Our apostle had set forth the excellent end of the ministry, in the foregoing verse, for furthering their stability and stedfastness in grace; here he declares the admirable fitness of it, for helping forward their proficiency and growth in grace. Speaking the truth in love; that is, cleaving to the truth of Christ's doctrine, and living in love with one another, you may grow up in Christ by making progress in all christian graces, being united to him as members to the head. Here note, How the apostle draws a comparison between the natural and mystical members, and the increase of both: as there must be a fellowship betwixt the natural head and members, so must there be a union betwixt Christ, the spiritual head, and believers, his mystical members; and as there is further required a mutual communion and fellowship of the members of the body within, and amongst themselves, in order to growth and increase, so must there be concord, love, and unity, amongst believers, if they expect to see grace growing in themselves, or in one another. Are the members of the natural body severally distinct from one another, some principal, others ministerial; but all concurring to the service of the whole? So, in order to spiritual growth, must all the members of Christ's mystical body keep their rank and order, and act in their own sphere, with spiritual wisdom and humility; the eye not doing the work of the hand, nor the hand the work of the foot but every one in the calling wherein he is called, must there abide with God. Again, is there a supply of nourishment from one member to another, according to the measure of every part in the natural body? So is there a supply from head to members in the mystical body, and from one mystical member to another: one is apt to teach, another ready to comfort, a third able to convince, a fourth willing to exhort, a fifth to advise and counsel; and all these, and every one of these, contributing all they can to the welfare and growth of the whole. Happy is it both for the natural and mystical body, when the members of both are subservient to each other, and contribute all they can to the mutual growth and improvement of one another, and especially for the benefit and advantage of the whole.

17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles

walk, in the vanity of their mind, 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, 19 Who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

3.

Our apostle having finished this grand exhortation to love and unity amongst all christians, and enforced it with the most weighty arguments and motives in the former part of the chapter; comes now, in the latter part of it, to press the Ephesians to the practice of particular duties. The first of which is this, to take special care, that, being now converted christians, they walk no more like ignorant and unconverted heathens: Walk not as other Gentiles walk. Next he gives particular instances how, and after what manner, the Gentiles, in the black night of paganism, did walk: namely, 1. In the vanity of their minds, following their own imaginations, and not any revelation from God, in the matters of his worship. 2. Having their understandings darkened; their minds void of saving knowledge. They were alienated from the life of God: that is, from a godly life: they were strangers to the life which God commanded, which God approved, and which God himself lived. Here note, That holiness is called the life of God, because it is the life which God requires of us, it is the life which he works in us, it is the life whereby God liveth in us; the life whereby we live unto God; it is an everliving life; not obnoxious to death, as the Ephesians were: so every carnal man, before conversion, is alienated from this life of God; he has no liking of it, no incli nation to it, but prefers a life of sin before it. Lord, how many that are surrounded with the celestial beams of the gospel, are as impure and impenitent now as these Gentiles were then in the black night of paganism! 4. They were past feeling : their sottish stupidity had benumbed them, the flames of their lusts had seared their consciences to a desperate degree of hard. ness and insensibility: they were at once insensible of their sin, and of their danger by reason of sin. A dead conscience, and a desperately dissolute life, are inseparable companions. 5. They gave themselves

over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. Here see how insensibility of sin begets insatiableness in sinning; they work uncleanness with insatiable greediness, who have once abandoned themselves to sin, especially to the sin of uncleanness. Lord! this was the deplorable case of the heathen world, before the light of the gospel did arise and shine upon them. But, alas! it is the case of multitudes that sit under the brightest beams of gospel light: they shut their eyes, and will not see; they extinguish all sense of immortality and a future state, and so abandon themselves to a life of brutish sensuality, working all uncleanness with greediness but let them know assuredly, that though they live like beasts, yet they shall not die like them, nor shall their latter end be like theirs, the soul being under a divine ordination to an everlasting existence in a future state, in which it shall be eternally happy or intolerably miserable, according as we manage our deportment in this present world.

