him For the Place whence it was written whether from Rome or from elsewhere there is as much uncertainty as for the time See the Poscript added at the end of the Epistle GAL. CHAP. 1. VERSE 1. Text. Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead Sense Not of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not from men men were not the authors from whom I had my Apostleship Neither by man i. e. Neither was any mortall man the secondary meanes by whom I was made an Apostle But by Jesus Christ .i. e. By the meanes of Jesus Christ And God the Father .i. e. And from God the Father who was the prime author from whom he had his Apostleship Reason These words shew the Author of this Epistle describing him by his name by his function that he was an Apostle and by his commission that his Apostleship was not humane from men or by men but altogether divine from God by Jesus Christ And this is therefore so done that his Epistle might carry with it the higher authority and be received with the greater reverence partly for the procuring assent unto the matters therin contained and partly for the vindicating of his Apostleship from the calumny of the Judaizers or false teachers among the Galatians who had traduced it to be but of humane authority Comment Paul first so called amōg the Romans Many persons are binomious The Apostles were founders planters of the Gospell Other Ministers but edifiers and waterers of it Why Paul here stiles himself an Apostle The authority of the Apostles was sacred The Judaizers calumny against Pauls Apostleship and the ground of it Pauls Apostleship not humane for the authour nor for the means of it either for his Instruction or for his Mission though for some dismission it were humane Another difference between the Apostles other Ministers Pauls Apostleship Divine Christ opposed unto man Man is some time put for an ordinary man Pauls calling equall to the rest of the Apostles for the meanes and the Authour grounded on Gods Mandate An Evangelicall Attribute of God as the sole Authour of the Gospel the Divinity whereof was to bee pressed Pauls Apostleship singularly divine PAUL an Apostle The Author who wrot this Epistle doth alwayes call himselfe by the name of Paul But Luke who in Acts of the Apostles wrot the acts of Pauls Ministery doth call him Saul while he preached the Gospel among the Jewes and Syrians Yet when he began to preach it among the Romans and amongst them he began in Cyprus where Sergius Paulus the Proconsul of the Island desired to heare it from him then and from that time ever afterward Luke mentions him by the name of Paul Which name being ordinary among the Romans might first be attributed unto him in the family of that Roman Proconsul whose name was also Paul But whether Saul and Paul be two different names given to one and the same person for among the Jewes as wel as other Nations many persons were binomious and some trinomious as appears by the three names of Simon Peter Cephas al denoting the same person or but one the same name in different languages like Silas and Silvanus as Beza conjectures I stand not to determine But his name of Paul he prefixeth before his Epistle because in those times it was the custome among most Nations especially the Romans not to subscribe their name under or after their Letters but to prescribe or prefixe it above or before them in the first place as Princes doe in these times And Paul stiles himselfe by the title of an Apostle i. e. of an Emissary Legate or Messenger universall sent forth by divine authority from God by Christ to be a founder and planter of the Gospell at large without restraint to any certaine City or Countrey For thus the Twelve were the Apostles of Christ and thus was Christ himselfe the Apostle of God for of the Gospel Christ was the originall Founder who by a mission immediate from his Father layd the first stone for the foundation of it and Christ in respect of his mission is therefore called Heb. 3.1 The Apostle and high Priest of our profession And heerein all other Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel are different from the Apostles because all other Ministers besides them are not founders and planters of the Gospel but are only Edifiers and Waterers upon that Foundation and plantation which was first layd and made by Christ and his Apostles Or they are only Teachers and Pastors to feed and rule that flocke which by Christ and his Apostles was first constituted and collected This title of Apostle according to his usuall maner Paul attributes to himselfe in all his Epistles but in this Epistle above any of the rest there was especiall reason for it Because by this title he would establish his authority in the Churches of Galatia and confirme his doctrine there planted which after the plantation of it was by false Teachers amongst them questioned and challenged of falshood For to reject or but to question the doctrine of an Apostle being a sacred messenger from God fortified with divine authority and for the most part armed with the power of miracles was lawfull for no man but for Christians to doe it was insufferable This abuse therefore must bee rectified by words that were proper to discountenance it Not of men The Greeke particle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which heere must needs signifie from Because his meaning is that men were not the prime authours from whom hee received the Commission or Mandate for his Apostleship or that the authority from whence hee derived that Function was not humane And because his words are a vindication of his Apostleship and of his calling thereto from