PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Thomas Manton — Volume 19
Thomas Manton · 315,248 words · 313 reading sections
Section 121
YeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 199 God's word: Ps. cxix. 9, 'Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way ? by taking heed thereunto according to thy word ; ' 1 John ii. 14, ' I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.' But especially…
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Thirdly, The duty substituted into the room and place of these : ' But rather ivxapiaria, giving of thanks ; ' meaning to God (though he be not mentioned), from whom all mercies are received, and to whom all praises are due. This is added — (1.) To show that delight is not abrogated, but preferred or transferred to a b…
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3. Words do much discover the temper of a man's heart. There are three operations of man by which he is discovered to be what he is — thoughts, words, and actions ; and all these we should make con- science of. Certainly in all these things there should be a diiference between the people of God and othei-s. To instance…
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5. Because our speeches are regarded by God ; nnd therefore j'ou must consider not only what is fit for you to utter and others to hear, but what is fit for God to hear. You are indeed to consider all three. What is fit for you to utter: "Will this become saints? What is fit for man to hear as tending to his profit, at…
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VeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 205 [3.] You infect others, and corrupt them by filthy discourse. Many an hopeful gentleman hath been debauched this way, by unclean representations both from the stage and the talk of their company. The filthy speakers are factors for hell to proselyte men to the devil, and draw unw…
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(3.) Because it shutteth out better discourse, and so converse with others is rendered unprofitable. Omission of good is caused by it. A christian should come into no company but he should bethink him- self what he is to do or say for God there. Now when men abandon themselves to foolish speaking, they little mind the …
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208 SERMONS UPON EPHEhlANS V. [SeR. IV. Ill, One special means of checlving such sins is to consider how much they misbecome christians ; for the apostle saith no more but ' they are not convenient,' or do not agree with that state of grace into which we profess to be called. For three reasons this will hold good — …
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3. None have such cause of delightful praise and thanksgiving as a christian. He hath greater matters to talk of than those things that are the subject of fools' boasting. Besides what is common to him with others, all the works of God to admire, and his excellencies shining forth in creation and providence, he hath th…
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VeR. 5.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 211 staggered me, and made me think covetousness is to be taken in the ordinary and vnlgar acceptation ; but I recovered myself again, when I considered that interpretative idoUxtry is when the creatnre is set in tlie place of God ; which may be done two ways — by confidence and trus…
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[1.] Duties. As in a kingdom subjects are bound to obey their proper and rightful lord, so here ; God being our lawgiver and king, as he hath right to command, so we are bound to obey. As in the Lord's prayer, when we say, ' Thy kingdom come,' we presently say, ' Thy will be done,' Mat. vi. 10. All that own his kingdom…
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214 SERMONS UPON EPHKSIANS V. [SeR. V. Christ there is no entering into the kingdom of God. These two are not contrary, but the one is subordinate to the other ; namely, the kingdom of Christ is derived from God, and referred to him. The supreme right of governing is still in God, and our subjection to hiin is preserv…
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(1.) Because it is contrary to that covenant by which all enter into Christ's kingdom: Mark xvi. 16, 'He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved.' Now baptism implieth a renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, and a dedicating ourselves to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as our creator, redeemer, and sanct…
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[4.] It is idolatry. Primary idolatry is when divine honours are given to any creature. But how is whoredom and uncleanness idol- atry ? Because by it men are addicted to some base thing which they prefer before God. They love brutish pleasures more than Godr 2 Tim. iii. 4, ' Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God …
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(2.) The next thing that will deceive you is some faint resistance or striving against sin, but it groweth upon you. There are some sins where striving is conquering, as in the case of infirmities that we can- not wholly get rid of in this life ; but in the case of heinous sins it is otherwise ; they must not only be s…
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220 SEllMONS UPON EPIIESIANS V. [SeR. VL SERMON VI. Let no man deceive you ivitli vain tvords ; for because of these tilings Cometh the lurath of God upon the children of disobedience. — Eph. v. 6. The apostle had argued ab incon(j7nio, from what was indecent and misbecoming in us ; now a pericido^ from the danger o…
