EPISTOLA AD GALATAS

• 569D

The Galatians are Greeks. These first received the word of truth from the Apostle. But after his departure they were tempted by false apostles, that they might be turned aside into the law and circumcision. These the Apostle calls back to the faith of the truth, writing to them from Ephesus.

VERS. 1.-- Paul, an apostle. By the name of his office he strikes fear. Not of men. Understand, apostles, as were certain false apostles chosen and sent by the Jews. Nor by man. But by Jesus, already raised up. Who taught not as a man teaches men, little by little, but the whole at once 570Dthrough the Spirit: so that by this he is the greater, by which he seemed the less. For the other apostles seemed to be greater: because they were the earlier. He is least, because the latest. But thence he appears the worthier: because the earlier were appointed by Christ while he was still in part man, that is, mortal. But Paul the latest, by Christ now wholly God, that is, in every part immortal.

VERS. 2.-- Who are with me. The Christian brethren are grieving over your seduction, witnesses of my truth, whom you ought to believe, and not a few of them, but all.

VERS. 3.-- And the Lord Jesus Christ. Whom you injuriously 571Amake equal to the law, while you assert that he does not suffice for salvation without the law: even as the law without him: but from him, without the law, is grace and peace.

VERS. 4.-- Who gave. That is, he offered of his own accord: because there is no other who could open the book, save the lion of the tribe of Juda. Himself. Because there was no other victim worthy for the blotting out of our sins, which is the beginning of salvation. What place then has the law? As if to say: None at all. From the world. That is, from conformity to the world, which allures us.

The present evil world. It lays hold so much the more, since eternal things are not seen. The evil world. He says this not because this world created by God is evil, but because evil things are done in it. And in this sense it is said: The days are evil. The world is set in wickedness. The times are perilous. 571BWoodland passes, which are full of robbers, and the sword, by which blood is shed, and the cup, in which poison is mingled, are called evil: because not only times, but places also and instruments have drawn upon themselves the infamy of the evils which are done in them.

VERS. 5.-- To whom is glory. As if to say: These things the good who are present attest, and those to come will attest them. In this salvation he has given a foretaste both of his own commendation, and of what the grace of God can do, and that the law confers nothing.

VERS. 6.-- I marvel. The Apostle treats consequently of the destruction of the law. And he reproves them for levity, that they passed over from the Gospel to the law without discernment. And because a Galatian is interpreted a removal, he fittingly takes from the name itself the occasion of his reproof. And 571Csince these aforesaid good things are from Christ, I marvel that you, though well instructed before, are thus, so vehemently and in so short a time, removed, etc.

VERS. 8.-- But although we, etc. A good angel can be understood, not that this should come to pass, but he is so certain of the truth of his Gospel that even if an angel should announce another, he would not believe him, but would anathematize him.

Besides that which. (AUG.) Attend. He does not say: More than you have received. For if he said that, he would prejudge his own case, who was desiring to come to certain men to whom he himself was writing: as to the Thessalonians, that he might supply what was lacking to their faith. But he who supplies adds what was less; he does not take away what was there. But he who goes beyond the rule of faith does not advance on 571Dthe way, but withdraws from the way. Let him be anathema. Why this? Because he who evangelizes something else wishes to flow from what is private, not from what is in the midst. And since a man hindered by a carnal mist, and drawn back from the common fountain to his own falsehood, is able to do this, shall an angel do it too? Truly, if the angel flowing from what was his own had not been listened to in paradise, we should not have been cast headlong into death. Water in the midst had been set before all, the commandment of God. The water was in a manner public, and flowed without deceit, without stain, without mire. But there came an angel fallen from heaven, made a serpent, because he was already desiring treacherously to scatter poison, and he sent forth poison. He spoke from what was private, from his own: Taste, and ye shall be as gods (Gen. III) [Vulg. Gn 3:5 in quocumque die comederitis ex eo, aperientur oculi vestri, et eritis sicut dii, "in whatsoever day you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods"; there is no imperative in the received text]. And they, coveting what they were not, lost what they had received. 572AAnathema. This word is put for a curse, and in common speech it is called a devoting. For scarcely anyone says that a man devotes himself, save one who is cursing himself. Whence that: And he anathematized him and his cities, and the name of that place was called Anathema (Num. XXI) [Vulg. Nm 21:3 et vocavit nomen loci illius Horma, id est, anathema, "and he called the name of that place Horma, that is, anathema"; the received text has no anathematizing of him and his cities]. Hence it has been drawn that an anathema should seem something detestable and abominable, so that the victor should carry off nothing thence for his own uses, but devoted the whole to a penalty to be paid: this was to anathematize, which in common speech is called to devote. But the origin of this word is in the Greek tongue, from those things which, vowed and paid, that is, promised and rendered, were set up on high in the temples: and it is said: ἀπο τοῦ ἀναθήναι, that is, to set up on high.

VERS. 9.-- As we said before. He infers from the greater. Since I would excommunicate ourselves or an angel, 572Bmuch more are the false apostles to be excommunicated.

VERS. 10.-- Now. He says now, because formerly, when he said that a man is justified out of the law, he preached the glory of man to be unprofitable, and the grace of God. He hints here also that those seducers do this, that they may be praised by the Jews, whom Paul does not fear to offend for the glory of Christ, at whose coming the law ceases. If yet. Hence certain men think that conscience suffices, so that they should care but little what another judges concerning them; but conscience is before God, and a manner of life before one's neighbour is necessary; and if this is conducted too negligently, it hurts by example. Whence elsewhere: Please ye all men in all things, as I also please all men (II Cor. X) [Vulg. 1Cor 10:33 sicut et ego per omnia omnibus placeo, "as I also in all things please all men"; the received text has no imperative]. Likewise: Be ye without offence to the Jews and to the Greeks, to the Church of God (II Cor. VIII) [Vulg. 1Cor 10:32 Judaeis, et gentibus, et ecclesiae Dei, "to the Jews and to the Gentiles and to the church of God"]. Likewise: We provide good things, not only before God, but also before men 572C(Matth. V). Likewise: Let your works shine before men, etc. [Vulg. Mt 5:16 Sic luceat lux vestra coram hominibus : ut videant opera vestra bona, "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works"] Therefore against rash judges, detractors, whisperers, murmurers, who seek to suspect what they do not see, and seek also to boast of what they do not suspect, conscience suffices. Nor let us seek, in the others whom we wish to please, our own glory, but their salvation, that they may praise not us, but God, who made them such; whence: Do not ye your justice before men, [Vulg. Mt 6:1 Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis coram hominibus, "Take heed that you do not your justice before men"] where he reproves those who so fan abroad their own works that they set the praise of men as the end of their works, and reckon that same praise as it were for the wages of their works.

