WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [CHAPTER I. things to come, and have become angels instead of men, and take part in the choirs of the heavenly powers? What other proof do we need of an evil and depraved mind ? " Why then," they say, " does Paul call the present life evil?" In calling the present world [age] evil, he has accommodated himself to our usage, who are wont to say, " I have had a bad day," thereby complaining not of the time itself, but of actions or circumstances. And so Paul in complaining of evil principles of action has used thesecustomary forms of speech ; and he shows that Christ hath both delivered us from our offences, and secured us for the future. The first he has declared in the words, "Who gave Himself for our sins; " and by adding, "that He might deliver us out of this present evil world," he has pronounced our future safety. For neither of these did theLaw avail, but grace was sufficient for both. Ver. 4. " According to the will of our God and Father." l Since theywere terrifiedbytheirnotionthatby deserting that old Law and adhering to the new, they should disobey God, who gave theLaw, he corrects their error, and says, that this seemed good to the Father also : and not simply "the Father," but "our Father," which he does in order to affect them by showing that Christ has made His Father our Father. Ver. 5. " To whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen." This too is new and unusual, forwe never find the word, "Amen" placed at the beginning of an Epistle, but a good way on ; here, however, he has it in his beginning, to show that what he had already said contained a sufficient charge against the Galatians, and that his argument was complete, for a manifest offence does not require an elaborate crimination. Having spoken of the Cross, and Resurrection, of redemption from sin and security for the future, of the purpose of the Father, and the will of the Son, of grace and peace and His whole gift, he concludes with an ascription of praise. Another reason for it is theexceedingastonish ment into which he was thrown by the magni tude of the gift, the superabundance of the grace, the consideration who we were, and what God had wrought, and that at once and in a single moment of time. Unable to express this in words, he breaks out into adoxology, sending up for the whole world an eulogium, not indeed worthy of the subject, but such as was possible to him. Hence too he proceeds to use more vehement language ; as if greatly kindled by a sense of the Divine benefits, for having said, To whom be the glory for ever and ever, Amen," he commences with a more severe reproof. Ver. 6. "I marvel that ye are so quickly1 removing 2 from Him that called you in the grace of Christ, unto a different Gospel." Like the Jews who persecuted Christ, they imagined their observance of theLaw was accep table to the Father, and he therefore shows that in doing this they displeased not only Christ, but the Father also, for that they fell away thereby not from Christ only, but from the Father also. As the old covenant was given not by the Father only, but also by the Son, so the covenant of grace proceeded from the Father as well as the Son, and Their every act is common : "All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine." (John xv j 16.) By saying that they had fallen off from the Father, he brings a two fold charge against them, of an apostasy, and of an immediate apostasy. The opposite extreme a late apostasy, is als/> blameworthy, but he who falls away at the first onset, and in the very skirmishing, displays an example of the most extreme cowardice, of which very thing he accuses them also saying : How is this that yourseducersneed not even time for theirdesigns, but the first approaches suffice for your over throw and capture ? And what excuse can ye have? If this is a crime among friends, and he who deserts old and useful associates is to be condemned, consider what punishment he is obnoxious to who revolts from God that called him. " He says, I marvel, not only by way of reproof, that after such bounty, such aremission of their sins, such overflowing kindness, they had deserted to the yoke of servitude, but also in order toshow, that the opinion he" had had of them was a favorable and exalted one. For, had he ranked them among ordinary and easily deceived persons, he would not have felt sur prise. " But since you," he says, " are of the noble sortandhave suffered, much, Ido marvel. Surely this was enough to recover and lead them back to their first expressions. He alludes to it also in the middle of the Epistle, " Did yesuffer so many things in vain ? if it be indeed in vain." (Gal. iii: 4.) " Ye are removing ; " he says not, " ye are removed," that is, "I will not believe or suppose that your seduction is complete ; " this is the language of one about to recover them, which further on he expresses yet more clearly in the words, "I have confidence to you-ward in the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded." (Gal. v: 10.) " From Him that called you in the grace of Christ." - [This note of time helps to fix the date of the Epistle as being about 56 or 57 during Paul s two years stay at Ephesus (Ac. 19:10). " The salvation was wiljed by God to whom Christ was obedient j So most modern expositors, though Lightfoot and some others put it later. G. A.] ["And not by our own merits, cf. TOV Ka\(<ravro<;, Light fooi (Phil, ii : 9)." Meyer. G. A.]