the influence of one created intellect over another in other cases, and therefore is perfectly consistent with free agency and responsibility. It should, however, make us feel our dan- ger and need of divine assistance, seeing that we have to con- tend not only against the influence of evil men, but against the far more powerful influence of the rulers of darkness ; the pantocrators of this world. Eph. 6, 12. The grammatical construction of this clause is somewhat doubtful. The words are ev oTs irv^fiXwae ra vor]ixara twv aTrtWcor. The common ex- planation makes the genitive, tu)v dTrio-rcoi/, virtually in apposi- tion with iv oh. ' In whom, i. e. in unbelievers, he had blind- ed the minds.' The simple meaning then is, ' The gospel is hid to them who are lost, because Satan hath blinded then* eyes.' The lost and the imhelieving are identical. According to this view unbelief is the effect of the blinding. The same idea is expressed if, according to Fritzsche and Billroth, tSv a-KLo-Twv be taken proleptically. 'Whose minds Satan hath blinded so that they believe not.' Comp. 1 Thess. 3, 13, "To establish your hearts unblamable," i. e. so that they may be unblamable; and Phil. 3, 21, (according to the corrected text,) " changed like," i. e. changed so as to be like. Accord- ing to Meyer this would require the accusative, ra vorfjxara oLTj-to-ra, as the genitive of adjectives taken substantively is never thus proleptically used. His explanation is, ' Blinding the eyes of unbelievers is the business of Satan, and this he has done in them who are lost.' According to this view, bUndness does not precede, but follows unbelief. Those who will not believe, Satan blinds so that they cannot see. Comp. Rom. 1, 21, "Their foolish heart was darkened." Their inex- cusable folly was the ground of their judicial blindness. The doctrine thus taught is one clearly recognised in Scripture. Those who resist the truth, God gives up to a reprobate mind. Rom. 1, 24. 28. The logical connection, however, is here oi> posed to this interpretation. Paul had said that the gospel was hid to the lost. This he accounts for by saying that Sa- tan had blinded their minds. The bUndness therefore jjre- cedes the unbelief and is the cause of it.
Lest the licjht of the glorious gospel of Christy who is the image of God, should shi?ie unto them. This is both the de- sign and effect of the blindness spoken of. Satan intends by the darkness which he spreads over the minds of men, to pre- vent their seeing the glory of Clirist. Lest the light, (f}(DTiaix6<5, a Avord which does not occur in common Greek, but is used