THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE
TO THE
CORINTHIANS
THE ARGUMENT
Corinth (the inhabitants of which are called Corinthians) was an eminent city of Achaia, (that Achaia which is now called the Morea,) and was situated on an isthmus, or neck of land, betwixt the Aegean and Ionian Seas; so was very convenient for merchandise, and by merchandise came to great riches, which gave them great temptations to luxury, drunkenness, whoredom, etc. They were very infamous for the latter, as we read in writers, and grown to that impudence, that they made the increase of harlots a part of their prayers to their idols, and made the bringing of harlots into the city a part of their vows. Lais was a harlot amongst them, very famous in civil history. And as pride usually attendeth wealth, so they also were a people very proud and puffed up. They were also anciently famous for pagan learning, and had amongst them Stoics and Epicureans, who laughed at the resurrection of the body, and looked upon incest, adultery, and fornication, as very venial things, if at all unlawful. We read of Paul’s first coming thither from Athens, Acts 18:1, where, Acts 16:11, he continued eighteen months; there he converted Crispus, 1 Cor 1:8, and Sosthenes, and many believed and were baptized. Paul went from thence to Ephesus, 1 Cor 16:18-19. To the church thus planted at Corinth Paul writeth this Epistle, at what time is not certain; but he is thought to have written it from Ephesus, whither he came, Acts 19:1, the second time, and, as appears from 1 Cor 1:10, was going and coming to and from that city between two and three years. The occasion of his writing this Epistle will appear to any who consideringly reads it. He had heard from some who were of the house of Chloe, 1 Cor 1:11, of factions and contentions that were amongst them, and had heard it reported that they suffered an incestuous person to abide in their communion, 1 Cor 5:1. They had also written to him for his resolution in several cases and questions about marriage, divorce, etc. He had also heard of several disorders amongst them relating to their communion in the Lord’s supper, and of some amongst them who denied the resurrection. For the allaying of these heats, and quieting their divisions, and for the direction of them in those cases about which they wrote to him, and the setting them right in the doctrine of the resurrection, and directing them in the true and profitable use of their gifts, and in the right celebration of the Lord’s supper, and the quickening the exercise of their charity, he writes this Epistle; which is supposed to be placed in our Bibles next to the Epistle to the Romans, (though plainly written in order of time before,) because that as that Epistle most fully discourseth the doctrine of justification, so this most fully resolves questions concerning church order and government. It is a book of holy writ concerning the Divine authority of which there was never any doubt, nor hath any portion of holy writ (for the quantity of it) a greater variety of matter, nor more of those dusno&hta, things hard to be understood, which St. Peter (2 Pet 3:16) tells us are in this apostle’s Epistles; the difficulty of which much ariseth from our ignorance of some rites used in the primitive church, but long since disused, and the usages of that country different from ours.
1 CORINTHIANS 1
1 Cor 1:1-3: After saluting the church at Corinth,
1 Cor 1:4-9: and thanking God for his grace toward them,
1 Cor 1:10: Paul exhorteth them to unity,
1 Cor 1:11-16: and reproveth their dissensions.
1 Cor 1:17-25: The plain doctrine of the gospel, how foolish soever in the eyes of the world, is the power and wisdom of God to the salvation of believers.
1 Cor 1:26-29: God, to take away human boasting, hath not called the wise, the mighty, the noble; but the foolish, the weak, the despised among men.
1 Cor 1:30-31: Christ is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
1 Cor 1:1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ: our common custom is to subscribe our name to the bottom of our letters; it seems by the apostolical Epistles, that their fashion was otherwise: he elsewhere telleth us, that it was his token in every epistle, which makes some doubt, whether that to the Hebrews was wrote by him; but others think it is there concealed, for the particular spite the Jews had to him. He had the name of Saul as well as Paul, as we read, Acts 7:58; Acts 9:1: whether he had two names, (as many of the Jews had,) or Saul was the name by which he was called before his conversion, and Paul his name after he was converted, or after he was made a citizen of Rome, (for Paul is a Roman name, nor do we read that after his conversion he was ever called by the name of Saul,) is not worth our disputing. He was a man of Tarsus in Cilicia, by his nation a Jew, both by father and mother; an Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, bred up at the feet of Gamaliel, one of their great doctors; he was also citizen of Rome, as himself tells us, Acts 21:39; Acts 22:3,27; Phil 3:5; by his trade a tent maker, Acts 18:3; a great zealot for the Jewish ceremonies and law, and upon that score a great persecutor, consenting to the death of Stephen, and breathing out threatenings against Christians. Of his miraculous conversion we read, in Acts 9, as also of his being called to be an apostle, not one of those first sent out by Christ, but yet called: he gives king Agrippa a full account of his calling, Acts 26:12-19. Through the will of God; so as he was an apostle by the will of God, God’s special revelation from heaven: he did not thrust himself into the employment, but was sent of God in an extraordinary manner; not only mediately, (as all ministers are,) but by an immediate call and mission. And Sosthenes our brother: in the salutation prefixed to this Epistle, he joineth Sosthenes, whom he calls his brother. Of this Sosthenes we read, Acts 18:17; he was a chief ruler of the synagogue, but converted to Christianity; Paul disdaineth not to call him his brother.
1 Cor 1:2. Unto the church of God which is at Corinth; unto those in Corinth who having received the doctrine of the gospel, and owned Jesus Christ as their Saviour, were united in one ecclesiastical body for the worship of God, and communion one with another. Corinth was a famous city in Achaia, (which Achaia was joined to Greece by a neck of land betwixt the Aegean and Ionian Seas,) it grew the most famous mart of all Greece. Paul came thither from Athens, Acts 18:1. Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue there, believed, upon Paul’s preaching; so did many Corinthians, and were baptized, 1 Cor 1:9. He stayed there eighteen months, 1 Cor 1:11; there Sosthenes (mentioned 1 Cor 1:1) was converted; from thence Paul went to Ephesus, 1 Cor 1:19. These believers were those here called the church of God at Corinth, to whom he writes this Epistle (as it should seem from 1 Cor 16:8) from Ephesus, where Paul stayed three years, Acts 20:31. The members of this church the apostle calleth such as are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints: whether by the term the apostle meaneth only such as by the preaching of the gospel were separated from the heathens at Corinth, and professed faith in Christ, (as, Acts 15:9, the apostle saith the Gentiles’ hearts were purified by faith,) or such in Corinth as were really regenerated, and had their hearts renewed and changed, is not easy to determine: both of them are saints by calling; the former are called externally by the preaching of the gospel, the other internally and effectually by the operation of the Spirit of grace. It is most probable, that St. Paul intended this Epistle for the whole body of those that professed the Christian religion in Corinth, though in writing of it he had a more special respect to those who were truly sanctified in Christ by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Nor doth Paul only respect those that lived in Corinth, but he directs his Epistle to all those who in any place of Achaia called upon the name of Jesus Christ, whom he calleth their Lord, and our Lord: which is an eminent place to prove the Divine nature of Christ; he is not only called our Lord, our common Lord, but he is made the object of invocation and Divine worship: and it teacheth us, that none but such as call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, are fit matter for a gospel church; which both excludes such as deny the Godhead of Christ, and such as live without God in the world, without performance of religious homage to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and owning him as their Lord.
1 Cor 1:3. This is the common salutation in all Paul’s Epistles, only in one or two mercy is also added. Grace signifies free love. Peace signifies either a reconciliation with God, or brotherly love and unity each with other: see the notes on Rom 1:7. The apostle wisheth them spiritual blessings, and the greatest spiritual blessings, grace and peace, and that not from and with men, but from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 1:4. Lest his former salutation should be misapprehended by them, as signifying that he thought they were without grace, he here cleareth his meaning by blessing God for that grace which they had received: but no man hath so much grace, but he is still capable of more, and stands in need of further influences; therefore, as he here blesseth God for the grace of God, which they by Jesus Christ received; so he before prayed for grace and peace for them, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is both the Author and Finisher of our faith, he giveth both to will and to do. The beginnings, increases, and finishings of grace are all from him. Grace is indeed from God the Father, but by Jesus Christ; it floweth from him who is Love, but it is through his Well-beloved. No man hath the love of God, but by and through Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 1:5. In every thing; in every grace and in every good gift, (for he is manifestly speaking of spiritual things,) so as this general particle must not be extended to the things of this life, but restrained either to spiritual gifts, or spiritual, sanctifying habits. Thus we read of the riches of grace, Eph 1:7, and of the riches of Christ, Eph 3:8: nor is the metaphor improper, whether we consider riches as signifying plenty or abundance, or that which accommodateth a man in this life, and is fitted to men’s wants, to give them a supply. In all utterance; the word may be translated, in everything, or, in all speech; but the first having been said before, it seems more proper here to translate it, in all word or speech, or in all utterance, as we translate it. If it be taken in the first sense, the gospel is by it understood, the doctrine of the gospel preached amongst them by Paul and Apollos, who preached among the Gentiles the riches of Christ, Eph 3:8. If we interpret it utterance, which our translators prefer, it signifies an ability to utter that knowledge which God hath given us, to the glory of God and the good of others, either in prayer or spiritual discourses. And in all knowledge: some by knowledge here understand the gift of prophecy; but it more properly signifies the ability God had given them to comprehend in their understanding the mysteries of the gospel, the great and deep things of God. The apostle blesseth God both for the illumination of their minds by the ministry of the gospel, so as they knew the things of God, and also for the ability which God had given them to communicate this their knowledge to others.
1 Cor 1:6. By which knowledge and utterance the testimony of Christ, that is, the gospel, which containeth both the testimony which Christ had given of himself, and which the apostles had given concerning Christ; (the gospel is called the testimony of God, Rom 2:1; 2 Tim 1:8;) others understand the gifts of, the Spirit (for the Spirit is one of the witnesses upon earth, 1 John 5:8;) was confirmed in you; by the miraculous operations wrought by the apostles, as some think; but the way of confirmation here spoken of by the apostle seemeth rather to be understood of their knowledge and utterance. The gospel, and the doctrine of it, and the mission of the Holy Spirit, were confirmed to them and to the world by the knowledge which God had given the apostles, and these Corinthians, of the great things of God; and their ability to communicate this knowledge unto others, for the honour of God, and the good of others.
1 Cor 1:7. Not that every one of them was filled with all the gifts of the blessed Spirit; but one excelled in one gift, another excelled in another, as the apostle expounds himself, 1 Cor 12:7-8; neither doth the apostle assert them perfect in their gifts, but saith that they came behindhand, or were defective, in no gift; but were all waiting for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to judgment, of which he mindeth them, to encourage them to go on as they had began.
1 Cor 1:8. Which Lord Jesus Christ, (mentioned immediately before,) or which God who is faithful, (mentioned immediately after, 1 Cor 1:9,) shall confirm your habits of grace unto the end, approving himself the finisher of your faith, (you being not wanting in your duty and endeavour:) so as either you shall not fall, or at least not totally and finally, but so as you shall rise again, and appear in the day of our Lord Jesus without blame, so as he will accept you as if you had never sinned against him.
1 Cor 1:9. God is faithful: faithfulness is the same with veracity or truth to a man’s word, which renders a person fit to be credited. It is a great attribute of God, 1 Cor 10:13; 1 Thess 5:24. This implieth promises of God for the perseverance of believers, of which there are many to be found in holy writ. But these promises concern not all, but such only whom God hath chosen out of the world, calling them to a communion with Christ, which necessarily supposeth union with him. So as here is another argument to confirm them that God would keep them to the end, so as they should be blameless in the day of Christ; because God had called them into that state of grace wherein they were, and would not leave his work in them imperfect; he had called them unto the fellowship of Jesus Christ; see 1 John 1:3; into a state of friendship with Christ, and into a state of union with him, into such a state as he would daily by his Spirit be communicating the blessed influences of his grace unto them.
1 Cor 1:10. By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, is as much as, by Christ, by the authority of Christ, for this is his will; or, by the love which you bear to the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath so often recommended to you peace with, and brotherly love towards, one another. That ye all speak the same thing; that in matters of doctrine you all speak the same thing (for it is capable of no other sense;) and that you neither be divided in sentiments or opinions, nor yet in affection, that there may be no divisions among you; which is also further evidenced by the last phrase, being joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. A union in affection is the necessary and indispensable duty of all those that are the disciples of Christ, and such a duty as not only concerns Christians of the same nation, with relation one to another, but also Christians of all nations, and may be attained, if by our lusts we do not hinder it. A union in opinion, as to the fundamental truths of religion, is (though not so easy, yet) what the church of God hath in a great measure arrived at. But for a union in every particular proposition of truth, is not a thing to be expected, though we all are to labour for it: God hath neither given unto all the same means, nor the same natural capacities.
1 Cor 1:11. The apostle cometh to show one reason, as why he wrote to them, so also why in the preceding verse he so zealously pressed unity upon them, because of an information he had received from some of the family of Chloe; for it is far more probable that Chloe was the name of a person, head of a family in Corinth, than of a city or town. There are contentions among you: what their divisions were about, the next verses will tell us.
1 Cor 1:12. Every one here signifieth no more than many of you, or several of you; so 1 Cor 14:26: from whence, those that think they have such a mighty argument from Heb 2:9, where is the same particle to prove Christ’s dying for all individuals, may undeceive themselves, and find that they have need of better arguments to prove their assertion. I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ: we may from hence observe, that the divisions amongst the Corinthians were not in matters of faith, but occasioned from their having men’s persons in admiration. This was probably caused either from God’s making of Paul the instrument of some of their conversion, Apollos the instrument of others’ conversion, and Peter the instrument of others’, or else from the difference of their gifts. Of this Apollos we read, Acts 18:24; he was a Jew of Alexandria, who (as may be seen there, 1 Cor 1:28) mightily convinced they, and that publicly, and probably was as useful to the Corinthians. One minister of Christ may be justly preferred to another. We ought to honour those most whom God most honoureth, either by a more plentiful giving out of his Spirit, or by a more plentiful success upon their labours; but we ought not so far to appropriate any ministers to ourselves, as for them to despise others. We are not bound to make every minister our pastor, but we are bound to have a just respect for every minister, who by his doctrine and holy life answereth his profession and holy calling.
1 Cor 1:13. How came these parties? There is but one Christ, but one that was crucified for you, but one into whose name, into a faith in whom, and a profession of whom, you were baptized. Peter baptized you into the name of Christ, so did I; I did not list those whom I baptized under any banner of my own, but under Christ’s banner. The Head is but one, and the body ought not to be divided.
1 Cor 1:14. Concerning the apostle’s baptizing Crispus we read, Acts 18:8; he was the chief ruler of the synagogue of the Jews: why Paul thanks God that he baptized not many, he tells us, 1 Cor 1:15.
1 Cor 1:15. Because by that providence of God it so fell out, that very few of them could pretend any such thing, as that he had baptized any in his own name.
1 Cor 1:16. He correcteth himself, remembering that he also baptized the household of Stephanas, which (1 Cor 16:15) he calleth the firstfruits of Achaia, a family that had addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other; he did not remember that he had baptized any more at Corinth, though it is very probable he had baptized many more in other parts of the world, where he had been travelling.
1 Cor 1:17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; baptism was not his principal work, not the main business for which Paul was sent; it was his work, otherwise he would not have baptized Crispus, or Gaius, or the household of Stephanas, but preaching was his principal work. It is very probable others (besides the apostles) baptized. It is hard to conceive how three thousand should in a day be added to the church, if Peter had baptized them all, Acts 2:41. The apostle goes on, telling us how he preached the gospel, and thereby instructing all faithful ministers how they ought to preach. Not with wisdom of words, or speech. Wisdom of words must signify either what we call rhetoric, or logic, delivering the mysteries of the gospel in lofty, tunable expressions, or going about to evidence them from rational demonstrations and arguments. This was the way (he saith) to have taken away all authority from the doctrine of the cross of Christ: Divine faith being nothing else but the soul’s assent to the Divine revelation because it is such, is not furthered, but hindered, by the arguing the object of it from the principles of reason, and the colouring of it with high-flown words and trim phrases. There is a decent expression to be used in the communicating the will of God unto men; but we must take heed that we do not diminish the authority of God’s revealed will, either by puerile flourishings of words, or philosophical argumentation.
1 Cor 1:18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness: I know (saith the apostle) that plain discourses about a Christ crucified are to some persons foolish things, and accounted canting; but to whom are they so? To those who, if they be not some that shall perish eternally, yet are some of those who at present are in a perishing estate; these indeed count sermons of Christ silly, foolish things. But unto us which are saved it is the power of God; but to those who shall be eternally saved, and are at present in the true road to eternal life and salvation, it is, that is, the preaching of the gospel is, that institution of God by which he showeth his power in the salvation of those who shall be saved. The apostle saith the same, Rom 1:16.
1 Cor 1:19. What Isaiah said of the wise men among the Jews in his time, is applicable to the wise men among the heathen, God will destroy their wisdom, and make their understanding appear to be no better than foolishness. So as it is not at all to be admired, if the philosophers of this world count the gospel, and the preaching of it, foolishness; the taking away the wisdom and understanding of men worldly wise, is but an ordinary dispensation of God’s providence, no more than God threatened to do in Isaiah’s time to the men of that generation.
1 Cor 1:20. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? He alludeth again to that, Isa 33:18: Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? Where are the wise men amongst the heathens? Where are the scribes, the learned men in the law, amongst the Jews? Where is the disputer of this world? Where are those amongst Jews or Gentiles that are the great inquirers into the reasons and natures of things, and manage debates and disputes about them? They understand nothing of the mysteries of the gospel, or the way of salvation, which God holds out to the world in and through Jesus Christ. Or, where are they? What have they done by all their philosophy and moral doctrine, as to the turning of men from sin unto God, from ways of iniquity unto ways of righteousness, in comparison of what we, the ministers of Christ, have done by preaching the doctrine of the gospel, and the cross of Christ? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Do not you see how God hath fooled the wisdom of the world? Making it to appear vain and contemptible, and of no use, as to the saving of men’s souls; making choice of none of their doctors and great rabbis, to carry that doctrine abroad in the world; and convincing men that, without faith in Christ, all that can be learned from them will be of no avail to the soul.
1 Cor 1:21. For after that in the wisdom of God: some here, by the wisdom of God, understand Jesus Christ, and make the sense thus: When he who is the Wisdom of God came and preached to the world. Others understand the gospel, which is so called, 1 Cor 1:24, and 1 Cor 2:7. But I take the wisdom of God in this text to signify the wise administrations of Divine Providence in the government of the world to his wise ends. The world by wisdom knew not God; the unregenerate part of the world would not come to a knowledge of and an acquaintance with God, in that way whereby he chose to reveal himself in and through Jesus Christ, as to which they were hindered by their own reasonings and knowledge, and apprehended skill in things, and capacity to comprehend them. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; it pleased God to institute the great ordinance of preaching the gospel, which they count foolishness, as the sacred means by which he would bring all those that give credit to the revelation of it, and receive Christ held forth in it, to eternal life and salvation.
1 Cor 1:22. The Jews were not without some true Divine revelation, and owned the true God, and only desired some miraculous operation from Christ, Matt 12:38; John 4:48, to confirm them that Christ was sent from God: without signs and wonders they would not believe; giving no credit at all to the words of Christ. And the Greeks, (by whom the apostle understands the Gentiles,) especially the more learned part of them, (for Greece was at this time very famous for human literature,) they sought after the demonstration of all things from natural causes and rational arguments, and despised every thing which could not so be made out unto them.
1 Cor 1:23. But we preach Christ crucified; we that are the ministers of Christ, come and preach to them, that there was one hanged upon a cross at Jerusalem, who is the Saviour of the world, and was not cut off for his own sins, but for the sins of his people. Unto the Jews a stumblingblock; the Jews are stumbled at this, looking for a Messiah that should be a great temporal Prince; and besides, accounting it an ignominious thing to believe in one as their Saviour whom they had caused to be crucified. And unto the Greeks foolishness; and the Greeks, the most learned among the Gentiles, look upon it as a foolish, idle story, that one who was and is God blessed for ever, should be crucified.
1 Cor 1:24. Blessed be God, Christ is not to all the Jews a stumblingblock, nor to all the Greeks is he foolishness; for to so many of them as are called, (not by the external call of the gospel, but only by the internal call and effectual operation of the Spirit,) let them be of one nation or another, by their country, Jews or pagans, Christ is so far from being foolishness, that Christ, and the doctrine of the gospel, appear to them the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
1 Cor 1:25. The foolishness of God is wiser than men; the least things that are the products of the wisdom of God, or the contrivance of God for man’s salvation, which the sinful and silly world calls foolishness, are infinitely more wise, and have more wisdom in them, than the wisest imaginations, counsels, and contrivances of men. And the weakness of God is stronger than men; and those things and means which God hath instituted in order to an end, have in them more virtue, power, and efficacy in order to the production of God’s intended effects, than any such means as appear to men’s eyes of reason to have the greatest strength, virtue, and efficacy. Whence we may observe, that the efficacy of preaching for the changing and converting souls, dependeth upon the efficacy of God working in and by that holy institution, which usually attendeth the ministry of those who are not only called and sent out by men, but by God, being fitted for their work, and faithfully discharging of it.
1 Cor 1:26. To prove that this is the method of Divine Providence, to make use of seemingly infirm and weak means to produce his great effects, you need not look further than yourselves; look upon the whole body of your church at Corinth, it is not made up of many that have a reputation for the wise men or the noble men of your city. Some indeed were such; Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, was converted, and Sosthenes; but the generality were men of very ordinary repute.
1 Cor 1:27. God hath even amongst you chosen persons that are in the account of the world as foolish things, to put the wise to shame; and persons of weak esteem, to confound those that are mighty in the repute of the world.
1 Cor 1:28. Things which are not in the world’s account, to bring to nought things which are in high esteem.
1 Cor 1:29. And God doth this in infinite wisdom, consulting his own honour and glory, that none might say, that God hath chosen them because they were nobler born, or in higher repute and esteem in the world, than others, but that the freeness of Divine grace might be seen in all God’s acts of grace.
1 Cor 1:30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus; of his grace ye are implanted into Christ, and believe in him. You are of him, not by creation only, as all creatures are, but by redemption and regeneration, which is in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom; the principal means by which we come to the knowledge of God, and an acquaintance with his will; for he is the image of the invisible God, Col 1:15. The brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person, Heb 1:3. God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Cor 4:6. So that he who hath seen him, hath seen the Father, John 14:9. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him, Col 2:3. And no man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him, Matt 11:27. Thus, though God destroyed the wisdom of the wise, yet the Corinthians were not without wisdom; for God had made Christ to them wisdom, both causally, being the author of wisdom to them; and objectively, their wisdom lay in their knowledge of him, and in a fellowship and communion with him. And whereas they wanted a righteousness in which they might stand before God justified and accepted, God had also made Christ to them righteousness: Sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, Rom 8:3-4. And sanctification also, believers being renewed and sanctified by his Spirit. And he is also made redemption: where by redemption is meant the redemption of the body, mentioned Rom 8:23; so as redemption here signifies the same with resurrection of the body. Christ is the resurrection, and the life, John 11:25.
1 Cor 1:31. God doth this, or hath done this, for this end, that man should have nothing to glory in, neither wisdom, nor righteousness, nor sanctification, nor redemption, but should glory in the Lord; acknowledging that whatsoever wisdom, righteousness, or holiness he hath, it is all from God, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 CORINTHIANS 2
1 Cor 2:1-5: Paul declareth that he used not human learning and eloquence in preaching the gospel to his converts, that their faith, being built on the testimony of the Spirit, and on miracles, might be solely ascribed to God.
1 Cor 2:6-13: The gospel doth contain God’s wise, but secret, counsel for bringing men to glory; which no natural abilities could discover, but the Spirit of God only, by which it was revealed to the apostles.
1 Cor 2:14-16: Upon this account, both the doctrine and its teachers are held in disesteem by the mere natural man, who is not duly qualified to judge of and discern them.
1 Cor 2:1. It should seem by the apostle’s so often declaring against that vanity, that even that age much admired a style, and ministers in sacred things delivering their minds, not in a mere decent, but in a lofty, high-flown phrase; and that they vilified St. Paul, because his phrase did not so tickle their ears. The apostle had declared against this, 1 Cor 1:17; there he called it the wisdom of words; here he calls it an excellency of speech: 1 Cor 1:4, the enticing words of man’s wisdom: 1 Cor 4:19, the speech of them which are puffed up; puffed up with conceits of their own parts and abilities. St. Paul declares, that this was not his way of preaching, he came to declare to them the gospel, which he calleth the testimony of God: this needed no fine words, and excellent phrase and language, to set it forth.
1 Cor 2:2. I did not value myself upon any piece of knowledge I had attained, saving only that of Christ, and him crucified; or, I determined with myself to carry myself amongst you, as if I knew nothing of arts, or sciences, or languages, but only Christ, and him crucified; not to make any thing else the subject of my public discourses. I was acquainted with the Jewish law, rites, and traditions, with the heathen poets and philosophers; I troubled you with none of these in my pulpit discourses; my whole business was to open to you the mysteries of the gospel, and to bring you to a knowledge of and an acquaintance with Jesus Christ; this was my end, and the means I used were proportionable to it.
1 Cor 2:3. Either in a weakness of style, I used a plain, low, intelligible style, studying rather to be understood by all than admired by any. Or in weakness of state, in a mean and low condition; for we read, Acts 18:3, that he wrought with his hands at Corinth; so Acts 20:34. Or it may be, in a weak state of body; or it may be he means humbleness of mind and modesty, which to worldly eyes looks like a weakness of mind. And in much fear and trembling, either with respect to the Jews, and the danger he was exposed to from them, or with respect to the greatness of his work, lest they should refuse the grace of the gospel, by him brought and offered to them. So as (saith he) you might see that all the work was God’s, I but a poor instrument, contemptible with respect to my outward quality, appearing poor and mean, in my phrase and style, and whole behaviour amongst you.
1 Cor 2:4. Either here Paul’s speech and preaching signify the same thing, (expressed by two words,) or else speech referreth to his more private conferences and discourses with them, and preaching signifieth the more public acts of his ministry; neither of them was with the persuasive or enticing words of man’s wisdom. What these persuasive words of man’s wisdom are, will quickly appear to any that considers there are but two human arts that pretend to any thing of persuading; rhetoric, and logic, or the art of reasoning. Rhetoric persuadeth more weakly, working more upon the affections than upon the understanding and judgment. Logic, or the art of reasoning, more strongly, working upon the understanding and judgment, and teaching men to conclude from connate natural principles. Now, saith Paul, my preaching was neither of these ways, I neither studied neat and fine words and phrases, nor did I make it my work to demonstrate gospel propositions to you from principles of natural reason. Objection. Ought not then ministers now to use such words? Answer. A learned popish writer saith, that “at that time it was the will of God that his ministers should use plain speech; but it is otherwise now; the using of words studiously composed and ordered, being now the ordinary way to persuade others.” But, 1. After this rate any thing of the will of God may be evaded; it is but saying, that it was the will of God indeed then, but not now. 2. The thing is false. It was then, as much as now, the ordinary way of persuading to use rhetorical phrases and rational demonstrations. 3. Although now this be the ordinary method of persuading men of learning and capacities, yet for the generality of people it is not so. 4. The apostle’s reason holds now as much as ever. It is the way to make Christians’ faith stand in the wisdom of men, not in the power of God. Objection. Ought then ministers to use no study, but talk whatever comes at their tongue’s end, and to use no reason to prove what they say? Answer. By no means. 1. It is one thing to study matter, another thing to study words. 2. Nay, it is one thing to study a decency in words, another to study a gaudery of phrase. It is an old and true saying, Verba sequuntur res: Words will follow matter, if the preacher be but of ordinary parts. In the study of words we have but two things to attend: (1) That we speak intelligibly, so as all the people may understand. (2) That we speak gravely and decently. All other study of words and phrases in a divine is but folly and vanity. 3. We ought to use our reason in our preaching; but reason works two ways: (1) Either making conclusions from natural and philosophical principles; (2) Or, from Scriptural principles. We ought to study to conclude as strongly as we can what we say from principles of revelation, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, but not from all natural and philosophical principles; for so we shall conclude, there is no Trinity in the Unity of the Divine Being, because, according to natural principles, three cannot be one, nor one three; and against the resurrection, because there can be no regress from a privation to a habit, etc. 4. Again, it is one thing to use our natural reason, ex abundanti, as an auxiliary help to illustrate and confirm what is first confirmed by Divine revelation; another thing to use it as a foundation upon which we build a spiritual conclusion, or as the main proof of it. Paul’s preaching was in words intelligible to his hearers, and decent enough, and with reason enough, but not concluding upon natural principles, nor making any proofs of that nature the foundation upon which he built his gospel conclusions. But in demonstration of the Spirit; by which Grotius and some others understand miracles, by which the doctrine of the gospel was at first confirmed; but Vorstius and many others better understand by it the Holy Ghost’s powerful and inward persuasion of men’s minds, of the truth of what was preached by Paul. All ministers’ preaching makes propositions of gospel truth appear no more than probable; the Spirit only demonstrates them, working in souls such a persuasion and confirmation of the truth of them, as the soul can no longer deny or dispute, or withstand the conviction of them. And of power: by this term also some understand the power of working miracles; but it is much better by others interpreted of that authority, which the word of God preached by Paul had, and preached by faithful ministers still hath, upon the souls and consciences of those that hear it. As it is said, Matt 7:29, Christ taught them as one having authority. And it is said of Stephen, Acts 6:10, They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. So the gospel preached by Paul came to people, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, 1 Thess 1:5: and was quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Heb 4:12. and thus every faithful minister, with whose labours God goeth along in the conversion of souls, yet preacheth in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Nor indeed call those miracles, by which Christ and his apostles confirmed the truth of the doctrine of the gospel, though they were a mighty proof, be, in any propriety of speech, called a demonstration; which, properly, is a proof in which the mind fully acquiesceth, so that it no longer denieth or disputeth the thing so proved, but gives a firm and full assent to it: the miracles wrought by Christ himself never had that effect; the Pharisees and the generality of the Jews believed not that Christ was the true Messiah and the Son of God, not withstanding his miracles. Nothing but the inward powerful impression of the Spirit of God, persuading the heart of the truth of gospel principles, can possibly amount to a demonstration, bringing the minds of men, though never so judicious and prepared, to a certainty of the thing revealed, and a rest, so as they can no longer deny, resist, dispute, or contradict it. With this Paul’s preaching was attended, not to every individual person to whom he preached, but to many, even as many as should be saved: he delivered the doctrine of the gospel freely, plainly, and boldly, not resting upon the force of his rhetoric and persuasive words, nor yet upon the natural force of his reasoning and argumentation; but leaving the demonstration and evidencing of the truth of what he said to the powerful internal impression and persuasion of the holy and blessed Spirit of God, who worketh powerfully.
1 Cor 2:5. Faith properly signifieth our assent to a thing that is told us, and because it is told us. If the revelation be from man, it is no more than a human faith. If it be from God, and we believe the thing because God hath revealed it to us, this is a Divine faith. So as indeed it is impossible that a Divine faith should rest in the wisdom of men. If we could make gospel propositions evident to the outward senses, or evident to such principles of reason as are connatural to us, or upon such conclusions as we make upon such principles, yet no assent of this nature could be faith, which is an assent given to a Divine revelation purely because of such revelation. An assent other ways given may be sensible demonstration, or rational demonstration, or knowledge, or opinion; but Divine faith it cannot be, that must be bottomed in the power of God. Nor ought any thing more to be the care of the ministers of the gospel than this, as to call men to believe, so to endeavour that their faith may not stand in the wisdom of men: nothing but a human faith can do so. This will show every conscientious minister the vanity of not proving what he saith from holy writ: all other preaching is but either dictating, as if men were to believe what the preacher saith upon his authority; or philosophizing, acting the part of a philosopher or orator at Athens, not the part of a minister of the gospel.
1 Cor 2:6. Lest what the apostle had seemed to speak before in defamation of wisdom, should reflect upon the gospel, and give some people occasion to justify against it their impious charge of folly, the apostle here something corrects himself, affirming that he and the rest of the apostles spake wisdom, and what would be so judged by such as were perfect; not absolutely, for so there is no man perfect, but comparatively, that is, persons who have their senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil, Heb 5:14, or such as are of a true, sound judgment, and are able to discern what is true wisdom. To such, saith the apostle, we speak wisdom; and it needs must be so; for wisdom being a habit directing men to use the best means in order to the best end, the salvation of men’s souls being the best end, that doctrine which directs the best means in order to it, must necessarily be wisdom, and the purest and highest wisdom. Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought; but, saith he, not what the philosophers, or cunning men, or politicians of the world count wisdom; for all their wisdom is of no significancy at all, in order to the best end, the salvation of men’s souls, and it will all vanish, and come to nothing at last.
1 Cor 2:7. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery; we preach the gospel, where the righteousness in which alone men can another day appear, and be accepted before God, is revealed from faith to faith. It is indeed a sacred secret, a mystery to many men, but it is the wisdom of God, a doctrine directing the best means to the best end of man. Even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: it is hidden wisdom: it was ordained of God before the world unto our glory, the way of salvation for man, which he had from all eternity ordained and decreed; but it lay hidden in the secret counsels of God till the latter ages of the world, when it pleased God to send forth his Son into the world to publish it, and after him to appoint us to be the preachers and publishers of it.
1 Cor 2:8. Which none of the princes of this world knew; which Divine wisdom neither Caiaphas, nor Pontius Pilate, nor any considerable number of the rulers of this age, whether amongst the Jews or amongst the heathens, understood, though they heard of it. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; for if they had so known it, as to have believed and been persuaded of it, they would never have nailed to the cross that person, who was the Head and Fountain of it, and the Lord of glory; both with respect to his Divine nature, as to which he was God blessed for ever, and also as Mediator, being the Author of glory to those who believe. Nor would this ignorance at all excuse their crucifying of Christ, because it was not invincible, they had means sufficient by which they might have come to the knowledge of him, and have understood what he was; so as their ignorance was affected and voluntary.
1 Cor 2:9. The place where this is written is by all agreed to be Isa 64:4, where the words are, For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. It is so usual with the penmen of holy writ to quote the sense of texts in the Old Testament, not tying themselves to letters and syllables, that it is mightily vain for any to object against this quotation, as no where written in the Old Testament, but taken out of some apocryphal writings. The sense of what is written, Isa 64:4, is plainly the same with what he speaketh in this place; the greatest difference is, the apostle saith, them that love him; the prophet, him that waiteth for him (which is the certain product and effect of love). The whole of Isa 64, and some chapters following, treat concerning Christ; so doth this text. Christ and his benefits are to be understood here, by the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; which are set out as things not obvious to sense, nor to be comprehended by reason. It could never have entered into the heart of men to conceive, that God should give his only begotten Son out of his own bosom, to take upon him our nature, and to die upon the cross; or, that Christ should so far humble himself, and become obedient unto death.
1 Cor 2:10. God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; God by his Spirit hath opened our understandings to understand the Holy Scriptures, the types and prophecies of Christ, and what the holy prophets have spoken of him both as to his person and offices. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God; for the Holy Spirit being the third person in the blessed Trinity, and so equal with the Father and the Son, searcheth the deep things of God, and so is able to reveal to us all the counsels of God, whatsoever God would have men to understand concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. So as this text is an evident proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit, he searching the deep things of God, and being alone able to reveal them unto men, so as they shall acknowledge, comprehend, and believe them.
1 Cor 2:11. Look, as it is with a man, no man knoweth his secret thoughts, and counsels, and meanings, save only his own soul that is within him; so it is as to the things of God, until God by his Spirit hath revealed them to men, none knoweth them but the Holy Spirit of God. It is true as it is with man; when he hath by his tongue discovered his mind to others, they know it so far as he hath so delivered it; but there is no man that discovereth all his thoughts and counsels: so God having in his word revealed his will so far as he hath plainly revealed it men may know it; but there are deep things of God, mysteries in Scripture, which, till the Spirit of God hath revealed to men, they know not nor understand; for none knoweth them originally, but the Spirit of God, who is himself God, and searcheth the deep things of God.
1 Cor 2:12. By the spirit of the world some understand the devil, that evil spirit which is in the world, and ruleth those that are worldly, carnal men: others understand a mere human spirit, by which men understand and comprehend mere worldly things. The sense certainly is, we have not a mere worldly instruction and tutoring, we are not taught and instructed from the world; (so the spirit is put for the effects of the spirit of the world;) but we are taught and instructed by the Holy Spirit, by which we are taught and know the things that are freely given to us of God, whether they be Divine mysteries, or Divine benefits, both what God hath done for us, and what God hath wrought in us.
1 Cor 2:13. Reason and all practice directeth men to speak and write of subjects in a style and phrase fitted to the matter about which they write or discourse. Our subjects, saith the apostle, were sublime, spiritual subjects; therefore I did not discourse them like an orator, with an excellency of speech or of wisdom, (as 1 Cor 2:1,) or with the enticing or persuasive words of man’s wisdom, (as he had said, 1 Cor 2:4,) nor with words which man’s wisdom teacheth, (which is his phrase here,) but with words which the Holy Ghost hath taught us, either in holy writ, or by its impressions upon our minds, where they are first formed. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual; fitting spiritual things to spiritual persons who are able to understand them, or fitting spiritual language to spiritual matter, speaking the oracles of God as the oracles of God, 1 Pet 4:11; not declaiming like an orator, nor arguing philosophically like an Athenian philosopher, but using a familiar, plain, spiritual style, giving you the naked truths of God without any paint or gaudery of phrase.
1 Cor 2:14. There are great disputes here, who is meant by the natural man, yuxiko_j a!nqrwpoj. Some think that by the natural man here is meant the carnal man: thus, 1 Cor 15:44, the natural body is opposed to the spiritual body; besides, they say, that in the constant phrase of holy writ, man, who is made up of flesh and spirit, as his essential parts, hath constantly his denomination from one of them, and all men in the world are either carnal or spiritual, and that the Greek word yuch_ signifies that soul and life which is common to all men, from whence all common motions and affections are, and is opposed to the Holy Spirit, which dwells in the souls of them that are sanctified, by which they are led and guided, etc. Thus, say they, the natural man is one who is a servant to his lusts and corruption, under the perfect government of his soul considered merely as natural, all whose motions in that estate of sin and corruption are inordinate. Others think that the apostle here speaks of such as are weak in the faith, little ones, babes in Christ, who had need of milk, not of strong meat, and are natural men in comparison of those more spiritual and perfect. In this sense indeed the apostle, 1 Cor 3:4, calleth them carnal. But there is nothing more plain, than that the apostle, under the notion of yuxiko_j a!nqrwpoj (which we translate natural man) here, understands all such as were not perfect and spiritual, such to whom God hath not by his Spirit revealed the deep things of God, 1 Cor 2:10; such as had only received the spirit of the world, not the spirit of God, by which alone men come to know the things that are freely given them of God, as 1 Cor 2:12. Receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: all these, though some of them are much better than others, having their minds more cultivated and adorned with worldly knowledge and wisdom, yet do not in their hearts (though they may with their ears) receive, that is, believe, embrace, and close with or approve of, spiritual and Divine mysteries, such doctrines as are purely matters of faith, standing upon a Divine revelation. For they are foolishness unto him; for men of wit and reason count them all foolishness, being neither demonstrable by sense or natural reason. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned; neither can any man, no otherwise taught and instructed, so comprehend them, as to give a firm and fixed assent to them, or in heart approve them, because they are only to be seen and discerned in a spiritual light, the Holy Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, enlightening their understandings, that they may know the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to them that believe, according to the working of his mighty power, etc., Eph 1:17-19. Thus the apostle gives a reason of what he had said, 1 Cor 2:8, that none of the princes of the world knew the wisdom of God.
1 Cor 2:15. He that is spiritual, in this verse, is opposed to the natural man, in the former verse, pneumatiko_j to yuxiko_j. So that by spiritual here is understood, he that is taught by the Spirit of God, and is by him specially and savingly enlightened. Judgeth or discerneth all things, that is, of this nature, the mysteries of God, which concern man’s eternal life and salvation; not that every good Christian hath any such perfect judgment or power of discerning, but according to the measure of illumination which he hath received. Yet he himself is judged of no man; it may as well be translated, of nothing; and the term judged might as well have been translated examined, or searched, as it is in Acts 4:9; Acts 12:19; Acts 17:11; Acts 24:8; or condemned. The wisdom that is of God is not to be subjected to the wisdom of men, nor to be judged of any man, but only the spiritual man. The truth, which the spiritual man owneth and professeth, dependeth only upon God and his word, and is not subjected to the authority and judgment of men, nor the dictates of human reason: so as the spiritual man, so far forth as he is spiritual, is neither judged by any man nor by any thing. There are some that by he himself understand the Spirit of God; he indeed is judged of no man, nor of any thing; but that seemeth a much more strained sense. 1 Cor 2:16. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? This phrase is taken out of Isa 40:13, and was quoted by our apostle before, Rom 11:34: the sense of it, as here used, is: For what natural man, that never was taught and enlightened by the Spirit of God, could ever know the secret counsels of God, and the Divine mysteries of man’s salvation? Nor can any instruct him what to do. It is by some observed, that sumbiba&sei signifies, by arguments to bring one over to be of his mind, which indeed is a kind of instruction. But (saith the apostle) we, who have the Spirit of God given to us, dwelling and working in us, and instructing us, we have the mind of Christ; for the Spirit of Christ, which is our teacher, knoweth his mind, and hath revealed it unto us.
1 CORINTHIANS 3
1 Cor 3:1-2: Paul showeth that he could not instruct the Corinthians in the higher doctrines of Christianity because of their carnal mind,
1 Cor 3:3-4: which temper discovered itself in their factions.
1 Cor 3:5-9: The most eminent preachers of the gospel are but instruments employed by God in building his church.
1 Cor 3:10-15: Paul hath laid the only true foundation, Christ Jesus; and others must take heed what they build thereon.
1 Cor 3:16-17: Christians are God’s temple, not to be defiled.
1 Cor 3:18-20: Worldly wisdom is foolishness with God.
1 Cor 3:21-23: They that are Christ’s must not glory in men.
1 Cor 3:1. The apostle plainly returneth in this chapter to reprove them for their divisions and factions, for which he had begun to reprove them, 1 Cor 1:11; and (as some think) here he anticipateth an objection, which they might have made against him, against his reproving and judging of them, whereas he that is spiritual (as he had now said) is judged of no man. I, (saith he,) brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, that is, as to Christians who had made any great proficiency in the ways of God, and had arrived to any just degrees of spiritual perfection; but as unto carnal, that is, persons who, though you are not under the full conduct and government of your flesh and sensitive appetite, yet are far from being perfect, either in faith or holiness. In Christ, but not as grown men, but as babes, as the apostle fully explaineth this term, Heb 5:12-13, such as had need be taught again which are the first principles of the oracles of God; and have need of milk, and not of strong meat: for every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.
1 Cor 3:2. Milk signifies what the apostle to the Hebrews calls the first principles of the oracles of God, and so is opposed to sublime spiritual doctrines, here set out under the notion of meat; called strong meat, Heb 5:14, fit for those of full age: as young children’s stomachs will not endure strong meat, so neither are sublime spiritual mysteries fit for new converts, until they have senses exercised to discern good and evil; and therefore the apostle gives this as a reason, why he had not communicated the deep things of God to them, because as yet they had not been able to bear the notion of them, nor indeed were they yet able: it should seem that there were many in the church of Corinth, who though they were true Christians, yet were not grown and judicious Christians, but had great imperfections, as indeed it will further appear in this Epistle.
1 Cor 3:3. For ye are yet carnal; not wholly carnal, but in a great measure so, not having your lusts and corrupt affections entirely subdued to the will of God, nor yet so much subdued as some other Christians have, and you ought to have. As an evidence of this he mindeth them of the envying, strifes, and divisions that were amongst them. Strife and envyings are reckoned amongst the works of the flesh, Gal 5:19-21; they are all opposite to love, in which the perfection of a Christian lieth. He told us before what strifes and contentions he meant, and tells us it again in the next verse.
