as in English Master or Sir. But, on the other hand it is the translation of Adonai, supreme Lord, an incommunicable name of God, and the substitute for Jehovah, a name the Jews would not pronounce. It is in this sense that Christ is, The Lord, The Lord of Lords, The Lord God; Lord in that sense in which. God alone can be Lord-having a dominion of which divine perfection is the only adequate or possible foundation. This is the reason why no one can call him Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 12, 3. It is a confession which implies the apprehension of the glory of God as it shines in Him. It is an acknowledgment that he is God manifested in the flesh. Blessed are all they who make this acknowledgment with sincerity; for flesh and blood cannot reveal the truth therein confessed, but the Father who is in heaven.

3.

SECTION II.-Vs. 3-14.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly 4. places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him be fore the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and 5. without blame before him in love: having predestinated us, unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, ac6. cording to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the. glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the, 7. beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8. wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and pru9. dence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will,

according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in 10. himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in 11. heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also

we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the 12. counsel of his own will; that we should be to the praise of his 13. glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted

after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with 14. that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

ANALYSIS.

The apostle blesses God for the spiritual gifts bestowed upon his people, v. 3. Of these the first in order and the source of all the others, is election, v. 4. This election is, 1st. Of individuals. 2d. In Christ; 3d. It is from eternity. 4th. It is to holiness, and to the dignity of sons of God. 5th. It is founded on the sovereign pleasure of God, vs. 4. 5. 6th. Its final object is the glory of God, or the manifestation of his grace, v. 6.

The second blessing here mentioned is actual redemption through the blood of Christ; the free remission of sins according to the riches of his grace, vs. 7. 8.

The third blessing is the revelation of the divine purpose in relation to the economy of redemption; which has for its object the reduction of all things to a harmonious whole under Jesus Christ, vs. 9. 10.

Through this Redeemer, the Jewish Christians who had long looked for the Messiah are, agreeably to the divine purpose, made the heirs of God, vs. 11. 12.

The Gentile converts are partakers of the same inheritance; because, having believed in Christ, they are assured of their redemption by the possession of the Holy Spirit, the pledge of the inheritance until its actual and complete enjoyment, vs. 13. 14.

COMMENTARY.

V. 3. Evλoynτòs ó Ocós, Blessed be God. The word evλoyeîv, like its English equivalent, to bless, signifies to praise, as when we bless God; to pray for blessings, as when we bless others; and to bestow blessings, as when God blesses us. Blessed be God who hath blessed us, is then the expression of thanksgiving and praise to God on account of those peculiar benefits which we receive from him through Christ.

God is here designated as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, he is at once God and Father, sustaining both these relations to Christ. Our Saviour used a similar form of expression, when he said, 'I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God.' John 20, 17. The God in whom the Israelites trusted was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; their covenant God. This designation served to remind the ancient people of God of his promise to their fathers, and of their peculiar consequent relationship to him. The God in whom we are

called upon to trust, and to whom we are to look as the source of all good, is not the absolute Jehovah, nor the God who stood in a special relation to the Israelites; but the God of redemption; the God whom the Lord Jesus revealed, whose will he came to accomplish, and who was his Father. It is this relationship which is the ground of our confidence. It is because God has sent the Lord Jesus into the world, because He spared not his own Son, that he is our God and Father, or that we have access to him as such.

It is this reconciled God, the God of the covenant of grace, ὁ εὐλογήσας ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ εὐλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. The past tense, hath blessed, is used because the apostle contemplates his readers as actually redeemed, and in present possession of the unspeakable blessings which Christ has procured. These blessings are spiritual not merely because they pertain to the soul, but because derived from the Holy Spirit, whose presence and influence are the great blessing purchased by Christ.

"In heavenly places." The words ev Toîs ÉπOVpavíois may be rendered either in or with heavenly things, or in heavenly places, i. e. in heaven. If the former method be adopted the sense is, 'Hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, i. e. with heavenly things.' The words however occur five times in this epistle and always elsewhere in a local sense. See v. 20. 2, 6. 3, 10. 6, 12, which therefore should be preferred here. They are to be connected with the immediately preceding word, 'Blessings in heaven.'

The meaning is that these blessings pertain to that heavenly state into which the believer is introduced. Here on earth he is, as the apostle says, in ch. 2, 6, ' in heavenly places.' He is a citizen of heaven, Phil. 3, 10. The word heaven, in Scripture, is not confined in its application to the place or state of future blessedness, but sometimes is nearly equivalent to 'kingdom of heaven.' The old writers, therefore, were accustomed to distinguish between the coelum gloriae, the heaven of glory; coelum naturae, the visible heavens, and coelum gratiae, the heaven of grace here on earth. These blessings connected with this heavenly state, are conferred upon believers in Christ. It is as they are in him, and in virtue of that union that they are partakers of these benefits.

V. 4. All these blessings have their source in the electing love of God. Ευλογήσας—καθὼς ἐξελέξατο nμâs, he blessed us-because he chose us. cording as, or, inasmuch as, because, see

Kalos, acΚαθώς, John 17, 2.

Rom. 1, 28. 1 Cor. 1, 6. Election is the cause or source of all subsequent benefits.

He hath chosen us. By us is not meant the apostle alone, because there is nothing in the context to indicate or justify this restriction. The blessings consequent on the election here spoken of, are in no sense peculiar to the apostle. Neither does the word refer to any external community or society as such. It is not us Ephesians, as Ephesians, nor us Corinthians, nor us Romans, as formerly the Jews were chosen by a national election. But it is us believers, scattered here