After this I went (by admonition from God, Acts xxii. 17, 18,) to Cæsarea which is in Syria, (see note [c] Matt. xvi.) and thence to Tarsus, (my native city in Cilicia, Acts xxii. 3,) Acts ix. 30. And all this while I was not so much as known to the churches of Judæa that had received the faith, that is, to those other beside that of Jerusalem mentioned ver. 18. (All which I have said to shew (what was undertaken, ver. 11,) how far I was from receiving instructions from any other but Christ himself, ver. 16.) All that they knew of me was, that they had heard of my preaching the Christian doctrine, which I had persecuted. And they magnified the name of God for this mercy of his wrought in my conversion. ## CHAP. II. [b] crucified among you] That it should be here said to the Galatians that Christ Jesus was ἐν ὑμῖν ἐσταυρωμένος, crucified among them, is not well to be imagined, neither is there any reason to understand the words so, which are otherwise interpretable, either by removing the comma after προεγράφη, or by setting it after ὑμῖν, thus, To whom Jesus Christ having been crucified, hath been set forth among you, before your eyes, that is, with evidence and conviction. Another way of construction might also be pitched on, by joining οἷς and ἐν ὑμῖν, (as 1 Pet. ii. 24. οὐ τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ, by whose stripes of him, that is, by whose stripes,) among whom, that is, you. But that which removes all difficulty is, that the king's MS. leaves out ἐν ὑμῖν, among you, and then the sense will be obvious, and the construction clear, οἷς κατ' ὀφθαλμούς Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς προεγράφη, to whom before your eyes (that is, evidently) Christ Jesus hath been set forth, or exposed to public view, (so προεγράφισθαι signifies; see note [a] on Jude,) ἐσταυρωμένος, having been crucified, that is, made known and evidenced in his sufferings, whereby he took away the partition betwixt Jew and Gentile, abolished the ceremonies of the Mosaical law, and so also in the power of his resurrection, the consequent of these sufferings of his. O FOOLISH Galatians, * who hath [a] bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, [b] crucified among you? To this I answer, that if this were conclusive, it would then make void those promises made to Abraham, which must be as carefully preserved as the objector seems careful to make good God's pact by the law. And indeed the true way of stating the difficulty must be by preserving both as far as the matter will bear. But there is one thing supposed in this objection which is utterly false, and the cause of all the mistake, viz. that it is possible to perform the law, (for that must be presupposed before we can talk of justification by that contract betwixt God and man,) or that the law furnishes with strength sufficient to do it. If that indeed were true, there would be no reason to expect the performance of the promises made to Abraham, and consequently of justification, but only by the law; but when the law doth no such matter, it is clear that that cannot be a valid contract, but void as soon as made, and so that it supersedes not that other of promise to Abraham, or that which is now by me insisted on in Christ, which is purposely to supply the defects and defailances of the law. I pray let me dispute it a while with you, and demand this one thing, which may reasonably set an end to the whole controversy, The gifts of the Spirit that are in your church, were they there till the gospel was preached to you? (1 Cor. xii. 28.) was the Mosaical law able to give you any such privileges, to work such miracles among you? Undoubtedly it was not. And then is there any reason, that having by the gospel received the gifts of the Spirit, and so begun to be a Christian church, thriven and prospered well in that plain way, you should now think it necessary to take in the law as a suppletory, to make yourselves up with the external, Mosaical, carnal rites and ceremonies? You have suffered many persecutions and hardships for Christianity, which, if you would have Judaised, you might have avoided, (your persecutions generally proceeding from that fountain;) and if this doctrine be true, then what are ye the better for all these sufferings? Nay, it were well if this were all, God therefore that hath furnished your church with so many extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, and wrought so many miracles among you, did he any such thing under the Mosaical law? is there any thing in that fit to draw you back to it again from the profession of the gospel? ver. 2. Is not faith it that all the great privileges and advantages have still belonged to? As it was believing