All Loves Excelling

The Saints' Knowledge of Christ's Love

Look Inside Price £5.00

Weight 0.17 kg
Dimensions 18.1 × 12.1 × 1 cm
ISBN 9781800402911
Binding

Paperback

format

Book

page-count

139

series

Puritan Paperbacks

scripture

Ephesians

Original Pub Date

1692

Banner Pub Date

Jun 1, 1998

This Edition

2022

Book Description

All Loves Excelling is Bunyan’s sermon on Ephesians 3:18-19, ‘That ye … may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.’ It was first titled ‘The Saints’ Knowledge of Christ’s Love’ and is worthy of being ranked alongside Sibbes and deals with a much neglected subject area.

FROM THE FOREWORD: This is a new edition of John Bunyan’s treatise on Ephesians 3:17b-19 which he himself prepared for the press. It is taken from the second volume of Bunyan’s works (George Offor edition) which was re-published by Banner of Truth in 1991. The text remains largely unaltered but slight adjustments have been made in order to accommodate the arrangement of the material into chapters. Even these divisions, however, correspond to Bunyan’s own layout of his material. A detailed breakdown of the structure of Bunyan’s meditation on the greatness of the love of Christ is found at the end of this book by way of an appendix.

The subject matter of this work which was first preached, is greatly needed today. On the one hand, experiences of the Spirit are being claimed from which the glory of the redeemer and the wonder of his love are quite absent, while on the other, an almost total attention to the understanding and practising of scripture truth is having the effect of marginalising the experiential element in true, spiritual knowledge.

Bunyan’s description of Christ’s love to believers and how they ought to know it, cuts in both the above-mentioned directions. From some 440 Bible references he shows how knowing Christ’s love is the message of Scripture and also the essence of heaven, partly possessed and expressed on earth. Those who know it are rich beyond measure and they are the people who ‘sweeten the churches and bring glory to God and to religion’.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

Publishers’ Foreword ix
Part One
DESCRIBING THE INEXPRESSIBLE
Ephesians 3:18, 19 in context
The verses – the terms of measurement contained in them – the reason for their use – the fulness implied in them. 3
The Breadth of Christ’s Love 8
The Length of Christ’s Love 12
The Depth of Christ’s Love 15
<9999/td> The Height of Christ’s Love 20
Part Two
DESIRING THE INCOMPARABLE
Praying for an Ability
Needed because of the weakness of grace and human infirmity – also the mysterious nature of God’s dealings 31
Praying for an Understanding
A mark of a gospel minister – an indication of the blessings available for the saints 36
Praying for a Knowledge
Of Christ’s own love and its unsearchable greatness 46
Part Three
OBTAINING THE UNSURPASSABLE
Knowing the Nature of Christ’s Love
It is free – divine – heavenly – everlasting 81
Knowing the Degrees of Christ’s Love
He became incarnate – stooped lower than the rank of angels – persevering with sinners 88
Knowing the Mystery of Christ’s Love
It is best known as something that is beyond being fully known 98
Part Four
USES AND COUNSELS
See the greatness of God’s good will to believers 111
Its message to believers and ways to comply 112
Its message to unbelievers 124
Appendix-The Analysis of the Treatise 125

1 testimonial for All Loves Excelling

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  1. Robert Norman

    This is a masterpiece. Knowing of Bunyan more for his spiritual allegories I was delightfully surprised to see how well his pen writes on theological matters. This book is a must read and finds itself somewhere on my favorites.
    This and Glory of Christ by John Owen are by far the most Christ-exalting works aside from Scripture. If you want a technical book, go for Owen, if you want a more practical Puritan work, then this is the one you need.

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