a malicious and subtle calumny cast upon his Function by the Judaizers and false Teachers amongst the Galatians For they allowed Paul to bee an Apostle sent forth to found and plant the Gospel But they questioned his authority therein pretending that his Calling was not Divine to come from God as from the prime authour of it Or if it were from God as from the prime authour yet that it was not by the meanes of Christ that hee had not his Instruction and Mission from God by Christ But that hee was taught his knowledge in the Gospel by some mortall man and preached it by the meanes of humane helpe and that in this respect hee was not comparable to the rest of the Apostles For which opinion or rather calumny of theirs this may seeme to be the ground Because Paul entred upon the office of his Apostleship after Christ was ascended into Heaven whereas the rest of the Apostles had their mission from Christ himselfe while hee yet remayned upon earth This calumny Paul removes by a flat negation that his authority or mandate to be an Apostle was not humane for
God to undertake that journey which they had already determined upon him because Gods will is sometime subsequent to follow not only mans will but his act by approving and confirming afterward what man before hath willed and acted for hence Christ sayd to his Disciples Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall bee bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Mat. 18.18 Now Paul mentions this Motive of his journey that he went it by revelation thereby to signifie that hee went then to Jerusalem chiefly as a Messenger sent from God lest his adversaries to diminish the authority of his Ministery should suggest to the Galatians that Paul went that journey as a meere Messenger and servant to the Church of Antioch And communicated unto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles And communicated The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I declared related or reported for in all the New Testament the word is used but in one place besides and that is by Luke who sayth that Festus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. reported Pauls cause unto King Agrippa where our last English Translation renders it declared Act. 25.14 The pronoune them is here a relative without an antecedent as the manner of the Hebrewes is sometimes to use it yet it is referred antecedently not to any persons mentioned before expresly but tacitly as they are couched in the word Jerusalem and it is referred subsequently to persons that shall be mentioned in the next following clause of this verse namely to them which were of reputation in Jerusalem The matter which unto them he related was not that whole Gospel wherein at his conversion Christ was revealed unto him but the summe of that Gospel or of that Doctrine which as part of the whole Gospel he preached among the Gentiles particularly to the point of circumcision and the rest of the legall ceremonies namely he preached that men are justified only by faith in Christ without either circumcision or other observances of the Law which he no where pressed upon the Gentiles or mentioned as necessary to salvation But privately to them which were of reputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. secretly apart or aside for so also the word is commonly rendred elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to the principall or chiefe persons for among the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are such who are personages of chiefe esteem or repute of whom other men hold a great opinion for their knowledge wisedome and integrity such among the Apostles were Peter James and John and whosoever else were principall persons in the Church of Jerusalem To the chiefe persons therefore of that Church Paul related the summe of his Doctrine for they were most concerned in the point because they were best able to examine it and to give their judgement in it And with these he first dealt privately at a secret meeting as in like cases commonly the maner is before he communicated the matter to the whole Church of Jerusalem to whom the matter was referred and to whom afterward Paul and Barnabas publickly delivered it in the Synod For when in a full audience of the Synod they two had rendred an account of that Doctrine which they had preached among the Gentiles and had declared the miracles and wonders which God by them had wrought among the Gentiles presently upon their silence James gave the sentence which was approved by the whole Synod and thereupon the Decrees were drawne up to be sent abroad among the Gentiles as Luke reports it Acts 15.12 13. Against which order of proceeding this makes nothing that here in this Epistle he mentions his conference with the chiefest persons secretly in the last place for he might therefore doe so because he would expresse the generall act of his message before that which therein was particular without respect to the order of time Yet if any man will urge the contrary I shall not much stand upon it Lest by any meanes I should run or had run in vaine The finall cause why he made this relation of his Doctrine to the Apostles Not that Paul made any doubt concerning the certainty of his Doctrine as if he would acknowledge the verity and certainty thereof from the approbation of those who were the chiefe in reputation for as we heard before the verity and certainty of his Doctrine was by God himselfe miraculously revealed unto him and every where confirmed by divers miracles But he therefore related it to avoyd the inconvenience of losing his labour q. d. Unlesse I