But though we, or an angel from heaven
The apostle, in order to assert the more strongly the truth,
purity, and perfection of the Gospel, as preached by him; and to
deter persons from preaching another Gospel, and others from
receiving it, supposes a case impossible; and, in such a case,
denounces his anathemas. It was not possible, that he, or any of
his fellow apostles, who had been so clearly led and so fully
established in the Gospel of Christ, and of which they had had
such a powerful and comfortable experience in their souls, could
ever preach one different from it; nor was it possible that a
good angel, one that is in heaven, that always beholds the face
of God there, is ever ready to do his will, as he never could be
employed by God in publishing another, so he never would; and
yet, was it possible or such a thing to be done by such men, or
such an angel, he or they would deserve the curse of God and men;
their having the highest names, or being of the highest
character, and in the highest office and class of beings, would
not screen them; and therefore how should the false apostles, and
those who followed them, ever think to escape, since even these
would not, should they
preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have
preached
unto you;
that is, not only anyone that is contrary to it, but any one
besides it; for such was the perfection of the Gospel, as
preached by the apostle, who declared the whole counsel of God,
and kept back nothing that was profitable to the churches, that
no addition could, or might be made unto it:
let him be accursed,
or "anathema"; see ( 1
Corinthians 16:22 ) which may respect his excommunication out
of the church, and his sentence of condemnation by Christ at the
last day; and the sense be this, let him be ejected from the
ministry of the word, degraded from his office, and cast out of
the church; let him be no more a minister, nor a member of it;
and let him be abhorred of men, and accursed of Christ; let him
hear the awful sentence, "go ye accursed"