SECT. IV.]

The decree respecting circumcision.

55

again for a considerable while with the disciples at Antioch.*

SECTION IV.

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED

From the return of Paul and Barnabas after their first journey, to the period of Paul's arrival at Jerusalem with the contributions for the saints; being his second and third journies.

WHILE Paul and Barnabas were prolonging their stay with the church at Antioch, previous to their setting out on a second journey, a circumstance occurred in that church, which, on account of its great importance to all the Gentile converts, appears to have engaged their most serious and fixed attention.

"certain men

It seems that at this particular juncture, came down from Judea, and taught the Gentile brethren at Antioch, that, unless they were circumcised after the manner of Moses, and kept the law, they could not be saved."+ Some suppose these teachers to have been Cerinthus and Ebion, the founders of two noted sects, of which the mention frequently occurs in ecclesiastical history; but the opinion rests solely upon tradition-a very doubtful guide in all cases, and more especially so in the concerns of religion. It is probable that, whatever were their names, they had formerly been of the sect of the Pharisees; and that when they became professors of the Christian faith, they still retained something of that old + Acts xv. 1, 24.

*Acts ziv. 19-28.

leaven, of whcih Jesus had warned his disciples to beware. The doctrine and spirit of that sect were very opposite to the religion of Christ; and when these men embraced the gospel, they had not discerned the difference so clearly as Paul did at his conversion--they rather reconciled the gospel to their former ways of thinking, than became themselves reconciled to its simplicity. Hence we find they became disturbers of the Gentile churches, as is evident from what took place at this time at Antioch, as well as from the epistle which Paul afterwards wrote to the churches of Galatia.

The doctrine of these teachers, which aimed at subjecting the Gentile converts to the rite of circumcision, and especially to make their obedience to that institute essential to their salvation, met with the most pointed opposition from these apostles. The subject involved the whole church at Antioch in dissention and disputation; and terminated in a general agreement that a deputation, consisting of Paul and Barnabas, with several others, should go up to Jerusalem to consult the apostles and the elders of that church about this question. In their way they passed through the regions of Phoenicia and Samaria, where they made known the calling of the Gentiles into the Christian church, and the success which their ministry had met with among them, to the inexpressible satisfaction of the Jewish brtheren.

On their arrival at Jerusalem, they acquainted the apostles and elders with the object of their mission, in consequence of which the church was convened to take the subject into deliberation. And it appears that even in that church, the proposal to subject the Gentiles to circumcision, found supporters, especially among those disciples who had originally been of "the sect of the Pharisees.* When the church had been some time harrassed

⚫ Acts xv. 5.

SECT. IV.] The decree respecting circumcision.

57

with the dispute, Peter rose up and reminded them how God had formerly made choice of him to be the means of opening the door of faith to the Gentiles, and how he had also poured out the Holy Spirit upon them, making no distinction in his kingdom between Jew and Gentile, but purifying the hearts of each by faith. He therefore expostulated with them for attempting to bring the Gentile brethren under the severe yoke of Jewish ceremoies -a yoke so intolerable, that neither they nor their fathers were able to bear it; and pronounced the project of these men to be no less than a " tempting God." And he closed his speech by declaring the sufficiency of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to effect the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles, without any regard to the peculiarities of Judiasm.

When Peter had ended his address, Paul and Barnabas gave the church a particular account of the miracles and wonders which, by means of their ministry, God had wrought among the Gentiles; and when they had finished, the apostle James, who seems to have acted as President of the assembly on this occasion, summed up the whole subject, recapitulating what had been said, and giving his own judgment as an apostle of Christ, which was, "That they should not trouble those who from among the Gentiles were turned unto God; but that they should write unto them, that they must abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood." This met the unanimous approbation of the whole church; and accordingly letters where written to all the Gentiles, disclaiming the authority of these new teachers, protesting against their doctrine, and completely freeing the disciples from the yoke of bondage which was thus attempted to be imposed upon them. So Paul and Barnabas returned from Jerusalem to the church at Antioch, which being convened, they read the epistle, VOL. I.

a

I

to the great consolation of all the Gentile brethren. The apostles, after this, continued at Antioch, teaching the disciples the commandments of the Lord Jesus, and preaching the glad tidings of salvation to all sorts of men, in which it seems they were assisted by many others on whom the glorified Head of the church had bestowed the gifts necessary for the work of the Christian ministry.*

The interest of the kingdom of Christ was a subject that, of all others, lay nearest to the heart of the apostle Paul. The church at Antioch was now confirmed in the faith and obedience of the gospel; the question which had lately agitated them was set at rest; and it abounded with labourers in the Lord's vineyard; he therefore proposed to Barnabas that they should leave Antioch and pay a second visit to the different places in which they had formerly preached the doctrine of Christ, and examine the state of the various churches they had there planted. It is not at all improbable that Paul's fear and jealousy might be excited, lest these corrupt teachers, who had troubled the brethren at Antioch, might also get access into other Gentile churches, and propogate the same pernicious sentiments, thereby subverting the doctrine of divine grace, and stumbling the Gentile disciples in their profession. Barnabas yielded to the proposal; but when they were about to proceed, a difference of opinion arose between them as to the propriety of taking Mark with them as an evangelist, or assistant in the work of the ministry; and this diversity of judgment was over-ruled by their common master, no doubt, ultimately to promote his own glory and the happines of numbers, by inducing the apostles to travel asunder and in opposite directions; for the result was that Barnabas took Mark, his own nephew, and sailed unto Cyprus, his native country-while Paul chose Silas, one of the brethren that had returned with

Acts xv. 33.

SECT. IV.] Barnabas and Mark proceed to Cyprus.

59

him from Jerusalem when he last visited it; and being commended by the church to the divine benediction, they took their leave and proceeded for Syria and Cilicia.

Many Christian churches were collected by the ministry of the first preachers of the word, of which we have no express mention in that very concise narrative,-the Acts of the Apostles. Thus, for instance, we have no particular account of any Christian churches being planted in Cilicia, yet we are informed that Paul and Silas went through Cilicia confirming the churches, which of course must have been previously gathered and set in order. And when we consider that this was Paul's native country, and that previous to his being first brought to Antioch by Barnabas he had spent some years in it, we may reasonably infer that his ministry had been owned by his divine master, and that he was the spiritual father of many in the regions of Cilicia.

Of the labours of Barnabas and Mark in the island of Cyprus, the sacred history is silent; but, that he who commissioned his apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and who also promised to be always with them while thus engaged even to the end of the world, did own their labours and grant them success, it were unreasonable to doubt.

Paul, accompanied by Silas, however, among other places, revisited Derbe and Lystra, at the latter of which he had, during his former visit, converted Timothy, then quite a youth, to the faith of Christ. The father of Timothy was a Gentile, probably proselyted to the Jewish religion, but his mother and grandmother were both JewFrom his earliest years, he had been instructed in the knowledge of the Old Testament writings-and, it would seem from an expression which Paul uses in one of his letters to him,* that, upon his being first brought

esses.

* 1 Tim. i. 18.