ceptions. This inheritance is not only divine as having God for its author; but it is a glorious inheritance; and not simply glorious, but the glory of it is incon- ceivably great.
In the saints, ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις. These words admit of different constructions, but the most natural is to reter them to the immediately preceding clause, His enher- itance in the saints ; i. 6. which is to be enjoyed among them. Comp. Acts 20, 32, and 26, 18, “An inher- itance among them that are sanctified.” Col. 1, 12, “‘Partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 1 ght.” It was one part of the peculiar blessedness of the Gen- tile Christians, who had been strangers and foreigners, that they were become fellow-citizens of the saints. It was therefore an exaltation of the inheritance, now set before them, to call it the inheritance prepared for the saints, or peculiar people of God.
V.19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe. This is the third pe- tition in the apostle’s prayer. He prays that his read- ers may have right apprehensions of the greatness of the change which they had experienced. It was no mere moral reformation effected by rational considera- tions; nor was it a self-wrought change, but one due to the almighty power of God. Grotius indeed, and com- mentators of that class, understand the passage to refer to the exertion of the power of God in the future resur- rection and salvation of believers. But 1. It evidently refers to the past and not to the future. It is some- thing which believers, as believers, had already expe-
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‘CHAP. I. ver. 19. ae
rienced that he wished them to understand. 2. The apostle never compares the salvation of believers with the resurrection of Christ, whereas the analogy between his natural resurrection and the spiritual resurrection of his people, is one to which he often refers. 8. This is the analogy which he insists upon in this immediate connection. As God raised Christ from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places; so you, that were dead in sins, hath he quickened and raised you up together in him. This analogy is the very thing he would have them understand. They had undergone a great change; they had been brought to life; they had been raised from the dead by the same almighty power which wrought in Christ. There was as great a difference between their present and their former condition, as between Christ in the tomb and Christ at the right hand of God. This was something which they ought to know. 4. The parallel passage in Col. 2, 12, seems decisive of this interpretation. “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through faith of the operation of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncireumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” In this passage it cannot be doubted that the apostle compares the spiritual resurrection of believers with the resurrection of Christ, and refers both events to the operation of God, or to the divine power. Such also is doubtless the meaning of the pas- sage before us; and in this interpretation there has