VERS. 14.-- And I made progress in Judaism. As if he should say: I who formerly availed so much in those observances of the law have now left them, and therefore do you by my example withdraw from them.

572DVERS. 15.-- But when it pleased. As if he should say: Then it appears that I had not learned it, and neither afterwards. He separated from the womb of the mother. Whence it is read of Jeremiah: Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee (Jerem. I). He therefore who foreknows those that shall be before they are, makes to be whomsoever he wills to be born, and those already born whom he wills he calls by grace that they may be just, as he called Paul by grace, that he might announce Christ. Out of the womb. The mother is the Synagogue; her womb and her privy chambers are the Pharisees, from whose number he was separated.

VERS. 1.-- Then after fourteen years. From 573Athe passion of the Lord, when he had been converted to the faith, he came, as Bede shows, writing upon the Acts of the Apostles.

VERS. 2.-- And I conferred with them. He shows that he had no assurance of the Gospel unless it were strengthened by the authority of Peter and of the others. Apart, etc. I conferred with these separately, not publicly, lest a scandal of the faith should be born to the faithful of Judaea (who thought that the law was to be kept). At that time, when Peter had come to Antioch (although this is not read in the Acts of the Apostles), Paul withstood him to the face.

VERS. 4.-- Brought in unawares. By the Jews. For what the unbelievers could not do of themselves, they attempted through false brethren, whom they had sent in under the appearance of religion, that they might explore what liberty we have in the faith of Christ, 573Bnot that they might hold it, but that by some contention they might bring us back from it into the servitude of the law. But if it were so, the truth of the Gospel would not remain among the Gentiles, but all would judaize. And therefore here, to those with whom he compared the assertion of his preaching, he was in no wise willing to yield. But elsewhere, where it did no harm, on account of the scandal of the Jews, he circumcised Timothy. In all these things he both commends himself and proves that the law is not to be kept.

VERS. 5.-- Nor for an hour. He yielded not for an hour, who never yielded. But if he yielded at some time, how not even for an hour? Why also on account of the false brethren, if he was going to do it of himself? He yielded therefore on account of them: which of himself he would not do: humbling himself to the law, Timothy being circumcised, that the guile and the scandal of the Jews 573Cmight cease, who were ready to stir up a tumult and a sedition if he should receive that son of Judaea uncircumcised and ordain him bishop.

VERS. 6.-- What they were sometime. I do not run back to former things, because those which are now suffice; but they who seemed to be something conferred nothing. In which it appears that he is not inferior to them. But God is proved not to accept the person, because if it were so, I, Paul, before ungodly, upon whom such men would confer nothing, should not have been. Or that, it maketh no matter, but they brought me nothing. Who seemed to be something. That is, of some authority: because they had walked with the Lord and had been present at his transfiguration. They seemed, I say, by these, that is, by the false brethren. Because they who seemed to be something seemed to be so only to carnal men; 573Dfor they themselves are not something. Even if some are good ministers of God, Christ in them is something, not they themselves of themselves. For if they themselves were something of themselves, they would always have been something.

VERS. 9.-- Pillars. The Church is called the firm support of the truth: which wisdom also built, that is, established upon seven pillars, by which number is intimated either the whole body of preachers (because it is wont to be put for the universal) or the sevenfold operation of the Holy Spirit. They gave the right hands. Whence did he confer with them and receive right hands? Because he had the same word with them. The conference itself showed the unity of doctrine, otherwise the Church would not believe him who had not been with the Lord. That we unto the Gentiles. ingentes That I might be first in the preaching 574Aof the Gentiles, as Peter in the circumcision. And that, as the apostles were joined to Peter, so Barnabas might be joined to him.

VERS. 11.-- I withstood. This Paul would not dare, unless he felt himself not unequal.

VERS. 12.-- For before they came, etc. Certain emulators of the law leges, who venerated Christ and the law with equal right, whom fearing he did not mingle with the Gentiles. But if this alone were so, it would not be blameworthy. As Paul himself also yielded at some time on account of scandal. But in this there was error, that he compelled the Gentiles to judaize.

VERS. 14.-- How dost thou compel the Gentiles. Not by the command of one teaching, but by the example of his manner of life.

VERS. 15.-- We. His authority being commended, he now begins to treat by reasons that carnal observances 574Bare not to be observed after Christ. As if to say: The Gentiles ought not to judaize, because we who availed in the law know that it does not justify: and therefore, having let it go, we flee to Christ.

VERS. 16.-- But by the faith, etc. He does not for this reason say that it is of faith, as though good works were made void, since God renders to every man according to his works: but because good works are of grace, and not grace of works: because faith working by love would work nothing, unless the love of God itself were poured forth in us by the Holy Spirit; nor would faith itself be in us, unless God gave it.

VERS. 17.-- But if while we seek. If we have in truth known that we cannot be justified save by passing over to Christ, does Christ then suffer us to slip back 574Cto that which we were? But if he suffered it, he would surely be to us a minister of sin, that is, of our former state, as he would have been a minister of justice to those passing over to him.

VERS. 19.-- For I through the law. Understood spiritually. Am dead. That I may not live carnally. That I may live to God. Not to myself, but that I now can to God? because I am with Christ. Nailed. That is, the cross of Christ has quenched in me the ardour of sin, so that I am no longer stretched out toward it: as one having his hands fastened with nails.

VERS. 20.-- I live. I have in the virtues vigour for working well. Now not I. That sinner which I formerly was. But Christ liveth in me. That is, the newness of Christ appears in me. To what end then the law?