upon which Abraham was justified. From whence it follows, that those which are justified as Abraham was, are not the Mosaical observers, but believers only, those that receive and obey that doctrine which is taught and required by Christ, the Gentiles as well as Jews. And the words of the promise made to Abraham, which was an evangelical not legal promise, did in effect contain this in them, that all nations of the world, and not only the Jews, should be justified by faith, and so the Gentiles now, and that without legal Mosaical performances, for thus the words of the promise ran, In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed: all the nations; and so the heathens, and not only the Jews, who lived according to the law, shall be blessed in thee, that is, the form of benediction used among the Gentiles, and not only the Jews, shall be with mention of Abraham's name, viz. that God will bless them as he blessed Abraham, justify them as he did him, make the whole Gentile world partakers of that promise made personally to Abraham, on condition they believe and obey as he did: all looking on Abraham's obedience and justification as the example of all Christians, that all that believe and obey as he did shall be blessed as he was. [c] In thee shall all nations be blessed] The likeliest way of interpreting this phrase, ἐν σοὶ εὐλογηθήσονται, will be by observing first, what is meant by εὐλογεῖσθαι, and then by ἐν σοί. For the first, it refers clearly to the form of benedictions among the Jews, Lev. ix. 23. used solemnly by the priests, who did bless the people in set forms, Num. vi. 24. (as well as bless God for them, as Gen. xiv. 19. Melchisedek blessed Abram. and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, as well as Blessed be the most high God, ver. 20.) Thus also did parents bless their children, Isaac Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 3. and Jacob his sons, Gen. xlix. Then for the ἐν σοί, that will be interpreted by the use of the phrase Gen. xlviii. 20, where Jacob, speaking to and blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, saith, In thee shall Israel bless, (the very same phrase as here,) saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. By which it may be reasonable to conclude, that to bless others in this form, God make you as Ephraim, &c., to make use of his ensample in blessing any, is to bless them ἐν Ἐφραῖμ, in Ephraim. And so proportionably this will be the meaning here of Ἐν σοί, In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. They among all the nations or Gentiles, and not only the Jews, that bless themselves or others, shall use this proverbial form of benedictions, by mentioning the blessings that God bestowed upon Abraham, God make thee as Abraham, &c., or as the form is set down Gen. xxviii. 4. God give to thee the blessing of Abraham. Thus rabbi Solomon interprets it on Gen. xii. 3, that men shall say to their children, Be thou as Abraham, adding that the phrase is used in scripture always in this sense. And so sure it hath been used according to From all which it is clear, that believers or Christian livers, without Mosaical performances, have their part of that blessing that was promised to Abraham; and those that sprang from him (from his faith as well as from his loins) are blessed on the same terms as he was. For all that expect to be justified by the law without the faith of Christ, (which, if it be acknowledged, takes away the wall of partition betwixt Jew And the same is proved by that known testimony, Habak. ii. 4, (see Rom. i. 17, Heb. x. 38,) They to whom life is promised are the believers, or they that are justified after the evangelical manner. Whereas the law makes no account of faith, allows no justification but on condition of legal obedience, performance of all that it requires. In which case, there being no means in the law to justify any, but rather to bring curses on all, because all have sinned, ver. 10, Christ hath been seasonably pleased to interpose, to make satisfaction for sin, to bear that curse which belonged to us, (and that he did by being crucified, which being a Roman punishment was yet near kin to that of hanging on a tree, that is, a gibbet of wood, Deut. xix. 23, which is said there to be an accursed death:) That the favour bestowed on Abraham, of being justified by faith, and not by ceremonial observances, may be communicated to the Gentiles who believe in God as Abraham, and all those precious consequents thereof, the gifts of the Spirit useful to the building up of a church, ver. 5, as well as that single promise of justification. Brethren, it is ordinarily acknowledged among men, that a covenant, though it be but of a man, being