1 Cor 3:4. Not that Christians so large a city as Corinth might not put themselves under several pastors, or, as to themselves, prefer one before another, either in respect of the more eminent gifts of God bestowed upon one, (as doubtless Paul was preferable to Apollos,) or in respect of the more suitableness of one man’s gifts to their capacities than another: but their adherence so to one minister of the gospel, that for his sake they vilified and despised all others, that were also true and faithful servants of God in the work of his gospel, this was their sin, and spake them to have vicious and corrupt affections, and to walk more like men than like saints, not having a true notion of the ministers of Christ, nor behaving themselves towards them as they ought to do.
1 Cor 3:5. Neither Paul, nor yet Apollos, are authors of faith to you, but only instruments; it is the Lord that giveth to every man a power to believe; or else that latter phrase, as the Lord gave to every man, may be understood of ministers, whose abilities to the work of the ministry, and success in it, both depend upon God. The sense of the words is this, then: God giveth unto his ministers variety of gifts, and different success; but yet neither one nor the other of them are more than the servants of Christ in their ministry, persons whom God maketh use of to call upon and to prevail with men, to give credit to the doctrine of the gospel, and to receive and accept of Christ. The work is the Lord’s, not theirs.
1 Cor 3:6. God honoured me first to preach the gospel amongst you, Acts 18 etc., and blessed my preaching to convert you unto Christ; then I left you: Apollos stayed behind, and he watered what I had planted, daily preaching amongst you; see Acts 18:24-26; he was a further means to build you up in faith and holiness; but God increased, or gave the increase, God gave the power by which you brought forth any fruit. The similitude is drawn from planters, whether husbandmen or gardeners; they plant, they water, but the growing, the budding, the bringing forth flowers or fruit by the plant, doth much more depend upon the soil in which it stands, the influence of heaven upon it, by the beams of the sun, and the drops of the dew and rain, and the internal virtue which the God of nature hath created in the plant, than upon the hand of him that planteth, or him who useth his watering pot to water it. So it is with souls; one minister is used for conversion, or the first changing of souls; another is used for edification, or further building up of souls; but both conversion and edification are infinitely more from the new heart and new nature, which God giveth to souls, and from the influence of the Sun of righteousness by the Spirit of grace, working in and upon the soul, than from any minister, who is but God’s instrument in those works.
1 Cor 3:7. So that, look as it is in earthly plantations, God hath the greatest influence upon the growth and fruitfulness of the plant, and the husbandman or gardener is nothing in comparison with God, who hath given to the plant planted its life and nature, by which it shooteth up, buddeth, and bringeth forth fruit, and maketh his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon it: so it is in the spiritual plantation, God is the principal efficient Cause, we are little instrumental causes in God’s hand, nothing in comparison with God. I have planted, Apollos hath watered; but if we see a soul changed, or grow, and make any spiritual proficiency, we must say, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be given the glory: God hath done the main work; we have not done any thing in comparison with him. These words do no more tend to vilify the ministry of the gospel, or make it useless, than, taking them in their native sense, as they respect earthly plantations, they would prove, that there is no need of the husbandman’s or gardener’s hand to plant or to water plants, because all that he doth of that nature is to no purpose, unless God first gives to the plant its proper nature and virtue, and then followeth the planting with the influence of the sun, dew, and rain. But yet it is observable, that the apostle doth not say, the man himself gives the increase, from the good use of the power that is naturally in his own will, but God giveth the increase; which argues the necessity of special grace both to conversion and edification, superadded to the best preaching of his ministers. Though Paul himself by preaching plants, and Apollos watereth, yet God must make the soul to increase with the increase of God. Hence the apostle argueth their unreasonableness, in adoring one minister, and magnifying him above another, when indeed neither the one nor the other had any principal efficiency in the production of the blessed effect, but a mere instrumental causation, the effect of which depended upon the sole blessing of God, in comparison with whom, in this working, neither the one nor the other minister was any thing.
1 Cor 3:8. The ministers of Christ, though one be used in planting and another in watering, one in laying the foundation and another in building thereupon, yet are one; one in their office and work, one in their ministry, being all servants to Christ, who is one; all serving one and the same Lord, all doing the same business, proposing the same end, and with all their might labouring towards it; and therefore, as they ought not to divide into parties and factions, so you ought not for their sakes to be so divided. Yet they are not so one, but that one may labour more than another, and be honoured by God with more success than another, and every one shall receive a reward proportioned to his labour: the apostle saith not, according to the success of his labour, (that is not in his power,) but, according to his labour.
1 Cor 3:9. Though compared with God we are nothing, yet our station is no mean station; God works as the principal efficient Cause, we work with God as his instruments; God worketh one way, by his secret influence upon the heart, we another way, by publication of the gospel in people’s ears, but the scope and end of the work is the same. The Lord is said to work with his ministers, Mark 16:20, and they are here said to work with him. Hence he proveth what he had before said, that they should be rewarded; God will not suffer those who work with him to be without their reward: as also that they were one, for they are all labourers together with God. Yet do not think yourselves our husbandry, for you are God’s husbandry: thus God’s people, Isa 61:3, are called the planting of the Lord. God’s building: thus the church is called the house of God, 1 Tim 3:15. Still the apostle minds them, that they were God’s, not their minister’s; it was God to whom they were beholden for their conversion, for their edification, etc.
1 Cor 3:10. According to the grace of God which is given unto me: xa&rin here signifies either the ability which God hath given Paul to preach the gospel, or the apostolical office, to which God had called him; he maketh both to proceed from God, and to be the effects of his free love and favour to him. According to this he saith: Look, as a wise masterbuilder first layeth the foundation, then buildeth upon the foundation which he hath laid; so I, being the first whom God pleased to employ in this his work at Corinth, have laid the foundation, that is, have first preached the gospel in this famous city: thus the first preaching of the gospel is called, a laying the foundation, Rom 15:20; Heb 6:1. Another buildeth thereon; afterwards Apollos and other ministers further carried on that work of preaching the gospel amongst them. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon; but (saith he) whoever cometh to preach after me had need take heed what he buildeth; for, Gal 1:8, though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
1 Cor 3:11. Can in this text doth not signify a mere natural power, but a rightful power: No man by any just right or authority can lay any other foundation, can preach any other doctrine of salvation, than that which I have already preached, which is the doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, Acts 4:12.
1 Cor 3:12. The apostle is discoursing metaphorically, he had compared the church of Corinth to a building, 1 Cor 3:9, and called them there God’s building; they were built upon the doctrine of the gospel, the doctrine of the apostles and prophets, who had preached Christ to them, this was the foundation; and had told us, that none, by any pretence of right, could lay any other foundation. But there was to be a superstructure upon this foundation, which might be of various materials: he names six; three very good and excellent, gold, silver, and precious stones; three others vile and invaluable, wood, hay, stubble. By these he either means good or bad works, or rather, good or bad doctrines. Good doctrine is signified by the gold, silver, and precious stones mentioned; bad doctrine by the wood, hay, and stubble mentioned; by which may be understood various degrees of bad doctrine, as some doctrines are more pernicious and damnable than others, though the others also be false, unprofitable, trivial, and of no significancy to the good of souls, but bad, as they are unprofitable.
1 Cor 3:13. Now, saith he, there will come a time when every man’s, that is, every teacher’s, work, or doctrine, shall be made manifest. As the metal is brought to the touchstone to be tried, whether it be gold or silver, or some baser metal; so there will come a time, when all doctrines shall be tried and made manifest, whether they be of God or no. For the day shall declare it: what day shall declare it is not so steadily agreed by interpreters. Some by a day here understand a long time, in process of time it shall be declared; as indeed erroneous doctrines have not used to obtain or prevail long: Dagon falls before the ark. Others understand it of a day of adversity and great affliction, the day of God’s vengeance; and indeed thus it is often seen, a false faith, or a lie believed, will not carry a man through the difficulties which he meeteth with in an evil day: the truths of the gospel are of that nature, that they will give a soul relief and support in a day of affliction and under God’s severest dispensations, but errors and falsehoods will not do it. Others understand by the day here mentioned, the day of judgment, which is indeed often called the day of the Lord, 1 Cor 1:8, and described by fire, Joel 2:3; 2 Thess 1:8; 2 Pet 3:10; but this text saith not the day of the Lord, but only the day. It seemeth, therefore, rather to signify the bright shining out of the gospel; for the text seemeth to speak of such a manifestation as shall be in this life, not in the day of judgment. Because it shall be revealed by fire; the same thing is also to he understood. The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is: by the fire here mentioned, not the fire of God’s wrath, or the fire of affliction and adversity, nor the fire of the last judgment, but the truth of the gospel shining forth in the world, and burning up the dross and stubble of corrupt, false doctrine, that shall bring all the doctrines which men teach, to the trial.
1 Cor 3:14. If any preacher keeps the foundation, and the doctrine which he hath built upon the true foundation prove consonant to the will of Christ, God will reward him for his labour: he shall hear the voice saying: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
1 Cor 3:15. But if his work do not abide, if it shall appear upon the more clear and bright shining out of the truth of the gospel, that though he hath held the foundation right, yet he hath built upon it wood, hay, and stubble, mixed fables, and idle stories, and corrupt doctrine with the doctrine of the gospel, he shall suffer loss by it, either by the afflicting hand of God, or by a loss of his reputation, or some other way. But yet God will not cast off a soul for every such error, if he keeps to the main foundation, Jesus Christ; he shall be saved, though it be as by fire, that is, with difficulty; which certainly is a more natural sense of this text, than those give, who interpret as by fire, of the fire of the gospel, or the fire of purgatory, of which the papists understand it. For, 1. It is, and always hath been, a proverbial form of speech to express a thing obtained by difficulty; we say: It is got out of the fire, etc. 2. For the fire of purgatory, it is a fiction, and mere imaginary thing, and of no further significancy than to make the pope’s chimney smoke. 3. That pretended fire only purgeth venial sins; this fire trieth every man’s work, the gold as well as the stubble.
1 Cor 3:16. The apostle, 1 Cor 3:9, had called the church of Corinth, and the particular members of it, God’s building; after this he had enlarged in a discourse concerning the builders, and the foundation and superstructure upon that foundation; now he returns again to speak of the whole church, whom he here calleth the temple of God, with a manifest allusion to that noble and splendid house which Solomon first built, and was afterwards rebuilt by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah at Jerusalem, as the public place for the Jewish church to meet in to worship God according to the prescript of the Levitical law: in which house God was said to dwell, because there he met his people, and blessed them, and there he gave answers to them from the mercyseat. He calls them the temple of God, because they were built, that is, effectually called, for this very end, that they might be to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, Eph 1:6: and, as the apostle Peter further expoundeth this text, 1 Pet 2:5, the people of God are a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And God by his Spirit dwelt in them, both by his person, and by his gifts and graces, which is a far more noble dwelling in them than the dwelling of God was in the Jewish temple. From this text may be fetched an evident proof of the Divine nature, of the Third Person in the blessed Trinity; for he is not only called here the Spirit of God, but he is said to dwell in the saints: which dwelling of God in his people, is that very thing which maketh them the temple of God; and those who are here called the temple of God, are, 1 Cor 6:19, called the temple of the Holy Ghost.
1 Cor 3:17. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; the word which we translate defile and destroy (for the Greek word is the same for both) signifieth to violate, corrupt, or destroy. Our translators generally render it corrupt, 1 Cor 15:33; 2 Cor 7:2; 1 Cor 11:3; Eph 4:22; Jude 10; Rev 19:2. The people of God, who are here called the temple of God, are defiled, either by imbibing false doctrine, or being tempted to any looseness of life and conversation. Now, (saith the apostle,) if any one goes about to do this, which all preachers do who teach any false doctrine, or any principles that lead to a liberty for the flesh, or lead to an ill and scandalous life, God shall destroy those men. For the temple of God is holy; for as the temple of God of old was a place built and set apart for holy uses, and therefore not without great peril to be abused and profaned; so those that are the people of God, are by God called and set apart in a more immediate, eminent manner for the honour and glory of God, and therefore cannot be debauched or defiled by any as instruments in that action, without exceeding great peril and hazard to them that endeavour and attempt any such thing.
1 Cor 3:18. Let not man deceive himself: there are some that, with their eloquence and flourishes of words, or with their philosophical notions and reasonings, (which, Col 2:8, the apostle calls vain deceit,) or with their traditions after the rudiments of the world, (as the apostle addeth in that place,) would cheat and deceive your souls, under a pretence of making you wonderfully wise: the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world; if any of you seemeth unto others, or seemeth unto himself, that is, thinketh that he is endued with what the world calleth wisdom. Let him become a fool, that he may be wise; if ever he would be truly wise, wise unto God, and to eternal life and salvation, let him be contented, by the wise men and philosophers of this world, to be looked upon as a fool; and let him be willing to deny himself in any notions or opinions of his own, which he hath taken up upon the credit of his natural reason and philosophical principles, which agree not with the Divine revelation, that so he may be truly and spiritually wise, truly understanding, savouring, and believing what God hath in his word revealed, and is alone able to make the man of God wise to salvation, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.
1 Cor 3:19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; God accounteth that folly which the world calleth wisdom, and indeed it is so (for God cannot err, nor be mistaken in his judgment:) the philosophers and wise men of the world propose the happiness of man as their end, which indeed is the true end which all men aim at, and do propound to themselves; true wisdom directeth the best means in order to the best end. Whatsoever directeth not to the best end, or to what is not the best means in order to that end, is not wisdom, but real folly; worldly wisdom neither directeth to the best end, for it looks at no further happiness than that of this life, nor yet to the best means, and therefore is truly, what God accounts it, foolishness. For it is written: He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; and to see the wise and learned men of the world thus err both in their judgment and practice, is no wonder at all; for God is set out of old by Eliphaz, as one that taketh the wise in their own craftiness, Job 5:13.
1 Cor 3:20. And again, it was said by the psalmist, Ps 94:11, that: The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity: man’s counsels, imaginations, reasonings, they are all vanity; they propose to themselves ends which they cannot attain, and pursue them by means that are inefficacious with reference to their ends.
1 Cor 3:21. Seeing, therefore, that Christ is but one, his ministers but one, and no more than ministers by whom ye believed, 1 Cor 3:5; and the principal efficiency of any saving work begun, or carried on in your souls to any degree of perfection, is from God, and the minister’s work in that effect nothing compared with his; seeing you are God’s husbandry, God’s building, not merely man’s, and the temple of God, not men’s temple; leave your glorying in men, and saying I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos; glory only in this, that ye are Christ’s: besides, all things are yours; why do you glory in a particular minister, when all is yours? As if two joint-heirs in an estate should glory in this or that particular house or enclosure, when the whole estate is jointly theirs, all theirs.
1 Cor 3:22-23. Here are in these two verses three things asserted: 1. The believer’s title to all things. 2. The specialty of their title. 3. The force of the apostle’s argument from hence, why they should not glory in men. He had said before: All things are yours, which he repeats again, in 1 Cor 3:22: they have a right and title to all things, and all things are for their good, use, and advantage. Amongst these he first reckons ministers: every one of them might lay a claim to Paul, to Apollos, to Peter; for they were all servants of Christ for the use of the church, a part of which they were. Then he goes on, and saith, the world, that is, the things of the world, are theirs; that is, whatsoever portion of them the providence of God orderly disposed to them, they had a true title to it, and it was for their use and advantage; so were the lives and deaths of God’s ministers, their own lives and deaths, all things present, and all things that were to come, they were all theirs by a just title; if the providence of God gave them to them in an orderly way, they might comfortably use them. They themselves were Christ’s; they were not of Paul, nor of Apollos, nor of Peter. He that had the bride was the bridegroom; these ministers were but the friends of their bridegroom. And Christ is God’s, the Son of God by an eternal generation; the servant of God as man, and born under the law, so yielding obedience to his Father; the Messiah or Anointed, and sent of God as Mediator. All things are God’s, by God given to Christ, by Christ given to and sanctified for you; that makes the believers’ special title to all things. The men of the world derive their title to what they have from God alone, as Creator; they derive not from Christ, as being ingrafted and implanted into him. Hence the apostle rightly concludes their vanity, in glorying in their relation to this or that special apostle or minister, whereas they had a true and just right to the labours of all ministers, and ought to look upon all faithful ministers as God’s gifts to his whole church, and for the advantage and benefit of all: yet this hindereth not, but that people ought to have their particular pastors and teachers, to whom they ought ordinarily to attend in their ministry; but they ought not to have their persons in such admiration, as for them to despise or slight any other faithful ministers, nor to make parties and factions in the church of God.
1 CORINTHIANS 4
1 Cor 4:1-5: Paul showeth in what account such as he should be held, of whose fidelity it should be left to God to judge.
1 Cor 4:6-7: He dissuadeth the Corinthians from valuing themselves in one teacher above another, since all had their respective distinctions from God.
1 Cor 4:8-13: To their self-sufficient vanity he opposeth his own despised and afflicted state,
1 Cor 4:14-16: warning them, as their only father in Christ, and urging theme to follow him.
1 Cor 4:17-21: For the same cause he sent Timotheus, and meant soon to follow in person, when he would inquire into the authority of such as opposed him.
1 Cor 4:1. The apostle here gives us the right notion of the preachers of the gospel; they are but ministers, that is, servants, so as the honour that is proper to their Master, for a principal efficiency in the conversion and building up of souls, belongeth not to them; they are ministers of Christ, so have their primary relation to him, and only a secondary relation to the church to which they are ministers; they are ministers of Christ and so in that ministration can only execute what are originally his commands, though those commands of Christ may also be enforced by men: ministers of the gospel, not of the law, upon whom lies a primary obligation to preach Christ and his gospel unto people. They are also stewards of the mysteries of God, such to whom God hath committed his word and sacraments to dispense out unto his church. The word mystery signifieth any thing that is secret, but more especially it signifieth a Divine secret, represented by signs and figures; or a religious secret, not obvious to every capacity or understanding. Thus we read of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, Matt 13:11; the mystery of godliness, 1 Tim 3:16; the mystery of Christ, Eph 3:4. The wisdom of God, Col 2:2; the incarnation of Christ, 1 Tim 3:16; the calling of the Gentiles, Eph 3:4; the resurrection from the dead, 1 Cor 15:21; Christ’s mystical union and communion with his church, Eph 5:32; the sublime counsels of God, 1 Cor 13:2, are all called mysteries. Ministers are the stewards of the mysterious doctrines and institutions of Christ, which we usually comprehend under the terms of the word and sacraments.
1 Cor 4:2. It is required of all servants, but especially of chief servants, such as stewards are, who are intrusted with their masters’ goods, to be dispensed out to others. The faithfulness of a steward in dispensing out his master’s goods lies in his giving them out according to his master’s order, giving to every one their portion, not detaining any thing from others which it is his master’s will they should have; as Paul gloried, Acts 20:20,27, that he had kept back from the Ephesians nothing that was profitable for them, nor shunned to declare to them all the counsel of God; not giving holy things to dogs, or casting pearls before swine, contrary to Christ’s direction, Matt 7:6.
1 Cor 4:3. Those who said, I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, did at least tacitly judge Paul, and prefer Apollos and Cephas before him; and it is probable, and will appear also from other parts of these Epistles, that they passed very indecent censures concerning Paul: he therefore tells them, that he valued very little what they or any other men said of him. In the Greek it is, of man’s day; but it is generally thought that our translators have given us the true sense, in translating it man’s judgment, day being put for judgment; as Jer 17:16, where woeful day signifies woeful judgment. So the day of the Lord in Scripture often signifieth the Lord’s judgment: the reason of that form of speech seems to be, because persons cited to a court of judgment use to be cited to appear on a certain day. Yea, I judge not mine own self; yea, saith the apostle, I pronounce no sentence for myself, I leave myself to the judgment of God. I may be deceived in my judgment concerning myself, and therefore I will affirm nothing as to myself.
1 Cor 4:4. I know nothing by myself; nothing amiss, nothing that is evil; yet this must not be interpreted universally, as if St. Paul knew nothing that was evil and sinful by himself; himself, Rom 7, tells us the contrary; but it must be understood with respect to his discharge of his ministerial office: I do not know any thing wherein I have wilfully failed in the discharge of my ministry; yet even as to that I durst not stand upon my own righteousness and justification before God, I may have sinned ignorantly, or have forgotten some things wherein I did offend. But he that judgeth me is the Lord; God knoweth more of me than I know of myself, and it is he that judgeth, and must judge me. Though in this text Paul doth not speak of his whole life and conversation, but only of his conversation with respect to his ministry; yet the conclusion from hence, that no man can be justified from his own works, is good; for if a man cannot be justified from his conscience not rebuking him for his errors in one part of his conversation, he cannot be justified from his conscience not rebuking him for his whole conversation. For he that keepeth the whole law, if he offendeth but in one point, must be guilty of all, because the law curseth him who continueth not in every point of the law to do it.
1 Cor 4:5. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come; seeing that the judgment of secret things belongs to God, judge nothing before the time, which God hath set to judge all things. The works of the flesh are manifest, and men may judge of them; but for secret things, of which it is impossible that those who do not know the hearts of men should make up a judgment, do not judge of them before the time, when God will certainly come to judge all men. Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: if men cloak the hidden things of darkness with the cover of hypocrisy and fair pretences, they will at that day be most certainly uncovered, and the secret thoughts, counsels, and imaginations of men’s hearts shall in that day be made manifest. And then shall every man have praise of God; and then those that have done well, every of them shall have praise of God; as, on the contrary, (which is understood, though not here expressed,) those that are hypocrites, and whose hearts have been full of evil thoughts and counsels, shall by God be put to shame and exposed to contempt.
1 Cor 4:6. And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes: by these words the apostle lets us know, that though he had said, 1 Cor 1:12, that some of them said: We are of Paul, and others: We are of Apollos; yet the names of Paul and of Apollos were but used to represent other of their teachers, which were the heads of those factions which were amongst them. In very deed there were none of them that said, We are of Paul or of Apollos, (for those that were the disciples of Paul and Apollos were better taught,) but they had other teachers amongst them as to whom they made factions, whom Paul had a mind to reprove, with their followers; and to avoid all odium, that both they and their hearers might take no offence at his free reproving of them, he makes use of his own name, and that of Apollos, and speaketh to the hearers of these teachers, as if they were his own and Apollos’s disciples; that those whom the reproof and admonition concerned properly, might be reproved under the reproof of others. That you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written; and that (as the apostle saith) all the church of Corinth, as well ministers as people, might learn to have humble opinions and thoughts of themselves, not to think of themselves above what, by the rules of God’s word, was written in the Old Testament they ought to think; or above what he had before written in this Epistle, or to the Romans, Rom 12:3. That no one of you be puffed up for one against another; and that none of them, whether ministers or private Christians, might be puffed up. The word signifieth to be swelled or blown up as a bladder or a pair of bellows, which is extended with wind: it is used in 1 Cor 4:18-19; 1 Cor 8:1; Col 2:18.
1 Cor 4:7. It is apparent that pride was the reigning sin of many in this church of Corinth; pride, by reason of those parts and gifts wherein they excelled, whether they were natural or acquired habits, or common gifts of the Spirit which were infused: to abate this tumour, the apostle minds them to consider, whence they had these gifts from which they took occasion so to exalt and prefer themselves; whether they were the authors of them to themselves, or did receive them from God. Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? It became none of them to glory in what they had received from another, and were beholden to another for. What the apostle here speaketh concerning natural or spiritual abilities, is applicable to all good things; and the consideration here prompted, is a potent consideration to abate the pride and swelling of a man’s heart upon any account whatsoever; for there is nothing wherein a man differeth or is distinguished from another, or wherein he excelleth another, but it is given him from God; be it riches, honour, natural or spiritual gifts and abilities, they are all received from the gift of God, who gives a man power to get wealth, Deut 8:18; who putteth down one and setteth up another, Ps 75:7: and, as the apostle saith in this Epistle, 1 Cor 12:7-9, gives the manifestation of the Spirit to every man to profit withal: to one by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge; to another faith; to another the gifts of healing, etc., all by the same Spirit.
1 Cor 4:8. Now ye are full, now ye are rich; you that are the teachers at Corinth, or you that are the members of the church there, think yourselves full of knowledge and wisdom, so as you stand in need of no further learning or instruction. Ye have reigned as kings without us; ye think now you have got a kingdom, and are arrived at the top of felicity. And I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you; I am so far from envying you, that I wish it were so, and we might have a share with you. The apostle speaketh this ironically, not that he indeed thought they were so, but reflecting on their vain and too good an opinion of themselves.
1 Cor 4:9. For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; the lot of us who are the apostles of Christ is not so externally happy, but a lot of poverty and misery, as if we were the worst of men, men appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men; to be a mere sight or gazingstock to the world, angels, or men. Some think that the apostle here hath a reference to the barbarous practice of the Romans, who first exposed and carried about for a sight those persons that were condemned to fight with wild beasts, that by them they might be torn in pieces. You are happy men, saith the apostle, if you can own Christ, and profess Christianity, and yet be in such credit and favour with the world, so full, and so rich, and so like princes: we are those whom God hath honoured to be his apostles and the first ministers of the gospel; our lot and portion is far otherwise.
1 Cor 4:10. We are accounted fools for Christ’s sake by the wise men of the world, and we are willing to be so accounted; but you think yourselves wise, and yet in Christ. We are weak in the opinion of men, we suffer evil, and do not resist; but ye account yourselves, and are by the world accounted, strong: ye are accounted noble and honourable, but we are despised and contemptible.
1 Cor 4:11. Our state in the world is low and mean; though you be full, we are hungry and thirsty; though you be richly clothed, yet we are next to naked, clothed with rags; though you be hugged and embraced by the men of the world, yet we are buffeted; though you have rich and famous houses, yet we have no certain dwellingplace. Thus it hath been with us from the beginning of our profession of Christ, and thus it is with us at this day, saith the apostle: from whence he gives these Corinthians and their false teachers a just reason to suspect themselves, whether they were true and sincere professors, yea or no, and to consider how it came to pass, that their lot in the world was so different from the lot of those whom the Lord had dignified with the title and office of his apostles. The condition of the most faithful and able ministers and the most sincere Christians that have been in the world, hath always been a mean and afflicted state and condition.
1 Cor 4:12. And labour, working with our hands; we do not only labour in the word and doctrine, but we labour with our hands, that we might not be burdensome to the church, our hands ministering to our necessities, Acts 20:34; though, as he saith, 1 Cor 9:4, they had a power to eat and drink, that is, a right to have demanded meat and drink of them, and might have forbore working; for who goeth a warfare at his own charges? 1 Cor 3:6-7. Whence we may observe, that though the ministers of Christ ought to be maintained by the churches to which they relate, and they sin if they neglect it; yet where this either is not done through men’s sinful neglect of them, or cannot be done through the poverty of the members of such churches, it is lawful for them to labour with their hands. Being reviled, we bless; we are reviled and spoken ill of, but we do not revile others, but speak well of them, and wish well to them. Being persecuted, we suffer it; though we be hunted and pursued to the endangering of our lives and liberties, yet we do make no resistance, but patiently suffer it. By this the apostle showeth them the duty of Christians, as well as their lot and portion in this life; and also tacitly reflecteth on them and their teachers, who were some of those that thus reviled the apostles; and though they did not, it may be, smite them with their hands, yet they persecuted them with their tongues; and leaves it to their consideration, whether the apostles or they lived more up to the rule of Christianity given by Christ, Matt 5:39-41.
1 Cor 4:13. Being defamed, we entreat: we are blasphemed, Gr. that is, spoken evil of, which is the same with defamed in our language, men speak all manner of evil of us to take away our reputation; but we entreat God for them: the word signifieth to exhort, entreat, comfort, we exercise ourselves in all pious and charitable offices toward them, who are most uncharitable toward us. We are made as the filth of the earth, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day: here are two words used, which signify the most vile, abject, contemptible things in the world, excrements, sweepings of houses. The apostle by these two words signifies, that no persons could be more base, vile, and contemptible than they were, nothing more despised, or in less esteem: he speaketh not this as complaining, or in any discontent at what he saw was the will of God concerning them; but to show them the difference betwixt the apostles, and them and their teachers, and possibly reflecting upon them, as being in some degree guilty of this scorn and contempt of them, or at least, more than they ought, neglecting them under these mean and afflictive circumstances.
1 Cor 4:14. I tell you not of this to make you blush, as having had any hand in these indignities which are put upon us, nor yet to shame you (though possibly you have reason to be ashamed, either for your neglect of us, or for your adding to our affliction;) I look upon you as my sons, and sons whom I love: I only write to warn you, both of your duty, to have some respect for us, and of, your sin, if you have neglected us beyond what was your duty to have done.
1 Cor 4:15. The great lesson of this text is: That people ought to have a tender respect for those ministers whom God hath honoured with their first conversion, and bringing them home to Christ. God may make use of a multitude of ministers to instruct Christians, and carry on his work in their souls to perfection; but he maketh use of some particular minister at first to convince them, and be an instrument in the changing of their hearts; such they ought to have a great value for, they are their spiritual fathers in a proper sense. For, saith the apostle, in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel: where we have regeneration (as it signifieth a new state) set out in its causes. The principal efficient cause is Christ Jesus; the instrumental cause is the minister of the gospel; the means is the doctrine of the gospel, or the preaching of the gospel. In Christ Jesus signifieth here by the grace of Christ Jesus; those who are born again, are not born of flesh or of blood, but of the will of God, John 1:13, and by the influence of Christ upon their hearts; though God makes use of the minister of the gospel as his instrument, and the minister makes use of the word and the preaching of the gospel, as the sacred means which God hath appointed to that end, 1 Pet 1:23. All these causes unite and concur in the work of regeneration.
1 Cor 4:16. I might as a father command you, but I beseech you, be ye followers of me, in preserving the unity and promoting the holiness of the church. He expounds this, 1 Cor 11:1: Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ. Holiness of life and conversation is necessary to a true minister of Christ; for their people ought not only to be their hearers, but their followers; they are ensamples to the flock, 1 Pet 5:3, and ought to be examples of believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity, 1 Tim 4:12; in all things showing themselves patterns of good works; in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, etc., Titus 2:7. Those who teach well and live ill, are no good ministers of Christ; they cannot say unto people, Be ye followers of me.
1 Cor 4:17. This Timothy Paul found at Lystra, Acts 16:1. His father was a Greek, his mother a Jewess, therefore Paul circumcised him; her name was Eunice, the daughter of Lois, 2 Tim 1:5. Paul took him along with him in his travels. He was ordained by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery, 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6. Paul calls him his beloved son, either because he was his spiritual son, or because he was by him instructed in the gospel: he calls him his own son in the faith, 1 Tim 1:2. Faithful in the Lord, because he was faithful in the work of the Lord, in the business of the ministry. Who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church; he (saith the apostle) shall bring to your remembrance my ways in the Lord, he shall acquaint you with both what doctrine I have preached and what course of life I have lived; how I have preached to every church, what rules I have given for the ordering of every church, and how I have walked before and toward them.
1 Cor 4:18. I hear that some of your teachers, and some of your members, are so conceited of themselves, that they would persuade you that I durst not see their faces, or come to discourse with them face to face, and therefore would not come unto you.
1 Cor 4:19. But I will come to you shortly: Paul intended in his journey to Rome to pass through Macedonia and Achaia, but he knew that God could hinder him, and therefore he adds, if the Lord will: neither did Paul go to them so soon as he intended, but had time before he went to write another Epistle, as we shall afterwards find. All Christians are bound, when they promise or resolve upon any journeys, to understand, if God will, and to have in their thoughts the power of God to hinder them, and to speak with submission to his pleasure, who counteth their steps and telleth their wanderings, and ordereth their steps; though they be not strictly bound at all times to use this form of speech. And will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power: and when I come, then I shall understand these teachers of yours, who so vilify me; I shall not regard so much their fine words and philosophical reasonings, as what there is of spiritual life and power in them; either in their doctrine or life, how conducive it is to the ends of the gospel, and how consonant to the truth of the gospel, what good they do amongst you, what manner of lives they live: these are the things that my eyes shall be upon, and which I shall regard.
1 Cor 4:20. The kingdom of God in the church, or the kingdom of God in the particular soul. God hath not sent his ministers to subdue souls to himself by fine, florid words and phrases, but by a lively preaching the gospel, while his power attends their plain preaching; and the power and efficacy of the preachers’ doctrine appeareth in their holy life and conversation, so as their people cannot say to them: Physician, heal thyself, as to those spiritual diseases which thou wouldst cure us of. So the kingdom of God in particular souls doth not appear in words, but in the power which the word of God hath upon men’s hearts, in subduing their lusts and corruptions, and bringing their hearts into a subjection to his will.
1 Cor 4:21. Which will ye rather choose? That I should come unto you as a father cometh to his child under some guilt for which he must punish and correct him, or as a father cometh to his child that hath done nothing provoking his displeasure, in love, and meekly? I am not willing to come to you to correct and punish any of you by ecclesiastical censures, which are a rod which Christ hath intrusted to me; I had rather come in love and meekness, that we might mutually rejoice in each other’s society.
1 CORINTHIANS 5
1 Cor 5:1-2: Paul reproveth a scandalous incest committed and protected from censure in the church at Corinth,
1 Cor 5:3-5: and by his authority in Christ excommunicateth the offender.
1 Cor 5:6-8: The necessity of purging out the old leaven.
1 Cor 5:9-13: Christians guilty of notorious crimes are not to be consorted with.
1 Cor 5:1. The apostle here giveth a reason of the question which he propounded in the former chapter, whether they would be willing that, when he came to them, he should come unto them with a rod? Because such horrid wickedness was committed amongst them, as he, being an apostle to whom Christ had intrusted the government of his church, could not pass over without correction: he instanceth here in one, which he calleth fornication; by which word is often in Scripture to be understood all species of uncleanness, though, in strict speaking, we by fornication understand the uncleanness of a single person, as by adultery we understand the uncleanness of a person married, and by incest the uncleanness of a person with some near relation, as a mother, a sister: in strict speaking, the sin here reflected on was incest; but the Scripture by this word comprehends all species of unlawful mixtures. Such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles: this sin he aggravates by saying, that the Gentiles by the light of nature discerned and declined such an abomination; by whom is not to be understood the more brutish part, but the more civilized part of the heathen, such as the Romans, etc. were. That one should have his father’s wife: by having his father’s wife, in this place, is not to be understood, the marrying of his father’s wife, his father being dead; but the using of his father’s wife as his wife while his father was yet alive, (as some judicious interpreters think,) because hardly any nation would have endured a son openly to have married the widow of his father. And in 2 Cor 7:12, there is mention made not only of one that had done, but of another that had suffered the wrong; which latter must be the father himself: so as there was both incest and whoredom in this fact.
1 Cor 5:2. And ye are puffed up; you are so conceited of your own parts and gifts, and are so full of your contentions about the preference of ministers, and things of little concernment to your souls and the interest of the church, that you have not been able to find leisure to deal with this scandalous person, as a church of Christ ought to have done. This seemeth rather the reason of their not mourning, than any rejoicing in iniquity, as if they had thought the gospel had opened that door against this licentiousness which the law had shut, or triumphed in this incestuous person, being one of their teachers (which can hardly be thought). And have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you: they ought rather to have mourned, keeping times of fasting and prayer, on the behalf of this scandalous member amongst them, that his sin might (upon his due sense of it, and repentance for it) have been forgiven him, and the blot upon their church, by their having such a one in their fellowship, might be washed out, by his being cast out of their fellowship and communion. It was no time for them to glory in their gifts, and be puffed up with the parts of their teachers or members, when they had such a blot upon them by a putrid member that was amongst them. They had a great deal more cause for humiliation, than for pride and glorying.
1 Cor 5:3. Though I be absent as to my bodily presence, yet God having intrusted me with a superintendency and care over his church amongst you, out of the care and solicitude which I have for you, as well as the other churches of Christ, and in discharge of that trust which God hath reposed in me, I do determine, and have determined as much as if I were present amongst you, what ought to be done by you concerning this person so notoriously scandalous.
1 Cor 5:4. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; either having solemnly called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for his counsel and direction, or blessing your action, that it may be of spiritual advantage to the party concerned; or according to the command of Christ, or by his authority, or for his glory. It may be referred either to what went before, I have judged or determined by the authority of Christ; or to what follows after. When ye are gathered together, and my spirit; when you are gathered together by the authority, or according to the institution, of Jesus Christ, and my spirit with you, you having my judgment in the case. With the power of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the power and authority of Christ committed to me, and to you, as a church of Christ.
1 Cor 5:5. What this delivering to Satan is, (of which also we read, 1 Tim 1:20,) is something doubted by interpreters. That by it is to be understood excommunication, or casting out of the communion of the church, can hardly be doubted by any that considereth, 1. That the apostle speaketh of an action which might be, and ought to have been, done by the church of Corinth when they met together, and for the not doing of which the apostle blameth them. 2. That the end of the action was, taking away the scandalous person from the midst amongst them, 1 Cor 5:2; purging out the old leaven, that they might become a new lump, 1 Cor 5:7. 3. It was a punishment inflicted by many. Those, therefore, who interpret the phrase of an extraordinary power given the apostles or primitive churches, miraculously to give up the scandalous person to the power of the devil, to be afflicted, tormented, or vexed by him, (though not unto death,) seem not to have considered, that the apostle would not have blamed the church of Corinth for not working a miracle, and that we no where read of any such power committed to any church of Christ; and one would in reason think, that persons under such circumstances should rather be pitied and helped, than shunned and avoided. The only question therefore is: Why the apostle expresseth excommunication under the notion of being delivered to Satan? Some have thought that the reason is, because God was so pleased to ratify the just censures of his church, delivering such persons as were cast out of it into the hands of Satan, to be vexed and tormented by him; and that this might be in some particular cases, none can deny, but that this was an ordinary dispensation of Providence as to all excommunicated persons, wants better proof than any have yet showed us. It appears to me a more probable account of this phrase which others have given us, telling us, that Satan is called the god of the world, and the prince of the world, as world is taken in opposition to the church of God; so as delivering to Satan, is no more than our Saviour’s—If he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican, Matt 18:17. Only for the further terror of it, the apostle expresseth it by this phrase of delivering up to Satan; thereby letting us know, how dreadful a thing it is to be out of God’s special protection, and shut out from the ordinary means of grace and salvation, and exposed to the temptations of our grand adversary the devil, which is the state of all those who are out of the church, either having never been members of it, or, according to the rules of Christ, cast out of the communion of it. For the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus: the end of excommunication is not for the destruction of the person of him who is cast out, but for the destruction of his flesh, that is, his lusts, which are often in Scripture called flesh, or the maceration and affliction of his body through grief and sorrow; for a determination of his fleshly being cannot be here understood by the destruction of the flesh, for that is no effect of excommunication; and those who interpret the delivery to Satan, of an extraordinary punishment, which the apostles or church in the primitive times had a power to inflict, make it to terminate not in the death, but in the torments only, of the person so punished. Again, the apostle mentioneth this punishment as a means to the eternal salvation of this person’s soul in the day of Christ. There is no text in Scripture which more clearly asserts and opens the ordinance and nature of excommunication, than this text doth. As to those who are to inflict it, it lets us know, that it is to be done by the church, when gathered together; though the elders of the church may put the church upon it, and decree it, yet the consent and approbation of the whole church must be to it; and indeed it is vain for the officers of a church to cast any out of a communion, when the members of that communion will yet have communion with him or them so cast out. It also lets us know, that it is a censure by which men are not shut out of the fellowship of men as men, but of men as Christians, as a church of Christ, in such religious actions and duties as concern them, considered as such a body: excommunication doth not make it unlawful for persons to buy and sell with the persons excommunicated, but to eat and drink at the Lord’s table with them, or have communion with them in acts proper to a church as the church of Christ. The excommunicated person is in something a better condition than a heathen, for he is not to be counted as an enemy, but admonished as a brother, 2 Thess 3:15. Heathens also may hear the word; he is only to be avoided in acts of church fellowship; and as to intimate communion, though it be not religious, as appeareth from 1 Cor 5:11, and from 2 Thess 3:14. Further, we are taught from hence, that none ought to be excommunicated but for notorious, scandalous sins, nor without a solemn invocation on the name of Christ, inquiring his will in the case. We are further taught, that the person that is duly excommunicated is in a miserable state, he is delivered up to Satan, cast out of God’s special protection, which is peculiar to his church, and oftentimes exposed to formidable temptations. Finally, we are from this text instructed, that excommunication ought to be so administered, as may best tend to the saving of the soul of him that falls under that censure: men’s end in excommunications should not be the ruin of persons in their health or estates, only the humbling of them, and bringing them to a sense of their sins, and a true repentance; and all means in order to that end should be used, even to such as are cast out of any church, such are repeated admonitions, the prayers of the church for them, etc.
1 Cor 5:6. You boast and glory because you have men of parts amongst you, persons whom the world count wise; your glorying is not good; what do you glory for, when you have such a scandalous person amongst you, and take no care to cast him out? Can you be ignorant, that as a little leaven taken into the midst of the meal, and there kept, presently soureth the whole mass, and leaveneth the whole lump; so one notorious, scandalous sinner detained in the bosom of a church, casts a blot upon the whole church?
1 Cor 5:7. Purge out therefore the old leaven: if the article th_n in this place be emphatical (as some think) it ought to have been translated this old leaven, that is, the incestuous person, whose communion with you influenceth your whole communion, which is defiled by it, through your church’s neglect of their duty with reference to him. If the article be not to be taken emphatically, these words may be understood as spoken to every individual member of this church, and is no more than put off the old man; the lusts and corruptions of our hearts, as well as false doctrine, being compared to leaven, which influence our whole man, as leaven doth the whole mass of meal. The first seemeth to be most proper to this place, if we consider what went before, and that the apostle is speaking to the whole church, and had been before speaking of an act to be done by them not singly, but when they should be gathered together in a church assembly; these he commands to purge out the old leaven, that is, this incestuous person. That ye may be a new lump; that they might be truly a Christian church, reformed from such things as no way agreed with the doctrine and profession of the gospel. As ye are unleavened; as you are or should be unleavened, like the Jews, who at the passover kept the feast of unleavened bread, when for seven days together they might have no leavened bread in any of their houses, Lev 23:6. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; for though the feast of the Jewish passover be ceased, and you be tied to none of those Levitical observations, yet you are under as high an obligation; for Christ, who is the true paschal Lamb, is slain or sacrificed for us, and your old man should be crucified with him, and you no longer serve sin.
1 Cor 5:8. Therefore let us keep the feast: here is a manifest allusion to the feast of the Jewish passover, which was immediately followed with the feast of unleavened bread for seven days. As the passover prefigured Christ, who is our paschal Lamb, whose flesh we eat and whose blood we drink by believing, and sacramentally in the Lord’s supper; so the Jewish subsequent feast of unleavened bread prefigured all the days of a Christian’s life, which are to be spent, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth: which may be either understood of those evil and good habits which they signify, and so let us know the duty of every particular Christian to take heed of any malice or wickedness; or else (which seemeth most proper to this place) the abstract is put for the concrete, malice and wickedness for wicked and malicious men, and sincerity and truth for persons that are true and sincere. So that we are from hence taught, both the duty of every particular Christian, considering that Christ hath died as a sacrifice for his sin, to live up to the rule which he hath given us, abhorring malice and all wickedness, and acting truth and sincerity; and also the duty of every true church of Christ, to keep their communion pure from the society of wicked and malicious men, and made up of men of truth and sincerity. The latter seemeth to be principally intended.
1 Cor 5:9. It should seem that Paul had wrote so in some former epistle which he had directed to this church, which is lost; for we must think that Paul wrote more epistles to the several churches than those left us upon record in holy writ (yet so as not to undermine the perfection of the Holy Scriptures). By fornicators are meant any sorts of unclean persons known to them; and the keeping company with them, which the apostle had prohibited to the Corinthians, was not a mere fellowship with them in their works of darkness, but any intimacy of communion with any such persons.
