EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 109 



tion which Jesus Christ had wrought for them that believed 

 in him. But it w^as to no purpose' to allege to such persoiir 

 the decision at Jerusalem, for that only showed that they 

 were not bound to these observances by any law of the 

 Christian church ; they did not pretend to be so bound ; 

 nevertheless, they imagined that there was an efficacy in 

 these observances, a merit, a recommendation to favor, and 

 a ground of acceptance with God for those who comphed 

 wdtli them. This was a situation of thought to which the 

 tenor of the decree did not apply. Accordingly, St. Paul's 

 address to the Galatians, which is throughout adapted to 

 this situation, runs in a strain widely different from the lan- 

 guage of the decree : " Christ is become of no efiect unto 

 you, whosoever of you are justified by the law," chap. 5:4; 

 that is, whosoever places his dependence upon any merit he 

 may apprehend there is in legal observances. The decree 

 had said nothing like this ; therefore it would have been 

 useless to produce the decree in an argument of which this 

 was the burden. In like manner as in contending with 

 an anchorite, who should insist upon the superior holiness 

 of a recluse, ascetic life, and the value of such mortifications 

 in the sight of God, it would be to no purpose to prove that 

 the laws of the church did not require these vows, or even 

 10 prove that the laws of the church expressly left every 

 Christian to liis liberty. This would avail little towards 

 abating his estimation of their merit, or towards settling 

 the point in controversy.* 



* Mr. Locke's solution of this difficulty is by no means satisfactory. 

 "St. Paul," he says, "did not remind the Galatians of the apostolic 

 decree, because they already had it." hi the first place, it does not 

 appear with any certainty that they had it ; in the second place, ii 

 they had it, this was rather a reason than otherwise for referring tJiein 

 to it. The passage in the Acts from which Mr. Locke concludes that 

 the Galatic churches were in possession of the decree, is the fourth 

 rerse of the sixteenth chapter: "And as they," Paul and Timothy, 

 'went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, 

 <that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusa 



