1 Corinthians

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. Through the will of God] Not the faculty in God, whereby he willeth, but his act, the thing that he willeth. This will of God is either secret or revealed, #De 22:29. And this revealed will is either of his pleasure, Placiti, or of his good pleasure, Beneplaciti. The former is also in things where the effect is evil; and so God willeth in respect of the end, but not of the means to the end; as in sin, and some miseries. The latter is in those things only where the effect is good, as here, and #Ro 12:2. It was for the very great good of the Church that God would have Paul to be a chosen vessel, to bear his name before the Gentiles, &c., #Ac 9:15. So that Cor Pauli est cor Christi, the heart of Paul is the heart of Christ, as Chrysostom hath it; for, "We have the mind of Christ," #1Co 2:16.

Sosthenes our brother] And companion in the kingdom and patience of Christ, #Re 1:9 Ac 18:17. There he was despitefully entreated, here highly honoured. Christ is a liberal paymaster: never any did or suffered aught for his sake that complained of a hard bargain. It is to my loss (said that martyr) if thou bate me anything in my sufferings. Maiora certamina, maiora sequuntur praemia, After greater battles, greater rewards follow, saith Tertullian.

Ver. 2. Called to be saints] i.e. Either such as are sanctified by habitual infusion, or such as are sanctified by baptismal profession only, that are in covenant with God by sacrifice, #Ps 50:5, and are in Christ, though they bear no fruit, #Joh 15:2. These two sorts of saints make up a true visible Church.

With all that in every place] The apostles then wrote not their Epistles for the particular uses of those times only, as the Jesuits will have it.

Ver. 3. Grace be to you and peace] All peace that flows not from the sense of God’s love and favour, is as that of the Romans with the Samnites, unsound and uncertain. Pax infida, pax incerta. Peace with the treacherous is a dubious peace. (Livius.) {See Trapp on "Ro 1:7"}

Ver. 4. I thank my God] Thus he begins most of his Epistles. Deo gratias was ever in Austin’s mouth, who had Paul’s spirit. Every gracious man is a grateful man. The same Greek word (χαρις) signifieth grace and thanks. Only that part of Abraham’s seed that is as the stars of heaven, can in their courses sing a song of praise to God. True it is, that "all his works praise him"; that is, they give matter and occasion so to do; but his saints only bless him, in manner as Paul here doth, #Ps 145:10, and bring actual glory to him, #Eph 1:11,12. Wicked men cannot say, I thank my God, for they have no true notion of God, but as of an enemy; and therefore all their verbal thanks are but as music at funerals, or as the trumpet before a judge, no comfort to the mourning wife or guilty prisoner.

For the grace of God] Intending to chide them, he first commends them, that he may preserve in their hearts an opinion of his love, while he rebuked them sharply, that they might be sound in the faith.

Ver. 5. Ye are enriched] See here what is the Christian’s riches. And so David reckons of his wealth, #Ps 119:32. He cannot be poor in whom the word of God dwells richly, #Col 3:16, especially if he be free of discourse, able and willing to communicate. A dumb Christian is to be blamed, as well as a dumb minister.

Ver. 6. The testimony of Christ] The gospel, called also the testimony, #Isa 8:20. To the law, and to the testimony.

Ver. 7. So that ye come behind, &c.] Yet were babes and carnal, #1Co 3:2,3, and fell short in many graces. We must distinguish between gifts and graces, and covet these rather than those, #1Co 13:1.

Ver. 8. In the day of our Lord Jesus] Eleven times in these first ten verses (as Chrysostom well observeth) the apostle mentioneth the Lord Jesus Christ, who was to him, and should be to us, mel in ore, melos in aure, iubilum in corde, honey in the mouth, music in the ear, joy in the heart. (Bernard.) The Jews used to cast to the ground the Book of Esther, before they read it, because the name of God is not in it. This is ill done of them. But that is recorded to the commendation of Augustine, that he cast by Cicero’s writings (though otherwise very delightful to him) because he found not in them that mellifluous {a} name of Jesus.

{a} Flowing with honey, honey dropping; sweetened with or as with honey. Now rare. ŒD

Ver. 9. Unto the fellowship] Union being the ground of communion: so that all is in him is for us. I give my goods to the saints, saith David, in the person of Christ.

Ver. 10. That there be no divisions] To break unity in the Church is to cut asunder the very veins and sinews of the mystical body of Christ.

By the name of our Lord] Which is like to suffer by your dissensions, and whereof you ought to be as tender as of treading upon your parents that begat you.

Perfectly joined] Schisms disjoint men; yea, shake them out of their senses, and frighten them out of their wits, #2Th 2:2. {See Trapp on "2Th 2:2"}

Ver. 11. Of the house of Chloe] A godly matron she was no doubt, and a good office herein she did her neighbours: though, likely, she had little thanks for her labour; as likewise Joseph had for bringing his brethren’s evil report to their father, #Ge 37:2.