1 Cor 5:10. Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world; I did not intend that admonition as to such persons as were no Christians, no members of the church (so this term world is used, John 15:19; John 17:14; and so it is to be interpreted here). He extendeth this admonition to other scandalous sinners, such as covetous persons, by which he understandeth such as by any open and scandalous acts discover their too great love of money, whether by oppression, or by cheating and defrauding, etc.; or extortioners, such as exact more than their due; or with idolaters, by which he understandeth such as worship images: and under these few species of scandalous sinners here mentioned, the apostle understands all others alike scandalous. For then must ye needs go out of the world; for (saith he) you could have no commerce nor trading with men in the world, if you might keep no company with such as these. Which is true at this day, when the world is much more Christianized than it was at that time.
1 Cor 5:11. Of late there have been some disputes what eating is here intended, whether at the Lord’s table, or at our common tables. Intimacy of communion is that which undoubtedly is here signified by eating; and the apostle’s meaning is, that the members of this church should forbear any unnecessary fellowship and communion with any persons that went under the name of Christians, and yet indulged themselves in any notorious and scandalous courses of life; of which he reckoneth up several sorts. 1. Unclean persons, noted for any kind of uncleanness. 2. Covetous persons; by which he understands all such as, out of their too great love of money, either scandalously sought to add to their heap, or to detain what was others’ just due. 3. Idolaters; by which he understands such as out of fear, or to gain favour with the heathen amongst whom they lived, would frequent and perform Divine worship in the idol’s temple. 4. Railers, such as used their tongues intemperately and scandalously, to the prejudice of others’ reputation. 5. Drunkards; under which notion he comprehends all such as drank hot liquors intemperately, whether they had such an effect upon them as to deprive them of the use of their reason or not. 6. Extortioners, viz. such as, being in any place, exacted more than was their due of those that were under their power. But yet by this interpretation the argument is not lost against eating with such at the table of the Lord, which is no more necessary communion with them, than civil eating is; for neither hath God spread that table for any such, neither ought any church to endure any such persons in its communion: nor are any Christians bound for ever to abide in the communion of that church, which shall wilfully neglect the purging out of such old leaven. Admitting this precept prohibitive of a civil intimacy with scandalous persons, though they be called brethren, it holds a fortiori, as a stronger argument against religious communion with such, in ordinances to which, apparently, they have no proximate right.
1 Cor 5:12. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? My jurisdiction extendeth not to heathens; God hath intrusted to me not the government of the world, but the government of his church. Do not ye judge them that are within? Nor would I have you concern yourselves further, than in judging your own members, those that are within the pale of your church, and who, by a voluntary joining with you, have given you a power over them.
1 Cor 5:13. But them that are without God judgeth; for heathens that live brutish and scandalous lives, God will judge them; the church hath nothing to do with them, they never gave up themselves to them, and are only under the justice of God in the administrations of his providence. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person: do you, therefore, what belongs to you to do. This incestuous person, besides his subjection to God’s judgment, who is the Judge of all, whether within or without the church, is subjected also to your judicature; therefore use that power which God hath given you, and put away from amongst you that evil person. The conclusion of this discourse helps us clearly to understand those former precepts, Purge out the old leaven, 1 Cor 5:7, and: Let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, 1 Cor 5:8; that they are not so properly to be interpreted of particular Christians’ purging out their lusts and corruptions, (though that be every good Christian’s duty,) as of every Christian church’s duty to purge themselves of flagitious and scandalous persons.
1 CORINTHIANS 6
1 Cor 6:1-6: The Corinthians are reproved for bringing their controversies before heathen judges, which they ought to decide among themselves.
1 Cor 6:7-11: There would be no occasion for lawsuits, if men acted up to the principles of the gospel, which exclude from the kingdom of God all notorious transgressors of the moral law.
1 Cor 6:12-14: All lawful things are not expedient,
1 Cor 6:15-20: but fornication is a gross offer we against our bodies, which are members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, and not our own to dispose of otherwise than to God’s glory.
1 Cor 6:1. The apostle having already sharply reflected upon this church for their pride, and contentions, and divisions, (which were branches from that root,) and for their vilifying him who was their spiritual father, and magnifying their instructors above him, as also for their looseness in their church discipline; he cometh in this chapter to another thing, viz. their going to law before pagan judges; for such was the misery of those times, that they had no other, though some think that they might have had, the pagan persecutions being as yet not begun. The apostle speaks of this as a thing which he wondered that they durst be guilty of, that they should be no more tender of the glory of God in the reputation of the Christian religion, and should not rather choose arbitrators amongst the members of their church, to hear and determine such differences as arose amongst them, than give pagans an occasion to reproach the Christian religion for the contentions and feuds of Christians. The reputation of the gospel and the professors of it being the thing for which Paul was here concerned, and upon the account of which he thus speaketh; it becometh Christians yet to consider, whether what he saith concerneth not them, where either the judges, or the generality of the auditors in such judgments, may probably reproach religion, or that way of God which they own, for their trivial and uncharitable contentions.
1 Cor 6:2. If indeed the Corinthians had had no other competent judges, they might have been excused in making use of infidel judges; but, saith the apostle, you have other persons competent enough, whom you may (by your submission to them) make judges; for you know that the saints shall judge the world; in the same sense (as some think) as Christ saith the Ninevites and the queen of the south should rise up in judgment against the Jews, and condemn them; but certainly there is something more than that in it; when the apostle said, the saints should judge the world, he intended to say something of them which was not common to some heathens with them. Others therefore think, that the saints in the day of judgment shall judge the world, approving the sentence of Christ pronounced against the world, and as being assessors with Christ, which indeed is what Christ said of the apostles, Matt 19:28; Luke 22:39. Others think, that the phrase only signifieth a great honour and dignity, to which the saints shall be advanced. A late learned and very critical author hath another notion of the saints’ judging the world here spoken of, interpreting it of a time when the secular judgment of the world should be given to the saints, which was prophesied by Daniel, Dan 7:18,27, and therefore might be known by them. If this be the sense, it is either a prophecy of God’s giving the government of the world into the hands of Christians, (which fell out after this in Constantine’s time,) or else it signifies such a time towards the end of the world, as those that expect a fifth monarchy speak of, when those that are true saints, in the strictest sense, shall have the government of the world; which seemeth not probable, considering what the Scripture speaks of persecutions, and wars, and disorders, rather increasing than abating towards the end of the world. The apostle therefore here seemeth rather to speak of the saints judging the world in the last day, approving the sentence of Christ the Judge of the quick and the dead; or else to prophesy of that time, when Christianity should so far obtain in the world, that the government either of the whole world, or of a great part of it, should be in the hands of Christians. From whence the apostle strongly concludeth the competency of Christians to arbitrate and determine little matters of difference amongst Christians, in their commerce and civil dealings one with another.
1 Cor 6:3. That the saints shall judge angels, is here so plainly asserted, as a thing within their knowledge, that none can doubt it; but how, or when, or what angels, is not so easily determined. The best interpreters understand it of the evil angels, that is, the devils, whom the saints shall judge at the last day, agreeing with the Judge of the whole earth in the sentence which he shall then give against the evil angels, confining them to the bottomless pit, who, while this world lasteth, have a greater liberty as princes of the air, to rove abroad in the air, and to work mightily in the children of disobedience. Others understand the judging of angels here mentioned, of the spoiling of the devils of the kingdom that they exercise in the world, in the places where the gospel hath not prevailed, by lying oracles, and seducing men to idolatry, and the worshipping of devils: in which sense Christ said: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, John 12:31. From hence the apostle argues the competency of their brethren to judge of and to determine those little matters which were in difference betwixt them, being but things concerning this life, and so of far less consequence than the judging of the world and the evil angels at the last day.
1 Cor 6:4. If then ye have judgment of things pertaining to this life, that is, if you have any cause of suing or impleading one another for things that pertain to this life, be they of what nature they will, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church; rather commit the umpirage and determination of such little differences to the meanest members of your church, than go to contend before pagans and infidels: or do not employ your teachers about them, who have higher work to be employed in; but employ those who are of a lower order in the church, and whose business and concerns lie in secular affairs.
1 Cor 6:5-6. I do not speak this, as if I would have you make choice of the meanest persons among you to arbitrate and determine all matters that may be in difference betwixt you; but it would be a shame to you if, amongst you all, there could not be found one man whom you can judge wise enough to determine differences betwixt you about things of this life, without bringing one another into pagan courts, to the reproach and scandal of the religion which you profess: make use of any, yea, the meanest Christians, in such judgments, rather than infidels and unbelievers, who will make use of your differences to the reproaching of the holy name of God.
1 Cor 6:7. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another; not that it is simply unlawful for men to make use of human laws, and courts, and methods of judicature; for even the laws of men are good, if they be lawfully used: and the word here used by the apostle is h#tthma, which signifieth rather an impotency or weakness of mind and affections, a defect or diminution from perfection, than any scandalous sin. Going to law with brethren (though lawful in itself) may be made unlawful by circumstances: 1. When it is before judges that are unbelievers, so as men’s going to law before them tends to the reproach of religion, the credit and reputation of the gospel ought to be dearer to us than any little secular concern. This was the case in this place. 2. When it is for little matters, such as a coat or a cloak. It is against the law of charity to do another a great wrong to recover to ourselves a little that is our right. 3. When we cannot do it without wrath, anger, impatience, covetousness, or desire of revenge. It is a thing possible to go to law without sin, but what very few do, through that corruption which cleaveth to corrupt nature. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? It is therefore far more becoming conscientious Christians to take a little wrong, and to suffer themselves to be cheated of their right, especially under such circumstances, where the credit of the gospel and religion must lose more than they can get. And to do otherwise speaks h#tthma, a defect or imperfection in Christians, and is not without its guilt. If, by their contentiousness, they do not show themselves so bad as some would make them, who hold all contendings at law amongst Christians unlawful, yet they do not show themselves so good as the rule of Christianity requireth them to be, Matt 5:39-40; Luke 6:29; Rom 12:19.
1 Cor 6:8. The apostle riseth higher in his charge against them; he had before only charged them for want of self-denial, that they could not bear or suffer wrong; he now chargeth them for doing wrong and defrauding, and that not heathens, (which yet had been bad enough,) but Christians that were their brethren, whom they had the highest obligations upon them imaginable to love, and to do good to. And indeed this charge followeth directly upon the other: for as in war, one army always are murderers, or guilty of the blood which they spill; so in suing at law, (which is a civil war betwixt the two parties,) either the one or the other party suing must do wrong, either putting his brother to trouble and expense, to recover of him what is not his right, or that he might withhold from him what is truly and indeed his right, either of which is indeed a doing of wrong or defrauding.
1 Cor 6:9. That by the kingdom of God is here meant the kingdom of glory, the happiness of another life, is plain, because he speaketh in the future tense; this kingdom, he saith, the unrighteous, that is, those who so live and die, shall not inherit. If we take the term unrighteous here to be a generical term, the species, or some of the principal species, of which are afterwards enumerated, it signifieth here the same with notoriously wicked men. But if we take it to signify persons guilty of acts of injustice towards themselves or others, it cannot be here understood as a general term, relating to all those species of sinners after enumerated; for so idolaters cannot properly be called unrighteous, but ungodly men. Be not deceived, (saith the apostle,) either by any false teachers, or by the many ill examples of such sinners that you daily have, nor by magistrates’ connivance at these sins. Neither fornicators; neither such as, being single persons, commit uncleanness with others (for here the apostle distinguisheth these sinners from adulterers, whom he mentioneth afterward). Nor idolaters; nor such as either worship the creature instead of God, or worship the true God before images. Nor adulterers; nor such as, being married persons, break their marriage covenant, and commit uncleanness with such as are not their yokefellows. Nor effeminate persons; nor persons that give up themselves to lasciviousness, burning continually in lusts. Nor abusers of themselves with mankind; nor such as are guilty of the sin of Sodom, a sin not to be named amongst Christians or men.
1 Cor 6:10. Nor thieves; nor such as take away the goods of their neighbours clandestinely, or by violence, without their consent or any just authority. Nor covetous; nor persons who discover themselves excessively to love money, by their endeavours to get it into their hands any way, by oppression, cheating, or defrauding others. Nor drunkards; nor persons that make drinking their business, and use it excessively, without regard to the law and rules of temperance and sobriety. Nor revilers; nor persons that use their tongues intemperately, railing at others, and reviling them with reproachful and opprobrious names. Nor extortioners; nor any such as by violence wring out of people’s hands what is not their due. None of these, not repenting of these sinful courses, and turning from them into a contrary course of life, shall ever come into heaven.
1 Cor 6:11. In the two last verses the apostle had pronounced a terrible sentence, especially to the Corinthians, who, having been heathens lately, had wallowed in a great deal of this guilt; he therefore here, that they might be humbled, and have low thoughts of themselves, and not be puffed up, (as he had before charged them,) mindeth them, that some of them had been guilty of some of these enormous sins, some of them of one or some of them, and others of other of them. But, that they might not despair in their reflections upon that guilt, he tells them, they were washed, \ not only with the baptism of water, but with the baptism of the blood of Christ, and with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, born again of water and of the Spirit, John 3:5; yea, and not only washed, but sanctified, filled with new, spiritual habits, through the renewing of the Holy Ghost: having obtained a true righteousness, in which they might stand and appear before God, even the righteousness of Christ, reckoned unto them for righteousness; justified through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, and sanctified through the Spirit of holiness. So that the washing, first mentioned in this verse, seemeth to be a generical term, comprehending both justification, remission of sin, and deliverance from the guilt of it; and also regeneration and sanctification, which is the proper effect of the Spirit of grace, creating in the soul new habits and dispositions, by which it is enabled and inclined, as to die unto sin, so to live unto God. This the apostle doth not say of them all, (for it is very probable there were in this church some hypocrites,) but of some of them.
1 Cor 6:12. The words of this text are not so difficult in themselves, as it is to make out the connection they have with, and the dependence they have upon, what went before and what followeth after. Some, thinking that they refer unto what the apostle had said before about their going to law before infidels in the first seven verses, lest any should say: Is it not then lawful for men to sue at law for their just dues and rights? The apostle answers: Admit it be, yet Christians ought not only to consider what is strictly lawful and just, but they ought to consider circumstances; for: Quicquid non expedit, in quantum non expedit non licet, is an old and good rule; An action that is in itself lawful, may be by circumstances made sinful and unlawful; and that was the case as to the Christians going to law before infidels. But others, and those the most, think that the apostle here begins a new head of discourse to dissuade from the sin of fornication, and from an intemperate use of meat and drink, as being provocative of lust, and disposing them to that sin. Now, lest they should say, Is it not lawful then to eat and drink liberally, must we eat and drink for bare necessity? he answereth: All things are lawful for me; that is, all things which are not forbidden by the law of God may be used, may be done, under fair circumstances; but circumstances may alter the case, all things may not be expedient to be used or done by all persons, or at all times. The Corinthians might possibly conclude too much from what he had told them, that they were washed, justified, and sanctified, viz. that now all things were lawful to them, at least all things not simply and absolutely condemned in the word of God: the apostle correcteth their mistake, by telling them they were to have a regard to expedience, and the profit of others, the neglect of which might make things that were in themselves lawful to become unlawful. Besides that, they must take heed that they did not make such a use, even of lawful things, as to be brought under the power of them; which men are, when they become potent temptations to them to sin against God any way.
1 Cor 6:13. The beginning of this verse seemeth to give a great light to our true understanding of the former verse, and maketh it very probable that the apostle spake with reference to the free use of meats and drinks, when he said: All things are lawful for me. Though God hath ordained meats for the filling of the belly, and hath made the belly for the receptacle of meats, for the nourishment of the body, so as the use of meats and drinks is lawful; yet when we see that the free use of them proveth inexpedient, as too much pampering the body, and disposing it to wantonness, so far as they do so they are to be avoided. Others make the connection thus: All your contests are but for things which concern the belly, for meats and drinks, for perishing things; now, in things of this nature, all things that are lawful are not expedient. Others say, that the apostle here answereth or obviateth what the Nicolaitanes or the Epicureans held, that all sorts of meats and drinks were lawful, yea, fornication itself. The apostle grants the first, but denieth the second, there being not a parity of reason for the lawfulness of meats and drinks, and of fornication. He tells them, God had ordained meats for the belly of man, and had created the stomach and belly for the reception of meats for the nourishment of man’s body, and the preservation of his life; yet they ought to use them lawfully, and to consider expedience in the use of them, and not too eagerly to contend for them, for God shall destroy both the belly, and the use of meats as to the belly. In the resurrection, as men shall not marry, nor give in marriage, so they shall hunger and thirst no more. But God had not created the body of a man for fornication, but for himself, that men by and with it might glorify his name, by doing his will. And the Lord is for the body, as the Head of it, to guide and direct the use of the several members of it; and as the Saviour of it, to raise it up at the last day, as he further declareth in the next words.
1 Cor 6:14. And God hath both raised up the Lord; the Lord Jesus Christ, as the firstfruits of those that sleep, from whose resurrection the apostle largely proveth our resurrection, 1 Cor 15. And will also raise up us by his own power: God will raise up his saints by his own Almighty power.
1 Cor 6:15. Christ is united to the person of the believer, and he is the Head of the church, which is his mystical body; so that the bodies of believers are in a sense the members of Christ, and should be used by us as the members of Christ, which we should not rend from him: but he that doth commit fornication, rends his body from Christ, and maketh it the member of an harlot; for as the man and wife are one flesh by Divine ordination, Gen 2:24, so the fornicator and the harlot are one flesh by an impure conjunction.
1 Cor 6:16. The conjunction of the husband and wife, mentioned Gen 2:24, and the conjunction of the fornicator and the harlot, differ not as to the species of the act, only as to the morality of it; the former is an honest and lawful act, the other a dishonest and filthy act. So that he that is wickedly joined to a harlot, maketh himself one flesh with her with whom he committeth that folly and lewdness, and he must needs by it separate his body from its membership with Christ, whose holiness will admit no such union.
1 Cor 6:17. This phrase joined unto the Lord, is thought to be taken out of Deut 10:20: To him shalt thou cleave. He that hath attained to that mystical union which is betwixt Christ and every one that is a true believer, is not essentially, but spiritually and mystically, one spirit with Christ; his spirit is united to the Spirit of Christ, and he is one by him in faith and love, and by obedience, Christ and he have one will, and he is ruled and governed by Christ: therefore you must take heed what you do in making your bodies the members of harlots, which they cannot be, and the members of Christ also.
1 Cor 6:18. The apostle cometh to a new argument, by which he presseth them to flee the sin of uncleanness. It is observed by some, that this sin is peculiarly to be resisted, not so much by resisting it, and pondering arguments against it, as by flying from it, avoiding all occasions of it, and not suffering our thoughts to feed upon it; but the apostle’s argument is, because other sins are without the body, that is, the body hath not such a blemish and note or mark of infamy laid upon it by any other sin as by this: in drunkenness the liquor, in gluttony the meat, in other sins something without a man’s self is that which is abused, but the body itself is the thing which is abused in this filthy sin. So he that is guilty of it, sinneth not only against his wife, with whom he is one flesh, but against his body, which he abuseth in this vile and sinful act, and upon which he imprints a mark of infamy and disgrace, a blot not to be washed out but with the blood of Christ. So as though by other sins men may sin against their own bodies, yet by no sin so eminently as by this sin. Other sins have their seat in the mind and soul; the body, and commonly some particular member of the body, is but the servant of the soul in the execution and committing of them; but lust, though indeed it ariseth from the heart, yet it is committed more in the body than any other sin is.
1 Cor 6:19. The apostle, 1 Cor 3:16, had called the church of Corinth, the temple of God, and there made use of it to dissuade them from dissensions and divisions, because by them they defiled and destroyed the temple of God; here he calls the members of that church, the temple of the Holy Ghost, which strongly proveth the Holy Ghost to be God: he makes use of it here as an argument to dissuade them from the sin of fornication. God’s temple was built for his habitation upon earth, the place which he chose most to manifest himself in to his people, and for a place wherein his people were to pay him that external homage and worship, which he required of them under the law. So as the apostle’s calling them the temple of the Holy Ghost, both minded them of the favour God had bestowed on them, and also of that homage and duty which they with their bodies were to pay unto God; the latter they could not perform, nor hope for the former, while they lived in the practice of a sin so contrary to the will of God. Besides, he mindeth them, that their bodies were not their own, they had them of God: they had them from God by creation, and they were upheld by the daily workings of his providence in their upholding and preservation; God had not given them their bodies for this use, the body was not for fornication, as he had told them, 1 Cor 6:13. So as in abusing their bodies, they abused what was not their own, nor in their own power to use, as they listed to use them; but to be used only for those ends, and in that manner, that he who had given them had prescribed and directed: and in these abuses there was a kind of sacrilege; as God of old charged the Jews, Ezek 16:17-19, that they had taken the jewels of his gold and his silver, to make images, and commit spiritual whoredom with them; and they had taken his meat, his fine flour, his oil, and incense to set before them, etc.
1 Cor 6:20. For ye are bought with a price; what price this is that is here mentioned Peter tells us, both negatively and positively, 1 Pet 1:18-19: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. So he argueth with them against this sin from their redemption, it being suitable to reason, that those who are redeemed out of any slavery or captivity, should be the servants of him who redeemed them, not of those tyrants from whom they are redeemed; such are our lusts and corruptions, from which we are redeemed, as well as from that curse and wrath, which is the consequent of them. Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s; therefore, (saith the apostle,) you who are redeemed with a price, and with such a price, are bound to glorify God, as by speaking well of his name, so by obeying his will, Matt 5:16. And this you are bound to do, not with your bodies or your spirits only, but in or with your bodies and spirits also, that is, with your whole man; for both of them are God’s, by a manifold right, not that of creation and providence only, but that of redemption also: with which exhortation the apostle finisheth this discourse, and cometh to give them an answer to some questions about which they had wrote unto him.
1 CORINTHIANS 7
1 Cor 7:1-9: Marriage is to be used as a remedy against fornication.
1 Cor 7:10-11: Christ hath forbidden to dissolve the bond thereof.
1 Cor 7:12-16: Directions how to act where one of the parties is an unbeliever.
1 Cor 7:17-24: Every man must abide in and fulfil the duties of the state wherein he was called.
1 Cor 7:25-38: Directions concerning the marriage of virgins, respecting the distress of the times,
1 Cor 7:39-40: and concerning the second marriage of widows.
1 Cor 7:1. It seemeth, that though this church was very much corrupted, yet some of them retained a reverence for this great apostle, and had wrote one or more letters to him about some points, to which he returneth answer. It seemeth that one thing they had wrote to him about, was about marriage; not about the lawfulness of marrying, (that doctrine of devils was not broached so early in the world,) but concerning the advisableness of marriage, and men’s use of their wives, in that afflicted state of the church. The apostle answereth, that it is good for a man not to touch a woman. When he saith: It is good, he means only more convenient, or better, with respect to the troubled state of the church, or that persons might be more at liberty for the service of God and the duties of religion. Upon these accounts it were more convenient for a man not to marry, for that he meaneth by touching a woman.
1 Cor 7:2. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication; in the Greek it is, Because of fornications; the sense of which can be no other than this which our translators give. The word is in the plural number, to signify that that which he meaneth by this term, is all sorts of impurities and uncleannesses, which are the products of the lusts of the flesh. These are sins of that nature and species, that if we cannot choose what in respect of some circumstances would be more convenient, we must balk it, rather than run into such a guilt. The apostle doth therefore determine, that in this case it was every man’s duty to marry, and every woman’s likewise; the reason of which must be, because God had ordained marriage as a means to bridle men, and restrain them from extravagant lusts. His own wife, her own husband; a clear place against polygamy.
1 Cor 7:3. The word translated due benevolence, signifieth due goodwill or kindness, but from 1 Cor 7:5, it appeareth what the apostle meaneth: Moses, Exod 21:10, calleth it, the duty of marriage; both of them using a modest term in expressing the conjugal act, as we shall observe the Scripture always doing, when there is occasion to mention what men of profane hearts are ready to make a scoff at. The apostle maketh this the mutual duty both of husband and wife, under due circumstances, therefore useth the word render, which implieth the thing required to be an act of justice.
1 Cor 7:4. He gives the reason of it; because marriage takes away from each married person the power over his or her own body, and giveth it to their correlate. The apostle seemeth here to answer a question propounded to him by some members of this church: Whether, though they were married, the husband and wife might not forbear each other’s bed, and make us of their society each with other merely for helps in other things, such as getting an estate, looking after the affairs of a family, etc.? Which the apostle doth by no means judge advisable.
1 Cor 7:5. Defraud not one the other; that is: Withhold not yourselves one from another; which he rightly calls defrauding one another, because he had before declared it a debt; and further declared, that neither the husband nor the wife had a power over their own bodies, but the power of either of their bodies was in their correlate. He adds, except it be with consent, mutual consent, and then it is indeed no defrauding; and for a time, for a religious end, that they might give themselves to fasting and prayer: not that this abstinence is necessary to us by any Divine precept, to prepare us for solemn prayer, (for such only is here spoken of,) for then the apostle would not have made consent necessary in this case; but the Jews were commanded it, Exod 19:15, as a preparation to their hearing of the law; and it was a piece of the legal purification, as appeareth from 1 Sam 21:4, as to which Christians were at liberty, and might observe or not observe it, as they agreed. And come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency: then he requires, that they should return to their former course, not defrauding one another, lest the devil, observing their abstinence, should tempt them to unlawful mixtures, seeing their inability to contain themselves within the bounds of temperance and chastity.
1 Cor 7:6. Some refer these words to all that had gone before in this chapter; but the best interpreters rather refer them to what went immediately before in the preceding verse, declaring, that he had no express command from God, as to those things of abstaining for a time for fasting and prayer, and then coming together again, but he spake what he judged equitable and reasonable; but as to particular persons, they ought to judge and govern themselves according to their particular circumstances.
1 Cor 7:7. I would that all men were even as I myself: I would, in this place, can signify no more than, I could wish or desire, (if it were the will of God,) that all Christians had the gift of continency, which God (blessed be his name) hath given me: that this is meant, is plain by the next words, and 1 Cor 7:9: it is apparent that Paul did not will this absolutely, for that had been to have willed the dissolution of the world, as well as the church, within the compass of that age. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that: But, saith the apostle, every one hath not the gift of continency, one hath it, another hath it not; which is the same thing which our Saviour said in reply to his disciples, saying: If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given, Matt 19:10.
1 Cor 7:8. By the unmarried and widows, it is apparent that Paul means virgins that were never married, and such as, having been once married, had lost their husbands: though the first word, in the Greek, had been significative enough of persons in both these states; yet the apostle’s using of two words, makes it past dispute; when he saith, it is good for such to be as he was, his meaning is, that it was better with respect to the present circumstances of Christians, or it was convenient, in which notion good is often taken, not for what is absolutely good; and indeed the nature of all good lieth in the conveniency or suitableness of the thing so called to us; and though in the Divine precepts there is always such a suitableness, so as they must be always good, yet in other things, which God hath left to our liberty, (such as is this of marriage,) a thing may be good or evil, as the circumstances of several persons, yea, of the same person, may vary. St. Paul considereth only the circumstances of the world common to all Christians, and upon them, determines this goodness, supposing the circumstances of the particular person not to rule otherwise. His not saying, it is good for them not to marry, but to be as he was, hath bred a question of no great import to be determined: Whether Paul was ever married or not? In the determination of which the ancients could not agree; but it is not worth spending our time about, considering that all agree he was at this time unmarried, which is all he doth here mean: if St. Paul was never married, we are sure Peter was, for we read of his wife’s mother sick of a fever, Mark 1:30.
1 Cor 7:9. That St. Paul’s saying: It is good, etc. did not signify, it is the will of God, or, (as the papists would have it,) it is my counsel in order to your further perfection, is plain by his precept for them to marry if they could not contain; and this likewise lets us see that second marriages are not only lawful, but may be an incumbent duty, that is, if they who are concerned as to them cannot contain themselves within the bounds and rule of chastity, which must not only be interpreted with reference to acts of uncleanness. This is contradicted by the reason given by the apostle, determining that marriage was much more eligible than burning, which term signifies the inward fervour and eager inclinations of the mind, not the acts only of the outward man.
1 Cor 7:10. The apostle had spoke to the married before, but in another case, he now returneth in his discourse to them again, speaking to another case, which it should seem they had put to him; what it was is not plainly expressed, but it may easily be gathered from 1 Cor 7:12-13, as also from the apostle’s determination in this verse: or it was this: Whether it was lawful for the husband to depart from his wife, or the wife from her husband, unless it were in the case of adultery; for though here be nothing spoken as to that case, yet it plainly must be excepted, as determined before by our Saviour; but as the Jews, so the heathens amongst whom these Corinthians lived, had entertained much too mean thoughts about the marriage bond, indulging themselves in a liberty to break it for every slight cause; and it should seem by 1 Cor 7:12-13, it was judged by them a sufficient cause, if one of them were not converted to the faith of Christ. Now in this case, saith the apostle, I command, and what I tell you is the will of God; it is not I alone who command it, but you are to look upon it as the will of God concerning you, though revealed to you by me that am the minister of God to you. Let not the wife depart from her husband; she may be divorced from her husband in case of fornication, but let her not for any other cause make a voluntary secession.
1 Cor 7:11. How our translators came to translate xwrisqh~|, which is manifestly a verb passive, if she depart, I cannot tell. It signifieth, if she be departed, and so is as well significative of a being parted from her husband by a judicial act of divorce, as of a voluntary departing. The Jews were wont to give bills of divorce to their wives for any trivial cause. The word is to be interpreted as well of any legal divorce, not according to the true meaning of the Divine law, as concerning a voluntary secession; in which case the apostle commandeth that she should marry to no other: the reason is plain, because no such cause of divorce broke the bond of marriage; she was yet the wife of her former husband in God’s eye and account, and committed adultery if she married to another, as our Saviour had determined, Matt 5:32; Matt 19:9. But he gives her a liberty to be reconciled to her husband. In case that a woman put away by her husband became another man’s wife, by the law, Deut 24:4, she might not (though that latter husband died) return to her former husband; but in case she remained unmarried, she might be reconciled to him. And let not the husband put away his wife; the apostle giveth the same precept concerning husbands.
1 Cor 7:12. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord; either as to the other part of your Epistle, or as to the cases of the rest mentioned in your Epistle, I shall give you my advice so far as I am instructed by the Holy Spirit of God, though our Lord Jesus Christ hath set no certain rule concerning them. If any brother hath a wife that believeth not: that believeth not, both here and 1 Cor 7:13, signifieth, that hath not embraced the Christian faith, but still remaineth a pagan. And she be pleased to dwell with him; if there be no other matter of difference betwixt such persons, save only in matter of religion, let him not for that put her away. If a Christian man or woman had their choice to make, it were unlawful for either of them to make choice of a pagan for their yokefellow; but if, after marriage, either the husband or the wife embraceth the Christian faith, the other correlate still abiding a pagan, their difference in religion is not a sufficient ground for a separation: this seemeth to be the apostle’s meaning. The case seemeth a little different in the opinion of some divines, when the idolater or idolatress blasphemeth God and the true religion, and is continually tempting the correlate to apostacy: but it is hard to determine against the plain precept of so great an apostle, especially considering the reason by which he backeth his precept.
1 Cor 7:13-14. Sanctifying, in holy writ, generally signifieth the separation or setting apart of a person or thing from a common, to and for a holy use, whether it be by some external rites and ceremonies, or by the infusing of some inward spiritual habits. In this place it seemeth to have a different sense from what it usually hath in holy writ; for it can neither signify the sanctification of the person by infused habits of grace; for neither is the unbelieving husband thus sanctified by the believing wife, neither is the unbelieving wife thus sanctified by the believing husband; nor are either of them thus set apart for the service of God by any legal rites: which hath made a great difference in the notions of interpreters, how the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife, or the unbelieving wife, by the believing husband. Some think it signifies no more than prepared for God, as sanctified signifies, Isa 13:3. Others think they are sanctified by a moral denomination. I rather think it signifies, brought into such a state, that the believer, without offence to the law of God, may continue in a married estate with such a yokefellow; and the state of marriage is a holy state, notwithstanding the disparity with reference to religion. Else were your children unclean; otherwise, he saith, the children begotten and born of such parents would be unclean, in the same state that the children of pagan parents are without the church, not within the covenant, not under the promise. In one sense all children are unclean, i.e. children of wrath, born in sin, and brought forth in iniquity; but all are not in this sense unclean, some are within the covenant of grace, within the church, capable of baptism. But now are they holy; these are those that are called holy; not as inwardly renewed and sanctified, but relatively, in the same sense that all the Jewish nation are called a holy people: and possibly this may give us a further light to understand the term sanctified, in the former part of the verse. The unbelieving husband is so far sanctified by the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife so far sanctified by the believing husband, that as they may lawfully continue in their married relation, and live together as man and wife, so the issue coming from them both shall be by God counted in covenant with him, and have a right to baptism, which is one of the seals of that covenant, as well as those children both whose parents are believers.
1 Cor 7:15. If the unbelieving husband or the unbelieving wife will leave his or her correlate, that is, so leave them as to return no more to live as a husband or as a wife with her or him that is Christian, let him depart. Such a person hath broken the bond of marriage, and in such cases Christians are not under bondage, they are not tied by law to fetch them again, nor by the laws of God to keep themselves unmarried for their perverseness. But it may be objected, that nothing but adultery, by the Divine law, breaketh that bond. Answer. That is denied. Nothing but adultery is a justifiable cause of divorce: no man may put away his wife, nor any wife put away her husband, but for adultery. But the husband’s voluntary leaving his wife, or the wife’s voluntary leaving her husband, with a resolution to return no more to them, breaks also the bond of marriage, frustrating it as to the ends for which God hath appointed it; and, after all due means used to bring again the party departing to their duty, doth certainly free the correlate. So that although nothing can justify repudiation, or putting away a wife or a husband, and marrying another, but the adultery of the person so divorced and repudiated; yet the departure either of husband or wife without the other’s consent for a long time, and refusal to return after all due means used, especially if the party so going away doth it out of a hatred and abomination of the other’s religion, will justify the persons so deserted, after due waiting and use of means to reduce him or her to their duty, wholly to cast off the person deserting; for no Christian in such a case, by God’s law, is under bondage. But God hath called us to peace; for God hath called Christians unto peace, and in his ordinance of marriage aimed at the quiet and peace of his people in their service of him in their families and relations; and therefore as Christians ought not to disturb the peace of their own consciences, turning away their relations, though they be unbelievers; yet neither are they bound, if such will leave them, to court their own continual trouble and disturbance.
1 Cor 7:16. The apostle having before determined the lawfulness of a Christian husband’s or wife’s abiding in a state of marriage with a wife or husband that was an infidel, if she or he were willing to abide with the believer, now argues the great advantage which might be from it, for the glory of God, and the good of the soul of such husband or wife. What knowest thou, O wife? saith he; it is not certain that God will so far bless thy converse with thy husband or wife, as that thou shalt, by thy instruction, admonition, or example, be an occasion or instrument to bring them to Christ; but it is neither impossible nor improbable, and their willingness (notwithstanding their difference from thee in religion) yet to abide with thee, may give thee some hopes that they will hearken to thee. They are often (in the language of holy writ) said to save others, who are instrumental to bring them to Christ, 1 Cor 9:22; 1 Tim 4:16; James 5:20. We ought to bear with many inconveniences to ourselves, where our bearing with them may any way promote the glory of God or the good of souls.
1 Cor 7:17. Calling in this place signifieth that station and course of life, wherein by the providence of God any man is set. Some think, that this precept hath a special reference to what went before, as if the sense were this: If God by his providence hath so ordered it that thy heart be changed, thy wife’s or thy husband’s heart being not yet changed, but he or she remaining pagans, yet let not this cause any separation betwixt you, but, unless the unbeliever will depart, live yet as man and wife together, mutually performing conjugal offices each to other. But the following verses, (1 Cor 7:21-22,) where the apostle speaks of called being a servant, show this interpretation to be too narrow. The sense of the text is, that the profession of Christianity is consistent with any honest calling or course of life, and it is the will of God that Christians should not pretend their profession of religion, to excuse them from the duties of any relation wherein they are set. And so ordain I in all churches; this is a universal rule, and concerned not the church of Corinth only, but all other churches of Christ, being an apostolical constitution.
1 Cor 7:18. Is any one who was a native Jew, and so circumcised according to the Jewish law, converted (while he is in that state) to the faith of Christ? Let him not affect the state of him that, having been formerly a Gentile, was never circumcised. On the other side, is any, being a native Gentile, and so not circumcised, converted to Christianity? Let not him affect the state of one converted from Judaism, who was circumcised. This is, doubtless, the sense of the verse, not, (as some would have it,) let him not endeavour by art to make himself uncircumcised, which was the wicked practice of some, (for a better compliance with the Gentiles,) of whom we read, 1 Macc. 1:15.
1 Cor 7:19. Circumcision was an ordinance of God, a sign of God’s covenant, as necessary to salvation in its time, as the fulfilling of any precept of the law contained in ordinances: and uncircumcision also was something; for by the law relating to that ordinance, the uncircumcised male is determined to have broken God’s covenant, and determined to a cutting off, Gen 17:10-14. But in the present state of the church, circumcision was of no value or moment in the business of salvation: In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love, Gal 5:6.
1 Cor 7:20. Let every man abide in the same state and condition of life in which he was when he was first converted to the faith of Christ, that is, supposing that he was in an honest course of life; for we read in the Acts that the conjurers burnt their books, and unlawful courses of life must not be adhered to after men have once given up their names to Christ. The apostle’s design is only to show, that the profession of Christianity maketh no state of life unlawful, which was before that profession lawful, nor dischargeth any from such as were before the duties of persons in their circumstances and relations. They too far strain this text, who interpret it into an obligation upon all men, not to alter that particular way and course of life and trading to which they were educated, and in which they formerly have been engaged; though such a thing be of too great moment and consequence for any to do without just advice and deliberation. The world is a mutable thing, and trades and particular courses of life wear out, and what will now bring in a due livelihood, possibly seven years hence will not furnish any with bread; and it is unreasonable in such a case to think, that the rule of Christian profession ties up a man under these changes of providence to such a particular course of life, as he cannot, in it, in the sweat of his face eat his bread.
1 Cor 7:21. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: If while thou art a servant to another in any honest employment, thou art converted to the Christian religion, let it not trouble thee, mind it not. A man may be the servant of Christ, and yet a servant to men in any honest employment. But if thou mayest be made free, by the favour of thy friends, with the consent of thy master, use it rather; that is, (say some,) rather choose to be a servant still, (which indeed in some cases may be the duty of a good Christian,) that is, if thou seest, that in that station thou canst better serve God and the interest of thy master’s or other souls. But it is more probable the sense is, make use of thy liberty rather; for certain it is, that the freeman is ordinarily at more advantage for the service of God than he that is a servant.
1 Cor 7:22. For the state of a servant to men no way prejudiceth a man as to his spiritual liberty; a servant and a freeman, considered with reference to Christ, are both one; a servant may be as near the kingdom of heaven as a freeman; and let a man be in never so good a state of civil liberty, yet, if he be a Christian, he is still a servant of Christ, and bound in all things to obey him. As to the new man, there is neither bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
1 Cor 7:23. What price we are bought with, we heard, 1 Cor 6:20: the apostle there pressed it upon us as our duty to glorify God with our bodies and our spirits; here he presseth upon us another duty, viz. upon that consideration not to be the servants of men; by which some think he forbiddeth the selling themselves as slaves to infidels; others think that he only forbiddeth eyeservice, as the apostle calls it, Eph 6:6; while in the mean time they might be the servants of men, if they served them as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men. But the most probable interpretation is: Be not servants to the lusts of men: wherein you can serve men, and in the same actions also serve God, and be obedient to his will, you may be the servants of men; but be not servants of men in such actions wherein, to serve them, you must disobey God.
1 Cor 7:24. In whatsoever state or condition, whether he be married or unmarried, whether he be a master or a servant, whether he were before circumcised or uncircumcised, let him not think Christianity obligeth him to alter it; he may abide in it, only he must abide in it with God, as one who remembereth God’s eye is upon him, and seeth him, and that he is bound to approve himself in it unto God, and to keep a good conscience towards him, as one that is a member of the church of God, and under the laws of it.
1 Cor 7:25. He had before spoken to married persons and widows, now he comes to speak concerning virgins; and though he mentions only the female sex, yet the following words show that his advice extended to both. As to them he saith, he had no special direction from Christ, none that would suit the case of every virgin; but yet he would give his advice, what seemed to him best. And he would have them look upon him as one that himself had received mercy from the Lord, and as he desired to be faithful in the discharge of his trust, so might and ought to have credit given him in what he said. In which sense we read in Scripture of a faithful saying, a faithful Creator, a faithful man, etc.
1 Cor 7:26. Good here signifieth convenient, (as before,) if other circumstances of particular persons make it not sinful; or better with respect to the present distress or necessity: by which, without doubt, the apostle meaneth, not the common necessities of all men that are born once to die, (which is the more easy the fewer relations we have to part from,) nor yet of family troubles and concerns, for there is none who hath a family in this world to look after, but will have trouble in the flesh; but the continual troubles with which the church of God was disquieted, as the ark upon the waters, and the more special troubles of the primitive church; for though their great persecutions from the heathen were not, possibly, at that time begun, yet Christ had foretold them, and the apostles had them in a very near prospect (Paul is thought to have died the tenth or eleventh year of Nero). For this present necessity or distress, the apostle gives his opinion, that it was convenient and better, for those that could honestly abstain from marriage, to keep themselves in their single and unmarried condition.
1 Cor 7:27. Art thou bound by marriage, or bound by contract, do not use any sinful ways to be loosed from that bond, either by divorce or by a voluntary departure: if the unbeliever will depart, he or she may, you are not obliged to court their stay, but do not you put him or her away. Are you free from a wife, either as yet unmarried, or by the hand of God separated, in case you can without sin, abstain. If your circumstances be such as they do not oblige you to marriage, do not seek a wife; the times are like to be full of trouble and difficulty. Our Master said, Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! Matt 24:19.
1 Cor 7:28. I would not have you mistake me, as if I judged marriage sinful for persons in any state or condition, or of any sex; but those that are married in any time, will find troubles about the things of this life, and those that marry in such times as these are, and you are like further to see, will meet with more than ordinary troubles of this nature: I only would spare you, and have you keep yourselves as free as you can: or, I spare you any further discourse of that nature, not willing to torment you before the time cometh.
1 Cor 7:29. He had before spoken to what concerned some, now he comes to what concerneth all. The time (saith he) is short; furled up, like sails when the mariner comes near his port. He either meaneth the time of this life, or the time of the world’s duration; we often find the apostles speaking of their times as the last times (and in these senses all are concerned:) or the time of the church’s rest and tranquillity, which they had hitherto enjoyed in a far more perfect degree than they enjoyed them soon after this, when ten persecutions followed immediately one upon the neck of another. It remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; therefore (saith the apostle) it is the concernment of all Christians, not to indulge themselves too much in the pleasures and contentments of this life; but if ye be married, or shall marry, you will be concerned to keep your hearts as loose from the contentment and satisfaction men use to take in their wives, as if you had no wives at all.
1 Cor 7:30. And they that weep, as though they wept not; this consideration also should weigh with those who have a more afflicted portion in this life, and are mourners for the loss of their near relations; they have but lost what they could not long have kept, and for the time they kept them must have enjoyed them, probably, with a great deal of sorrow and bitterness. And they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and so for any of those who rejoiced in any worldly enjoyments, the shortness of the time they are like to have them to rejoice in, should admonish them to govern and moderate their joy, for it is like to be but like the crackling of thorns under a pot. And that they buy as though they possessed not; and those that have liberal possessions of good things in this life, they should look upon them as none of theirs, and use them as not like to be their possessions long.
