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…

(Romans 8:7) The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (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 h…

Psalm 45:6, "Your throne O God is for ever and ever," applied to Christ (Hebrews 1:8): "But to your Son he says, your throne O God is for ever and ever." Psalm 68:17, 18, 19, "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, the Lord is among them as in Sinai i…

2. The infused righteousness of believers [illegible] not in this life perfect. That believers have infused righteousness is not denied: they have the renewing of the image of God upon them, which is in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). There is the grace of sanc…

Explication. The next and principal ends of all instituted worship in respect of believers, are the increase of the grace of God in them, their edification in their most holy faith, and the testification of the good will of God to them (Ephesians 4:11, 12, 13, 14, 15): "And he g…

Qu. 11. How are mutual love and communion among believers testified and confirmed in their observation? Answ. In that they are appointed by the Lord Christ for that end, and in their own nature as attended to in their assemblies, are in an especial manner suited to that purpose…

And (3) By their celebration is he glorified in the world: And therefore, (4) As he has made blessed promises to his people, to grant them his presence and to bless them in their use: So (5) Being the tokens of the marriage relation that is between him and them, with respect to…

Quest. 17. Which are the principal institutions of the Gospel to be observed in the worship of God? Answ. (1.) The calling, gathering and setling of Churches with their Officers, as the seat and subject of all other solemn instituted worship. (2.) Prayer with thanksgiving. (3.)…

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…

Titus 1:5: for this cause left I you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed you. 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11, 12. Fifthly, they do every where in the name and authority of Christ, give to the…

Quest. 20. By what means do persons so called become a Church of Christ? Answ. They are constituted a Church, and interested in the rights, power, and priviledges of a Gospel-Church, by the will, promise, authority, and law of Jesus Christ, upon their own voluntary consent and e…

Qu. 22. Who are the extraordinary officers or rulers or ministers of the Church appointed to serve the Lord Jesus Christ therein for a season only? An. (1) The Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, with (2) the Evangelists and Prophets endowed with extraordinary gifts of the Holy G…

Quest. 23. Who are the ordinary officers or ministers of Christ in the Church to be always continued therein? Answ. Those whom the Scripture calls, pastors and teachers, bishops, elders, and guides (Acts 14:23; Acts 20:17, 18; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11; Philippians 1:1…

(5) That he be solemnly set apart by fasting and prayer and imposition of hands to his Work and Ministry. (1) Ephesians 4:8, 11, 12, 13. (2) Titus 1:7, 8, 9; 2 Timothy 3:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

What is not received from him, is mere usurpation. And whoever takes upon himself the exercise of any rule, or authority, or power in the Church, not granted to them by him, or not rightly derived from him, is an oppressor, a thief, and a robber; this necessarily follows upon th…

And there are many names that are equally accommodated to all that are partakers of it, as Elders, Bishops, Guides; they are all alike Elders, alike Bishops, alike Guides, have the one office in common among them, and every one the whole intire to himself. But there are names al…

(1) Luke 18:1; Chap. 21:36; Romans 12:5; 1 Timothy 2:1, 2. (2) Ephesians 4:8, 12, 13; Romans 8:15, 16; Galatians 4:6. (3) Acts 2:42; 1 Timothy 4:5.

Quest. 42. To whom is the power and administration of this Discipline committed by Jesus Christ? Answ. As to the authority to be exerted in it in the things wherein the whole Church is concerned, to the Elders; as to trial, judgment and consent in, and to its exercise to the who…

(3) 1 Timothy 1:19, 20; 2 Timothy 4:3, 4; Titus 1:13; Jude 3. (4) Ephesians 4:20, 21, 22, 23, 24. (5) 2 Corinthians 8:5.

Churches being gathered and setled according to the mind of Christ, ought to preserve a mutual holy communion among themselves, and to exercise it, in the discharge of those duties whereby their mutuall good and edification may be promoted. For whereas they are all united under…

Quest. 53. What are the ends of all this dispensation and order of things in the Church? Answ. The glory of God, the honor of Jesus Christ the Mediator, the furtherance of the Gospel, the edification and consolation of believers here; with their eternal salvation hereafter (Reve…

(2.) Deuteronomy 26:17; Joshua 24:22; 2 Corinthians 8:5. (3.) Ephesians 4:12, 13, 14, 15, 16; Jude 20. (4.) 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17.

Their edification, their guidance and direction in the profession of the faith and performance of divine worship in assemblies according to the mind of God, is their use and end; without which they are of no signification. The end of Christ in the constitution of his Churches, w…

Q What was the place to which he did ascend? A. The third heaven, far above this earth, and all these inferior and visible heavens (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:11; John 14:1-2; Ephesians 4:10). Q. Was this ascension of Christ a true and real mutation and change of place, or o…

Q. How do they differ in respect of their formal causes? A. The formal cause of justification is the pronouncing of the sentence of absolution, and accepting a man's person for righteous: the formal cause of Sanctification is the restoring of God's image into the soul, by puttin…

Q. And what is the Church Triumphant? A. It is that part of the catholic Church which are now in heaven, gloriously triumphing over all those enemies which in this world they did conflict and combat withal (Ephesians 4:13; Hebrews 12:23; Ephesians 5:27).

Q. How many Gods are there? A. No more but one (Deuteronomy 4:39 & 6:4; Isaiah 44:6, 8 & 45:5, 18; 1 Corinthians 8:4, 6; Ephesians 4:6). Q. Why may there not be more Gods than one?

Q. What is the sum of the ninth commandment? A. Truth in speeches, promises, and our dealings among men; and the contrary forbidden is all lying and false speaking (Ephesians 4:25; Colossians 3:9, 10; Psalms 15:2; Micah 6:12; Psalms 12:2). Q. What is the sum of the tenth command…

Q. What was that image of God? A. Principally it stood in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness (Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24; Ecclesiastes 7:29). Q. What was the knowledge that man was endued withal in that estate?