BY THOMAS GOODWIN
IN EPUB. .MOBI & .PDF FORMATS
65 Expositions. 1538 pages
"There is nothing more, and nothing better that has been written on the first two chapters of Ephesians. All the following expositors of this portion of the Scriptures depended on this great work by Goodwin. ''Goodwin combines in a remarkable fashion two of the main qualities requisite for a successful study of theology: (1) A close attention to careful exegesis, in which every element of the written text of Scripture is the object of painstaking and loving scrutiny. (2) A comprehensive grasp of revealed truth in its entirety and in its structural relationships. In this way, in Goodwin, exegetical and doctrinal theology walk hand in hand, so to speak, every truth is substantiated by Scripture, and every text is carefully analyzed so that the verities [that it reveals may find their proper place in the total organism of the Christian faith." (Roger Nicole)
"In [Goodwin's] preaching, how instructive and persuasive to convince and turn the carnal and worldly from the love of sin to the love of holiness, from the love of the earth to the love of heaven. The matter of his sermons was clear and deep, and always judiciously derived from the text. The language was neither gaudy and vain, with light trimmings, nor rude and neglected, but suitable to the oracles of God. Such were his chosen acceptable words, as to recommend heavenly truths, to make them more precious and amiable to the minds and affections of men, like the colour of the sky, that makes the stars to shine with a more sparkling brightness."
Fred Sanders writes: The puritan Thomas Goodwin (1600-1679) wrote a breathtaking commentary on Ephesians: about a thousand dense pages that only cover up through chapter two, verse 11. Before launching into his exposition, Goodwin offers a few remarks about just how great the epistle to the Ephesians is.
He quotes Jerome’s comment that Ephesians is “like the heart in the midst of the body,” (quomodo cor animalis in medio est), and says that just as the heart is “the prime seat and fountain of spirits,and the fullest thereof,” Ephesians has everything important in it that you can find anywhere in Scripture. In fact, it has “more of the spirits, the quintessence of the mysteries of Christ,” than can be found anywhere else in the Bible.
And in case you don’t believe Goodwin or Jerome, Goodwin hazards the observation that Paul himself seemed to be aware that he’d written something especially specially special: In Ephesians 3:3, Paul says that a rich treasury of insight into the mystery of the gospel had been given to him, “as I said before.” Goodwin thinks “as I said before” means “up there, the last couple of chapters.”
From there Goodwin turns to some thoughts on Paul’s relationship to the church in Ephesus, first noting that he had declared to them “the full counsel of God” while he was in their city (Acts 26:27). “So, now absent” Paul seems “to have singled out to utter in this epistle the utmost depths of that counsel.”
Why did Paul write his masterpiece (“what he himself esteemed his masterpiece”) to the Ephesians? Goodwin thinks it has a lot to do with the character of the church in Ephesus. He quotes the Greek orator Philostratus as having called Ephesus a city that “excelled all other cities in wisdom and learning, and over-abounded in thousand of learned men.” Some of this genius and curiosity had led the educated class of the city astray, of course, to study magic and esoteric traditions, to their harm. But as Acts 19 records, when they heard the gospel, they renounced those ideas, even to the point of bringing out the books and setting them on fire. This “supereminent self-denial,” muses Goodwin, “might be the reason why God honoured them with an epistle so sublime, by way of recompense.” They were being like Paul, who counted his previous intellectual attainments “but as dung and dogs’ meat, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.” Moses too, knew what was to be gained from the best Egyptian education and culture, but renounced it for the sake of God’s revealed truth.
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Table of Contents
GENERAL PREFACE
ORIGINAL PREFACE
PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT
A PREMISE CONCERNING THIS EPISTLE
SERMON I.—EPHESIANS I. 1, 2
SERMON II.—EPHESIANS I. 3
SERMON III.—EPHESIANS I. 3
SERMON IV.—EPHESIANS I. 3
SERMON V.—EPHESIANS I. 4, 5,
SERMON VI.—EPHESIANS I. 5, 6
SERMON VII.—EPHESIANS I. 5, 6
SERMON VIII.—EPHESIANS I. 7
SERMON IX.—EPHESIANS I. 8, 9
SERMON X.—EPHESIANS I. 10
SERMON XI.—EPHESIANS I. 10
SERMON XII.—EPHESIANS I. 10
SERMON XIII.—EPHESIANS I. 11–14
SERMON XIV.—EPHESIANS I. 11–14
SERMON XV.—EPHESIANS I. 13, 14
SERMON XVI.—EPHESIANS I. 13, 14
SERMON XVII.—EPHESIANS I. 14
SERMON XVIII.—EPHESIANS I. 15, 16
SERMON XIX.—EPHESIANS I. 17
SERMON XX.—EPHESIANS I. 18
SERMON XXI.—EPHESIANS I. 18
SERMON XXII.—EPHESIANS I. 19, 20
SERMON XXIII.—EPHESIANS I. 19, 20
SERMON XXIV.—EPHESIANS I. 19, 20
SERMON XXV.—EPHESIANS I. 19, 20
SERMON XXVI.—EPHESIANS I. 19, 20
SERMON XXVII.—EPHESIANS I. 19, 20
SERMON XXVIII.—EPHESIANS I. 19, 20
SERMON XXIX.—EPHESIANS I. 19, 20
SERMON XXX.—EPHESIANS I. 20
SERMON XXXI.—EPHESIANS I. 20, 21
SERMON XXXII.—EPHESIANS I. 21, 22
SERMON XXXIII.—EPHESIANS I. 21, 22
SERMON XXXIV.—EPHESIANS I. 21–23
SERMON XXXV.—EPHESIANS I. 22, 23
SERMON XXXVI.—EPHESIANS I. 22, 23
AN EXPOSITION OF THE SECOND CHAPTER
SERMON XXXVII.— EPHESIANS 2: 1–10
SERMON XXXVIII—EPHESIANS 2. 1, 2, &c.
SERMON XXXIX —EPHESIANS 2. 2
SERMON XL.—EPHESIANS 2 2
SERMON XLI.—EPHESIANS 2 3
SERMON XLII.—EPHESIANS 2 3
SERMON XLIII.—EPHESIANS 2 3
SERMON XLIV.—EPHESIANS 2 3
SERMON XLV.—EPHESIANS 2 3
SERMON XLVI.—EPHESIANS 2 4–6
SERMON XLVII.—EPHESIANS 2 4–6
SERMON XLVIII.—EPHESIANS 2 4–6
SERMON XLIX.—EPHESIANS 2 4–6
SERMON L.—EPHESIANS 2 5, 6
SERMON LI.—EPHESIANS 2 5
SERMON LII.—EPHESIANS 2 6
SERMON LIII.—EPHESIANS 2 6
SERMON LIV.—EPHESIANS 2 7
SERMON LV.—EPHESIANS 2 7
SERMON LVI.—EPHESIANS 2 7
SERMON LVII.—EPHESIANS 2 8–10
SERMON LVIII.—EPHESIANS 2 8–10
SERMON LIX.—EPHESIANS 2 8–10
SERMON LX.—EPHESIANS 2 11
BONUS SERMON #1 - A SERMON ON EPHESIANS. 2:14–16—PART I
BONUS SERMON #2 - A SERMON ON EPHESIANS. 2:14–16—PART II
BONUS SERMON #3 - A SERMON ON EPHESIANS. 3:17
BONUS SERMON #4 - THE SECOND SERMON ON EPHESIANS. 3:16–21
BONUS SERMONS #5 - A SERMON ON EPHESIANS. 5:30–32