but maintained the Christian Religion to be the sufficient A. D. 58. and only Condition of a Christian's Justification and Happiness. 6 But of these, who seemed to be some, what, (whatsoever they were maketh no matter to me, God ac cepteth no man's per fon) for they who seemed to be fomewhat, in conference 6. Thus I behaved myself to those Zealots. And as to the difparagement your false Teachers are pleased to cast upon me, and their setting up Peter*, James, or John, as Apostles far greater than 1; be they as great as they will, their eminency makes me neither greater nor less. God, who made us all equally his Apostles, looks not upon present and external Reputation in the Church. In the mean time, when I gave those eminent Men the account of my Doctrine, and Proceedings in my Ministry with the Gentile Christians; they could find no Fault, pretended to correct nothing, nor to instruct me in any Point that I did not know as well as themselves.. added nothing to me. * See Ver. 9. and see the Paraphrafe on 1 Cor. ix. 20. my A. D. 58. me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcifion. 10 Only they would rember the * poor, was forward to do. my Fellow-Traveller Barnabas for Apostles, as fully commiffioned to convert the Gentiles, as they were to convert the Jews; and concluded, we ought to go on in that Ministry, in the fame manner as we had begun. 10. They prescribed no Rules to me, at parting; they only requested of me to collect fome Charities among the Converts I made, for the Relief of the poor * See Acts Christians of Judea *; a thing I was very ready to do. xix. 21. xxi. 4. 10, 11 But when Peter 11, 12, &c. was come to Antioch, I withstood him to 1 Cor. xvi. 2 Cor. viii & ix. was to be blamed. 11. Thus far Peter and I entirely agreed: And so constant and steady was I to this Doctrine of the face, because he the no necessity of the Ceremonial Law to the Christian Converts; that when He would once have diflembled, and flinched from it at Antioch, I stood my ground, and freely and boldly upbraided him with his Infincerity. † Acts xv. certain came from James, he did with the Gentiles; but 12 For before that 12. For before those Jewish Zealots came to Antioch † with a pretended Authority from James and the Apostles at Fcrufalem, and cried up the Neceffity of the Jewish Law; Peter was as free and familiar with the Gentile Christians (who were Proselytes to the Jewish Worship of the True God, But when when they were come, though not Circumcised) as I myself was. 13 And the other Jews dissembled iikewife with him, infomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their diffimula. tion. 13. And by his Example, several other of those Converts did the fame; and even Barnabas himself began to give in to that way of Diffimulation, to the great Discouragement of the Gentile Christians. 14 But 14 Such 14 But when I faw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter, before them all, If thou being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? rectly contrary to his 15 We who are Jews by nature, and not finners of the Gentiles, 16 Knowing that a is not juftified man by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Chrift, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Chrift, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. after the Revelation can fully do it. 17 But if while we feek to be juftified by Chrift, we ourselves alfo are found finners : is therefore Christ the minifter of fin? God forbid *. 14. Such a Prevarication with A. D. 58, the main Design of the Gospel Re- ☑ as 15 & 16. For surely, faid I, if 17. On the other Side, Do but confider the Consequence of this Principle: A Christian that relies still upon the Jewish Law for his Justification, must allow himfelf to be still in a state of Guilt and Sin (for the Law leaves us all fo.) Which is as much as to say, that Christ, our Redeemer, has given us a Dispensation that leaves us but A. D. 58. but where we were, viz. in an unpardon'd and unjustified Condition : which God forbid any Christian should hold! * See Rom. vii. to ver. 7. iii. 21. -vi. 3, 4. 18 For if I build a18. For 'tis evident beyond Exgain the things which ception, if after having taken upon I destroyed, I make me the Christian Profession, as the myself a tranfgreffor.‡ means of this Justification, I run back again for it to the Jewish Law, I am but where I was, an Unjustified Sinner; and act just like a foolish Man that pulls down his House to make it better, and then builds it up again with the very fame Materials, just as it was, upon its old Foundation. ‡ 19 For I through the Law am dead to the Law, that I might live unto God. 19. Let others think and act as they will. I know that by the very Tenour and Design of the Jow ish Law itself, a Christian is now as perfectly free from its Obligation, as a Woman is from her Marriage Contract at her Husband's Death || ; fo that even a Jewish Christian, much more a Gentile one, is bound to nothing but the Observance of the Christian Religion, as the true Service of God. 20 I am crucified 20. By this new Dispensation with Chrift. Never- of Christ, I am dead to the Ceretheless I live, yet not monial Law, and the Law to me. I, but Chrift liveth in The Life I now live is no longer the Life of a Jew, but the Obedience of a Christian, to that Saviour and Redeemer, who so loved me as to give himself for a full Satisfaction for all my Sins. me: and the life which 21 I do 21. For * Is Christ the Minister of Sin? Or else thus with Oecumenius, If the Law be obligatory still, then we Christians are tranfgreffors, in not adhering to it; and do we think that Chrift would enjoin us to fin against a divine Law? God forbid! But I chuse the Paraphrase as the most natural sense. Or lastly, It may be read without an Interrogation, thus, If we be finners in seeking to be justified by Christ, then Christ is the Minister of fin. † I make myself a Transgreffor, i. e. says Chrysostom, by fetting up that Law which I allow God has abolishd. 21 I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. 21. For my part I shall never A.D. 58. countenance a Doctrine that frustrates the main and merciful Design of the Christian Covenant. For 'tis clear, could the Jewish Law have justified and saved us, there had been no need of Christ's Death; nay, and if that Law has any part in our Justification, then his Death was insufficient of itself for it. CHAP. III. The ARGUMENTт. The Apostle having absolutely cleared himself of having ever preached up the Neceffity of the Ceremonial Law to Christian Believers ; comes now to argue directly against that Principle of the Jewish Zealots. His first Argument taken from the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Spirit conferred upon Christians. His next, from the Cafe of Abraham's Justification; proving that all true Christians, whether Circumcised or not, are accepted and pardoned upon the fame Faith, and from the same Promise that justified that eminent Patriarch; and not at all from the Observance of the Jewish Law. The Jewish Zealots object, To what purpose then was the Law given ? He answers it: Shows the Law to have been only preparatory to the Gospel, and that all Believers, Gentile and Jewish, are to be saved by the Christian Religion alone. I Foolish Ga- I. Olatians, who Foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, Arts have they deluded you from that you should not this Fundamental Article of the obey the truth, be- Christian Faith, viz. That the fore whose eyes Jesus Gospel Religion is fufficient for Sal Chrift vation 1 |