This is an Exposition of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians. Ferguson was another of the great Scottish expositors which David Dickson selected to do commentaries that would be brief, but without leaving out anything important. Besides Hutcheson in this select group of Puritan commentators were James Durham on the Song, James Ferguson on the Epistles of Paul, and Hutcheson on Job, The Minor Prophets, and on John.
''Ferguson was the author of excellent commentaries on Paul’s Epistles, published between 1656 and 1675, which have been highly commended by C. H. Spurgeon as those of ‘a grand, gracious, savory divine.’'' (The Encyclopedia of Christianity, J. D. Douglas)
These 500 pages are closely packed, the print being small (7 point?). They follow the same pattern as the others in this series. First comes comments on the verse, then a section called ''Doctrines.'' Virtually every statement is followed by a Scripture reference to buttress it. Such as in Gal. 1:6: ''Such is the incapacity of men’s minds to understand the things of God (Eph. 4:19); the imbecility and weakness of their memories to retain and carefully keep (Heb. 2:1); yea, such is the deadness, slowness, and averseness of the will and affections, from embracing and giving entertainment to saving truths at first when they are offered (Zech. 7:11); that weighty and necessary truths are not only once but frequently to be inculcated by faithful ministers, especially fundamental truths (Phil. 3:1) and of daily use and practice.''
On Phil. 2:5-7: ''The divine essence, glory, and majesty which Scripture ascribes to Christ, do justly and naturally belong to Him, by His incarnation and assuming the nature of man, did empty Himself of that divine glory, splendor and majesty which before He had; not by ceasing to be what He was, but by assuming something to Himself which before He was not, to wit, the human nature; in which respect, as being now God-man, Mediator, He is . . . under the infirmity of which nature He hid for a time His divine glory, so that very little of it did appear, and ''He became of no reputation;'' in the Greek, it is, He emptied Himself.''
Ferguson (1621-1667), Scots divine, was of aristocratic lineage. He at the age of 22 became minister of Ayrshire parish. There he remained the rest of his life, declining invitations to richer parishes and the divinity chair at his university. 480 pages
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