That there are contentions] These often breed schisms; as did the contention between Luther and Carolostadius; and many of the ancient heresies sprang from private grudges and discontents, in sui solatium, for a sorry comfort to those that broached them.

Ver. 12. And I of Christ] q.d. I care neither for Paul nor Apollo, &c. As some say today, they are neither Papists nor Protestants, but Christians, that is, just nothing, flat atheists. Heraclius the emperor being imprudently carried away by some bishops into the opinion of the Monothelites, when that heresy was afterwards condemned by the Council of Jerusalem, the emperor, being ashamed to recant, became a mere neutralist, and held neither one way nor another. And have we not some like-minded among us, who are yet to choose their religion; resolving to resolve on nothing, because (forsooth) there are so many sects and controversies, and such differences in opinion, and contradictions of preachers, therefore they will suspend, serve God (as they call it), and not trouble themselves to know which side hath the better? But these might know, 1. That truth is but one and the same; Christi tunica est unica, Christ’s coat is seamless, his truth single, and at good agreement with itself. 2. That we have a most sure word, #2Pe 1:19, sure, and sufficient to perfect the man of God; and that Non est litigiosa iuris scientia sed ignorantia, as the lawyers used to say, it is not too much knowledge, but the ignorance of the Scriptures that begets strife. 3. That God’s elect have a promise to be taught of God, to be kept from being finally deceived; to be brought to a certainty and full assurance of what they should hold, so evidently and clearly will God by his Spirit speak to their consciences, that they shall hold fast the faithful word, though they cannot answer every cavil and be unmovable as the centre, as Mount Zion that cannot be stirred. #Mt 24:24 Joh 10:4,5 Job 22:21 1Th 1:5 Joh 7:17 1Jo 2:20 Ps 19:7 Pr 1:4 Isa 52:6 Joh 6:45.

Ver. 13. Baptized in the name] Gr. "Into the name," so as to be called by my name. Those then that will needs be called Franciscans, Lutherans, &c., do after a sort disclaim their baptism, and become renegades from Christ.

Ver. 14. I thank God] He noteth and noticeth herein a sweet providence, beyond all that he then imagined, when he was at Corinth. God is to be seen in every special occurrence.

Ver. 15. Lest any should say] q.d. God hath so disposed of it, that none can with any colour or cause, or show of sense, say such a thing.

Ver. 16. Whether I baptized any] His colleagues belike did it (while he was otherwise busied), with a particular examination and instruction in those principles, #Heb 6:2.

Ver. 17. Not to baptize] As my chief work, {so #Jer 7:22} but to preach and plant Churches, wherein he had a very happy hand; as had likewise Farellus among our late reformers, Qui Mompelgardenses, Aquileienses, Lausanneuses, Genevenses, Novocomenses Ghristo lucrifecit, he gained five cities with their territories to Christ. (Melch. Adam. in Vii. xi.)

Not with wisdom of words] Which yet St Paul could have done as well as another; witness his artificial unstarching of the orator’s speech, #Ac 24:10-21. But he liked not to put the sword of the Spirit into a velvet scabbard, that it could not pierce, to speak floride plus quam solide, as those self-seekers at Corinth did, that sought more to tickle the ear than to affect the heart. It repented Augustine (and well it might) that when he was young he had preached more ut placeret, quam ut doceret, to please than to profit. And Luther was wont to say, he is the best preacher that preacheth vulgiter, trivialiter, maximeque ad populi captum. Not but that there is a lawful use of rhetoric in sermons, so it be free from ostentation. See the Preface to my God’s Love Tokens.

Ver. 18. To them that perish, foolishness] As it is to the Jews to this day, who rail against Christ’s person, calling him the hanged God, the woof and the warp, #Le 13:52, because these two make the figure of the cross. And being asked whether they believe to be saved by Christ’s righteousness, they answer, That every fox must pay his own skin to the flayer. The pagans also jeered at Christ and his people, as did Julian, Lucian, Porphyry, &c.

Ver. 19. For it is written] Thus the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New, while the world’s wizards are dazzled, dulled, and disannulled, αθετησω.

Ver. 20. Where is the wise?] The teacher of traditions; the Jews had a proverb, οι σοφοι ημων δευτερωσι.

Where is the scribe?] Or the textmen, those that proceed according to the literal interpretation.

Where is the disputer?] The teachers of allegories and mysteries, #1Ti 1:4.

Ver. 21. The world by wisdom] Not the Jews by their deep doctors, nor the Gentiles by their wits and wizards ( qui tanquam noctuae ad solem caligabant), could grope out God, #Ac 17:27, ψηλαφησειαν.

By the foolishness of preaching] An ironic concession; so the mad world esteemeth it, who shall rue for ever the contempt of it, crying out, Nos insensati, &c.

Ver. 22. For the Jews require, &c.] The reason of their rejecting the gospel is, they are prepossessed against it; they look for that which it affordeth not. A prejudicate opinion bars up the understanding. Intus existens prohibet alienum, like muddy water in a vessel, that causeth the most precious liquor to run over.