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* obedient children,' are opposite to these u/oi)? rf/? aTreiOeLa^, 'children of disobedience,' that profess obedience, and yet relapse into their old practices. [2.] That the wrath of God lighteth not upon them that have once fallen into these sins, or it may be often, in their unregeneracy, but afterwards repent and…
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2. That God will be merciful to them ; though they sin against him, they shall notwithstanding escape well enough ; that he will not be severe against his creatures. But you reflect but upon one part of God's nature, liis mercy, without his holiness and justice, and so fancy an unrejiKonablo indulgence in God. You less…
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VeR. 6.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 225 5. Others say they are justified, and depend on the righteousness of Christ. You may, if you liave a right to it ; but, 1 John iii. 7, ' He that doeth righteousness is rigliteous.' Wliere Christ is made right- eousness, he is also made sanctification : 1 Cor. i. 30, * But of him …
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[2.] Unbelief of God's word and divine promises and threatenings. Unbelief and obstinate impenitency always go together. God hath his word, and they have their word. Now rather than believe God's word, they will put it to the venture and trial, whose word shall stand, God's or theirs ? Jer. xliv. 28, ' And all the remn…
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228 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. VI. extenuate tlie greatest sins, and the danger of them, when they think light of them, or presume of impunity, God is concerned to vindicate himself. Doct 2. It should deter us from wilful and heinous sins to think of the wrath of God that shall come upon those that live in them.…
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4. The poe7ia sensus, the punishment of sense, is necessary also to quicken men to their duty, and to guard their love, and to show that God doth not make little reckoning of sin ; for, 2 Cor. v. 11, 'Know- ing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men," This is necessary in case of great deadness and numbness of conscie…
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VeR. 6.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 231 in ray heart.' So fear of hell : ' Destruction from God was a terror to me,' Job xxxi. 23. Hope of heaven : Heb. xi. 26, ' He had respect to the recompense of reward.' Their state of happiness is a state of like- ness to God. These principles with others do well. So also thankful…
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Doct. The dreadful estate of the children of disobedience should keep us from joining with them in their evil ways. Here let me show you — (1.) Who are children of disobedience ; (2.) The misery of their condition ; (3.) Why this should deter us from being partakers with them. I. Who are children of disobedience, 1.…
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231 SERMONS UrON EPHESIANS V. [SeII. Vll. (2.) The counsels of salvation, or what we must do on our part, that we may partake of the righteousness and Spirit of Christ : Luke vii. 30, ' But the pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves.' There is the counsel which God giveth us, if we will h…
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236 SERMONS UPON EPHESTANS V. [SeU. VIL 3. This obslinacv and disobedience is aji^frravated — [1.] From the person who is disobeyed. It is not our counsel, but God's. To weary and grieve men who do entreat them to forsake tlieir sins and seek after God, is ill, for they nuist give an account : Heb. xiii. 17, 'Obey th…
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4. This disobedience, the longer it is continued, the more it is increased. There is a natural averseness from God. Take a man in liis pure naturals, he hath nothing to incline him to God ; but the longer we continue in it, we every day make ourselves seven times more the children of hell. Still it increaseth till it c…
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2. It is matter of faith and foresight. And so by this Avrath of God is meant eternal destruction, which cometh upon them for their dis- obedience, which is a sin of the highest nature, and a chief cause of their danmation. At death they feel the sad effects of it : 1 Peter iii. 19, 20, ' By which he also went and prea…
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2. Why the wrath of God should deter us from this. [1.] Because of the impartiality of God's judgment ; he will not only punish heathen sinners without the pale, but christian sinners who profess and own the true religion; for there is no acceptance of persons Avith God : 1 Peter i. 17, ' And if ye call on the Father,…
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VOL. XIX. Q 242 SERMONS UrON EPHESTANS V. [SeR. VII. life of these fifty, be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came fire- down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties, with their fifties ; therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.' But our stupidness and blindness is such that we…
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[2.] Sometimes the sin is clearly written on the judgment, and the name of the sin is engraven on the rod wherewith we are scourged : Judges i. 7, 'As I have done, so God hath requited me.' There are some remarkable circumstances wherein sin and judgment meet : Obad. 15, 'As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee.'…
