Christian Solicitude; As Exemplified in the Third Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians baixar o livro de graça

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856. Excerpt: ... 133 VIII. Ifarailtj fame. 'Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."--Ephes. iii. 15. These Ephesian saints, for whose welfare the Apostle thus manifests a prayerful solicitude, had heen chosen by the God and Father of their Lord, and adopted into his family by their union with his dear Son, Jesus Christ; of which exalted and holy privilege he, in the former part of this epistle, most affectionately and faithfully reminded them. Into this full and blessed relation they had been actually brought by the regenerating and sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost. Observe the extent of the family. This family, in the eye of God, takes in the whole election of grace; those who are now in heaven, and those who are now upon earth; those who are living in the world, yet uncalled, and those who are yet unborn. There is a sense in which angels may also be considered as forming a part of this family. To these glorious beings, I think, the Apostle in the first chapter of this epistle, the tenth verse, thus refers: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him." Therefore I think angels cannot be excluded. But in the verse on which we are now meditating, saints are regarded as the children of God in a higher and more glorious sense than the angels themselves, who are called the sons of God; for high, holy, and exalted as their nature is, the only sense, as far as we know, in which angels are the sons of God, is by their creation. But believers are the sons of God by being adopted into that family of which the Lord Jesus is the Great Head, the "everlasting Father,"--the Head and Father of a spiritual seed. He "shall see his seed"--a seed as nu...