And the Greeks seek after wisdom] Which yet they attained not. For Sapiens est cui res sapiunt prout sunt, saith Bernard, he is a wise man who conceiveth of things as they are; and all the wisdom of man is only in this, that he rightly know and worship God, saith Lactantius. But this these Greeks could never skill of; no, not these Corinthians (till called and sanctified), who yet were famous for their wisdom (Periander, one of the seven wise men, was a Corinthian), and their city be called by the orator (Cicero) lumen Graeciae, the light of Greece. But whereto tended their light but to light them into utter darkness? And what was all their wisdom without Christ, but earthly, sensual, devilish? #Jas 3:15. Earthly, managing the lusts of the eyes unto the ends of gain; sensual, managing the lusts of the flesh unto ends of pleasure; and devilish, managing the pride of life unto ends of power.

Ver. 23. But we preach Christ] We not only preach of him, but we preach him, we give what we preach. It is the special office of the ministry to lay Christ open, to hold up the tapestry, to untold the hidden mysteries of Christ. The Holy Ghost in them taketh of that which is Christ’s, and showeth to men, #Joh 16:15.

Unto the Jews a stumblingblock] These Philistines cannot conceive how out of the eater should come meat, and out of the strong, sweet.

Unto the Greeks] These jeered at Jesus and the resurrection, as at a couple of strange gods, #Ac 17:18. Cato profanely saith, Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem: It is a folly to expect safety by the death of another. The gospel was to the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks a laughing-stock. They both stumbled on the bridge, and so fell into the ditch of destruction.

Ver. 24. Christ the power of God] Opposite to the power of miracles required by the Jews.

And the wisdom of God] Opposite to the Grecian’s worldly wisdom.

Ver. 25. Because the foolishness] The wisest man compared to God, Simia videbitur, non sapiens, said Heraclitus, as Plato relateth it, he will appear to be an ape rather than a wise man. But what meant that malicious fool Genebrard, to call reverend Beza, Theomorus for Theodorus? Was it not of God, so to direct the tongue of this Caiaphas the second, that in Beza and himself might this Scripture be fulfilled, το μωρον του θεου σοφωτερον των ανθρωπων, &c., "The foolishness of God," &c.

Ver. 26. Not many mighty] The eagle and lion were not offered in sacrifice, as the lamb and the dove were. It is hard for great ones to deny themselves. Hence it grew to a proverb in times of Popery, that hell was paved with priests’ shaven crowns and great men’s headpieces. Rasis sacrificulorum verticibus et magnatum galeis. (Jerome.) Indeed if men might pass de deliciis ad delicias, e coeno ad coelum, as Jerome hath it; if they could dance with the devil all day, and sup with Christ at night; if they might live all their lives long in Delilah’s lap, and then go to Abraham’s bosom when they die, they would have a fine time of it. But that cannot be, and hence so many mighties miscarry.

Not many noble] Blessed be God that any; as Galeacius Caracciolus, an Italian marquis, and nephew to Pope Paul V, was converted by Peter Martyr reading upon this First Epistle to the Corinthians; George Prince of Anhalt, a pious preaching prince, converted by Melancthon; Ulysses Martinengus, earl of Baccha, another Italian convert, and some few more that might be instanced. But good nobles are black swans (saith one) and thinly scattered in the firmament of a state, even like stars of the first magnitude. We may say of such, as Luther (in Epist. ad John Agricol.) doth of Elizabeth Queen of Denmark, a pious princess, Scilicet Christus etiam aliquando voluit reginam in caelum vehere. Certainly even Christ ever wished to bear a queen into heaven.

Ver. 27. But God hath chosen] In our Church assemblies the meaner usually, like little fishes, bite more than the greater. The poor are gospelized, #Mt 11:5.

Ver. 28. Things which are not] i.e. That are nought set by, #1Sa 25:10. Thus shall ye say to him that liveth, that is, to him that is rich; for poor men are reputed as dead men. They have but prisoners’ pittances, which will keep them alive, and that is all. Arrian upon Epictetus hath observed, that in a tragedy there is no place for a poor man, but only to dance.

Ver. 29. That no flesh] Proud flesh will soon swell, if it have but anything to fasten on. The devil will also easily blow up such a blab.

Ver. 30. But of him are ye] q.d. Albeit ye have nothing of your own, yet in Christ you have all; for in him is all fulness both repletive and diffusive, both of abundance and of redundance too, both of plenty and of bounty.

Is made unto us wisdom] This notes out Christ’s prophetic office.

Righteousness and sanctification] By his priestly office.

Redemption] By his kingly office, having fully delivered his from sin, death, and hell; all which is not fully done till after death. And that is the reason why redemption is here set last. See #Ro 8:23 Lu 21:28.