once firmly made cannot be voided. And much less can the promises of God miscarry, which were made to Abraham and to his seed; not to seeds in the plural, which might make a difference betwixt Jews and Gentiles, but in the singular, to thy seed, viz., as to Isaac (who was therein a type of Christ) so distinctly to Christ, as he is the head of a family, a spiritual father of children, all believers coming from him as a spiritual progeny, and conse- To the same purpose again it is observable, that the law, that was delivered by Moses above four hundred and thirty years after the time that that promise was made to Abraham, Gen. xii. 3, cannot in any reason be thought to disannul, or frustrate, or invalidate the covenant made by God to Abraham, and in him to all believers or Christians, his spiritual as well as carnal progeny, so as to leave believers now under obligation to observe the Mosaical law, or to propose justification to them upon no other terms but those; when in the promise to Abraham, so long before, it was made over to them upon these other cheaper and better terms of fidelity and sincerity, and purity of the heart. For if the blessing that is promised to Abraham's seed, whether carnal or spiritual, that is, to believing Gentiles as well as circumcised Jews, came by the performance of the Mosaical law, then comes it not by the promise made to Abraham: which is directly contrary to the scripture, which affirms it to come, as to Abraham, so to all others, by promise only. You will ask then, if the promise made to Abraham be the only thing by which, now and ever since, justification hath been to be had, to what purpose the law was given? I answer, It was given to restrain men from sin, and to shew them their guilt, and to make them seek out for a remedy, which is to be found only in the doctrine of the gospel; and in this respect it was useful for the while, till Christ and his members, disciples and believers, should come; and that the law might be the more effectual to that end, to restrain us from sin, it was given in a glorious formidable manner, by angels delivering the ten commandments in thunder, so terribly, that the people durst not approach the mountain, and therefore was Moses called up to be a mediator, standing betwixt God and the people, to shew them the word of the Lord, Deut. v. 5, and by his hand it was delivered to them. Here again it may be objected, that if in the delivery of the law Moses were a mediator, he must then needs be so between God and the Israelites, and This freedom therefore I make use of, and do not depend on the law for justification, nor think the Mosaical observances still necessary; for that were to evacuate the gospel of Christ, (see note [c] Heb. xiii.,) for if still the Mosaical performances are necessary and sufficient to our justification, then Christ needed not to have died, it would be matter of no advantage to us that he thus came into the world and laid down his life for us. But it is clear by scripture, that all men of all nations, Jews and others, are guilty of sin, Rom. iii. 19, and so uncapable of justification by the law, which requires perfect obedience, or else cannot justify, and so still there is no justification to be had upon other terms but those of grace and promise, upon condition of performing sincere evangelical faithful obedience. All that can be said of the law is, that before Christ and the gospel came we were by God put under that economy, kept under and disciplined by it, as in a state of candidates or expectants, until the time should come for the revelation of the gospel. And so the law was only a guardian or institutor of us in time of minority, as it were, an imperfect rule proportioned to an imperfect state, not to justify, but only to keep us in order, and to leave and deliver us up to the gospel only for justification. Now therefore the gospel being come, the So was it with us children of Abraham and of God, we were obliged to observe those first rudi- ments of the worship of God in the Jews' religion, (see note [b] Col. ii.) with which God would have men brought up, and exercised to the more sublime pure way of serving him. 4, 5. But when that time was come, ver. 2, wherein God saw it fit to remove the guardian of the heir, that is, to lay the Mosaical law aside, then God sent his own Son in human flesh, who submitted to and performed the whole law, to redeem us out of that slavery of Mosaical performances, and to receive us into participation of the promises made to Abraham, that is, to justification, without those legal observ- And that you are sons appears by this, that God hath sent his Spirit into your hearts, giving you power and authority to call upon God