TEXT.

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.

PARAPHRASE.

21 the religion of Christ, have learned other things; If you have been scholars of his school, and have been taught 22 the truth, as it is in the gospel of Jesus Christ: That you change your former conversation, abandoning those deceitful lusts, wherewith you were entirely corrupted: 23 And that, being renewed in the spirit of the mind, 24 You become new men, framed and fashioned according to the will of God, in righteousness and true holi

ness.

NOTES.

y, which signifies covetousness, the septuagint translate asòs, Ezek. xxxiii. 31, in which sense the apostle uses ovia here. In these, and the two preceding verses, we have a description of the state of the gentiles without, and their wretched and sinful state, whilst unconverted to the christian faith, and strangers from the kingdom of God; to which may be added, what is said of these sinners of the gentiles, chap. ii. 11-13, Col. i. 21, 1 Thess. iv. 5, Col. iii. 5-7, Rom. i. 30, S1.

24 What the wahaíos ar paros," the old man," that is to be put off, is, and the xavos avopamos, "the new man," that is to be put on, is, may be seen, in the opposite characters of good and bad men, in the following part of this, and in several other of St. Paul's epistles.

SECT. VIII.

CHAP. IV. 25.-V. 2:

CONTENTS.

AFTER the general exhortation, in the close of the foregoing section, to the ephesians, to renounce the old course of life they led, when they were heathens, and to become

perfectly new men, conformed to the holy rules of the gospel, St. Paul descends to particulars, and here, in this section, presses several particulars of those great social virtues, justice and charity, &c.

TEXT.

25 Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

26 Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your

wrath :

27 Neither give place to the devil.

28 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.

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.

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

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evilspeaking, be put away from you, with all malice.

PARAPHRASE.

25 Wherefore, putting away lying, let every man speak truth to his neighbour; for we are members one of another. 26 If you meet with provocations, that move you to anger, take care that you indulge it not so far, as to make it sinful: defer not its cure, till sleep calm the mind, but endeavour to recover yourself forthwith, and bring your27 self into temper; Lest you give an opportunity to the 28 devil, to produce some mischief, by your disorder. Let him that hath stole, steal no more, but rather let him labour in some honest calling, that he may have even 29 wherewithal to relieve others, that need it. Let not any filthy language, or a misbecoming word, come out of your mouths, but let your discourse be pertinent on the occasion, and tending to edification, and such as may have a becoming gracefulness in the ears of the 30 hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 31 whereby ye are sealed to the day of temptation. Let

NOTE.

30" Sealed," i. e. have God's mark set upon you, that you are his servants, a security to you, that you should be admitted into his kingdom, as such, at the

TEXT.

32 And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

V. 1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

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 sweetsmelling savour.

PARAPHRASE.

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, forgiv ing one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath V.1 forgiven you. Therefore, as becomes children, that are beloved and cherished by God, propose him as an 2 example to yourselves, to be imitated; And let love conduct and influence your whole conversation, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and an acceptable sacrifice' to God.

NOTES.

day of redemption, i. e. at the resurrection, when you shall be put in the actual possession of a place in his kingdom, among those who are his, whereof the Spirit is now an earnest: see note, chap. i. 14.

2 b "Of a sweet-smelling savour," was, in scripture-phrase, such a sacrific as God accepted, and was pleased with; see Gen. viii. 21.

THE

SECT. IX.

CHAP. V. 3—20.

CONTENTS.

HE next sort of sins he dehorts them from are those of intemperance, especially those of uncleanness, which were so familiar and so unrestrained among the heathens.

TEXT.

3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not once be named amongst you, as becometh saints:

PARAPHRASE.

3 But fornication and all uncleanness, or exorbitant desires in venereal matters, let it not be once named amongst

NOTE.

