OF THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE GALATIANS. BY JOHN BROWN, D. D., PROFESSOR OF EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY TO THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, “Οτι αἱ μὲν ἐπιστολαί, φησί βαρείαι καὶ ἰσχυραί.Επ. πρ. Κος Β. 1 ί. Παῦλος έγραψεν ἐν αὐταῖς περὶ τούτων, ἐν οἷς ἐστὶ, δυσνοητά τινα. – Ετ. Πίτ. Β. Γ. Α. κ. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, MDCCCLIII. TO THE MINISTERS, PREACHERS, AND STUDENTS, WHO HAVE STUDIED EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY UNDER THE AUTHOR'S CARE, THIS EXPOSITION IS INSCRIBED, AS A TOKEN OF KIND REMEMBRANCE, AND OF ARDENT DESIRE FOR THEIR USEFULNESS AND HAPPINESS. "Whatever brings the apostle Paul, in his writings, into notice, will ultimately bring him into triumph. All the malignity and the sophistry of his enemies will not only assail him in vain, but will lead in the end to the perfecting of his glory, and the extension of his gospel. They may scourge him uncondemned, like the Roman magistrates at Philippi;-they may inflict on him the lashes of calumnious censure, but they cannot silence him;-they may thrust him, as it were, into a dungeon, and fetter him with their strained interpretations, but his voice will be raised even at the midnight of antichristian darkness, and will be heard effectually; his prison-doors will burst open, as with an earthquake, and the fetters will fall from his hands; and even strangers to gospel-truth will fall down at the feet of him, even Paul, to make that momentous inquiry,' What shall I do to be saved?""-WHATELY. PREFACE. "THE times which are passing over us," after making every fair allowance for the tendency to exaggerate what is present, may be safely reckoned among the remarkable periods of human history. The "signs" of our times stand out in such bold relief that the most careless must observe them, though, with regard to the import of some of them, the most considerate find it difficult to form a decided judgment. Many of them are obviously of the nature of portents or omens, and inevitably lead the mind to think of "the things that are coming upon the earth:" and not a few of them seem to wear a lowering aspect on the near futurities both of churches and of nations. There are, however, others of them bright with promise; and among these perhaps none is more fitted to excite hope in the Christian mind, than the increasing attention which the Bible is drawing to itself. This is manifested in the more thorough study and sifting of its substance and its evidence-in the more searching investigation into the meaning of the sacred books generally, and especially of the writings of the Apostle Paul, and in the more unequivocal and general avowal, among Christians of almost all denominations, of the principle, that, on matters of religious faith and duty, the first |