had thus communicated my selfe at Jerusalem to the Apostles I might have lost all my labour in preaching of the Gospel for my adversaries would continually have clamoured against my Doctrine that the chiefest of the Apostles thought and taught otherwise by which meanes they would have subverted their Faith who had beleft it and consequently I should have run in vaine losing all the fruit of my labour in preaching VERSE 3. Text. But neither Titus who was with me being a Greeke was compelled to be circumcised Sense Neither i. e. Not indeed A Greeke i. e. A non-Jew or Gentile Compelled The Greeke is necessitated Reason The issue of the conference at Jerusalem that circumcision was not decreed necessary neither was Titus a Gentile necessitated to be circumcised Comment A Greeke who Why Titus was not circumcised and why afterward Timothy was BUT neither Titus who was with me being a Greeke We may now perceive from these words why Paul mentioned Titus before as the companion of his journey to Jerusalem and why he tooke him with him by Revelation namely that from his person he might draw an evident testimony against the necessity of circumcision upon the Gentiles The particle neither stands not here for a copulative but is put for the single negative firmely denying of not indeed A Greeke i. e. a non-Jew or a Gentile for by the Jew every non-Jew of what Nation soever is generally called sometime a Greeke sometime a Gentile or Heathen See Rom. 1.16 and Rom. 2.9 q. d. From the result of the Synod no not Titus a man of great repute in the Church of God and my frequent assistant in the Gospel who was then with me at Jerusalem and present in the Assembly although by nation and birth he was not a Jew but a Gentile was ordered to be circumcised no not although circumcision seemed of great moment in regard of his person that he might be a precedent and leading man to the rest of the Gentiles Compelled to bee circumcised Compelled the Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. necessitated to bee circumcised for the question was whether circumcision were necessary to salvation and to shew it not necessary Titus was not necessitated to bee circumcised An infallible argument that the judgement of the Apostles was that neither circumcision nor the rest of the legall Ceremonies were no way necessary neither
bee justified i. e. freed by the Law of Moses and sometime it is translated by the word freed as Rom. 6.7 Hee that is dead is freed from sinne where the Margin shewes that the Originall word is justified From all those former jurall words thus referred to Justifying it plainely appeares that Justifying is not onely a jurall but also a curiall or Court-word Yet not borrowed from a Court criminall or any other Civill Court of Justice or Law where the suite is contentious and the sentence a judgement in which jus dicitur i. e. in which that right which was in being before is declared to bee according to the letter or meaning of the Law as heere in England is done in the Courts of the Kings Bench and of the Common Pleas where the Judges represent the King for his Justice But Justifying in the sense of the Apostle is rather proper to a Court of favour or grace where the suite is voluntary and the sentence is a Decree in which jus fit datur i. e. in which that right which was not in being before is made to bee according to the kindenesse favour goodwill and grace of the Prince wherein the iniquities and rigours of the Law are rectified pardons for offences are granted Patents and Charters for the Rights of Honours Profits and Priviledges are issued as heere in England is done in the Courts of Requests and the Chancery where the persons President represent the King for his Mercy and Grace and therefore are not called Judges as that word is properly signified by Judex But to avoyd the rough sense of the word Judges they are called by other names In effect therefore Justifying is a right Chancery-word whereby not onely our sinnes are cancelled crossed out and blotted but our Patent for blessednesse is granted and sealed But if wee may borrow a little light from the Civill Law or from those Courts wherein Wills and Testaments receive their Debates and Probates wee shall easily perceive that Justification is a Testamentary word Yet not for the letter of it for wee finde it not expresly used in Testaments But for the sence of it which is the very same or very neare with the Testamentary word of Institution Not as Institution is distinguished from Substitution But as it is opposed to Exheridation or disinheriting and signifies indifferently either for the ordaining of an Heire or for the devising of a Legacy In which ample signification Instituting is co-incident or equivalent with Justifying Both words carrying a sense either really the same or rationally consequent each to other For whosoever in a Testament is Instituted as an Heire or a Legatary that person is Justified or made to have a right to that Inheritance or Legacy which is therein conveyed or devised unto him And whosoever in a Testament is Justified unto any Inheritance or Legacy that person is thereto Instituted And the co-incidence or resemblance betweene these two words is the more proper Partly because Justification is a most gratious act proceeding from the meere favour and free grace of God without any previous Petition Motion or Request made by the party Justified As commonly Institutions are made in Wills and Testaments which are or should bee acts of meere favour and grace But chiefely because Justification is also a Testamentary act of God arising from his Will and Testament wherein