unto me, that is, the grace of apostleship, they, in the name of all the apostles, and the whole church, gave unto me, and Barnabas my fellow-labourer, the right hand of fellowship; that is, they owned us to be pillars as much as themselves, and acknowledged us to be apostles no less than themselves; and it was agreed and concluded upon, that we should continue to preach chiefly to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. So far were the apostles at Jerusalem from condemning St. Paul's doctrine, or undervaluing his calling, which was the thing that the false apostles were so desirous of and hoped for. Note, lastly, That as an evidence of the happy agreement of Peter, James, and John, with Paul and Barnabas, and of their owning them as apostles and ministers of Jesus Christ, they recommended to St. Paul's charitable consideration the poverty of the Jewish converts to christianity, desiring him to make collections in the Gentiles' churches for the christian Jews. Here observe, 1. That the Jews were generally poorer than the Gentiles: it is frequently the lot of those who are rich in grace to be poor in goods, and to be reduced to such straits as to be forced to live upon some charitable supplies from others. Observe, 2. That although those who are our own poor, and live within our bounds, near us, and about us, are chiefly to be relieved by us; yet in cases of extreme necessity, such poor as live remote from us, whose faces were never seen by us, ought to be sharers in our charity. Observe, 3. That the care of God's poor, and the supplying of the outward necessities of his saints, is an employment not unworthy the highest apostle, much less unbecoming the ordinary ministers of Christ: They would that we should remember the poor. Observe, 4. That the faithful ministers of Christ ought, upon just and fit occasions, to excite and stir up their people to duties of charity, as well as piety; to costly and expensive duties, as well as those that are easy and less burdensome; these being no less profitable to the church, and much more evidential of a real work of grace upon the heart. Thus did St. Paul here: the apostles desired me to 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. Observe here, St. Peter's offence, and St. Paul's rebuke. St. Peter's offence, 1. was

this, He declined from the doctrine taught by himself, concerning the abrogation of circumcision and the ceremonial law; he had formerly conversed freely with the christian Gentiles without scruple, making no objection against them because they were not circumcised. But at Antioch he withdrew himself from the christian Gentiles, refusing to eat with them, because they were not circumcised; as if, for want of circumcision, they had been unclean, and altogether unfit to be conversed with. This was his fault; whereby it appears that St. Peter himself was not infallible, whatever his pretended successors, the bishops of Rome, are supposed to be. Learn hence, How certainly and suddenly the holiest and best of men will run into sin and error, if a special assistance from the Holy Spirit doth not uphold them, and preserve them. Observe, 2. As St. Peter's offence, so St. Paul's rebuke: he withstood him to the face; that is, rebuked him. publicly, because he was blame-worthy, and not secretly, behind his back; such as sin openly, must be rebuked and reproved openly. Here note, How little St. Paul dreamed of St. Peter's supremacy; if so, he had been more modest than thus to reprove him to his face. Learn hence, That as no bands of friendship must keep the ministers of God from reproving sin and vice; so, when they find the fault to be notorious, they must reprove it wherever they find it with much boldness and resolution. St. Paul here, in reproving St. Peter, withstood him: it is in the original a military word, signifying to stand against, either by force of arms, as among soldiers; or by dint of argument, as among disputants: it is a word of defiance, and signifies an opposition hand to hand, face to face, foot to foot, not yielding an hair's breadth to the adversary." Yet withal, as St. Paul's courage, so his candour appeared in reproving St. Peter to his face, and not reproaching him, as some, behind his back. And behold this great and chief apostle St. Peter submits to his reprover, neither justifying his action, nor reflecting upon St. Paul; he replieth not again.

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: inso

also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

These words are generally looked upon as an objection, which the adversaries of the doctrine of justification by faith have been always ready to make against it, namely," that if persons be not justified by their obedience to the law, then they may live as they list in the breach and violation of the law, and freely indulge themselves in sin, and consequently make Christ the minister of sin, as if he had relaxed the duty." The apostle rejects this inference and deduction with the greatest abhorrence and detestation, saying, God forbid. Hence note, That it is no new prejudice, though a very unjust one, against the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and not by works, that it opens a door to licentiousness, and makes Christ the minister of sin. Observe farther, A second objection here suggested. Some might pretend that he built up by his practice, what he had destroyed. "No," says the apostle, "I have, together with the doctrine of free justification, preached to you, pressed upon you, the duty of mortification, as of indispensable necessity to be practised by you: should therefore my preaching or my pracfice be otherwise than it has been, I should build again what I have destroyed, and destroy what I have already builded; and thus by encouraging sin, and discouraging holiness and obedience, I should be a transgressor against the law of righteousness. Learn hence, That the doctrine of justification by faith alone, cannot be rightly preached, except the duty of mortification of sin be urged and enforced with it; for the same faith that depends upon Christ for pardon of sin, doth look up unto him for power and strength to vanquish and subdue sin if we do not the latter, Christ will never do the former.

