The life and work of St. Paul

THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 441
Again, how strange and how enraging to the Jews would be such an allegory !
it was Philonian, Eabbinic; but it was more admirable than any allegory in Philo,
because it did not simply merge the historical in the metaphorical and ; more full of
ability and insight than any in the Rabbis. 1 This was, indeed, " to steal a feather
from the spicy nest of the Phoenix " in order to wing the shaft which should pierce
her breast. The Jews, the descendants of
Sarahj by the irresistible logic of their
own most cherished method, here find themselves identified with the descendants of
tho despised and hated Hagar, just as before they had heard the proof that not they
but the converted Gentiles were truly Abraham's seed ! 3
And tho Galatiana must be under no mistake ; they cannot serve two masters ;
they cannot combine the Law and the Gospel. Nor must they fancy that they could
escape persecution by getting circumcised and stop at that
"
point. See," he aaye,
"
I, Paul who, as they tell you, onco preached circumcision I, Paul, tell you that,
ix you hanker after reliance on circumcision, Christ shall profit you nothing. Nay,
I protest again to every person who gets himself circumcised, that he is a debtor to
keep the whole Law. Ye are nullified from Christ, ye who seek justification in
Law, ye are banished from His grace; for we spiritually, as a consequence of
faith, earnestly await tho hope of righteousness. For in Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working by means of love." * "In
these," as Bengel says, " stands all Christianity."
" Ye were
running bravely. Who broke up your path to prevent your obeying
truth P This persuasion is not from Him who calleth you. It is an alien intrusion
it comes only from one or two yet beware of it. A little leaven loaveneth tho
* whole lump. I feel confident with respect to you in the Lord that you will adopt
ray views ; and he who troubles you shall bear the burden of his judgment,
be he
who he may. And as for me, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still
an object of persecution ? The stumbling-block of the cross has been done away
with, it appears ! They are not persecuted, just because they preach circumcision ;
why then should I be, if as they say I preach it too ? Would that these turners of
you upside down would go a little further than circumcision, and make themselves
like the priests of ! Cybele B
" I cannot help this strong language ; for ye were called for freedom, brethren;
cnly, not freedom for a handle to the flesh, but by love be slaves to one another.8
For the whole Law is absolutely fulfilled 7 in one word in the ' Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.' But if ye are biting and devouring one another, take heed
that ye be not consumed by one another.
1 It was no mere pretty application of a story, it was the detection In one par-
ticular case of a divine law, vrhich might be traced through every fact ci the divine
history (Maurice, Unity, 50S). How different from Philo's allegory, in which CLarrau
is the senses ; Abraham, the soul ; Sarah, divine wisdom ; Isaac, human wisdom j
l&hmael, sophistry; &o.
2
iv. 2131.
* v. 7 12, ajraxo^ovrat ; cf.
* V. 16.
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