CHAPTER VII.

Paul disbelieved continued.-After his Third Jerusalem Visit, Contest between him and Peter at Antioch. Partition Treaty: Paul for himself: Peter, James, and John, for the Apostles.

SECTION 1.

CONTEST AND PARTITION TREATY, AS PER ACTS, AND PAUL'S EPISTLES.

GALATIANS ii. 1 to 16.

1. Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.1. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.-3. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised :- 4. And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.-5. To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.- -6. But of those who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person: for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me ;-7. But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;-8. (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles :)

-9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.-10. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do 11. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. 12. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. 13. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.- 14. But when I saw 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?-15. We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,-16. Knowing that a man is not ustified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

So much for the question about Jewish rites.

We come now to the state of affairs between Paul and Peter. Concerning this, we have little, as hath been seen, from the author of the Acts: from Paul himself, not much: but what there is of it is of prime importance.

On this occasion, to judge from the account given in the Acts,-between Paul and Peter, all was harmony. In their principles, in their speeches, they may be seen pleading on the same side: arguing, and arguing in vain, both of them, against the superior influence of James: of that James, of whose written works, in comparison of those we have from Paul, we have so little. But presently, on one side at least, we shall see contention-persevering contention-and rival ambition, for the cause of it.

In this pregnant and instructive letter-(Paul's second letter to his Galatians)-the authenticity of which seems to be altogether out of the reach of doubt, -among the particulars, that bear relation to this the third visit, the following are those, by which the greatest share of attention seems demanded at our hands.

In the first place, let us view them in the order in which they stand: that done, the degree of importance may determine the order in which they are considered.

1. Fourteen is the number of years, between this third visit of his to Jerusalem, reckoning either from the first of his visits made to that same holy place after his conversion, or from his departure from Damascus after his return thither from Arabia.

2. On this journey of his to Jerusalem, he has with him not only Barnabas, as mentioned in the Acts, but Titus, of whom no mention is there made.

3. It is by revelation, that this journey of his was undertaken.

4. The Gospel, which he then and there preaches, is a Gospel of his own.

5. Private at the same time, and for reasons thereupon given, is his mode of communicating it.

6. Titus, though at his disposal, he leaves uncircumcised.

7. False brethren is the appellation he bestows upon those, who, on this occasion, standing up for the Mosaic law, give occasion to this debate.

8. Elders, Apostles, kinsmen of Jesus,-be they who they may,-he, Paul, is not on this occasion a man to give place to any such persons: to give place by subjection: Oις εδε προς ώραν ειξαμεν τῇ ὑποταγῇ: say rather in the way of subordination.

9. Unnamed are the persons, on whom the vituperation he discharges, is poured forth. Thus much only is said of them: namely, (verse 12.) that they "came from James," the brother of our Lord. Contemptuous throughout is the manner, in which, he speaks of all those persons whom he does not name. Quere, Who are they, to whom (in every thing that goes before that same verse,) he is alluding? It seems from thence, that it was with James, from whom they received support, that those scruples of theirs, out of which sprung these differences and negotiations, originated.

10. Leaving the Jews to Peter,-he claims to himself as his own the whole population of the Gentiles.

11. To this effect, an explicit agreement was actually entered into; parties, he and Barnabas of the one part; James, Peter, (by his Hebrew surname of Cephas), and John, of the other part.

12. Of this agreement, one condition was-that, of such pecuniary profit, as should be among the fruits of the labours of Paul among the Gentiles, a part should be remitted, to be at the disposal of Peter.

13, Paul, at the time of this visit, stood up against Peter.

14. The cause, of his doing so, was-an alledged

weakness and inconsistency in the conduct of Peter, and his gaining to his side-not only Jews of inferior account, but Barnabas,

15. The weakness and inconsistency consisted in this: viz. that whereas he himself had been in use to act with the Gentiles, yet, after the arrival at Antioch of those who came from James at Jerusalem,-he, from fear of the Jewish converts, not only ceased to eat with the Gentiles, but to the extent of his influence forced the Gentile converts to live after the manner of the Jews.

16. On the occasion of this his dispute with Peter, he gave it explicitly as his opinion,-that, to a convert to the religion of Jesus, Jew or Gentile,-observance of the Mosaic law would, as to every thing peculiar to it, be useless, not to say worse than useless, (Gal. ii. 16.) "for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."

1. As to his place in relation to the Apostles. His was not inferior to any body's: upon terms altogether equal did he treat with the Apostles: in and by the first partition treaty,-he, with Barnabas for his colleague,-Barnabas, from whom, according to the Acts, he afterwards separated,-obtains the whole of the Gentile world for the field of their labours. Thus elevated, according to his account of the matter, was the situation, occupied by him on the occasion of this his third visit to Jerusalem, in comparison of what it had been at the time of his first,-and, to all appearance, at the time of the second. At the time of his first visit, the Apostles,-all but Peter and James, upon which two Barnabas forced him,-turned their backs upon him upon his second visit, none of them, as far as appears, had any thing to do with him: now, upon his third visit they deal with him upon equal terms and now, not only Peter and James, but John, are stated as having intercourse with him.

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2. Of this partition treaty, important as it is, no mention is to be found in the Acts. From first to last,-in the account given in the Acts, no such figure does he make as in his own. In the Acts, of the speech of Peter, and even of that of James, the substance is reported: of Paul's, nothing more than the subject, viz. his own achievements among the Gentiles: against Paul's opinion, as well as Peter's, the compromise, moved by James, is represented as carried.

3. As to the cause, or occasion, of his third visit to Jerusalem. In the account given in the Acts, it is particularly and clearly enough explained. It is in conjunction with Barnabas that he goes thither: both of them, to confer with the Apostles and elders, on the subject of the notion, entertained by numbers among the Jewish converts, that, by conversion to the religion of Jesus, they were not set free from any of the obligations imposed by the law of Moses.

Of this commission,-creditable as it could not but have been to him,- Paul, in his account of the matter, as given to the Galatians, makes not the least mention. No: it is not from men on this occasion nor on others, it is not from men, that he received his authority, but from God: it is by revelation, that is, immediately from God, and by a sort of miracle.

4. What, in obedience to this revelation, he was to do, and did accordingly, was,-the preaching of a gospel of his own; a gospel which as yet he had not preached to any body but the Gentiles. Preaching? how and where? in an assembly of the whole body of the believers in Jesus, the Apostles themselves included? No: but privately, and only to the leading men among them: "to them which were of reputa"tion."

A gospel of his own? Yes: that he did. Further on, it will be seen what it was: a Gospel, of which, as far as appears from the evangelists, no traces are to