1. The earnestnefs with which Paul established his apostleship, in the first and second chapters of this epiftle, and the things which he advanced for that purpose, fhew that the Judaizers, who urged the Galatians to receive circumcifion, denied his apostleship; and in fupport of their denial, alleged that he was made an apostle, only by the church at Antioch, and that he had received all his knowledge of the gofpel from the apostles. This the Judaizers might alledge with some plaufibility, before Paul's apostleship was recognised at Jerufalem. But after Peter, James and John, in the time of the council, gave him the right hands of fellowship, as an apoftle of equal authority with themfelves, and agreed that he should go among the Gentiles, and they among the Jews, his apostleship could be called in question no longer in any church, than while the brethren of that church were ignorant of what had happened at Jerusalem. We may therefore believe, that immediately after the council, the apostle would write his epiftle to the Galatians, in which he not only gave them an account of his having been acknowledged by the three chief apostles, but related many other particulars, by which his apostleship was raised beyond all doubt.-This is the first reafon for supposing that the epiftle to the Galatians was written foon after the council of Jerufalem.

2. The second reason is taken from the infcription of the epistle, in which it is faid, that all the brethren who were with Paul joined him in writing it. For as the only view with which any of the brethren could join the apoftle in writing to the Galatians, was to atteft the facts which he advanced, in the firft and second chapters, for proving his apoftleship, the brethren who joined him in writing it, must have been such as knew the truth of these facts. Wherefore, they could be neither the brethren of Corinth, nor of Ephefus, nor of Rome, nor of Troas, nor of any other Gentile city where this epiftle hath been dated, except Antioch. As little could they be the brethren who ac companied the apostle in his travels among the Gentiles, as Hammond conjectures. For none of them, except Silas, had any knowledge of the facts advanced in this epiftle, but what they received from the apoftle himself; fo that their testimony was, in reality, the apoftle's own teftimony. The only brethrent who could bear effectual teftimony to these things, were those

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who

who lived in Judea and its neighbourhood; particularly the brethren of Antioch, who, by their intercourse with those of Jerusalem, must have known what had happened to Paul there, as fully as they knew what happened to him in their own city, where he had refided often and long. I therefore have no doubt that the epiftle to the Galatians was written from Antioch, and that the brethren who joined Paul in writing it, were the brethren there, whose teftimony merited the highest credit. For, among them, were various prophets and teachers, whofe names are mentioned, Acts xiii. 1. with others of refpectable characters, whofe place of refidence, early converfion, eminent station in the church, and intercourfe with the brethren in Jerufalem, gave them an opportunity of knowing Paul's manner of life before his converfion; his being made an apostle by Christ himself; his being acknowledged as an apostle by his brethren in Jerufalem; his teaching uniformly that men are faved by faith without obedience to the law of Moses; his having ftrenuously maintained that doctrine in the hearing of the church at Antioch; his having publicly reproved Peter for seeming to depart from it, by refusing to eat with the converted Gentiles; and that on being reproved by Paul, Peter acknowledged his misconduct by making no reply. All these things, the brethren of Antioch could attest, as matters which they knew and believed; fo that with the greatest propriety, they joined the apostle in writing the letter, wherein they are afferted.

3. That the epiftle to the Galatians was written after the council of Jerufalem, and before Paul set out from Antioch on his second apoftolical journey, appears from his not giving the Galatians any exhortation therein, or direction concerning the collection for the faints. At the time Paul went into Galatia from Tarfus, he does not seem to have planned that collection. Neither had he it in view, when he went into Phrygia and Galatia with Barnabas from Lycaonia. What firft fuggested the idea to him, was, if I mistake not, the exhortation of the apostles, when they gave him the right hands of fellowship, and agreed that he should go among the Gentiles, namely, that he would remember the poor; that is, remember to make collections among the converted Gentiles, for the poor of the faints in Judea. Or he may have formed the refolution, in confequence of fome converfation

verfation on the subject which he had with the three apoftles, before he left Jerufalem. But in whatever manner it originated, as Paul doth not feem to have formed that refolution, till he went up to the council and converfed with the other apoftles, he could not with propriety mention it to the Galatians in any letter, till he had explained the matter to them in conversation. And this I doubt not the apostle did, when he carried to them the decrees of the council, in his fecond apoftolical journey through Phrygia and Galatia. And the Galatians having agreed to make the collections, he directed them in what manner to make them with the leaft inconvenience to themselves. And no doubt received from them their collections, when he went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, in his way to Ephefus, as mentioned Acts xviii. 23.-Or if any of the Galatian and Phrygian churches had not then finished their collections, they may have sent them to him during his three years abode in Ephefus. These things I infer from the following circumstance. In his first epiftle to the Corinthians, chap. xvi. 1, 2. which was written from Ephefus after he had gone over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, he mentioned the directions concerning the method of making the collections, which he had given to the Galatians before he wrote that letter; and defired the Corinthians to follow thefe directions in making their collections. Wherefore, as he did not after that go into Galatia, but went from Ephefus to Corinth, and from Corinth ftraightway to Jerufalem with the collections, he must have received the collections of the Galatian churches, in the manner I have defcribed.