1 Cor 7:31. And they that use this world, as not abusing it: while you have any thing of this world’s goods you may use them, yea, you must use them, without them you cannot live in the world; but the consideration how little the time is you are like to have them to use, should govern you in the use of them, so as you ought to take heed you do not use them to any other purpose, or for any other end, than that for which God hath appointed and given them to you. For the fashion of this world passeth away; for this world is like a stage or theatre where are diversities of scenes, and the present scene abideth but for a little time, then passeth, and another scene or figure of things appeareth: those who appear this day in the form of princes and nobles, tomorrow appear as beggars, and persons of a low estate and degree.
1 Cor 7:32. But I would have you without carefulness; the reason why I have advised (during the present distressed estate of the church) a single rather than a married life, for those to whom God hath given the gift of continency, is, that those who are Christians might live as free from such cares as divide and distract men’s and women’s minds, as they possibly can. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: the single person that hath a spiritual heart, disposed to pious performances, being free from other distractions and cares, caused by worldly occasions, will spend all his thoughts about his duty toward God, and how to please him.
1 Cor 7:33. But he that is married hath other things which he must take care about; for besides that he is obliged to provide for his family, husbands and wives are under some obligations to please each other by divertisements, which, though not in themselves sinful, yet take up time, which those free from such relations may spend more religiously.
1 Cor 7:34. There is the same difference betwixt a married woman and a single woman, as there is betwixt a married man and a single man. If a woman be unmarried, and be piously disposed, she hath leisure and opportunity enough to mind the things of God; but if she be married, she will then be obliged to attend secular affairs, to take care for her family, and to please her husband. It is the same thing that was before said of the man. The sense is, that a conjugal relation draws along with it many diversions, from which a single life is free.
1 Cor 7:35. And this I speak for your own profit; for your advantage both as to your converse in the world, and also for your religious conversation, and the performance of those duties which you owe unto God; for those that are married must meet with more troubles and cares in this life, and cannot have so much time and leisure for religious duties, as others have that are not entangled in the domestic cares of a family. Not that I may cast a snare upon you; yet I would not bring you under a snare, imposing what God hath not imposed, and obliging you where God hath not obliged you. But for that which is comely; the word here is eu!sxhmon, it strictly signifies a thing of a good figure, and is translated in Scripture honourable, Mark 15:43; Acts 13:50; Acts 17:11; where it signifies what is of a fair and good repute in the eye of the world; which is also the sense of it, 1 Cor 12:24, where we read of the comely parts of man’s body; but in this place the word signifies most largely, the same with profitable and convenient. For marriage is a state which neither is in itself indecent, nor ever was so reputed in the world by any nation, and the Scripture tells us, that marriage is honourable amongst all, Heb 13:4. The word therefore here is of the same significancy with sumfe/ron, which in the beginning of the verse is translated profit, and 1 Cor 6:12, is translated expedient. And that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction; the phrase in the Greek is very difficult to be translated properly into our English language, word for word it is, to sit well to the Lord without distraction; our translators render it, attend upon the Lord. We have something like it in our language, when we express our diligent attendance to a thing, under the notion of sitting close to a business; which is opposed to such an attendance to business as we give when we have many avocations and callings away, so as we cannot sit close to it. The apostle saith, that this was the end of his advising those who could contain not to marry under that state of things in the world referring to the church, that they might with more ease and conveniency attend to the great concerns of their souls, without those distracting and dividing thoughts which they must have who were entangled with domestic businesses and relations.
1 Cor 7:36. But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely: there is a general and a particular uncomeliness; some things are uncomely with respect to all persons; of such things the apostle doth not here speak; but of a particular uncomeliness with respect to the circumstances of particular persons. Neither doth uncomely here signify a mere indecency and unhandsomeness, but such a behaviour as suiteth not the general rules of the gospel, which judgment is to be ruled by the circumstances of persons, as they more or less desire marriage. If she pass the flower of her age; if she be of marriageable years, or rather, if she beginneth to grow old, and need so require, and be desirous of marriage, so as the parent seeth reason to fear that, if he gives her not in marriage, she will so dispose of herself without asking her father’s advice or leave, or be exposed, possibly, to worse temptations: which two things seem to interpret that term, if need so require. Let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry; in such a case as this a Christian parent shall not sin, if he disposeth her in marriage let her marry to such a person as she loveth, and her parent seeth proper for her. He speaks in the plural number because marriage is betwixt two persons. The reason of this determination is, because the apostle, in his former discourse, had no where condemned a married estate during the present distress of things, as sinful or unlawful, but only as inexpedient, or not so expedient as a single life during the present distress; he had before determined, 1 Cor 7:9, that it was better to marry than to burn. Now no inexpediency of a thing can balance what is plainly sinful. If therefore the case be such, that a man or woman must marry, or sin, through marriage brings with it more care and trouble, yet it is to be preferred before plain sinning.
1 Cor 7:37. Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart; if a man be resolved to keep his daughter a virgin, not uncertain in his own mind, and wavering what he should do, upon a just consideration of circumstances; having no necessity; and doth not see a necessity to dispose of her, either for the avoiding some sin against God, or for the better providing for himself and the rest of his family; but hath power over his own will; but hath a perfect freedom in his own will, so that his will be not contradicted by his daughter’s fondness of a married life; for in such a case the father, though he would willingly not dispose of his daughter in marriage, yet ought to be overruled by the will of his daughter, and so hath not a power over his own will, being forced by the rules of religion to take care of the soul and spiritual welfare of his child; for though the parent hath a great power over his child, and ought to consent to the marriage of his child, yet he hath no such power as wholly to hinder them from marriage. And hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin; if he be fully resolved, upon a due consideration of all circumstances, and the virgin be satisfied, and yields up herself in the case to her father’s pleasure, in such a case, if the father doth not put her upon marriage, but resolves to keep her unmarried, he doeth well; that is, not only he shall not sin against God, but he doth that which is more eligible, considering the present circumstances of things, and better than if he did find out a husband for her, and give her to him (as it is expounded in the next verse).
1 Cor 7:38. So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well: there is no general rule for all parents in this case, where the duty or sin of parents may arise from their or their children’s different circumstances. But supposing that a parent, having duly weighed all circumstances, be fully resolved, and he finds the child’s will concurring, that she can forbear, and is willing to do in the case what her parent desires; in such a case as this, if the parent disposeth her in marriage, I cannot say he sinneth, but he doth what he may do. But he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better; but with reference to the present state of things in the church and in the world, and with reference to the young woman’s liberty for the service of God, he doth better, if he doth not so dispose her. The thing is in itself indifferent, and Christians must be in it ruled and inclined one way or another from circumstances.
1 Cor 7:39. The apostle all along this chapter hath been speaking to several cases, which the church of Corinth had put to him concerning marriage; some that concerned persons already married, others that concerned such as were single, having been never married; he shutteth up his discourse with advice which relateth to such as had lost their husbands, with reference to second marriages. As to this he determineth, that no woman might marry again while her first husband lived; that is, unless her husband, be legally divorced from her for adultery, or unless her husband, being a heathen, had voluntarily deserted her: but if her husband were dead, she might marry to whom she would; yet she was not at such liberty, as that she might marry an unbeliever. Unbelievers are either heathens, or Christians in name, but such as are idolaters, or profane persons, or heretics, who hold such tenets as are inconsistent with any true faith in Jesus Christ. This phrase, only in the Lord, seemeth to oblige godly women, not only to avoid marrying with heathens, but with nominal Christians; that is, such who, although they have been baptized, and own Christ with their tongues, yet hold such damnable opinions, or live such profane lives, or worship God in such an idolatrous manner, as is inconsistent with any true faith in Christ. The reason of the precept holds as well to the latter as to the former.
1 Cor 7:40. But if other circumstances concur, that a widow can abide without marriage without waxing wanton, and running into temptation, and so as to manage her outward concerns without the help of a husband, my opinion is, that she is more happy if she keeps herself a widow, and doth not marry again; not more happy because more holy, or in a fairer road to the kingdom of heaven, but upon the two accounts before mentioned; more happy because free from troubles and distractions, and because she will be more free and at liberty to mind heavenly things. And I think also that I have the Spirit of God; and, saith he, I think I know as much of the mind of the Holy Spirit of God, as either those who teach you otherwise, or who may have opinions contrary to mine in this case.
1 CORINTHIANS 8
1 Cor 8:1-3: The preference of charity to knowledge.
1 Cor 8:4-6: An idol is nothing in the esteem of those who have right notions of one God, and of one Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 8:7-13: But it is sin in those, who by an indiscreet use of their knowledge, in eating meats offered to idols, tempt weaker consciences to offend.
1 Cor 8:1. The apostle proceedeth to a new argument, about which the Corinthians had wrote to him, viz. about the eating of meat offered to idols. Of this meat offered to idols we have this account given us: Feasts upon sacrifices were very usual amongst the heathens; they first offered oxen, sheep, or other cattle to the idol; then the priest offered a part, burning it upon the idol’s altar; other part they restored to the offerers, or took it to themselves. The priests made a feast in the idol’s temple of their parts, and invited friends to it. The offerers either so feasted with the part restored to them in the idol’s temple, or carried it home, and there feasted their neighbours with it; or else carried it into the market, and sold it (as other meat) in the shambles. The question was: Whether it was lawful for Christians, being invited to these feasts by those amongst whom they lived, to go to them, and to eat of such meat, whether it were in the idol’s temple, or at the pagans’ houses; or if any such meat were bought in the shambles, whether they might eat of that? Some amongst the Christians at Corinth thought any of these were lawful, because they knew an idol was nothing but a block, or piece of wood or stone, so could not defile any thing. The apostle tells them, that he knew very many of them had good degrees of knowledge, and every one understood that an idol was nothing; but yet he warneth them to take heed they were not puffed up with their knowledge, that is, swelled in such a confident opinion of it, that they thought they could not be mistaken, and be betrayed, by their conceit of it, to do that which is sinful; for charity edifieth. Charity signifieth either love to God, or love to our neighbour; here the latter seemeth to be intended, and the sense is: That they were not only concerned in the good of their own souls, but of their neighbours’ also, and to do that which might tend to their profit and edification, not to their ruin and destruction.
1 Cor 8:2. Let it be in this or any other matter, if any man be proud of his knowledge, and be conceited that he knoweth enough, and needeth none to instruct him, he may indeed have a notion of things, but it will do him no good; a man ought to use his knowledge for the glory of God, and the edification of others. Let a man have never so large a notion of things, if he be not humble, if he useth not his knowledge to the honour of God and the advantage of others, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know it. Knowledge is a talent not to be laid up in a napkin.
1 Cor 8:3. It is of much more advantage to a soul to be known of God, that is, owned, acknowledged, and approved, than to comprehend much of the things of God in its notion. A man may know much of God, and yet be one to whom God will one day say: Depart from me, I know you not, you workers of iniquity: but if any man love God, that man is beloved of God, and shall be owned and acknowledged by him. In this sense know is taken in a multitude of scriptures: see John 17:3. Our translators render this word allow, Rom 7:15.
1 Cor 8:4. Those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols; meat which is part of that sacrifice which hath been offered to an idol, whether it be to be eaten in the idol’s temple, or in a private house. We know that an idol is nothing in the world; we know that an image, or an idol, the representation of some other thing, though in respect of the matter it be something, either wood, stone, or earth, and in respect of form it be something, yet it is nothing formally, or representatively; though it is set up to represent to us a Deity, there is nothing of a Divine nature, or the representation of a Divine nature, in it. It is nothing of what the poor blind heathen take it to be, and therefore in the Hebrew it hath its name from a word la that signifieth nothing; Job 13:14; Zech 11:17: or it is nothing, that can either sanctify or pollute any meat that is set before it. And we know that there is none other God but one: the apostle may be conceived to have spoken these words as from himself, granting what those said who took themselves to be men of knowledge; or else in the language of those who thus spake, repeating their words.
1 Cor 8:5. There are many whom heathens call gods, and whom God himself calleth gods: the angels that are in heaven are called God’s host, Gen 32:2; the heavenly host, Luke 2:13; the sons of God, Job 1:6; Job 2:1. Magistrates are also called gods, Ps 82:6, because God hath committed a great part of his power unto them. Thus there are many gods and many lords.
1 Cor 8:6. Whatever the idolatrous heathens think or believe, to us (who are Christians) there is but one who is truly and essentially God, (though indeed there be more than one person in the Deity,) the Father, who is the Fountain of the Deity, communicating his Divine nature to the other two persons, and of whom are all things. It is a term which signifieth the primary Cause and Author of all things: we subsist in him, according to that of the apostle, Acts 17:28: In him we live, and move, and have our being; and we are for him, created for his honour and glory, as the phrase may also be translated. And one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things. He is the second person in the holy Trinity. It is the observation of a learned author: That though the name of God be often given to Christ, yet no where by Paul where he maketh mention of God the Father; from whence he concludes, that the term of Lord given to Christ, signifieth his preeminence above all things, (the Father excepted,) according to what the apostle speaks, 1 Cor 15:27. By this Christ, saith the apostle, are all things: All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made, John 1:3; yet the difference of the phrase is observable, to denote to us the order of working in the holy Trinity. All things are of the Father by the Son. And we by him; and we (saith the apostle) are by the Son created, redeemed, etc.
1 Cor 8:7. Though some of you know that there is but one living and true God, and that an idol is nothing in the world, and meat is neither sanctified nor polluted by being set before it; yet every one doth not know so much: and though the gospel have been a long time preached amongst them, yet to this day they may have some superstitions opinion of the idol, and then their conscience will be defiled or polluted. It is much the same case at this day as to the business of image worship, or veneration of images, and invocation of saints, amongst the papists. The wisest and most knowing of them will declaim against giving Divine adoration to the image, or to the saint, and tell us that they worship the true and living God upon the sight of the image only, and make use of the name of the saint only to desire him, or her, to pray to God for them. Now not to meddle with that question: Whether in our worshipping the true God, it be lawful to set a creature before us as our motive or incitement to worship, or use any Mediator but Christ? Yet the things are unlawful, upon the same account that the apostle here determines it unlawful for stronger Christians to eat meat offered to idols, though they knew and professed that an idol was nothing; for all people that come so to worship have not that knowledge; there are, without doubt, multitudes of simple people amongst the papists, that, plainly, in this kind of veneration and adoration venerate and adore the creature; and so their consciences are defiled by idolatry, because they have not such knowledge as others have, supposing that what those others did were lawful as to their practice, which indeed it is not.
1 Cor 8:8. The apostle here speaketh in the person either of those teachers amongst them, or those more private persons amongst them, who made no difficulty of eating meat offered to idols; they objected, that meat, or the eating of meat, was not the thing which commended any man to God; they were not the better if they did eat, or the worse if they did not eat. The apostle himself had asserted this, Rom 14:17, that the kingdom of God was not meat or drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
1 Cor 8:9. The word e0cousi/a is here well translated liberty, though it also signifieth right, and seems in either sense rather to signify a supposed than a real liberty or right; for we shall see in the next verse, that the apostle is here speaking of their eating in the idol’s temple, which, 1 Cor 10:21, he determineth to be a having a communion with devils, and therefore could not be lawful; the apostle therefore seemeth here only to suppose (as they pretended) that in their eating simply in the idol’s temple they did not sin, because by eating men are not made the worse; yet, as we shall see afterwards, he declareth their action was not free from guilt, as it was a violation of that brotherly love which they were obliged to show to their neighbour.
1 Cor 8:10. Here the apostle showeth how they sinned in eating meat in the idol’s temple, which had been before offered to the idol, admitting the thing in itself lawful, (which indeed it was not,) viz. accidentally, by laying a stumblingblock before their brethren, who either were really weak in their knowledge, or, at least, they were looked upon as such. For (saith he) if any see thee, who, they think, hast knowledge, or who boastest of thy knowledge, sit at meat in the idol’s temple, will not he by it be encouraged to do the same, though possibly he judgeth it is not lawful? The word translated emboldened, is the same which is elsewhere often in the New Testament translated edified: it metaphorically signifies to make a progress or proficiency either in good or evil (though this be the only text in the New Testament where it is taken in an ill sense). This the apostle determines sinful; which lets us know the obligation that lieth upon every good Christian, not to use his liberty to the prejudice of others’ souls, by doing any actions which we may do or let alone, which done by us may probably become a snare to them.
1 Cor 8:11. Through thy knowledge, in this place, is, by occasion of thy knowledge. God hath not given people knowledge that they thereby should be a means to harm and to destroy, but to do good, and to save others; it is a most absurd thing for any to use their knowledge, therefore, to the destruction of others. Shall the weak brother perish? By perish is here meant, be led into sin, by acting contrary to the judgment of his own conscience; for, (as the apostle saith, Rom 14:23:) He that doubteth is damned if he eat, for whatsoever is not of faith, that is, done out of a firm persuasion in the party doing that it is lawful, is sin. For whom Christ died; though he be weak, yet if he be a true believer, Christ died for him, and there can be nothing more contrary to the duty of a charitable Christian, than to be a means to damn him whom Christ came down from heaven and died for, that he might save him.
1 Cor 8:12. But when ye sin so against the brethren: sin is properly against God, for it is a breach of the Divine law; but the violations of that part of the Divine law which concerneth our duty to our neighbour, are called sins against our brethren, that is, sins against God in matters which concern our duty towards our brethren. And wound their weak conscience; the giving the weak judgments of others, by your examples, an occasion of sin, by venturing upon actions which they think sinful, is that which is here called a beating, or a wounding, their weak consciences, because it is indeed a hurting and defiling of them. Ye sin against Christ; this the apostle determineth to be a sinning against Christ; both against the law of Christ, concerning loving one another, and against the love of Christ, who, in dying for the weakest believers, hath showed the highest degree of love imaginable to them; whom they are far from following, who will not abate themselves a small matter of liberty, where the use of it this or that way may very probably be an occasion of sin and ruin to their brethren’s souls.
1 Cor 8:13. If meat make my brother to offend; suppose therefore it were lawful for me to eat flesh offered to idols, yet if I cannot do it but I shall make my brother sin, I will forbear. Others understand it more generally, not of the meat before mentioned, but of all flesh: I will rather live upon bread and herbs; by which expression the apostle doth not suppose, that there can ever be such a case when there shall be any such need, but only declares how much a good Christian should do, to prevent his brother’s sinning against God. I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend: those expressions, Mark 5:29, of plucking out the right eye, and cutting off the right hand, are much of the same nature; both those phrases and this phrase signify only, that we ought to do any thing, and to deny ourselves in any thing, rather than ourselves to sin, or be wilful occasions to others of sin.
From this discourse of the apostle it is very plain, that it is the duty of Christians, in any matters where they are by the law of God at liberty whether they will do a thing or not, to take that part which they see will give least occasion of sin unto their brethren, and to avoid that part which, if they will take, they see they shall by taking it give occasion to others to sin, though they be themselves never so well satisfied as to the lawfulness of their action (provided the action be only lawful, not necessary, and what by the law of God they are bound to do, or to avoid). But here two grave questions arise: 1. Whether the command of superiors doth not here alter the case? Admit a thing be in itself by us judged lawful, what by God’s law we may do, or let alone; and our superiors command us to do, or to avoid that thing: we on the other side see, that if we do it, or avoid it, we shall very probably be occasion to make our brethren sin, who doubt of the lawfulness of the thing. The question is: What is to be done in this case? That the law of God commanding love to our brethren equally concerneth high and low, is out of doubt; so that no superior ought more to command any to do what it is evident he cannot do without making his brother to offend, than the inferior ought to do it: but the question is: What is the inferior’s duty, if commanded? 2. A second question is: Suppose that, in such a case, I am commanded to do what I judge I may lawfully do, were it not for making my brother, by my example, to offend, and by the command of men I am obliged to do it, or to ruin myself and family; what is my duty in this case? In both these cases there seems to be a collision of precepts. In the first case the precept of loving our neighbours seems to dash against the many precepts for obeying superiors; in the other case, it seems to dash against the precept for providing for ourselves and families; so as the question is: Which precepts lay here the greatest obligation, where both cannot be obeyed? But we leave these questions to casuists. The determination of what is the will of God in either of them, will require a great many more words than what is fit to encumber annotations with, especially considering that neither of them properly falls into the explication of this text, where it is certain that the Corinthians were at a perfect liberty, and had no superiors that commanded them so to eat, (had the thing been in itself lawful,) neither were they under any necessity, either to eat that meat, or to starve themselves or families; they had other flesh besides that to eat. In this case the duty of Christians is plainly determined by the apostle.
1 CORINTHIANS 9
1 Cor 9:1-2: Paul vindicateth his apostolical character,
1 Cor 9:3-14: and right to a maintenance from the churches,
1 Cor 9:15-18: though he relinquished that right for the furtherance of the gospel, not content with doing only his indispensable duty,
1 Cor 9:19-23: but voluntarily subjecting himself in many points, where he was otherwise free, in order thereby to win over more converts to Christ.
1 Cor 9:24-25: Those who contend for a corruptible crown use much labour and abstinence.
1 Cor 9:26-27: So doth the apostle strive for one that is incorruptible.
In the greater part of this chapter, the apostle proceedeth in his former discourse, not speaking particularly to the case of eating meat offered to idols, but to the general point, viz. That it is our duty to abate of our liberty, when we see we cannot use it without harm to other Christians. And here he proposeth to them his own example, who had restrained himself in three things, to two of which he had a liberty, and yet avoided it, and that not to prevent their sinning, but only their suffering, and that, too, only by being by him overburdened: 1. As to eating and drinking. 2. Abstaining from marriage, by which he might have been more chargeable to them. 3. Requiring maintenance of them for his labour amongst them. As to both which he declares he had from God’s law a liberty, but had forborne to use that part from which the church in that state might be prejudiced.
1 Cor 9:1. Am I not an apostle? Some that are puffed up or seduced, will, it may be, deny that I am an apostle, a preacher of the gospel of the greatest eminency, immediately sent out by Christ to preach his gospel; but will any of you deny it? Am I not free? Have I not the same liberty that any of you have in things wherein the law of God hath no more determined me than you? What charter of liberty hath God given to any of you more than he hath to me? Have I not seen Jesus Christ? Did not I see Christ in my going to Damascus? Acts 9:5; Acts 22:13-14; and when I was in my ecstasy, when I was rapt into the third heavens? 2 Cor 12:2-4; in prison? Acts 23:11. He was the only apostle we read of, who saw Christ after his ascension. Are not ye my work in the Lord? If others will not look upon me as an apostle: God having wrought nothing upon their souls by my ministry, yet you, whose faith is my work, though in the Lord, as the principal efficient Cause, yet by me as God’s instrument, cannot deny me to be so: if my having seen Jesus Christ, and being immediately sent out by him, be not enough to prove me so to you, yet the effects of my ministry upon you puts it past your denial.
1 Cor 9:2. He had, 1 Cor 9:1, told them they were his work in the Lord, from whence he concludes here, that he was an apostle, that is, one sent of Christ to them for the good of their souls, whatever he was to others. You, saith he, as to yourselves at least, are the seal of my apostolical office; it hath a confirmation in you by the effect, as the writing is confirmed by the seal. For how can you think, that the blessing of the Lord should go along with my preaching, to turn you from pagan idolatry, and your lewd courses of life, to the true Christian religion, and to a holy life and conversation, if God had not send me. There is no such argument to prove a minister sent of Christ, as the success of his ministry in the conversion of souls unto God. It is true, we cannot conclude, that a minister is no true minister if he be able to produce no such seals of his calling; for the spiritual seed may for a time lie under the clods, and changes may be wrought in hearts, which are not published to the world; and even Isaiah may be sent to make the hearts of people fat. But where those seals can be produced, it is a most certain sign that the minister is a true minister, that is, one sent of God; for he could be no instrument to do such works if God were not with him; and if God had not sent him, he would not be with him so blessing his ministry. Yet it is possible the man may have his personal errors; for though some men doubt, whether an instance can be given of one openly and scandalously wicked, whom God ever honoured to be his instrument to convert souls, yet it would be rashly affirmed by any to say, that Judas (though a son of perdition, but not scandalous till the last) was an instrument to convert none.
1 Cor 9:3. These words may be understood in a double reference: either to what went before; then the sense is this: To those that examine me about my apostleship, this is my answer; That I have seen the Lord, that you are my work in the Lord, and the seal of my ministry. Or with reference to the words that follow; then the sense is this: If any man examine me, how I myself practise the doctrine which I preach to others, and determine myself as to my liberty for the good and profit of others, I give them the following answer.
1 Cor 9:4. Could I not eat and drink of such things offered to idols as well as you? Have not I as great a knowledge, and as much liberty? Yet, you see, I forbear. But the generality of interpreters rather incline to interpret it by what followeth: then, though it be here shortly expressed, and more fully opened afterward, yet the sense is: Have not I power to ask a maintenance of you, by which I should be enabled to eat and drink?
1 Cor 9:5. Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife? Those that by those terms, a)delfh_n, gunai=ka, understand, not (as we translate it) a sister, a wife, but a woman, that should out of her estate have contributed to the apostle’s maintenance, (as Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, followed Christ, and ministered to him of their substance, Luke 8:3,) seem not to consider, 1. That such women would have been no burden, but a help to the church (which is quite contrary to the apostle’s sense). 2. That the term lead about, imports a conjugal relation to the woman. 3. That if this had been the sense, it had been enough to have said, to lead about a woman; he should not need have said, a sister, a woman. 4. That such leading about a woman, not their wife, had been scandalous. 5. That the very phrase, a sister, a wife, answers the phrase, Acts 23:1, Men, brethren, which signifies no more than, O ye Christian men; as a sister, a wife, signifies here a Christian wife. 6. That we no where read, that Peter, James, John, Judas, (here called the brethren of the Lord,) or any of the other apostles, ever in their travels carried about with them any such rich matrons, not their wives, who (as those, Luke 8:3) ministered to them of their substance. Our interpreters have therefore justly translated it, a sister, a wife; and the sense is: Have I not power to marry? Yet the phrase teaches us two things: 1. That Christians have no power, that is, no lawful power, to marry such as are no Christians, their wives must be their sisters also in Christ. 2. That husbands and wives ought to be undivided companions one to another. As well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas: he instanceth in several apostles that were married, Peter, (called Cephas,) James, John, and Judas the son of Alphaeus, Christ’s kinsmen. Whence we may observe, that ministers may lawfully marry, no law of God hath restrained them more than others. The popish doctrine forbidding to marry, is by the apostle determined to be a doctrine of devils, 1 Tim 4:1,3.
1 Cor 9:6. Are I and Barnabas the only apostles who are obliged for our livelihood to work with our hands? As Paul did, Acts 18:3, making tents. We certainly, as well as the rest of the apostles, if we would run out to the utmost end of the line of our liberty in things, without having any regard to the circumstances of our brethren, might forbear working with our hands, and expect that those amongst whom we labour should maintain us.
1 Cor 9:7. Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? The work of the ministry is a warfare, the minister’s work in that age was so in a more eminent manner, as the opposition to those first ministers of the gospel, both from the Jews and from the heathens, was greater than what ministers have in later ages met with. Now, saith the apostle, none that lists an army, expects that his soldiers should maintain themselves without any pay. Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? It is like the planting of a vineyard. The church, in Scripture, is called a vineyard, Isa 5:1-2. The plants are the Lord’s, but he useth ministers’ hands in the planting of them: none planteth a vineyard, but in expectation of some fruit; none employeth servants to plant a vineyard, but he resolveth to uphold them with food and raiment, while they are in his work. Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? The church is compared to a flock: saith the apostle: No man feeds a flock, either personally, or by his servants, but he eateth, or alloweth his servants to eat, of the milk of the flock. By these three instances, commonly known amongst men, the apostle showeth the reasonableness, that the ministers of the gospel should be maintained by the people, to whom they are ministers.
1 Cor 9:8. That is, I do not speak this only rationally, or by a fallible spirit, nor do I build this assertion alone upon instances known and familiar amongst men. As this is highly reasonable, and conformable to what the very light of nature showeth, and the law of nature obligeth men to in other cases, where men take others off their own work to attend theirs; so it is according to the will of God, which is the highest reason.
1 Cor 9:9. Art being not so improved formerly as now, nor in all places as in some places; they were wont anciently, both in the land of Judea, and since in Greece, and (as is said) at this day in some places of France, to tread out their corn by the feet of oxen: and by the law of Moses, Deut 25:4, it should seem that some too covetous persons would muzzle the mouths of their oxen, that while they trod out the corn, they might eat none of it; which God, looking upon as an act of cruelty or unmercifulness, forbade his ancient people the Jews. Now, saith the apostle: Doth God take care for oxen? That is, more for oxen than for ministers or men? For God doth take care for oxen, he preserveth both man and beast; he takes care, as our Saviour elsewhere teacheth us, for the sparrows, for the fowls of the air, for the grass of the field, and therefore for oxen, which are a degree of creatures more noble: but by the same reason we must conclude, that he taketh a greater care for men, especially such as he employeth in his more immediate service.
1 Cor 9:10. Not that the law, Deut 25:4, did primarily reveal God’s will for the maintenance of ministers; for undoubtedly it did primarily oblige them, according to the letter of it, not to deal cruelly and unmercifully with the beasts they made use of; but as they took them off from getting their food, by taking them up to tread out corn for them; so, while they did it, they should not starve them, but give them leave moderately to eat of it. But (saith the apostle) the reason of it doth much more oblige with respect to men, especially such men as are employed in a ministry for your souls. That he that plougheth should plough in hope; that as he who plougheth for another, plougheth in hope to get bread for himself, from the wages for which he covenanteth; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope: and so also doth the thresher thresh in hope: so we that are the Lord’s ploughmen, working together with him (though in a far inferior degree of causation) in the ploughing up the fallow grounds of men’s hearts, and sowing the seed of righteousness in men’s souls; and the Lord’s threshers, by our labours, exhortations, arguments, etc., beating the fruits of good works, to the glory of God, out of those amongst whom we labour; might also labour in some hope of a livelihood for ourselves, while we are doing the Lord’s work and his people’s.
1 Cor 9:11. By spiritual things the apostle meaneth the doctrine and sacraments of the gospel; which are called spiritual things, because they come from heaven, they affect the soul and spirit of a man, they tend to make men spiritual, they prepare the soul for heaven. By carnal things he means things which only serve our bodies, which are our carnal, fleshly part. From the inequality of these things, and the excellency of the former above the latter, the apostle argueth the reasonableness of ministers’ maintenance from their people, they giving them quid pro quo, a just compensation for such allowance, yea, what was of much more value; for there is a great disproportion between things spiritual and things carnal, the former much excelling the latter: so as the minister of the gospel had the odds of them, giving people things of a much greater and more excellent value, for things of a much less and inferior value.
1 Cor 9:12. If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Those false apostles or teachers, which were amongst the Corinthians, did (as it seemeth) exercise this power, that is, required maintenance of the people; saith the apostle: Are not we by the same right possessed of such a power? Might not we as reasonably expect such a maintenance? Objection. But might not they have said: No, you are not; they are constantly residing amongst us, and instructing us, etc.? Answer. This arguing of the apostle lets us know, that the primitive churches were not only obliged to maintain their own pastors, but those also who were general officers to the church, and by the appointment of God were not to fix and abide in any one place, but had the care of all the churches upon them. And it may also teach us, that though Christians be in the first place obliged to take care of their own pastors, yet they are not to limit their charity to them, but also to take what care their ability will allow them of others, whose labours have at any time been useful to them, or may be useful to any other part of the church of God. Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ: Yet, saith the apostle, though we have this power or liberty, neither I nor Barnabas have made use of it, but suffer all those evils that come upon our not using it, hunger, thirst, labour, lest we should hinder the progress of the gospel, while some might for the charge decline hearing us, or others might charge us with covetousness, etc.
1 Cor 9:13. You may understand what is the mind and will of God under the New Testament, by reflecting upon what appeareth to you to have been his mind and will under the Old Testament: God had a ministry under the Old Testament, the tribe of Levi was it; and God there ordained and appointed a livelihood for them, Num 18:20; Deut 10:9; Deut 18:1, so as they needed not (as other men) to labour with their hands to get bread to eat.
1 Cor 9:14. God’s will is the same under the New Testament that it was under the Old; it is not as to the people a matter of liberty, so as men may choose whether they will maintain their ministers or not, there is an ordinance of God in the case: it is the will of God, that those who are taken off from worldly employments, and spend their time in the study and preaching of the gospel, should have a livelihood from their labour.
1 Cor 9:15. Though I have such a liberty to marry as well as others, and a liberty to demand a maintenance of those to whom I preach the gospel, yet I have done neither. Nor do I now write to that purpose, that I would now impose a burden upon you to raise me a maintenance. I know I am calumniated by some, as if by preaching the gospel I only sought my own profit and advantage: I have gloried in the contrary, Acts 20:33-34; so 1 Cor 9:18; and I look upon it as my great honour, that I can preach the gospel freely, and I had rather die by starving than lose this advantage of glorying. And if I for your profit, and for the advantage of the gospel, abate of my liberty, should not you abate of yours, to keep your weak brethren from destroying their souls by sinning against God?
1 Cor 9:16. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; though I do preach the gospel, yet I have no reason at all to glory; all that I have to glory in is, that I have preached it freely (which your false apostles and teachers do not;) for the preaching of the gospel, considered without that circumstance, I have no reason to glory in that, for I am in it but a servant. For necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! I am under the necessity of a Divine precept to do that, and exposed to dreadful penalties and woes if I do not do that; there is therefore no thanks I can claim upon that account; all that I can glory in is, that I do it without charge to those to whom I preach it. Some make a doubt, whether there lieth the same necessity upon ministers now to preach the gospel, and they be liable to the same dangers and penalties, if they do it not. I see no reason at all to doubt it; for what necessity lay upon Paul, or any of the apostles, but a necessity of precept, that is, they were obliged to obey the command of God in the case, and liable to such penalties in case of neglect, as men are subject to that obey not the command of God, in fulfilling the duties of their relations? The same necessity, the same danger, is yet incumbent upon every minister; or else we must say, that the precepts commanding ministers to preach concerned the apostles only, or that there is now no such order of men as ministers (both which are indeed said by Socinians). If there be such an ordinance of God as the ministry, ministers are under the precepts given to ministers, one of which is to preach: if they be under the same precepts, there is the same necessity upon them of obeying them, that was upon Paul, and they are, in case of disobedience, subjected to the same woes and penalties. Indeed, every minister is not bound to go up and down the world to preach, his relation is to a particular flock; that travelling to carry the gospel about the world was peculiar to the apostles, for the first plantation of the gospel; but so was not preaching; if it had: Timothy and Titus would have had no such charge as to that work. It is true, ministers are not bound to preach in others’ houses without their leave; therefore we read very little of the apostles preaching in the temple and synagogues, nor without the leave of the Jews. But Paul judged himself bound to preach in the school of Tyrannus, Acts 19:9, and in his own hired house at Rome, Acts 28:30-31. For the circumstance of numbers, to which they are bound to preach, the Holy Scripture hath no where determined, and ministers are left to be guided by their own prudence according to circumstances; but preach they must, if they be called of God; he hath sent them to it, fitted them for the work, and they have taken it upon them, and woe will be to every minister, so called and sent of God, if he doth not fulfil his ministry, as he hath opportunity and wisdom, considering circumstances, in order to the end which he is to aim at and to act for.
1 Cor 9:17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward; if I who have a liberty to take a maintenance for my labour in the gospel, yet notwithstanding preach it freely, out of a free and cheerful mind, desirous to promote the honour and glory of Christ, I then may expect a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me; but if I only preach the gospel because there is a necessity laid upon me, all that can be said of me is, that there is such a dispensation committed to me. The strength of the apostle’s argument seems to lie here: That no man can reasonably expect thanks, or any extraordinary reward, for doing what he is obliged by his superior’s command under a great penalty to do. The apostle was obliged by such a precept, and under such penalties, to preach the gospel; therefore he desired not only to do it, but to do it willingly and readily, a greater testimony of which could not be, than for him to do it without desiring or expecting any reward for his pains, but what God of his free grace should give him; this made this matter of glorying to him, which he desired might not be in vain. So that though the word e9kw_n here be truly translated willingly, and opposed to a!kwn, which is as truly translated unwillingly, yet it seems to comprehend without charge, and taking nothing for his pains, as a demonstration of his willingness to and cheerful performance of his work; which being a thing as to which God had laid him under no necessity by any precept, was matter of glorying to him against the false apostles, who did otherwise; and also a ground for him to expect a greater reward from God, than those who, though they did the same work, yet did it not from the like free and cheerful spirit.
1 Cor 9:18. What is my reward then? What then is the ground of my expectation of a greater reward? Or wherein is the glorying I before mentioned? Not in the performance of the work, for as to that, I am under a necessity to do it, and under a penalty if I neglect it: but it lieth here, that when I preach the gospel, I do it freely, and make it without charge; a thing which, as to the substance of the work, he was not by any law of God bound to do, yet was not this in Paul a work of supererogation; for circumstances might so rule, and, doubtless, Paul apprehended they did so, that it might be his duty so to do. For though the minister may lawfully take maintenance from the people, where he cannot support himself without their assistance; yet if the case be such, that he can subsist without it, and the people be so poor that they are not able to give it; or if he seeth it will hinder the gospel, keeping many from coming within the sound of what must be chargeable to them, and open the mouths of enemies; it is matter of duty to him, under such circumstances, to preach freely. Though, considering the thing in itself, separately from such circumstances, the minister may lawfully enough require and expect such maintenance. That (saith the apostle) I abuse not my power in the gospel. Some think that the word here translated abuse, might better have been translated use, as it signified, 1 Cor 7:31. But it generally signifies abuse, so as there is no reason to vary from the common usage of it; according to which it teaches us this remarkable lesson, that so to use a liberty which God hath left us as to actions, as that by our use of it the glory of God or the good of others is hindered, is to abuse it, that is, not to use it to that true end for which God hath intrusted us with it. For this is certain, that God hath intrusted us with no power or liberty to be used to the prejudice of his glory, which is the great end of our lives, or to the prejudice of the spiritual good and advantage of others. All such use of our liberty in any thing is indeed an abuse of it.
1 Cor 9:19. For though I be free from all men; the word men is not in the Greek, but is supplied by our interpreters. Some make things the substantive, and restrain it to the things of the ceremonial law. It may be understood both of men and things; he was born no man’s servant, nor by God’s law made a servant to any men’s humours, and as free as to many other things, as he was to have taken maintenance of the churches, for the pains he bestowed amongst them. Yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more; yet (saith he) observe my practice, that I might gain men to Christ, (so the apostle several times calleth converting souls, bringing them in love with the gospel, and into a road that may bring them to heaven, which we ought to account the greatest gain in the world, as it appeareth from Dan 12:3,) I have become, or made myself, the servant of all; not the servants of their lusts and corruptions, (that is the way to lose men’s souls, and destroy them, not to gain them,) but a servant to their weaknesses and infirmities, so far as they were not sinful: I have denied myself in my liberty, and determined myself to that part in my actions, which I saw would most oblige, profit, and endear them to me, and to bring them more in love with the gospel.
1 Cor 9:20. The ceremonial law died with Christ, Eph 2:15-16, wherefore Christians were not obliged to the performance and observation of it after the death of Christ; but it pleased God for a time to indulge the Jews in the observance of those rites, until they could clearly see, and be fully persuaded of, their liberty from it, with which Christ had made them free; and it was some good time before all those, who from Judaism had turned to Christianity, could be thus persuaded, as we may learn from Gal 4:21, they desired to be under the law. To such, saith the apostle, I became as a Jew, that is, I observed some rites which the ceremonial law (peculiar to the Jews) required; an instance of which we have, Acts 21:23-26, where we find Paul purifying himself (according to the rites of the ceremonial law) with four men which had a vow upon them. The Jews before Christ’s death were under the law; many of them, though converted to the Christian religion after the death of Christ, apprehended themselves under the law, not as yet seeing the liberty with which Christ had made them free: saith the apostle, I, knowing the will of God, for a time, that the Jews should be indulged as to their weakness, became as one of them under the law, that I might gain them, that is, reconcile them to the Christian religion, and in some measure prepare them for the receiving the gospel. We have an instance of this in Paul’s practice, Acts 16:3, where he circumcised Timothy, because his mother was a Jewess, that he might not irritate the Jews in those quarters, nor estrange them from the doctrine of the gospel. In all this Paul did nothing that was sinful, but only determined himself as to the liberty which God had given him, when he might do or forbear, either doing or forbearing to do, as he saw the one or the other made most for the honour and glory of God in the winning of souls.
1 Cor 9:21. It is manifest by the opposition of them that are without law, mentioned in this verse, to them under the law, mentioned in the former verse, that as by the latter the Jews are understood, so by the former the Gentiles are to be understood, who were under no obligation to the observance either of the ceremonial law or judicial law, given to the Jews; the one to guide that nation in the matters of worship till Christ should come; the other to guide them in matters of civil justice, as well as criminal causes, as matters of plea and trespass: so that the term a)no&moiv here signifieth differently from what it signifieth in many other scriptures; where it signifieth men that live as they list, without any regard to any laws of God or men, as Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37; Acts 2:23; 2 Thess 2:8; 1 Tim 1:9, etc. This the apostle makes appear by the next words, where he tells us, he was not without law to God, but under the law to Christ: though to the Gentiles he behaved himself as if he himself had been a Gentile, that is, forbearing the observances of the Levitical law, to which the Gentiles had never any obligation at all, yet he did not behave himself as one that had no regard to the law of God, that was yet in force and obligatory, but acknowledged himself to be under that, though a servant of Christ’s; so that he abated nothing of his necessary duty, only denied himself in some things as to which the law of God had left him a liberty, both to the Jews and Gentiles, propounding to himself the same end as to both, that is, the gaining of their souls to Christ.
1 Cor 9:22. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; to those that I observed weak in knowledge and faith, who had not such a firm persuasion of the lawfulness of some things, (suppose circumcision, purifyings required by the law of Moses, etc.,) I became as weak, that is, I yielded to them; and the things being to me matters of liberty, which I knew I might do, or not do, and be no transgressor of God’s law, they being not able to comply with me, I complied with them, abating my liberty to gratify their consciences; though I knew that it was weakness in them, yet I indulged it, and made my more knowledge serve them in their weakness, so that I might not lose them. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some; thus, that I might be an instrument in any degree to save them, according to the various persuasions of several Christians I behaved myself towards them; doing nothing to gratify them, by doing of which I knew, or had the least jealousy, I should offend God; but not refusing any thing, either as to doing or forbearing, (which by the law of God I saw I might do or forbear,) where I saw the least hopes, by such doing or forbearing, to do the souls of those good, in order to their eternal salvation, with whom I was, and for whose sake I so did, or forbore any thing. Oh the humility and charity of this great apostle! What an example hath he set to all! For none can pretend to a greater superiority over men, as to spiritual things, than he unquestionably had.
1 Cor 9:23. Paul had two great ends which he aimed at in this denial of himself in these points of liberty; the one was the doing good to the souls both of Jews and Gentiles, this he had before instanced in; the other was the glory of God, which is that which he here meaneth by this phrase, for the gospel’s sake, which he before expounded, 1 Cor 9:12, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. By Paul’s tenacious adhering to one part in a thing wherein he had liberty, the gospel, that is, the progress or success of the gospel, might have been hindered, both by the reproaches of enemies, and also by the alienation and estrangement of the hearts of weaker Christians, or laying stumblingblocks before them, at which they might fall, being imboldened by the examples of their guides, to do what, though lawful in itself, yet they judged unlawful. That I might be partaker thereof with you; I did it, saith he, that I might bring you into the fellowship of the gospel: I had rather so interpret it, than of the reward of the gospel, as it pleaseth some. The humility of the great apostle is very remarkable; he disdaineth not to be sugkoi/nwnoj, a partaker in the gospel with the meanest members of the church; he is not ashamed to call those brethren whom his Lord and Master is not ashamed so to call.