• 574D

VERS. 1.-- O senseless. (AMBR.) The words of one growing angry. And the Galatians were senseless who did not even acknowledge that they had been circumvented by the false apostles. Hath bewitched. A bewitching is when by magical delusions certain things are shown to the eyes of men otherwise than they are. That also is commonly called a bewitching which harms infants. For the eyes of certain men are said to burn with their look, while this act of theirs also is called a bewitching: and it can come about that demons serve this sin. Likewise envy burns as a bewitching does. For the envious man harms not only himself, but also those in whom some good things begin to be; whence Solomon, The bewitching of malice obscureth good things 575A(Sap. IV) [Vulg. Sap 4:12 Fascinatio enim nugacitatis obscurat bona, "the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things"]. So it came about that the envious, as men bewitching, harmed the Galatians, newly born again in Christ, so that these same Galatians, the stomach of faith growing nauseous, vomited up the food of the spirit. Before whose eyes. Truly bewitched, since before the eyes, that is, in your presence, he who is so great. Jesus Christ hath been proscribed. [Vulg. Gal 3:1 praescriptus est, "hath been set forth"] That is, disinherited: and this among you, among others you ought not to suffer that he should lose his kingdom and his inheritance, much less among you.

VERS. 2.-- This only of you. Them being admonished by rebuke, he proves that the law is not to be observed, because not from it, but from faith come all things necessary, spirit, justice, blessing. As if to say: Although bewitched and foolish, yet this I wish to learn of you, because this is so evident that even the foolish are able to teach 575Bit. If there were nothing else, this alone would suffice for the proving, since it is agreed that you received the Spirit; but whether from works, in which you never took up labour, or from faith, which comes by the easiness of hearing?

VERS. 4.-- Without cause. He says this for this reason: because they had already borne many things for the faith, and in those very sufferings had overcome fear by charity. Without cause therefore had they suffered so great things, who were willing to slip from charity, which had borne so great things in them, to the law.

VERS. 5.-- He therefore who giveth. Because you received the Spirit not from works, which you never had, but from faith; therefore you are able to see that I, who had the works of the law, received the power of giving the Spirit and of working miracles not through them, but through faith. Concerning 575Cthe fact that he had been under the law there could be doubt: but by the likeness of these things the whole is clear.

VERS. 6.-- Unto justice. Here he calls justice the remission of sins and the keeping of a good life.

VERS. 8.-- Foreseeing. Not only justice is of faith, but the blessing also, because the Scripture says: In thee shall they be blessed, that is, in conformity to thy faith. That of faith. Not of works, etc. He foretold, that is, he showed. Or, he foretold, that is, he showed that it had been foretold that they shall be blessed in eternal blessedness. In thee. In the imitation of thy faith, etc.

VERS. 10.-- For whosoever, etc. This is to be understood not of the works which pertain to morals, but of those which were done in those observances. The law written on the tables profits: the rest are a burden, which he proves 575Dby the authority of Scripture, saying: It is written. They who are of the works of the law are accursed, because, as it is written by Moses in Deuteronomy (Deut. XXI): Cursed is every man, etc. [Vulg. Gal 3:10 Maledictus omnis qui non permanserit in omnibus quae scripta sunt in libro legis ut faciat ea, "Cursed is every one that abideth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them"; the received text has no homo] As if to say: I have commanded many things, all of which no one will be able to fulfil: but they were given for a burden, and therefore all are accursed. In which he hints that a Saviour is to be desired, who may set an end to these things, and free us not only from other sins, but from the curse of the law. Why then do the Galatians pass over from grace to a curse?

VERS. 11.-- Is justified before God. He who worships him freely, that is, not out of a desire of seeking anything from him besides himself, or out of fear of losing. For in him alone is our true blessedness, and it is perfect.

576AVERS. 12.-- But the law, etc. Of faith are justice and life: but the law is not of faith. It could indeed seem that the works of the law were done out of faith, so that eternal things were hoped for on account of them: but it is not so, since the Jews kept those things out of fear of punishment. He shall live in them. He does not say: He who shall do it shall live in it, though he had put before: the law is not of faith; that thou mayest understand the law to be put in this place for those very works which were done in those observances. But they who lived in these works certainly feared (if they had not done them) to suffer stoning, or the cross, or another thing of this kind. He therefore who shall do them, shall live in them: not before God, that is, he shall have a reward, that he be not punished with that death. But he who lives of faith, when he shall have gone forth hence, shall then the more have a most present reward. Therefore he does not live of faith, whosoever 576Beither desires or fears present things which are seen: because the faith of God pertains to things invisible.

VERS. 13.-- Made for us, that is, reputed not only accursed, but even a curse. Or, He was made in the truth of the thing accursed, that is, mortal. Cursed is he that hangeth. As if to say: Let it be enough for punishment that the guilty man dies hanged: and that he is there until evening, that he may then be taken down and buried, lest, if he be there longer, the reproach be the greater: and a stain to his kindred. Every man. [Vulg. Gal 3:13 Maledictus omnis qui pendet in ligno, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree"; the received text has no homo] Christ also, lest heretics to come should deny his true death.

VERS. 17.-- But this I say. This God promised to Abraham, and this testament confirmed by oaths I say and affirm, that the law maketh not void, of which this was not to be thought: because it was given only 576Cfor a time: because long after the promise made to Abraham the law was given: of which, if the blessing were from it, the men of that time, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, would not have had it. The law maketh not void. That is, false: which it would do, if the blessing were given through it. For that promise did not say that it should be through the law, but through the seed. But if the blessing be through the law, then in vain did he promise to the seed, and in vain did the seed itself come. The law maketh not void, as though it now availed to empty out the promise: because it would be false, and God a liar.

VERS. 19.-- Because of transgressions. It was set in the midst, between the promise and the seed: to whom the promise was made, that is, between Abraham and Christ, that it might instruct the people of God under the fear of God: that they might be made worthy 576Dto receive the promise which is Christ. Ordained by angels. The law, I say, ordained by angels, that is, by Moses and the other ministers of God, or given to men by the ministry of angels, in which angels assuredly were the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, without any distinction of person, God was figured through them. And note that he does not say given, but, ordained: as it were given in orderly fashion between the time of the natural law (of which they were convicted that it could not help) and the time of grace, before they were to be convicted concerning the law: he therefore who now brings it back acts against the order of the angels. In the hand. That is, in the power of Christ, that the law should stand while he willed, and cease when he willed. Therefore you act against him who destroyed it. A mediator is between two 577Aextremes, and on this account it might seem either that Christ was not God, or that there were two gods. To which he answers that, although a mediator is not of one but of two extremities, yet he is one God with God the Father by the divine nature, to whom he mediates by the human.

VERS. 20.-- A mediator. The law which the mediator has is of one people only: but yet the mediator himself is not of one people only, that is, of the Jews who had the law, but of the Gentiles also, and therefore do not seek the law, that you may have a mediator. A mediator is not of one, but yet he is one: sufficient for reconciling all to God, because he is God, and therefore add not anything else to him.