Ver. 31. Glory in the Lord] Acquiesce and exult in him, which is the end why God hath done all this for us in Christ.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. Not with excellency] St Paul’s speech was neque lecta, neque neglecta, neither curious nor careless. Politian could say, that it is an ornament to an epistle to be without ornaments. And yet he had so little grace as to prefer Pindar’s Odes before David’s Psalms. Hosius also, the cardinal, thought David’s Psalms unlearned, applying that, Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim. Os durum! We write unlearned teachings and poems everywhere. Harsh speech. The Holy Scriptures have a grave eloquence, but lack those pompous and painted words that carnal rhetoricians hunt after. There is difference between a pedantic style and a majestic. Non Oratorum filii sumus, sed Piscatorum, We are not sons of orators but of Picatus, said that great divine to Libanius the rhetorician, that tickled his hearers with tinkling terms, and delighted to wit-wanton it with lascivious phrases of oratory.

Ver. 2. To know anything] To profess or teach any other skill. All the wisdom of a man is in this one thing, saith Lactantius, Ut Christum cognoscat et colat, that he know and worship Christ. Hoc nostrum dogma, haec sententia est., &c.

Ver. 3. In weakness] In misery, and in a mean condition, labouring with his hands, &c., #Ac 18:3.

And in fear] Of adversaries, or through care of discharging my duty among you.

Ver. 4. With enticing words] Religion is not a matter of parts, words, or wit. The devil cares not for the sons of Sceva’s adjurations. Abana and Pharphar may cleanse, but Jordan only can cure. God’s holy things must be handled, Sancte magis quam scite, with fear and reverence, rather than with wit and dalliance. Let ministers set out the work of God as skilfully and adornedly as they can, but still aim at the winning of souls. Let not the window be so painted as to keep out the light. (The Saint’s Everlast. Rest.) Some frothy discourses are like children’s babies, that when you have taken away the dressing, you have taken away all; or like beautiful pictures, which have much cost bestowed on them to make them comely and desirable to the eye; but life, heat, and motion there is none. O pulchrum caput! sed sensus non inest, Oh beautiful head but no feeling there, said the ape in the fable. Prudentibus viris non placent phalerata, sed fortia, said Bishop Jewel, who ever loved a manlike eloquence, but not that which is effeminate. No more did Reverend Mr Samuel Crook, but ever shunned those more gay and lighter flourishes of a luxuriant wit, wherewith the emptiest cells affect to be most fraught, as they who for lack of wares in their shops set up painted blocks to fill up vacant shelves. (Clark’s Lives; Life of Master Crook, by W. G.)

In demonstration of the spirit] With demonstrations fetched out of the very marrow of the Scriptures. It must be an elaborate speech that shall work upon the conscience. A man must enlighten with his own other men’s understandings, and heat by his own other men’s affections. Si vis me flere, &c. (Horat.) Bonaventure’s words in preaching were non inflantia sed inflammantia, not high-swelling, but inflaming his hearers. (Mr Clark’s Life of Bonav.)

Ver. 5. That your faith, &c.] A human testimony can breed but a human faith. Aaron’s bells were of pure gold; our whole preaching must be Scripture-proof, or it will burn, and none be the better for it. Ut drachmam auri sine imagine principis, sic verba hortantis sine authoritate Dei contemnunt homines, saith Lipsius.

In the power of God] In the gospel that lodgeth a certainty in the soul.

Ver. 6. Wisdom among the perfect] Or those that are grown to maturity. Some think the apostle horroweth this term from the pagans’ superstition, who admitted none to their most secret ceremonies, but only persons well prepared and purified for many years.

Yet not the wisdom, &c.] Which is like the labour of moles, that dig dexterously underground, but are blind above ground, and never open their eyes, saith Pliny, till pangs of death are upon them. Cry we after Christ, as the blind man in the gospel did, who when he was asked, What wouldst thou have? "Lord," saith he, "that mine eyes may be opened." Philosophers observe, that lumen est vehiculum influentiae; light begets the flower in the field, the pearl in the sea, the precious stone in the earth; so the foundation of all renovation is illumination. O cry aloud to the Father of lights, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, #2Co 4:6. This will hold out, when the wisdom of this world and the philosophorum facile principes "come to nought."

That come to nought] That are tumbled into hell with all their learning ( nos cum doctrinis nostris, &c. Aug.), which doth but light them into utter darkness.

Ver. 7. Wisdom of God in a mystery] While God did not divide himself into a merciful Father and a just Judge (as Valerius speaketh of Zaleucus), but declared himself to be both a perfectly merciful Father, and withal a perfectly just Judge; which was such an act of wisdom as the world never heard of. This is that great mystery of godliness, #1Ti 3:16.

Ver. 8. Which none of the princes] He calleth the Pharisees and philosophers princes, for their learning, as being himself a scholar. Only he might well have said of them, as Cicero of others in another case, Mihi quidem nulli satis eruditi videntur, quibus nostra sunt ignota, I cannot take them for scholars that partake not of our learning. (Cicero de Poetis Latinis.)

