But grievous as such inconsistency would have been in any one, it was peculiarly sinful in Peter : for it was at this very place, Antioch, that the point had been some time before discussed with great vehemence ; and so pertinaciously had the Jewish teachers maintained the universal and perpetual obligation of their own law, that not even the united wisdom and authority of Paul and Barnabas could settle the dispute ; so that it became necessary to refer the matter to the decision of the whole college of Apostles at Jerusalem. Accordingly the question was stated ; and Paul and Barnabas on the one side, and some of the Judaizing teachers on the other, were deputed to go up to Jerusalem, and there to get it finally settled by such authority as they were all agreed to submit to. Accordingly the deputation went ; and laid before the Apostles the matter in dispute. And who, of all the Apostles, was the man that undertook to determine it ? It was this very Peter, who now was undoing all that he had before done. He called the attention of the assembly to the commission which he had received to open the kingdom of heaven both to Jews and Gentiles ; and reminded them, that, on his preaching first to the Gentiles, God had sent down the Holy Spirit on them, precisely as he had before done upon the Jews at the day of Pentecost ; thus visibly and unquestionably declaring, that the Gentiles were to have the Gospel freely administered to them without any observance of the Jewish law. And on this tes- timony, supported by that of the prophetic writings, James, who presided on that occasion, determined the point ; and, to the great joy of the Gentile converts, confirmed to them the liberty which they were so desirous to retain3. Yet behold, this very Peter, at this very place, before these very Gentiles, and in the presence of these very messengers, Paul and Bar- nabas, took upon himself to rescind the decree of the whole college of Apostles, and to insist on the Gentiles observing Jewish rites, which he, as a Jew, had neglected and despised. Alas! Peter, who would have expected this at thy hands? Who would have thought that, after having been distinguished above all the children of men, in that the keys of the kingdom of heaven were committed unto thee from thy Saviour's hands ; and after having seen myriads flock into it in consequence of thine opening of the doors, thou shouldest use those very keys to shut the doors again, and thereby, as far as in thee lay, exclude from the kingdom all who had already entered, and all others of the human race ? Verily, the reproof given thee, though so public and severe, was nothing more than what thou justly deservedst for thy grievous inconsistency.]
2. His impiety —
a Acts xv. 1—19. with Matt. xvi. 18, 19. and Acts x. 34 — 44.