20. By Satan, in this place, most interpreters, I believe, suppose to be meant the Jews, who were the great adversaries of Christians at that time; and that, expressing himself in this manner, the apostle had a view to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the entire dispersion of the Jews;* as this epistle was written within eight years of the breaking out of the Jewish war, which terminated in the entire destruction of Judea. But it is perhaps more probable that he here meant all evil in general, considering this world as a state of trial, and looking forward to a better state.

22. Tertius is the same with Silas, both names having the same signification, viz. the third, the one in Latin, and the other in Hebrew. The apostle uses the Latin term in writ ing to the Romans. It seems that Paul generally made use of an amanuensis, probably on account of his not being used to write the Greek character, and perhaps also on account of his not being sufficiently skilled in the language.

23. [Erastus, chamberlain of the city.] It appears, from this circumstance, that there were many persons of note among the Christians in those very early times, especially among the Gentiles.

25, 26. By mystery is here to be understood the gracious, but for a long time the hidden, design of Providence, in favour of the Gentile world, by the preaching of the gospel to them.

27. Here, as upon all other occasions, we see God distin guished from Christ. God is the author of all good, and especially of the gospel, containing the revelation of a future life, and Christ is the servant or minister of God in the publication of this gospel, and thus is the means of bringing glory to God. Accordingly the apostle always ascribes the glory to God through Christ, as the medium through whom he imparts his blessings to us. §

* See Harwood, N. T.

"This conjecture would be well-grounded, if Silas were an Hebrew name; but if Silas and Silvanus be the same name, it is groundless." Michaelis's Introd. Lect. (Sect. cxxvii.), p. 280.

"My gospel. St. Paul cannot be supposed to have used such an expression as this, unless he knew that what he preached had something in it that distinguished it from what was preached by others; which was plainly the mystery, as he every where calls it, of God's purpose of taking in the Gentiles to be his people under the Messiah; and that without subjecting them to circumcision, or the law of Moses: this is that which he calls the preaching of Jesus Christ, for without this he did not think that Christ was preached to the Gentiles as he ought to be." Locke.

Since the world began. "In the secular times under the law." Ibid. See Le Clerc; Doddridge.

§ “That in this place, by the name of the only wise God, no other is intended but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may easily be perceived: for it is clear that Christ is not understood by that name, since he is most openly distinguished

EPHESIANS.

AFTER the apostle Paul had written the epistle to the Romans, he went by way of Macedonia and Ephesus to Jerusalem, where he arrived at Pentecost, A. D. 58. There, a tumult being raised, he was apprehended and imprisoned, and, under one pretence or other, he was kept in confinement till the year 60, when, in consequence of his appealing to the emperor, which was a privilege of every Roman citizen, he was sent with other prisoners to Rome. In his voyage thither he was shipwrecked on the isle of Malta, but, after wintering there, he arrived at Rome in the spring of the year 61.

It is remarkable that we have no account of Paul's writing any epistle from Jerusalem or Cæsarea, where he was confined two years; but from Rome, where he was a prisoner the same space of time, he wrote several, and the first of them was this to the Ephesians,* the object of which seems to have been to establish those Christians to whom he had preached several years, in the pure faith of the gospel, and to counteract the attempts of the Jewish teachers to bring them into bondage to the law of Moses. He might likewise have a view to other corruptions of the gospel, and particularly to Gnostic tenets, to which some of the Jewish teachers gave countenance, though there is no direct reference to them in this epistle.

With these views the apostle endeavours to impress the minds of the Christians at Ephesus with a sense of the value of the gospel, and of the goodness of God in calling the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, to the privileges of it. There is a peculiar dignity and sublimity in this epistle, as well as the strongest marks of the most earnest affection to those to whom he writes, and the same has been observed of all the

from the only wise God, and that as the middle cause of glory and honour from the ultimate scope and object of the same." Crellius (B. i. Sect. i. Ch. vii.), p. 37. "Here, the exclusive term only, shuts out all competitors, co-ordinate or co-essential (as the Tritheists speak), even Jesus Christ himself; through whom, as it follows, this praise is to be given to the only wise God, for ever and ever." Haynes (Ch. x.), p. 45. This doxology, vers. 25-27, is annexed to Chap. xiv. in Griesbach's text, and in the Impr. Vers. See supra, p. 254, Note ‡, ad fin.

