Ver. 1. I went up] To that first Christian council, Acts xv. With Barnabas] His constant companion, till that bitter bickering, Acts 15:39. [See Trapp on “Ac 15:39”]
Ver. 2. By revelation] i.e. By God’s special direction; for he ordereth a good man’s goings, Psalms 37:23. I communicated unto them] ανεθεμην, I laid open the matter freely and familiarly, as unto bosom friends. But privately] For all good men are not fit to be trusted with secrets, but only such as can both keep counsel and give counsel. Or had run in vain] Lest, if it should be thought that I had not held good correspondence with those other apostles, I might lose the fruit of my ministry.
Ver. 3. Was compelled to be circumcised] i.e. I would not yield he should be; lest I should seem to countenance them that held circumcision necessary to salvation. In the year of grace 1549, the ministers of Magdeburg did stoutly oppose them of Wittenberg and Leipsic, and set forth many books against them, because they dealt deceitfully, and by their Adiaphora, or things indifferent, as they called them, they paved a way to Popery. (Alsted. Chron.) And this was our case till this late blessed Reformation. It was not without cause that Peter Martyr commended it to the care of Queen Elizabeth, that church governors endeavour not to carry the ark of the gospel into England upon the cart of needless ceremonies.
Ver. 4. Unawares brought in] παρεισακτοι, or privily slipped in, pretending piety to their worldly or wicked respects. With such ill instruments the Church hath ever been pestered, 2 Peter 2:1. These hell-scouts are skulking in every corner. To spy out our liberty] viz. Of circumcising or not circumcising Titus, that they might pick a quarrel with us. That they might bring us into bondage] sc. To the ceremonial law. Carolostadius attempted some such thing in Luther’s days, and by him was opposed. (Bucholcer.)
Ver. 5. To whom we gave place] We must stick close to the truth, and stickle hard for it, accounting each parcel thereof precious, and not to be parted with for any good. How religious were the apostles and ancients this way! They would not yield for an hour, or exchange one letter or syllable of that holy faith, wherewith Christ had betrusted them.
Ver. 6. Seemed to be somewhat] Opinion sets the price; when gold is raised from 20s. to 22s., the gold is the same, estimation only raiseth it. In conference added nothing to me] They could tell him nothing which he knew not before; when they came to talk together, he found that they did not only hold and teach the same things, but in iisdem verbis, in iisdem syllabis, in the selfsame words and syllables as he did, as Melancthon wisheth all men would. Whatsoever they were] Augustine being oppressed with the authority of the Fathers, saith he regardeth not quis, sed quid, the worth of the man, but the weight of his reasons.
Ver. 7. As the gospel of, &c.] He equalizeth himself to Peter in office and dignity; though pseudo-apostles and pseudo-catholics deny him that honour. St Peter, Jesuits commend for a worthy spirit, when they censure St Paul for a hot-headed person, &c. And because James is named before Peter, Galatians 2:9, Bellarmine saith that this text is corrupted (Latini quidem Petrum praeponunt non sine falsi crimine); but what will he say to 1 Corinthians 9:5 Joh 1:44 Ac 15:13 21:18, where it appeareth that not Peter but James was president of the council, because he spake the last, and concluded all?
Ver. 8. For he that wrought, &c.] He argues from the success of his and Peter’s ministry to the lawfulness of their calling to the work. So he doth 1 Corinthians 9:1-3 2Co 13:4,5. [See Trapp on “1Co 9:1”] [See Trapp on “1Co 9:2”] [See Trapp on “1Co 9:3”] [See Trapp on “2Co 13:4”] [See Trapp on “2Co 13:5”] He also ascribeth the glory of all to God, when he saith “was mighty in me.” A phrase not unlike that other, 1 Corinthians 15:10 “Not I, but the grace of God.” And again, not we, “but the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God,” &c., 2 Corinthians 10:4.
Ver. 9. Who seemed to be pillars] Of the Church, or of the college of apostles. The apostle seems to intimate that even then men began to attribute more than was meet to those holy apostles. This degenerated afterwards into gross superstition, διασυρτικως dictum. (Cam.) And they unto the circumcision] Yet were they not so tied up by this agreement, but that they might preach upon fit occasion to the Gentiles too, as might Paut and Barnabas to the Jews; but the Gentiles were their chief charge, and among them they had greatest success.