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2. Their present estate, ' Ye are light in the Lord.' Where — [1.] The grace received, ' Ye are light.' [2.] The author of it, ' In the Lord.' [1.] The grace received, 'Ye are light;' that is, filled with the liglit of wisdom and holiness. No question the expression heightens the sense ; to be enlightened is a great …
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VeR 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 247 ing work with a kind of liberty and choice. Fire bnrneth wliere it ineeteth with matter combustible, but a reasonable creature needeth to be exhorted to perform acts agreeable to his principle ; for in reasonable creatures, though the inclination be necessary, the acts are volunta…
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VeR. 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 249 [2.] There is downri'ojht and apparent wandering from God. The Greek scholiast isaith Panl calleth darkness rov iv irXavr) ^lov, a life spent in error ; for by their ignorance men run into all profaneness, and become very slaves of sin. To walk in darkness is often put in scriptu…
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[1.] The objects known are the highest and most important matters in the world. The knowledge of the profoundest science is question- less more than skill in some low and petty employments. As Themis- tocles said. To know how to govern a city is more than how to play upon a lute. But to have the saving knowledge of God…
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[1.] By concession there is indeed a diversity or contrariety of prin- ciples : Gal. V. 17, ' For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary one to the other.' These two powers and j)rinciples are of contrary natures and tempers. By the one they delight in the law of…
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3. To keep us humble : 1 Cor. xv. 9, ' For I am the least of the apostles, and am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.' A man may be proud of spiritual enjoyments, so far as he is unholy : 2 Cor. xii. 7, ' And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelatio…
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VeR. 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 255 a more plentiful condition, and those comforts which we should have counted a wonderful mercy before ; or when we are recovered from a sickness, and live in health, we forget the tediousness of sickness, and are not thankful for the health which we enjoy; so we undervalue, or ove…
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2. The grace received by it. Now the children of light are those who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, have a new nature, and a sense of the other world. Luke xvi, 8, the 'lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely ; for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of …
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2. He instanceth in such graces as concern the second table, kind- ness, justice, and fidelity, as is usual in such cases. The world is most capable of knowing and approving these things, but they suppose higher graces ; for all our goodness, justice, and truth must come from love and obedience to God, and faith in Chr…
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8. These are ascribed to the Spirit by the apostle for two reasons — [1.] Partly because of man's ineapacity to produce these things of himself. We are not only defective in the duties which concern our commerce with God, but also in the lower hemisphere of duties, those which concern our dealings with men. None is go…
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1. Let us see what the gospel doth to promote this goodness in the world. 2. Upon what grounds we may expect the Spirit to co-operate there- with. First, What the gospel doth to promote this goodness in the world, 1. By the laws and precepts of it, or the duties it requireth ; it re- quireth us to be good, and to do…
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2. By the discoveries it maketh. The greatest, truest, and fullest prospect of God's goodness to mankind we have in the gospel There ' the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared,' Titus iii. 4. When God was displeased for the breach of tlie first covenant, and man had fixllen from his primitive holin…
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[2.] As to his work, he doeth good. What hath God been acting 264 SERMONS UPON EPllESIANS V. [SeU. IX. upon the great theatre of the world but goodness for these six thousand years ? Acts xiv. 17, 'Nevertheless he hath not left himself without a witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful…
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Secondly, Upon what grounds we may expect the Spirit to co-operate lierewith. 1. Because God worketli congruously, as with respect to the subject upon which he worketh, so with respect to the object by which he wurketh. The subject is the heart of man, and therefore he 'draweth us with the cords of a man,' Hosea xi. 4…
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2. It informeth us that the children of light should be full of good- ness, or else they do not improve their advantages. We have a good word to direct us, after we had lost the knowledge of God, and of the world to come, and the way thither ; tliat all this should be revealed to us by Christ clearly and plainly. And n…
