was expanded towards them. He was ready to embrace them all, and to take them to his arms as his dear children.
12. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are strait- ened in your own bowels.
The apostle abides by his figure. A large heart is one expanded by love ; a straitened heart is one void of generous affections. To be straitened (crvevoxoypeoi) is to want room; (TT€voxo)pLa is want of room, straits, distress, anguish of mind. Hence to enlarge, to give one a wide place, is to deliver, to bless. Ps. 4, 1. 118, 5. Ye are not straitened in us, i. e. there is no lack of room for you in our heart ; hut ye are straitened i7i your oicn boicels, i. e. your heart is too narrow to admit me. Straitened in your own hoicels, means, not that you are inwardly afflicted, or that the cause of your trouble is in yourselves, but, as the context requires, ' Your bowels (hearts) are narrow or contracted.' There is not room in them to receive me. Without a figure the meaning is, ' The want of love is on your side, not on mine.'
13. Now for a recompense in the same, (I speak as unto (my) cbildren,) be ye also enlarged.
The exhortation or request is, ' Be ye also enlarged, i. e. open your hearts to receive me, which is only a proper recom- pense for my love to you. I speak as to children, who are expected to requite the love of their parents with filial aflTec- tion.' The words Ty]v 8e aurr/v avri/xto-^tai/ are explained as a concise expression for rh 8c avro^ o ia-nv avTiixia-^ia^ ' as to the same thing, which is a recompense, be ye also enlarged.' The accusative is the accusative absolute.
14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with un- believers : for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath hght with darkness ?
After the exhortation to requite his love by loving him, he exhorts them to keep aloof from all intimate association with the evil. The exhortation is general, and is not to be confined to partaking of heathen sacrifices, nor to intermarriage with