suppose, in A. D. 55 or 56, he wrote the Epistle to the Galatians. That it was written soon after his first visit to Galatia, is made certain, by Gal. i. 16. "I marvel that ye are so soon removed," etc. Some persons have maintained that it was written after Paul's second visit to Galatia, wrongly interpreting the phrase, Gal. iv. 13, yet know that in weakness of the flesh, at the first I preached the gospel," as if it implied a subsequent visit, before the Epistle was written. The whole tenor of the Epistle, and the general voice of ancient and modern commentators, agree in the position that it was among the first of Paul's Epistles. It was clearly not composed at Rome, as the postscript indicates; for the apostle did not visit that city till many years afterwards. The supposition that it was written during Paul's first journey in Macedonia, seems improbable, as it would hardly allow sufficient time for the events which occurred in the Galatian churches, after Paul's departure, and which rendered it necessary to send the Epistle. His first visit at Ephesus, Acts xviii. 19, would hardly have allowed sufficient time for the purpose of writing. The second visit of Paul to Galatia, took place about A. D. 57. It was for

the purpose of strengthening the churches, Acts xviii. 23.

Divine Authority of the Epistle.

The genuineness and divine authority of the book, so far as we know, have not been doubted. There are several remarkable undesigned coincidences between it and the Acts of the Apostles, and the other Epistles of Paul, which have been pointed out by Dr. Paley, in his Hora Paulinæ. Indeed, there cannot be the shadow of a doubt, but that the authorship of this Epistle and of that to the Romans, is identical. The general argument of a part of the former, as well as the illustrations, language, etc., are strikingly similar to those of the latter.

Circumstances in which the Epistle was written.

The Jews were strongly attached to the Mosaic rites and ceremonies. The temple-worship, the periodical vast assemblies at Jerusalem, the splendor of the priestly office, the long series of wonderful events in Jewish history, and the marked distinction of the nation from all others, contributed to give the Jews a high idea of their own dignity, and of the perpetual obligation of

their own rites and ceremonies. Circumcision, as an initiatory and distinguishing ordinance, was held in peculiar esteem. They had almost universally overlooked the nature of the Mosaic dispensation, not regarding it as temporary, and as preparatory to the Christian. They had suffered their minds to dwell on the letter of the law, rather than on its meaning and spirit. Our Saviour's foes could find no more ready way of raising a prejudice, or a mob, against him, than by representing him to be hostile to the temple-worship. The minds of the apostles and first disciples were exceedingly blinded on this point. They thought that Christianity was to be a sort of graft on the Jewish stock, that its sublime doctrines were to be mingled with the Jewish observances, and that Jerusalem was to be a great metropolis for a Jewish-Christian State. The outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, did not fully enlighten them. Peter, even after the striking circumstances attending his visit to Cornelius, was not wholly decided. How much less ready would inferior converts be to open the door of Christian privileges to the Gentiles. The way would thus be prepared for artful and designing Jews, to pre

tend conversion to Christianity, in order to mix it with Judaism, and thus debase it, if not root it out of the earth. The controversy respecting circumcision, and the rites of the Mosaic law, is the grand controversy of the New Testament. In the way of allusion, inference, illustration, or direct argument, we find it pervading almost every part of Paul's Epistles. He may be said to have been specially raised up to manage this controversy. He saw very clearly the true spirit and genius of Christianity, and he unhesitatingly conformed to his belief. He declared every where the abrogation of the Mosaic ritual, and that the merits of Christ were the only ground for justification, for both Jews and Gentiles. Hence he became a victim of suspicion and jealousy on the part of some sincere Jewish converts to Christianity, and the object of unmitigated contempt and persecution on the part of false Jewish teachers and zealots of the law. "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one."

In Galatia, the efforts of the persecuting Jews seem to have been peculiarly concentrated and bitter. Paul preached the gospel there at first, with great success, and with but little, if any,

opposition. With overflowing love and zeal, the Galatian converts embraced him and his doctrines. But no sooner had he left the province, than certain false teachers, as would seem, from Jerusalem, Acts xv. 24, followed him to Galatia, and by studied address and insinuation, by falling in with the prejudices of the Jewish converts, and by bold and reckless assertion, as opportunity offered, succeeded in alienating the minds of the unestablished Galatians, both from Paul and from his doctrines. They represented him as inferior to the other apostles, or as altogether deficient in the proofs of the claims which he made to the apostleship. Of course, Paul was to be considered as a mere unauthorized teacher. In pursuance of their design, they might have represented him as not selected by Christ to be an apostle, as never having seen him, as not substituted in the place of Judas, and as never admitted by the apostles into their fraternity. When his authority was overthrown, they proceeded to assail his doctrines; teaching that circumcision was necessary for salvation, and that the various rites of the Mosaic law, must be observed along with the precepts of the new dispensation. They thus endangered not