and make your addresses to him, not only as your God, but your Father, the gospel assuring you that ye are no longer in that servile condition, bound to legal obediences, but that God will deal with you according to the promises made to Abraham and his seed, justify you upon the gospel terms of faith, without the deeds of the law. So that you are no longer enslaved to those Mosaical performances, but are put into the state of sons, and consequently through faith in Christ you are sure of justification, according to the promises made to Abraham. In time of your heathenism, before your conversion to Christianity, ye served idols, and were far from thinking yourselves obliged to the Mosaical law, knowing and consequently heeding nothing of it: But now that you have converted to Christ, or rather are prevented by God, and called to this sonship when you were not a looking after it, but lay immersed in idolatry, what reason is there, or how comes it to pass, that now being Christians, and so obliged to no part of the Jewish law, whose proselytes ye are not, ye should make another change so extremely to the worse for yourselves, in falling to the Mosaical performances, from which Christian religion hath freed those which were before obliged to them, that is, the Jews themselves, (and which, now Christ is come, the substance of those shadows, have nothing in them for which they should be valued,) and resolving to be servants still, in despite of that liberty of sons that Christ hath given you? Ye observe the Mosaical ceremonies, (see note [a] ch. iii.) sabbaths, and new moons, and solemn feasts, and anniversary feasts, or those that return every seventh and every fiftieth year, sabbatical years, or jubilees, after the same manner that the Jews before Christ thought themselves obliged to observe them. These practices of yours make me fear that the gospel by me preached will soon be lost among you. I pray follow my example—for I did once place my trust in the law for justification: and I beseech you do not think that it is out of any ill affection that I write this; I have not been at all provoked by you, nor consequently is it imaginable that I should mean you malice, or desire to bring on you persecutions to no purpose (the avoiding of which is the only bait which the Gnostics make use of to seduce you). Nay, why should this fear so trouble you now, more than formerly it did? You know, and cannot but remember, that when I formerly preached unto you, I was persecuted for my doctrine. [a] infirmity of the flesh] What ἀσθένεια σαρκὸς, infirmity of the flesh, here signifies, will appear by the ordinary use of ἀσθένεια for afflictions. So 2 Cor. xii. εὐδοκῶ ἐν ἀσθενείαις, I take pleasure in infirmities, that is, afflictions, of which the several sorts follow, contumelies, necessities, persecutions, distresses for Christ. The same as before, ver. 6. I will not rejoice but in mine infirmities, that is, afflictions, (as elsewhere he resolves not to rejoice but in the cross of Christ.) and so ver. 9, when he prays for deliverance from the thorn in the flesh, that is, afflictions, (see note on that place,) he saith God's answer was, My strength is perfected ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ, in weakness, that is, in the afflictions that befall my servants, the giving them strength to bear those is an act of the greatest power and mercy. So 1 Cor. xi. 30. πολλοὶ ἀσθενεῖς, many weak, may signify afflicted, as that notes pressures on their estates, because for diseases on the body, they follow in the ἄρρωστοι, sick; though elsewhere it is manifest that ἀσθένεια is used particularly for disease, as James vi. 14 and 15. (see note [m] on Rom. viii.) So 1 Cor. ii. 3. I was among you ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ, in weakness, that is, persecution, as it follows, and in fear, and much trembling. So 2 Cor. xi. 29. Τίς ἀσθενεῖ, καὶ οὐκ ἀσθενῶ; who, is weak, and I am not weak, that is, afflicted? for it follows, And you then were not at all moved by that discouragement to despise me or my preaching, but received me with all the respect and belief and cheerfulness imaginable. And then how happy did you think yourselves, that you had such an apostle! What would you not have parted with for our sakes, were it never so dear to you, though now you are so shy, and afraid of a little persecution? or what is now become of all that for which you were so taken notice of, and magnified among men, as the kindest and lovingest of any to your teachers, so kind, that I am able to bear you witness, that nothing was so precious to you but you would have parted with it for my sake? (Theophylact.) Am I then, who was at first so precious to you, now