1 Cor 9:24. The apostle presseth all his former discourse by minding them of the difficulty of getting to heaven, and of the obligation that lay upon them to be the first in the spiritual race. To this purpose he fetcheth a similitude from what they saw daily, in the practice of those who frequented those games by which the Romans and Corinthians were wont to divert themselves. They had several, known by the names of the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games, the latter of which were most proper to Greece. At these games there were several that ran races, either on foot or on horseback: and several that wrestled. The reward was a crown, or garland: and for those that ran, we read that the crown or garland was hung up at the end of the race, and those who, running on foot or on horseback, could first lay hold upon it, and take it down, had it, so as though many ran, yet but one had the crown. So, he saith, it is as to getting to heaven; men might think it was a light matter, but they who would have the crown of glory must run for it, and it was a work which required so much striving and labour, that not many would have that crown: which is the same with that which our Saviour saith, Luke 13:24. For many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 2 Tim 2:5, If a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. Therefore, saith the apostle, make it your business, so to run, that you may obtain; not only to do things in themselves lawful or good, but which are so clothed with all their circumstances, and in the best manner, for the glory of God, and the good of others.
1 Cor 9:25. This is not all that is required of men that would go to heaven, that they do not make an ill use of their liberty, using it to the dishonour of God, or to the prejudice of others; but look as it is with wrestlers in those games in practice amongst you, they are temperate in all things; in the use of meats and drinks, or any pleasures, though in themselves lawful, they will so use them, as may best serve their end, upholding the strength of their body for the motion they are to use, and yet not clogging them, or so using them, that they shall indispose them to, or hinder them in, that motion which they are to use. We, that are Christians, and striving for heaven, should also do the like, so behaving ourselves in the use of meats, drinks, apparel, pleasures, as the things, so used by us, may serve us in our business for heaven, and be no clog or hinderance to us. And we have reason so to do, or we shall be shamed by those gamesters; for they in that manner deny, restrain, and govern themselves to get a crown, which, when they have, is a pitiful, corruptible, perishing thing; we do it for a crown that is incorruptible: An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, as the apostle speaketh, 1 Pet 1:4.
1 Cor 9:26. The apostle proposeth his own example. As it is observed in country work, he that only bids his servants do work, and puts not his own hand to it, or at least doth not attend and overlook them in their work, hath little done: so it is as observable in spiritual work, that a minister of the gospel, who only, in the pulpit, dictates duty to others, but, out of it, doth nothing of himself, seldom doth any good by his preaching. People not naturally inclined to any spiritual duty, have the old proverb: Physician, cure thyself, at their tongue’s end, and are hard to believe that teacher, who doth not in some measure live up to his own doctrine. Therefore, saith the apostle: I run; I am in the same race with you, and running to the same mark and for the same prize. I give you no other counsel than I myself take; I endeavour so to live, so in all things to behave myself, as I may not be at uncertainties whether I please God by my actions, or shall get to heaven, yea or not. I am a fellow soldier with you, fighting against sin; I make it my great business, not so to fight, so to resist sin, as if I did beat the air; that is, get no more fruit, profit, or advantage by it, than if I threw stones against the wind, or with a staff did beat the air. It is not every running, or every fighting, that will bring a man to heaven; it must be a running with all our might, and continuing our motion till we come to the end of our race; a fighting with all our might, and that against all sin.
1 Cor 9:27. Here the apostle informs us how he ran, that he might not run uncertainly; how he fought, so as he might not be like one beating the air: I (saith he) keep under my body; and bring it into subjection. By body, here, we must not understand only the apostle’s fleshly part (which we usually call our body;) no, nor only our more gross and filthy affections and lusts (as some of the schoolmen have thought;) but what the apostle elsewhere calleth the old man, under which notion cometh the sinful inclinations of our will, and corrupt dictates of reason, as it is in man since the fall. All this, as it cometh under the notion of the flesh in many other places of Scripture, and of our members which are upon the earth, Col 3:5; so it cometh here under the notion of the body; and, indeed, is that which our apostle calleth the body of death, Rom 7:24. This was the object of the apostle’s action; the object about which he was exercised. For his action, or exercise about this object, is expressed by two words, u(pwpia&zw and doulagwgw~ the former word (as some think) is borrowed from the practice of those that fought in the aforementioned games, who knocked and beat one another till they were black and blue, and forced to yield themselves conquered. The second word signifieth to make one a servant, to bring one under command, so as he will do what another would have him do. By these two words the apostle expresseth that mortification, which he declareth himself to have lived in the practice of, that he might not in his race for heaven run uncertainly, nor in his spiritual fight lose his labour, and reap no more profit than one should reap that spends his time in beating the air. Their sense, who think that this duty of Paul was discharged by acts of mere external discipline, such as fasting, wearing sackcloth, beating themselves, etc., is much too short; these things reach not to the mind of man, his corrupt affections and lusts, which give life to the extravagancy of the bodily members, though indeed they may some of them be good means in order to the greater work. Paul’s meaning was, that he made it his work to deny his sensitive appetite such gratifyings as it would have; to resist the extravagant motions of his will, yea, of his own corrupt reason, so far as they were in any thing contrary to the holy will of God; though, in order to this, he also used fasting and prayer, and such acts of external discipline as his wisdom taught him were any way proper to this end. And this he tells us that he did, lest, while he preached to others, he himself should be a castaway: from whence we may observe, that Paul thought such a thing possible, that one who all his life had been preaching to others, to bring them to heaven, might himself be thrown into hell at last; and if it had not, our Saviour would never have told us, that he would at the last day say to some: Depart from me, I know you not, you workers of iniquity; who for their admittance had pleaded: We have prophesied in thy name, Matt 7:22-23. Nor must we question but Judas, whom our Saviour calls a son of perdition, was a lost man as to eternity, though it be certain that he, as well as the other apostles, was a preacher of the gospel: yea, so far is this from being impossible, that it was the opinion of Chrysostom, that few ministers would be saved. We may also further observe, that such ministers as indulge their body, giving themselves liberties, either more externally in meats, drinks, apparel, pleasures; or more internally, indulging themselves in sinful speculations, notions, affections, inclinations; take a quite contrary road to heaven than Paul took, and think they have a great deal more liberty to the flesh than St. Paul thought he had, or than he durst use
1 CORINTHIANS 10
1 Cor 10:1-5: The Jews who came out of Egypt had all sacraments typical of ours, yet many of them perished through sin.
1 Cor 10:6-12: Their examples should serve, as they were intended, for our admonition.
1 Cor 10:13: God will not suffer his servants to be tempted beyond their strength.
1 Cor 10:14-22: Christians must flee idolatry, and not by partaking of idol sacrifices own fellowship with devils.
1 Cor 10:23-30: Even in the use of things lawful we should consult the good of others,
1 Cor 10:31: and refer all we do to God’s glory,
1 Cor 10:32-33: careful to give none offence, after the apostle’s own example.
1 Cor 10:1. The apostle saw that many in this church of Corinth were puffed up with their knowledge, and other gifts and great privileges with which God had blessed them; as also with the opinion of their being a gospel church, and some of the firstfruits of the Gentiles unto Christ, and might therefore think, that they needed not to be pressed to such degrees of strictness and watchfulness; therefore, to beat them off from this confidence and vain presumption, the apostle here sets before them the example of the church of the Jews: when he tells them, he would not have them ignorant, his meaning is, he would have them know and remember, he would have them well acquainted with and to reflect upon this, that all the Jews in Moses’s time, whom he calls their fathers, not according to the flesh, for the Corinthians were not descended from Jews, but with respect to the covenant, and their relation they stood unto God, as they were the only people God had on earth; these, he saith, were all of them (the whole camp of Israel) under very great privileges, of which he reckoneth divers: they were under the conduct of the cloud, Exod 13:21; and they all obtained the favour of God so far for them, as to divide the Red Sea, so as they passed through it upon dry ground.
1 Cor 10:2. There are two great difficulties in this verse: 1. What is meant by Moses. 2. How and why the Israelites are said to be baptized unto Moses. Some understand by Moses the person of Moses; others, the law or doctrine of Moses. Those who by Moses understand the person of Moses, are divided in their opinions, whether the preposition ei0j, which signifieth divers things: Were better translated by, or into, or unto, or together with. Some think it were better translated by, and thus all the Jews were baptized by Moses in the cloud and in the sea, that is, by his ministry; and thus this very particle is translated, Acts 7:53; Acts 19:3. Some think it were better translated in Moses; that is, Moses going before them, when they were under the conduct of the cloud, and when they passed through the Red Sea. Others judge it better translated into Moses; that is, either Moses going before them; or, as Moses was a type of Christ, Gal 3:19. Some would have the particle here to signify together with. Others, even unto Moses, Moses himself not being excepted from that baptism in the cloud and in the sea. Others by Moses here understand the doctrine and law of Moses: thus the term Moses is used, Luke 16:29; Acts 15:21. So they say, that to be baptized unto Moses, is to believe Moses so far, as to follow his conduct through the sea, and under the cloud. The second difficulty is, to resolve what is meant by being baptized. The word signifieth, in the common acceptation of it, a being washed: in the ecclesiastical acceptation, it signifies a holy institution of the New Testament, according to which Christians are initiated into the church of God, by washing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Now how could the Jews be said either to be washed (that is, baptized) either in Moses, or by Moses, or with Moses, or into Moses; whenas the history of the Old Testament tells us, that both Moses and all the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, and we do not read that the cloud, under the conduct of which the Israelites journeyed, ever poured down any water with which the Jews, or Moses their leader, could be washed. Answer. Some think, that the cloud which, passing over the Israelites, was all darkness to their enemies, yet poured down water for the refreshing of the Israelites, as it passed over their heads, and that this is hinted to us by the psalmist, Ps 68:7-9. Others think, that the apostle applieth the term of baptism to a privilege of which the old Israelites had as much reason to glory, as the Corinthians had of their baptism, properly so called. Others say, that the Israelites’ walking under the cloud and through the sea, which was darkness and destruction to their adversaries, was a figure of baptism, the seal of the New Testament, by which Christ’s victory over our spiritual enemies is confirmed to us, and in that respect the apostle maketh use of this term baptized. Others, most probably, think, that the apostle useth this term, in regard of the great analogy betwixt baptism, as it was then used, the persons going down into the waters, and being dipped in them; and the Israelites going down into the sea, the great receptacle of water; though the waters at that time were gathered on heaps on either side of them, yet they seemed buried in the waters, as persons in that age were when they were baptized; and for being baptized in the cloud, there is a great probability that the cloud did shower down rain, according to what is quoted out of the psalmist.
1 Cor 10:3. Those of the Jews that perished in the wilderness, did all eat the same manna which Caleb and Joshua ate of, who went into Canaan; or, those Jews that so perished in the wilderness did eat the same spiritual meat that we do, they in the type, we in the antitype. Manna is called spiritual meat: 1. Because it was bread which came down from heaven, the habitation of spiritual beings, John 6:31. 2. It was miraculously produced. 3. Because it was angels’ food, given out by their ministry. 4. But principally, because it signified Christ, who was the true bread from heaven, John 6:32.
1 Cor 10:4. And all the Jews, as well those that perished in the wilderness, as those that were preserved to go into Canaan, they drank of the water which came out of the rock, of which we read, Exod 17:6; Num 20:11; which water was spiritual drink in the same respects that the manna was spiritual meat, being miraculously produced, and being a figure of Christ. For, saith the apostle, that rock was Christ; that is, that rock did signify or prefigure Christ; the rock was Christ in the same sense that the bread in the Lord’s supper is the body of Christ, that is, a sign which by Divine institution did signify Christ. Here ariseth a question in what sense it is said, that the rock followed them? That by the rock is to be understood the water that God made to flow out of the rock, is evident; but though we read of water twice fetched out of the rock upon Moses smiting of it; once at Rephidim, before they came so far as Mount Sinai, Exod 17:6; another time at Kadesh, Num 20:7-8; yet we no where read in the history of the Jewish journeyings to Canaan, that the rock followed them. But this is not the only thing that we read in the New Testament relating to the history of the Old Testament, with some circumstances which we do not find recorded there; it is enough that it is plainly asserted here, and it must be presumed, or how can we imagine that the Israelites were supplied with water for forty years together? Whereas some object, that if the water, which came out of the rock at Rephidim, had followed them, there would have been no need of Moses striking the rock at Kadesh; it is answered, that God, to try them, probably caused the water to stop. For the analogy betwixt the rock and Christ, divines make it to lie in these particulars: 1. That Christ is the firm and unmovable foundation of his church, called therefore a stone, a tried stone, Isa 28:16; Rom 9:33; 1 Pet 2:6. 2. As this rock sent out no water for the refreshment of the Israelites, till Moses had struck it; so all the benefit we have from Christ as Mediator, floweth from him as smitten of God, and afflicted. 3. As the water of the rock served both for cleansing, and upholding life in satisfying thirst; so the blood of Christ is useful to the soul, both for washing from the guilt of sin, and the upholding spiritual life in a soul. 4. As the rock that followed the Israelites afforded water not only to that generation that were alive and present when the rock was smitten, but to all the succeeding generations, until the Israelites came into Canaan; so the blood of Christ is useful not only to his people in this or that place or age, but to all that shall believe in him, and that till they shall come into the heavenly Canaan.
1 Cor 10:5. But with many of them God was not well pleased; these many were no less than that whole generation, which were at that time twenty years old and upward, according to the threatening, Num 14:28-29; of the accomplishment of which we read, Num 26:64-65. For they were over thrown in the wilderness; as an instance of God’s being displeased with them, he giveth their falling in the wilderness. It is very possible, that many of these were the objects of God’s eternal and special love, and eternally saved, notwithstanding their joining with worse men in their rebellion and murmuring; but that signal judgment of God upon them was enough to prove, that their being baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and being made partakers of those great privileges of eating spiritual meat, and drinking spiritual drink, typifying Christ, did not set them out of the danger of God’s judgments, which is the use the apostle maketh of it.
1 Cor 10:6. Our examples; our types or patterns (as the Greek word signifies:) we may, by God’s dispensations to them, learn what God will be to us: as they were patterns to us, of persons enjoying great spiritual privileges; so they are also examples or patterns to show us what we may expect from God, and to deter us from such practices, as brought the vengeance of God upon them; which were their sinful lustings or desirings of things which God had forbidden, as they did the fleshpots, and onions, and garlic of Egypt, and to return thither again, Num 11:4-5,33; Num 14:2-4.
1 Cor 10:7. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; the people of Israel, being first enticed to whoredom with the daughters of Moab, were after that invited to the sacrifices of their gods, and did eat, and bowed down to their gods. Num 25:2; so, either worshipped the creature instead of the Creator, or worshipped the Creator in and by the creature. As it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play; thus it is written in Exod 32:6; which history mentioneth another idolatry they were guilty of, in worshipping the golden calf. They were wont to have feasts after their sacrifices, and pastimes and diversions after such feasts; and particularly we are told in the history concerning the golden calf, that they danced before it. Stephen saith, Acts 7:41, they rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
1 Cor 10:8. The story to which this verse relates is that, Num 25:1-9. When Balaam could not curse the Israelites, he advised the debauching of them by the Moabitish women, first enticing them to fornication and adultery, then to idolatry: and they were enticed, which caused a plague amongst them, which destroyed amongst them in one day three and twenty thousand, saith our apostle: Moses saith, that there died twenty and four thousand. There are many guesses for the clearing of that seeming contradiction. Some say, that Moses mentioneth not one day, there might in all die twenty-four thousand, but not all the same day, nor possibly by the same death. But nothing is in Scripture more ordinary, than to speak of things or persons in round numbers, though something over or under; and also to speak according to the common reckoning of people, who also may talk variously. Some might report twenty-three, some twenty-four thousand: or possibly Paul chose to mention the lesser rather than the greater round number. The sense of Moses might be, about twenty-four thousand, or near up to that number, all of which probably had not been guilty of adultery or fornication. Paul saith, there died twenty-three thousand. If there did die twenty-four thousand, there must needs die twenty-three thousand.
1 Cor 10:9. To tempt, in the general notion of the term, signifies to make a trial; applied unto God, it signifieth to make a trial of God, either with reference to his power, Ps 78:18-20, or to his truth and goodness: not to be satisfied with God’s word, but to challenge him to a sensible demonstration, is to tempt God. Or else to tempt may signify more generally, to provoke God; for indeed all notorious sinning against God is a tempting of God, not believing the wrath of God, which he hath revealed in his word against sin, till men feel it. The term Christ here is very remarkable to prove Christ’s Divine nature and existence before he was incarnate; for the same person who is here called Christ, is called God, Ps 106:14, and Jehovah also in the same Psalm; neither could they have tempted Christ at that time, if at that time he had not been existent. Were destroyed of serpents; by serpents he meaneth the fiery serpents; we have the history, Num 21:6-9.
1 Cor 10:10. Murmuring signifies the speaking against a person or thing, out of dislike, impatience, or discontent. It was a sin the Jews were very much guilty of, as may be read, Exod 15:24; Exod 16:7-8; Exod 17:3; Num 14:27; Num 16:11,41. The apostle may either refer to all their murmurings, when he saith they were (as the punishment of their sin) destroyed of the destroyer, or to that more universal murmuring upon the ill report the spies brought up of the land of Canaan, of which we read, Num 14.
1 Cor 10:11. Now all these things happened to them for ensamples; all these dispensations of Divine providence in the revelations of Divine wrath against several sorts of sinners, happened to the Jews, who were God’s first and ancient people, and enjoyed those great privileges which were before mentioned, not only as just punishments upon them for their sins, but as examples or types, to let the succeeding world know what they should find God towards such kind of sinners. And they are written for our admonition; and God in his wise providence hath ordered the record of them in holy writ, that others who should live afterward might read, and hear, and fear, and take warning, and beware of such wicked actions, as pulled down such vengeance upon a people, than which none can plead a nearer relation to God, or the receiving of greater favours and privileges from him. Upon whom the ends of the world are come: the apostles ordinarily in their epistles speak of the world as nigh to an end in their age, though it hath since continued more than sixteen hundred years; which would incline one to think, that they thought it would have been at an end before this time, but had no such revelation from God. So true is that of our Saviour, that of that day and hour knoweth no man; and it should teach us to beware of too particular determinations in the case, which the apostles did not make, though they spake of theirs as the last times, and themselves as such upon whom the ends of the world were come.
1 Cor 10:12. Let him that thinketh he standeth, either in a right and sound judgment and opinion of things, or in a state of favour with God, or confirmed in a holy course of life and conversation; standeth in grace, Rom 5:2. A man may stand in these things, and he may but think that he standeth: be it as it will, he is concerned to take heed lest he fall. He may but think he standeth, and if so, he will fall: he may really stand in a right judgment and opinion of things, and be a member of the church of Christ, and yet may fall into errors and some loose practices, so as to bring down Divine vengeance upon himself; he may have God’s favour so far as concerns external privileges, and yet perish, as many of the Jews did in the instances before mentioned: nay, he may really stand in a state of justification and regeneration, and yet may fall, though not totally and finally, yet foully, so as to lose his peace, and bring God’s severe judgments upon him. Therefore he that thinketh that he standeth, whether his apprehensions be false or true, had need use all means and caution that he may not fall, and that because, if he keepeth his standing, it must be by the use of due means, which God hath appointed in order to that end, though he be also kept by the power of God unto salvation, 1 Pet 1:5.
1 Cor 10:13. There hath no temptation taken you: temptation (as hath been said before) signifieth in the general notion of it no more than trials, and is often so used in holy writ. Now, in regard we are tried either by afflictive providences, or by motions made to us, either from God, or our own lusts, or the devil, or men of the world; temptations, in Scripture, sometimes signify afflictions, as James 1:2; 1 Pet 1:6; sometimes, motions made to us by God, Gen 22:1-2; both which sorts of temptations are good in themselves. Sometimes the term signifies motions made by the lusts and unrenewed part of our own souls, or by the devil, or by sinful men in the world; these are sinful temptations, and what we most ordinarily call by that name. Whether the apostle here means all or some of these, cannot certainly be determined; what he saith is true of all, and therefore that is the safest interpretation of the term in this place. Though he had not been before speaking indeed of afflictive temptations, he had before affrighted them with minding them of the possibility of their falling, though they did stand, or thought they stood, and cautioned them to take heed: here he comforteth them, by minding them, that no temptation had befallen them, but what was incident and common to man, a)nqrw&pinoj, and they could not expect to be freed from the common fate of mankind: then he minds them, that that God who had promised strength and assistance to his people, Matt 7:11; Luke 11:13; 2 Cor 1:18; 1 Thess 5:4; 2 Thess 3:3, was one that would be as good as his word, being faithful, and would not suffer them to be tempted above their strength, and ability to oppose and resist; yea, and would make a way to escape, both the evil of the temptation, that it should not overbear them to a total ruin of their souls, and likewise the burdensome and afflictive evil, that it should not continually lie upon them, provided they used their just endeavours, and (as he had said before) took heed lest they fell.
1 Cor 10:14. The apostle would have them avoid all sin, but idolatry more especially, keeping at the utmost distance imaginable from that, being of all sins in its kind the greatest transgression; upon which account it is often in Scripture compared to whoredom. Though we ought to be afraid of and to decline all sin; yet as God hath revealed his wrath against any particular sin more than other, so every good Christian is obliged more to detest and abhor that sin. How the Corinthians were concerned in this caution, we shall read afterwards, 1 Cor 10:20. For though idolatry be properly where the failure is in the ultimate or mediate object of our worship, and the creature is made either the ultimate term of our worship, or the medium in and by which we worship the Creator; yet there are many other ways by which we may be partakers of the sins of others, and this sin of idolatry in particular: and idolatry being a sin of the greatest magnitude, from which they were bound to keep the furthest distance, they were bound to take heed of being partakers of other men’s sins of this kind.
1 Cor 10:15. As to the present case, you are persons that understand the principles of Christian religion, I will make you judges in this case.
1 Cor 10:16. It is on all hands agreed, that the apostle is here speaking of believers communicating in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper. By the cup of blessing, he meaneth the cup there, which he so calleth, because we in the taking of it bless the Lord, who gave his Son to die for us, and Christ, for that great love which he showed in dying for us: we are said to bless it, because we, by solemn prayer in the consecration of it, set it apart for that sacred use, and beg of God to bless it to us. This cup (saith the apostle) is the communion of the blood of Christ. The cup is put for the wine in the cup (which is very ordinary). The cup, or wine, of blessing, signifieth that cup of wine to which the blessing is added, or with which in that holy institution we thankfully remember the death of Christ, and bless his name for that great mercy; and the wine or cup of blessing, also, here signifieth our religions action in drinking of that cup of wine so blessed. This, saith he, is the communion of the blood of Christ; that is, it is an action whereby and wherein Christ communicates himself and his grace to us, and we communicate our souls to him; so that Christ and believers in that action have a mutual communion one with another. And as it is with the one element in that holy sacrament, so it is also with the other. The bread which the minister breaketh (according to the institution and example of Christ) for the church to make use of in the celebration of the Lord’s supper, that is, their action in eating of that bread so broken and divided amongst them, is the communion of the body of Christ; an action wherein Christians have a fellowship and communion with Christ.
1 Cor 10:17. Believers, though many, yet are one body, and declare themselves to be one body mystical, by their fellowship together in the ordinance of the Lord’s supper; as the bread they there eat is one bread, though it be made up of many grains of corn, which come into the composition of that loaf or piece of bread which is so broken, distributed, and eaten; and the wine they drink is one cup, one body of wine, though it be made up of many particular grapes. And they declare themselves to be one body, by their joint partaking of that one bread. Some have from hence fetched an argument to prove the unlawfulness of communicating with scandalous sinners at the Lord’s table, because we declare ourselves one body with those that communicate: but whether it will (if examined) be cogent enough, I doubt; for one body signifieth no more than one church, and that not invisible, but visible. So as we only declare ourselves to be fellow members of the visible church with those with whom we partake in that ordinance, and the visible church may consist of persons that are bad mixed with the good. So as though, undoubtedly, scandalously wicked persons ought to be excluded from the holy table, yea, and no unbeliever hath a right to it; yet it may reasonably be doubted, whether those that partake with unbelievers, do by it own themselves to be unbelievers; they only own themselves members of that church wherein there are some unbelievers. But the scope of the apostle is from hence to argue, that by a parity of reason, those that communicated with an idolatrous assembly in their sacrifices, declared themselves by that action to be one body with those idolaters.
1 Cor 10:18. Israel after the flesh was the whole seed of Jacob, the whole body of the Jewish church; for believers only were Israelites after the Spirit, Rom 11:6, called the Israel of God, Gal 6:16. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? If in the Jewish church any persons ate of the flesh of sacrifices offered upon God’s altar, did they not by that act manifest that they were members of the Jewish church, and owned that God to whom those sacrifices were offered, and that way of worship by which God was so worshipped? By the same reason these Corinthians eating of the flesh of those beasts in the idol’s temple, which had been offered unto idols, did by that act declare their owning of the idol, and that idolatrous worship which had been there performed, and were really partakers of the idolatrous altar.
1 Cor 10:19. I do not by this contradict what I before said, nor now affirm that an idol is any thing, or the sacrifices offered to it any thing. An idol hath nothing in it of a Deity, nor can it either sanctify or pollute any thing that is set before it; the error is in your action, as you communicate with such as are idolaters; it is your own action that polluteth you, not the idol, nor yet the meat set before it.
1 Cor 10:20. The heathens might not intentionally offer sacrifices to devils, (such a thing can hardly be supposed of men,) but actually they offered sacrifices to devils; for they were devils, that is, evil angels, which deluded the poor heathen, and gave answers from the images and statues which they worshipped, believing the true God to be in them: which answers they accounted for oracles. Besides, the apostle saith, they sacrificed to devils, because in God’s esteem it was so, though not in their intention; God judgeth of men’s acts of worship and homage pretendedly done unto him, not according to their intention, but according to the truth and reality of the thing: now, really the heathen in their sacrifices paid a homage to devils, though such a thing was far from their intention; and this deserves the consideration, both of the papists, who worship images, and also of those protestants (if any such be) who would excuse the papists in their idolatries from their intentions. The nature of idolatry doth not lie in men’s intending to worship the creature instead of the Creator, (there were hardly every any such idolaters in the world,) but in their actual doing of the thing; and except they can find a direct rule in holy writ ordering the adoration of the Creator in the creature, or before the creature, it is much to be feared, that in the last day God will judge their homage performed to the creature, not to him. Now, saith the apostle, you had need take heed that, by this action, you prove not yourselves to have fellowship with devils, instead of Christ and the true and living God.
1 Cor 10:21. The cup of the Lord: we may either take the phrase as signifying all religious communion under one great act of religion, or as particularly signifying having a communion with Christ in the ordinance of the Lord’s supper, which is called the cup of the Lord, either because God hath instituted and appointed the drinking of it, or because it is done for the honour, glory, and remembrance of our Lord Christ, to remember his death until he come, as the apostle speaketh, 1 Cor 11:26. This the apostle tells them they could not drink of, that is, not rightly, and with a good conscience; or not really; no man that is an idolater, or hath communion with idolaters in their idolatrous acts, can have communion with Christ. The same is meant by the Lord’s table, and the table of devils. So as I cannot see how either an idolatrous church can be a true church, or an idolater a true Christian, unless we will assert, that a body of people may be a true church, that can have no communion with Christ; or a man may be a true Christian, and yet have no communion with Christ. Idolatry, doubtless, both divides the soul from Christ, as he is the Head of a believer, and as he is the Head of the church. To call any body of idolaters a true church, either morally, or metaphysically, is to say to those: Ammi, You are the Lord’s people, to whom God hath said, Loammi. Let them be what they will, the name of a church belongeth not to them, if (as the apostle affirmeth) they can have no communion with Christ.
1 Cor 10:22. Jealousy is a violent passion in a man, not bearing a companion or a rival as to a thing or person which he loveth. It is in holy writ applied unto God, not to signify any such extravagancy, excess, or vehemence, as attendeth that passion in men, but only his just displeasure at the giving that homage to any creature which is due to him alone. It is most applied to God to express his anger against those who give Divine homage to idols; the worship of God being a great piece of his glory which he hath said he will not give to another, nor his praise to graven images, Isa 42:8. Hence divines observe, that jealousy is attributed to God in the second commandment, which concerns the more external worship of God, to deter men from the violation of it, Exod 20:5. So Exod 34:14; Deut 4:24; Deut 5:9; Deut 6:16, and in many other texts, it signifieth, that the worship of God is a thing that he is very tender of, and that his will is to endure no creature to share with him in it; and that his wrath shall flame against that man that offers to make any creature such a sharer. So that it is not safe for any to do any thing of that nature, unless he could fancy himself to be stronger than God; for he that doth it, must expect the power and strength of God to be engaged against him. Thus the apostle had dissuaded them from eating meat sacrificed to idols in the idol’s temple, from the impiety of it, it being a species of idolatry, against which God hath signally revealed his wrath. He returns in the following verses to an argument, by which he had before dissuaded it, 1 Cor 8, as it was against charity, and the duty of love, in which they were indebted to their brethren.
1 Cor 10:23. All things here must necessarily signify many things, or, at least, (as some think,) all those things I have spoken of, to eat meat offered to idols, etc. But if we interpret it in the latter sense, it is not true without limitations; for the apostle had but now determined, that to eat meat offered to idols in the idol’s temple, was to have communion with devils. I had rather therefore interpret all by many, as that universal particle must be interpreted in a great multitude of scriptures. So as the sense is: There are many things that are lawful which are not expedient; that is, considered in themselves, under due circumstances, they are lawful, but considered in such and such circumstances, are not so, because they are not for the profit or good, but the hurt and disadvantage, of others. Thus the apostle himself expounds it in the latter clause of the verse, where he saith, they edify not, that is, they tend not to promote the gospel, or the faith and holiness of particular Christians.
1 Cor 10:24. It is the duty of every one who is a disciple of Christ, not merely to look at his own pleasure or profit, but the profit and advantage of others. Charity seeketh not her own, (saith the apostle, 1 Cor 13:5,) that is, it seeketh not its own with the prejudice of another. So as admit that in this practice there were nothing looked like idolatry and impiety towards God, yet charity or love to your brethren ought to deter you.
1 Cor 10:25. It is possible that butchers, before they brought their meat into the market, might offer some part of it to the idol; or it is possible that the priests, who had a share in the beasts offered to idols, or the people that had offered such beasts, who, also had a share returned them, might out of covetousness come and bring’ it to be sold in the market. The apostle directeth the Corinthians in such cases to make no scruple, but eat of it, if it were commonly sold in the shambles; which argued, that the thing in itself, considered nakedly, was not sinful. But yet he would have them in that case ask no questions, whence it came? Or whether it had not been offered to an idol? For the sake of other men’s consciences, lest some others standing by should take notice that they bought and ate such meat. Or their own consciences, lest, though the thing in itself, so separated from a sacred use, and returned to its common use, might be lawfully eaten, yet their consciences should afterwards reflect upon them for the doing of it.
1 Cor 10:26. This sentence is taken out of Ps 24:1. The earth is God’s, or the Lord Christ’s, who hath sanctified all things for the use of man, and all the variety of creatures that are in it are sanctified by him. An idol cannot pollute any kind of meat, it hath no such malign influence upon any thing; you may pollute yourselves by your action, eating it in the idol’s temple, at an idolater’s feast immediately upon his sacrifice, but the idol itself is no operative thing, nor can cause an ill quality in the meat; let the meat be once returned to its common use, (the idolater’s sacred mysteries being over,) it is the Lord’s, what he hath appointed for the use of man. In the idol’s temple they took the meat out of the devil’s hand, that was indeed unlawful; but if it were once returned to its common use, and sold in the market, they took it out of the hand of God’s common providence, and every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, 1 Tim 4:4.
1 Cor 10:27. The apostle puts another case, in which they might lawfully enough eat of meat offered to an idol; that was in case any of their neighbours, that were heathens, invited them to dinner or supper in a private house (some add, or in the idol’s temple, if it were a feast of friendship, not a feast upon a sacrifice; but I doubt that, and also whether in the idol-temples there were any feasts but upon sacrifices:) he determineth it lawful for them to go and eat whatsoever was set before them; but in this case he would also have them ask no questions for conscience sake.
1 Cor 10:28. The meat being out of the idol’s temple, and returned to a common use, there could be no impiety in eating it, no communion with devils, and partaking of the table of devils, in and by such an action; but yet there might be a breach of charity in the action, that is, in case one were there present, who knew that it had been so offered to the idol, and declared his offence, by telling the Christian that was about to eat, that that meat had been so offered: in that case the apostle commandeth Christians not to eat, and that partly for his sake that showed it, lest they should lay a stumbling block before him, and by their example imbolden him that showed it to do the like, though he doubted the lawfulness of it; and likewise for conscience sake, that is, for their own conscience sake, which through weakness might afterward trouble them for it, though without just cause. He gives them as a reason for it, because the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof, that is, because there was other meat enough to eat. This passage, taken out of the psalmist, had a something different application, 1 Cor 10:26; there the apostle used it to justify the lawfulness of their eating such meat, returned again to a common use, and exposed to sale in the shambles; here he useth it to dissuade them from eating, if any let them know it had been offered to the idol.
1 Cor 10:29. By reason of what we had, 1 Cor 10:28, (where the apostle forbade eating these meats, in case any at the feast told them they had been offered to idols, both for his sake that told him so, and also for conscience sake,) it is most reasonable to interpret those words not thine own in this verse, not thine own only, there being frequent instances in Scripture where the negative particle must be so restrained, as John 4:42; John 6:27,38. For why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience? For why should my practice in a thing wherein I have a liberty, be censured or condemned by the conscience of another, he being persuaded that what I do, and judge that I have a liberty to do, and may do lawfully, is done by me sinfully, and I by him accounted a transgressor for it; so as though I do a thing that is honest, yet it is not honest in the sight of all men, or of good report; whereas Christians are obliged, Rom 12:17, to provide things honest in the sight of all men, not in their own sight merely, end to do those things that are lovely and of good report, Phil 3:8.
1 Cor 10:30. If I by grace be a partaker; if I by the goodness of God, whose the earth is, and the fulness thereof; or by the grace of knowledge, by which God hath given me to understand that I may do that, as to which others less knowing stumble; can eat such meat (out of the idol’s temple) as part of it hath been offered to the idol, or with thanksgiving partake of such meat, (for so xa&rij signifies, Luke 6:32; Luke 17:9,) why am I blasphemed, or evil spoken of, for that for which I can give God thanks? That is, I ought not to cause another to speak evil of me for using of meat, but rather than run that danger, to abstain from such meat which I could otherwise eat of, and give God thanks: for in so doing I should but abuse my liberty, and instead of giving God thanks, I should grievously offend God, not at all consulting his glory.
1 Cor 10:31. The apostle, in these three last verses, layeth down three rules, to direct Christians how to use their liberty as to things that are of an indifferent nature, neither in themselves commanded nor forbidden in the word of God. His first rule is in this verse, to do whatsoever we do to the glory of God. This is a general rule, not to be restrained to the eating of meat offered to idols, of which the former discourse had been. It is a general rule, not applicable alone to eating and drinking, but to all other human actions. The reasonableness of this rule appeareth from our consideration, that the glory of God was the end of our creation; The Lord hath made all things for himself, Prov 16:4: and indeed it is impossible it should be otherwise; for whereas every reasonable agent both propounds to himself some end of his actions, and the best end he can imagine, it is impossible but that God also, in creating man, should propound to himself some end, and there being no better end than his own glory, he could propound no other unto himself. The glory of God being the end which he propounded to himself in creating man, it must needs follow, that that must be the chief and greatest end which any man can propound to himself in his actions. God is then glorified by us, when by our means, or by occasion of us, he is well spoken of in the world, or by our obedience to his will: this our Saviour hath taught us, John 17:4,6. No man in any of his actions hath a liberty from this rule; so as though a man, as to many things, hath a liberty to marry or not to marry, to eat meats or not to eat them, to wear this apparel or not to wear it; yet he is not even in such things as these so at liberty, but he ought to look about, and to consider circumstances, which will be most for the honour of God, the credit of the gospel, and reputation of religion. And the judgment of this is to be made from circumstances, the difference of which may make that unlawful which otherwise would be lawful, and that lawful which under other circumstances would be unlawful.
1 Cor 10:32. We use to say, that men are offended when they are grieved or angered; but these offences are not here meant, (as appears by the Greek phrase, ‘Apro&skopoi gi/nesqe) but give no occasion of sin or stumbling. This care he commands us, with reference to all men; for at that time all the world fell under one of these denominations, they were either Jews, or Gentiles, (that is, heathens,) or the church of God (that is, Christians). It was always a hard matter, if not a thing impossible, for Christians to carry themselves so as not to anger those that were no Christians; but it was not impossible for them so to behave themselves, as not to be to them any just occasion of sin. Much less ought conscientious Christians to give offence to Christians, that made up the church of God, and were with them members of the same mystical body, of which Christ is the Head.
1 Cor 10:33. Even as I please all men in all things; that is, in all things wherein the law of God hath left me a liberty; for Paul pleased no man, either in the omission of any thing which God had commanded him to do, or in the doing of any thing which God had forbidden him to do. Not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved; not seeking my own advantage, either the satisfaction of my own mind or humour, or my own gain, but the advantage of others, especially in matters that may any way affect them as to their eternal salvation. Thus Paul, like a good shepherd, goeth out before the sheep, and leadeth them, and, as every true minister should be, is himself an example to the flock of Christ. And this is a third rule to be observed by Christians, as to the use of the liberty which God’s law hath left them as to any particular actions; notwithstanding that liberty, yet they ought to have respect to the spiritual good and salvation of others, and to do that part which their judgments inform them will be, as least to the spiritual damage and detriment, so most to the spiritual good and profit, of the souls of others with whom they converse.
1 CORINTHIANS 11
1 Cor 11:1: Paul exhorteth the Corinthians to follow him, as he did Christ.
1 Cor 11:2: He praiseth them for observing the rules he had given them;
1 Cor 11:3-16: and forbiddeth men to pray or prophesy with heads covered, and women with heads uncovered; the covering of the head being a token of subjection.
1 Cor 11:17-19: He blameth them for abuses in their religious assemblies, particularly for their divisions,
1 Cor 11:20-22: and profanation of the Lord’s supper.
1 Cor 11:23-34: He remindeth them of the first institution thereof, and showeth the danger of partaking of it unworthily.
1 Cor 11:1. Interpreters judge, that these words do properly belong to the foregoing chapter, in the last verse of which he had propounded his own example to them; but whether they be applied to that chapter or this, is not much material. They teach us, that the examples of the apostles are part of our rule; yet the modesty of the apostle is remarkable, who requires of his people no further to follow him than as he followed Christ: nor indeed ought any man to require more of those that are under his charge, than to follow him so far forth as he imitates the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 11:2. That ye remember me in all things; that you remember my doctrine, the precepts and instructions that I gave you; and keep the ordinances: so we translate it; the Greek word is parado&seij. The word signifieth any thing that is doctrinally delivered, or taught men, whether it concerns faith or manners. It is thought, that in this text it doth not signify what the apostle had delivered to them with respect to faith, or their moral conversation, but with respect to matters of order, because such is the next instance which the apostle mentioneth, about praying or prophesying with the head covered, or uncovered; and undoubtedly any precepts of that nature from one guided by an infallible Spirit ought to be observed. The apostle doth not command them to keep any traditions, which others should to the end of the world deliver to them, he only praiseth them for keeping those which he had delivered. There is a great question betwixt us and the papists, about the obligation that lieth upon Christians to observe unwritten traditions; that is, such rites and observances as they tell us were apostolical, and the traditions of the primitive church, though they can show us no Scripture for them; but no Christian disputes his obligation to keep apostolical traditions; only we are at a loss to know how to prove those traditions apostolical, of which we find nothing in the writings of the apostles: it is praiseworthy to keep apostolical traditions; but for others, or such as do not appear to us to be so, it is but a work of supererogation: where hath God required any such thing at people’s hands?
1 Cor 11:3. The abuse which the apostle is reflecting upon in this and the following verses, is women’s praying or prophesying with their heads uncovered, against which the apostle strongly argueth. His argument seems to be this: That the woman in religious services ought to behave herself as a person in subjection to her husband, and accordingly to use such a gesture, as, according to the guise and custom of that country, testified such a subjection; to this purpose he tells us in this verse, that the head of every man is Christ. Christ, considered as God according to his Divine nature, is the Head of all men and women too in the world; but the text seemeth rather to speak of Christ as Mediator: so the apostle tells us, Eph 5:23, he is the Head of the church; and the New Testament often speaks of Christ in that notion, and of believers as his members: in this sense, by every man, we must understand no more than every Christian, every member of the church. The head of the woman is the man; the man is called the head of the woman, because by God’s ordinance he is to rule over her, Gen 3:16; he hath an excellency above the woman, and a power over her. The head of Christ is God; and God is the Head of Christ, not in respect of his essence and Divine nature, but in respect of his office as Mediator; as the man is the head of the woman, not in respect of a different and more excellent essence and nature, (for they are both of the same nature,) but in respect of office and place, as God hath set him over the woman. Nor indeed could those who deny the Divine nature of Christ, easily have brought a text more against their own assertion, than this, which rather proveth, that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are equal in nature and essence, than different; for surely the head is not of a different, but the same nature and essence with the members. Nor doth Christ’s subjection to his Father at all argue an inequality, or difference from him in nature and essence, more than the subjection of subjects to a prince argue any such thing. The apostle then determines this to be the order which God hath set: God is the Head of Christ; Christ is the Head of his church, and every one that is a member of it; and man is the head of the woman, he to whom the woman ought to be subject, as the church is subject to Christ, and Christ is subject to his Father; and from hence he argueth as follows.
1 Cor 11:4. By every man praying or prophesying, some (amongst whom the learned Beza) understand not only he that ministereth in prayer, or in opening and applying the Scriptures, whether from a previous meditation and study of them, or from the extraordinary revelation of the Holy Spirit, which they had in those primitive times; but also all those that were present at those actions. The reason they give is: Because the reason given by the apostle for his assertion, is such as is common to the people, as well as to him that ministereth; and the woman was forbidden to speak in the church, 1 Tim 2:12. But our learned Bishop Hall assures us, he cannot agree with those of this mind. And indeed it is an unreasonable interpretation; for though those who join with others in prayer may be said to pray, yet those that hear one preaching or expounding Scripture, can in no propriety of speech be said to prophesy. Nor is any such usage of the term to be paralleled, neither are the reasons they bring cogent; for though the reason of the precept may concern the people as well as the minister, yet it doth not follow that the rule or precept must necessarily do so too. And although the woman be forbidden to teach in ordinary cases, yet it did not concern those who were immediately and extraordinarily inspired, according to the prophecy, Joel 2:28, applied, Acts 2:17. Having his head covered; i.e. with a hat or cap, or such covering of the head as is in use in the country wherein he liveth. It is not to be understood of the natural covering of the head, which is our hair; nor yet of any other covering which is necessary for the preservation of life and health; but such a covering as he might spare, and is ornamental to him according to the fashion of the country. Dishonoureth his head; either dishonoureth Christ who is his Head, and whom he ought to represent, and doth as it were make the church the head to Christ, which is subject to him, while by covering his head he declares a subjection in his ministration. Or he dishonoureth his own head, (so many interpret it,) to wit, he betrayeth his superiority, lesseneth himself as to that power and dignity which God hath clothed him with, by using a posture which is a token of inferiority and subjection. Interpreters rightly agree, that this and the following verses are to be interpreted from the customs of countries; and all that can be concluded from this verse is, that it is the duty of men employed in Divine ministrations, to look to behave themselves as those who are to represent the Lord Jesus Christ, behaving themselves with a just authority and gravity that becometh his ambassadors, which decent gravity is to be judged from the common opinion and account of the country wherein they live. So as all which this text requires of Christian ministers, is authority and gravity, and what are external indications of it. Our learned Dr. Lightfoot observeth, that the Jewish priests were wont in the worship of God to veil their heads; so that Christian ministers praying or prophesying with their heads covered, Judaised, which he judgeth the reason of the apostle’s assertion. The heathens also, both Romans and Grecians, were wont to minister in their sacred things with their heads covered. Some think this was the reason why the Christians used the contrary gesture; but the apostle’s arguing from the man’s headship, seemeth to import that the reason of this assertion of the apostle was, because in Corinth the uncovered head was a sign of authority. At this day the Mahometans (or Turks) speak to their superiors covered, and so are covered also in their religious performances. The custom with us in these western parts is quite otherwise; the uncovering of the head is a sign or token of subjection: hence ministers pray and preach with their heads uncovered, to denote their subjection to God and Christ: but yet this custom is not uniform, for in France the Reformed ministers preach with their heads covered; as they pray uncovered, to express their reverence and subjection to God, so they preach covered, as representing Christ, the great Teacher, from whom they derive, and whom they represent. Nothing in this is a further rule to Christians, than that it is the duty of ministers, in praying and preaching, to use postures and habits that are not naturally, nor according to the custom of the place where they live, uncomely and irreverent, and so looked upon. It is only the general observation of decency (which cannot by any be created, but ariseth either from nature, or custom, and prescription) which this text of the apostle maketh to be the duty of all Christians; though as to the Corinthians, he particularly required the man’s ministering in sacred things with his head uncovered, either to avoid the habit or posture used by Jews and pagans; or for the showing of his dignity and superiority over the woman, (whom we shall by and by find commanded to pray or prophesy covered,) or that he represented Christ who was the Head of the church. The uncovering of the head being with them as much a sign of subjection, as it is with us of superiority and preeminence.