Ver. 10. Remember the poor] Those Jews that embraced Christianity in Palestine were therefore turned out of all by their unkind countrymen, Hebrews 10:31. Hence this care of the apostles, and this forwardness in St Paul. About the beginning of the Reformation in France, the Duke of Lorrain had proscribed some thousands of his Lutheran subjects, who were forced to feed upon haws and acorns, &c. The divines of Strasburgh in Germany, moved with pity towards these poor brethren, ceased not till by their discourses they had prevailed with the senate there to take those miserable exiles into their city, and to provide for them, till they might be conveniently conveyed to other places. (Scultet. Annal.) The fruit of the hawthorn. ŒD
Ver. 11. But when Peter, &c.] I would gladly learn (said that martyr) why the seat of the primacy (to grant that) should be rather at Rome than elsewhere? They answer, because Peter’s chair was at Rome. This is even like to this, because Moses the greatest prophet, and Aaron the first priest, exercised their office until their death in the desert, therefore the most principal place of the Jews’ Church shall be in the wilderness. But grant them their reason that it is good, what should Antioch claim? For Peter’s chair was there also, when Paul gave him a check, which was unseemly and unmannerly done of Paul, that would not give place to his president and better. Thus far Mr Bradford. Cardinal Baronius withstands Paul as much as ever he did Peter, and blasphemously affirmeth that Peter was not to be blamed, but Paul a great deal more. Bellarmine saith, It was not Peter but Cephas, one of the seventy. A sorry shift, so loth are heretics to have their ass’s ears seen. Jerome affirmeth (Epist. 89 ad Augustin.) that Paul reproved Peter simulate non serio, nec sensisse quod scripsit, seemingly and not seriously, and that he wrote otherwise than he thought, in saying that Peter walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. But Augustine refuteth this as an error in Jerome, in his 19th epistle to him, and Aquinas also disliketh it; because, Galatians 2:12, Paul sets down a weighty and urgent cause of his reproof. Nevertheless, he doth not call Peter a hypocrite, as Julian the Apostate said he did; for every one that falleth of infirmity is not presently a hypocrite; though he may, in some particular, act the part of a hypocrite. (Cyril ix. in Julian.)
Ver. 12. For before that certain] This history pertains to Acts 15:30-35, but is not there recorded, that we might search the Scriptures, and compare place with place. So God hath scattered the duties of husbands and wives up and down the Scriptures, that men learning to be good husbands, they may learn also to be good men. Fearing them of the circumcision] It was not danger that he feared, but offence, wherein he had not done amiss, but that in avoiding a less scandal he fell into a far greater.
Ver. 13. And the other Jews dissembled] The sins of teachers are the teachers of sins; and great men’s faults go as seldom unaccompanied as their persons. Barnabas also] Adhering to Peter rather than to Paul, his old companion, not without a tincture perhaps of the old bitter bickering. “Try all things”; good men may seduce us, as here Peter did Barnabas, and as those would have done Paul, Acts 21:12. How many learned able men hath the authority of Luther misled in the point of consubstantiation! Ursin was carried away with it for a while; till he was turned from it by the reading of Luther’s own arguments; they were such plain paralogisms. (Melch. Adam.) A piece of false or erroneous reasoning; an illogical argument; a faulty syllogism; a fallacy, esp. (as distinct from sophism) one of which the reasoner himself is unconscious. ŒD
Ver. 14. That they walked not] Ministers must both ορθοτομειν and ορθοποδειν, divide the word rightly and foot it uprightly. I said to Peter before them, all] The fault was public, reproof must be according, 1 Timothy 5:20. In the year 1159 lived Joannes Sarisburiensis, who both reproved the pope to his face and also wrote his Polycraticon, wherein he freely scourgeth the popish clergy. As long before that, in the year 705, Adelin, elect bishop of Sherborn (or Salisbury), while he stayed at Rome for the pope’s approbation, the same pope (his name was Sergius) was charged with adultery; for which foul fault this bishop was bold to reprehend his Holiness sharply. (Godw. Catal.) Why compellest thou, &c.] Peter’s example was a compulsion. The company we keep compel us to do as they do. Praesens praesentem pontificem redarguit. Revius in hist. Pont.
Ver. 15. We who are Jews] The apostle proceedeth in his speech to the Jews at Antioch. And not sinners of the Gentiles] Because underthe covenant of grace; their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. As for the Gentiles, they wanting the rule of God’s law, ran headlong into every sin, without restraint or control, Ephesians 4:19.
Ver. 16. Knowing] Here is more than an implicit faith or a conjectural confidence.
Ver. 17. But if whiles we seek] This is the same in sense with Romans 3:31. If we should argue from mercy to liberty, from free justification to lewd and loose conversation, would not all the world cry shame on us? I read of a monster who that night that his prince pardoned and released him, got out and slew him. This was Michael Balbus, who slew the emperor Leo Armenius. Is it possible that any should offer to do so to Christ?
Ver. 18. For if I build again] As I should, if I should license any man to sin, because justified by faith. Christ came by water as well as by blood; he justifies none but whom he also sanctifies.
Ver. 19. Am I dead to the law] i.e. Am freed from the curse, rigour, and irritation of the law. Or, am freed from sin, as Romans 6:7.
Ver. 20. Christ liveth in me] Luther’s motto was Vivit Christus, Christ liveth; and if he were not alive, I would not wish to live one hour longer. Let the Lord live, saith David, Psalms 18:46. Yea, let him live in me, saith Paul. Let him act in me, let him think in me, desire, pray, do all in me. Lord, saith Nazianzen, I am an instrument for thee to touch. Christ dwells in that heart most largely that hath emptied itself of itself. The Israelites felt not the sweetness of manna, till they had spent the flesh pots and other provisions of Egypt. And gave himself for me] True faith individuateth Christ, and appropriateth him to a man’s self. This is the pith and power of particular faith. Mistress Lewis the martyr, being set upon by Satan a little before she suffered, was much comforted and helped by this text.
Ver. 21. I do not frustrate] viz. By seeking to be justified by the law. Ambrose renders it, Non sum ingratus gratiae Dei, I am not ungrateful to the grace of God; I do not repudiate, cassate, nullify it. Dead in vain] Because he attains not his end in dying, which was not only to leave us a pattern of patience, as Anabaptists hold; but to merit for us remission of sins, and imputation of his righteousness for our justification.