doubted that true conjugal love will ever lead the husband to sacrifice himself for his wife.*
Vs. 26. 27. As the apostle unites with his design of teaching the duties arising from the conjugal relation, the purpose to illustrate the nature of the union be- tween Christ and his church, these verses relate to the latter point and not to the former. They set forth the design of Christ’s death. Its remote design was to gain the church for himself as an object of delight. Its proximate design was to prepare it for that high destiny. These ideas are presented figuratively. The church is regarded as the bride of Christ. This is de- signed to teach—1. That it is an object of a peculiar and exclusive love. As the love which a bridegroom has for his bride is such as he has for no one else; so the love which Christ has for his church is such as he has for no other order of creatures in the universe, however exalted. 2. As the bride belongs exclusively to her husband, so the church belongs exclusively to Christ. It sustains a relation to him which it sustains to no other being, and in which no other being partici- pates. 38. This relation is not only peculiar and exclu- sive, but the union between Christ and his church is
* The idea that all love, and therefore all holiness, is benevolence, and is proportioned to the capacity of its object, is one of those absurdities into which men inevitably fall when they give themselves up to the guid- ance of the speculative understanding, and disregard the teachings of the heart and of the conscience. A mother loves her infant, in every true sense of the word love, a hundred fold more than she loves a stranger,
though he may be the greatest man who ever lived.
CHAP. v. vs. 26. 27. 317
more intimate than any which subsists between him and any other order of creatures. We are flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bones. 4. The church is the special object of delight to Christ. It is said of Zion, “ As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee,” Is. 62,5. He is to present it to himself as his own peculiar joy. Such being the high destiny of the church, the proximate end of Christ’s death was to purify, adorn, and render it glo- rious, that it might be prepared to sit with him on his throne. She is to be as a bride adorned for her hus- band. ‘These are not imaginations, nor exaggerations, nor empty figures; but simple, scriptural, sanctifying, and saving truths. And what is true of the church collectively, is true of its members severally. Each is the object of Christ’s peculiar love. Each sustains to him this peculiar, exclusive, and intimate relation. Each is the object in which he thus delights, and each is to be made perfectly holy, without spot, and glorious.
Though the general sense of this passage is thus plain, there is no little difficulty attending the inter- pretation of its details. Christ, it is said, gave himself tor the church, ἵνα αὐτὴν ἁγιάσῃ, which Calvin renders, Ut segregaret eam sibi, that he might separate it for himself ; which, he says, is done by the remission of sin, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Though the verb ayidfew has this sense, yet as in Paul’s writings it is commonly used to express cleansing from pollu- tion, and as this sense best suits the context, it is gener-