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

I. 8, 9.

16 God's ministers to be obeyed, unless they corrupt the faith.

GALAT. and troubles, hence have our learners been filled with pride, 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

7.

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.

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 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.

4,3.

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

S. Paul sought to justify himself before God, not man.

GALAT. miserably abandoned as to pervert my doctrine, seeing that I. 10. I am to justify what I preach before the Lord of all.

ἐκεῖνον,

ἐκεῖνον.

ned.

He thus expressed himself, as much with a view of withstanding their opinions, as in self-defence; for it became disciples to obey, not to judge, their master. But now, says he, that the order is reversed, and ye sit as judges, know that I am but little concerned to defend myself before you; all I do is done ὥστε for God's sake, and in order that He himself may justify my forwhich doctrine. Those who wish to persuade men, are led to act πρὸς tortuously and insincerely, and to employ deceit and falsehood, Sav. Be- in order to engage the assent of their hearers. But he who addresses himself to God, and desires to please Him, needs simplicity and purity of mind, for God cannot be deceived. Whence it is plain that I have thus written to you not from the love of rule, or to gain disciples, or to receive honour at your hands. My endeavour is to please God, not man. Were it otherwise, I should still consort with the Jews, still persecute the Church. I who have cast off my country, my companions, my friends, my kindred, and all my reputation, and taken in exchange for these, persecution, enmity, strife, and daily-impending death, have given a signal proof that I speak not from love of human applause. This he says, being about to narrate his former life, and sudden conversion, and to demonstrate clearly that it was sincere. And that they might not be elevated by a notion that he did this by way of self-vindication to them, he premises, For do I now persuade men? He well knew how, on a fitting occasion, to correct his disciples, in a grave and lofty tone: assuredly he had other sources whence to demonstrate the truth of his preaching, by signs and miracles, by dangers, by prisons, by daily deaths, by hunger and thirst, by nakedness, and the like. Now however that he is speaking not of false apostles, but of the true, who had shared these very perils, he employs another method. For when his discourse was pointed towards false apostles, he institutes a comparison by bringing 2 Cor. forward his endurance of danger, saying, Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. But now he speaks of his former conversation, and says,

23.

His sudden conversion u proof of its miraculousness. 19

Ver. 11, 12. But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You observe how sedulously he affirms that he was taught of Christ, who Himself, without human intervention, condescended to reveal to him all knowledge. And if he were asked for his proof that Christ Himself thus immediately revealed to him these ineffable mysteries, he would instance his former conversation, arguing that his conversion would not have been so sudden, had it not been by Divine revelation. For when men have been vehement and eager on the contrary side, their conviction, if it is effected by human means, requires much time and ingenuity. It is clear therefore that he, whose conversion is sudden, and has been sobered in the very height of his madness, must have been vouchsafed a Divine revelation and teaching, and so have at once arrived at complete sanity. On this account he is obliged to relate his former life, and to call the Galatians as witnesses of past events. That the Only-begotten Son of God had Himself from heaven vouchsafed to call him, they who were not present could not know, but that he had been a persecutor they well knew. For his violence had even reached their ears, and the distance between Palestine and Galatia was so great, that the report would not have extended thither, had not his acts exceeded all bounds and endurance. Wherefore he says,

Ver. 13. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it.

Observe how he shrinks not from aggravating each point; not saying simply that he persecuted but beyond measure, and not only persecuted but wasted, which signifies an attempt to extinguish, to pull down, to destroy, to annihilate, the Church.

Ver. 14. And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

To obviate the notion that his persecution arose from passion, vain-glory, or enmity, he shews that he was actuated