[14] Cf. St. Matt. xiii. 13-15; St. John xii. 39, 40. We are not (Rom. ix. 17) told _why_ Pharaoh was brought out on the stage of history as an example of God's hardening judgement. But no doubt there was a moral reason. [15] Rom. ix-xi. [16] Rom. xi. 29. [17] Rom. xi. 33. [18] 1 Tim. ii. 4. [19] 1 Cor. ix. 27. [20] Rom. viii. 38, 39 [21] I am using the word here not in its Bible sense, for in the Bible God is said to 'know' men in the sense of fixing His choice or approval upon them; and to 'foreknow' is therefore to approve or choose beforehand, as suitable instruments for a divine purpose. I am using the word in its ordinary sense. [22] Rom. viii. 28-30. [23] Phil. i. 6. [24] Amos iii. 2. [25] On the Jewish idea of election, cf. app. note C, p. 261. [26] Col. i. 1. [27] Col. i. 28. [28] See app. note C, p. 257. {78} DIVISION I. Sec. 2. CHAPTER I. 15-23. _St. Paul's Prayer._ St. Paul follows up this first expression of the great thoughts that fill his mind with a deep and comprehensive thanksgiving for that large measure of correspondence with the divine purpose which is reported from the Asiatic churches, and with a prayer for their full enlightenment in heart and intellect. He prays that they may rise to the true science of what their Christian calling, as fellow-inheritors with the saints of the divine blessing, really means; and to an adequate expectation of what God intends to do in them, on the analogy of what He has already done in Christ their head. For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and which _ye shew_ toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention _of you_ in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches {79} of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly _places_, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. There is very little further explanation needed for this passage. But three phrases may be noted:--