None of the princes of this world knew] Because their learning hung in their light. So it fared with Ulpian the chief lawyer, Galen the chief physician, Porphyry the chiefest Aristotelian, and Plotinus the chief Platonist, who were professed enemies to Christ and his truth. So were Libanius and Lucian, the chief scholars of their time. None miscarry oftener than men of greatest parts. None are so deep in hell as those that are most knowing. They see no more into the mystery of Christ than illiterate men do into the profound points of astronomy. As a man may look on a trade and never see the mystery of it; or he may look on the letter, and never understand the sense; so here.

For had they known it, &c.] It was ignorance then that crucified Christ, #Ac 3:17. And St Paul thanks his ignorance for his persecuting and blaspheming, #1Ti 1:15 "The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty," #Ps 74:20. And they proceed from evil to evil, because they know not me, saith the Lord, #Jer 9:3. Surely as toads and serpents grow in dark and dirty cellars, so doth all sin and wickedness in an ignorant and blind soul. The Platonist held, that men sin only by ignorance. And Omnis peccans est ignorans, saith Aristotle. In blind ale houses is abundance of disorder, &c.

Ver. 9. Eye hath not seen, &c.] It is reported of one Adrianus, that seeing the martyrs suffer such grievous things, he asked the cause; one of them answered, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him." The naming of which text so wrought upon him that afterward he became a martyr.

The things which God hath prepared] As he prepared Paradise for Adam, so heaven for all his. Yet he reserves not all for the life to come, but gives a few grapes of Canaan in this wilderness. And so this text is to be understood of gospel joy and those present comforts that the saints have here, that praemium ante praemium; for not only after, but in the doing of God’s will there is great reward, #Ps 19:11, such as natural eye hath not seen nor ear heard: the stranger meddleth not with this joy; it is the sparkle of that white stone, it is that new name known to none but those that have it; it is a comfort confined to the communion of saints.

Ver. 10. But God hath revealed] The Chinese use to say of themselves, that all other nations of the world see but with one eye, they only with two. This is most true of the natural man compared to the spiritual.

Ver. 11. Save the Spirit, &c.] Man knows his inward thoughts, purposes, and desires, but the frame and disposition of his own heart he knows not, #Jer 17:9.

Knoweth no man] How can he that cannot tell the form and quintessence of things, that cannot enter into the depths of the flowers, or the grass he treads on, have the wit to enter into the deep things of God, hidden from angels till the discovery, and since that they are students in it?

But the Spirit of God] With this heifer of his, therefore, we must plough, if we will ever understand his riddles.

Ver. 12. Not the spirit of the world] The world lieth down in that unclean one, and is under the power and vassalage of that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, as a smith in his forge, #1Jo 5:19 Eph 2:2. It is wholly "set upon wickedness," as Aaron saith of the people, #Ex 32:22.

That we might know] A sweet mercy; the cormorants of the world will not let their heirs know what they will do for them till they die. But God assures his of heaven beforehand. Thus we have not received of the spirit of this world: we cannot shift and plot as they can; but we have received a better thing, and have no reason to repine.

Ver. 13. But which the Holy Ghost teacheth] So that not the matter only, but words also of Holy Scripture are dictated by the Spirit, and are therefore to be had in higher estimation, #2Pe 1:21.

Comparing] Or co-apting (συγκρινοντες), fitting spiritual words to spiritual matters, that all may savour of the Spirit.

Ver. 14. But the natural man] This mere animal (ψυχικος), that hath no more than a reasonable soul and natural abilities, #Jude 19. Such was that sapless fellow, לבנ #Ps 14:1, that may have a disciplinary knowledge, that is, by hearsay, as a blind man hath of colours, but not an intuitive per speciem propriam, through their very own sight. The water riseth no higher than the spring from whence it came; so natural men can ascend no higher than nature. If the unreasonable creatures could draw a picture of God, said Xenophanes, they would certainly paint him like themselves, quia scilicet nihil animal animali superius cogitare potest, because they can think of nothing above themselves.

Neither can he know them] They that are blear eyed and weak sighted, if at any time they set themselves to see better into a thing, they see the worse (Vives in Aug. de Civ. Dei, xxii. 6), so here; nay more, in our nature there is an antipathy to divine truth. We love the law better than the gospel, and any truth better than the law.

Because they are spiritually] Ambrose reads, Because he is spiritually judged, being delivered up to a reprobate sense. But the other reading is better.

Ver. 15. Judgeth all things] By his spirit of discerning, #1Co 14:2, his spiritual senses exercised to discern good and evil, #Heb 5:14, his undoubted persuasion of that truth he professeth, #Col 2:3, and whereof he hath felt the sweetness, #Col 1:9. Papists will needs have this spiritual man that judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of none, to be the pope. But when this Epistle was written, there was no such thing as a pope; no such doctrine as that the pope is infallible; that he must not be contradicted though he speak blasphemy or heresy; no, though he should draw thousands of souls after him to hell, say the Canonists, those abominable slowbacks. St Paul, who had the mind of Christ, was never of this mind.

Is judged of no man] Of no natural man, who can judge no more of divine truths than a blind man can do of colours, or a sick man of meats. And herein the poorest idiot (saith one), being a sound Christian, goeth beyond the profoundest clerks that are not sanctified, that he hath his own heart instead of a commentary, to help to understand even the most needful points of the Scripture.

