16. E/'doYeg, knowing) i.e. since we have come to know. — s, a man) every man, whether Jew, or Greek. — Ig 'ipyw by the works of the law) The followers of Galatism, from not clearly understanding and not rightly interpreting the nature and end of the moral law, earnestly maintained the cere monial law ; and, acknowledging little or no distinction between the moral and ceremonial law, they comprehended both under one word, the law, and therefore sought to be justified in the observance of the whole law. The apostle therefore in a similar manner refuting them, includes the two in one word ; or, where he uses the word law more strictly, he means the moral law itself; he calls the ceremonial law by a different appellation, elements, etc. But the state of the controversy came more prominently under notice, in so far as it regarded the cere monial law, than in so far as the same regarded the moral
law : since the matter of the former being about times, cir cumcision, meats, etc., met the eye more than that of the latter ; and the abrogation of the former, which was complete, was more conspicuous, than that of the latter, which was only abrogated in some one respect. Hence it happens that some arguments serve particularly against justification by the cere monial law ; there are more, however, which serve against justification by the law taken universally, including even the moral law. The whole is more clearly evident from the economy of the epistle to the Galatians ; for in ch. i. and ii. the apostle shows that he was sent and taught by God, and was in no respect inferior to the other apostles, as his conferences for pro moting peace, nay even his controversial debates, held with them, and with Peter himself, plainly evince. In the third chapter, there is the discussion on the moral law ; whence at ch. iv. 1—11, arguments are deduced regarding the ceremonial law, and, after an allegory has been interposed in reference to both, in ch. v. the question is raised respecting circumcision in particular. This is the sum: Moses and Jesus Christ; the law and the promise ; doing and believing ; works and faith ; wages and the gift ; the curse and the blessing, — are represented as diametrically opposed to each other. And the Decalogue is left by Paul either altogether untouched, or it is included under the term law ; nay, the Decalogue is properly that law, which,