all Believers are Instituted Heires to the Inheritance of everlasting life i. e. wherein they are Justified Having hitherto shewed the meaning of the word let us now gather nearer toward the nature of the thing to specifie more particularly what Right that is wee are made to have according to the purpose of the Apostle heere in saying that a man is justified Man is jurally a Sinner and ungodly i. e. a Calamitous person who is unto God an Alien and a Stranger who by his birth heere on earth hath no right to the Kingdome of Heaven For if a Native of England by his birth heere can claime no Inheritance in France nor in any other Kingdome on earth much lesse can a Native of earth claime any Inheritance in the Kingdome of Heaven And man is legally and morally a Sinner and ungodly i. e. Hee is unto God a Transgressour an Offendour and a Malefactour and by reason of sinne man is a Bondman and a Captive held a Prisoner in the Grave under Death and under Sathan who hath the Dominion and power of Death for because of sinne man is not onely debarred from Heaven but condemned to that earth from whence hee was taken even the uprightest man on earth can never bee found upright if God enter into judgement with him to take the examination of his life and marke what is done amisse Contrarily God is jurally Just or righteous i. e. hee is a Lord and Owner for hee is the universall and supreame Lord and Owner of all the whole World over all Owners Lords and Kings having the Soveraigne Dominion and Possession both of Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things else for the whole World and all the Creatures thereof are the workes of his hands and every workeman especially if hee worke upon his owne materialls is the Lord and Owner of his owne workes Unto God therefore doe belong not onely the things that may bee no mans and the things that may bee any mans but also the very things that are each mans as the Lands Goods and Chattells which each man possesseth For although God hath given the Earth to the Children of men and some men in respect of others are great Lords and rich Owners Yet all men even the greatest Kings in respect of God are but meane Lords and petty Owners or rather Tenants at will who have but a precarious use of earthly things the supreme seigniory and property whereof doth rest in God who still retaines to himselfe an absolute and full power to dispose of all things at his pleasure by giving and taking them away at his will See and compare Deut. 10.14 and Job 1.21 and Psal 24.1 and Psal 115.16 and Hos 2.8.9 and 1. Cor. 10.26 And God is morally Just or Righteous i. e. Hee is kind free and bounteous for hee is universally and supreamly kind free and bounteous to bestow in abundance his blessings upon all Creatures but chiefely upon man in a surpassing maner above all the rest Hence the Scripture is very serious and copious in setting forth Gods kindenesse for she magnifies it with the Attributes of great kindenesse Joel 2.13 and Jonah 4.2 of loving kindenesse Esay 63.7 and Jer. 31.3 and Hos 2.19 and in the Psalmes above 20. places of mercifull kindenesse Psalm 117.2 and Psalm 119.76 of marvellous kindenesse Psalm 17.7 and Psalm 31.21 and of everlasting kindenesse Esay 54.8 Shee extolls it with the praises of being Gods title that hee is the God of kindenesse Nehem. 9.17 and of being Gods exercise that hee makes it his delight Jer. 9.24 And the kindnesses which God
not humane or after man because he neyther received of man nor was taught it by man Comment The construction of the words Paul learned the Gospell not from Men. But immediately from Christ By way of Revelation At what time FOR I neyther received it of man neyther was I taught it The word of man interposed heer between the two Verbs received and taught must bee referred to both and follow both thus I neyther received it nor was taught it of man And the word taught is but explicative to specifie the generall word received and restraine it to the Gospel in reference whereto those two words make but one sense for to receive the Gospel and to be taught the Gospel is all one and in a sense somewhat like to this Paul requires the Thessalonians to hold the Traditions which they had beene taught 2. Thess 2.15 The meaning of the Apostle in this place is not simply to say that hee neyther received nor was taught the Gospel at all for in the words next following he acknowledgeth and confesseth that hee received and was taught it of Christ by revelation for that was the maine point which as he sayd in the former verse he would certifie or make knowne unto the Galatians But his purpose is to prove that his knowledge in the divine Gospel of Christ was not humane that hee neyther received nor was taught his knowledge therein by any Apostle nor by any other mortall man For although the Gospel which Paul preached were for the matter of it divine as being the same which Peter and the rest of the Apostles preached Yet his knowledge therein for the meanes whereby hee had it might by the false Teachers bee alleadged and pretended to bee humane which Paul heere denyes of himselfe But hee denies it not of Timothy who though hee preached that Gospel which was divine yet Timothies knowledge in that divine Gospel was humane because hee received and was taught his knowledge therein by Paul who was a mortall man for Paul both instructed Timothy in the Gospel and ordained him a Minister thereof by the imposition of his hands See and compare 1. Tim 4.6.14 and 1. Tim. 6.20 and 2. Tim. 1.6.13.14 and 2. Tim. 3.14 So is it in all the Ministers of the Gospel at this day for although the Gospel which