EPISTLE TO THE OALATIANS. Ill 



communicated to him upon the conversion of Cornelius, nor 

 with the part he took in the debate at Jerusalem. But, ir. 

 order to understand either the difficulty or the solution, it 

 will be necessary to state and explain the passage itself. 

 " When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the 

 face, because he was to be blamed. For, before that cer- 

 tain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles : but 

 when they were come, he withdrew, and separated himself, 

 fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the 

 other Jews dissembled likewise with him ; insomuch that 

 Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. 

 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according 

 to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, 

 If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, 

 and not as do the Jews, w^hy compellest thou the Gentiles 

 to live as do the Jews ?" Now the question that produced 

 the dispute to which these words relate, was not whether 

 the Gentiles were capable of being admitted into the Chris- 

 tian covenant ; that had been fully settled : nor was it 

 whether it should be accounted essential to the profession oi 

 Christianity that they should conform themselves to the law 

 of Moses ; that was the question at Jerusalem : but it was, 

 whether, upon the Gentiles becoming Christians, the Jews 

 might henceforth eat and drink with them, as with their 

 Dwn brethren. Upon this point St. Peter betrayed some in- 

 constancy ; and so he might, agreeably enough to his history. 

 He might consider the vision at Joppa as a direction for the 

 occasion, rather than as universally abolishing the distinc- 

 tion between Jew and Gentile ; I do not mean with respect 

 to final acceptance with God, but as to the manner of their 

 living together in society : at least, he might not have com- 

 prehended this point with such clearness and certainty, as 

 to stand out upon it against the fear of bringing upon him- 

 self the censure and complaint of his brethren in the church 

 of Jerusalem, who still adhered to their ancient prejudices. 

 But Peter, it is said, compelled the Gentiles — I6vdai^s(v. "Why 



