A. D. 58. 7 Which is not another; but there be fome that trouble you, and would pervert the gofpel of Chrift. * Ver. 8, 9. Rom. ix. 3. 1 Cor.xvi. 22. 7. There can be no other: Nor could you have been perfwaded there was, unless by the fly Infinuations and false Suggestions of designing Men; whose Art and Business is Doctrine, and model your Principles to pervert the Gospel 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be * accursed. 8. The better to gain their Ends upon you, those Judaizing Teachers would have you believe, that not only Peter and the other Apostles, but I my self also do sometimes preach up the Jewish Law, as absolutely neceflary along with the Christian Faith. So far from it, that I now folemnly pronounce, Were any one Apostle, nay, or (were it possible) should an Angel from Heaven be supposed to preach a thing fo contrary to the Doctrine I at first delivered to you, he ought to be rejected and called * accurfed. that ye have received, 10 For do I now vant of Christ. his faithful Apostle; 9. And, to show you I speak it not hastily, but with all deliberation and fincerity, I repeat it again, Should an Apostle, or even an Angel, preach any thing so derogatory to, and wide of, the true Gospel Doctrine, let him be * accursed. 10. As to my self, should I do it, I know it would gain me the favour of a Sett of Men, the Jewish Zealots; but I hope you have no reason to think the design of my Ministry is to curry favour with Men, but to discharge my Duty to God, as which I could never do by that Memy Principle, I need never to have turn'd Ver. 9. Any other Gospel than that ye have received. παρ' ὅπαρελάβετε, any thing beside or more than ye have received from the Apostles: viz, any thing as necessary to Salvation. turn'd Christian *, and suffered so much as I have done for A. D. 58. the fake of that Profession. II But I certifie you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me, is not after man. 12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past, in the Jews religion, how that beyond meafure I perfecuted the church of God, and wafted it. 11, 12. And as to their difparagement of my Apoftolical Commission, or my Doctrine, because it may not fuit with their Prejudices or Designs; be you fully affured, I received my Commission from no Man, from no other Apostles, but had both that and the Doctrine I preached to you, from the immediate Revelation of Jesus Christ himself. a 13. Nor indeed can you well Faith with uncommon Fury and Cruelty. Ver. 15. Who Separated me from my Mother's Womb. See Jerem. i. 5. * Cap. v. 12. & vi. 12. A. D. 58, mong the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: 17 Neither went I up to Jerufalem, to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damafcus. made my Application to no Man, to none of the Apostles for their Warrant or Instructions how to perform my Office. 17. I addressed myself to none of the Apostles at Jerufalem, who were ordain'd to that Office before me; but from Damascus, the place of my Converfion, I retired into Arabia, and returned thither again, and preached the Gospel, without any Order or Authority from any of their College. 18 Then after three years I went up to 18. Indeed about three Years after my Converfion I went to Jerufalem, where Barnabas brought me to Peter, who readily own'd me for his fellow Apofile, upon the Account I gave him of the Manner and Circumftances of my Call to that Office; and with him I stayed, not to receive any Authority froin him, but only to Converse with him, for about fifteen Days. 19 But other of the apostles faw I none, fave James the Lord's brother. 19 The only Person of Note I faw, befides Peter, was James the Just, our Lord's Kinsman, and Bishop of Jerufalem. So that I could not be supposed to derive my Commission from the Apoftolical College. 20 Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lye not. 21 Afterwards I 20. (And for the Truth of these Facts I appeal to God, the Author of Truth itself.) 21. After this short Stay at Jecame into the regions rufalem, I went upon the Exercisfe of Syria and Cilicia, of my Office into Syria, and preached at Cefarea (Acts xxii. 17, 18.) and at Troas in Cilicia (Acts ix. 30.) xxii. 3) 1. 22. All which Time neither the Churches of Jerusalem, or of the rest of Judea, they nor their Apostolical Ministers, had ever feen, or had any personal Knowledge of me. 23 But they had heard only, That he which perfecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed, 24 And they glorified God in me. 23. All they knew of me was by A.D. 58. Accounts they had from abroad, that the great Perfecutor Paul was turned a Preacher of the very Gospel he had so perfecuted. 24. For which marvelous Conversion in me they rejoiced, and bleffed God. CHAP. II. The ARGUMENT. He proceeds further to clear himself of the Imputation of ever having preached up the Neceffity of Circumcifion and the Ceremonial Law. And to vindicate his Apoftolical Commission. Proving both those Points * * See the from his next fourney to Jerufalem, his Management Preface. of Titus, his Reception from the Apostles, his Behaviour there, and at Antioch with Peter, and from the Inconsistency of fuppofing He should preach fuch a DoEtrine. T HEN fourteen years after I went up again to Jebas, I and took Titus rufalem with Barna with me also. I. O show you still further the Tality † Chap. i. of their Suggestions, 8, 18. and the immediate Authority of Acts xv. my Apostleship, let me remember you, That eleven Years after my former Journey to Jerusalem, which is fourteen Years after my first Converfion, I went thither ‡ again, and took Barnabas and Titus along with me. 2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among were 2. I then went by the special Appointment of God, and gave the Apostles that were there a full Account of the Doctrines || I had been || Acts xv. preaching to the idolatrous as well as proselyte Gentiles, as I received them B 4 from 4. 12. A. D. 58. were of reputation, ~ left by any means I should run, or had run in vain. from Jesus Christ, and of the Success of my Ministry among them. I gave this Account only to fome of the chief Apostles and Governours of that Church, and to them too in private, not out of any distrust of my Doctrine and Behaviour, or want of their Information; but only to prevent the fcandalous Reports the Judaizing Faction might raise upon me, to the difparagement and hindrance of the further Success of my Minittry: For these Zealots, even of the Converted Jews, were not as yet in any temper to hear of Chriftianity being preached to the idolatrous Gentiles. 3 But neither Titus, who was with me, be ing a Greek, was compelled to be circum cifed: 3. And in this whole Affair I was so consistent with myself, and just to my own Principle, that though Titus that went with me was a Gentile born; yet at his Conversion to Chriftianity, and his Ordination to the Ministry, I never insisted on his being Circumcised; nor did the Apostles, to whom I carried him, require any fuch thing; which, 'tis plain, both they and I should have done, had we thought the obfervation of the Ceremonial Law necessary to the Justification of a converted idolatrous Gentile. 4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to fpy out our liberty, which we have in Chrift Je bring us into bondage. 4. I kept Titus Uncircumcised, and carried him so to the Apostles, on purpose to show my Sentiments were quite oppofite to those false Jewish Zealots that came to Antioch, and infinuated themselves into our Aflemblies there; with a design to catch at, and oppose the Doctrine I preached, Gentile Christians to embrace the unthe Jewish Ceremonies. 5. For tho' I am willing to yield to any indifferent thing, for the present, in compliance with the Weakness and Prejudices of Men ; in hopes the fooner to draw them off from them ||; yet, to these false Zealots, that so furioufly infifted upon the absolute Neceffity of the Jewish Law, I never yielded an Inch, but |