Ver. 16. But we have the mind of Christ] This is a privilege confined to the communion of saints, to have communication of Christ’s secrets, to be as it were of his court and council. One saith of Dr Sibbs, that he was a man spiritually rational, and rationally spiritual, one that seemed to see the insides of nature and grace, and the world and heaven, by those perfect anatomies he had made of them all.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. Could not speak unto you] Unless I would beat the air, and lose my sweet words: q.d. You quarrel me for a shallow trivial teacher, when yourselves are in fault, as not yet capable of more mysterious matter. Our Saviour preached (not as he could have preached, but) "as the people were able to hear," #Mr 4:33. So the author to the Hebrews, #1Co 5:11. Some impute not their profiting to the minister, as he in Seneca, that having a thorn in his foot complained of the roughness of the way as the cause of his limping. Or as she in the same author, that being struck with a sudden blindness, bade open the windows, when as it was not lack of light, but lack of sight that troubled her.

As unto carnal, even as unto babes] Or, at least as unto babes, not yet past the spoon, and that must have their meats masticated for them by their nurses.

Ver. 2. I have fed you with milk] Ministers must condescend to their hearers’ capacities, though they be slighted for so doing, as Paul was; or jeered, as Isaiah, #Isa 28:9,10, for his "line upon line, precept upon precept," Kau lekau, and Zau lezau; the sound of the words carries a taunt, as scornful people by the tone of their voice and rhyming words, scorn at such as they despise.

Ver. 3. For ye are yet carnal] It is a shame for Christians to be like other men, as Samson was after he had lost his hair. It ill becomes those excellent ones of the earth, princes in all lands, to contend and quarrel, as those terrigenae fratres earthly brothers used to do. By the laws of England, noblemen have this privilege, that none of them can be bound to the peace; because it is supposed that the peace is always bound to them, and that of their own accord they will be careful to preserve it.

Envying and strife, &c.] These overflowings of the gall and spleen came from a fulness of bad humours.

And walk as men] Christians should be as Saul was, higher than the people by head and shoulders. Something singular is expected from them, #Mt 5:47; they should have their feet where other men’s heads are, #Pr 15:24. When we do evil, we work de nostro et secundum hominem, we do our kind, as the devil when he speaks lies, speaks de suo, of his own, #Joh 8:44.

Ver. 4. For when one saith, &c.] So those that will needs be called Lutherans, Iurantque in verba magistri. They swear in the words of a teacher. Did not Luther play the man, when he and other Dutch divines advised Philip Landgrave of Hesse, a pious prince, to marry a second wife, that is, an adulteress, while his lawful wife was yet alive? And might he not deceive and be deceived in other things as well as in that? (Zanch. Miscel. Epist. Dedicat.)

Are ye not carnal?] Nay, will not the world think ye are mad? as the apostle speaks in a like case, #1Co 14:23. Will they not think worse. See #Joh 17:21,23. If Christians unite not, if they fall out and wrangle, the world will think "thou never sentest me," saith our Saviour.

Ver. 5. But ministers] Not masters, as Magistri nostri Parisienses. (Praefat. in 1 Sentent.) So the Sorbonists will needs be called, contrary to #Jas 3:1. Bacon the Carmelite was called Doctor resolutissimus, most free, because he would endure no May-bes.

Ver. 6. But God gave the increase] The harp yields no sound till it be touched by the hand of the musician. The heart is never made good till the heavens answer the earth, #Ho 2:21, till God strikes the stroke. Holy Melancthon, being newly converted, thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the gospel. But soon after he complained that old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon. No man can run the point aright, except God give wind to his sails; as, if he speak the word, our words shall not be only like Peter’s angle, which took a fish, but like Peter’s net, which enclosed a multitude of fishes.

Ver. 7. So then neither is he, &c.] This made Cyril to conclude his preface to his catechism, with Meum est docere, vestrum auscultare, Dei perficere: I may teach, and you hear, but God must do the deed when all is done. Else we may preach and pray to the wearing of our tongues to the stumps (as Bradford said), and to no more purpose than Bede did when he preached to a heap of stones.

Ver. 8. And he that watereth are one] Why then are not you at one? Should ye not follow your leaders, press their footsteps? Surely you would, did you not more mind party than peace. Maxima pars studiorum, est studium partium; a hateful kind of study.

Shall receive his own reward] Those ambitious doctors that draw disciples after them, hunting after popular applause (that empty blast of stinking breath), shall have that for their reward; let them make them merry with it. When faithful ministers shall shine as stars, #Da 12:3.

Ver. 9. For we are labourers, &c.] Let ministers hence learn their, 1. Dignity; 2. Duty. Fructus honos oneris, Fructus honoris onus. Who would not work hard with such sweet company?

Ver. 10. As a wise master builder] Artificers also have their wisdom, as Aristotle yieldeth. "For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him," #Isa 28:26. As he did Bezaleel and Aholiah.