they preach bee divine yet their knowledge therein is humane because they receive their knowledge by humane meanes But by the Revelation of Jesus Christ. A super-reason or confirmation of his former reason by an argument drawne from the contrary that the Gospel which hee preached hee neither received nor was taught it by man because hee received and was taught it of Christ by Revelation And heere againe Christ is opposed to man not that Christ was no way man but because when hee revealed the Gospel unto Paul hee was not at that time a mortall man nor at any time a meere man but alwayes both God and man And heereby also hee firmely concludes and proves his principall assertion that the Gospel which hee preached was not humane or not after man for if hee received and was taught it by the Revelation of Jesus Christ then certainely the Gospell so by Christ revealed unto him was no humane invention neither was his knowledge in it by any humane instruction q. d. For my knowledge in the Gospel which I preached unto you I was no Disciple nor Auditor to any of the Apostles nor to any other mortall man to bee taught it and learne it from man but my onely Master and Teacher in the Gospel was Jesus Christ himselfe who revealed it unto mee and his Revelation of it unto mee was not after an ordinary manner as hee taught it his Apostles and the rest of his Disciples while hee conversed upon Earth But after an extraordinary and miraculous manner for hee taught it mee since his ascention and revealed it unto mee from Heaven and this was the ground why I told you before that if an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Gospel unto you hee was to bee accursed because thereby hee preacheth a Gospell repugnant to that Gospel which was revealed by Christ from Heaven Hee useth the word Revelation because Revelation is an instruction teaching peculiar and proper to the Gospel and such an instruction as is also peculiar and proper to God to bee made by him for although men have and doe teach the Gospel yet the action of revealing the Gospel is never ascribed unto man but only unto God See Mat. 16.17 and Luke 10.21 and 1. Cor. 2.10 and Ephes 3.3 and Phil. 3.15 For the Gospel and the points therein contained are the sacred mysteries and secrets of God which of themselves are veiled and covered from the knowledge of man who by the course of nature or by force of his naturall understanding can never attaine to any knowledge therein unlesse first they bee revealed and discovered by God Because God and God onely is the revealer of secrets Dan. 2.47 The first Teacher of the Gospel who published the Doctrine of it was Christ who because hee was God was therefore a Revealer of it and his Instruction was Revelation But since Christs ascention his Apostles and their Successours have beene Teachers thereof yet not Revealers neither is their instruction Revelation because Revelation is that instruction which is immediate or proximous from God therefore the Instruction in the Gospel which Paul received immediately and proximously from Christ who is God hee calls it Revelation But the time when Paul had this Revelation from Christ can not bee certainely defined from Scripture Yet probable it is that hee had it at the time of his conversion when hee lay at Damascus in a Trance three dayes together blinde and fasting without sight or meat for when in his astonishment hee demanded of Christ what hee would have him to doe Christ answered hee must goe into Damascus and there it should bee told him what hee must doe Act. 9.6.9 c. And probable also it is that hee had this Revelation at the time of those Revelations which hee had in his rapture when hee was caught up into Paradice and heard unspeakeable words whereof hee writes 2. Cor. 12.1.2.3 because it is very probable that his trance after his conversion and his rapture for those Revelations were at one and the same time for in the sequele of this Chapter hee drawes immediate Arguments from his conversion to prove hee was taught by Revelation But this is certaine that Paul never preached the Gospel of Christ untill first hee was taught it by Christ and then immediately hee preached it See afterward in this Chapter vers 16. VERSE 13. Text. For yee have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jewes Religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it Sense Beyond measure i. e. Beyond all excesse And wasted it i. e. Destroyed it Reason Another Argument to prove that the
infused internally into his soule by an act immediate without any meane externall as because our future glory shall totally penetrate into our whole person therefore it is sayd of it that it shall be revealed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. into us Rom. 8.18 Yet elsewhere in the New Testament the word revealed is expressed with a single dative governed from the Verb it selfe without any preposition intervening See Matt. 11.27 and Matt. 16.17 and 1. Cor. 2.10 and Eph. 3.5 and Phil. 3.15 The Syriak Interpreter renders it by me which sense is very sound and must needs follow upon the former in respect of the end for which Christ was revealed to Paul namely that by Paul he might be preached among the Heathen as appeares by the words following q. d. When it pleased God by his speciall grace to call me to the sacred office of an Apostle I at that time was no way qualified for the Function of it for Christ whom I was to Preach was to me a meer mystery and a stumbling block of whom I was wholly ignorant that he was the son of God having not only no true knowledge thereof but a wicked misknowledge for at the very time