VERS. 21.-- The law then, etc. Since the law is because of transgression, it is therefore so against the promises 577Bthat through it there is fulfilled something otherwise than as it was promised: not because from the law there is not life, that is, eternal blessedness: because if life were from thence, then justice also: but justice is not from it, but rather it condemns, and shuts up under sin. And this is what is said:

But the Scripture shutteth up. [Vulg. Gal 3:22 Sed conclusit Scriptura omnia sub peccato, "But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin"] The law itself wholly shut up the Jews under the dominion of sin, and showed all men shut up under sin, as it is said also to the Romans: God hath concluded all things in justice, that he may have mercy on all. [Vulg. Rom 11:32 Conclusit enim Deus omnia in incredulitate, ut omnium misereatur, "For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all"] Their sins being made known through the law, they were shut up, that they may not be able to excuse themselves, but may seek mercy.

VERS. 23.-- Before that. Before the coming of faith the law was useful to the Jews. Faith came. Faith is unbidden, which no merit called forth. We were kept. Not free, but servants. Shut up. That being thus accustomed we might be 577Cled. Unto it. That is, unto so good a faith. Which. It was in the time of Christ. To be revealed. In the time of Christ many things were opened which before were obscure. Behold the honour of the law: because it kept us as a pedagogue: but this is not a great thing, because this belongs to children, not to grown men.

VERS. 24.-- Was our pedagogue in Christ Jesus. By the instruction of Christ: who therefore instructed, that so, coming to faith as children unto perfection, we might be justified. Or in Christ, that is, in the carrying out of the precepts of Christ.

VERS. 26.-- You are all children of God by faith. We Jews in the time of faith forsook the pedagogue: because all you Gentiles, who had not the law, are sons. Do you then take up what we forsook by your example? 577DAs if he should say: You ought not to do this. In Christ Jesus. In the instruction of Christ, and unto the likeness of his death.

VERS. 27.-- You have put on. That is, you have been made conformable to him, which is to you an honour and a protection against the heats. But that Christ is a garment, the Apostle elsewhere makes plain, saying: Put ye on our Lord Jesus Christ. [Vulg. Rom 13:14 induamini Dominum Jesum Christum, "put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ"] Now men put on Christ: sometimes as far as the receiving of the sacrament: sometimes even as far as the sanctification of life. And that first is common to the good and to the evil. But this second is proper to the good.

VERS. 29.-- Then are you the seed of Abraham. Christ was called the seed of Abraham: where it is read that the promises 578Awere spoken to Abraham and to his seed. But here the sons of Christ, that is, all believers, are called the seed of Abraham. But as often as Christ is named the seed of Abraham, it is to be understood bodily: namely, that he is begotten of his stock. But as often as we who believe in him are called the seed of Abraham, then we ought spiritually to take the seed of faith.

VERS. 1.-- But I say, etc. Now you Gentiles and we Jews are Christ's, and the seed of Abraham and heirs. But formerly we Jews were under the law while we were little ones, like an heir that is to be, and one placed under [tutelage] by his father.

VERS. 3.-- Under the elements. By the elements he signifies the new moons, 578Bthat is, the lunar days, and the sabbath, not that they hoped in the elements as the pagans do, but that in these they venerated God. Of the world. Because the law promised not heavenly but earthly things: or transitory things, such as the world is.

VERS. 4.-- The fulness of time came. That is, after that whole space was fulfilled through which the law was to endure, then God sent, etc. The fulness of time. He knew when he ought to come, or even to suffer, etc. For there is no hour of his, or of ours, save his will. Yet before it a long series of heralds had to be sent ahead.

God sent his Son. Whence, I went forth from the Father, and came into this world (Joan. XVI). And yet of him John the Evangelist says: He was in the world, and the world was made by 578Chim, and the world knew him not (Ibid. I). Then he joins: He came unto his own. Thither therefore was he sent, where he was. Whence also the Prophet says that: I fill heaven and earth (Jer. XXIII) [Vulg. Jr 23:24 Numquid non caelum et terram ego impleo?, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?"; the received text is a question]. It is to be asked therefore how that sending is to be understood. If therefore we think soberly of the Son of God the things that are worthy, we ought to understand him to have been sent for this reason, because out of that incomprehensible and unutterable secret of the deep majesty the Word of God gave himself to be comprehended by our minds, not only when he emptied himself, but also when he dwelt among us. Of a woman. The usage of the Hebrew tongue calls women not those that are corrupted, but females. Made under the law. That he might appear circumcised, as a son of Abraham having the sign of him to whom he had been promised; in whom circumcision was fulfilled: and so let the sign now cease. 578DFor Abraham believed that he should have a son, in whom all nations should be blessed: which we believe to be already done.

That the adoption. That is, that we might be partakers of the divine glory. For as he himself partakes by nature, so he adopts us unto the seeing of it. For hence we receive adoption, that that only Son of God did not disdain a partaking of our nature, made of a woman, that he might not only be the only-begotten, but might also be made the first-born among many brethren. But he says adoption, that we may distinctly understand the only Son of God.

VERS. 6.-- God sent. For that we might be proved to have been adopted by God unto sons, he gave us his Spirit 579Awho should show the sign of the Father toward the sons, that, because we should not dare to say this by our infirmity and unworthiness, he might prompt us to dare to say it. The Spirit of the Son. Note that the Spirit is the Son's also. And note here also the Trinity. (AUG.) If perchance anyone should ask whether the Spirit proceeds from the Son, etc., as far as he has from him, that from him also the Holy Spirit should proceed.

Crying. It is to be noted that in the Scriptures a cry is understood not as the sending forth of a great voice, but as the greatness of knowledge and of doctrines.

Abba father. Elegantly he set down two words signifying the same thing, on account of the whole people which out of Jews and Gentiles has been called into the unity of faith, that the word of the Hebrews might pertain to the Hebrews, the Greek to the Gentiles. But the same signification of each word pertains to 579Bthe unity of the same faith and Spirit.

Who by nature are not, etc. He shows that the nature of the true God is one, namely of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. But what is it to be God by nature, save to be true God? Whence elsewhere the Apostle: You are converted to serve the living and true God (I Petr. II) [Vulg. 1Thes 1:9 conversi estis ad Deum a simulacris, servire Deo vivo, et vero, "you are converted to God from idols, to serve the living and true God"].

