The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 2 · Galatians
THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS,
and sendeth it by Crescens, as may be conceived from 2 Tim. 4.10. For though Demas, and Crescens, and Titus their departure from Paul be reckoned altogether in that verse, yet the reason of the…r departure cannot be judged to have been alike: for however Demas started upon some carnall respect, yet Crescens and Titus are not so branded, nor will the eminent piety of the later suffer us to have any such opinion of him, and the judging of him doth also help us to judge of Crescens who is joyned with him. The postscript of this Epistle both in the Greek, Syriack, Arabick, and divers other Translations, doth generally date it from Rome: Beza from Antioch: Erasmus from Ephesus, but all upon conjecture: for there is no intimation in the Epistle it self of the time or place of its writing: Beza upon these words in Chap. 1. ver. 2. And all the brethren which are with me, saith thus, Puto sic totum Antiochenae Ecclesiae Presbyterium significari, & inde scriptam hanc Epistolam, &c. I think by this he meaneth the whole Presbytery of the Church of Antioch, and that this Epistle was written from thence, at that time that passed between Paul and Barnabas their return into Asia from their first journey forth, and the coming of those troubles to Antioch, Acts 14.28. But that Apostacy in the Churches which the Apostle crieth out against in this Epistle and in others, was not then begun; and moreover it may well be questioned whether the Churches of Galatia were then planted. And the former answer, may likewise be given to the opinion that this Epistle was written from Ephesus: namely that at the time of Pauls being at Ephesus, the Apostacy which ere long did sorely and almost Epidemically infest the Churches, was but then beginning. And this is one reason why I suppose it written from Rome, at this time that we are upon, because that gangrene in the Eastern Churches was now come to ripenesse, as it appears by the second Epistle to Timothy, which was written this same year: See 2 Tim. 1.15.
False teachers had brought back the Galatians from the simplicity of the Gospel, to their old Ceremonious performances again, and to reliance upon the works of the Law for Justification: which miscarriage the Apostle taketh sharply to task in this Epistle. And first he vindicates his Apostleship as no whit inferiour to Peter and Iames and Iohn the Ministers of the Circumcision, and those that chiefly seemed to be pillars, and he shews how these approved of him and it: And then he most divinely states the nature of the Law, at which was the great stumbling; and especially speaks to that point that they most stood upon, their living in it.
The Lord had laid a stone in Sion, which the Jews could not step over, but stumble at, even to this day: and that is that which is said in Levit. 18.5. Ezek. 20.11. and in other places, which the Apostle also toucheth in this Epistle, Chap. 3.12. from whence they concluded that no living, no justification but by the works of the Law. The Apostle in the third Chapter of this Epistle laies down two conclusions that determine the case, and resolves all into faith. The first is in ver. 17. namely that the Law was not given to crosse the Covenant of grace, but to be subservient to it. The second in ver. 10. that the Law did plainly shew of it self that no man could perform it, but it left a man under the curse. Observe that he saith not, As many as fail of the works of the Law, but As many as are of the works of the Law: shewing that the Law did not only denounce a curse upon all that performed it not, but plainly demonstrated that none could perform it, and so left all under a curse: and these words, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, &c. conclude both. So that the Law was not given for justification, but to be subservient to the Covenant of Justification: not to crosse the Covenant but to serve it, not purposely to leave under the curse, but to shew the curse, and to drive men to get from under it. So that men might live in it, but not by it. It was the way in which men were to go to seek for Justification, but it was not the cause or means whereby they were justified. See Gal. 3.5. The Jews made the Morall Law crosse to the Covenant of grace, whilest they sought to be justified by works: and they made the Ceremoniall Law crosse the Morall, whilest they resolved all duty into Ceremony: and so the Law which in it self was holy and pure and good, they turned to death unto themselves by their abuse. They might have lived in the Morall Law [had they used it aright,] though not by it: for the more a man sets himself to the exact performance of it, the more he sees he cannot perform it, and therefore he is driven the more to Christ: But they resolved all into Ceremonious performance, and so lost sincerity toward the Morall, and hereupon the Ceremoniall Law good in it self, became to them Statutes not good, and Iudgements wherein they could not live, Ezek. 20.25.
From Rome also, and reasonable early in this year, Paul wrote