“I think it was drawn up by the apostle, as soon as conveniently could be, after his friends at Rome had taken a lodging for him, and he was settled in it, A. D. 61." Lardner, VI. p. 329. See ibid. pp. 331-335; Michaelis's Introd. Lect. (Sect. cxxxviii.), pp. 302-304; Doddridge's Introd. V. p. 114. On the probability that this was an epistle to the Laodiceans, see N. T. 1729, (Notes on i. 1, and iii. 2, 4,) pp. 707, 708; Michaelis's Introd. Lect. (Sect. cxxxvii.), p. 801.

IL

epistles he wrote from Rome. He probably knew that he was near the close of his life, of a long and laborious warfare, as it may be called, in the cause of Christianity, of the great value of which he was fully sensible. He therefore writes with that energy, with which a man may be supposed to give his last admonitions to those he loves, respecting their most important interests.

CHAP. I. 1. Saints* mean chosen people, to whom God stands in a peculiar relation, and the apostle gives this title to Christians, to repress the pride of the Jews, who would allow none to be thus holy, or this peculiar people, besides themselves.

2. We see how the apostle constantly distinguishes God from Christ. Indeed, there is no passage in the New Testament in which Christ is so much as called God, though in an inferior sense. Could the apostle have foreseen how strangely the Christian doctrine would have been corrupted in this respect, he might have taken more effectual methods to prevent it; but, considering that he had not, and without a particular revelation could not have had, the least suspicion of any such thing, nothing could be better calculated to guard against it than the manner in which he has uniformly expressed himself on this subject.

3. † Here the Father is not only distinguished by the appellation of God, but he is called the God, as well as the Father, of Jesus Christ himself. According to the apostle, it was God who, by means of Christ, has imparted to mankind the blessings of the gospel. We observe, also, that the blessings of the gospel are here said to be of a spiritual nature, and to respect a future state.

4. As the Jews boasted that they were the chosen people of God from the time of Abraham, the apostle represents the Christians as being the chosen people of God from the very foundation of the world. We here see how familiar it is with the sacred writers to speak of things being done before the world was, when it was only in the Divine counsels that they should be done; Christians could not be chosen before they were Christians. In like manner, Christ is said to

"It does not mean any other than a national sanctification, such as the Jews had, by being separated from the Gentiles, and appropriated to God, as his peculiar people, not that every one that was of the holy nation of the Jews heretofore, or of the holy church of Christ, under the gospel, were saints in that sense that the word is usually taken now among Christians, viz. such persons as were every one of them actually in a state of salvation." Locke. On the words at Ephesus, as omitted by Basil, see Lurdner, IV. pp. 401-404.

+ "In heavenly things." Harwood, N. T. Gr.; Impr. Vers.

1 See Whitby (Five Points), p. 48.

have had glory with God before the world was, when the meaning is, that this glory was designed for him; as these honours were designed for all Christians, before either Christ or Christians had any existence.*

6. [Wherein.] That is, by means of Christ, or Christianity. 7. By receiving and obeying the gospel, which was confirmed by the death and resurrection of Christ, we receive the forgiveness of sins, from the free mercy of God, who requires no atonement or satisfaction, besides sincere repentance. In using the phrase redemption through the blood of Christ, it is possible that the apostle might allude to the sin-offerings, under the law; but in that case the death of the victim was never considered as having any efficacy with God. All sacrifices were considered in the simple light of offerings, or presents, and constituted the ceremonial of introduction to the presence of God, according to the established custom of Eastern countries. Atonement is often said to be made where no victim was killed.

8. That is, he discovers great wisdom in the gospel dispensation.

9, 10. What the apostle here calls the great mystery of the gospel, or that secret which was not revealed or discovered till the latter days, was the Divine purpose of bringing the Gentiles into a near relation to himself, by the preaching of the gospel. §

• See Le Clerc; Wakefield's Enquiry (on John viii. 58), p. 129.

+"By the terms we and us the apostle often speaks affectionately of the Gentiles." Locke; Impr. Vers.

"The forgiveness of sin was transferring them from a Heathen state, in which they are represented as sinners, to a covenant and privileged state, in which they are said to be justified and holy." Ibid.

