Four Evangelists, but only one Gospel. 13 10. Son. He it is who hath conferred upon us the gift of Atonement, for we were not saved by works in righteousness: or I should rather say that these blessings proceed from Both; as He says, Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine. He says not John 17, "ye are removed from the Gospel" but " from God who called you," a more frightful expression, and more likely to affect them. Their seducers did not act abruptly but gradually, and while they removed them from the faith in fact, left names unchanged. It is the policy of Satan not to set his snares in open view; had they urged them to fall away from Christ, they would have been shunned as deceivers and corrupters, but suffering them so far to continue in the faith, and calling their error the Gospel, they dug through the edifice, using these names as protections (so to speak) to cover their approaches. As therefore they gave the name of Gospel to this their imposture, he contends against the very name, and boldly says, unto another Gospel,— Ver. 7. Which is not another. 16, 25. And justly, for there is not another. Nevertheless the Marcionites are misled by this phrase, as diseased persons are injured even by healthy food, for they have seized upon it, and exclaim, "So Paul himself has declared there is no other Gospel." For they do not allow all the Evangelists, but one only, and him mutilated and broken up according to their pleasure. This explanation of the words, according to my Gospel and Rom. the preaching of Jesus Christ, is sufficiently ridiculous, nevertheless for the sake of those who are easily seduced it is necessary to refute it. We assert, therefore, that, although a thousand Gospels were written, if the contents of all were the same, they would still be one, and their unity no wise infringed by the number of writers. So, on the other hand, if there were one writer only, but he were to contradict himself, the unity of the things written would be destroyed. For the oneness of a work depends not on the number of its authors, but on the similarity or diversity of its contents. Whence it is clear that the Gospels of the Four are one Gospel; for, as the four say the same thing, its oneness is preserved by d Marcion flourished about A. D. 120 -130. His doctrine was a compound of various preceding theologies, chiefly the Gnostic. He received only a part of St. Luke's Gospel. Tertull. in Marc. iv. 2-4. He it was who on asking I. 7. 14 A slight adulteration vitiates the whole faith. GALAT. the harmony of the contents, and not impaired by the difference of persons. And Paul is not now speaking of the number but of the discrepancy of the things spoken. With justice might they lay hold of this expression, if the Gospels of Matthew and Luke differed in the signification of their contents, and in their doctrinal accuracy; but as they are one and the same, this trifling and pretended ignorance of what is obvious even to children, should be abandoned. Ver. 7. But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. That is to say, ye will not recognize another Gospel, so long as your mind is sane, so long as your vision remains healthy, and free from distorted and imaginary phantoms. For as the disordered eye mistakes the objects presented to it, so does the mind when made turbid by the agitation of evil thoughts. Thus the madman confounds objects; but this insanity is more dangerous than a physical malady, for it works injury not in the regions of sense, but of the mind; it creates confusion not in the organ of bodily vision, but in the eye of the understanding. And would pervert the Gospel of Christ. They had, in fact, only introduced one or two commandments, circumcision and the observance of days, but he says that the Gospel was subverted, in order to shew that a slight adulteration vitiates the whole. For as he who but partially pares away the image on a royal coin renders the whole spurious, so he who swerves ever so little from the pure faith, soon proceeds from this to graver errors, and becomes entirely corrupted. Let those who charge us with being contentious in separating from heretics, and say that there is no real difference between us except what arises from our ambition, hear Paul's assertion, that those who had but slightly innovated, subverted the Gospel. Not that to say that the Son of God is a created Being, is a small matter. Numb. Know you not that even under the elder covenant, a man who gathered sticks on the sabbath, and transgressed a single commandment, and that not a great one, was pu2 Sam. nished with death? and that Uzzah, who supported the Ark 6,6.7. when on the point of being overturned, was struck suddenly dead, because he had intruded upon an office which did not pertain to him? Wherefore if to transgress the sab 15,32 36. Necessary to resist the beginnings of evil. 15 bath, and to touch the falling Ark, drew down the wrath of God so signally as to deprive the offender of even a momentary respite, shall he who corrupts unutterably awful doctrines find excuse and pardon? Assuredly not. A want of zeal in small matters is the cause of all our calamities; because slight errors escape fitting correction, greater ones creep in. As in the body, a neglect of wounds generates fever, mortification, and death; so in the soul, slight evils overlooked open the door to graver ones. It is accounted a trivial fault that one man should neglect fasting; that another, who is established in the pure faith, should shrink from its bold profession, and be led by circumstances to dissemble; that a third should be irritated, and threaten to depart from the true faith, is excused on the plea of passion and resentment. Thus a thousand similar errors are daily introduced into the Church, which is divided into as many parties, and we are become a laughing-stock to Jews and Greeks. But if a proper rebuke had at first been given to those who attempted slight perversions, and a deflection