would feem, that he took him on a particular view, and to anfwer the purpose which we find him afterwards adduced for. Which, by the way, carries in it something more than a prefumption, that this journey could not be prior to his first journey, along with Barnabas, into the Leffer Afia. Nor do we find any of the Gentiles, as Titus certainly was, converted to Christianity before that time; except Cornelius and his friends, whom Peter admitted, and by doing so opened the kingdom of heaven among the Gentiles. But the profecution of that great defign was left to Paul, as their apostle.

What he adds here, verf. 2. of his going up by revelation, has been made an argument to prove, that it must have been fome other journey that he speaks of in this place; as we are exprefsly told, Acts xv. that he and Barnabas were fent upon this question. But it concludes nothing, fince there can be no inconfistency between the two. Befides, neither does the Apostle fay, whether the revelation was made to himself perfonally, or to the church of Antioch. It will readily be allowed to have been a very proper measure, which K 2

common

1

common prudence might have directed them to. But it was not the cuftom of those times, to enter upon any meafure of moment, without asking and receiving the direction of the Spirit; which anfwered the fame purpose with that inquiring of the Lord which we find fo often mentioned in the Old Teftament. It seems, nevertheless, that the Apoflle meant to say, that the revelation he speaks of was made to himself; and that he was thereby directed by his mafter, to go and support what he had faid in his contention with the Judaizing teachers at Antioch, and affert the freedom of the Christian churches from that yoke of bondage which neither the Jews, then in being, nor their fathers, were able to bear.

But after all, it is a matter of mere chronological nicety, as it concerns us very little, when we are fure of the facts, to know the precife time when they happened. What in a special manner belongs to us, is, to confider the facts which happened on this occafion, and how they anfwer the Apoftle's prefent purpose. We fhall have occafion afterwards to fee, that the business of circumcision, and what was

neceffarily

neceffarily connected with it, was no fuch circumstantial affair as fuperficial observers might imagine it; and that it was not for nothing that great Apoftle was fo wary on this point.

Before we can go any further, it will be proper to obferve, that there were two dif tinct questions in agitation at that time: Whether the Christian natural Jews were still bound to observe the ritual part of the law given by Mofes ? and, Whether the Gentile converts were likewife bound to be circumcifed, and obferve the fame rules and manner of worship? For as to the moral part of that law, and the duties injoined by it, there never was any difpute. The whole of the Mofaic law, as it was given to that nation, when they were feparated from all the other people of the earth, stood, as appears by the preface to it, upon their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, and their being put in poffeffion of the land of Canaan, by the free gift and immediate hand of Jehovah, their God; and obedience to it was the condition on which they poffeffed that land. This was fo peculiar to them, that no other nation or people had, or could have, any concern in it.

The

The natural Jews were indulged in their zeal for this law, probably as long as they continued to poffefs the land; and accordingly great care was taken to avoid offending them, as appears by the decifion of the grand difpute, Acts xv. in what is commonly called the council at Jerufalem; and especially by Paul's circumcifing Timothy. But he and his fellow-apoftles being well apprised, that all the ritual part of that law was typical and figurative, a sensible representation of fpiritual and heavenly things, as they are fet in a clear light in the gofpel of Chrift, oppofed with all their might the construction the carnal Jews made of it, by putting eternal life upon the obfervance of it, directly contrary to the grace of the gofpel, and the fpiritual worship under the ministry of the Great High Priest over the house of God. In this view, the outward circumcifion became the concifion, Phil. iii. 2. and the true circumcifion was that of the heart.

But the other fet of duties, fuch as men owe to God and to one another, injoined likewife by the law of Mofes, are of ano-. ther nature, and stand upon a more du

rable

rable and unchangeable foundation. They are founded originally in the very law of creation; and when.fin entered, and mankind were reduced by it to the most defperate condition, a fet of new duties were founded, and the old greatly strengthened, by the grace of God in Christ Jefus, held forth to a perishing world in the promised feed of the woman.

From this we may be able diftinctly to perceive the meaning of the word law, as the Apostle ufes it in this, and indeed in all his other epiftles. What he had immediately and directly to do with, was the ritual part, commonly called the cèremonial law, in which the Gentile Chri-、、 ftians had no concern. But as this stood fo closely connected with the moral part, and the whole was abufed beyond its plain intention, (which never was, to give right to eternal life by obedience to it, and doing as it was there written), the apostles found themselves obliged to oppose the whole, when taken in this falfe and wrong construction, and on the fame grounds to fet afide every law which men might frame to themselves for anfwering the fame purposes, of recommending them to

God,