" that all may know that those things whereof they were in- formed concerning thee, are nothing, but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the lawc." But can we sup- pose that James exhorted him to declare a downright false- hood, which thousands of Jews there present were able to contradict? Would not such a proposal have excited in Paul the greatest abhorrence ? We must understand the proposal as it was understood at the time. The Jewish Christians had been informed, that Paul set himself against Moses, and would in no case submit, or suffer any other Jew to submit, to any of his appointments. Now, says James, shew them that this is not true, by submitting to this particular appoint- ment proposed to you. To this proposal Paul acceded. Was there any insincerity in that ? No : it precisely accorded with his own views, and was the deliberate expression of his own mind ]
2. Inconsistency —
[When Peter had, through fear of some Jewish Chris- tians, been guilty of dissimulation, and had made such a compliance as that recorded in our text, Paul had publicly reproved him before the whole Churchd: and now that Paul himself was brought into similar circumstances, (it may be said) he acted in the very way that he had before condemned. But this is not a just statement of the case. Peter had acted in a very different manner, and from very different principles. He had not only gone back to Jewish ceremonies himself, but had compelled the Gentiles also to conform to them : and this he had done solely through the fear of man. But St. Paul compelled no one to follow his example : he abridged no man's liberty : he merely conformed to a rite himself, from love to his fellow-creatures, and from a hope of furthering their eternal welfare. The two cases were as different as can well be con- ceived. St. Paul did nothing but what he had frequently done on other occasions. He had himself circumcised Timothy, that Timothy might find the readier acceptance among the Jews : and St. Paul tells us, that he had always acted on the same principle, whenever a just occasion had arisen ; " To the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the lawe." Thus, instead of being guilty of any inconsistency, he acted on the very principles which he had invariably pursued.]
3. Unfaithfulness both to God and man —
[St. Paul had received a commission to go to the Gentiles; and to shew both to them, and to the Jews, that the law was
c ver. 24. d Gal. ii. 11 — 1 1. « 1 Cor. ix. 'JO.