VERS. 9.-- Yea rather, you are known. Scripture frequently uses this kind of speech; whence: So in the sanctuary have I appeared to thee, that I might see thy power and thy glory (Psal. LXII), that is, thou hast seen me, that I might see thee. God knows us, that is, he affords us the knowledge of himself. For it is not from us that we have known him, from eternity indeed he knew: but he is then said to know, when he brings it about that those things are known. Weak. Truly the law is a needy element: because it does not justify perfectly.

579CNeedy. Because as much as it helps, it does so not of itself, but in respect of grace. Those are called needy elements which need one another for the governing of the world.

VERS. 10.-- Days. They observe days who say: To-day nothing is to be begun. Months. They who, searching out the courses of the moon, say: Under such a moon nothing is to be begun: these observe and cultivate months. Times. As when they say: Now is the beginning of spring. And years. When they say: It is a new year. But there ought to be no suspicion of these things, because whatever is done simply under devotion to God can turn out prosperously.

VERS. 11.-- I am afraid of you, lest perhaps, etc. This they observe who on certain days, months or years are willing 579Dor unwilling to begin: as though the times were auspicious or inauspicious.

VERS. 12.-- Be ye as I. I also, who had the law, am now without the law, as you ought to be without it. I, I say, who, though I was born a Jew, now despise those carnal things by a spiritual discernment. Because, etc., as you, etc. I am a man who has been corrected from error, and so you can be corrected. Brethren, I beseech. Those harshly corrected he refreshes by their good deeds. You have injured me in nothing. He excuses himself, because the false apostles had said that Paul was an enemy to the Galatians and had not wished to teach them the things which he preached in the other churches.

VERS. 13.-- Your temptation. For they were tempted (when 580Athe Apostle was suffering tribulation according to the flesh) whether they would forsake him through fear, or embrace him through charity.

VERS. 14.-- But as an angel of God, etc. He says this because God speaks in his saints, and Paul wished not himself, but God in himself, to be loved; and therefore he bears witness to certain of them that they had received him as an angel of God and as Christ Jesus. In all his saints therefore he is to be loved who says: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat (Matth. XXV). So great is the charity of the head toward its own body.

VERS. 15.-- Where is then, etc. Admiring their spiritual work, he commends it, that, looking upon this, they may not fall into a carnal fear. And because they had been changed for the worse, he rebukes them. For although they received him as an angel, yet not for that does he spare to cut and 580Bto burn, because he seeks not his own things, but the things which are Christ's. He seeks not milk and wool from the sheep, the same advantage of supplying necessity and the favour of honour, but the salvation of all. If it could be done. Could not that have been done which the Apostle says? That cannot be done which is not justly done. He said that he could not do what without doubt he could by power, but could not by justice.

VERS. 16.-- Telling you the truth. Because no man wishes to be proved to be in error, and every one who reproves seems an enemy.

VERS. 17.-- They are zealous. I am not an enemy, but they are zealous, etc. But they are zealous not well who do not so much desire them to be better, as they wish to make them worse and to draw them backward by a perverse zeal.

580CVERS. 19.-- Until Christ. Whom you disfigure, let him be beautiful in you. Or, that he may appear beautiful to others through you. A graver saying than if he had said that they were formed in Christ.

VERS. 20.-- But I would. The Apostle, knowing that a discourse which is made to those present has greater force, desires to change the apostolic voice, comprehended in letters, into presence. For the divine Scripture edifies when read, but profits much more if it is changed from letters into voice. For indeed the living voice has great force, a voice resounding from the mouth of its own author, which is uttered and distinguished with that pronunciation because it was begotten in a man's heart.

VERS. 21.-- Say ye, etc. Answer. For thus far the sentence hangs. And that is interposed: whom 580Dthou bringest forth again, etc. [Vulg. Gal 4:19 quos iterum parturio, "whom I bring forth again"] Have you not read the law. Whichever they choose, they are proved fools. If they have not read it, they ought not to receive what they do not know. If they have read it, it itself proves that it is to be dismissed. But if they do not understand, they are fools.

VERS. 22.-- It is written, etc. He had several, but Scripture specially follows out the particulars concerning two only, hinting that something excellent is prefigured in them. One of the bondwoman and one, etc. Nor did he distinguish this in vain: both indeed were born of Abraham, but of a different operation. Because he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the nature of the flesh, by which a young woman is wont to conceive of an old man. He who was of the freewoman, not according to the strength of the flesh, as an old barren woman of an old man, but by the operation of God, who promised. Him therefore custom begot, 581Ademonstrating nature. But him the promise gave, signifying grace. There human usage is shown, here the divine benefit is commended.

VERS. 24.-- By an allegory. That is said by an allegory when one thing seems to sound in the words, and another to be signified to the understanding, as here by Abraham, God the Father: for he is the father of many nations. For Abba is father; am, of many. And there is understood, of nations. In mount Sina. By the mention of such a place the Apostle signifies that the Jews were proud against the Gentiles because of the commandment, or that they themselves were proud and swollen against the commandment itself, which is Agar, that is, is signified by Agar. For Agar is alienation, because it alienates from the inheritance.

VERS. 25.-- The mount. It is in all things joined, and 581Blike to that Jerusalem, that is, to the Jewish people, which now is, that is, which serves in time. The whole people is the mother, the several are the sons, or the proselytes, who all serve through fear of punishment. By all these things it is plain that the old law is not to be held, but the new, which is above, which is free. Arabia, etc. Lowliness, or affliction, because they were afflicted under carnal observances.

VERS. 26.-- Which is above. The city of the saints is a heavenly one, although in certain persons whom she brings forth here she is still a pilgrim. Sara barren signifies that the nature of the human race, corrupted by sin and therefore condemned, deserved nothing of true happiness for the time to come. Isaac born by promise signifies the sons of grace: and because this, not through regeneration but through generation, 581Cwas to be, therefore circumcision was then commanded, when a son was promised to Sara. For circumcision signifies nature renewed, the old state being put off. In that he commands all sons and servants to be circumcised; he testifies that this grace pertains to all. Which is the mother. Because the several, instructed by her word and example, serve out of charity.

