lation and inspiration, Christ constituted some apostles and some prophets for the communication and record of his truth; and by the inward call of his Spirit, he makes some evangelists and some pastors for its constant proclamation and inculcation. And it is only (so far as adults are concerned) in connection with the truth, as thus revealed and preached, that the Holy Ghost is communicated. The ministry, therefore,―apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers,—were given for the edification of the church, by the communication of that truth in connection with which alone the Holy Ghost is given.

All this Rome perverts. She says that prelates, whom she calls apostles, are the channels of the Holy Spirit, first to the priests, and then to the people; and that this communication is not by the truth, but tactual, by the laying on of hands. No one, therefore, can be united to Christ except through them, or live except as in communion with them. Thus error is always the caricature of truth.

SECTION II.-Ver. 17-chap. v. 2.

17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth 18. walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, hav

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ing the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness 19. of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over 20. unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, 22. and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is cor23. rupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit 24. of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God 25. is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting

away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are 26. members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the 27. sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. 28. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, work

ing with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to

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29. give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, 30. that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemp31. tion. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and 32. evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Chap. v. 1. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and 2. walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.

ANALYSIS.

This section contains, first, a general exhortation to holiness, ver. 17-24; and, secondly, injunctions in respect to specific duties, ver. 25-chap. v. 2. The exhortation to holiness is, agreeably to the apostle's manner, first, in the negative form, not to walk as the heathen do, ver. 17–19; and, secondly, positive, to walk as Christ had taught them, ver. 20-24. The heathen walk in the vanity of their mind, i.e., in a state of moral and spiritual fatuity, not knowing what they are about, nor whither they are going, ver. 17; because they are in mental darkness, and are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, and through the hardness of their hearts, ver. 18; as is evinced by their giving themselves up to uncleanness and avarice, ver. 19. The Christian walk is the opposite of this, because believers have been taught. Instead of ignorance, truth dwells in them, enlightening and purifying. Hence they are led to put off the old man, and to put on the new man, which is more and more conformed to the image of God, ver. 20-24. Therefore, they must avoid lying and speak the truth, ver. 25; abstain from anger, and guard against giving Satan any advantage, ver. 26, 27; avoid theft, and be diligent and liberal, ver. 28; avoid all corrupting language, but let their conversation be edifying, so as not to grieve the Holy Spirit, ver. 29, 30. Instead of malicious feel

ings, they should exercise and manifest such as are mild, benevolent, and forgiving, being in this matter the followers of God, ver. 31-chap. v. 2.

COMMENTARY.

Ver. 17. The apostle, having in the preceding section taught that Christ had destined his church to perfect conformity to himself, and made provision for that end, as a natural consequence solemnly enjoins on those who profess to be Christians to live in accordance with this high vocation: This, therefore, I say and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as the other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind.

To testify, in this case, is solemnly to enjoin, as a man does who calls upon God to bear witness to the truth and importance of what he says. Magrugew is to act as a witness, and uagrúgoua to invoke as a witness. The latter is the word here used. In the Lord means in communion with the Lord. Paul speaks as one who had access to the mind of Christ, knew his will, and could therefore speak in his name. The exhortation is, not to walk as the Gentiles do. To walk, in Scripture language, includes all the manifestations of life, inward and outward, seen and unseen. It does not express merely the outward, visible deportment. Men are said to walk with God, which refers to the secret fellowship of the soul with its Maker, more than to the outward life. So here the walk which the apostle enjoins us to avoid is not only the visible deportment characteristic of the Gentiles, but also the inward life of which the outward deportment is the manifestation.

They walk in the vanity of their mind. The language of the New Testament being the language of Jews, is more or less modified by Hebrew usage; and the usage of Hebrew words is of course modified by the philosophy and theology of the people who employed them. There are two principles which have had an obvious influence on the meaning of a large class

of Hebrew words, and therefore on the meaning of the Greek terms which answer to them. The one is the unity of the soul, which forbids any such marked distinction between its cognitive and emotional faculties, i.e., between the understanding and the heart, as is assumed in our philosophy, and therefore is impressed on our language. In Hebrew the same word designates what we commonly distinguish as separate faculties. The Scriptures speak of an "understanding heart," and of "the desires of the understanding," as well as of " the thoughts of the heart." They recognise that there is an element of feeling in our cognitions and an element of intelligence in our feelings. The idea that the heart may be depraved and the intellect unaffected is, according to the anthropology of the Bible, as incongruous, as that one part of the soul should be happy and another miserable, one faculty saved and another lost.

Another principle nearly allied to the former is the moral and spiritual excellence of truth. Truth is not merely speculative, the object of cognition; it has moral beauty. In scriptural language, therefore, knowledge includes love; wisdom includes goodness; folly includes sin; the wise are holy, fools are wicked. Truth and holiness are united as light and heat in the same ray. There cannot be the one without the

other. To know God is eternal life; to be without the knowledge of God is to be utterly depraved. Saints are the children of light; the wicked are the children of darkness. To be enlightened is to be renewed; to be blinded is to be reprobated. Such is the constant representation of Scripture.

The vous," mind," therefore, in the passage before us, does not refer to the intellect to the exclusion of the feelings, nor to the feelings to the exclusion of the intellect. It includes both; the reason, the understanding, the conscience, the affections, are all comprehended by the term. Sometimes one and sometimes another of these modes of spiritual activity is spe

cially referred to, but in the present case the whole soul is intended. The word paraiórns, "vanity," according to the scriptural usage just referred to, includes moral as well as intellectual worthlessness or fatuity. It is of all that is comprehended under the word vous, the understanding and the heart, that this vanity is predicated. Every thing included in the following verses respecting the blindness and depravity of the heathen is therefore comprehended in the word vanity.

Ver. 18. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.—This verse at once explains and confirms the preceding statement. The heathen walk in vanity, i.e., in intellectual and moral darkness, because their understanding is darkened, and because they are alienated from the life of God.

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The word diάvora, understanding, in the first clause, means a thinking through;" the mind (quatenus intelligit, appetit, et sentit) as opposed to the body; an act of the mind, a thought, purpose, or disposition; the intelligence, as opposed to the feelings. We are required to love God ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ διανοίᾳ, "with the whole mind;" men are said to be enemies, rñ diavola, Col. i. 21, "as to their state of mind," and proud, diavoíą tñs nagdías aurŵv. The apostle Peter exhorts us "to gird up the loins of the mind," and speaks of our "pure mind;" and the apostle John says, "God has given us diavoíav that we may know." The word is opposed to σág in Eph. ii. 3, and to zugdía in Matt. xxii. 37, Heb. viii. 10, and elsewhere. It depends, therefore, on the connection whether the word is to be understood of the whole soul, or of the intelligence, or of the disposition. In this case it means "the intelligence;" because it is distinguished from vous in the preceding verse, and from zagdía in the last clause of this one.

Alienated from the life of God means strangers to that life. "The life of God" means the life of which God is the author.