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20 But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts : 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind ; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

In these verses, 1. Our apostle acquaints the converted Ephesians, that the saving knowledge of Christ, which they had received, instructed them better than to practise such licentiousness and wickedness as the unconverted Gentiles wallowed in. But ye have not so learned Christ; that is, the gospel of Christ. Nothing curbs sin, nothing cures sin, in a licentious sinner, like the doctrine of Christ revealed in the gospel; no moral precepts from the school of the heathens, which some so much magnify and applaud, can compare with this, which lays open the root of this accursed disease, and leads us to the remedy which the wisdom of God has appointed for its cure, even the blood of his own Son. Then blessed be God for revealed religion! Observe, 2. The apostle acquaints them

what the truth as it is in Jesus, that is, the doctrine of the gospel, doth direct them to, enjoin and require of thein; namely, to put off the old man, that is, their former heathen conversation, and manner of life, say some; but this they had put off already at their first conversion to christianity. By the old man, then, understand, the old corrupt nature, so called, because it is as old as Adam, and derived from Adam, and which daily more and more corrupts and depraves us by its deceitful lusts, if it be not resisted and subdued. But this is not sufficient, that we put off the old man, unless we put on the new, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds after God; that is, after the image of God, which consisteth in righteousness and true holiness. Note here, 1. That regenerating grace is called the new man; because the person has a new principle infused into him, (says the pious bishop Fell, upon the place,) which enables him to lead a new life. Regenerate men, then, are new men; they have a renewed and enlightened understanding, they have a sanctified and renewed will, renewed affections and desires; old things are passing away, and all things becoming new. Note, 2. That God himself is the pattern and exemplar, after which, and according to which, the new man is formed in the soul, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. What is Godliness, but Godlikeness? What is holiness, but the conformity of our natures to the holy nature of God, and the conformity of our lives to the will of God? Acts xiii. 20. I have found David, a man after my own heart, who shall perform all my will. Note, 3. That holiness is not only the reforming of the outward man, but it is the renewing of the mind; and not only of the mind, but of the spirit of the mind: by which understand the highest and most refined faculties of the mind, that part which is most free from the dregs of sin, and which comes up nearest to God, as the spirit of the mind and understanding doth. Verily, not our minds only, but even the spirit of our minds, nced renewing, because corruption is got into the highest powers and superior faculties of the soul, and because we must serve God with all our mind; and if so, with the spirit of our mind; and blessed be God that regenerating and renewing grace is a universal principle, as sin was. Did sin invade the whole soul, all the powers and faculties of

Our apostle closes this chapter with an exhortation to several duties belonging to the second table; namely, to abstain from lying, from anger, from stealing, from corrupt communication, from all bitterness of spirit, from malice and revenge, and to exercise brotherly kindness, and mutual forgiveness. From whence note, That christians must make conscience of the du-. ties of the second table, as well as of the first, and perform their duty towards their neighbour, as well as towards God; for the law is one copulative. God spake all these words; the authority of the lawgiver is despised, in the violation of the least command; when therefore second-table duties are performed by us, from arguments and motives drawn from the first table, that is, when, in obedience to God's command, and with an eye to his glory, we perform our duty to our neighbour, this is both an argument of our sincerity, and also an ornament to our profession. Wherefore put away lying, &c. Lying was a vice very common among the heathens: it is likely, the Ephesians, in their heathen state, had been very guilty of it; for they thought it lawful, when it was beneficial, to lie: for they affirmed, that a lie was better than a hurtful truth. Our apostle therefore exhorts them, now converted to christianity, to speak exact truth one to another; and adds a forcible reason for it, because they were members one of another; that is, of human society, which by lying is destroyed; falsehood dissolves the bond of human society. Learn hence, That there is no sin more unseeming in a christian, more inconsistent with grace, more abominable to God, more like unto the devil, more inSurious and prejudicial to human society, than the sin of lying; fidelity towards cach other, and mutual confidence in each other, being that which makes human society both safe and easy.