1 Cor 11:5. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth: though the woman be forbidden to teach, and commanded to be in silence, 1 Tim 2:12; yet that text must be understood of ordinary women, and in ordinary cases, not concerning such as prophesied from an extraordinary impulse or motion of the Spirit. We read of women prophetesses both in the Old and New Testament; such was Huldah in Josiah’s time, and Anna, of whom we read Luke 2:36; and we read that Philip had four daughters that did prophesy, Acts 21:9. With her head uncovered: the uncovered head here (as before) must signify not covered with some artificial covering, such as our quoifs, hats, hoods, or veils, etc., or with her own hair, not hanging loose, but artificially used so as to be a covering. Dishonoureth her head; dishonoureth either her husband, who is her political or economical head, for by that habit she behaveth herself as if she were not one in subjection, and seemeth to usurp an undue authority over the man; or her natural head, it being in those places accounted an immodest thing for a woman to appear in public uncovered. It is observed of Rebekah, when she met Isaac, Gen 24:65: She took a veil, and covered herself. For that is even all one as if she were shaven; for, saith the apostle, yourselves would judge it an uncomely thing for a woman to be shaven; now to pray or to prophesy with the head uncovered, is all one. This last clause will incline us to think, that by the uncovered head in this verse, is not only to be understood uncovered with some other covering besides her hair, but with her hair disheveled, hanging loose at its length, for else it is not all one to have the head uncovered with a hat, or hood, or quoif, and to be shaven; for the apostle afterward saith, 1 Cor 11:15, her hair is given to her for a covering or a veil: so that possibly that which the apostle here reflecteth upon, is women’s coming into the public assemblies with their hair hanging loosely down, and not decently wound up so as to make a covering for the head; which, we are told, was the practice of those beastly she-priests of Bacchus, who, like frantic persons, performed those pretendedly religious rites with their hair so hanging loose, and were called manades, because they behaved themselves more like mad persons than such as were in the actual use of their reason: something like which, it is most probable, some women in the Christian church at Corinth affected, against which the apostle here argueth.
1 Cor 11:6. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: nature itself teacheth, that it is a shameful sight to see a woman revealing the mind and will of God, by an extraordinary pretended revelation, in so indecent a manner, as with her hair all hanging down; let her hair be either shaven off, or at least cut after the manner of men’s hair, if she will neither tie it up artificially, so as to make it a covering for her head, nor put on a veil to cover her: for though a woman prophesying from an extraordinary impulse, be not under the common law of women not speaking in the public assembly, but keeping silence; yet she is under the law of nature to do no such grave and solemn actions in such a rude manner, that from the light of nature, or the common account of all that live in that place, she should be judged to be irreverent and brutish in her religious action. From this text a question hath been started: Whether Christian women may lawfully go without any other covering upon their heads than their hair? I must confess, I see not how such a question can have any bottom in this text, where the apostle is not speaking of women’s ordinary habiting themselves, but only when they prayed and prophesied, and (if I mistake not) when they ministered in prayer and prophecy (as was said before). We now have no such prophetesses; so as I think that question about the lawfulness of women’s going without any other covering upon their heads than their hair, must be determined from other texts, not this, and is best determined from circumstances; for God having given to the woman her hair for a covering and an ornament, I cannot see how it should be simply unlawful; accidentally it may, from the circumstances of pride in her heart that so dresseth herself, or lust and wantonness in others’ hearts; or other circumstances of ill designs and intentions in the woman so dressing herself. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered; if nature teacheth us that it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, it also teacheth us that it is a shame for her to be uncovered, either with her hair, or some artificial covering; which latter seemeth rather to be meant in this place, because divines think, that the face is that part of the head which the apostle here intendeth should be covered in their religious actions, which is not covered with the hair, but with a veil, etc.
1 Cor 11:7. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head; covering the head being in those countries a token of subjection, a man ought to uphold the power, preeminence, and authority with which God hath invested him, and not to cover his head, further than it is naturally covered with hair. Forasmuch as he is the image and glory, of God; because he hath a peculiar cause of glorying in God, as he to whom alone he is subject, and therefore ought by no habits or postures to show himself in subjection to others: or because God glorieth in him, as a most excellent piece of his workmanship: God is represented in man. Paul useth to call that one’s glory wherein he glorieth, 2 Cor 1:12,14; 1 Thess 2:20. So David calleth God his glory; and Solomon tells us, Prov 17:6, that the glory of children are their fathers. So as the apostle here useth a double argument for the man’s not covering of his head: 1. Because the man is immediately subject to God, and therefore ought not by any habits, or civil rites, to show his natural subjection to men, that are not by nature his superiors (for we must not think, that the apostle by this argument forbiddeth subjection to natural, economical, or political superiors). 2. Because God glorieth in man. But the woman is the glory of the man, created for the honour of the man, and for his help and assistance, and originally made out of man, so as man may glory of her, as Adam did of Eve, Gen 2:23, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. The glory of God ought to be revealed and uncovered, manifested to all: the glory of the man ought to be hidden and concealed.
1 Cor 11:8. Here the apostle openeth or proveth what he had before said of the woman’s being the glory of the man; the woman was made of the man; the man was not made of a rib taken out of the woman, but the woman was made of a rib taken out of the man; we have the history, Gen 2:21-22; and from hence the apostle argueth her subjection to the man.
1 Cor 11:9. We have this expounded, Gen 2:18, where God said: It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. God did not first create the woman, and then make man a meet help for her; but he first made the man, and then the woman, that she might be a meet help for him. Now it is a rule in reason: That whosoever or whatsoever is made for another person or thing, is less excellent than that person or thing for which the other is made. For the man, signifies to serve and help the man.
1 Cor 11:10. By power on her head is here to be understood (as some think) a covering on her head, in sign that she is under the power of her husband: the thing signified is here put for the sign, as the sign is often put for the thing signified. Thus the ark, which is called, the ark of God’s strength, Ps 132:8, is itself called his strength, 1 Chron 16:11. But others here by head do not understand the woman’s natural head, but her husband, or the man, who is the political head of the woman; and by having power on him, understand her exercising of her power in him, testifying it by covering her head; and think this text well expounded by 1 Tim 2:12, where the apostle forbiddeth the woman to usurp authority over the man. He addeth another reason, because of the angels. By angels here some understand God himself, who by the ministry of angels created man and woman in this order, and put this law upon the woman. Others understand those messengers which the man sent sometimes, by whom the woman was betrothed (but this was a custom only in use amongst the Jews). Others here by angels understand the ministers and officers of the church, who are sometimes in holy writ called angels. Others understand the evil angels, who watch to take advantage to tempt men from objects appearing beautiful to unchaste thoughts, etc. But the most and best interpreters understand here by angels, the good angels; for the apostle would hardly have spoken of devils under the notion of angels, especially speaking to deter persons from actions; and so it teaches us, that the good angels, who are ministering spirits for the good of God’s elect, at all times have a special ministration, or at least are more particularly present, in the assemblies of people for religious worship, observing the persons, carriage, and demeanour; the sense of which ought to awe all persons attending those services, from any indecent and unworthy behaviour.
1 Cor 11:11. Lest the man, upon the apostle’s discourse of his preeminence and dignity over the woman, should wax proud and insolent, and carry himself too imperiously, the apostle addeth this, that they both stand in need of each other’s help, so as neither of them could well be without the other, either as to matters that concern God, or that concern the world; the Lord so ordering and disposing it, that they should be mutual helps one to another. Or else the sense is, they are equal in the Lord as to a state of grace, in Christ there is neither male nor female: though there be a difference betwixt a man and woman in other things, and the man hath the priority and superiority; yet when we come to consider them as to their spiritual state, and in their spiritual reference, there is no difference.
1 Cor 11:12. The man hath a priority to the woman, being first created, and a superiority over her upon that account, she being made for him, not he for her, this is indeed the man’s advantage; but on the other side, since the creation of the first man, all men are by the woman, who conceives them in her womb, suckles them at her breasts, is concerned in their education while children, and dandled upon her knees; the man therefore hath no reason to despise and too much to trample upon the woman: and all these things are of God, by the wise ordering and disposing of God; so as neither hath the man, by reason of his prerogative, in being first created, and the end for which the woman was created, any cause to insult and triumph over the woman; neither hath the woman any cause, by reason of her prerogative, that the man is by her, any cause to triumph over the man; but both of them ought to look upon themselves as having their prerogatives from God, and in the use of them to behave themselves according to the will of God, behaving themselves in their respective stations as it is the will of God they should behave themselves, the woman being subject to the man, and testifying such subjection by all the signs of it, and the man carrying himself towards the woman as he who is the image and glory of God.
1 Cor 11:13. No man is truly and thoroughly convinced of an error, till he be convicted by his own conscience. It is therefore very usual in holy writ for God, by his sacred penmen, to make appeals unto men’s own consciences, and put them to judge within themselves, to examine a thing by their own reason, and according to the dictates of that to give sentence for or against themselves. The thing as to which he would have them judge within themselves, and accordingly pronounce sentence, was, whether it were a decent thing for women to pray to God with their hair all hanging loose about their shoulders, or without any veil, or covering for their head and face.
1 Cor 11:14. He tells them, that they could not judge this as a thing comely, for nature itself taught them, that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair. By nature here some understand the law of nature, according to which it would have an intrinsic evil in it, which it is plain it hath not; for then neither must the Nazarites have used it, (as they did,) neither would it be lawful for the sake of men’s health or life. Others understand by nature the law of nations; but neither is this true, for in many nations men wear hair at the utmost length. Others understand common sense, or the light and judgment of that natural reason which since the fall is left in man; but this must be the same in all men, and we know that all men do not judge this shameful. Others therefore by nature here understand a common custom, which (as they say) maketh as it were a second nature; so the term is taken, Rom 11:24: but it cannot so signify here; for there neither is, nor ever was, such a universal custom in any place, that none in it wore long hair. Others by nature here understand natural inclination; but neither can this be the sense, for there is in some men, as well as in women, a natural propension and inclination to wear their hair at excessive lengths. Others here by nature understand the difference of the sex, as they take this word to be used, Rom 1:26; the distinction of the sexes teacheth us this: and this seemeth to be the most probable sense of this text. The apostle arguing, that as the male and female sex are artificially distinguished by garments, and it was the will of God they should be so, so they should also be distinguished by the wearing of their hair; and it was no less shame for a man to wear his hair like a woman, than to wear garments like a woman.
1 Cor 11:15. But, he saith, if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. Long hair is comely for the woman, and accounted to her for a beauty or ornament, for God hath given her her hair for a covering. There have been books written about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of men’s wearing long hair, and the due or undue lengths of men’s hair, the substance of which were too much to transcribe here. That which in these verses seemeth to be commended to us, as the will of God in this matter, is, 1. That men and women should so order their hair, as by it to preserve the distinction of sexes. 2. That men should not wear their hair after the manner of women, either disheveled, or curled, and tricked up about their heads, which speaks too much of an unmanly and effeminate temper, much more was what became not Christians. And if this be forbidden men, as to the use of their own hair, they stand concerned to consider whether it be lawful for them thus to wear and adorn themselves with the hair of other men and women.
1 Cor 11:16. If any man seem to be contentious; if any man hath a mind to quarrel out of a love to show his wit in discoursing what may be said on the other side, or out of a desire to hold up a party, and contradict us. We have no such custom, of women’s praying or prophesying with their heads uncovered, or men’s praying or prophesying with their heads covered; or we have no such custom of contending for these little frivolous things; neither any of the churches of God; and good Christians, in their practices, ought, in things of this nature, to have an eye and regard to the custom of their own church, and also of other Christian churches. Thus the apostle closeth this discourse, and proceedeth in the next verses to tax other abuses which were crept into this famous church.
1 Cor 11:17. Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not; I come now to another thing of greater consequence, as to which I must much blame you; I am so far from being able to commend or approve of what you do, that I must for it smartly reflect upon you. That ye come together not for the better, but for the worse; that when you meet in your church assemblies, for the performance of your religious duties, to pray, preach, hear, or receive the holy sacrament, you so meet and behave yourselves, as your meeting tends to the increase of your sin, rather than to the increase of your grace, and the promoting the work of God in yourselves and the souls of others.
1 Cor 11:18. In the church, here, must signify the religious assembly; for at this time there were no temples built for Christians, but they met in private houses, as the iniquity of those times would bear: yet others think the place is here meant where the church was wont to meet, and say, that the Christians had a certain stated place, though in a private house, where they used to meet. But it is not very probable that they should, in the midst of heathens, be so quiet and secure as to meet either constantly, or ordinarily, in any one certain and stated place, so denominated. What schisms, or divisions, the apostle meaneth, he expoundeth in the following verses; either they quarrelled about meats, or drinks, or their order in sitting down, or the time when they should begin, or did not stay till they were all met.
1 Cor 11:19. There must be; it is not simply and absolutely necessary that there should be such divisions amongst you, (they are caused from the free acts of men’s corrupt wills,) but yet these things do not fall out by chance, but through the providence of God, who hath so immutably ordered and decreed, to suffer Satan to show his malice, and men to discover the lusts and corruptions of their own hearts. Heresies: though heresy be a term that, by ecclesiastical usage, is restrained to signify perverse opinions in matter of doctrine, as to which men are stubborn and tenacious; yet it is manifest, that the word is not natively so to be restrained, neither can it reasonably be here so interpreted, but signifies the same thing with schisms and divisions before mentioned: for though (as will appear from 1 Cor 15) there were corrupt opinions amongst them in matters of doctrine, yet it is unreasonable to understand the apostle here, as speaking with reference to them, these words being brought as a reason why he was inclined to believe that there were such schisms or divisions amongst them, because there must be heresies. That they which are approved may be made manifest among you: God hath his wise end in suffering breaches and divisions, that such as are true and sincere Christians, opposing themselves to such violations of charity, might appear to you to be true and sincere, and to have the love of God dwelling, working, and prevailing in them.
1 Cor 11:20. The Greek words do not necessarily signify into one place, they may as well be translated, for the same thing, and possibly that were the better translation of them in this place; divisions appearing the worse amongst persons that met as one and the same body, and for one and the same grave action, and that such an action as declared them one body, and laid upon them the highest obligation to brotherly love imaginable. This is not to eat the Lord’s supper: some words must be here supplied to complete the sense. This is not to eat; that is, as you do it is indeed not to do it; to eat the Lord’s supper in an unlawful manner, is not to eat it. It is called the Lord’s supper, either because he ordained and instituted it, or because it was instituted for the remembrance of his death, 1 Cor 11:26; Luke 22:19. Some think that the sacrament of the Lord’s supper is here meant, and so one would think, by comparing what is here with 1 Cor 11:23-24. Others say, that the love feast is here intended, which ordinarily preceded the Lord’s supper; the reason they give is, because the abuses here mentioned, viz. not staying one for another till the whole church were met, one eating plentifully, another sparingly, some being hungry while others had ate and drank enough, could not be at the Lord’s supper, where the minister beginneth not till the whole church be assembled, and where there is no such liberal eating and drinking. To this purpose we are told, that by an ancient custom in Greece (within which Corinth was) the rich men offered some things to their idols, (which after that action the poor had for their relief,) and made feasts in the idol’s temples, of which all had a liberty to eat. That the Christians imitated this practice of theirs, and the rich amongst them upon the Lord’s days made feasts, at which both poor and rich Christians might be, and the poor carried away what was left. But this church growing corrupt every way, and having got teachers to their humours, they at these feasts neglected the poor, inviting only the rich to them, and also exceeding in their provision for their rich guests. These feasts were called feasts of love, or love feasts, either because, 1. Love to God was that which (pretendedly at least) caused them. 2. Or because they were representations of our Lord’s last supper, in which he first ate the paschal lamb, then instituted what we call the Lord’s supper; or because they immediately preceded or followed the administration of the Lord’s supper, from whence the love feast, being immediately before or after it, had also the same name. But if we allow this, we must make the love feasts also Christ’s institution, and instituted in remembrance of him, neither of which can be proved. The meaning must be: You cannot rightly communicate at the Lord’s table, when immediately before or after that table, at your love feast, you are guilty of such disorderly actions. In the mean time, only what Christ instituted for remembrance of his death is what the apostle calls the Lord’s supper.
1 Cor 11:21. There was at this time in most of the Christian church a Jewish party, viz. such as were converted from Judaism to Christianity, and had a tang of the old cask, being too tenacious of some Jewish rites. These looked upon the Lord’s supper as an appurtenance to the passover, immediately after which we know that Christ at first instituted his supper. As therefore Christ did eat the paschal supper before the Lord’s supper; so they, in imitation of him, though they forbore the paschal lamb, yet would have a supper of their own to precede the Lord’s supper, and having provided it at home, would bring it to the place where the church was to meet; and their poor brethren contributing nothing to the charge of that supper, they would not stay for them, but took this their own supper: so it came to pass, that the poorer Christians were hungry, had none or very little share in their feast, while others, the richer part of the church, had too much; for I take our translation of this word, mequ&ei, to be very hard and uncharitable. Hard, because the word doth not necessarily so signify, only drinking beyond what is strictly necessary, and our translators themselves, John 2:10, render it well drunk. Uncharitable, because it certainly must be very uncharitably presumed of this church of Corinth, that they should suffer persons, at that time actually drunk, to come to the Lord’s table.
1 Cor 11:22. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Hence evidently appears, that these love feasts were kept in the place where the assembly met for the public worship of God; for the apostle would have them (if they would continue them) kept in their private houses: and he doth not only blame the abuses of these feasts, but the feasts themselves as kept in the place where the church met, or as having in them any pretence to any thing of religion: meet they might, friendly to eat and to drink, but their private houses were the fittest places for that. Or despise ye the church of God? Or do you despise the place (as some think) where the church of God meeteth, or the people met in that place, by carrying yourselves so disorderly in such a grave assembly; or the poorer part of the church, who, though poorer, are a part of the church, redeemed by the blood of Christ? The next words would incline us to think that the sense; for it followeth, and shame them that have not, that is, that have not estates to contribute to such feasts, and so are forced to go away without any due refreshment.
1 Cor 11:23. About these love feasts preceding the Lord’s supper, I have received nothing from the Lord, you have taken the practice up from the Jews or heathens: I do not know that it is unlawful for you civilly to feast, and eat and drink in your private houses; but to come to make such feasts immediately before you religiously eat and drink at the Lord’s table, I have received no order from the Lord for any such practice. I have told you what I received from the Lord, which is no more than: That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: see this in the evangelists, Matt 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; where all these words are opened. Some think that Paul received this from the Lord by immediate revelation (as it is thought Moses received the history we have in Genesis and part of Exodus, which relates to a time before he was born, or arrived at man’s estate). Others think that he received it from St. Luke’s writings (for the words are quoted according to his Gospel). Others think he received it from some other of the apostles. Certain it is, that he did receive it from the Lord; how, is uncertain.
1 Cor 11:24-25. These words we also met with, Luke 22:19-20, and in the other evangelists’ narration of the institution of the supper. See the explication of them in the notes on those texts.
1 Cor 11:26. From hence it appears, that the bread and wine is not (as papists say) transubstantiated, or turned into the very substance of the flesh and blood of Christ, when the communicants eat it and drink it. It is still the same bread and cup it was. The end of the institution is but to commemorate Christ’s death; and upon that account the waiting upon God in this ordinance, will be a standing duty incumbent upon Christians, until Christ shall come to judgment. Some think, show ye, is a better translation of the verb, than (as we translate it) ye do show; wherefore so behave yourselves at this ordinance, as those who know what they have to do in it, that is, to show forth the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 11:27. Divines agree, that the unworthiness here spoken of, respecteth not the person of the receiver so much as the manner of the receiving; in which sense, a person that is worthy may receive this ordinance unworthily: it is variously expounded, without due religion and reverence, without faith and love, without proposing a right end in the action, under the guilt of any known sin not repented of, etc. Shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord; shall incur the guilt of the profanation of this sacred institution; for an abuse offered to a sign, reacheth to that of which it is a sign; as the abuse of a king’s seal, or picture, is justly accounted an abuse of the king himself, whose seal and picture it is. Some carry it higher; he shall be punished, as if he had crucified Christ, the profanation of Christ’s ordinance reflecting upon Christ himself.
1 Cor 11:28. He is to examine himself about his knowledge, whether he rightly understands what Christ is, what the nature of the sacrament is, what he doth in that sacred action; about his faith, love, repentance, new obedience, whether he be such a one as God hath prepared that holy table for; it is the children’s bread, and not for dogs; a table Christ hath spread for his friends, not for his enemies. And so let him eat, etc.; having so examined himself, not otherwise. Whence it appears, that neither children in age or understanding, nor persons not in the use of their reason, nor unbelievers, nor persons under the guilt of sins not repented of, have any right to the Lord’s supper: accordingly was the practice of all the primitive churches, and all rightly reformed churches. Whether they ought, if they will presume to come, to be kept away by the officers of the church, and how, and by whom? Whether good Christians may communicate with such at the holy table? And after what previous duty performed? Are questions that belong not to this text.
1 Cor 11:29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily; in the sense before mentioned, either having no remote right or no present right to partake in that ordinance, being an unbeliever, or a resolved unholy or ignorant person; or irreverently and irreligiously. He eateth and drinketh kri=ma, damnation, or judgment, it is no matter which we translate it; for if he brings God’s judgments upon him in this life, they will end in eternal damnation, without a timely repentance; but it is to himself, not to him that is at the same table with him, unless he hath been guilty of some neglect of his duty to him. Not discerning the Lord’s body; and his guilt lieth here, that he doth not discern and distinguish betwixt ordinary and common bread, and that bread which is the representation of the Lord’s body, but useth the one as carelessly, and with as little preparation and regard to what he doth, as he useth the other.
1 Cor 11:30. You, it may be, are not aware of it, but look upon other causes why so many amongst you are sick, and weak, and die immaturely; but I, as the apostle of Jesus Christ, (and so know the mind and will of God,) assure you, that this your irreverent and irreligious profanation of this holy ordinance, is one great cause of so many among you being sick, and weak, and dying in unripe age. Some think that the word sleep argues that they were godly, penitent Christians that so died, (for the death of wicked men is hardly called sleeping any where in holy writ,) to let us know, that even good people, who yet may be saved, may bring judgments in this life upon themselves, as by the profanation of God’s name in other ordinances, so more especially by their profanation of it in this ordinance of the supper.
1 Cor 11:31. This word judge in Scripture signifies all parts of judgment, examining, accusing, condemning, etc.: here it signifies accusing ourselves, condemning ourselves; discriminating ourselves, by the renewings of faith and repentance, from unbelievers, impenitent and profane persons: if we would thus judge ourselves, God would not accuse or condemn us.
1 Cor 11:32. Lest they be terrified at what he had said, and look upon their afflictions as indications of God’s displeasure against them to that degree, that he would not look any more upon them as his children; he tells them, that when God’s people are afflicted with the evils of this life, sickness, etc., God doth not deal with them so much as a Judge, as a Father, who chasteneth the child whom he loveth, and scourgeth whom he receiveth, Heb 12:6-8; and doth it for a good end, to prevent the eternal condemnation of the soul with the impenitent sinners of the world, giving us our hell in this life, that we may escape it in the life to come.
1 Cor 11:33. The apostle concludes this discourse with an exhortation to them, for the time to come to take heed of these irreligious and irreverent behaviours, with relation to the Lord’s supper; that they should not take the sacrament before the whole church were met together, the rich should stay for the poor, and not receive it in parties, but as one body eat that one bread.
1 Cor 11:34. And if any one hungered, they should not make the place where they met together for the solemn worship of God, a place for eating and drinking at feasts, but eat at home; lest, by these disorderly and irreverent actions, they incurred the displeasure of God, and brought down the judgment of God upon themselves. Lastly, he minds them, that if there were any other things of this nature, which he had not spoken to, he did design suddenly to come to them, and then he would set them in order, by giving them rules about them.
1 CORINTHIANS 12
1 Cor 12:1-3: Paul teacheth that none can own Christ but by the Holy Ghost,
1 Cor 12:4-6: whose gifts are diverse,
1 Cor 12:7-11: and dealt out to different persons to profit withal.
1 Cor 12:12-13: As many members make up one natural body, so Christians in general form one mystical body,
1 Cor 12:14-26: and as every member is equally a part of the natural body, and hath a necessary function allotted it.
1 Cor 12:27-31: So is it with Christ’s body, the church; to the several members of which God hath assigned different gifts and offices for the general good.
1 Cor 12:1. The word gifts is not in the Greek, but supplied by our interpreters. In the Greek is no more than concerning spirituals, which is equally applicable to spiritual offices, or administrations, operations, and gifts; of all which he afterward treateth something, but mostly concerning gifts, which are chiefly spoken of in this chapter: and our translators agree with the best interpreters, in supplying the text with the word gifts. This church eminently abounded in these abilities to spiritual actions given them of God (for spiritual gifts signifies nothing else;) and as they abounded in them, so they erred much in the abuse or ill use of them, as we shall afterward read in this chapter. Therefore the apostle tells them, that as to them, he would not have them ignorant, either of the favour of God in enriching them with them, as he had said, 1 Cor 1:5, or yet in the due and right use of them, so as God might have glory from their good use of them: or of the errors that they had ran into, or might further run into, in the ill use of them.
1 Cor 12:2. Ye know that ye were Gentiles; so they were still in respect of their birth and country; but he speaketh with reference to their religion and way of worship. Carried away unto these dumb idols; carried away by your idol priests, and by the examples of your friends and neighbours, to idols, which, though they seem to you to speak, and to tell you of things to come, yet indeed have mouths and speak not, only the devil spake from them. Even as ye were led; wherein you acted not under the conduct of reason, nor as became reasonable creatures, but you were blindly led by the dictates of priests, or by the examples of others. This the apostle puts them in mind of, to let them know, that all those excellent gifts with which they were now endued, as he had told them, 1 Cor 1:5-6, they had received from God since their conversion to Christianity, and from the Spirit of Christ; for before their conversion they were like brute beasts, knowing nothing, but led by others.
1 Cor 12:3. The apostle proveth that they had received their spiritual gifts from the Spirit of God, because when they had not received this Spirit, they blasphemed the Christian religion, and called Christ accursed, which could not be done by any that spake by the Spirit of God; for there being but one God, and the Holy Spirit being one of the three persons in the Divine Being, and Jesus Christ another, and the eternal Son of God, it could not be but he that called Christ accursed, as the Jews and the heathens did, must blaspheme God, which none could do by the influence of that Holy Spirit, who was one of the persons in the blessed Trinity: and as by this the apostle lets them know, that they were now acted by another spirit than they were in their Gentile state; so he also lets them know, that those heathens, amongst whom they lived, were not acted by the Spirit of God, but by the evil spirit. On the other side, he saith, that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. There is a double saying that Jesus is the Lord: 1. When men only say it with their lips, but do not believe it in their hearts, are not affected with what they say, nor do pay that homage of faith and obedience to him, which should correspond with such a profession: thus men say Christ is the Lord, who preach him or discourse of him as men, though they do not in heart believe in him, receive or embrace him, or live up to the holy rules of life which he hath given; thus Judas, Caiaphas, and others, said Christ was the Lord; this they could not do but by the Holy Ghost, that is, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are common, which those might have who were never renewed by the Holy Ghost. So these Corinthians generally going thus far verbally to acknowledge Christ the Lord, it was an argument they had thus far been influenced by the Holy Ghost. 2. There is a serious and saving saying that Jesus is the Lord, when men do not only with their lips speak these words, and other words to the same sense, but heartily acknowledge him, believe in him, love him, obey him, and call upon him, professing him as they ought to do, and so as may be of advantage to them to life and salvation. No man now doth this but by the Holy Ghost renewing and sanctifying him, and blessing him with and helping him in the exercise of such habits. We shall observe in holy writ, that some verbs signify not the action only, but the action with its due quality: thus, hearing sometimes signifieth to hear so, as withal to believe. Calling upon the name of the Lord, Rom 10:13, signifieth a calling aright. Confessing, 1 John 4:15, signifies a confessing with faith and love. So the verb say in this text may signify such a saying or speaking, as is attended with faith, love, and due obedience.
1 Cor 12:4. Gifts signifieth the same thing with habits, or powers, or abilities to actions; our actions being either natural, as eating, drinking, sleeping, etc., or moral, or spiritual. These powers are either natural, which are in an ordinary course of providence bred with us, as the infant hath a power to eat, drink, sleep, cry, etc.: or acquired, and that by imitation, or human learning, as the child gets a habit of speaking, or a power to write, understand languages, arts, and sciences: or infused; and those are either merely infused, as faith, love, and all habits truly spiritual are, and therefore called graces, or spiritual gifts of the highest natures; or else such as are obtained by the use of means on our parts, but yet not without the influence of the Holy Spirit of God; such are abilities to pray, preach, etc. There are some common powers, that is, such as those might have, who should never be saved, which might be merely infused, and were extraordinary in those first times of the gospel; such as the gift of tongues, prophecy, healing, etc. These powers, especially such as are not natural and common to all in an ordinary course of providence, nor acquired merely by imitation, or study, or the teaching of others, but infused either in whole or in part, are those which the apostle here calleth gifts: and he saith there is a diversity of them; there was the gift of prophecy, of healing, of tongues, etc.; but he tells them, this diversity of gifts flowed all from one and the same Spirit, the Spirit was not diverse, though his influences were divers.
1 Cor 12:5. There are divers offices or ministries in the church of God; one ministereth in the office of an elder, another in the office of a deacon; one in one service of the church, another in another service; but there is but one Lord to whom they minister; they all serve the great Lord of the church, Jesus Christ, though in divers orders and places of ministration.
1 Cor 12:6. Operations and administrations both differ from gifts, as acts from habits. Habits and powers, by which men performed holy offices in the church, or wrought miracles, are called gifts. The acts or exercise of these powers are called administrations and operations. These latter differ one from another, as the former signify standing and continuing acts in the church; operations, e0nergnma&ta, rather signify miraculous effects, such as healing the sick without the application of ordinary means, speaking with divers tongues, etc. The apostle tells them, that as there was a diversity of gifts, or powers, and a diversity of acts in the constant service of the church, by which men exercised those gifts or powers they had in the performance of them; so there were diversities of operations, by which men used those extraordinary gifts or powers, which God gave some in the first plantation of the church, for the sake of such as believed not. But it was the same God that wrought them all, and in all, though all did not do, or could not do, the same things.
1 Cor 12:7. He here calleth gifts, the manifestation of the Spirit, partly to let them know, that these powers flowed from the Holy Spirit apparently, they having no such powers while they were heathens, and carried after dumb idols, as they were led; and partly to let all know, that these gifts and powers were evident proofs both of Christ’s ascension, and of the promise of the Father and of Christ in sending the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:4; Acts 16:7-8; Eph 4:8. These gifts he tells them were given to every man; where every signifieth each one; for the same gifts or powers were not given to all, but to those to whom they were given, they were given not to puff them up, or to give them matter to boast of, but to do good withal to the church of Christ. No man hath any power or gift given him of God, either for his own hurt, or the hurt of others, but only for his own good, and the good of others.
1 Cor 12:8. There are different apprehensions as to the particular gifts here enumerated, and it is no wonder, these extraordinary gifts being ceased, if we be now at a loss to determine what is to be understood by the terms whereby they are expressed. Some by the word of wisdom, here, understand a faculty to deliver grave sentences; others, an ability to open the deep mysteries of religion; others, a singular knowledge of spiritual things, joined with a great authority, etc.; others, an ability to explain the deep wisdom of God. But it is most probable, that he meaneth by it what we ordinarily understand by wisdom, viz. a faculty, from a good judgment of the circumstances of actions, to do them at the best time, and in the best manner, wherein they may be serviceable to their ends. It is as uncertain, whether by the word of knowledge he meaneth a capacity to comprehend things in our knowledge, or to communicate it to others, or the actual communication of it by preaching, which was the work of the pastors and teachers; or the prophetical knowledge of future contingencies; or an ability to speak of spiritual things doctrinally, without any great faculty of applying them.
1 Cor 12:9. To another, he saith, is given faith: by which cannot be understood that faith which is common to all Christians, for he is speaking of such gifts as were given to some Christians, not to all; he must therefore mean, either a faith of miracles, that is, a persuasion that God would work a miracle in this or that case, or a great knowledge in the matters of faith, or a great confidence and boldness in the discharge of their office. To another the gifts of healing, of healing diseases miraculously, without the application of ordinary rational medicines.
1 Cor 12:10. To another the working of miracles, of other sorts, such as the inflicting punishments on sinners, casting out devils, etc. To another prophecy, which in the general signifieth the revelation of the will of God, whether by the foretelling future contingencies, or opening the Scriptures by preaching or teaching. To another discerning of spirits; a power wherein God, for the further authority and credit of his gospel in the primitive times, communicated to some men something of his own prerogative to discern men’s inward thoughts and hearts, and to make up a judgment of their truth and sincerity, or contrariwise of their falsehood and hypocrisy. To another divers kinds of tongues, that is, a power to discourse with men in their several languages, as we read in Acts 2:8. To another the interpretation of tongues: this is made a diverse gift from an ability to speak with divers tongues; possibly some of those that spake with divers tongues could not interpret what they said.
1 Cor 12:11. Though the Spirit of God be but one, from whom these several powers and abilities flow; yet he doth not give all this variety of gifts to all Christians, but one to this man, another to another, as the same Holy Spirit pleaseth, for the glory of God, or the good of the church.
1 Cor 12:12. For as it is in the body natural, the integral parts, or members of it, are many, yet the body is but one; so it is in the spiritual body, the church, which is that mystical body of which Christ is the Head. The members of the church may be many, and there may be in several members of the church a diversity of gifts, of administrations, and operations, yet the church is but one, yea, Christ and the church make up but one mystical body, of which he is the Head; and they are the members; and therefore the several members, having several gifts, or several offices, or several powers and operations, had no reason, for their difference in such gifts, or powers, or offices, to envy one another, or to despise each other, or glory over one another; for they were but one body, and had all the same Head, though they had from the same Spirit divers abilities, offices, and powers for several operations.
1 Cor 12:13. The apostle proveth the oneness of the church, as the body of Christ, from the same sacraments of the New Testament instituted for all Christians, and wherein they jointly partake. He saith, we are baptized into one body, by which he must mean the universal church, for Christ is the Head of that; particular churches are but parts of that church, of which Christ is the Head. Let men be of what nation they will, whether Jews or Gentiles, turning to the Christian religion, and of what condition they will, when they are baptized they are by it made members of that one body, of which Christ is the Head; though for the more convenient administration of, and participation in, the ordinances, they are divided into smaller societies, which also have the denomination of churches; as the smallest drop of water may be called water, though there be but one element of water. And, saith the apostle, we have been all made to drink into one Spirit; which some interpret as if it were, we have all drank of one Spirit, that is, been made partakers of one Spirit, whose benefits are, sometimes set out under the notion of water, living water, John 4:10,14; John 7:38-39; and so in the Old Testament, Isa 12:3; Ezek 47. But many others choose rather to interpret drinking in this place, of drinking at the table of the Lord, partaking of that whole action being set out here by one particular act there performed. This is probable, considering that the apostle, in the former part of the verse, had been speaking of the other sacrament of the gospel, and that he, speaking of the Lord’s supper. 1 Cor 10:17, had used this expression: For we being many, are one bread, and one body.
1 Cor 12:14. As the natural body is totum integrale, a whole consisting of many members; so the body spiritual, the mystical body of Christ, is not made up of one single member, but of many members.
1 Cor 12:15-16. It should seem by these expressions, that one great cause of those divisions, which the apostle had charged the church of Corinth with, was their difference in gifts, administrations, and operations; which was to that degree, that either those who were higher in gifts and administrations, and more famous for their miraculous operations, despised and vilified those that were inferior to them; or those who were lower in gifts, or in their stations in the church, or their power to work miracles, would not own themselves members of the church at Corinth, because they were in those low and inferior orders and degrees. The apostle argueth the unreasonableness of this, by a further comparing of the natural with the spiritual mystical body, the church, and showeth, it was altogether as unreasonable for men to disclaim the church, and their relation to it, because they had not the most eminent gifts, or were not in the most eminent places and offices, as for the foot to say, it was not of the body, because it was not the hand; or for the ear to say, it was not of the body, because it was not the eye.
1 Cor 12:17. There are several actions to be performed by the body of a man, either for the support and the upholding of it in life, or for the accommodation of it while it lives; seeing, hearing, and smelling (which are the three actions here mentioned) are not indeed necessary for the upholding of life, but they are highly useful for a man’s better being, and the accommodation of bodily life; therefore there is need of a variety of bodily members, organs or instruments of sight as well as of hearing, and organs of smelling as well as hearing; the wise God hath created no member of man’s body in vain, each one hath its use in order to the being or well-being of the body: so it is in the church of God, as the apostle, 1 Cor 12:27, argueth; but he goes yet further on, first, in his comparison of the natural and mystical body.
1 Cor 12:18. The infinitely wise God, who hath made the body of man, and ordered all the members of the body for several uses and offices, either for the upholding or accommodating the life of man, hath likewise appointed the order in the body in which every member shall stand; that the head should be uppermost for the better guidance of the whole body; the feet lowermost to tread upon the earth, and to bear the weight of the whole body: and none must repine at the wisdom of God, which hath not only created man’s body, (consisting of a variety of members,) but also appointed every member its place, and there setteth it, that it cannot shift its station or office.
1 Cor 12:19. The body is a whole consisting of many members, it could not therefore be a body if there were but only one member. Or how could the body perform the several actions necessary either for the being or the well-being of it, if it consisted but of one member?
1 Cor 12:20. The multiplicity of members, having several uses and offices for the service of the whole body, do not make a multiplicity of bodies, the body still is but one.
1 Cor 12:21. He names two of the most noble and useful members of the body, the head and the eye, which yet cannot tell the hands or the feet they have no need of them: the wise God having created nothing in vain, but made every member in the body of a man for use, as to the whole, so to the several parts of the body; the hand is useful to the eye, and the feet are of use to the head. The application of this similitude, which the apostle so much enlargeth upon, we shall have, 1 Cor 12:27, etc.
1 Cor 12:22. By feeble the apostle here doth not only mean most weak, but which seem to us most abject and contemptible; in which sense the word is used, 2 Cor 12:10; such are the belly and the entrails; the eye also is a feeble member, etc.; yet these parts are most necessary for the use of the body, being such without the use of which the body cannot live.
1 Cor 12:23. All know what those parts of the body are, which are commonly judged less honourable and less comely; upon these we bestow more abundant honour and comeliness, by hiding them and covering them, that they are not, as the hands, and face, and head, (which we esteem more honourable parts of the body,) exposed to the public view of those with whom we converse.
1 Cor 12:24. God hath, in the wisdom of his providence, so ordered it, that as we have some parts of our body which are judged uncomely, and not for those noble uses that others are; so we have other parts that are, for use, more noble, yet in common repute more ignoble and uncomely: and the same wise God hath so built the body of man, as of both these to make a temperament so as they all concur in the composition of the same body, and more abundant honour in covering and clothing them is given to those parts, that, in the judgment of men, seemed most to lack honour, that their uncomeliness might by some artificial means be taken away.
1 Cor 12:25. By schism is here meant division, and that also must be expounded figuratively, and it is expounded in the next words, that the members should have the same care one for another; that though the members differ in honour and office, yet they might mutually take care for each other, as if they were all in an equal degree of honour.
1 Cor 12:26. From this union of the members in the body natural, of all the members proceedeth a natural sympathy, that if one member suffereth, all are afflicted, and ready to contribute to the relief and help each of other; and likewise the honour that is reflected on the body, is reflected on all the parts, and all rejoice in the good that affecteth any one single member.
1 Cor 12:27. Considering you in the whole as a church, so ye are the body of Christ: considering you particularly as individual believers, so ye are members of Christ. Some think e0k me/rouj signifies in part, intending that true believers amongst them were members of Christ, but not others. The apostle, in these words, beginneth to apply to them what he had before discoursed concerning the body natural, and the parts thereof; you are the mystical body of Christ, which hath a great analogy with that natural body which you carry about with you.
1 Cor 12:28. The apostle, Eph 4:11, seemeth to make a different enumeration; there he saith: And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. He mentioneth here only three of those there mentioned, viz. apostles, prophets, teachers. He reckoneth up there evangelists, whom be doth not here mention. He here first mentioneth apostles, by whom he meaneth those servants of God who were sent out by Christ to lay the first foundations of the gospel church, and upon whom a universal care lay over all the churches of Christ, having not only a power in all places to preach and administer the sacraments, but to give rules of order, and direct in matters of government; though particular churches had a power of government within themselves, otherwise the apostle would not have blamed this church for not casting out the incestuous person. Prophets signify persons (as I have before noted) that revealed the mind and will of God to people, whether it were by an extraordinary impulse and revelations or in an ordinary course of teaching; whether they revealed things to come, or opened the mind and will of God already revealed. But in this text, and in Eph 4:11, prophets seem to signify, either such as from the Spirit of God foretold future contingencies, (such was Agabus, of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles, and others in the primitive church,) or else such as interpreted Scripture by extraordinary and immediate revelation. Some think that prophets signify the ordinary pastors of churches; but they seem rather to be comprehended under the next term of teachers, unless we had better grounds than we have to distinguish betwixt pastors and teachers, making the work of the teacher to speak by way of doctrine and explication, and the work of the pastor to speak practically. Thirdly teachers: some by these understand governors of schools; others, such ministers whose work was only to expound the Scriptures, or the mysteries of salvation: but the apostle, in this enumeration, (which is the largest we have in Scripture,) not mentioning pastors, it seemeth to me that he means the fixed and ordinary ministers of churches, or the elders, whom the apostles left in every city, which by their ministry had received the gospel. After that miracles; after that such as he empowered to work miraculous operations, and those of more remarkable nature, for otherwise the healings next mentioned come under that notion also. Then gifts of healings; then such persons as he gave a power to in an extraordinary way to heal the sick. Who the apostle means by helps, and by governments, is very hard to determine. Certain it is, that he doth not mean the civil magistrates; for the time was not yet come for kings to be nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers to the gospel church. But whether he meaneth deacons, or widows, elsewhere mentioned, as helpful in the case of the poor, or some that assisted the pastors in the government of the church, or some that were extraordinary helps to the apostles in the first plantation of the church, is very hard to determine. Diversities of tongues; such as spake with divers tongues, that faculty being a gift, as we heard before, not given to all, but to some in the primitive church. The apostle, by this enumeration, showeth what he meant by those diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, and diversities of operations, of which he spake in 1 Cor 12:4-6.
1 Cor 12:29-30. That is, all are not, nor can be, any more than all the body can be an ear, or an eye, or a hand, or a foot: you cannot expect, that in a governed body all should be governors; and you see by experience, that all cannot work miracles, prophesy, speak with tongues, or heal those that are sick.
