The life and work of St. Paul

638 THE LIPE AND WORK OP ST. PAUL.
Spirit as the pledge of full and final entrance into his heritage, St. Paul tells
them that, hearing of their faith and love, ho ceaselessly prayed that God
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the Glory would grant tbcm
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a full knowledge of Himself, giving them "illuminated eyes in their hearts"
to know what their calling means, and the wealth and glory of this heritage,
and the surpassing greatness of the power which He had put forth in raising
Christ from the dead, and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, as
the Supreme Ruler now and for ever of every spiritual and earthly power, and
as the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, " the Pleroma"
(i.e., the filled continent, the brimmed receptacle) " of Him who filloth all
things with all things." 2
But for whom were these great privileges predestined, and how were they
bestowed P The full answer is contained in the second chapter. They were
intended for all, both Jews and Gentiles, and were bestowed by free grace.
In this section the leading conception is the unity of mankind, in the heaven-
lies, in Christ. The Gentiles had been dead in transgressions and sins,
absorbed in the temporal and the external, 3
showing by their disobedience the
and the Jews, too, had been
influence of the Prince of the power of the air ;
occupied with the desires of the flesh, doing the determinations of the flesh
and the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath 4 even as the rest;
but God in His rich love and mercy quickened both Jews and Gentiles together,
while still dead in their transgressions, and raised them together, and
seated them together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus a name that occurs in
verse after verse, being at the very heart of the Apostle's thoughts. The in-
strumental cause of this great salvation is solely free grace, applied by faith,
that this grace might be manifested to the coming ages in all its surpassing
wealth of kindness; and that we, thus created anew in Christ, and so prevented
from any boast 5 that we achieved by good works our own salvation,
might still walk in good works, to which God predestined us. 6 The Gentiles,
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'EiriyiKo