19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

Here the apostle shows that believers are so far from being justified by the law, that they are dead to the law, so as to put no confidence in their obedience to it for justification; particularly, 1. They are dead to the law; that is, they are delivered from the rigorous exactions of the law. Perfect,

personal, and perpetual obedience, is the duty which the law exacts at the believer's hand, and he has performed it, though not in himself, yet in the person of Christ his surety, who yielded as absolute and complete obedience to the law as it could require or demand. 2. The law is dead to believers, and they to that, in regard to the condemnatory curse and sentence of the law: Christ hath redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them, Gal. iii. 15. True, the believer's violation of the royal and righteous law of God, in the smallest measure and degree, doth in its own nature deserve the curse and condemnatory sentence; but Christ has discharged him from obnoxiousness to the curse, by being made a curse. 3. The law is dead to believers, as to its authority to justify and save them. This is what the law cannot do, being made weak through the flesh; though, properly speaking, the law is not weak to us, but we are weak to that; the law has not lost its authority to command, but we our ability to obey; it is as impossible for a fallen sinner to keep the law of God perfectly, as it is for a lame cripple to run a race swiftly. Yet, 4. Believers are not dead, but alive, to the law, as a rule of life and holy living; the law binds the believer (in Christ's hand) as strictly to endeavour obedience to it, as it did Adam in innocency. But here is the believer's privilege, That God the Father, upon the score of the covenant of grace which the blood of Christ has ratified and confirmed, doth graciously accept the faithful endeavours of his children, instead of perfect performances; which obedience the law-covenant did rigorously exact and require. Thus may every believer say with the apostle, I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God, namely, a life of righteousness and true holiness.

20 I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Several things are here observable, viz. St. Paul's spiritual death declared, and his spiritual life described, together with the Author and instrument of it. Observe, 1. St. Paul's spiritual death: I am crucified with Christ; that is, with Christ I am dead to the law, (in the manner mentioned

;

in the foregoing verse,) dead to sin, and dead to the world. Learn hence, That all true believers are crucified with Christ Je. sus; or that all justified persons have fellowship with Christ in his death. They have fellowship with him, 1. In the merit and value of his death; they are ransomed by it, as a price paid down to the justice of God for them. 2. In the virtue and efficacy of his death, which doth not only merit pardon for us, but mortifies sin in us. Our old man is crucified: that is, the power of sin is subdued in us. 3. A justified person hath fellowship with Christ, in the likeness and similitude of his death, and that is a crucifixion; as Christ died a painful, shameful, lingering, and accursed death for him, so doth sin die painfully, shamefully, and gradually in him They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, Gal. v. 24. Observe, 2. St. Paul's spiritual life described: I live yet not I, but Christ in me. Learn hence, That a crucified christian is a living christian: I am crucified: nevertheless I live, a life of justification and sanctification at present, in hope of, and as an earnest for, a life of glorification to come. Yet observe, 3. How the apostle corrects, or rather explains, himself, after what kind and in what manner he lives: he denies himself to be the author and root of his own life, and declares Christ to be both. yet not I, but Christ in me. both the author and efficient cause, the exemplary cause, the end or final cause, of the christian's life; a living christian lives not himself, but Christ lives in him. Observe, 4. As the author of the christian's spiritual life, Christ; so the instrument of it, and that is, faith. The life which I live in the flesh, that is, the spiritual life which I live as a christian here in the

I live:

Christ is

world, I life by faith in the Son of God; my life of justification is by faith in his blood; my life of sanctification and consolation is through faith in, and by influences derived from, his Holy Spirit. Observe, 5. How the apostle appropriates to himself in particular, what Christ had done for all believers in general; He loved me, and gave himself for me. Where note, Though a firm persuasion, and a full assurance of Christ's special love to ourselves, and his dying for us in particular, is not of the essence and being of justifying and saving faith, yet it is attainable without an extraordinary revelation; and as such, every sincere christian ought to

aim at it, to labour and endeavour after it.

