for my strength is made perfect in weakness.' Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in 10 reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. I am become a 11. fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest Apostles, though I be nothing. Truly the signs of an 12 Apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. For what is it wherein ye were in- 13 ferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong. BEHOLD, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will 14 not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for 15 you though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. But be it so. 16 I DID not burden you: nevertheless, 'being crafty, I caught you with guile.' Did I make a gain of you by any of them 17 whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and with him I sent a 18 brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? AGAIN think ye, that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak 19 before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you 20 such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: and lest, when I come 21 again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness, which they have committed. 4 THIS is the third time I am coming to you: in the mouth of13 two or three witnesses shall every word be established. I told 2 you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now, I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that if I come again, I will not spare: since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to 3 you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves, whether ye be 5 in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 'But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. 'Now 6,7 I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for 8 the truth. For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are 9 strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. Therefore 10 I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction. FINALLY, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, 11 be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. 'Greet one another with a holy kiss: 'All the 12 saints salute you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the 14 love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE GALATIANS. PAUL, an Apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Je- 1 sus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) and all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of 2 Galatia: grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and 3 from our Lord Jesus Christ, ' who gave himself for our sins, that 4 he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever! 5 Amen. I MARVEL that ye are so soon removed from him that called 6 you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel: which is not 7 another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, 8 preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed! As we said before, so 9 say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed! For do I now 10 persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. BUT I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preach- 11 ed of me is not after man: for I neither received it of man, nei- 12 ther was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For 13 ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it; and profited in the Jews' religion above many my 14 equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who sep-15 arated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the 16 heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: nei- 17 ther went I up to Jerusalem to them which were Apostles before me: but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and 18 abode with him fifteen days. But other of the Apostles saw I 19 none, save James the Lord's brother. (Now the things which I 20 write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.) Afterwards I came 21 into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was unknown by face 22 unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ: But they had 23 heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed;' and they glorified God in me. Then fourteen years after I went up again to 2 Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I 2 went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, (but privately to them which were of reputation.) lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. Bat neither Titus; who was with me, being a Greek, 3 was compelled to be circumcised: and that because of false 4 brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for 5 an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. But of those who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they 6 were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person: for they who seemed to be somewhat, in conference added nothing to me: but contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel 7 of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (for he that wrought effectually in 8 Peter to the Apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) and when James, Cephas, and John, 9 who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision, only they would that we should remember the poor; 10 the same which I also was forward to do. But when Peter was 11 come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For, before that certain came from James, he did 12 eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew, and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; in- 13 somuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly accord- 14 ing to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, 'If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and 'not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as 'do the Jews! We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of 15 the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works 16 'of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have be'lieved in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of 'the law shall no ftesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be 17 'justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again 18 'the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For 19 'I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not 20 'I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the 'flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and 'gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for 21 'if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.' 4 O FOOLISH Galatians! who hath bewitched you, that ye 3 should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would 2 I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the 3 Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. IHe therefore that 5 ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him 6 for righteousness. Know ye therefore, that they which are of 7 faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, 8 foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed." So then they which be of 9 faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of 10 the works of the law, are under the curse for it is written, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of 11 God, it is evident: for, "The just shall live by faith;" 'and the law is not of faith: but, "The man that doeth 12 them shall live in them." Christ hath redeemed us from 13 the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: (for it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree;") that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through 14 Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; 15 Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed 16 were the promises made. He saith not, 'And to SEEDS; as of many; but as of one, "And to thy SEED," which is Christ. And this I say, That the covenant that was confirmed before of 17 God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of 18 promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. WHEREFORE then serveth the law?' It was added because of 19 transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now, a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is 20 one. 'Is the law then against the promises of God?' God forbid: 21 for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the 22 scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before 23 faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was 24 our school-master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer un- 25 der a school-master. For ye are all the children of God by faith 26 in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into 27 Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, 28 there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are 29 ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Now I 4 say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and gov- 2 ernors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when 3 we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent 4 forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 'to re- 5 deem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth 6 the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father! Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, 7 then an heir of God through Christ. Howbeit then, when ye 8 knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are 9 known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe 10 days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest 11 I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. BRETHREN, I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as ye are. 12 Ye have not injured me at all. ' Ye know how through infirmity 13 of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my 14 temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where 15 is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your ene- 16 my because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but 17 not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good 18 thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little chil-19 dren, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my 20 voice; for I stand in doubt of you. TELL me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear 21 the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons; the one 22 by a bond-maid, the other by a free-woman. But he who was of 23 the bond-woman, was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 'Which things are an allegory. For 24 these are the two covenants: the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, (for this Agar is 25 mount Sinai in Arabia,) and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which 26 is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, 27 |