Accordingly, St. Paul shows by a brief history of his life, that he learnt the Gospel, not from man, but by immediate revelation from God; and that he entered upon his ministry without receiving instruction or appointment from those who were Apostles before him, but by Divine appointment. He then proceeds to refute the imputation of inconsistency with which he had been charged, by showing that he had uniformly resisted the Judaizing Christians, and had even withstood and reproved St. Peter at Antioch, who, through fear of the Jewish Christians, had refused to associate with heathen converts. Much of the present Epistle is employed on the subject of circumcision, from which it is evident that it was written at an earlier stage of the great controversy, respecting the union of Judaism with Christianity, than when the Epistle to the Romans were composed. The Christian Jews, who had intruded themselves into the Galatian Church, and taught the necessity of circumcision and obedience to the whole Law, seem to have considered that Christianity was merely a sect or modification of Judaism, which was a notion natural enough for Jews to entertain; for, indeed, some of the Apostles even appear to have relinquished it with difficulty. It appears to have been the hardest of all things for a Bishop Tomline.

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Jewish Christian to understand that the new religion was an original, independent, and superseding revelation. St. Paul was constantly brought in contact with the class of feelings arising from these views; he had, as the Apostle to the Gentiles, to tell his converts whether they were to obey the Law of Moses or not. If the Apostles of the circumcision permitted obedience as a thing indifferent, it behoved Paul to make his own aware that what was indifferent to Jewish converts, was a matter of no necessity to the Gentiles. The object of this Epistle, which was written in a strain of indignant complaint, was to counteract the impression made by these false teachers, and to re-establish the Galatians in the true Christian faith and practices".

SECT. CCXXVIII.-Paul quits Ephesus for Corinth.

Acts xx. 1-3.

It became expedient for Paul to quit Ephesus after the tumult which has been just related; and therefore having taken an affectionate leave of the disciples there, he directed his course "into Macedonia." By the way, as he went, he stopped at Troas, where he expected to have found Titus on his return from Corinth from delivering the first Epistle to that Church. He tells them, in his second Epistle, that he had been "minded to come unto them as he passed Bishop Tomline.

Pictorial Bible.

by into Macedonia;" but not finding Titus, and ignorant, therefore, how his writing had been received by them, he thought it best to go by and not to call then; for he tells them how much he had been "troubled on every side until comforted by the coming of Titus "." It was probably whilst he went over the parts of Macedonia, and before "he came into Greece," that is, into Achaia and Corinth, that Titus rejoined him, and refreshed him with the welcome tidings from thence. It is thought that it was in this circuit that he made at this time, that he extended his preaching "round about unto Illyricum," which was the farthest boundary of his travels in those parts. He mentions this visit in his Epistle to the Romans probably to point out to them the place nearest them to which his travels from Jerusalem had brought him. The return of Titus induced him to visit Corinth. SECT. CCXXIX.-Paul writes his Epistle to the Romans.— Rom. i.-xvi.

THE Epistle to the Romans was written from hence, just before he set out from Corinth for Jerusalem. It is addressed to the Church of Rome, which consisted partly of Jewish and partly of heathen converts, to both of whom it is evident he has regard throughout the Epistle— a writing which, for sublimity and truth of sentiment, for brevity and strength of expression;

but, above all, for the unspeakable importance of the discoveries which it contains, stands unrivalled by any merely human composition". St. Paul when he wrote this Epistle had not been at Rome; but he had received an account of the state of the Church there from Aquila and Priscilla, with whom he lived at Corinth. "Strangers of Rome" are named among those present at the feast of Pentecost, who, doubtless, upon their return home, proclaimed the Gospel of Christ; and many Christians, converted in other places, would naturally have travelled or settled near the capital of the great Empire, who would have formed a church there, and would be the cause of others embracing the Christian faith; but it is not known that any other Apostle had at this time preached the Gospel at Rome".

SECT. CCXXX.-Paul writes again to the Corinthians.2 Cor. i.-xiii.

PAUL was prevented, by a design upon his life, from embarking from Corinth to go by sea to Syria, and therefore returned by land through Macedonia, and crossed from Philippi to Troas '. At this time he wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and it was sent again by Titus, who, with other persons, was returning thither to forward the collections in Achaia for the poor Christians of Judæa'. It is probable that Titus was 'Dr. Macknight. Bp. Tomline. Dr. Robinson. Bp. Tomline.

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commissioned also to go to Crete from Corinth; but we hear nothing more of him in the New Testament until St. Paul's letter to him, who says, he "left him" in that island "to ordain elders in every city," which is understood of his episcopal authority in that island, as he is often called Bishop of Crete by ecclesiastical writers. Jews abounded in that island; and, as Cretans are mentioned at Pentecost, they may have been the means of introducing the Gospel there'. St. Luke now again joined the "company of Paul," although he is not expressly mentioned among those named as having "accompanied him into Asia ;" but it is said, that "these going before tarried for us at Troas."

SECT. CCXXXI.-Paul restoreth Eutychus to life.-
Acts xx. 4-12.

THERE they remained seven days, "and upon the first day of the week the disciples came together to break bread." The historian's words intimate that the worship of the Church had at this time assumed a regular form, in that the first day of the week, and not the seventh, was now the Sabbath, or Lord's day-that the disciples came together as a matter of ordinary custom on this day-and that they assembled "to break bread," or to commemorate the Lord's death by partaking of the Sacrament of His body and blood'. Thus it was the custom 3 Bishop Hall. Bishop Tomline.

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Archbishop Sumner.