Ver. 11. Which is Jesus Christ] The doctrine of his person and offices is the foundation of Christian religion, and must therefore be kept pure and entire by all means possible. Arius’s ομοιουσιος, would not be yielded; nor Nestorius’s θεοδοχος, for θεοστοκος. So religious were the old bishops, that they would not alter or exchange a letter or a syllable in these fundamentals. Every particle of truth is precious, and not to be parted with.

Ver. 12. Wood, hay, stubble] Rhetorical strains, philosophical fancies, that tend not to edification. There are those who together with the gold, silver, and ivory of sound and savoury truths, have, as Solomon’s ships had, store of apes and peacocks, conceits and crotchets. Now if he that debases the king’s coin, deserve punishment; what do they that, instead of the tried silver of divine truths, stamp the name and character of God upon Nehushtan, their own base brazen stuff?

Ver. 13. For the day shall declare it] That is, the light of the truth, or time, the father of truth, or the day of death, when many recognize and recant their errors, shall show them their sin.

Ver. 14. If any man’s work abide] Error as glass is bright, but brittle, and cannot endure the hammer or fire, as gold can, which, though rubbed or melted, remains firm and orient.

Ver. 15. He shall suffer loss] Of his work (his laborious loss of time) and of some part of his wages.

Yet so as by fire] Not of purgatory (a Popish fiction), but of the Holy Ghost. Or (as one interprets it) like unto them who save themselves naked out of the fire without carrying away any of their goods; so his person shall be saved, but he shall not have the reward of a well-qualified minister.

Ver. 16. Ye are the temple of God] Not God’s building only, as #1Co 3:9, but his temple. A mud wall may be made up of anything, not so the walls of a temple or palace, that must have other materials.

And that the Spirit of God, &c.] Next to the love of Christ indwelling in our nature, we may wonder at the love of the Holy Ghost, that will dwell in our defiled souls. (Dr Sibbs on #Eph 4:30) Let our care be to wash the pavement of this temple with our tears, to sweep it by repentance, to beautify it with holiness, to perfume it with prayers, to deck it with humility, to hang it with sincerity. Delicata res est Spiritus Dei; A sumptuous person is the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost will dwell in a poor, so it be a pure house. Religion loves to lie clean, as was a grave speech of an ancient saint.

Ver. 17. Which temple ye are] Man is God’s temple; God man’s altar. Demosthenes (contra Aristog.) could say, that man’s heart was God’s best and most stately temple, Iustitia, verecundia, et observantia legum communitum. Justice, respected and heeded, reinforces the law.

Ver. 18. Let no man deceive himself] Bis desipit, qui sibi sapit. Consilii satis est in me mihi, said she in the poet. (Arachne up. Ovid, Metam.) Nothing so easy as to overly ween.

Let him become a fool] Let him come to the well with an empty pitcher, Intus existens prohibet alienum. Agur (if a man may believe him) is more brutish than any man, #Pr 30:2,3. See there how he vilifies, yea, nullifies himself before God. So did blessed Bradford, as appears by the subscriptions of many of his letters.

Ver. 19. He taketh the wise] ο δρασσομενος, those natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, #2Pe 2:12; God takes them and makes fools of them.

In their own craftiness] When they have eviscerated themselves like spiders, tried all conclusions, beaten their brains, searched the devil’s skull for new devices, done all that may be done (as the word πανουργια imports) to effect their designs. Versutia veteratoria. God lets them carry the ball on the foot till they are almost at the goal, go to the utmost of their tether, and then pulls them back with shame enough to their task. Thus he dealt by Sennacherib, Haman, Herod, others.

Ver. 20. Of the wise] Such as excel in natural gifts, that are the choicest and most picked men. The Psalmist saith only of men, #Ps 94:12.

Ver. 21. Let no man glory in men] That is, that they are such a one’s scholars or followers, seeing the Church is not made for them, but they for the Church.

For all things are yours, &c.] Haec est magnae nostrae Chartulae Epitome, saith Sam. Ward. This is an epitome of the Church’s grand grant or charter. A Christian hath interest in, and right to, all these things, 1. Entirely, #Eph 1:23 2:10 Col 3:11. 2. Refinedly, the curse is removed, #Ga 3:13 Pr 10:22. 3. Really, #1Co 7:31 Eph 1:23. 4. Safely, #Pr 1:33 5. Serviceably, #Ro 8:28. 6. Satisfyingly, #Ps 22:26. So that the poor Christian, saith one, is like the usurer, who goes meanly and fares hard, but hath thousands out at use.

Ver. 22. All are yours] Though not in possession, yet in use, or by way of reduction, as we say, the worst things are God’s children, and in reversion those best things above.

Ver. 23. And ye are Christ’s] We hold all we have in capite tenure in Christ. From Christ therefore let us take our denomination. The name of Jesuits savoureth of blasphemous arrogance.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. Let a man so account] Quasi dicat, though we are yours, as #1Co 3:22, devoted to the service of your faith, yet are we not to be slighted, but respected as Christ’s high stewards.