of my calling I was persecuting him whom I was to Preach but God who called mee by his grace did also by his grace qualifie and enable me for hee cleerely inlightned my thick darknesse by removing the veile of Christ and revealing the mystery of his son unto me infusing the knowledge of him into my soule That I might Preach him among the Heathen Preach him i. e. Christ and the Gospell containing his Doctrine Among the Heathen i. e. among the Gentiles for so the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is for the most part rendred in this Epistle and so alwayes in all the rest excepting onely one place namely 2 Cor. 11.26 The end and purpose for which God revealed Christ unto Paul was this that Paul might preach the Doctrine of Christ among the Gentiles In which words he describes his peculiar and proper office for the line or circuit of it that he was to â—e a separate Apostle to exercise his Ministery apart from the rest in preaching the Gospel among the Gentiles The Jewes had already designed unto them their peculiar Apostles namely the twelve whom Christ had chosen and called before during his owne Ministery here on earth as we shall see in the Chapter following This he therefore mentions that no man might surmise he exercised his Apostleship among the Gentiles by meere chance or by his owne private motion or to procure their favour by exempting them from the Law of Moses thereby to make them more willing to embrace the Gospel of Christ but he did it in obedience to the will and command of God who from his Mothers wombe had designed him for a separate Apostle and called him by his grace and revealed his sonne unto him for that very purpose Hence it appeares that when Paul preached Christ at Damascus to the Jewes in their Synagogues Act. 9.20 he did but make as it were an Essay or preparative to his Ministery which three yeares after his first calling he fully and wholly undertooke when because the Jewes would not endure his preaching at Jerusalem therefore Christ in a vision commanded him speedily to depart thence and gave him his Commission for a Preacher to the Gentiles and this was done then when hee was praying and in a trance in the Temple at Jerusalem See Act. 22.17.22 Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood Flesh and blood is a phrase in Scripture put for any mortall man because every man while hee remaines under that constitution is in the state of mortality and in this place Paul opposeth mortall man to God and Christ his onely Masters and Teachers in the Gospel for hee made the like opposition before in this Chapter vers 1.11.12 The like sense this phrase beares Mat. 16.17 Where it stands opposed to God the Father and the like againe Ephes 6.12 Where it is opposed to wicked spirits who notwithstanding their wickednesse are immortall I conferred not The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I discovered it not related or imparted it not to any mortall man that I was called to the Gospel and was to preach it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no where used in all the New Testament but onely in this Epistle and in this but twice viz. heere and againe cap. 2.6 in both which places it signifies to discover relate or impart some secret to make it knowne to some other who had no knowledge thereof before with intent either to ease the Relaters minde or to consult the Hearers judgement or to informe and increase the Hearers knowledge and in this sense to this last intent the word shall bee taken cap. 2. vers 6. â—s there shall bee shewed For the word is materially the same with revealed from which it differs onely modally in reference to the person making the Relation for when God is the Relator of the secret then in the sense of the Scripture the Relation is called a Revelation But when man is the Relator it is called an Information Communication or Discovery And it is the very same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from which it differs onely terminally for that knowledge which in respect of the Speaker who utters it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. expounding the same in respect of the hearer who receives it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. imparting or communicating for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred in our last English Translation cap. 2. vers 2. And it is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to conceale or keepe secret which word is used of the Virgin Mary that shee concealed or kept secret pondering in her heart the things which shee heard from and concerning Christ See Luke 2.19.51 So in this place Paul in a manner saith the very same thing of himselfe in a negative forme of speech that what God had revealed in him concerning his sonne that matter hee discovered not or imparted not to any mortaâ—l man which is all one with concealing or keeping it in his heart Immediately must bee referred two wayes first backward to his Revelation when Christ was revealed in him and then forward to his going into Arabia whither hee went immediately after his Revelation before hee discovered or related it to any mortall man and before he went to Jerusalem to the Apostles But then wee must marke the time whereto hee applyes the denyall of this discovery namely that at no time betweene the time of his calling and his going into Arabia hee discovered the Revelation hee had to any mortall man but afterward and in times following hee at divers times discovered it to divers persons as appeares from severall passages in his Epistles The maine sense is Paul mentions this his Concealement of