taken for an enemy of yours, for one that means you mischief, and am likely to bring persecution and pressures among you, (of which your new teachers, the Gnostic compliers, undertake to rid you,) for no other crime but only telling you my conscience, and revealing the truth of the gospel unto you? This is a little unhappy. [d] Christ] The word Χριστὸς sometimes signifies Christ, considered as head of the church, together with the body annexed to it, that is, Christ and all believers, or Christians. So 1 Cor. xii. 12. As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. Where answerable to the body with many members in the first part is ὁ Χριστὸς, Christ, in the second, which must therefore signify the whole society of Christians. So 1 Pet. i. 11, when he speaks of the Spirit of Christ, that is, of prophecy, foretelling the sufferings which should befall Christ, and the glories after them, it signifies not personally to Christ, but in this greater latitude, the crucifixion of Christ, and the persecuting of Christians, and proportionably the resurrection of Christ, and the deliverance of the persecuted Christians by the destruction of their enemies. And so here the context makes it clear, that by Christ all Christians are to be understood, circumcised or not, Jews or Gentiles: so if ver. 17, the words εἰς Χριστὸν be to be retained, it must be understood of the whole body joined with the head, the Christians or all faithful people, with Abraham the father of all such; for to them was that covenant established, and those promises made. But those words are left out in the king's MS.; and so it seems most probable they should be, and then the sense will be clear, that the covenant was established by God to Abraham. Their great zeal toward you is out of no sincere affection, or desire of your good, but that they may supplant me, and get all your affection to themselves, or that they may shut you out of the fold of Christ, that ye may follow them as your new pastors. But in a good cause ye ought to be constant, and ³ I was also as ye, κἀγὼ ὡς ὑμεῖς. ⁴ formerly, τὸ πρότερον. ⁵ What therefore is, or, was your happiness? Τίς οὖν ἦν ὁ μακαρισμὸς ὑμῶν; ⁶ woo you very earnestly, ζηλοῦσιν ὑμᾶς. ⁷ The King's MS. reads ὑμᾶς, you, but other copies have ἡμᾶς, us. ⁸ woo them, ζηλοῦτε αὐτούς. My babes, which cost me the same pain now that you would if I were now to convert you anew, till I can hear that the doctrine and practice of the gospel be purely and perfectly received among you (thus great is my kindness to you), It was no want of care or kindness in me, that I was not with you before this. Many resolutions I have had to come to you, and to speak with (instead of writing to) you, and so to apply these remedies, sharper or milder, as should appear most convenient, being uncertain at this distance which is the best way of dealing with you. Certainly ye that stand for the necessity of legal performances to justification, may in the very law itself see yourselves confuted. For of the two children that Abraham had, the one of Hagar, which denotes the law, the other of Sarah, which denotes the gospel, without legal performances, It is apparent that one, viz. Hagar's child, was born after an ordinary manner; but Sarah's child was not by the ordinary course of nature, but above it, by the power of God, and by virtue of the promise made to Abraham. And these two mothers are figurative expressions, and allegorically denote the first and second covenant, (see note on the title of these books,) the law and the gospel: Hagar denotes the law given from Sinai, and that brings nothing with it but servitude and strict observances, and yet thereby helps no man to the condition of sons, to justification. [b] an allegory] The word ἀλληγορία signifies a figure, expressing one thing by another, from ἄλλος, and ἀγορέω, enuntiō; and here the verb medium must be in the active sense; so ἀτινά ἐστιν ἀλληγορούμενα will be best rendered which things do express, enuntiate, one thing δι' ἄλλον, by another; for, as it follows, these are two covenants, that is, signify two covenants. For the name of Hagar signifies the mount where the law was given; and this is answerable to the present state of the Jews, these Hagarens and all that spring from Ismael being by their own laws bound to be circumcised, and observe the Mosaical law like the Jews, and so they, like Hagar their mother, are in a servile condition still. [c] answereth to] Συστοιχεῖ is by Theophylact interpreted γειτνιάζει, ἄπτεται, mount Sinai being not far from Jerusalem, but, as he acknowledgeth also, it signifies originally to walk along with, and being metaphorically used of things compared one to another, it signifies to be