21 I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

The apostle concludes this chapter with a double argument to prove the christian's justification by faith, without the works of the law. 1. Were it otherwise, we should frustrate and make void the grace of God. For if justification be by works, it can no more be by grace; according to the apostle, Rom. xi. 6. 2. Christ's death had been in vain, without any necessary cause or reason at all, if the justification of a sinner could have been obtained by his own works. Where note, That as well works done after faith and conversion, as those done before it, are excluded from being the meritorious cause of our justification, either in whole or in part; because the joining of works with faith, in the matter of our justification, is a total excluding of God's free grace, and a loud proclaiming, that Christ died in vain: If righteousness come by the law, I frustrate the grace of God, and Christ is dead in vain.

CHAP. III.

In this and the following chapters of this epistle our apostle expostulates the case with the Galatians, who were seduced by the apostles to relinquish the liberty they were called to by the gospel, and to put their necks under the judaical yoke again, so far as to observe circumcision; nay, their days, months, times, and years, of the ceremonial law. And thus they turned again to the works and beggarly elements of the law, from which they had a manumission by the gospel. This seduction of theirs our apostle looks upon as a piece of fascination; accounting them like persons that had been in ill hands, and practised upon by witchcraft. begins accordingly his holy charm against it, in the first verse of this chapter; in which he thus bespeaks them:

He

bence we learn, That the best and purest of particular churches may err, and have erred, fundamentally and dangerously for what consists such a church of, but persons all fallible? Head and members, being all sinful, are as unable to secure themselves from error as from vice. Indeed the church of Rome talks big, and boasts of a false gift, that of infallibility; but could never yet agree where it is lodged, whether in the pope, or in a general council; however, they are sure they have it. Well, if so, the more wicked and wretchedly inexcusable are they, in not improving their talent of infallibility for the best service of the christian church, namely, by writing one infallible comment upon the whole Bible. What a serviceable performance would it have been in them, to pin the pope in his chair, and hold down his hands to write, as Aaron and Hur held up Moses's hands to pray, till all the Amalekite errors and heresies, so much complained of, were routed and ruined! Woe unto them that let such an excellent gift lie idle amongst them, and unemployed by them. Observe, 3. The high and heinous aggravation of this fault in the Galatians, before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth crucified amongst them; that is, Christ, and then freedom by him from the bondage of the ceremonial law, had been preached to them; and his death and sufferings, with the great end and design of them, as plainly laid before them, as if Christ himself had been crucified in the midst of others. Observe, lastly, The brand of infamy which our apostle sets upon the judaizing doctors, heretical and false teachers; he calls them spiritual sorcerers, and their doctrine spiritual witchcraft. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Because, 1. As sorcerers, by deluding their senses, make persons apprehend they see what they see not; so heretics by casting a mist of seeming reason before the understanding, to delude it, and make the deluded person believe that to be truth, which indeed is not. 2. As sor

cerers, in what they do, are assisted beyond the reach of their own ability and skill by the help of Satan; so heretical spirits are often, by Satan's concurrence with them, more than ordinarily assisted by him in drawing multitudes after them. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? The original word seems borrowed from the practice of witches and sorcerers, who, being assisted by the devil, use to cast mists bc

fore the eyes of the people, to dazzle and delude them.

2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Our apostle having prepared the Galatians' attention, by a very smart and sharp reprehension in the foregoing verse, returns to the subject of justification by faith, without the works of the law, which he had entered upon in the former chapter, and prosecutes at large in this; and he uses five arguments to prove that we are justified by faith, and not by works. The first is contained in the verse before us, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? As if the apostle had said, "I appeal to your own experience; you have received the Spirit yourselves, some of you for sanctification, others for miraculous operations; now I would know by what means you received it; was it by hearing the law of Moses preached? You cannot say it; for you were heathens, and without the written law it must then be by hearing of the gospel, the doctrine of faith, which I preached to you." Here we have a truth expressed, and a truth implied. The truth expressed is this, That the hearing of the gospel faithfully preached is the instrumental mean by which persons receive the Holy Spirit in the sanctifying gifts and graces of it, to enable them to live an holy and spiritual life. Received ye not the Spirit by the hearing of faith? Yes, ye did.

The truth implied, is this, That a people should take great heed that they never undervalue, much less despise and vilify, that ministry, or that doctrine, which God at first blessed for their conversion. How many are there in England at this day, who disown that church, despise that ministry, which God blessed to their conversion, if ever they were converted! Sad it is, yet very certain, that like vipers they gnaw out the bowels of her who suckled them at her breast.

in the Spirit, are ye now made per3 Are ye so foolish? having begun fect by the flesh ?

Observe here, The apostle calls the doctrine of the gospel, Spirit; because, by hearing the gospel preached, they had received both the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. The law with all its rites and ceremonics, he calls flesh: because they were now weak, and being but tem.