↑ "AmoλUTPwσis. This word is used ten times; and its proper signification is deliverance. It is only used thrice with reference to Christ: in the other places it stands to denote deliverance absolutely, without any reference to the cause or means by which it is effected." Haynes (Ch. xxv.), p. 99. "It is observable that Jesus Christ is not once styled AvTpwrns, Redeemer, in all the New Testament.-How much is the language, and gratitude, and worship, of modern Christians corrupted!-Jesus, God's prophet, his preacher, his appointed Lord, Saviour and Redeemer, is owned and worshipped in all those characters, as the only Saviour, Redeemer and Lord." Ibid. pp. 110, 111. See 1 Cor. i. 30; Col. i. 14.

"The question was, whether the converted Gentiles should hearken to the Jews, who would persuade them it was necessary for them to submit to circumcision and the law, or to St. Paul, who had taught them otherwise.' Now there could be nothing of more force to destroy the authority of the Jews, in the case, than the shewing them, that the Jews knew nothing of the matter, that it was a perfect mystery to them, concealed from their knowledge, and made manifest in God's good time, at the coming of the Messiah, and most particularly discovered to St. Paul, by immediate revelation, to be communicated by him to the Gentiles; who, therefore, had reason to stick firm to this great truth, and not to be led away from the gospel, which he had taught them." Locke. "It is called mystery, as having been long kept a secret, of which neither Jews nor Gentiles had any conception." Doddridge. See Com. and Ess. II. p. 353; Impr. Vers.

To the phrase, things in heaven and things on earth, it is possible that the apostle might not annex any definite ideas, intending only to express how very great and comprehensive the scheme of the gospel was. Or, he might allude to that saying of our Saviour, [Matt. xxviii. 18,] all power is given to me in heaven and in earth; by which we are to understand, that all things, even divine interpositions, if necessary, will be subservient to the spread of the gospel.

11. As the Jews, in consequence of being the chosen people of God, enjoyed the inheritance of the Land of Canaan; in allusion to this, the apostle speaks of an inheritance appropriated to all Christians, who were now become the people of God.†

13. As by we, in the former verse, the apostle probably means the Jews, of whom he was one, and to whom the gospel was first preached, so by ye, in this verse, he means the Gentile Christians,§ who also had the seal of God upon them, as his peculiar people, in the gift of the holy spirit.

The apostle having spoken of the great design of God in calling the Gentiles to the knowledge of the gospel, and also of the gift of the spirit, as a token of their being the children of God, as well as the Jews,|| proceeds to express his desire of their more perfectly understanding the scheme of the gospel, of which, and also of Christ, as being at the head of the scheme, he here speaks in the most magnificent

terms.

14. By redemption** of the purchased possession, the apostle

* "That is, God has purposed, even before the taking the Israelites to be his people, to take in the Gentiles, by faith in Christ, to be his people again; and what he purposes, he will do, without asking the counsel, or consent, of any one; and, therefore, you may be sure of this your inheritance, whether the Jews consent to it, or no." Locke.

† Vers. 9-11. "Which he hath purposed in himself, according to the dispensation of the fulness of the times; that he would gather in one all things in Christeven in him in whom we have obtained also an inheritance." Bowyer.

I "The promise of the Father, Luke xxiv. 49; Acts i. 4; ii. 33." Clarke (S. D.), 1180. "You have been sealed with the holy spirit which was promised." Harwood, N. T. Gr.

§ Ibid.

"The Holy Ghost was neither promised, nor given, to the Heathen, who were apostates from God and enemies, but only to the people of God; and therefore the Convert Ephesians, having received it, might be assured thereby, that they were now the people of God, and rest satisfied in this pledge of it. The giving out of the Holy Ghost, and the gift of miracles, was the great means whereby the Gentiles were brought to receive the gospel, and become the people of God." Locke.

"The praise of God, the Father; as appears from the same phrase repeated twice before, vers. 6 and 12; though, in this 14th verse, the first obvious construction of the words does indeed refer them to Christ, as being last mentioned, ver. 18." Clarke (S.D.), 476.

Redemption, in sacred Scripture, signifies not always strictly paying a ransom for a slave delivered from bondage, but deliverance from a slavish state into liberty.