hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which could hold no water which had turned

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from the worship of the living God to that of idols of wood and stone, and had become as stupid and senseless in their religion as the dumb idols which they worshipped; and, as the natural consequence, were hardened in all manner of iniquity. It was most wonderful that the Son of God should have appeared upon earth to reconcile the world unto Himself;78 so that a distinction should no longer be made between those to whom the knowledge of the true God had been communicated under the Mosaical dispensation, and the rest of mankind; and that in consequence of God becoming manifest in the flesh, the gospel of the kingdom should be preached among all nations, for the obedience of faith.80 This was a new event, which excited the displeasure of the ancient people of God, but which caused joy and gladness wherever the gospel of the grace of God was made known by the apostles of Christ. The Jews had been accustomed to regard the God of heaven as exclusively their God, and not the God of the Gentiles also,81 forgetting that it was declared in the holy scriptures, The God of the whole earth shall He be called.82 They could not endure the idea that the nations of the world in general

76 1 John v. 19. 77 Jer. ii. 13. 782 Cor. v. 19. 791 Tim. iii. 16.

should be admitted to the enjoyment of the high privileges, which they had been accustomed to regard as belonging to themselves alone; and that these benefits should be conferred upon others without a necessity of submitting to the ceremonial institutions of the law of Moses. The apostles of Christ therefore found it needful to state continually, that the design of the Mosaical dispensation was to keep up in the world the knowledge of the true God, and the way of reconciliation with Him, until the time of the appearing of the Seed of the woman, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed; and that in consequence of the coming of Christ, and His fulfilment of all righteousness in His own sacred Person, and thus being the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth in Him, the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles was broken down; and those who before were far off from God, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, were made nigh by the blood of Christ, were reconciled unto God by the cross, were at peace with Him, and permitted to have access to Him, to come into His most holy presence, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and to call upon the God of heaven

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80 Rom. xvi. 26. 81 Rom. iii. 29.

82 Isa. liv. 5.

83 Rom. x. 4.

as their Father. To the enjoyment of this blessedness the Gentiles were admitted, as well as the Jews, by faith, or through believing the word of the truth of the gospel of Christ, and putting their trust in Him as the Redeemer of mankind. It seemed a most astonishing thing to a Jew, that such favour could be shown by the Lord Jehovah to the nations of the earth in general, without respect of persons; and therefore the apostle enlarged upon the subject in the Epistle for this day.

He had spoken, at the close of the preceding chapter, of Jews and Gentiles being builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit, by faith in Christ; and in this chapter he begins by saying, For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, pray for you, as it is afterwards stated. He was, at the time when he wrote this epistle, a prisoner at Rome, because of the enmity of the Jews against him, on account of his preaching the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. But he gloried in being the apostle of the Gentiles,86 and therefore he speaks of his office as the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward. A dispensation of the gospel was committed to him as a steward of the mysteries of God, to publish the salvation of Christ

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84 Eph. ii. 12-14. 85 Col. i. 5. 86 Rom. x. 13. 871 Cor. iv. 1.

throughout the known world. He was commissioned by God Himself; as he said to the Galatians: I neither received the gospel of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And here he takes it for granted, that the Ephesians had heard how that by revelation God made known unto him the mystery of which he had before informed them, as I wrote afore in few words, to which he called their attention, as that whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ; a matter of great importance for them to notice, in order that the message which he delivered might meet with the reception which it ought to have; which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Those who had been sent by God in former ages, had for the most part preached His word to their own countrymen only; and the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was confined to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.89 But after His resurrection from the dead, He commanded His apostles to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,9° to every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,91 in order that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs with the Jews, and of the same body, the mystical body of

88 Gal. i. 12. 89 Matt. xv. 24. 90 Mark xvi. 15. 91 Rev. v.9.

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Christ, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. This was the mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations, but was now unfolded to the admiration of all who were made acquainted with it; it was their joy that the gospel of Christ was made known to all nations; whereof, says the apostle, I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power. He ascribes all to the efficacy of Divine grace, which worked in him mightily, and sweetly constrained him to labour to the utmost of his power in the service of God, to make known the gospel of Christ in every place.

He was deeply sensible of his own unworthiness, and utter insufficiency for the office; but he rejoiced nevertheless that such a dispensation was entrusted to him. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; or, as he terms it when writing to the Colossians, the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is, Christ in you the hope of glory.93 This was his great theme wherever he went preaching the kingdom of God; and the object proposed by it was to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the

92 Col. i. 36.

93 Col. i. 27.

94 Acts xx. 25.