1 Cor 12:31. But covet earnestly the best gifts: the word may be translated indicatively: Ye do covet the best gifts; or as we translate it, imperatively: Covet ye; I would have you be covetous to excel in the best gifts, that is, those which will make you most useful and profitable to the church of God. And yet show I unto you a more excellent way; but yet (saith he) gifts are not the best things, the habits of saving grace are much more valuable than gifts; love to God and your neighbour ought to be by you preferred before gifts. To a discourse of which the apostle thus shortly passeth.
1 CORINTHIANS 13
1 Cor 13:1-3: All gifts, how excellent soever, without charity are nothing worth.
1 Cor 13:4-12: The praises of charity,
1 Cor 13:13: and its preference to faith and hope.
1 Cor 13:1. The apostle had promised, in the close of the former chapter, to show them a more excellent thing than gifts, or a more excellent course than that they were so hotly pursuing, in their emulation of the best gifts; he now cometh to show them that way, that course: the way was that of love; the course was the study and pursuing methods how to show their love to God and to one another. For (saith the apostle) though I speak, that is, if I could speak, or admit I did speak, with the tongues used in all the nations of the world, and with the tongues of angels; by which some understand the best and most excellent ways of expressing ourselves. Angels have no tongues, nor make any articulate audible sounds, by which they understand one another; but yet there is certainly a society or intercourse among angels, which could not be upheld without some way amongst them to communicate their minds and wills each to other. How this is we cannot tell: some of the schoolmen say, it is by way of impression: that way God, indeed, communicates his mind sometimes to his people, making secret impressions of his will upon their minds and understandings; but whether angels can do the like, or what their way is of communicating their minds each to other, is a great secret, and we ought to be willingly ignorant of what God hath not pleased, in any part of his revealed will, to tell us. Neither do I judge it a question proper to this place, where the tongues of angels unquestionably signify the best and most excellent ways of expressing and communicating ourselves to others; as manna is called angels’ food, Ps 78:25, that is, the most excellent food, for angels, being spiritual substances, need no food, have no mouths to eat, nor bellies to fill; and this the apostle meaneth. Though I could express myself, or communicate my mind to others, in the most excellent way, or in the greatest variety of expression, yet if I have not a)ga&phn, which we translate, charity, but possibly might be better translated love, because we usually by charity (in common speech) understand that indication of brotherly love, which is in act of bounty, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving to those that are in want; which it is possible that men do out of mere humanity, or a superstitious opinion of meriting thereby, without any true root of love to our neighbour, which is never true if it doth not grow out of a love to God. If I want love, (saith the apostle,) a true root of love to men, flowing from a true love to God, and out of obedience to his precept, I am but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, that is, I only make a noise, but it will conduce nothing to my salvation, it will be of no use to me; but if I have this true root of love, then it will be of avail to me. And thus the apostle proveth, that the habit of love to God and man in the heart, is far more excellent than the gift of tongues, which many of the Corinthians had, or coveted, or boasted in, despising those who had it not.
1 Cor 13:2. And though I have the gift of prophecy: it hath been before showed, that the gift of prophecy, signifieth an extraordinary power or faculty, by which men in those primitive times were enabled to reveal the mind and will of God, either as to future contingencies, or things which should afterwards come to pass in the world, or by further explication or application of the mind and will of God already revealed in holy writ. And understand all mysteries, and all knowledge: though, saith the apostle, I have a vast knowledge, and could in any notion comprehend the most sublime and hidden things, whether Divine or human. And though I have all faith (except that which is saving and justifying). So that I could remove mountains: he further opens what faith he meant, viz. faith of miracles, a firm persuasion that God would upon my prayer work things beyond the power, and contrary to the course, of nature: the apostle alludeth to the words of our Saviour, Matt 17:20. And have not charity, I am nothing; yet, saith he, if I have not love, that true love to God and men, by which that faith which is profitable to salvation worketh and showeth itself, it will all signify nothing, be of no profit nor avail unto me in order to my eternal salvation; I may perish for ever, notwithstanding such gifts.
1 Cor 13:3. The apostle proceedeth from common gifts, powers, and habits, to actions, and instanceth in two; the first of which might be a great service to men; the latter, an appearance of a great service to God. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor; though, saith he, I feed the poor with my goods, and that not sparingly, but liberally, so as I spend all my estate in that way, and make myself as poor as they: and though I give my body to be burned; though I die in the cause of Christ, for the testimony of his gospel, or for owning of his ways; and that by the sharpest and most cruel sort of death, burning; and be not dragged to the stake, but freely give up myself to that cruel kind of death: and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing; yet if I have not a root and principle of love to God in my heart, that carrieth me out to these actions and these sufferings, they all will signify nothing to me, as to my eternal salvation and happiness. From whence we may observe, that, 1. The highest acts of beneficence or bounty towards men, (which we usually call good works,) are not meritorious at the hand of God, and may be separated from a true root of saving grace in the soul. 2. That the greatest sufferings for and in the cause of religion, may be separated from a true root and principle of saving grace. 3. That no actions, no sufferings, are sufficient to entitle any soul to heaven, further than they proceed from a principle of true love to God, and a desire to obey and to please him in what we do. Faith and love must be the roots and principles of all those works which are truly good, and acceptable to God, and which will be of any profit or avail to us with reference to our eternal happiness.
1 Cor 13:4. Lest the Corinthians should say to the apostle: What is this love you discourse of? Or how shall we know if we have it? The apostle here gives thirteen notes of a charitable person. Charity suffereth long: by love or charity he either meaneth a charitable person, a soul possessed of that love, which he had been commending; or if we take the term plainly, to signify the habit itself, the meaning is, it is a habit or power in the soul, enabling and inclining it to do these things: to suffer long, not to be too quick and tetchy with brethren that may offend or displease us; the charitable man will withhold and restrain his wrath, not be rash in the expressions of it, and hasty to revenge. And is kind; it disposeth a man to desire to deserve well of all, and to do good to all, as he hath occasion and opportunity; so as it is impossible there should be in a man any thing more opposite to this grace, than a currish, churlish temper, with a study and desire to do others mischief. Charity envieth not; though a charitable person seeth others in a higher and more prosperous condition than himself, yet it doth not trouble him, but he is glad at the preferment, good, and prosperity of other men, however it fareth with himself. Every envious man, that is displeased and angry at another’s faring well, is an uncharitable man, there is no true root of love to God or to his neighbour in his heart. Vaunteth not itself; he doth not prefer himself before others, ambitiously glorying or boasting, and acting rashly to promote his own glory, and satisfy his own intemperate desires or lusts. He is not puffed up, proudly lifting up himself above others, and swelling with high conceits of himself.
1 Cor 13:5. Doth not behave itself unseemly; he doth not behave himself towards any in an uncomely or unbeseeming manner, and will do nothing towards his brother, which in the opinion of men shall be a filthy or indecent action. Seeketh not her own; he doth not seek what is his own, that is, what is for his own profit or advantage only; he hath an eye to the good and advantage of his brother, as well as his own profit and advantage. Such a man is not easily provoked; he is not without his passions, but he is not governed by his passions, and overruled by them to fly out extravagantly against his brother upon every light and trivial occasion; he knows how to bear injuries, and is willing rather to bear lesser wrongs, losses, and injuries, than to do any thing in revenge of himself, or to the more remarkable prejudice of his neighbour. He thinketh no evil, that is, no mischief, nothing that may be hurtful and prejudicial to his neighbour. Or else, he doth not rashly suspect his neighbour for doing evil (which possibly may be the better interpretation;) and so it teacheth us, that lightly to take up evil reports of our neighbours, is a violation of charity; for the man that hath a true love to his brother, though he may believe evil of his brother, and charge him with evil, when it evidently appears to him that he is guilty; yet before that be evident to him, he will not suspect, nor think any such things of him.
1 Cor 13:6. He doth not rejoice in the sinful falls of others, but he rejoiceth in all truth, and the success and prospering of truth in the world; or in the manifestation of any person’s truth, or innocency, and righteousness.
1 Cor 13:7. The charitable man beareth all injuries with patience; he believeth all things that are good of his brother, so far is he from being credulous to his prejudice; endureth all things that a good man ought to endure, that is, any evils done to himself. In the same sense Solomon saith, Prov 10:12: Love covereth all sins.
1 Cor 13:8. The apostle, from another argument, commendeth the grace of love, viz. its never failing; it shall go with us into another world, and have its use and exercise there, where there will be no prophesying, no speaking with divers tongues, but there the saints shall love God. And this maketh it evident, that by charity, or love, (before mentioned,) the apostle doth not singly mean bounty or beneficence to those that stand in need of those good things of this life, in which we can help them. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away: by knowledge, here, some understand the communicating of knowledge to the church by preaching: others, the means we now have by meditating in and study of the Scriptures: others, better, of the imperfect degrees of our knowledge, or the way of our procuring it: the following verses would incline us to interpret it of the former, though it be true also of the latter.
1 Cor 13:9. For we know in part; it was truly said, as to things human, that the greatest part of those things that we know, is the least part of those things which we are ignorant of. A great measure of Divine things is also unknown to us, and the knowledge of them reserved for the resurrection and day of judgment, John 14:20. And we prophesy in part; nor can the communication of our knowledge to that, be larger than what we by prophecy communicate; we having ourselves but a short and imperfect communication of Divine things, we can communicate but an imperfect degree of knowledge to others.
1 Cor 13:10. But when we come to heaven, we shall be in such a state, as nothing shall or can be added to us; then our partial and imperfect knowledge shall be swallowed up in a knowledge perfect and complete.
1 Cor 13:11. The apostle compareth the state of believers in this life, compared with their state in another life, to the state of a child, compared to that of a man. Look, as one, when he is a child, knoweth things imperfectly, and discourseth of them in the style and according to the knowledge of a child; but when he is grown up, he discourseth of them at another rate, according to the degree of knowledge which he hath acquired by instruction of others, or his own experience and observation: so it is with all of us; in this life we, like children, have a poor, low, imperfect knowledge of spiritual things, and accordingly discourse of them; but when we come to heaven, we shall know them and discourse of them in a more perfect manner.
1 Cor 13:12. The apostle pursues his former theme, comparing the imperfect state of believers, as to knowledge in this life, with what shall be in the life that is to come. In this life it is as in a looking glass, (where we only see the images and imperfect representations of things,) and darkly, in a riddle; it is but a little knowledge that we have, and what we have we get with a great deal of difficulty; but in heaven we shall have such knowledge as two men have who see one another face to face, and shall know God fully, in some measure, though not in the same degree, of the fulness and perfections wherein God knoweth us.
1 Cor 13:13. Take us according to our state in this life, we have, and shall have, the exercise of three graces: faith, to evidence unto us those things which we do not see, either by the eye of sense or reason; hope, by which we wait for the receiving of them; and love, by which we delight ourselves in God, and show obedience to the will of God. But of all these, love is the greatest, either in respect of its use and profitableness unto men, or in respect of its duration and abiding (which last the apostle seemeth chiefly to intend). Faith shall cease when we come to the vision of God; and hope, when we come to the fruition of God in glory; love also will cease, as to some acts, but never as to a pleasure and a delighting in God; that will be to eternity.
1 CORINTHIANS 14
1 Cor 14:1-5: Prophecy, for its greater tendency to edification, is preferred before speaking with tongues.
1 Cor 14:6-11: Tongues not understood, like indistinct musical sounds, are of no service to the hearers.
1 Cor 14:12-20: All gifts should be referred to edification.
1 Cor 14:21-22: Tongues are of use for the conviction of unbelievers,
1 Cor 14:23-25: but in the assemblies of the church prophecy is more useful.
1 Cor 14:26-33: Rules for the orderly exercise of spiritual gifts in the church.
1 Cor 14:34-38: Women are forbidden to speak there.
1 Cor 14:39-40: An exhortation to use each gift freely, but with decency and order.
1 Cor 14:1. Follow after charity; that love to God and your brethren, concerning which I have been speaking so much, as preferable to all common gifts, follow that with your utmost diligence, as the persecutors follow you; for it is the same word that is ordinarily used to signify the violent prosecution of persecutors, though it be applied also to things which we ought eagerly to follow, Rom 9:31; Rom 14:19. But rather that ye may prophesy; but rather, or principally that you may be able to reveal the mind and will of God unto others. Some think, by foretelling things to come; but that is not very probable, such an ability of prophesying being given but to few under the New Testament: it is therefore more probable, that he speaketh of an ability to open the Scriptures, either by immediate revelation, (as to which they could use no means but prayer and a holy life,) or by ordinary meditation, and study of the Scriptures. For though the former species of prophesying, by prediction of future things, when the truth of it was justified by such prophecies’ accomplishment, was of great use to confirm the doctrine of the gospel; yet the latter was of greater and more general use for the good of others, which makes the apostle put them upon the coveting and earnest desire of that faculty or ability, because, of all others, it made them most eminently and generally useful to others, as well those within the church, as those without; and this the apostle expoundeth himself, 1 Cor 14:3.
1 Cor 14:2. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue; by a tongue (for unknown is not in the Greek, but necessarily added by our translators, for he speaketh of such a language) he meaneth a language not known to all, or at least not to the most of them that hear him. It may be asked, what unknown language the apostle here meaneth? Shall we think that any pastors or teachers in the church of Corinth were so vain, as to preach in the Arabic, Scythian, or Parthian language to a people who understood only the Greek? Our learned Lightfoot thinks this not probable, and that if any had been so vain for ostentation, the apostle would rather have chid them for suffering such an abuse, and have forbidden such further practice, than have given direction, than if any so spake he should interpret, as he doth, 1 Cor 14:5. He rather thinks, therefore, that the apostle meaneth the Hebrew tongue; the use of which, though it was by this time much lost through the Jews’ mixture with other nations, yet was restored in a great measure to the guides of churches, for their better understanding the Scriptures of the Old Testament; and continued amongst the Jews in their reading of the law in the synagogues. Now there being many Jews in this church, and the service of God being ordinarily in the Jewish synagogues performed in that language, it is very probable, that some of these Jews that were Christianized (to show their skill) might, when they spake to the whole church of Corinth, use to speak in Hebrew, though few or none understood that language. The apostle saith, he that did so, spake not unto men, that is, not to those men who did not understand that language, not to the generality of his hearers, though possibly here and there some might understand him, but unto God, who being the Author of all languages, must necessarily know the significancy of all words in them: for (he saith) scarce any man understood him. Howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries; howbeit he may speak mysterious things to himself, and to the understanding of his own soul and spirit. Others think that it was possible, that some who thus spake, being but the instruments of the Holy Spirit, might not themselves understand all which they said; but that is hardly probable.
1 Cor 14:3. Speaketh unto men; that is, to the understanding of men, and for the good and profit of men. To edification; for their increase in knowledge and all habits of grace. And exhortation; to quicken them in the exercise and practice of such duties as God hath, in his word, required of, them. And comfort; and for the relief of them under their burdens, to support and uphold their troubled or wounded spirits. These expressions make it probable, that the apostle, by prophecy in this text, understands ministerial preaching; which more properly tends to edification, exhortation, and comfort, than the foretelling of things to come.
1 Cor 14:4. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; knowledge or understanding of the things that any man speaketh, is necessary to the improvement of them, by their being a means to promote faith and love; for how shall what men say in the least promote, either my faith in God or Christ, or my love to him, if I understand not what they say? How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Rom 10:14. So that, though he that speaketh in an unknown tongue may (if he understand what he says) have his own heart affected with what he saith, yet it is not possible he should affect another. But he that prophesieth edifieth the church; but he that preacheth in an intelligible language and style to all that hear him, he doth what in him lieth to edify all those that hear him.
1 Cor 14:5. I would, in this place, signifies no more than either I could wish, or I could be content that you could all speak with tongues, if God pleased. It should seem by this speech of the apostle’s, that this speaking in unknown tongues was that extraordinary gift, which, above all others, this church, or the several members of it, were proud and ambitious of. St. Paul tells them, that if God pleased he wished they could all do it. But of the two, he rather wished them all a power to open and apply the Holy Scriptures to men’s understandings and conscience. He addeth the reason, because it was a more honourable gift and work, and made men truly greater. But he adds, except he interpret, for then he prophesied also. That, saith he, the church, that is, those that heard him prophesying, may receive edifying. Whence we learn, 1. That spiritual growth, and proficiency in Divine knowledge and habits of grace, ought to be the great end of all preachers; and whose doth not propound this as his end, abuseth his office, and trifles in a pulpit. 2. That whose maketh this his end, will make it his business, to the best of his skill, to use such a language, style, and method, as the generality of his hearers may best understand; for without their understanding, there can be no edifying. And this lets us see the vanity of using much Latin, or Greek, or a lofty style, or a cryptic method, not obvious to poor people in popular sermons, where the people understand not those languages; or philosophical ratiocinations before a plain people that understand none of these things. Such preaching is neither justifiable by reason, nor by the practice either of Christ or his apostles.
1 Cor 14:6. God hath given me an ability to speak with tongues; suppose I should come to you speaking in the Arabian, Scythian, or Parthian language, what good would it do you? How should it any way profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? Some make these four things distinct each from other; others think that they all signify no more, than the interpreting mentioned in the former verse. Those who distinguish them say, by revelation is meant the explication of the types and figures of the Old Testament; or some such revelation as John had in Patmos; or the expounding the mysteries of the gospel. By knowledge they understand the knowledge of history, or any other ordinary knowledge. By prophesying, the explication of the difficult texts of Scripture. By doctrine, catechetical or practical doctrine. But these are all but uncertain guesses; the sense is plainly no more, than, if I should come speaking with unknown tongues, and no way by interpretation make what I say intelligible unto you.
1 Cor 14:7. In the sounds which are artificially made by the use of wind music, or other music, nothing could be understood, if art had not also devised a distinction in the sounds; that one sound should signify one thing, another sound should signify another thing: so unless the voice of the teacher be significant to, and understood by, the person instructed or taught, the sound is of no use at all.
1 Cor 14:8. The trumpet is made use of in battles, and that variously; it is used to give soldiers notice to march on against the enemy, and also to sound a retreat: if there were not a distinction in the one sound, and in the other, how should the soldier know when to go forward, and when to come back, by the sound of it? To instruct them what to do, the trumpet must not only sound, but sound intelligibly to those that hear it, which it could not, if there were no distinction in the sound.
1 Cor 14:9. By lo&gon eu!shmon is meant words which signify well to those that hear them; for words may be significant enough in themselves, yet nothing at all significant to them that hear them, being unlearned; such sounds of words can contribute nothing to people’s knowledge, but are so much lost labour. This is a text that deserveth the thoughts of those who affect in preaching, if not the use of languages, yet the use of a style, or method, which not one of many of those who hear them understand. It is all one to speak in an unknown tongue, as in a style or method that people do not understand; and truly, such are the generality of ministers’ hearers, that words most significant in themselves, and to learned ears, are least significant to them, being hardest to be understood; so as they know nothing of what they say, and the minister doth but, as to the far greater number of people, beat the air (which is a dreadful meditation).
1 Cor 14:10. The whole earth was originally of one language, and of one speech, Gen 11:1; but upon the building of Babel, Gen 11:7, God confounded their languages, so as they did not understand one another. They being scattered abroad, had different languages; so as now there are in the world many languages, and the words in every language are significant to those that understand that language.
1 Cor 14:11. But if a man doth not understand the language, the words are not significant unto him, I shall neither understand him, nor will he understand me; for a barbarian cannot understand one of another nation, till he hath learned the language of that nation; nor can a man of another nation understand a barbarian till he hath learned his language.
1 Cor 14:12. This proves that the members of the church of Corinth were very ambitious of spiritual gifts. The particle ou#tw, which our translation here renders so, plainly signifies therefore in this place. In the Greek it is, because, or forasmuch as ye are zealous of spirits; the efficient is put for the effect, the Spirit, which is the author of those gifts, for the gifts themselves. Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church; seek that ye may excel in them, and that will be, if you most desire those which tend to the edifying the church, and use those with which God hath blessed you in the best order and manner for that end. From whence it is observable, that the improvement of the people to whom we preach in the knowledge of God, and in faith and obedience, is the great end which we ought to propose to ourselves in the discharge of our office, and in the use of our gifts.
1 Cor 14:13. To interpret here signifieth no more, than to render that intelligible to people, which he first uttereth in an unknown tongue. But what need he pray for that? Hath not every man that can speak a power to speak his native language, as well as a foreign language? Some say, therefore, that i3na in this place signifies also, let him pray and also interpret; but this seemeth hard: nor can I think those that had a faculty to speak in an unknown tongue, might some of them not themselves understand what they said, and so had need to pray that they might interpret: but they might be puffed up with their gift, and think it beneath them to interpret, and then they had need to pray that they might have humility enough to interpret. Others think, that by interpreting in this place, is meant something more than bare translating, or turning the words into the common language of the place, viz. the opening and applying of the Scriptures, an ability to which was a distinct gift; which they who would have, had need pray that God would open their eyes to understand the mysteries of his law.
1 Cor 14:14. From this and the former verse, the papists would justify the lawfulness of their Latin service, which none or few of the common people understand; and they seem to have a little advantage from the opinion of some of the ancients: That some of those who spake with tongues, did not themselves understand what they uttered, but the Spirit of God only made use of their tongues as machines. But these are apprehensions much beneath the Spirit of light and truth, that it should make use of the tongue of a man for an end neither profitable to the man himself, nor others. Besides, how is it then true which we had, 1 Cor 14:4, that he who spake in an unknown tongue edifieth himself? Nay, how can it be true, which is here said, that such a man’s spirit prayeth? Nor is it here said, my understanding is dark or blind, but unfruitful; that is, though myself understand, yet my knowledge bringeth forth no fruit to the advantage or good of others. My spirit prayeth, but others cannot pray with me.
1 Cor 14:15. What is to be done then? I will (saith the apostle) pray with the spirit; that is, either use the extraordinary influences of the Spirit of God upon me; or with my own spirit, with the inward attention of my thoughts, and the utmost intension of my mind, and the greatest devotion and fervour of affections. And I will pray with the understanding also; but I will so pray, that myself and others may understand what I say; I will neither so pray, that myself shall not understand what I say, nor yet so, that others shall not understand me. Understanding is here taken in a passive sense, though the active sense of the term be not to be excluded. The same thing he also saith of singing, to let us know, that all our religious acts in public assemblies ought to be so performed, that others may be benefited by them, which they cannot be, if they do not understand what we say, whether it be in preaching, praying, or singing.
1 Cor 14:16. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit: blessing is expounded in the latter part of the verse, giving of thanks to God, which is either in prayer, (for thanksgiving is a part of prayer,) or in singing of psalms. Blessing with the spirit either signifieth giving of thanks with the inward man, or giving of thanks in an unknown tongue, by the extraordinary influence of the Spirit of God. How shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks? It is plain from hence, 1. That the teachers had in the apostolical churches distinct places and seats from the common hearers, for their better convenience in speaking, that they might so speak as all might hear, understand, and be profited. 2. That in those churches there was one only who used to speak audibly, and the work of the others was only from a devout heart to say Amen, wishing or praying that God would do what, in the name of all, he that ministered had asked of God for them. So 1 Chron 16:36; Neh 5:13; Neh 8:6; Ps 106:48. Seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest: people ought not to say Amen to any thing, unless they understand that petition, or those petitions, to which, in the worship of God, they add their Amen, which word makes the petitions theirs, being a particle of wishing, as well as affirming.
1 Cor 14:17. Otherwise, saith the apostle, it is possible that thou mayst give thanks well; but others get no good by it, nor can make any good and spiritual improvement of it.
1 Cor 14:18. Our Saviour, in the parable of the good shepherd, gives us this as his character, that the sheep hear his voice, and follow him, John 10:4; and we shall observe this great apostle every where propounding himself for imitation to them. They are bad shepherds over God’s flock, that must only be heard, but not followed. The apostle lets them know, that God had not left him without the gift of speaking with divers tongues, nay, he had it in a more eminent manner than them all; put them all together, they could not speak with so many tongues as he did.
1 Cor 14:19. Yet he had so great a regard to the end of his ministry, teaching others, and communicating Divine knowledge to them, that he had rather speak a little tending to that end, than never so much in a language which those to whom he spake did not understand.
1 Cor 14:20. Be not children in understanding; in understanding the differences of gifts, and which are more excellent, or of the right use of gifts. Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men; you are commanded indeed in something to be like little children, Matt 28:3, but it is not to be understood with relation to knowledge and understanding, but with reference to innocence and malice, which is opposite to it; ye ought to study to be men in understanding, though with respect to innocence ye ought to be as little children.
1 Cor 14:21. In the law it is written: by the law here is meant the Old Testament, (as in many other texts, John 10:34; John 15:25,) so called (as some think) in opposition to the words of the scribes. The words following are quoted out of Isa 28:11-12: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said: This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But there is nothing more ordinary, than for the penmen of the Scriptures of the New Testament to quote passages out of the Old, keeping not so much to the words as to the sense; nor quoting them all, but so many of them as serve for their purposes. The words in the prophet are a threatening, that because God had brought the Jews into Canaan, and promised them rest there, upon their obedience to his commandments, and they would not hear, he would now take another course with them, speaking to them with men of stammering lips, and of another language; meaning the Chaldeans and Babylonians, with whom in captivity they conversed afterwards for seventy years. The sense is much the same (as some think;) for they that speak to others in and with strange tongues, are like those that stammer at others, which looks more like a mocking them than an instructing them. Others make the gift of tongues, under the New Testament, to be within the prophecy of Isaiah; as if the prophet’s words contained both a threatening, to speak to the Israelites with the strange tongues of the Chaldeans; and a promise under the gospel, to speak to them with the tongues of the apostles and others, tuned to various tunes, as men of several nations could understand. Others make this the sense, as if the prophet complained, that the people were so mad, that they regarded no more God speaking to them, than they would have regarded one chattering with a strange tongue. And they think, the apostle checks them for being so ambitious of speaking with strange tongues, whenas their being so spoken to was by the prophet threatened as a judgment upon them. And yet they will not hear me, nor hearken to and obey me.
1 Cor 14:22. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, etc.; that is, an eminent product of Divine providence for the confirmation of the truth of the doctrine of the gospel; signifying that the doctrine which was so delivered in every nation’s language, must be from heaven, from whence the first ministers must have their power so to speak; yet, doubtless, they were not only for a sign, being also a means, by which the knowledge of the gospel was conveyed unto those who could not have understood what the apostles and first ministers of the gospel said, had they not spoken to them in the language of the hearers. When he saith, prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, the meaning is, not only for them that believe not; for prophesying is certainly of use to them that believe not, for their conversion, as well as for them that believe, for their edification.
1 Cor 14:23. Be come together into one place; the phrase signifieth to one place, or for one and the same work; the first seemeth to be meant here by what followeth. And all speak with tongues: some think that the apostle here, by all speaking with tongues, understands all, or many of them, confusedly talking together; and indeed that is an error we shall find the apostle afterward reflecting upon them for; but here I do not think it is intended, but only, many of you, one after another, because of what the apostle speaketh of prophesying, 1 Cor 14:24. For if all prophesied in that sense, talking at the same time together confusedly, and unbelievers came in and heard, they would also, instead of being convinced, say they were mad. And there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers; those that are heathens, or that did not understand the language you discoursed in. Will they not say that ye are mad? Would they not say you were men that had lost the use of your reason, to talk to men in a language you yourselves knew they understood nothing of?
1 Cor 14:24. But if all prophesy: all here certainly is not to be understood of every one in the assembly, for all were not prophets, 1 Cor 12:29, nor could the speaking of a great number be judged orderly by the light of nature: it here must signify any, one or more, successively, interpret or apply the Holy Scriptures. He is convinced of all; the heathens will see an order in this, and will stand still to hear and be convinced. He is judged of all; seeing their wicked life and false religion judged and condemned by all those that so prophesy.
1 Cor 14:25. God either, by an extraordinary providence, discovering to him that prophesieth the secrets of such a sinner’s heart, and causing him that prophesieth to make them manifest; or, by a more ordinary providence, (often experienced at this day,) directing the preacher to such subjects and discourses, as he that cometh to hear shall think directed to himself, and confess that he is the man, and be convinced of his errors, and converted, and turn to the Christian religion, and report that God indeed is amongst you. So as prophesying will have these two great advantages of speaking with tongues, God will be more glorified, and the souls of others will be more profited; which makes the gift of prophesying much preferable to the gift of tongues.
1 Cor 14:26. By what followeth in the two next verses, one would think that some of them, in their church meetings, were so absurd, as, being endued with several gifts, they would be using them all together, one singing, another preaching, a third speaking with tongues, etc.; but this is so apparent a confusion, that one must be very uncharitable to this famous church, to presume that they should be so absurd. Others therefore rather think, that those endued with several gifts, of which he reckoneth five, (under which he comprehendeth all others,) were every one contending for his course to exercise his gift; one, for spending the time in singing the psalm he had made; another, for spending the time in hearing his doctrinal discourse; a third, for the spending it in hearing him discourse in an unknown tongue; a fourth, for the spending it in hearing his revelation; a fifth, for the spending it in hearing his interpretation; or at least desiring the time might be protracted, until they had been all successively heard. Let all things be done unto edifying: to prevent this and other disorders, the apostle giveth several rules. The first is: That all things should be so done, as might tend best to promote in men faith and holiness; that is and ought to be the main and chief end of those who any way minister in sacred things.
1 Cor 14:27. Concerning the use of their gift of tongues, he directeth three things: 1. That every one that had it should not be ambitious to show it at all times, but two or three at most at a time. 2. That they should do it by course, not together, confusedly. 3. Not without one to interpret, that people might understand. For though these were extraordinary gifts, flowing from a more than ordinary influence of the Spirit of God, yet they were abiding habits, not coming upon them at some certain times, by an impulse; for then they would not have been under human government, as it is apparent this gift of tongues was, else Paul could not have so governed himself in the use of it, as he lets us know he did, 1 Cor 14:19.
1 Cor 14:28. If he hath a mind to use this gift, he may use it to God, who understands all languages, by himself; but let him keep silence in the assembly of Christians, where he is not understood.
1 Cor 14:29. That is, two or three successively, the one beginning to speak when the others have done, and two or three at the same church assembly; and if there be more present, let them sit still and judge of the truth of what he saith.
1 Cor 14:30. There were two modes or sorts of prophecies; the one ordinary, when the teacher came to those assemblies furnished with a revelation from some previous impression of God upon him, enabling him to give the sense of some scripture, or to open some Divine truth; not as we are, but by some influence of the Holy Spirit upon him, without the use of such means as we use. The other was, by some present afflatus or impression. The apostle seems not to speak of the latter; or if of both, he plainly lets them know, that even such a one was under the government of natural order, and obliged to do nothing confusedly and tumultuously, but might, without any offence to God, stay until the other had finished his discourse.
1 Cor 14:31. Ye may not all prophesy in the same day, or hour, or moment of time, but orderly and successively ye may all prophesy, the end of it being for the instruction and consolation of all; which may mind you so to govern yourselves in the exercise of that gift, as not to lose your end, but that all may learn, and all may be comforted. Which lets us know, that though their receiving the gift of prophecy obliged them to an exercise of it, yet it did not oblige them to an exercise of it in or at this or that particular time.
1 Cor 14:32. By the spirits of the prophets the apostle either meaneth their spiritual gifts, as to the use and exercise of them, and the actions to be done by them; or, the actions themselves, or interpretations pretendedly done and given by the exercise of those gifts, their doctrines; or, that instinct, or impetus, by which they pretend themselves to be moved to prophesy: these (he saith) are subject to the prophets themselves, so as they may themselves govern their gifts, or (which most think is the rather here intended) they are subject to the judgment and censure of others that are endued with the same gift. But here ariseth a difficulty, how the gifts of the Holy Spirit, flowing immediately from the Spirit, should be subject to any human judgment or censure? This indeed they could not, if the Divine revelation to this or that man were full and perfect, and ran as clearly in the stream always, as it was in the fountain. But God giveth his Spirit to us but by measure, and in the exercise of our gifts there is always aliquid humani, something of our own; and this maketh them subject to the prophets, viz. whether what they pretended to have from the Spirit of God were indeed from it, yea or no? Prophets were obliged to prophesy, Rom 12:6, but according to the analogy of faith: now, whether they did so or not, might be judged by other prophets, according to that rule. Others think this text is to be interpreted restrainedly, viz. as to this thing in this matter of plain, natural order, commanding, while one speaks, all the rest to hold their peace.
1 Cor 14:33. Here he showeth the principle upon which he said, that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets: what any prophets speak is not so certain, or at least not more certain, than this, that nothing which is confusion can be from God. Now, for two or three to speak together in a public assembly, is a confusion, and a breach of order, of which God cannot be the author: therefore, in such a thing as that, the spirits of the prophets must be subject to other prophets; and there is a general rule which concerneth not only the church of Corinth, but all churches.
1 Cor 14:34. This rule must be restrained to ordinary prophesyings; for certainly, if the Spirit of prophecy came upon a woman in the church, she might speak. Anna, who was a prophetess, in the temple gave thanks to the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem, Luke 2:38: and I cannot tell how Philip’s daughters prophesied, if they did not speak in the presence of many, Acts 21:9. The reason that is given why women should keep silence, is, because they are commanded to be under obedience. This apostle speaketh much the same thing, 1 Tim 2:11-12, because it looked like a usurping authority over the man; which indeed is true, if it had been the ordinary practice of women to speak in the assemblies of the church; but not so, if some particular women sometimes spake upon an extraordinary impulse or impression. The law to which the apostle here referreth, is thought to be that, Gen 3:16, where the woman is commanded to be subject to her husband, and it is said, that he should rule over her; yet that law did neither restrain Miriam from prophesying, Exod 15:20, nor yet Huldah, to whom Josiah himself sent, 2 Chron 34:22, of whom it is also said, that she dwelt in the college. But setting aside that extraordinary case of a special afflatus, it was, doubtless, unlawful for a woman to speak in the church.
1 Cor 14:35. This must be understood of speaking to the congregation, for the instructing them, or speaking in the congregation to the minister, or any of the people, for her own instruction, for the woman might, doubtless, say Amen to the public prayers, and also sing with the congregation to the honour and glory of God. But for her to speak in an ordinary course of prophecy to instruct people, or to call aloud to the minister, or any members in the assembly of the church, to be satisfied in any thing wherein she was in doubt, this she is forbidden.
1 Cor 14:36. These words look like a smart reflection upon divers members of this church of Corinth, who thought themselves wiser than all the world besides; and the apostle might foresee, that out of the high opinion they had of themselves they would much contemn and slight his directions. He therefore asks them, what they thought of themselves? Whether they thought themselves the only churches in the world, or were the first that believed in Christ, so that the gospel went out from them, and they might give law to all churches? There were churches at Jerusalem, and in several other places, before there was any church at Corinth, so as the gospel came unto them from other churches, and did not go out from them to other churches.
1 Cor 14:37. If there be any amongst you who hath a conceit that he is inspired by God, and from that inspiration understandeth the mind and will of God, he must acknowledge, that I also am an apostle, and know the mind and will of God as well as he; and being so, that what I tell you are the commandments of the Lord.
1 Cor 14:38. If any one will pretend ignorance in this, he is wilfully ignorant; for my own part, I will concern myself no further about him, but leave myself and him also to the judgment of God; let him be ignorant. In some copies it is, he shall not be known: in the day of judgment Christ shalt say unto him: Depart from me, I know you not.
1 Cor 14:39. The apostle concludeth his discourse, summarily repeating all that he before had said. He had, 1 Cor 14:2, encouraged their desire of spiritual gifts; all along the chapter he hath been magnifying the gift of prophecy above the gift of tongues, as being of much more general use, and more for the profit of others; but he minds them here, that he did not forbid those to whom God had given the gift of tongues, to make use of it at due times, and in a due manner and order.
1 Cor 14:40. He forbade them not to speak with tongues, provided they did it decently and orderly, as all other things ought to be done in so grave an assembly as that of the church, and so grave an action as the worship of God. For women to prophesy in the public assemblies, was an indecent thing; he had said, 1 Cor 14:35, that it was a shame. For many of them to speak together, confusedly, making a noise, that was disorderly. Nor did this decency or indecency, order or disorder, arise from obeying or disobeying the apostolical constitution, but from the law of God, the light of nature, the common usage of all the churches of Christians, as 1 Cor 14:33. All things ought so to be done, (especially in religious assemblies and actions,) as they may not be judged by the law of God, or the light of nature, or the common custom of other churches, to be done indecently or confusedly, without order. It is very observable, that though the apostle, in these things, hath given rules, yet he hath determined nothing shameful or uncomely, but what he hath made to appear so, either from the Divine law, (as in the case of the women’s prophesying, 1 Cor 14:34,) or from nature and reason, (as in the case of many speaking at the same time,) it being useless to the end, which was teaching and instructing those to whom they spake, and what unbelievers would count the effect of madness, 1 Cor 14:23.
1 CORINTHIANS 15
1 Cor 15:1-19: From the truth of Christ’s resurrection Paul inferreth the necessity of our own.
1 Cor 15:20-23: Christ the firstfruits, being raised, shall be followed in due order by those that are his,
1 Cor 15:24-28: till having subdued all enemies he shall give up the kingdom to God the Father.
1 Cor 15:29-34: If there be no resurrection of the dead, in vain is it for any one to risk his life, as the apostle did continually.
1 Cor 15:35-50: The manner of the resurrection.
1 Cor 15:51-57: The change which shall be wrought at the last day in the bodies both of the dead and the living.
1 Cor 15:58: An exhortation to stedfast faith and perseverance in our duty.
1 Cor 15:1. The apostle, towards the conclusion of his Epistle, comes to reprove the Corinthians for an error in the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead; an error, though last mentioned, yet of all the most momentous. The resurrection of the body in the last day is an article of faith, to the firm belief of which reason speaketh not sufficiently, and therefore it was denied by many philosophers and worldly wise men, Acts 17:18. It should seem, that some in the church of Corinth had sucked in some of their notions; the apostle, therefore, in this chapter setteth himself to confirm that article of the Christian faith. To this purpose he begins, telling them, that that which he declared unto them was the gospel, that is, that doctrine of the gospel which he had before preached to them, and which they had heard, and believed, and embraced as the truth of God, and wherein the greatest part yet stood firm to their former profession, though some of them had been seduced and warped.
1 Cor 15:2. By which also ye are saved; by the believing, receiving, of which doctrine, you are already in the way to salvation (as it is said, John 3:18: He that believeth on him is not condemned; and John 3:36: He hath everlasting life, and shall be eternally saved:) but not unless ye persevere (for that is meant by keeping in memory the doctrine which I have preached unto you;) and this you must do, or your believing will signify nothing, but be in vain to your souls.
1 Cor 15:3. For I, in my preaching, delivered it to you as one of the principal articles of the Christian faith, which I received, either from Christ by revelation, (as he saith, Gal 1:12,) or from Ananias. Acts 9:17, how that Christ died for our sins, Rom 4:25, that is, that he might satisfy the Divine justice for our sins, and make an atonement for us. And this is according to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, where it was foretold, Isa 53:5, He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; and Dan 9:26, that the Messiah should be cut off, but not for himself.
1 Cor 15:4. Not the death only, but the burial of Christ, and his resurrection again from the dead, were (though more darkly) revealed in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jonah and Isaac were both of them types of this; David prophesied, that God would not leave his soul in hell, nor suffer his Holy One to see corruption, Ps 16:10; which Peter applieth to Christ, Acts 2:31: so Acts 13:35. So that the doctrine of the New Testament in these things agreeth with the doctrine of the Old; with this only difference, that the Old Testament contained the New Testament in a mystery, and the New Testament was the Old Testament more fully and plainly revealed.
1 Cor 15:5. We read not in the history of the gospel of Christ’s appearing unto Peter, unless he were one of those to whom Christ appeared, as they were going to Emmaus; for which there is this probability, because when they came to Jerusalem, they told the rest, that the Lord was risen, and had appeared unto Simon, Luke 24:34 (if Simon Peter be there meant). His appearance to the whole number of the disciples we have recorded, John 20:19: they are called twelve, (though Judas was now dead, and Thomas at that time was not there,) because twelve was the number that God had appointed the college of apostles to consist of; so, Gen 42:13, the children of Jacob said they were twelve brethren, though they thought at that time that Joseph (who made the twelfth) was dead. This is much more probably the sense, than the fancy of some, that Barnabas, who was afterward chosen to supply the room of Judas, being at that time a disciple, might at that time be with them; for admit he were, yet Thomas, we are sure, was at that time absent.
1 Cor 15:6. Of this appearance to above five hundred brethren at once the Gospels say nothing; but it is probably thought to be understood of that great meeting of the disciples in Galilee, where our Saviour promised to meet them, Matt 26:32; Matt 28:7, after his resurrection. Wherever it was, the apostle saith, that the greater part of them were yet in a capacity to give a living testimony to the resurrection of Christ, though some of them were dead.
1 Cor 15:7. The Scripture tells us nothing, in the history of the gospel, of Christ’s appearing to James; but we read of two appearances to the apostles besides these, which the apostle had before mentioned.
1 Cor 15:8. Last of all the apostles, or, it may be, last of all persons; for after Stephen we read of none but St. Paul who saw Christ. Stephen, as they were stoning him, cried out: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God, Acts 7:56. We read of Paul’s hearing a voice from him, Acts 9:4, and no doubt but he had a bodily sight of him, for he here reckoneth himself amongst those that were eye witnesses. Nor is it any objection against it, that he was struck blind, for that was after his sight of Christ, not before. He calls himself an abortive, or one born out of due time, either because he was added to the number of the twelve; or in respect to his new birth, he being converted (as he tells us afterward) after that he had been a persecutor of the church of Christ, after the descending of the Holy Ghost; or, it may be, because his conversion was sudden, like the abortive birth of a woman.
1 Cor 15:9. The least, not in dignity, or gifts, or labours; (he tells us, that he had laboured more than all, he had made the gospel to abound from Jerusalem to Illyricum; he hath in this Epistle let us know, that he spake with tongues more than they all;) but deserving the least esteem, as he afterward expoundeth himself, telling us, that he was not worthy of the name of an apostle. He gives the reason, because he had before been a persecutor of the church of God, the history of which we have, Acts 9:1-3.
1 Cor 15:10. By the grace of God I am what I am; by the free love and goodness of God, I, that was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, have obtained mercy; and though it was impossible for me any more to requite and answer, than at first to merit, that love, yet his grace in me hath produced some fruit, and hath not been wholly in vain; for in the discharge of my ministry, as an apostle, I have abundantly laboured, though not more than all the rest of the apostles taken together, yet more than any one of them all, who were my fellow apostles: what these labours were, he told us, Rom 15:19; and more fully, 2 Cor 6:4-10. But lest he should be thought to arrogate any thing to himself, and the power or good use of his own will, he addeth, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Grace seemeth, in the latter part of the verse, to be taken in something a different sense from what it was in the former part: here it signifies the free love and favour of God; though it may also there be understood of those gracious habits, which were the effects of that free love and mercy; here it plainly signifies those gracious habits which were infused into Paul, together with the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, by which he was enabled to reduce those habits into acts. Paul had something in the acts he had done considered as a man, but yet so little, as in these spiritual acts he denieth his own efficiency, and attributeth all to Divine grace, either exciting him to his actions, or preventing, or working in and with him, and assisting him, and giving him all that success he had had.
1 Cor 15:11. Whether it were I or they; whether I or any other of the apostles preached amongst you. So we preach, and so ye believed: this was one great point that we preached amongst you, that Christ was risen again from the dead. This we held forth to you as the object of your faith, this you received and closed with as the object of your faith; we did not only preach to you, that Christ died for our sins, but that he rose again for our justification. Neither was your faith objected only in Christ as one that was crucified and had died, but as one that was risen from the dead. Thus Peter preached, Acts 2:31; Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10; Acts 5:30; and Stephen, Acts 7:56; and Peter, Acts 10:40; and Paul, Acts 13:37; Acts 17:3,31; and so all the apostles.