VERS. 27.-- It is written. That she is free and a mother he proves by the authority of Isaias, subjoining: Rejoice. To rejoice, to break forth, to cry out, pertain to liberty. Thou bearest not. He says this because at that time she brought forth as it were none. Thou travailest not, because as yet she had had no striving. Rejoice, in the heart. Break forth. Show forth outwardly the gladness of the mind. Cry out. Preach thy joy to others. For many are the children. This pertains to the mother. Isaias, beholding 581Din the time of Christ the Church of the Gentiles, before barren, then fruitful, addresses her, saying: O barren Church, who in the time of the law bearest not even by the power of a miracle, etc. Of the desolate. More are the children of the Church once desolate than of the Synagogue bringing forth in the meantime. This Isaias would say superfluously of the ancient Sara, he is therefore to be understood to say it of the Church. But the Church was barren among all the Gentiles, before that offspring which we behold arose. The Synagogue therefore is she that hath a husband, that is, the law. But the desolate, and wandering, and living without any power of a husband, is the multitude of the Gentiles, which also was barren, putting forth the germ of no lawful word. Nature corrupted by sin does indeed bring forth citizens of the earthly city, but the citizens of the heavenly city 582Agrace brings forth, freeing nature from sin. Which hath a husband. For the Synagogue had a husband, that is, the law, and was once fruitful in children. But the barren Church, without her husband Christ, without any address of the bridegroom, lay long in the desert. But after she received the bill of divorce, and turned every ornament of her husband to the ornament of an idol, then the husband, the former girdle rotting, wove for his loins another belt, another girding out of the Gentiles, who, as soon as she was joined to a husband, conceived and brought forth. Whence Isaias cries out: Enlarge the place of thy tabernacle, and stretch forth thy cords (Isa. LIV) [Vulg. Is 54:2 Dilata locum tentorii tui, et pelles tabernaculorum tuorum extende : ne parcas : longos fac funiculos tuos, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and stretch out the skins of thy tabernacles: spare not: lengthen thy cords"].

VERS. 28.-- Isaac. Laughter, that is, they who serve in gladness, not out of sadness or necessity.

VERS. 29.-- He persecuted. I do not think that we can easily 582Bfind where Ismael persecuted Isaac, but only this, that when the son of the Egyptian woman was playing with Isaac, Sara was indignant.

VERS. 31.-- By which liberty. The liberty by which we have been freed by Christ is the remission of sins, and the justification of faith working by love.

VERS. 2.-- If you be circumcised. Circumcision and the other legal observances are not hurtful to those so born and so instructed, although they are not necessary, it was more hurtful to forbid them as though hurtful. But the Gentiles are not to be compelled to such things. But if they are unwilling [nolunt; read volunt, "are willing"] to conform to them, as Timothy, they are not to be forbidden, but if they trust in these, they are lost; it is lawful therefore for these to hold those things, lest they seem rather disapproved 582Cthan ended. But upon the Gentiles they are not to be imposed, lest they seem either not to have been instituted for the cause of Christ the promiser, or to be promising still, but by their ceasing it is now plain that they were signs of a thing to come, which by being gradually forsaken were to be buried with honour, not to be fled from as the sacrileges of the Gentiles.

VERS. 3.-- He is a debtor. He says this for this reason, that by the terror of observances so innumerable as are written in the law, lest they should be compelled to fulfil them all, which neither the Jews themselves nor their fathers were able to fulfil, as Peter says, they might abstain from those things to which certain men desired to subject them.

VERS. 4.-- You are fallen from grace. Which came for this, that, the burden ceasing, it might justify; and he who brings that back loses this.

582DVERS. 5.-- For we. He who trusts in the law loses grace, which can be seen from the contrary, because of faith is justice, and hope, that is, external blessedness: and this we do through the spirit, which cannot be deceived nor deceive. The hope of justice. That is, that which justice hopes for, namely life everlasting, or, that justice itself which is hoped for. For faith hungering and thirsting after justice hopes to be renewed and to advance in it. Or, the hope of justice is Christ, from whom justice itself is hoped for.

VERS. 6.-- For in Christ. But by those who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus, virtues are to be sought and vices to be fled. But the middle things which are between virtues and vices are neither to be sought nor to be fled, as circumcision and uncircumcision, which avail nothing in Christ 583ABut faith. Without love faith is empty. Faith with love is the Christian's. Another is the demon's. For the demons also believe and tremble (Jac. II). But they who who do not believe are slower and worse than the demons. But it matters much whether one believe that he is Christ, or believe in Christ. For the demons believed that he was Christ, and yet they did not believe in Christ. For he believes in Christ who hopes in Christ and loves Christ.

VERS. 7.-- You did run. Here he praises the Galatians, and blames those by whom they were led to wish to judaize; and he admonishes them not to consent to those men.

VERS. 10.-- I have confidence. He says that he has confidence concerning them for this reason, because they erred not of their own will but circumvented. And therefore, 583Bthe true way being now shown, he easily believes that they will return. Troubleth. That is to say, that, the order being changed, from spiritual you should become carnal. Whosoever. Secretly, they say, he rends Peter, whom he wrote above that he had withstood to the face, because he walked not with a right foot to the truth of the Gospel: but neither would Paul speak with so insolent a curse of the prince of the Church, nor was Peter worthy that he should bear the judgment of the Church. Wherefore it is to be thought that these things are said of some other, who either had been with the apostles, or had come from Judaea, or had believed out of the Pharisees, or was some great man so esteemed among the Galatians that he should bear the judgment of the troubled Church.

VERS. 11. But I. It was laid to his charge by the false apostles that Paul elsewhere preached circumcision, but was not willing easily to open his mind to them.

583CWhy do I yet suffer persecution. (HIER.) For he endured most frequent persecutions from the Jews, in that he taught that those who out of the Gentiles had believed in Christ ought not to be circumcised.

The scandal of the cross. The preaching of the cross was a scandal to the Jews, because it made void the sabbath and circumcision. But if he admitted circumcision, it would not be a scandal to them, and they would be peaceable.

VERS. 12.-- Would that they were cut off. They themselves trouble you, but would that they were cut off, not carnally, but that they might lose the power of generating among you, or that among others they might profit nothing, not only circumcised but cut off, that they might have no power at all of generating, and with reason I wish this, lest they bring you back into the servitude of the law: For you 583Dhave been called by God unto liberty. [Vulg. Gal 5:13 Vos enim in libertatem vocati estis, fratres, "For you have been called unto liberty, brethren"; the received text has no a Deo]

VERS. 13.-- Give not liberty. The sense is: Beware lest, having heard the name of liberty, you think that you may sin unpunished. But by the charity of the Spirit. Charity is to be had not by the affection of the flesh, but by the spirit.