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4. When the apoftle wrote his epiftle to the Galatians, he had heard of the defection of fome of them from the true doctrine of the gospel. This defection he reprefents as having happened foon after they were converted, Gal. i. 6. I wonder that are so foon removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ. But if the epistle to the Galatians was written, either from Rome during the apoftle's first confinement there; or from Corinth during his eighteen months abode in that city; or from Ephefus where he abode three years; or from Troas in his way to Jerufalem with the collections, the defection of the Galatians must have happened a confiderable time after their converfion, even on the fuppofition that they were firft called, when Paul and Barnabas

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Barnabas went into their country from Lycaonia. Wherefore, if the apostle's expreffion, I wonder that ye are fo foon removed, is proper, the epiftle to the Galatians could not be written later than the interval between the council of Jerufalem, and the apostle's fecond journey into the Gentile countries with Silas, when they delivered to the churches the decrees of the council.

The foregoing arguments for the early date of the epiftle to the Galatians, afford to that date a degree of probability, not usually obtained in a matter so dark and fo remote.-Suppofing then, that this epistle was written soon after the council of Jerufalem, the apoftle at Antioch may have heard of the defection of the Galatians, by letters from fome of the faithful among them, which he received before he went to the council. Or he may have been informed of it in Jerufalem, during the council, by fome who had lately come from Galatia. And after he returned to Antioch, he may have written this epiftle to the Galatians by Titus, notwithstanding he refolved to vifit them foon, for the purpose of delivering the decrees of the council. For the danger they were in from the falfe teachers, and the number of those who already had gone over to Judaism, made it neceffary that the apostle should write immediately, to reclaim those who had apoftatifed, and to prevent others from following their example.

SECT. III. Of the Occafion of writing the Epifle to the

Galatians.

Not long after the Galatians embraced the gofpel, certain Jewish Christians zealous of the law of Mofes, came among them and taught them, that unless they were circumifed and obeyed the law, they could not be faved, Gal. v. 2. And fo fuccessful were thefe Jewish zealots in propagating this error, that fome of the Galatians actually fubmitted to be circumcifed, Gal. v. 2.—12.

The doctrine of the Judaizers, concerning the neceffity of circumcifion to men's falvation, the apoftle termed another gofpel; or rather, he declared it to be no gospel at all, because the Judaizers, utterly ignorant of the nature and efficacy of Chrift's

death,

death, affirmed that the gospel had no facrifice for fin; and that pardon and juftification were only to be obtained through the Levitical atonements; for which reason they exhorted the Galatians to be circumcifed, that they might be entitled to the benefit of these atonements. However, as they acknowledged Jefus to be a prophet fent of God, and considered his doctrines and precepts as an excellent inftitute of morality, they did not require the Galatians to renounce the gospel, but exhorted them to join the law with it, that by adopting the expiatory rites of the law, the gospel might be rendered a complete and effectual form of religion.

Some however of the Galatians, better inftructed, opposed these errors as contrary to the doctrine of Paul, whom they still respected as their spiritual father. Wherefore the Judaizers, to leffen his credit, represented to the Galatians, that he was none of those who had accompanied Jefus during his ministry on earth, and from that circumstance they inferred that he was no apoftle; or at best an apoftle of men; that he received his commiffion to preach the gofpel from the brethren at Antioch, or from the apostles at Jerufalem; that any knowledge of the gospel which he poffeffed, had been communicated to him by those who gave him his commiffion; that very little regard was due to the doctrine of fuch a teacher; that the apoftles who accompanied Chrift in his lifetime, being well acquainted with the true nature of the gofpel, had a better claim to be followed, especially Peter, James, and John, who, as the false teachers affirmed, themselves obeyed the law, and enjoined it to all, as neceffary to falvation; and that if Paul taught differently from them, it might be presumed, either that he did not rightly understand their doctrine, or that he did not faithfully interpret it. They even went so far as to affirm, that Paul himself had now changed his doctrine, and preached the neceffity of circumcifion, chap. v. II.

To these calumnies the Galatians gave the more heed, that Paul's apostleship was not generally known in the church at that time. And as a few were already drawn away, and others were in danger of following, it is not improbable that fome of the faithful among them judged it neceffary to give the apostle an account of the Galatian churches, in a letter, which, as was

formerly