for them to err. The conduct of the Apostle Paul in the passage before us has been much condemned; and a minister almost endangers his own character by undertaking to defend it. But I am persuaded it is defensible, and that he acted as became him in exist- ing circumstances : and I cannot but think, that when the whole Church at Jerusalem united in recommend- ing that conduct, and St. Paul adopted it on their recommendation, it is somewhat presumptuous in us, who are so incompetent to form a judgment in com- parison of them, to stigmatize what by them was universally approved. Indeed, to suppose that he who but a few days before had withstood so manfully the solicitations of his friends to keep away from Jerusalem, and had declared himself ready to be bound or to die there, for the Lord's sake, should be left of God to betray the cause which he had under- taken to support, is to dishonour, not the Apostle only, but that God whom he served.
That we may communicate our sentiments clearly, we shall endeavour, I. To explain the Apostle's conduct —
There was a violent prejudice at Jerusalem against the Apostle Paul —
[St. Paul, having been sent chiefly to the Gentiles, had neglected the Jewish Ritual ; whilst the Church at Jerusalem, consisting entirely of Jews, had still been observant of its forms. Nor is this difference to be wondered at ; for even the Apostles themselves, for six years after the day of Pentecost, knew not that the Gentiles were to be incorporated with the Jews, and that the partition-wall between them was to be broken down. Hence they, and all their converts, adhered to the ceremonial law, and to many of " the customs," which they had " received by tradition from their fathers :" nor do they appear to have wholly laid them aside, till the destruction of Jerusalem and of the whole Jewish polity rendered the continuance of them impracticable. Considering therefore the veneration in which the Mosaic institutions were held, it is not to be wondered at that the Jewish Christians should regard Paul as an apostate from Moses a.
It was to counteract this idea, that an expedient was de- vised by James and the Jewish elders. They knew that whilst
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