1 Cor 15:12. The apostle having laid a good foundation, proving the resurrection of Christ by a plentiful testimony of those who saw him after that he was risen from the dead; and minded them, that this was the doctrine of the gospel, which both they and all the rest of the apostles had with one consent preached to them; he comes to build upon it, and from this, as a main argument, to prove, that there must needs be a resurrection from the dead; and beginneth with a reflection upon some in that church who denied it. Who those were we are not told: some think they were Hymenaeus and Philetus, mentioned 2 Tim 2:17-18, who held that the resurrection was past; others think he reflects on Cerinthus, who was one of the leaders of those heretics we read of, who after Simon Magus denied the resurrection others think they were some of the Sadducees, of whom we read in the Acts, that they denied the resurrection, or some of the Pharisees, who denied the resurrection of Christians, looking on them as apostates; others think they were some who had been tinctured, at least, with the doctrine of the pagan philosophers. We cannot certainly determine who, but certain it is some there were; and the apostle argues them in this thing to assert absurdly, upon this supposition, that Christ was risen.
1 Cor 15:13. If (saith the apostle) there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. But some will possibly say: How doth this follow? Suppose it true, that Christ be risen, how doth it follow, that the dead shall rise? The force of it lieth in several things: 1. Christ, as he saith, 1 Cor 15:20, is the firstfruits of them that slept, the exemplary cause of our resurrection. 2. If we consider Christ as the Head, it is unreasonable, that the Head should be risen from the dead, and the members yet held of death, when it is the office of the Head to communicate sense, life, and motion to the members. Again, the argument is strong from the consideration of the end of Christ’s resurrection, which was to show his victory over death, that the dead might hear his voice and live, and that he might be the Judge of the quick and the dead (which he could not have been, if the dead did not rise). Now though it be true, that Christ’s headship to his church, and the apostle’s argument from thence, will not prove the resurrection of the wicked, yet, (besides that the resurrection of believers is the main thing the apostle here proveth, having elsewhere abundantly proved the general resurrection,) the consideration here of Christ’s being raised, that he might be the Judge both of the quick and of the dead, will prove the resurrection of the wicked, as well as of believers.
1 Cor 15:14. Now, (saith the apostle,) if Christ be not raised, in what a case are you! And we also, who have preached his resurrection to you! Our preaching is vain and false, and your faith is so also, for the object of it faileth, which is a Christ risen from the dead.
1 Cor 15:15-16. There is nothing in these two verses but what the apostle had before said, viz. That if Christ were not risen, the apostles’ preaching and the Corinthians’ believing were both of them vain and false. Only what the apostle, in the former verse, called preaching, he here calleth witnessing: We are (saith he) false witnesses of God. To be false witnesses for men, or in the name of men, is against the ninth commandment, and a sin of no ordinary magnitude; but to be a false witness of God, is a much higher sin. This title of witnesses was at first given to the apostles by Christ, Acts 1:8; afterwards often (especially in the Acts) applied to them, Acts 1:22; Acts 2:32; Acts 4:33; Acts 5:32; Acts 10:39,41: particularly Paul applieth it to himself, Acts 22:15; Acts 26:16. It is true, the apostles, who either saw Christ while he was on earth after his resurrection, or in heaven, as Paul did, Acts 9, were in the strictest sense eye witnesses; but yet in a larger sense this notion agreeth to all ministers, who testify, upon the hearing of the ears, and upon reading the Scriptures, the same thing which the apostles testified, though not upon the same evidence. Now to affirm a thing, as from God, for truth, which is in itself false, is a very high transgression; which (saith the apostle) we must be guilty of, if Christ be not raised; and if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
1 Cor 15:17. That is, ye are yet in your estate of nature, under the guilt and condemning power of your sins, which are not yet pardoned to you; for no sins are remitted, but upon believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, which none can do, if Christ be not risen from the dead; for by that he was declared to be the Son of God with power, Rom 1:4: his death declared him to be truly man, it was his resurrection that manifested him to be truly God, God over all blessed for ever, and so the proper object of people’s faith.
1 Cor 15:18. Some think that the term in Christ in this text, is of the same significancy with for the sake of Christ, which would restrain it to martyrs; but I know no reason for that, because what is said is true of all; for it is plain, from what was said before, that if Christ be not risen from the dead, all that die must die in their sins, there being no object for their faith to work or lay hold upon; the door of salvation remaineth as fast shut as ever, so as those whom they looked upon as being asleep in Christ, must necessarily perish, if Christ be not risen; there is no forerunner entered into the heavens for us.
1 Cor 15:19. The apostle here argueth the resurrection of believers from a new head. It is not reasonable for any to imagine, that those who believe in Jesus Christ should of all others be the most miserable; but this they must be, if there be no resurrection from the dead. He enlargeth upon this head or argument further, 1 Cor 15:30-31. The reason of it is, because it must then follow, that they could have no hope in Christ beyond this life; and the condition of the apostles, and the generality of Christians, at least in those first and furious times, was a most afflicted state and condition. The apostle was in jeopardy every hour, 1 Cor 15:30, he died daily, 1 Cor 15:31. If any say: How doth this follow? For their souls might be in glory, though their bodies, once dead, were not raised? It is answered, 1. That it still must hold as to their bodily, fleshy part. 2. That those who denied the resurrection of the body, denied also the immortality of the soul. 3. That Paul speaketh upon the supposition of the Divine ordination; God having so ordered it, that the death of Christ, without his resurrection, should be of no avail to us to save either soul or body; and that our souls and bodies should not be separately, but jointly, glorified upon their reunion in the end of the world: 1 Pet 1:3, we are said to be begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Cor 15:20. The apostle returneth to his former argument, to discourse concerning the resurrection of Christ, who is by him called the firstfruits of them that slept; not of all that shall rise, (as some think,) for it will be hard to prove, that any benefit of Christ’s death or resurrection, after this life, belongs to wicked men: nor is it usual for the penmen of holy writ to express the death of unbelievers under the gentle notion of a sleep; and, Col 1:18, Christ is called the firstborn from the dead, as he is the Head of the church. It is rather spoken with reference to believers; the resurrection of wicked men, flowing rather from God’s providence, in order to the manifestation of his justice in the last judgment, than from the mediation of Christ. But here a question ariseth: How Christ is said to be the firstfruits of those that sleep, whenas we read of divers in Scripture that were raised from the dead before Christ was so raised? Answer 1. Christ was the first that rose again by his own power and virtue. 2. He was the first who rose again, and died no more. 3. He was the first in respect of dignity. 4. He was the firstfruits of them that sleep, by his resurrection making a way for the resurrection of others, even of all such as were members of him; as the offering of the firstfruits, under the law, sanctified the whole crop.
1 Cor 15:21. Since by one man, viz. Adam, (who is also styled the son of God. Luke 3:38, because he had neither father nor mother,) came man’s subjection to mortality, sicknesses, and death here, and eternal death and misery in another world; it pleased God that by one, who though he was the eternal, only begotten Son of God, yet was also made man, and was flesh of our flesh, the resurrection of those that are believers, and asleep in Christ, should come, Heb 2:14.
1 Cor 15:22. As in the first Adam all men, that were in him, became subject both to temporal death, and all the afflictions and miseries of this life, which are so many little deaths, Rom 8:36, and forerunners of natural death, or attendants upon it; and also to that eternal death, which is the consequent of the guilt of sin, Rom 6:23: so in Christ, that is, through the merits of his death, and through his resurrection, all that are in him, being chosen in him, given to him, and by faith implanted into him, are not only spiritually made alive, (being passed from death unto life, 1 John 3:14,) but shall be raised from the dead unto eternal life. But though this text doth not prove the general resurrection, (being only intended of believers, that are members of Christ,) yet it doth not oppose it. But that the all here mentioned is no more than all believers, appeareth not only from the term in Christ in this verse, but from the whole following discourse; which is only concerning the resurrection of believers to life, not that of the wicked to eternal condemnation.
1 Cor 15:23. In his own order, either with respect to time, or dignity, lest any should say: If Christ’s resurrection be the cause of the resurrection of believers, then why did not all the saints, that were in the graves, rise with Christ? The apostle saith: God had appointed an order, and this order was, that they that were dead, or should be dead, before Christ’s second coming, should not prevent one another, 1 Thess 4:15, etc. Besides, the order which God had set was, That Christ should be the firstfruits of this harvest, rising first from the dead, so as to die no more. Afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming; then believers, that are members of Christ, by faith implanted into him, should also rise, but not before his second coming.
1 Cor 15:24. Then cometh the end; the end of all the miseries and afflictions which believers meet with in this life, or the end of all our preaching and ministry, the end of the world, or the end of man; or rather, (as the next words seem to interpret it,) the end of that mediatory kingdom of Christ, which he now administereth instead of his Father, and shall manage to the end of the world. When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father: Christ shall then deliver up those keys of life, and hell, and death to his Father, yet shall not Christ’s kingdom cease (for the prophet saith, Isa 9:7, that of it there shall be no end:) Christ’s essential kingdom, which is his dominion, which he hath and exerciseth over all created beings, together with his Father, and the Holy Spirit, (all being but one Divine essence,) that shall hold and abide for ever; but his mediatory kingdom, by which he ruleth over his church in the midst of his enemies, that shall cease, and be delivered up unto the Father. So that Christ’s delivering up the kingdom to his Father, proveth no inferiority of Christ to his Father, more than his Father’s committing that mediatory kingdom to him can prove his Father’s not reigning, or inferiority to him, which it certainly doth not. It signifieth only the ceasing of that dispensation, or Christ’s exercise of his mediatory kingdom on earth, in the rule and government of the church, and subduing his and his people’s enemies. When he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power; then shall all rule and authority of kings and princes of the earth cease, and all the ministration of good angels, and power of evil angels; so shall all ministrations and governments in the church militant here on earth, and all those that are the enemies of the church shall be subdued and brought under.
1 Cor 15:25. God hath so decreed, (and what he hath said must come to pass,) that Christ should, as Mediator, exercise a Kingdom and government in the world, until he hath subdued all the enemies of his gospel and people; all those who have said, he shall not rule over them; the whole world that lieth in wickedness, the devil, and all his instruments: this he proveth from the words of the psalmist, Ps 110:1. The term until doth not signify the determination of Christ’s kingdom then, though his mediatory kingdom on earth will then be determined. He shall still reign, but not as now, in the midst of his enemies, and in the exercise of his kingdom in the conquest and subduing of them.
1 Cor 15:26. If death be an enemy, (as we usually judge,) that also must be destroyed; and there is no other way to destroy death, but by the causing of a resurrection from the dead. So that the apostle proveth the resurrection from the necessity of Christ’s reigning until all his enemies be destroyed, of which death is one; for it keeps the bodies of the members of Christ from their union with their souls, and with Christ, who is the Head of the whole believer, the body as well as the soul.
1 Cor 15:27. The apostle referreth to Ps 8:6, where the psalmist adoreth God for the privileges given man in his creation; amongst which this is one, that God had put all things under his feet: the psalmist afterward expounds that universal particle, Ps 8:7-8, by all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea. But that that psalm, or some passages at least in it, are to be understood of Christ, appeareth from Heb 2:6-8, where the penman applieth it to him, as doth the apostle here; under whose feet all things are put in a much larger sense, and therefore the apostle expounds the affirmative, Heb 2:8, by a negative, he left nothing that is not put under him. But lest men of perverse minds should conclude, that then the Father also is put under Christ, the apostle addeth, that when he saith, he hath put all things under his feet, the Father himself, who is the person that put all things under him, is not to be included.
1 Cor 15:28. The Son’s subjection to his Father, which is mentioned in this place, doth no where prove his inequality of essence or power with his Father; it only signifieth what was spoken before, that Christ should deliver up his mediatory kingdom to his Father; so manifesting, that whatsoever he had done in the office of Mediator, was done in the name of his Father, and by his power and authority; and that as he was man, he was subject to his Father. Suppose (saith Pareus) a king should have one only son, whom he should take into a partnership with him in his majesty and kingdom; but yet so, that the king should still have the preeminence of a father, the son only the dignity of a son in such power and authority: after which this king, having some subjects risen up in rebellion against him, should send his son with armies and his authority against them; he should despatch the work, and at his return yield up his commission to his father, yet still retaining the same nature he had, and authority with which his Father had before clothed him, was a partner in the kingdom and government with him. That God (saith the apostle) may be all in all; instead of all things which the heart of man can wish; or that God may exercise a full and perfect empire and government over all things; that the incomprehensible glory of God may fill all the elect. But is not God in this world all in all? Answer. He is; but he doth not so appear ruling in the midst of his enemies here. 2. The government will be altered; God here is sole King of the world, but he partly ruleth it by Christ, as Mediator, whose mediatory kingdom shall then cease, and nothing shall appear but the essential kingdom of God; the power by which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (three persons, though but one God) shall govern and rule all things, when all this sublunary world shall cease.
1 Cor 15:29. A very difficult text, and variously expounded. The terms baptize, and baptism, signify no more in their original and native signification, than to wash, and a washing: the washing of pots and cups, in use amongst the Jews, is, in the Greek, the baptisms of pots and cups. But the most usual acceptation of baptism in Scripture, is to signify one of the sacraments of the New Testament; that sacred action, by which one is washed according to the institution of Christ, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It is also metaphorically used by our Saviour in the Gospels, Matt 20:22-23; Mark 10:38-39; Luke 12:50, to signify a suffering for the name of Christ. And it is also used thus metaphorically, to signify the action of the Holy Ghost in cleansing and renewing our hearts, Matt 3:11-12; John 3:5. The last usage of the term is by no means applicable here. The question is: Whether the apostle meaneth here only: Why are men washed for the dead? Or why are men baptized religiously for the dead? Or why are men baptized with blood for the dead? For the popish notion, that baptism here signifies any religious actions, as fastings, and prayers, and penances for those that are in purgatory, there is no such usage of the term in Scripture; for though in Scripture it signifies sometimes sufferings from the hands of others, as in Matt 20:22-23; Mark 10:38-39, yet it no where signifies penances, or such sufferings as men impose upon themselves for the dead. Nor doth Paul here say: To what purpose do men baptize themselves? But why are they baptized for the dead? 1. Those that think the term here signifies washing, what shall they do who are washed for the dead? Tell us, that it being a custom in many countries, for neatness and cleanliness, to wash dead bodies, the primitive Christians used that ceremony as a religious rite, and a testification of their belief of the resurrection. That such a custom was in use amongst Christians, is plain from Acts 9:37: but that they used it as religious rite, or a testimony of their faith in the resurrection, appeareth not. And though it be u(pe\r twn nekrw~n, yet they say u(pe\r is so used, Rom 15:8, for the truth of God, expounded by the next word, to confirm the promises. 2. Those that think, that by baptizing, in this text, the sacrament of baptism is to be understood, give us more than one account. Some say, that whereas they were wont in the primitive church, before they admitted persons into a full communion with the church, to keep them for some time under catechism, in which time they were called catechumeni; if such fell sick, and in danger of death, they baptized them; or if they died suddenly, they baptized some other for them, in testimony of their hope of the joyful resurrection of such a person to eternal life. Now admit this were an error of practice in them, as to this ordinance; yet if any such thing were in practice in this church, the argument of the apostle was good against them. But how shall any such thing be made appear to us, that there was such an early corruption in this church? Others say, that some, believing the resurrection, would upon their death beds be baptized, in testimony of it, from whence they had the name of clinici. Others say: To be baptized for the dead, signifieth to be baptized when they were dying, and so as good as dead. Mr. Calvin chooseth this sense: but the question is: Whether the Greek phrase u(pe\r twn nekrw~n will bear it? Others tell us of a custom in use in the primitive church, to baptize persons over the graves of the martyrs, as a testimony of their belief of the resurrection. That there was anciently such a custom, I doubt not; and I believe that the custom with us in reading of prayers over dead bodies at the grave, doth much more probably derive from this ancient usage, than the papists’ praying for the dead; but that there was any such custom so ancient as the apostles’ times, I very much doubt. There are yet two other senses given of this difficult phrase, either of which seemeth to me much more probable than any of these. To the first we are led by the next verse: And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Which inclineth many good interpreters to think, that the baptism here mentioned, is that baptism with blood mentioned by our Saviour, Matt 20:22-23; and so the sense is no more than, if there be no resurrection of the dead, why do we die daily? Why are we killed all the day long? For we do that in hope of a blessed resurrection. The only objections against this are, 1. That none but Christ himself useth the word in this sense (which seemeth a light exception). 2. That u(pe\r twn nekrw~n is hardly capable of that sense; but yet our learned Dr. Lightfoot brings parallels of such a usage of the preposition out of the LXX. Others observe, that the apostle, in this whole chapter, is discoursing of the resurrection of believers unto life, and they are such dead alone, that he here speaketh of, for whom he saith any were baptized. Now, it is plain from Scripture, that baptism is a seal of the resurrection, signifying to believers, that they shall be made partakers of the death and resurrection of Christ (the resurrection being strongly proved from God’s covenant, of which baptism is a seal, Luke 20:37-38;) and being so, it confirmed the covenant, not only to the persons baptized, but to the whole church, as well the triumphant as the militant part of it; as well with reference to those of it that were dead, as those that were living. So that so often as baptism was administered in the church, so often God repeated the covenant made to his whole church, that he was the God of believers and of their seed: so that all who to this day are baptized, are baptized for the dead, that is, for the confirmation of God’s covenant to his whole church, as well that part of it which is dead, as that part which is yet alive; and it testifieth, that those that sleep in Christ (although dead) yet live in the promise of the resurrection, because God is their God, and he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, as our Saviour speaketh in Luke 20:38. In this variety amongst learned men about the true sense of this place, I shall leave the reader to his own judgment, although to me the two last seem to be most probable.
1 Cor 15:30. We are the veriest fools in nature, if there be no resurrection of believers unto life; for it is in the firm belief and hopes of that, that we are in danger of our lives, and all that we have, every hour of our lives.
1 Cor 15:31. What is meant here by your rejoicing which I have, is something doubted; some understanding it of the apostle’s rejoicing in them as believers, whom he had been an instrument to convert, and bring home to Christ; others, of their rejoicing in him (which seems not probable, many of them so much despising and vilifying him:) others understand it of their glorying against him, and triumphing over him, and that this was one of his sufferings which he instanceth in, which he underwent in hope of a resurrection. The words are not an oath, (for here God is not called to witness,) they are only an attestation. As the prophets sometimes call heaven and earth to witness, so here he calls their rejoicing to witness; and this rejoicing seems to be the joy of those who amongst them truly rejoiced in Jesus Christ, for which also he rejoiced daily, they being the seal of his apostleship. That which he solemnly affirms, is, that he died daily; not only was ready to die daily, but in the same sense that he elsewhere saith, he was in deaths often, and that they were killed all the day long; suffering such afflictions as were near akin to death, and led on to death, as their end.
1 Cor 15:32. Concerning this fight of the apostle with beasts at Ephesus, there are two opinions; some thinking that he indeed fought with beasts, and we know that in those countries such a punishment was in use, to bring out malefactors to fight with wild beasts; but as we read in the Acts of no such dealings with Paul, so that being a punishment rather for their slaves and vilest men, it can hardly be thought that Paul, who was a free man of Rome, should be exposed to it. They seem therefore better to understand it, who interpret it of his conflict with men, who in their conditions and manners were like beasts; and that he doth not speak here of his scuffle with Demetrius, mentioned Acts 19:34-41, but some other conflict he had there, of which the Scripture giveth us no large account, but it seems to be generally and obscurely mentioned in the next Epistle, 2 Cor 1:8, for this Epistle was wrote after his contest with Demetrius. By that phrase, after the manner of men, some think he means, as men use to fight; some have other notions of it: the sense seems to be plainly this: If I have fought with beastly men at Ephesus after the manner that men fight with beasts, exposing my body to their rage and fury, what profit is it to me, if the dead rise not? I have opposed myself to their fury out of a hope for a joyful resurrection; but if there shall be no such resurrection, the epicures, that resolve to stick at nothing, nor to deny themselves in any sensual satisfaction from meat and drink, have the best of it; all men had then best sing their song: Let us eat and drink, for we have but a little time to eat and to drink in; we know that we shall die, and there will be an end of us.
1 Cor 15:33. Do not suffer yourselves to be abused with evil and corrupt discourses of those philosophers amongst whom you converse, who argue from innate principles of reason against articles of faith; though you may judge that they talk but for discourse sake, yet their communication or discourse is naught, and will influence men as to things of practice, and debauch men in their morals. It is a verse or saying taken out of, or at least found in, one of the pagan poets; but containing in it much truth.
1 Cor 15:34. Awake to righteousness, and sin not: sin is in Scripture compared to sleep, Rev 13:11; Eph 5:14, and that very properly; for as the natural senses are bound up in natural sleep, so the sinner’s spiritual senses are locked up, so that he doth not exercise them to discern betwixt good and evil; and as he that is asleep is void of all care and fear, is secure, so the sinner is secure and void of fear. And repentance is set out under the notion of awaking; we are not only concerned to eschew evil, but to do good; not only to awake from sin, but to righteousness, that is, to a holy life and conversation, that is it which is here called righteousness, all spiritual rectitude being to be judged from the soul’s conformity to the Divine rule; hence sin is called a crooked way, because it will not agree with the rule of God’s word. For some have not the knowledge of God; for some amongst you have not a due and saving knowledge of God, or a right apprehension of the things of God; I speak this to your shame; though it be a shame for them that have it not, considering the light and means of knowledge which you have had by my ministry, and the ministry of others who have been amongst you.
1 Cor 15:35. Some of your vain philosophers, who are resolved to give credit to nothing upon the account of a bare Divine revelation, unless they can give a further rational account of it in the circumstances, will be ready to object and say: How is it possible, that those very bodies which are putrefied, and turned into dust, and that dust, it may be, scattered to the four winds, should be raised up? And if the same bodies shall not again rise, what kind of bodies shall the believers have in the resurrection? Shall they be bodies that will need meat, and drink, and clothes, as our present bodies do? Or what other bodies shall they be?
1 Cor 15:36. He saith not: Thou fool, in anger, (which is that using of this term which our Saviour saith, Matt 5:22 brings a man under the danger of hell fire,) but in the way of a grave and authoritative reproof, calling them fools for their want of a due understanding of the things and ways of God. He lets them know, that they might as well ask, how the grain of wheat, which they ordinarily sowed in their field, did rise again; for that grain also rotteth under the clods of the earth, under which it is buried, before it again riseth.
1 Cor 15:37. And when it again riseth, or shooteth up, it is not bare grain, without either stalk or ear, which was the body by them sown.
1 Cor 15:38. But God giveth to every grain, or kind of seed, such a kind of body as it pleaseth him, and a several body, according to the nature of the grain; yet none will deny, but it is the seed sown which cometh up, though with a different body, in respect of some qualities.
1 Cor 15:39. Flesh is a kind of body, but it is of various degrees of dignity and excellency, in respect of the qualities of it: the flesh of men is of a differing excellency from the flesh of beasts; and there is a difference in natural qualities betwixt the corporeal substances of beasts, and of fishes, and birds; yet they are all bodies, they are all flesh; our distinction betwixt flesh and fish, is but according to our idiom or propriety of speaking; we read of the flesh of fish, Lev 11:10-11.
1 Cor 15:40. There are also celestial bodies; such are the sun, the moon, and the stars. And bodies terrestrial; men, beasts, birds, fishes, the elements, stones, etc. But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another; now betwixt these two species of bodies, in respect of qualities, there is a very great difference; the glory of the heavenly bodies is much greater than the glory of the earthy bodies that are compounded of the elements.
1 Cor 15:41. Amongst the celestial bodies there is a great deal of difference with respect to the qualities; one of them is in glory much differing from another, the glory of the moon is not like the glory of the sun, and the glory of a star is much beneath the glory both of the sun and of the moon; yea, one star is more glorious than another: yet they are all bodies, though of different species and qualities.
1 Cor 15:42. So also is the resurrection of the dead; that is, so shall it be, as to the bodies of the saints, in the resurrection. The same bodies of the saints shall rise, though with qualities, and in a condition, much different from what they were when they fell; as the same grain of wheat shooteth up, though with another body: and as there is a difference betwixt celestial and terrestrial bodies, and betwixt celestial bodies themselves; so there will be a difference betwixt the bodies of the saints, now that they are only of the earth, earthy, from what they shall be in the resurrection; which difference he openeth in several particulars. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sown that is, it dieth and is buried in such a state, that it is subject to putrefaction; but when it shall be again raised from the dead, it shall be subject to no putrefaction or corruption: so 1 Cor 15:52: The dead shall be raised incorruptible.
1 Cor 15:43. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: there is nothing more uncomely, unlovely, and loathsome than a dead body; but it will not be so when it shall be raised again, then it shall be a beautiful, comely body. We shall rise in a full and perfect age, (as is generally thought,) and without those defects and deformities which may here make our bodies appear unlovely. Daniel says, Dan 12:3, the righteous shall shine as the stars: Christ saith, Matt 13:43, they shall shine like the sun: the apostle saith, Phil 3:21, we shall be made like unto his glorious body. Three things make the body beautiful, a perfection of parts, the well putting them together and proportioning them one to another, and a well-tempered, cheerly spirit; all these will concur in the bodies of saints in the resurrection. The schoolmen determine, that much of the beauty of the saints’ bodies in the resurrection, will flow from their perfect sight of God, and the reflection of God upon them. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: when it dieth it is a frail, weak body, unable to resist injuries; but it shall rise a strong body, with quick senses, and subject to no more weaknesses.
1 Cor 15:44. It is sown a natural body; such a body as all living creatures have by nature, which is upheld by the actions of the soul that quickeneth it; both the vegetative powers, by which it is nourished by the use of meat and drink, the eating, concocting, and digesting it, etc.; and the sensitive powers, etc. But it shall be raised a spiritual body; spiritual, not as to the substance of it, for in that sense a spiritual body is a contradiction, but in respect of the qualities and conditions of it, Matt 22:30; Luke 20:35-36. Bodies which, in respect of many new qualities they shall have, shall be more like angels and other spirits, than human bodies; beautiful, incorruptible, free from infirmities, not subject to hunger, or thirst, or injuries from cold or heat, etc.; not using meat, drink, clothes, physic, or marriage; free, active, and nimble as spirits, 1 Thess 4:17. Spiritual, because they shall perfectly obey the soul made perfect, and be by it commanded to spiritual actions only; of subtile, spiritual, refined constitutions.
1 Cor 15:45. The first part is written in Gen 2:7, God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and so he became a living soul; that is, a living substance, living an animal, natural life, by virtue of that breath of life which God breathed into him. The last Adam, by which he meaneth Christ, who in time was after the first Adam, and was born in the last days, and was the last common Head; as Adam was the first, with respect of natural and carnal propagation, so Christ was the last Head, in respect of grace and spiritual regeneration, he was made a quickening spirit: He was made so, not when he was conceived and born, for he had a body subject to the same natural infirmities that ours are; but upon his resurrection from the dead, when, though he had the same body, in respect of the substance of it, yet it differed in qualities, and was much more spiritual; with which body he ascended up into heaven, clothed with a power, as to quicken souls with a spiritual life, so also to quicken our mortal bodies at his second coming, when he shall raise the dead out of their graves.
1 Cor 15:46. Christ, the spiritual Adam, was not first in order of time, but the natural Adam, God in his providence rising from more imperfect to more perfect dispensations: and so it is as to God’s providences relating unto us; we have first natural bodies, we are born with such, we grow up and die with such, but then we shall rise again with others, in respect of more excellent qualities and endowments.
1 Cor 15:47. Adam, who was the first man, was of the earth, Gen 2:7, and was of an earthy constitution, like unto the earth out of which he was formed; but Christ had another original: for though his body was formed in the womb of the virgin, and he was flesh of her flesh, yet she conceived by the Holy Ghost overshadowing her, and Christ had an eternal generation (as to his Divine nature) from his Father.
1 Cor 15:48. Such a body as Adam had, (which was earthy,) such all the sons of Adam have; and such a body as Christ now hath since his resurrection, (which is a heavenly body,) such a body also shall believers, who are heavenly, have in the resurrection.
1 Cor 15:49. And as believers, being the natural sons of the first Adam, have borne his image, had such bodies as he had while they lived here; so they shall also in the resurrection bear the image of the heavenly, the image of Christ; that is, have such bodies as was Christ’s body after that he was again risen from the dead.
1 Cor 15:50. Flesh and blood do not here signify sin, the unrenewed nature, (as some would have it,) but our bodies, in their present natural, corruptible, frail, mortal state; so the terms signify, Eph 6:12; Heb 2:14. Flesh and blood shall inherit the kingdom of God, (else our bodies could not be glorified,) but our body, as in its present state, till changed and altered as to qualities, till it be made a spiritual body, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The latter words give a reason why flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; because it is corruption, that is, subject to natural corruption and putrefaction, and the heavenly state of incorruption; the bodies of believers therefore must be raised up in that state of incorruption mentioned 1 Cor 15:42, before they can be capable of inheriting the kingdom of God.
1 Cor 15:51. They might object: How can this be? There will be many saints alive in the world at the day when Christ shall come to judge the world, they will have natural bodies, such as they were born with, and grew up with in the world until that time. Saith the apostle: I now tell you a secret thing; for so the term mystery signifieth, Rom 11:25; Rom 16:25, and in many other texts. We shall not all sleep any long sleep: some think all shall die, but some for a very short time, and then they shall revive. But we shall all be changed, either dying for time, or by some other work of God, their natural, corruptible bodies shall be turned into spiritual bodies, not capable of corruption.
1 Cor 15:52. This change will be on the sudden, in a moment; either upon the will and command of Christ, which shall be as effectual to call persons out of their graves, as a trumpet is to call persons together; or rather, upon a sound made like to the sound of a trumpet, as it was at the giving of the law upon Sinai, Exod 19:16. We read of this last trump, Matt 24:31; 1 Thess 4:16. There shall (saith the apostle) be such a sound made; and upon the making of it, the saints, that are dead, shall be raised out of their graves; not with such bodies as they carried thither, (which were corruptible,) but with such bodies as shall be no more subject to corruption; and those who at that time shall be alive, shall one way or another be changed, and be also put into an incorruptible state.
1 Cor 15:53. God hath so decreed, that our flesh and blood, in the state wherein now it is, shall not be glorified; it shall be the same body as to the substance, but not as to the qualities; it is now corruptible and mortal, it must be put into a state of incorruption and immortality, before it can enter into the kingdom of heaven.
1 Cor 15:54. That is, in an eternal and continuing victory; the saints shall die no more. The quotation which the apostle bringeth, is out of those two texts, Isa 25:8; Hos 13:14; which two texts, the apostle saith, at that day will have a more full, perfect, and eminent accomplishment, than ever they before had.
1 Cor 15:55. The apostle, in the contemplation of this blessed day, triumpheth over death, in a metaphorical phrase: Where is thy sting? What hurt canst thou now do unto believers, more than a wasp, or hornet, or bee, that hath lost its sting? O grave, or O hell, (the same word signifieth both,) where now is thy victory? The conqueror of all flesh is now conquered, the spoiler of all men is spoiled; it had got a victory, but now, O death, where is thy victory?
1 Cor 15:56. The sting of death is sin; if it were not for sin, death could have no power over man; sin is that which giveth death a power to hurt the children of men: The wages of sin is death, Rom 6:23. And the strength of sin is the law; and without the law there could be no transgression. The law is so far from taking away the guilt of sin, that, through the corruption of our natures, strongly inclining us to what is forbidden, it addeth strength to sin; sin (as the apostle saith, Rom 7:8) taking occasion by the commandment, and working in us all manner of concupiscence.
1 Cor 15:57. The victory over sin and over death, we have both through the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; who by his death both delivered us from the guilt of sin, and also from the power of sin; and who through death destroyed him who had the power of death, even the devil.
1 Cor 15:58. The apostle concludeth his discourse, proving the resurrection of the body from the dead, founding upon it an exhortation to holiness, which is here called the work of the Lord, because it is made up of works done by us at the command of Christ, and with direct respect to his glory in obedience to his will. He mindeth them not only to do these things, but to do them stedfastly, not by fits, but never turning aside from them either one way or another; and unmovably, so as no temptations, either from dangers, or rewards, or false teachers, should shake their faith, as to the principles that lead unto such a holy life, this especially of the resurrection from the dead. For as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord; because they knew, that through the grace of God, and the merits of Christ, such works as these should not want their reward; for though the work of God be wages to itself, and Christians should not serve God merely for wages, yet it is lawful for them (as for Moses) to have an eye to the recompence of reward; and a greater reward than this of the resurrection of the body to eternal life, and that in a state of immortality and incorruption, in a spiritual and honourable estate, could not be.
1 CORINTHIANS 16
1 Cor 16:1-4: Paul directeth the Corinthians how to proceed in their collections for the relief of the brethren at Jerusalem.
1 Cor 16:5-9: He mentioneth his design of visiting them,
1 Cor 16:10-12: and commendeth Timothy, who was coming to them.
1 Cor 16:13-18: After some seasonable admonitions,
1 Cor 16:19-24: he closeth the Epistle with divers salutations.
1 Cor 16:1. The business of relieving the poor members of the church, is a moral duty, a sacrifice with which God is well pleased, Phil 4:18; our faith must work by this love. The apostle, in several Epistles, was very solicitous about this; he mentioneth it, Rom 15:26; Gal 2:10, as well as in this Epistle. Besides that our Saviour had foretold, that the state of the church would be such, that they should have the poor always with them; Agabus, Acts 11:28, had prophesied of a famine, which (some think) raged at this time; and besides, the persecution at Jerusalem had scattered the brethren abroad, and being out of their country and employments, they could not but be at a loss for a livelihood, and so need the charitable contribution of other churches under better circumstances, as they were at this time in Greece. The churches of Galatia and Macedonia had been very liberal this way; and the apostle, by their example, quickens the churches both at Rome and Corinth, Rom 15:26; 2 Cor 8:4. As to this he had (as he saith) given order to the churches of Galatia, which, it is thought, he did in his journey through Galatia, Acts 16:6; and he ordereth the church at Corinth to follow that order, which followeth.
1 Cor 16:2. From hence both divers of the ancients, and very many late divines, argue for the change of the sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first. It is plain from hence, that the gospel churches were wont to assemble upon that day; nor do we read in Scripture of any assembly of Christians for religious worship on any other day. On this day the apostle orders collections for the poor saints to be made, accordingly as God had prospered any in their employments; he directeth that they should every one lay by him something, not doing what he did with any ostentation, but having it ready when it should be called for: this he calls a treasuring (so it is in the Greek;) monies laid by for charitable uses are treasures, both with respect to those for whom they are laid up, and also for ourselves; for he that giveth to the poor, layeth up for himself treasures in heaven. He would have no gatherings when he came, either to avoid the scandal of his being chargeable to them, or that he would have no delay, but when he came it might be in a readiness to be presently sent away.
1 Cor 16:3. The word here translated liberality, is the same which signifieth grace; their charity is called by that name, either because it flowed from their free love towards their poor brethren, (though living at a great distance from them,) or because their sense of the free love and grace of God to them, was that which moved them to that charitable act, 2 Cor 8:9.
1 Cor 16:4. To encourage them to the more free and liberal contribution, he promiseth them himself to go along with those that carried it, if it were thought meet.
1 Cor 16:5. Whether Paul, according to this promise, did go to Corinth, some question, because of what we read, 2 Cor 1:15-16. But others think, that he speaketh there of another journey, which he intended thither; and that he did go in a fulfilling of this promise, because we read, Acts 20, that he went into Greece, and spent there a considerable time; during which it is very probable that he did not omit to visit the church of Corinth.
1 Cor 16:6. He did stay in Greece three months, Acts 20:3, but it is believed some things hindered him, that he did not winter at Corinth. It was the custom for some members of the gospel churches, to accompany the apostles some part of their way when they went from them to any other places, in token of their kindness and respect to them, Acts 15:3; Acts 17:15; Acts 20:38.
1 Cor 16:7. I will not see you in my passage into Macedonia, for then I shall have no time to stay long with you; and I hope to gain a time when I shall stay longer with you; but all this must be understood with submission to God’s will, who can hinder, and order my journeys, and determine my purposes, as he pleaseth. James teaches us, when we declare our resolutions to go to this or that place, to add: If the Lord will; and our apostle observeth that rule, Rom 1:10.
1 Cor 16:8. He altered this resolution afterward, for, Acts 20:16, he hasted, if it were possible, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was a Jewish feast, and not named here as a feast then celebrated by Christians, but as a known period of time; for the Jews computing time from their festivals, Christians who lived amongst them, and had some of them been converted from their religion, computed also their time from the Jewish festivals.
1 Cor 16:9. For God hath opened to me at Ephesus a great opportunity to preach the gospel, which I have reason to hope will also be effectual for the conversion of many souls. What this door of hope was, whether God had let him know there were many souls in that place prepared for receiving the gospel; or that some eminent persons for authority or learning, whom many were like to follow, were there already converted; or that he looked upon that famous city as like to be a place where many might be converted; is not told us. And (saith the apostle) there are many adversaries, (as it will appear to those that read Acts 19-20,) therefore there was need of the presence of the apostle himself, whose authority might better stop their months, than the more inferior pastors could. What would have affrighted others from going or staying there, this great apostle mentions as an argument to cause him to make haste to go thither, and to tarry there for some time.
1 Cor 16:10. He had told them, 1 Cor 4:17, that he had sent Timothy unto them, whom he there calleth his beloved son, and faithful in the Lord. Here he bespeaketh his welcome and security. It is probable he had it in commission from Paul to visit divers other churches in his journey to them, and therefore he speaketh of his coming as uncertain, but chargeth them, that if he did come, they would take care of him, that he might not be exposed to danger or trouble from any party amongst them. For he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do; for (saith he) he is a minister of the gospel, and engaged in the same work of the Lord that I am.
1 Cor 16:11. Let no man therefore despise him; either because he is a very young man, 1 Tim 4:12, or upon any other account. But conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me; but when he cometh away, show him the respect you use to show me, conduct him in his way. For I look for him with the brethren; for I have need of his help here, in carrying on the business of the gospel; and therefore I, with the brethren here, expect him; or, I expect him with the rest of the brethren, who are in like manner employed abroad in carrying about the gospel.
1 Cor 16:12. Apollos (as may be seen, Acts 18:27) was known to them, and had been a preacher amongst them, and was grateful to many of them; he was an eloquent man, mighty in the Scriptures, instructed in the way of the Lord, and fervent in the spirit, Acts 18:24-28; he was one of those from whom some of this church denominated themselves, 1 Cor 3:4. For these reasons Paul would have persuaded him to go and visit this church, (which some think that he had left, because of those contentions and divisions which were amongst them,) but he had no mind to go at that time; though it is said, that he afterwards did return again to them, when Paul, by his Epistle, had quieted those divisions, and allayed their heats.
1 Cor 16:13. Watch ye: watching, in its usual acceptation, signifieth a forbearing of sleep; and that in order to some end. Sin is set out under the notion of sleep, Eph 5:14; so that spiritual watching signifies a diligent abstaining from sin, and from whatsoever may be to us a temptation to sin against God, in order to the perfecting of holiness, and the obtaining life and immortality. Stand fast in the faith; be steady in the profession of the truth, and holding close to the doctrine of faith. Quit you like men, be strong; you are as soldiers fighting against the world, the flesh, and the devil; do not behave yourselves like children, whom the least opposition will terrify and throw down; but like men, with a spiritual courage and fortitude, becoming such who have so good a Captain, and so good a cause.
1 Cor 16:14. Charity (as hath been before discoursed) is a term comprehensive both of love to God, and to our neighbour; the failure of this in their divisions and contentions, and satisfying their own judgments and humours, without regard to the consciences of others, and having no regard to the profit of others, is that which the apostle, in this Epistle, had once and again blamed in the members of this church; in the conclusion of his Epistle, he therefore again recommends to them the getting and exercising of this habit.
1 Cor 16:15. Of this Stephanas we read before, 1 Cor 1:16; his family was one of those few families which Paul baptized: he is here called the firstfruits of Achaia, because (as it should seem) he was one of the first of all those who in that country received the gospel. He further saith of him, that he had given up himself to the ministry of the saints, either in preaching the gospel, or (which is more probable) in the proper employment of a deacon, in relieving such amongst the saints (whether of that or other churches) as were in want.
1 Cor 16:16. He adviseth them to reverence him, and all such as were helpers and labourers of that nature, and wrought with the apostles in the work of the gospel.
1 Cor 16:17-18. It should seem that this church had sent these three persons to Paul at this time (as most think) at Ephesus, to acquaint him with the state of their churches; these men supplied the want of that whole church’s coming, or they made a report to the apostle of the Corinthians more fully than they had done in their letters. He adds, that they had refreshed his spirit, not with bringing him any money, (for the apostle hath told us, 1 Cor 9:15, that he gloried in this, that he had preached the gospel to them freely, without being any charge to them,) but by their visit, and the conference that he had had with them about the state of that church. The apostle addeth, that they had refreshed their spirits also; intimating, that their joy was his, and that what was a refreshing to him, ought also to be so to them; he therefore recommendeth these men, and such as they were, to be reverenced and respected by this church.
1 Cor 16:19. He meaneth the Lesser Asia, in which was Ephesus; from whence it is more probable (according to the Arabic and Syriac opinion) that this Epistle was written, than from Philippi (according to the copy followed by our translators). And that which further adds to that probability is, that the apostle mentioneth the salutations of Aquila and Priscilla, as persons that were at that time with him; now, that they lived at Ephesus, or at least went thither with Paul, and tarried there, appeareth from Acts 18:19: their saluting the church of Corinth in the Lord, signifies their wishing them all spiritual blessings in and from Christ. But what is meant by the church in their house, which joined with Paul in this salutation, is not so plain: we read the like, Col 4:15, of the church in Nymphas’s house; and in Philemon’s house, Philem 2; and the same again of this Aquila and Priscilla, Rom 16:5. Some think that it signifieth no more, than that their whole families had received the Christian faith; others think, that divers other Christians sojourned with them; others, that the church was wont to meet in some room in their house: but the last is not probable, either that in those times the church kept their meetings in any one stated place, or that Christians then had such spacious houses as could afford a room large enough for the whole church to meet in.
1 Cor 16:20. This proveth no more, than that as it is in use with us to salute one another with a kiss when we meet; so it was in use in those times and countries to do the like, in token of love and friendship. It is called the kiss of charity, 1 Pet 5:14. The apostle requireth, that in these salutations they should have chaste and holy thoughts. This seemeth to be all meant by the holy kiss, mentioned Rom 16:16; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Thess 5:26, and here.
1 Cor 16:21. These words are judged to signify to us, that though the former part of the Epistle was written out of Paul’s copy by some others, yet the three last verses were written by him with his own hand.
1 Cor 16:22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ: love is an affection of the heart, but discernible by overt acts: the meaning is: If any man, by any notorious acts, declareth that he loveth not the Lord Jesus, whether he be a hypocrite, owning the name of Christ, but living in a contempt of and disobedience to his commandments; or an apostate, who showeth his want of love to Christ by denying him in an hour of danger and persecution, or an open enemy and persecutor of Christ and his gospel. Let him be Anathema Maranatha; let him be accursed, let him be looked upon as a detestable and abominable person. Some tell us, that the Jews having three excommunications, this word signifieth their highest degree, by which the person was given up to the judgment and vengeance of God; but others say, there is no such term to be found among them, and that the term Maranatha signifies no more than: The Lord is come. Let the Jews and other vain persons say what they will, the Lord is come; and if any love him not, let him be looked on as a detestable person.
1 Cor 16:23. That is, The Lord Jesus favour you, and bless you with all spiritual blessings: this is the apostle’s ordinary salutation, Rom 16:24.
1 Cor 16:24. As I love you, so I desire to be again beloved of you in Christ sincerely. Or, I love you all in Christ, and for Christ’s sake; or, I wish that my love may abide in and with you.
Epistle closing. These words are no part of Scripture; and (as was said before) it is much more probable, that this Epistle was written from Ephesus than from Philippi, though it might be sent by these, or some of these, men named.