VERS. 14.-- For all the law. For both those things which pertain to good morals, and those things which are in the sacraments (since they are well understood by the free, and not carnally observed by servants), must needs be referred to charity. Thou shalt love thy neighbour. This is written in Leviticus (Levit. XIX), in which he rightly says that the whole law is fulfilled, although there are two precepts of charity on which the whole law hangs, and the prophets, 584Abecause the love of God is contained in the love of the neighbour; and therefore in this precept is the perfection of salvation, because without the neighbour God is not loved: For he that loveth not his neighbour, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not? (I Joan. IV.) [Vulg. 1Jo 4:20 Qui enim non diligit fratrem suum quem vidit, "For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth"] Since therefore each precept is such that neither can be held without the other, it suffices to mention one of them. As thyself. He cannot love his neighbour who does not love himself. But he does not love himself who loves digit iniquity. For he that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul (Psal. X).

VERS. 15.-- You devour. Or you accuse one another, that is, laying crimes upon one another. Lest you be consumed one of another. By the schism of the Christian religion, by vain glory and vain victory, the occasion of charity being changed, 584Bhe touched this vice of theirs, because dissension is the enemy of love. For by this vice most of all, of contention and of envy, pernicious quarrels also were nourished among them, by which fellowship and life are consumed.

VERS. 16.-- But I say in Christ, etc. [Vulg. Gal 5:16 Dico autem : Spiritu ambulate, "But I say: Walk in the spirit"] He shows how sufficient the faith of Christ is without the law, because through it they overcome the flesh and its works, and follow the spirit; as if he should say: Give not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but serve through the charity of the spirit. But this I say can be to you in Christ, and never otherwise. You shall not fulfil, etc. He does not say, You shall not do, or You shall not have, because they were not able not to have them, but, You shall not fulfil, that is, you shall not fulfil their works by the consent of the will.

584CVERS. 17.-- For the flesh lusteth, etc. The flesh is said to lust, because the soul does this according to it, as the ear is said to hear, and the eye to see, whereas rather the soul both hears through the ear and sees through the eye. For the flesh lusts nothing save through the soul, but it is said to lust when the soul by carnal car nali concupiscence struggles against the spirit. For the cause of that carnal concupiscence is not in the soul, for it comes to be out of both, because without both no delight is felt.

VERS. 18.-- But if you are led by the Spirit, etc. From which it appears that he has not the Holy Spirit who is under the law, not by dispensation, but truly. You are not under the law. You have now this advantage, therefore this part is to be chosen. He says that those are damnably under the law 584Dwhom the law makes guilty, not fulfilling the law while, not knowing grace, they presume upon themselves. Further, he is under the law who abstains from evil by fear, not by love, guilty in will. This law strikes fear, not love.

VERS. 21.-- The kingdom not of God shall they obtain. [Vulg. Gal 5:21 regnum Dei non consequentur, "shall not obtain the kingdom of God"] There is no middle place, so that he should not be in punishment who will not be in the kingdom.

VERS. 22.-- Charity. He has set the head first, whence the members follow. For no one rejoices well who does not love the good whence he rejoices. He has not true peace with anyone unless he love him. He is not long-suffering in waiting perseveringly unless he be fervent in loving. He is not kind unless he love him whom he helps. He is not good save by loving. He is not faithful healthfully, 585Asave by that faith which works through love. He is not meek who is not governed by love. No one holds himself back from that whereby he is defiled unless he love that whereby he is honoured. With reason therefore he so often commends charity, as though it alone were to be enjoined, which cannot be had without the rest by which a man is made good. Joy. Purity of conscience. Whence: There is no rejoicing for the wicked, saith the Lord (Isa. XLVIII) [Vulg. Is 48:22 Non est pax impiis, dicit Dominus, "There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord"].

VERS. 24.-- But they who. As if he should say: Against the evil the law is set; but for the good the cross is set. Which he says thus: But they who, etc., have crucified their flesh, etc. It befits our devotion that we who celebrate the passion of the crucified Lord should make for ourselves a cross of carnal pleasures to be repressed. On this cross indeed ought always in this life to hang 585Bthe Christian, that he may be fixed with nails and with the precepts of justice, as Christ was fastened with nails on the cross.

VERS. 25.-- If we live by the spirit. What he said above in general he turns back upon those to whom he writes, and numbers himself with them, showing by this that he does not say to them what he himself would not be willing to keep. As if he should say: I do not say to you anything which I myself also am unwilling to do.

VERS. 26.-- Of vain glory. Vain boasting is to wish to conquer where there is no prize. Envying. It is to be known that, although through every vice the venom of the ancient enemy is poured into the human heart, in the zeal of envy the serpent shakes all his own inward parts, and in the impressing of this malice he has as it were moved the door-post. That zeal has no measure, remaining continually without end, whereas other crimes are ended. And by how much he who is envied 585Chas advanced with better success, by so much the envious man burns into a greater conflagration with the fires of spite. Hence a threatening countenance, a grim look, pallor in the face, trembling in the lips, gnashing in the teeth, raving words, and unbridled revilings, and a hand ready for violence; and if for the while it is empty of a sword, yet it is armed with the hatred of a maddened mind.

VERS. 1.-- Brethren, and if. Thus far he has spoken to the whole Church, disapproving the law and commending grace, now he turns himself to prelates, how they should handle their subjects, namely gently, because they are brethren also, even if superiors. In any fault. A fault is to turn aside from good, a sin is to do evil; or a fault is that which is done in ignorance, a sin 585Dthat which is done by one who knows. Yet they are put indifferently. An overtaking is when either for the hour it is not seen what ought to be done, or he who has seen is overcome so that evil is done, when the truth lies hid, or infirmity compels. Of meekness. Lest, if you do otherwise, he suffer not himself to be reproved, but begin to defend himself, lest he seem base. Considering thyself. Nothing so inclines to mercy as the thought of one's own danger.

VERS. 2.-- And so you shall fulfil the law of Christ. That is, charity; for out of charity Christ bore our sins, who also commanded that we should love one another.

VERS. 3.-- Nothing. By comparison with the spiritual man, who gives the whole to grace.

