 2:10) We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works. And (Ephesians 4:24) the new man is created to the image of God. Now to be born again, is a work of no less importance than our first creation; and therefore wholly to be ascribed to God as our creati…

For the founding of the primitive Church, the ministry of the word was distinguished by degrees not only of order but also of power, and Peter was called to the highest degree. Ephesians 4:11: Christ ascended up on high and gave gifts to men for the good of his Church — as some…

This use is threefold: in respect of God, of man, and of ourselves. Works are to be done in respect of God: that his commandments may be obeyed — 1 John 5:12; that his will may be done — 1 Thessalonians 4:3; that we may show ourselves to be obedient children to God our Father —…

His illuminated understanding is clouded with ignorance, his complying will full of rebellion and stubbornness, his subordinate powers casting off the dominion and government of the higher faculties. But by regeneration, this disordered soul is set right again; sanctification be…

Which soul, in being called the inward man, connotes at once both grace and the soul conjoined together, and distinct from the body, as well as from sin and corruption. Elsewhere it is declared the subject first and originally wrought on (Ephesians 4:23): be renewed in the spiri…

For in this, even to wonderment, does the glory of God in his works appear, and that he is wise in counsel, and wonderful in working, when he has secretly contrived one thing for another, when as each are in themselves, and apart glorious. It is said by David of himself (and it…

3. In one common end which they all have, and in one common object they are sent to. 4. In this, that they all hold of one common master, being gifts of one and the same Mediator, (Ephesians 4): When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men, to some A…

And were we suitably sensible of sin, and did we thoroughly believe this truth, our hearts would laugh within us, as Abraham's once did, to know that this was given to Christ in commission — to justify sinners, and that He is so well fitted for this business that He is commissio…

But 2. There is not only consolation for a believer's particular condition from this ground, but also in reference to the public case of God's Church: There are four things especially, that seem very heavy to the Church, and public work of God; in reference to all which we will…

Faith dwells in us (2 Timothy 1:5). The new creation and image of Christ is in the mind (Ephesians 4:23). The seed of God abides in us (1 John 3:9).

2. It's voluntary in us, and the bondage that we love. 3. The Scripture both calls it impossibility, and also rebukes it as sinful (John 6:44), (Romans 8:6-8), (Ephesians 2:1-3, 11-13), (Ephesians 4:17-19), (Ephesians 5:8). Asser. 3. All preparations even wrought in us, by the c…

Verse 17: Until the day break, and the shadows flee away. Then there is a night on the church, and need of the moonlight of ordinances, so long as Christ by his ministry remains in the shepherds' tents, feeding his flock in the strength of the Lord, and holding forth his presenc…

For (Ephesians 1:20-23) by raising him from the dead, God conferred a headship upon him. Now he was not made head of the body, that he might destroy all the members, or most of them, as Arminians must say; but his headship is for this end, that the whole body, by his spirit fitl…

But then having thus spoiled these enemies on the cross, he further makes a public triumphal show of them in his own person, which is a second act — as the manner of the Roman emperors was in their great triumphs to ride through the city in the greatest state and have all the sp…

And this is part of the meaning of Psalm 68:18: 'He ascended up on high and received gifts for men,' says the psalmist. The Apostle renders it 'gave' in Ephesians 4, but you see it was by receiving them first as fruits of his intercession and asking after his ascending. He is sa…

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…

Thirdly, so also a mantle of compassion, so as that if so be, that a man's brother be brought at length to see his failing, and to acknowledge it, and shall express himself that it repents him he has so done, both in offending God and his brethren, then you shall forgive him, ou…

Now I say therefore, this is a difference: a carnal man never gives entertainment to a good thought, nor do his thoughts ever aim at good ends, they never go higher than himself, and therefore never could a good thought find lodging in him; out again it is thrust, sometimes some…

There is a shedding abroad, the spirit of God's grace in the heart of man, that makes him of another spirit, he is not the same man, that he was before his spirit was changed, his inclination and disposition is changed. For Spirit is nothing else but the inclination, and disposi…

It is a hard saying, they thought it incredible (verse 52), they would think it a savage brutishness to fall upon him in that manner, and therefore our Savior so confesses, that it is no part of his meaning, that they should eat and drink his real body and blood: but he means th…

And as it is a fluid, so it is a base and sordid friendship that is built upon riches, for that concerns the estate rather than the soul. Well then, religious friendship which is built upon virtue and grace, and is called the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3), is the most firm…

3. Carry it faithfully to God, still opposing sin and satan; for the more you give way to satan, the more you are troubled with him, and your misery is increased not lessened. But if you repel his temptations, he is discouraged (Ephesians 4:27). Neither give place to the Devil.