from the divine oracles, such a pestilence would not have been generated, nor such a storm have shaken the Churches. You will now understand why Paul calls circumcision a subversion of the Gospel. There are many of us now, who fast on the same day as the Jews, and keep the sabbaths in the same manner; and what shall I call our tolerance of this, noble or miserable? Again, many Gentile customs are observed by some among us; omens, auguries, presages, distinctions of days, a curious attention to the circumstances of their children's birth, and, as soon as they are born, tablets with impious inscriptions placed upon their unhappy heads, thereby teaching them from the first to lay aside virtuous endeavours, and drawing them as much as possible under the false domination of fate. But if Christ profits nothing those that are circumcised, how shall faith hereafter avail to the salvation of those who have introduced such corruptions? Although circumcision was given by God, yet Paul used every effort to abolish it, because its unseasonable observance was injurious to the Gospel. If then he was so earnest against the undue maintenance of Jewish customs, what excuse can we have for not abrogating Gentile ones? Hence have arisen our tumults 16 God's ministers to be obeyed, unless they corrupt the faith. GALAT. and troubles, hence have our learners been filled with pride, 1.8, , 9. and left their ranks, throwing every thing into confusion, and their discipline having been neglected by us their governors, they spurn our reproof however gentle. But disobedience in a disciple is not lawful, be his superior never so wicked. It Matt. is said of the Jewish doctors, that as they sat in Moses' seat, 23, 2. 3. their disciples were bound to obey them, though their works were so evil, that the Lord forbad His disciples to imitate them. What excuse therefore is there for those who insult and trample on men, rulers of the Church, and living by the grace of God, holy lives? if it be unlawful for us to judge each other, much more is it to judge our teachers. 7. Ver. 8, 9. But though I, or an Angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than [beside] that ye have received, let him be accursed. See the Apostle's wisdom; to obviate the objection that he was prompted by vainglory to applaud his own doctrine, he includes himself in his anathema; and as they referred to authority, that of James and John, he mentions Angels, saying, "Tell me not of James and John; if one of the most exalted Angels of heaven corrupt the Gospel, let him be anathema." The phrase "of heaven" is purposely added, Mal. 2, because priests are also called Angels. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger [Angel] of the Lord of hosts. Lest therefore it should be thought that priests are here meant by the term "Angels," he points out the celestial intelligences by the addition," from heaven." And he says not, if they preach a contrary Gospel, or subvert the whole of the true one, let them be anathema; but, if they even slightly vary, or incidentally disturb, my doctrine. As I said before, so say I now again. That his words might not seem to be spoken in anger, or with exaggeration, or dropped in the heat of argument, he now repeats them. Sentiments may perhaps change, when an expression has been called forth by anger, but to repeat it a second time proves that it was spoken advisedly, and was previously approved by the judgment. When Abraham was requested to send Lazarus, he replied, Luke 16, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them: if they 29. 31. hear them not, neither will they be persuaded, though one Supreme Authority of the Word of God. 17 rose from the dead. And Christ introduces Abraham thus speaking, to show that He would have the Scriptures accounted more worthy of credence, even than one raised from the dead: Paul too, (and when I say Paul, I mean Christ, who directed his mind,) prefers them before an Angel come down from heaven. And justly, for the Angels, though mighty, are but servants and ministers, but the Scriptures were all written and sent, not by servants, but by God the Lord of all. He 66 says, if any man" preach another Gospel to you than that which we have preached,—not “if this or that man:" and herein appears his prudence, and care of giving offence, for what needed there any mention of names, when he had used such extensive terms as to embrace all, both in heaven and earth? In that he anathematized Evangelists and Angels, he included every dignity, and his mention of himself included every intimacy and affinity. "Tell me not," he exclaims," that my fellow-apostles and colleagues have so spoken; I spare not myself if I preach such doctrine." And he says this not as condemning the Apostles for swerving from the message they were commissioned to deliver; far from it, (for he says, whether we or they thus preach;) but to shew, that in the discussion of truth the dignity of persons is not considered. Ver. 10. For do I now persuade men or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. 5, 12. +, 3. Granting, says he, that I might deceive you by these doctrines, could I deceive God, who knows my yet unuttered thoughts, and to please whom is my unceasing endeavour? See here the Apostolical spirit, the Evangelical loftiness! So too he writes to the Corinthians, For we commend not ourselves 2 Cor. again unto you, but give you occasion to glory; and again, But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged 1 Cor. of you, or of man's judgment. It is with reluctance that a teacher submits to defend himself before his disciples, and this not from arrogance, far from it, but from distress at the instability of mind which led to this seduction, and at the little credence they placed in him. Wherefore Paul now speaks (as it were) thus:-Is my account to be rendered to you? Shall I be judged by men? My account is to God, and all my acts are with a view to that inquisition, nor am I so с |