HOMILY VI.] HOMILIES ON EPHESIANS. 75 selves were nigh. "For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father." "Peace," saith he, that "peace" which is towards God. He hath reconciled us. For the Lord Himself also saith, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you." (Jo. xiv : 27.) And again, "Be of good cheer, I have over come the world." (Jo. xvi : 33.) And again, " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do." (Jo. xiv: 14.) And again, " For the Father loveth you." (Jo. xvi: 27.) These are so many evidences of peace. But how towards the Gentiles? "Because through Him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father," not ye less, and they more, but all by one and the same grace. The wrath He appeased by His death, and hath made us meet for the Father s love through the Spirit. Mark again, the "in" means "by" or "through." By Himself and the Spirit that is, He hath brought us unto the Father. "So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow-citizens with the saints." Perceive ye that it is not with the Jews simply, no, but with those saintly and great men, such as Abraham, and Moses, and Elias? It is for the self-same city with these we are enrolled, for that we declare ourselves. "For they that say such things," saith he, "make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own." (Heb. xi : 14.) No longer are we strangers from the saints, nor foreigners. For they who shall not attain to heavenly blessings, are foreigners. "For the Son," saith Christ, " abideth for ever." (Jo. viii: 35.) "And of the household," he continues, "of God." The very thing which they at the first had, by means of so many toils and troubles, hath been for you accomplished by thegrace of God. Behold the hope of your calling. "Being built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets." Observe how he blends all together, the Gen tiles, the Jews, 1 the Apostles, the Prophets, and Christ, and illustrates the union sometimes from the body, and sometimes from the building: " built," saith he, " upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets; " that is, the Apostles and Prophets are a foundation,2 and he places the Apostles first, though they are in order of time last, doubtless to represent and express this, that both the one and the other are alike a foundation, and that the whole is one building, and that there is one root. Consider, that the Gentiles have the Patriachs as a foundation. He here speaks more strongly of that point than he does when he speaks of a "grafting in." There he rather attaches them on. Then he adds, that He who binds the whole together in Christ. For the chief corner-stone binds together both the walls, and the foundations. " In whom each several building." Mark, how he knits it all together, and repre sents Him at one time, as holding down the whole body from above, and welding it together ; at another time, as supporting the building from below, and being, as it were, a root, or base. And whereas he had used the expression, "He created in Himself of the twain one newman ; " (Eph. ii : 15.) by this he clearly shows us, that by Himself Christ knits together the two walls : and again, that in Him it was created. And " He is the first-born," 3 saith he, "of all crea tion," that is, He Himself supports all things. " In whom each several building, fitly framed together." Whether you speak of the roof, or of the walls, or of any other part whatsoever, 4 He it is supports the whole. Thus he elsewhere calls Him a foundation. "For other foundations," saith he, "can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (i Cor. iii: n.) "In whom each several building," he saith, " fitly framed together." Here he displays the perfectness of it, and indicates that one cannot otherwise have place in it, unless by living with great exactness. " It groweth saith he into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also," he adds, "are builded together." He is speaking continuously : " Into a holy temple, for a habi tation of God in the Spirit." What then is the object of this building ? It is that God may dwell in this temple. For each of you severally is a temple, and all of you together are a tem ple. And He dwelleth in you as in the body of Christ, and as in a spiritual temple. He does not use the word which means our coming to God, (TTf)(itT<>d(>s} but which implies God s bringing us to Himself, (xporTaywrr} ) forwe came not out of 1 [Field s text has not the words, "the Jews;" but as there is excellent authority for them and they suit the context better, we have left them, with the Oxford translator, in our text. G. A.]3 ["It is wrong to take this genitive as the genitive of apposi tion, as Chrysostom, for the Apostles and Prophets are not the foundation but have laid it. (i Cor. iii : 10.) Nor are the Prophets here mentioned O. T. prophets but N. T. prophets, (cf. iii : 5 ; iv : ii). Meyer." G. A.] *Col. i : 15. i. e. " Begotten before every creature ;" " begot ten of His Father before all worlds." It is explained of our Lord s divine nature by Origen, Periarch. i. 2. Tertullian in Prax. 7. in Marcion, v. 10^ S. Hilar. de Trin. viii. 50. S. Ambros de. Fid. i. 14. S. Basil in Eunom. iv. in Col. i. 15. Others understand the ex pression to denote the Only-Begotten considered as becoming the origin of the new creation, as beginning in His flesh, as being the Only-Begotten, the regenerate world. Thus S. Athanasius Oral. iii. 62. 63. S. Greg. Nyss. de Perfect, p. 722. contra. Eunom. i. p. 24. iii. pp. 113. 114. S. Cyril, de Trin. iv. p. 518. S. August, in Rom. 56 Theodoret interprets the word in both ways, in loc. and in Ps. 88, 28. S. Chrysostom too, Horn. Son. Col. i. 15. may be under stood according .to either interpretation. Indeed they are quite consistent with each other. ["Chrysostom is wrong in holding that by jra<ro oi<coio/i>j is signified every part of the building (wall, roof, etc.,) since olxo&onri rather denotes the aggregate of the single parts of the building. Hacra oixoionij means every building and is here to be interpreted, every Christian community, each congrega tion. " Meyer. G. A.]