26 Be ye angry and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath : 27 Neither give place to the devil.

Some understand these words only as a cautionary direction, and sense them thus: If ye be angry at any time, take heed that ye sin not, by exceeding due bounds; and if at any time it doth so, suppress speedily, before the sun go down. This was a practice even amongst the heathen; before the sun went down, they would shake hands and embrace one another: to the shame of christians, who give place to the devil, according to the known proverb, Contubernalem habet diabolum, qui lectum petit iratus. "He that goes angry to bed, has the devil for his chamber-fellow;" yea, for his bed-fellow ! nay, he lies not only in his bed, but in his bosom. Others understand the words as a precept and command: Be angry, but take heed of sinful anger. Now the way to be angry and not sin, is to be angry at nothing but at sin; it is our duty to be angry when we see others depart from their duty. Meek Moses, who was cool enough in his own cause, was not so in God's; he has no zeal for God, that is not moved when he sees or hears God dishonoured. Learn hence, 1. That anger being an affection implanted by God in the human nature, is not in itself evil or sinful, but in some cases a necessary duty. Learn hence, 2. That there is an easy and ready passage from what is lawful to what is sinful, Be angry, and sin not; implying, that it is a very easy matter to sin in our anger, and no easy matter to be angry and not to sin. Learn, 3. That it is very difficult, if not impossible, to avoid sin in our anger, if we let anger hang upon our spirits, and continue with us: anger may pass through the heart of a wise man, but rests in the bosom of fools: anger against sin must continue, but continuance in anger will be sinful. To prevent the sin of immoderate anger, these rules will be useful: 1. Desire not to hear what others say of thee, lest you want patience to bear what you hear; many tear themselves with anger, when they hear themselves torn with slander; we had better be in the dark concerning our own wrongs, than by knowing of them wrong ourselves by passion or desire of revenge. 2. What you do hear said of you, interpret always in the most favourable sense; call it an infirmity, and distinguish between

the action and intention, between what is spoken, and the intent of the speaker. 3. In and under all provocations, cast your eye upward, look up to God; and cast your eye inward, and see what you have deserved; though not at your neighbour's hand, yet at God's hand. Shimei gave David provocation to boil up his anger to the height of fury, 2 Sam. xvi. 5. but by eyeing God, how calm and meek was his spirit! Thus, be angry, and sin not.

29 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Observe here, 1. The sin dissuaded from: theft and stealing. This the heathen na tions counted no crime; they made no conscience, either openly or fraudulently, to take away their neighbour's goods. Therefore, says the apostle, let those of you, who in the time of your paganism and unregeneracy, were given to stealing, now, being converted to christianity, do so no more. Observe, 2. The remedy prescribed for the prevention of this sin; and that is diligence and labour in some honest calling: Let him labour, working with his hands. Idleness occasions poverty, brings men to want, increases their necessities, and then they betake themselves to indirect and unlawful means to supply them. Observe, 3. One special reason why persons should labour in the way of their calling: That they might have to give to him that needeth; not only that they may have where. with to relieve their own wants, but the wants of others. Where note, That God expects charity from the hands of those who get their living with their hands: daylabourers, and such as have nothing to live upon but their work, must yet give their mite, their alms, for the help of the indigent. Observe, 4. The restriction and qualification of this labour of the hands: he must work that which is good, that he may give to him that needeth. To relieve others with the gain of oppression, or with the hire of an harlot, is unacceptable; the matter of our alms must be goods right eously gotten, otherwise it is robbery, not righteousness.

