1U2 HOE,^ PAULINiE. 



spoken of Jews and to Jews In like manner, chip. 4 : 1—5 : 

 '• Now. I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth 

 nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all ; but is 

 under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the 

 father. Even so we, when we were children, were in Dond- 

 age under the elements of the world : but when the fulness 

 of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 

 made under the law, to redeem them tliat tvere uncle)' the 

 laiv, that we might receive the adoption of sons," These 

 passages are nothing short of a declaration, that the obliga- 

 tion of the Jewish law, considered as a religious dispensa- 

 tion, the effects of which were to take place in another life, 

 had ceased with respect even to the Jews themselves. What 

 then should be the conduct of a Jew — ^for such St. Paul 

 was — who preached this doctrine ? To be consistent with 

 himself, either he would no longer comply, in his own per- 

 son, with the directions of the law ; or, if he did comply, it 

 would be for some other reason than any confidence which 

 he placed in its efficacy, as a religious institution. Now so 

 it happens, that whenever St. Paul's compliance with the 

 Jewish law is mentioned in the history, it is mentioned in 

 connection with circumstances which point out the motive 

 from which it proceeded ; and this motive appears to have 

 been always exoteric, namely, a love of order and tranquil- 

 lity, or an unwillingness to give unnecessary ofience. Thus, 

 Acts 16:3: " Him," Timothy, " would Paul have to go forth 

 with him ; and took and circumcised him, because of the, 

 Jews, ivhich icere in those quarters T Again, Acts 21 : 26, 

 when Paul consented to exhibit an example of public com- 

 pliance with a Jewish rite by purifying himself in the tem- 

 ple, it is plainly intimated that he did this to satisfy " many 

 thousands of Jews who believed, and who were all zealous 

 of the law." So far the instances related in one book cor 

 respond with the doctrine delivered in another. 



VIII. Chap. 1:18: " Then after three years I went uj- 

 to Jerusalem +o see Peter, and abode with him fifte^'n days " 



