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Eph 4:14. Μηκέτι) that we may be not, as formerly and as yet.-νήπιοι, children) Νήπιοι, children, are opposed to a man in the second degree, and to a young man in the first: à perfect man, who can no longer increase in stature, but yet in other respects becomes more perfect; a child, who scarcely begins to grow.-κλυδωνιζόμενοι, tossing to and fro [as billows]) inwardly, upward and downward, even without wind.-περιφερόμενοι πάντι ἀνέμῳ, carried about with every wind) outwardly [with every wind that comes from without], hither and thither, others assaulting us.-κυβείᾳ, by the sleight) A metaphor taken from the player at dice, who frames his cast of the dice, so that the numbers may always turn up which may suit his purpose.-μεθοδείαν) The Methodists of the Church of Rome are much disposed to use this word: see ch. Eph 6:11 [where τὰς μεθοδείας is expressly joined to τοῦ διαβόλου], note. Add D. Michaelis’ Inaugural Dissertation on the exertions and methods (tricks) of the Church of Rome.-τῆς πλάνης,[60] of error) i.e. of Satan. The Metonymy of the abstract [for the concrete: error, for the Parent of error, Satan] expresses the concealed mode of acting which the enemy uses.
[60] Ἐν πανουργιᾳ πρὸς τὴν μεθοδείαν τῆς πλάνης, “by craftiness, with a view to a methodized plan of deception.” Beng., however, because of the antithesis ἀνθρώπων takes πλάνης = Satan, and perhaps takes the sense thus “By the methodized craftiness of the (parent of) error.”-ED.