29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but

that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Here the apostle directs us how to manage our tongues, both negatively and positively, telling us what we should not speak, and what we should: Let no corrupt, rotten, filthy discourse, come out of your mouth such as have rotten lungs have a stinking breath; filthy discourse argues a polluted heart; such noisome discourse is unsavory to an holy ear, and greatly offensive, contagious, and infecting to common and ordinary hearers. Next, he tells them what they should speak: That which is profitable and edifying, and that which may minister increase of grace to the hearers. Our speech should be so gracious and savory, as to discover grace wrought in our hearts, and by a means of working in the hearts of others; elsewhere St. Paul advises that our speech be savoury, seasoned with salt, Col. iv. 6. Truth, holiness, and prudence, is the salt of our words; christians must not suffer their tongues to run at random in their ordinary discourse; it is not sufficient that they do not speak to evil purposes, but they must speak to edifying purpose; that which has a tendency to make the hearers some way

or other either wiser or better, this the apostle calls that which is good to the use of edifying.

30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Observe here, 1. The title given to the Spirit of God: he is styled the Holy Spirit, being essentially and infinitely holy in himself, and the author of all grace and holiness in us. Observe, 2. The affection of grief, which is here attributed to the Spirit, not properly, but improperly: when we do that which would most certainly afflict and grieve him, were he a subject capable of grief; and when, upon provocations given on our parts, he carrieth himself towards us after the manner of a person grieved, namely, when we provoke him to suspend his influence, to withdraw his comforts, leaving us without any present sense of feeling of his assistances; he is also then grieved when he is opposed, interrupted, controlled, and disturbed, in his operations of grace and comfort upon our souls. Observe, 3. The argument used

to enforce the exhortation, not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God: because by it we are sealed to the day of redemption. But what doth God's scaling his people by his Holy Spirit intimate and imply? Ans. 1. It intimates that God has distinguished them from others. 2. That he has appropriated them to himself. 3. That he has put a value upon them, and a very high esteem. And, 4. It imports the irrevocable purpose of God for their salvation. Seals are for these uses, ends, and purposes: seals are for distinction, for appropriation, for confirmation; and argue a high valuation and precious esteem of the person or thing which the seal is put upon. Grieve not the Spirit, whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption; that is, to the day of judgment.

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven

you.

Our apostle had exhorted, in the former verse, not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God; in the next verse, he acquaints us with the particular sins that would afflict and grieve him: namely, Bitterness, that is, a secret grudge and a smothered displeasure against our brother: Wrath, or an impetuous fierceness of spirit, upon some real or apprehended injury: Anger, an eager desire of revenge; Clamour, loud threatenings, or reviling language: Evil-speaking, either of others or to others: Malice, a rooted enmity, the rage of the devil; and renders a man as like the devil as any sin on this side hell. All these sins do exceedingly grieve the Holy Spirit; they make him both loathe and leave his lodgings. In the last verse, as a proper remedy against all the foregoing sins, he exhorts them to mutual kindness: Be ye kind one towards another; that is, of a sweet and loving disposition, affable and courteous to each other; neither carrying it loftily nor morosely, but affably and humbly; tenderhearted, having a compassionate sense of the miseries and infirmities of one another; forgiving one another whatever has been matter of provocation in each other, according to the example of God, who for Christ's

of the foregoing chapter, exhorted the Our apostle having, in the conclusion Ephesians to mutual offices of love and kindness towards each other, in the beginning of this chapter he makes use of several them thereunto. very cogent arguments to excite and quicken The first of which is drawn from the example of God: as he had been kind to us, and for Christ's sake forgiven us, let us therefore be followers of him, not as our God only, but as our Father Be ye followers of God, as dear children. Where note, 1. The duty exhorted to: Be ye followers of God; that is, in all the excellences of his communicable attributes, and particularly in the exercise of universal goodness and kindness, mercy and forgiveness. The argument exciting to this duty; as dear children: you are children, and who should children imitate but their father?

And

you are dear children, 'will not you imitate such a Father? Learn from both, That such as lay claim to a relation to God, without imitation to him, are not children, but bastards: they may be of his family, but not of his household; of his family by instruction, but not by descent. There is no implantation into Christ without an imitation, both of the Creator and ReChrist as a Son deemer, Heb. iii. 6. whose house are we,

over his own house: if we hold fast, &c.

2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.

Here we have a second argument urged, to walk in love one with and one towards