a The word in the greek is whovia, which properly signifies covetous pess, or an intemperate, ungoverned love of riches; but the chaste style of the scripture makes use of it to express the letting loose of the desires to irregu lar, venereal pleasures, beyond what was fit and right. This one can hardly avoid being convinced of, if one considers how it stands joined with these sorts of sins, in those many places, which Dr. Hammond mentions, in his note, on Rom. i. 29, and chap. iv. 19, of this epistle, and ver. 5, of this chap. 5, compared with this here, they are enough to satisfy one, what wλEOVEĘia, "covetousness," means here; but if that should fail, these words, "let it "not be once named amongst you, as becometh saints," which are subjoined to covetousness, put it past doubt; for what indecency, or misbecomingness is it, among christians, to name covetousness? λovežia therefore must signify the title of sins, that are not fit to be named amongst christians, so that wo ἀκαθαρσία ἡ πλεονεξία seem not here to be used definitively, for several sorts of sins, but as two names of the same thing, explaining one another; and so this verse will give us a true notion of the word wopveía, in the New Testament, the want whereof, and taking it to mean fornication, in our english acceptation of that word, as standing for one distinct species of uncleanness, in the natural mixture of an unmarried couple, seems to me to have perplexed the meaning of several texts of scripture; whereas, taken in that large sense, in which axαbapoia and oveía seem here to expound it, the obscurity, which follows, from the usual notion of fornication applied to it, will be removed. Some men have been forward to conclude from the apostle's letter to the convert gentiles of Antioch, Acts xv. 28, wherein they find fornication joined with two or three other actions, that simple fornication, as they call it, was not much distant, if at all, from an indifferent action, whereby, I think, they very much confounded the meaning of the text. The jews that were converted to the gospel, could by no means admit, that those of the gentiles, who retained any of their ancient idolatry, though they professed faith in Christ, could by any means be received by them, into the communion of the gospel, as the people of God, under the Messiah; and so far they were in the right, to make sure of it, that they had fully renounced idolatry; the generality insisted on it, that they should be circumcised, and so, by submitting to the observances of the law, give the same proof, that proselytes were wont to do, that they were perfectly clear from all remains of idolatry. This the apostles thought more than was necessary; but eating of things sacrificed to idols, and blood, whether let out of the animal, or contained in it, being strangled; and forni cation, in the large sense of the word, as it is put for all sorts of uncleanness ;. being the presumed marks of idolatry to the jews, they forbid the convert gentiles, thereby to avoid the offence of the jews, and prevent a separation be tween the professors of the gospel, upon this account. This, therefore, was not given to the convert gentiles, by the apostles of circumcision, as a standing rule of morality, required by the gospel; if that had been the design, it must have contained a great many other particulars; what laws of morality they

TEXT.

4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ, and of God.

6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for, because of these things, cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedi

ence.

PARAPHRASE.

4 you, as becometh saints: Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor pleasantry of discourse of this kind, which are none of them convenient, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you are thoroughly instructed in, and acquainted with, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor lewd, lascivious libertine, in such matters, who is in truth an idolater, shall have any part in the kingdom of Christ, 6 and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain, empty talk; these things in themselves are highly offensive to God, and are that which he will bring the heathen world

NOTES.

were under, as subjects of Jesus Christ, they doubted not but St. Paul, their apostle, taught and inculcated to them: all that they instructed them in here, was necessary for them to do, so as to be admitted into one fellowship and communion with the converts of the jewish nation, who would certainly avoid them, if they found that they made no scruple of those things, but practised any of them. That fornication, or all sorts of uncleanness, were the consequence and concomitants of idolatry, we see, Rom. i. 29, and, it is known, were favoured by the heathen worship: and therefore the practice of those sins is every-where set down, as the characteristical, heathen, mark of the idolatrous gentiles, from which abominations the jews, both by their law, profession, and general practice, were strangers; and this was one of those things, wherein chiefly God severed his people from the idolatrous nations, as may be seen, Lev. xviii. 20, &c. And hence I think that wλovía, used for licentious intemperance in unlawful and unnatural lusts, is in the New Testament called idolatry, and sorexles, an idolater; see 1 Cor. v. 11, Col. iii. 5, Eph. v. 5, as being a sure and undoubted mark of an heathen idolater.

6 One would guess by this, that as there were jews who would persuade them, that it was necessary for all christians to be circumcised, and observe the law of Moses; so there were others, who retained so much of their ancient heathenism, as to endeavour to make them believe, that those venereal abominarions and uncleannesses, were no other, than what the gentiles esteemed them, barely indifferent actions, not offensive to God, or inconsistent with his worship, but only a part of the peculiar and positive ceremonial law of the jews, whereby they distinguished themselves from other people, and thought themselves holier than the rest of the world, as they did, by their distinction of food, into clean and unclean, these actions being, in themselves, as indifferent as those meats, which the apostle confutes in the following words.