e of circumcision, had already settled the
controversy--and that, as it had seemed good to the Holy Ghost not to
impose the ceremonial law upon the Gentiles, so it also seemed good to
"the apostles and elders brethren."

But whilst the abundant outpouring of the Spirit on the Gentiles
demonstrated that they could be sanctified and saved without
circumcision, and whilst the Most High had thus proclaimed their freedom
from the yoke of the Jewish ritual, it is plain that, in regard to this
point, as well as other matters noticed in the letter, the writers speak
as the accredited _interpreters_ of the will of Jehovah. They state that
it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to require the converts
from paganism "to abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood,
and from things strangled, and from fornication." [87:1] And yet,
without any special revelation, they might have felt themselves
warranted to give such instructions in such language, for surely they
were at liberty to say that the Holy Ghost had interdicted fornication;
and, as the expounders of the doctrine of Christian expediency, [87:2]
their views may have been so clear that they could speak with equal
confidence as to the duty of the disciples under present circumstances
to abstain from blood, and from things strangled, and from meats offered
to idols. If they possessed "the full assurance of understanding" as to
the course to be pursued, they doubtless deemed it right to signify to
their correspondents that the decision which they now promulgated was,
not any arbitrary or hasty deliverance, but the very "mind of the
Spirit" either expressly communicated in the Word, or deduced from it by
good and necessary inference. In this way they aimed to reach the
conscience, and they knew that they thus furnished the most potential
argument for submission.

It may at first sight appear strange that whilst the apostles, and those
who acted with them at this meeting, condemned the doctrine of the
Judaizers, and affirmed that circumcision was not obligatory on the
Gentiles, they, at the same time, required the converts from paganism to
observe a part of the Hebrew ritual; and it may seem quite as
extraordinary that, in a letter which was the fruit of so much
deliberation, they placed an immoral act, and a number of merely
ceremonial usages, in the same catalogue. But, on mature reflection, we
may recognise their tact and Christian prudence in these features of
t