parallel, answerable, or proportionable to another; and accordingly here in the comparison begun ver. 12, Hagar is made parallel to Jerusalem, the then present state of the Jews: and the parallel consisted in two things; 1st, that as the people of the Hagarens bound themselves to circumcision, and the observation of the Mosaical law in many particulars, so the present Judaizers did; and, 2dly, that as in this respect these Hagarens were just as their mother had been, in a servile estate, so these Judaizers kept themselves and all their disciples in a mere servile condition, opposite to the liberty of the gospel. Of the Hagarens or Ismaelites being circumcised, Josephus gives clear testimony, l. 1. c. 12. Ἄραβες περιτέμνουσι μετὰ ἔτος τρισκαιδεκατον, Ἰσμαήλος γὰρ ὁ κτιστὴς αὐτῶν τοῦ ἴθνους, Ἀβράμου γενόμενος ἐκ τῆς παλλακῆς, ἐν τούτῳ περιτέμνεται τῷ χρόνῳ, "The Arabians are circumcised at thirteen years old. For Ismael, the founder of that nation, being the son of Abraham by the handmaid, was circumcised at that time." So Origen in Φιλοκαλία, shewing the ridiculousness of them that ascribe all to the σχηματισμὸς ἐπὶ τῆς γενείας, "the position of the stars at their birth," professes not to imagine how they can assign the circumcision of all the Jews (and so the wounding, and want of a physician's help) on the eighth day (constantly) after they are born, to any such position: τῶν δὲ ἐν Ἰσμαηλίταις τοῖς κατὰ τὴν Ἀραβίαν τοιόνδε, ὡς πάντας περιτέμνεσθαι τρισκαιδεκαετεῖς τοῦτο γὰρ ἱστόρηται περὶ αὐτῶν, "and on the other side, that the position of the stars at the nativity of all the Ismaelites in Arabia shall be such as shall cause them to be circumcised when they are thirteen years old; for so," saith he, "it is storied of them." [d] be heir with the son of] The explication of this depends on the Jewish matrimonial laws, or the nature of concubinate, viz. when a servant or a Gentile woman was taken in by a Jew to be (his wife she was not to be by law, but) his concubine, upon agreement first made concerning her dowry. For such a person as this is among them improperly called a wife, though far from any ill character of a whore, or any unlawful copulation, any further than will be affirmed of polygamy, which yet we know was allowed among the Jews, and practised by the STAND fast therefore in the liberty ¹ wherewith 1. From all this the conclusion is of exhortation to you and all Christians, that ye retain the freedom from being obliged to the Mosaical law, which Christ I your known apostle, that have been, and taught the faith among you, pronounce to you positively, that if you depend on circumcision and legal observances for justification, Christ will stand you in no stead. For by laying upon himself a necessity of circumcision, and expecting justification by that, he absolutely obliges himself to perfect obedience, without which the law cannot justify any, ch. iii. 10. All that run this way of the Judaizers must know that Christ is become uneffectual to them: if you expect to be justified by legal performances, ye have disclaimed all title to the gospel: see note [a] Heb. xiii. [a] become of no effect] Καταργείται, ἀποπάνεται, saith Phavorinus; the word signifies, according to the notion of ἀργός, whence it is compounded, frustration, annulation, evacuation, abolition; and so it is applied to the law, νόμος καταργείται, the law is annulled. In a sense not far from thence it is used Rom. vii. 2, when it is said, that the husband being dead, the wife καταργείται ἀπὸ νόμου τοῦ ἀνδρός, is discharged from the law of the husband, that is, receives no benefit from, nor owes any obedience or observance to the matrimonial contract. So here κατηργήθητε ἀπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ye are discharged from Christ, as when a servant is from the master, or as a wife from the husband, discharged from the advantages as well as burdens, ye receive no benefit or virtue from Christ, or the second covenant (all one with Christ) shall profit you nothing, ver. 2; and ἐξεπίσαστε, in the end of this verse, ye have fallen from, disclaimed all right or title to the gospel, or second covenant, that of grace. For we, according to the gospel, and the promise made to Abraham, expect to be justified without legal performances, only by faith or evangelical obedience. For now under the gospel it is not material whether a man be circumcised or no, all that is required to our justification is faith; not all that is called by that name, but such as is made perfect by addition of those duties which we owe to God and our brethren. [b] worketh] It is not amiss in this place to set down the particular notion of ἐνεργεῖσθαι in the New Testament. And to that purpose the first