Acts 15:19-21

Wherefore my sentence is, &c.— This passage, on which the critics have so much differed in sentiment, and written so much, may, I think, be thus paraphrased: "Wherefore I cannot but determine in my ownmind, and I doubt not but you will readily concur with me, that we ought not to disquiet those who from among the Gentiles are converted by divine grace to the knowledge and worship of the true God, and to obedience to the gospel, with such observances as those now in question; but only to write to them, that they abstain from things grossly scandalous, and such as would give the greatest offence to their brethren of the circumcision; particularly from the abominable pollutions of things sacrificed to idols, and fornication, and from eating that which is strangled, and from blood. And though the latter of these have no moral and universal evil in them, yet it is necessary to join the prohibition of them to that of the former; for we know that Moses hath had from ancient generations, and still continues to have, those who preach him and his institutions in everycity, being read in all the Jewish synagogues every sabbath-day; and these things are so expressly forbidden in his law, that while the Gentile Christians indulge themselves in any of them, it will be impossible there should be that communion and harmony between them and the Jewish converts, which the honour and edification of the church require." In short, though neither things sacrificed to idols, nor the flesh of strangled animals, nor blood, have, or can have, any moral evil in them, which should make the eating of them absolutely and universally unlawful; (compare 1 Corinthians 1:8. Romans 14:14; Romans 14:23. 1 Timothy 4:4.Matthew 15:11.) yet they were here forbidden to the Gentile converts, because the Jews had such an aversion to them, that they could not converse freely with any that used them. This is plainly the reason which St. James assigns in Acts 15:21 and it is abundantly sufficient. And were weinlikecircumstanceswiththoseconvertedGentiles,Christiancharitywouldsurely require us to lay ourselves under the same restraints. As to fornication, as the infamy of it was not so great among the Gentiles, as the nature of the crime deserved, it has been generally thought, that the church at Jerusalem chose to add this prohibition, though it might be a kind of digression from the immediate design of their lett