VERS. 4.-- Let him prove. Let him diligently look into it. But the work 586Athat is his own. Not another's sin, as the Pharisee who said: I am not as the rest of men (Luc. XVIII), who was just not in fact, but deceitfully. In himself That is, within, in his own pure conscience. He shall have glory. That is, he shall glory and rejoice. And not in another. That is, in another's praise, namely when another praises him. For he who has the consciousness of a good work ought not to glory of this before another, and to pour out his praise abroad, but to glory humbly in himself. Or thus: And so, that is, if he consider his own acts, knowing that no one ought to glory that he has a clean heart, in himself, etc. And so in himself. That is, if we consider our own acts, we shall prefer ourselves to no one, nor shall we judge anyone. The truly just man prefers another to himself, because he knows his own evils more than another's, the 586Bknowledge of which is glory to him. For he rejoices while he knows his own disease, which he desires to heal.

VERS. 5.-- For every one. No one is defiled by another's sin. Burden. Some are works of sharing infirmity, of which above: Bear ye one another's burdens; others of rendering an account to God, of which here. Against those who think that a man is defiled by others' sins, he says: For every one, etc. Against the negligent, who care to correct no one, secure that they are not contaminated by others' sins, he says: Bear ye burdens one for another. We bear one another's burdens of infirmity while by meekness we bear with the anger of another, and while we pardon him who has hurt us, if he asks. Or by burden is understood a good and an evil work. For in the Scriptures a burden is taken both in a good and in an evil sense; and 586Cso: Every one, good or evil, shall bear his own burden, that is, he shall carry back the wages of his own works.

VERS. 6.-- Let him communicate. Let him make his goods common with him, and let him not excuse himself, because God cannot be deceived. It is a customary precept that he to whom preaching is made should furnish necessaries to the preacher of the word of God, which necessaries he has rightly marked by the name of good things. As the Lord also, speaking in the Gospel with his disciples, says: Whereas you are evil, you know how to give good things to your children; but foreseeing that some would plead poverty and would wish to elude the precept, he added:

VERS. 7.-- Be not deceived. As if he should say: Let no one excuse himself in vain, because God cannot be deceived. For he knows your hearts, he is not ignorant of your means. A plausible excuse can appease a man, it cannot 586Ddeceive God.

VERS. 8.-- To He that soweth in the flesh he adds his own. But when he says, in the spirit, he does not add his own, because the carnal seed is from man, but the spiritual seed is from the Spirit of God. But the harvest here is promised at the end. And therefore in sowing there is need of perseverance. In the flesh, in the spirit. (AMBROS.) A Christian man consists of spirit and flesh. For man in comparison with the Holy Spirit is flesh. But he that soweth. That is, he who gives to the spirit an offence out of faith, serving justice with charity, and understanding the law spiritually, shall reap of the spirit, etc.

VERS. 9.-- Let us not fail. If a man has set no end to his work, neither does God set an end to the reward. 587AAs much as we shall have sown in works, so much shall we reap in fruits. And as much as the eagerness of him who seeks shall have enlarged itself, so much shall the hand of him who repays open itself unto the reward, because each shall so receive as he does; because he who shall be strong to sow shall be strong to reap. For in time. God does not at once do whatsoever is prayed for unto salvation; nor does he therefore deny because he defers, but he grants it in his own, that is, in a fitting time.

VERS. 10.-- Whilst we have time. The time of sowing is the present life through which we run. In this it is lawful for us to sow what we will. But when it shall have passed, the time of working is taken away; whence: Work while it is day: the night will come when now no one will be able to work (Joan. IX) [Vulg. Jo 9:4 Me oportet operari opera ejus qui misit me, donec dies est : venit nox, quando nemo potest operari, "I must work the works of him that sent me, whilst it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work"]. Towards all. Mercy is to be bestowed upon all. Wherein the just, who are of faith, are to be preferred. 587BAnd that it is due to all our enemies also, who are wicked, persecuting the Church, the Lord is witness: Do good to them that hate you. Love your enemies (Luc. VI); because they too are men: upon whom in this the Lord rains, and gives the sun.

VERS. 11.-- But see. After he has exhorted unto moral works, he returns to that which was treated of before: namely, that legal observances are not to be held. But lest anyone under his name should deceive the incautious, he takes heed, completing the end of the epistle with the notation of his own hand. For from this place he wrote it out with his own hand as far as the end.

VERS. 12.-- These constrain. These were the false apostles, who so preached Christ that they taught also that the law was to be kept. They preached the cross, that they might have gain from the faithful; the law, that they might please the Jews. That for the cross 587Cof Christ persecution, etc. Perhaps he says this for this reason, because the Roman emperors Caius Caesar, and Octavian, and Augustus, promulgated laws that the Jews, wheresoever they were, should live by their own rite and be devoted to their ancestral ceremonies. For whosoever was circumcised, although he believed in Christ, was held as a Jew among the Gentiles; but he who, being uncircumcised, showed forth by his uncircumcision that he was not a Jew, was made liable to the persecutions as well 588Aof the Gentiles as of the Jews. Those therefore who had corrupted the Galatians, desiring to decline these persecutions, urged circumcision upon the disciples for a defence. For neither could the Jews persecute them, nor the Gentiles those whom they saw both circumcise proselytes and themselves keep the things of the law.

VERS. 14.-- The world is crucified to me. It happens for the most part that a man does not hold the world in his mind, but yet the world binds him fast in its own occupations and the man is dead to the world, and the world as though alive beholds him, while it strives to snatch into its own acts one who is intent on another thing; but neither does Paul desire the world, nor the world him: so that, dead in both, neither of the two beholds the other. Because therefore neither did Paul seek the glory of the world, nor was he himself sought by the glory of the world, therefore he glories that both himself 588Bto the world and the world to himself is crucified. And I to the world. Neither do I desire anything in the world, nor does it itself recognize anything of its own in me. As the Lord says: For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing (Joan. XIV).

VERS. 17.-- For the rest. He does not wish weariness to be made for himself by turbulent contentions concerning a matter set forth as much as was enough. Or as it is read in the Greek: For the rest, let no one show or offer me labour, namely that I should again have necessity of labouring among you. For he offers labour to the master who thinks otherwise than he taught. Marks. A mark is a point or a note driven in by some iron. He therefore calls them marks, as it were the notes of the punishments from the persecutions which he was suffering. And the sense is: Therefore trouble ought not to be made for me, because I have other conflicts and struggles, which in the persecutions that I suffer contend with me.

VERS. 18.-- The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The conclusion of the epistle and as it were a subscription, which he uses in some others of his epistles also: as if he should say: That you may hold the things aforesaid: grace, not dissension, not the servitude of the law, not brawling, not quarrelling, etc.