thing to be observed will be, that there is no kind of necessity or reason to render it in an active sense, but rather in a passive, throughout these books. So Rom. vii. 5, the motions of sin ἐνεργεῖτο ἐν μέλεσιν, were wrought, or consummate, or perfected in our members, that is, the motions and inclinations were brought to act and habit. So 2 Cor. i. 6. σωτηρίας τῆς ἐνεργουμένης ἐν ὑπομονῇ, salvation which is perfected or consummate by patient enduring. So 2 Cor. iv. 12. θάνατος ἐν ἡμῖν ἐνεργεῖται, &c., death is wrought in us, as it appears by the context, εἰς θάνατον παραδιδόμεθα, we are delivered to death, ver. 11. So Ephes. iii. 20. κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν ἐνεργουμένην ἐν ὑμῖν, according to the power which is wrought in or among you, parallel to Col. i. 29. κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν αὐτοῦ ἐνεργουμένην ἐν ἐμοί, according to the force, or act, or virtue which is wrought in me. So 2 Thess. ii. 13. of the word of God, ὃς καὶ ἐνεργεῖται ἐν ὑμῖν, which is wrought in you, preached unto you, and obtained its end (or perfection) to which it was designed, among you believers. So 2 Thess. ii. 7, the mystery of iniquity ἤδη ἐνεργεῖται, is made or wrought, or (as in the present tense) is in fieri, agitur, saith Castellio, agreeably to that of Hesychius, ἐνεργεῖται, κατασκευάζεται, is prepared to enter, to disclose itself to the world. And so here πίστις δι' ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη, faith perfected by charity; so the Syriac reads it, and so Tertullian, Perficitur per charitatem fides, contra Marcion. l. 5, directly parallel to Ye began well in receiving the gospel, as I preached it to you; who hath caused you not to continue in that course? This new doctrine of the necessity of Judaical observances is not taught you by God, or by him (whether myself or any others) who brought you to the faith. It comes from a few false teachers among you, that have infected you with this sour false doctrine of Judaizing, which will spoil all your Christianity, vv. 2. 4. And I hope it will not extend far, for I am confident of you in respect of the faith planted among you, that you will not be carried away with these errors; but the teachers of this doctrine, whosoever they are, or of what quality soever, shall suffer and be censured for it. Some of your teachers, it seems, have told you, that I am for the urging of circumcision upon Christians, and that I have done so in some places: but I pray do you guess of the truth of this suggestion, by the persecutions which I suffer, which generally fall upon me among the Jews, for my affirming the Mosaical law to be abolished, and would not fall upon me if I pressed the observation of the Mosaical law in this particular of so great importance. The great exception that the Jews have against my preaching and others believing me, is the abolition of the Mosaical law, and the removing of that one exception would be the appeasing of the wrath of the Jews, who probably would oppose it no longer; but this, you see, is not done, for the Jews are still as great opposers of Christianity, (where it is preached by me,) and of me for preaching it, and of others that so receive it from me, as ever they were. Thus unreasonable are their pretensions that would seduce you from your constancy, and are content to say any thing, though never so false and improbable, to that purpose: all that I have to say of them is, I wish they were excommunicated, turned out from among you, that thus endeavour to pervert you. [c; cut off] Ἀποκόπτεσθαι here, and in the canons of the ancient councils ἐκκόπτεσθαι, καθαιρεῖσθαι, ἀφορίζεσθαι, are all expressions of ex-communication of the highest degree, answerable to the shamatha among the Jews, (see note [d] on 1 Cor. xvi,) and consequently here the ὄφελον καὶ ἀποκόψονται, I would they were cut off, is an expression of a menace or threatening of excommunication, an apostolical denunciation, that they that do not mend this seditious schismatical humour shall be cut off: or if the ὄφελον be but a wish, it is then because he discerned so much of the obstinacy of the evil humour, that he thought this would not be likely to cure, but exasperate it, or because he saw his authority contemned among them. As for that other notion of ἀποκόπτεσθαι which St. Hierome and others seem to refer to, in relation to the matter of these men's disturbance, viz. that about circumcision, which they would impose upon all Christians, Si putant sibi hoc prodesse, non solum circumcidantur, sed etiam abscindantur, it is somewhat too light to be affixed to the words of the apostle. Christ hath freed you believers from the rigour of the law, that is, both