WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [CHAPTER V. reeled, will have power (as the leaven has with the lump) to lead you into complete Judaism. Ver. 10. "I have confidence to you-ward in the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise mind ed." He does not say, " ye are not minded," but, " ye will not be minded; " that is, you will be set right. And hew does he know this? he says not " I know," but " I trust in God, and invoking His aid in order to your correction, I am in hopes; " and he says, not merely, "I have confidence in the Lord," but, " I have con fidence towards you in the Lord." Every where he connects complaint with his praises ; here it is as if he had said, I know my disciples, I know your readiness to be set right. I have good hopes, partly because of the Lord who suffers nothing, however trival, to perish, partly because of you who are quickly to recover your selves. At the same time he exhorts them to use diligence on their own parts, it not being possible to obtain aid from God, if our own ef forts are not contributed. Ver. 10. "But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." Not only by words of encouragement, but by uttering a curse or a prophecy against their teachers, he applies to them an incentive. And j observe that henever mentions the name ofthese plotters, that theymight notbecomemoreshame less. His meaning is as follows. Not because "ye will be none otherwise minded," are the authors of your seduction relieved from punish ment. They shall be punished ; for it is not proper that the good conduct of the one should become an encouragement to the evil disposition of the other. This is said that they might not make a second attempt upon others. And he says not merely, "he that troubleth," but, "who soever he be," in the way of aggravation. Ver. ii. "But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?" Observe how clearly he exonerates himself from the charge, 1 that in every place hejudaized and played the hypocrite in his preaching. Of this he calls them as witnesses ; for ye know, he says, that my command to abandon the Law was made the pretext for persecuting me. " If I still preach circumcision, why am I still per secuted ? for this is the only charge which they of the Jewish descent have to bring against me. Had I permitted them to receive the Faith, still retaining the customs of their fathers, neither believers nor unbelievers would have laid snares for me, seeing that none of their own usages ["The false teachers had spread the malicious report thatPaul h: self preached circumcision because he practiced it in thecase of Timothy. . But this was a measure of expediency and char ity and not a surrender of principle." Schaff. This calumny was sufficiently absurd to admit of his dismiss ing it, as he does here, with all brevity and with what a striking experimental proof ! " Meyer. G. A.] were disturbed. What then ! did he not preach circumcision? did he not circumcise Timothy? Truly he did. How then can he say, "I preach it not? " Here observe his accuracy; he says not, "I do not perform circumcision," but, "I preach it not," that is, I do not bid men so to believe. Do not therefore consider it any con firmation of your doctrine, for though I circum- dised, I did not preach circumcision. Ver. ii "Then hath the stumbling block of the cross been done away." That is, if this which ye assert be true, the obstacle, the hindrance, is removed ; for not even the Cross was so great an offence to the Jews, as the doctrine that their father s customs ought not to be obeyed. When they brought Stephen before the council, they said not that thisman adores the Crucified, but that he speaks " against this holy place and the Law." (Acts vi : 13.) And it was of this they accused Jesus, that Hebroke the Law. Wherefore Paul says, If Circumcision be conceded, the strife you are involved in is appeased ; hereafter no enmity to the Crossand our preaching remains. But why do they bring this charge against us, while wait ing day after day to murder us ? it is because I brought an uncircumcised man into the Temple (Acts xxi : 29. ) that they fell upon me. Am I then, he says, so senseless, after giving up the point ofCircumcision, vainly and idly to expose myself to such injuries, and to place such a stumbling-block before the Cross? For ye observe, that they attack us for nothing with such vehemence as about Circum cision. Am I then so senseless as to suffer affliction for nothing at all, and to give offence to others? He calls it the offence ofthe Cress, because it was enjoined by the doctrine of the Cross ; and it was this which principally offend ed the Jews, and hindered their reception ofthe Cross, namely, the command to abandon the usages oftheir fathers. Ver. 12. "I would that they which unsettle you, would even cut themselves off." Observe how bitterly he speaks here against their deceivers.2 At the outset he directed his charge against those who were deceived, and called them foolish, once and again. Now, hav ing sufficiently corrected and instructed them, he turns to their deceivers. And you should remark his wisdom in the manner in which he his soul a strong and bitterly Meyer. Paul wishes that the circumcisers would not stop with circum cision but go beyond it to mutilation (make themselves eunuchs) like the priests of Cybele. A severe irony and similar to the one in Phil, iii: 2, 3. where Paul calls the boasters of circumcision "the Concision." Self mutilation was a recognized form of heathen wor ship especially in Pessinus in Galatia and therefore quite familiar to the readers. Thus by their glorying in the flesh the Galatians relapsed into their former heathenism, Schaffand Lightfoot. The Revised Version here has, "would even cut themselves off," the American Committee has, " wouldgobeyond circumcision G. A.]