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1. Let us see what is the office of righteousness. 2. To what an height Christianity advanceth it above all other institutions in the world. First, What is the office and part of justice and righteousness? Ver. 9.] sp:rmons upon: ephesians v. 261) 1. To seek the peace and welfare of tlie several communities and soc…
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[1.] It is a fixed principle : Epii, iv. 24, * And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.' When the heart is thus constituted and framed, that to be imjust, or to do anything unjust, is as unsuitable to them as it is for venomons berries to grow upon a choice vine. As…
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[1.] It requireth to be just in all things ; to keep a good conscience in the smallest matter ; not only in our public and most momentous actions, but justice is to be observed in lesser things as well as in greater; for where heaven and hell are concerned, nothing is little: Luke xvi. 10, ' He that is faithful in that…
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VeR. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS T. 273 unjust for their sakes, when it may be we are a little shy in our own cnse ; for there conscience would boggle at it as too gross, but friend- ship puts an honest pretence upon it. I mast love my friend, but ^Lsqlte ad aras ; where religion forbids rae, I must not keep friendship…
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II. That this is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It must needs be so, because it suiteth with his office and personal operations. The Spirit is to be our guide, sanctifier, and comforter. As our guide, he doth direct and enlighten our minds ; as our sanctifiei-, he doth change our hearts ; and as our comforter, he dot…
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276 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. X, the. fear of God, and hope in his grace ; for these are the substantial duties of the first table. And compare substantials with substanlials, first-table duties are more weighty ; but compare internals of the second with externals of the first, moral duties of the second with th…
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1. Because it conduceth so much to the good of human society. A christian is a member of a double community, of the church and of the world ; the one in order to eternal life, the other in order to the present life : in the latter he is considered as a man, in the former as a chris- tian. Now the righteous are pillars …
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1. A lying to God is the worst sort of lying, because it argueth not only falsity and evil hypocrisy, but misbelief or ill thoughts of God, as if he did not know the heart and try the reins, and is contented to be mocked with a false appearance. We lie to God when we put him off with a false appearance and show of what…
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VeR. 9.] SERMOKS UPON EPHESIANS V. 281 you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof at the day of judgment/ Let him use harmless recreations^ without accusing his brother falsely, or shamming him with devised lies. Now to this sporting lie a fable or parable is not to be reduced, bec…
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(2.) A lie committed in courts of judicature; as Exod. xxiii. 1, * Thou shalt not raise a false report ; put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.' So ver. 7, ' Keep thee far from a false matter ; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not ; for I will not justify the wicked.' Now this is the m…
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3. Notliing maketh us more like tlie devil, who is a liar from the beginning, and the father of lies : John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ; he was a murderer 284 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. XL from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is n…
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7. It is a sin shameful and odious in the eyes of men. The more common honesty any man hath, the further he is from it, especially the more he hath of the spirit of grace : Prov. xiii. 5, ' A righteous man hateth lying ; but a wicked man is loatlisome, and cometh to shame.' All men hate a liar, because they suspect him…
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Use 1. To reprove many, because they make so little conscience of YeR. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 28T truth. Lying is a more general and common sin than we imagine. Those expressions intimate it : Rom. iii. 4, ' Let God be true, but every man a liar.' The phrase intimateth, that though there be none in God, yet th…
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[2.] Flattery, or a desire to ingratiate ourselves with great ones : Ps. xii. 2, ' With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.' A self-seeker is apt to flatter and fawn upon all that is rich and great and mighty, and to smooth them up with falsehoods and applauses. Flattering and tale-bearing is many me…
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VOL. XIX. T 290 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. XIL 4. There are some things which do most please God, as things eminently good are acceptable to him in the highest degree ; as, for instance, faith in Christ is ])leasing to God, but a strong faith is more acceptable than a weak, which needeth props and crutches : Joh…
929 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1870); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.