from the necessity of Mosaical observances, and of perfect exact obedience under the penalty of the curse: only do not you make an uncharitable or a carnal use of this liberty, either to contemn and scandalize those that dare not use this liberty, Rom. xiv. 1, or to fall into acts of sin, and to think your Christian liberty will excuse you; but by charity behave yourselves toward all your brethren in this matter of legal ceremonies as may be most for their advantages. For this is indeed the sum of that law which ye pretend so much to vindicate, endeavouring the good of all others as much as ye can, or as you would your own, and not permitting your zeal to set you on designs of malice, and defaming of others. But if you be so uncharitable as to calumniate and defame one another, this will break out in a while, as in other places it doth already, to open feuds, persecuting and mischieving your fellow Christians. ⁹ But I, Ἐγώ δέ. Christ, ἔρα— ¹⁰ Is the offence of the cross (the King's MS. adds τοῦ Χριστοῦ) of unsettle you, ἀναστατοῦντες. My advice therefore is, that you order your actions according to the gospel rule, and do not those things which are most acceptable to the senses, most agreeable to your carnal or worldly ends. For this is certain, that he that will serve God must do many things contrary to his sensual or secular ends: for there being two desires in you, the one proceeding from the carnal, the other from the rational spiritual faculty or reason instructed by the gospel, and these being so opposite one to the other, that whatsoever one liketh the other disliketh, it follows, that whatsoever you do in compliance with the one, you do in opposition to the other, and so that you do not will or choose with both wills, rational and sensual, whatsoever you will or choose, but one of these still resisteth the other. That then which is your duty, is, to follow the duct of the Spirit; and if so, if you follow the gospel rule in despite of all the temptations of the flesh, whether lusts of the flesh or fear of persecution for the gospel, to the contrary, then you are neither obliged to the Mosaical performances, nor to the perfect exact obedience, without which the law allows no justification. Whereas on the other side, the actions that the flesh is most apt to betray one to, and which you have most need to be admonished of, are such as every man knows to be such, and which yet your present false teachers do industriously infuse into you: such are breaking the bands of wedlock, nay, making marriage absolutely a work of the devil, that that persuasion may bring after it all manner of unlawful lusts (see note [a] 1 Cor. v.), which marriage might prevent, The sensual villainies committed in the idol worships, (see note [i] 1 Cor. v.) to which the Gnostics would bring you back, and so likewise sorceries, and then all the sorts of uncharitableness, hating or maligning of others, &c. [d] witchcraft] Among the practices of the Gnostics, φαρμακεῖαι, sorceries, are here justly reckoned, (see note [a] on ch. iii, and Rev. ix. 21, and ch. xxi. 8, and xxii. 15.) And the grounds of that are clear, not only by the founder of them, Simon, who was a magician, but also by Menander his successor, who was such also; see Euseb. l. 3. c. κγ'. Εἰς ἄκρον τῆς γοητείας οὐκ ἔλαττον τοῦ διδασκάλου προελθῶν, μείζοσιν ἐπιδαψιλεύεται τερατολογίαις, "He was not inferior to his master in magic, but more vainly profuse in his portentous undertakings," and assuming to himself to be sent for the saving or delivering of men from the invisible αἴωνες or angels, ἄγγελοι κοσμοποιοί, as he calls them, taught that no man could escape out of their power but he that was brought up in the μαγικὴ ἐμπειρία, magical skill, and by the baptism by him delivered to them, of which they that were vouchsafed to partake he promised them eternal life here in this world, without any danger of death or old age. Of this Irenæus hath spoken at large, and Justin Martyr hath given this account of it See 2 Tim. iii. 7, 8. And at length envying either the quiet or the innocence of all that will not do as they do, and so falling into all acts of riotous and bloody malice against them, together with drunkenness and night revels, &c.; all which are of a most dangerous and desperate nature, and will certainly deprive and ¹² fulfil not, μὴ τελέσητε. ¹³ do not, μὴ ποιῆτε. But Sarah, which denotes the state of the gospel, that new city which Christ hath brought from heaven with him (see note [b] Rev. xxi.), of which all we Christians are free-men or citizens, she is a freewoman, and signifies that we Christians, Gentiles as well as Jews, are free from the Mosaical rites, &c., and that we may be justified without them.