Ministers of Christ] Gr. υπηρετας, "under rowers" to Christ the master pilot, helping forward the ship of the Church toward the haven of heaven.

Stewards of the mysteries] Dispensing all out of God’s goods, and not of our own; setting bread and salt upon the table (that is, preaching Christ crucified) whatever else there is.

Ver. 2. That a man be found faithful] Giving every man his due proportion of fit food, #Mt 24:45, not as he in the emblem, that gave straw to the dog, and a bone to the ass.

Ver. 3. But with me it is, &c.] A good minister reviled, may reply, as once a steward did to his passionate lord, when he called him knave, &c. Your honour may speak as you please, but I believe not a word that you say; for I know myself an honest man. Non curo illos censores, qui vel non intelligendo reprehendunt, vel reprehendendo non intelligunt, saith Augustine. Angustus did but laugh at the satires and buffoonaries which they had published against him. Severus the emperor was careful of what was to be done by him, but careless what was said of him. εμμελης των πρακτεων, αμελης δε των περι αυτου λογοποιουμενων. (Dio.) Do well and bear ill is written upon heaven’s gates, said Mr Bradford the martyr. Thou art a heretic, said Woodroof the sheriff, to Mr Rogers the protomartyr, in Queen Mary’s days. That shall be known, quoth he, at the day of judgment. Some men flatter me, saith Politian, some others slander me, I think neither the better nor the worse of myself for that; no more than I think myself taller or lower for that my shadow is longer in the morning, and shorter at noon. A Spanish Jesuit, saith Beza (Epist. ad Calvin), disputing with us about the Eucharist, called us foxes, apes, serpents, &c. My answer was, that we believed it no more than we believed transubstantiation.

Ver. 4. Yet am I not, &c.] Paul a chosen vessel, but yet an earthen vessel, knew well that he had his cracks and his flaws, which God could easily find out.

Ver. 5. Until the Lord come] Tot argumeuta quot verba, saith Paraeus, every word here hath its weight. There shall be a resurrection one day of names as well as of bodies. Let that stay us when belied or misreported.

And then shall every man have praise of God] His faith (now haply hidden, or not noticed) shall then be "found to praise, honour, and glory," #1Pe 1:7, -praise from the mouth of the Judge, honour in the hearts of saints and angels, glory in the kingdom of heaven after the judgment ended. Christ shall then be not only his compurgator, {a} but his encomiast (eulogizer).

{a} A witness to character who swore along with the person accused, in order to the acquittal of the latter. ŒD

Ver. 6. I have in a figure, &c.] i.e. I have represented and reprehended your partialities under our names, when I brought you in saying, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," &c., #1Co 1:12. For the heads of your factions were your own ambitious doctors, whose names I yet spared, and took the business upon myself and Apollos, for your sakes.

Ver. 7. For who maketh thee] He directeth his speech to those Theologi gloriae, Preachers of praise, as Luther usually calleth such, those vain glorious, self-ascribing pastors at Corinth, that sought to bear away the bell from Paul, and would not stick to answer this demand of his, Quis te discernit? Who makes you to differ? As that insolent Arminian did, Ego meipsum discerno, I make myself to differ. (Greuinchovius.)

And what hast thou, &c.] There are those who would hammer out their own happiness, like the spider, climbing by the thread of her own weaving, with motto accordingly, Mihi soli debeo. I only give to myself.

Why dost thou glory] As great a folly as for the groom to be proud of his master’s horse, the stage player of his borrowed robes, or the mud wall of the sunshine. Of all the good that is in us, we may well say as the young man did of his hatchet, Alas, master, it was but borrowed.

Ver. 8. Now ye are rich] Crescit oratio, saith Piscator here. The apostle riseth in his expressions, and that all along by an ironic reprehension. These Corinthians had riches, and gifts, and learning; and carried aloft by these waxen wings, they domineered and despised others.

Ver. 9. As it were men appointed to death] As when he fought with beasts at Ephesus. The heathens in their public calamities would commonly call out, Christianos ad leones, To the lions with these Christians, as if they had been the cause. (Tertul. Apol. cap. xl.) Ignatius suffered in this sort.

A spectacle to the world] As those that were first led in triumph, and then had back again to the prison, there to be strangled. (Piscator.)

Ver. 10. We are fools, &c.] Not to the world only, but in your account too. For these Corinthians undervalued and depressed Paul under their silly shallow headed verbalists, not worthy to carry his books after him for sound and substantial learning.

Ver. 11. Even to this present] Thus he complaineth, not out of impatience (for he was active in his sufferings), but to stain their pride, that permitted it so to be, when it was in their power to have relieved him.

Ver. 12. And labour, working, &c.] Whereas they might object, Are you hungry, thirsty, naked? It is because you are idle. No, saith he, "we labour, working with our hands" (a shame for you to suffer it), and yet can hardly sweat out a poor living. This one example of Paul is much pleaded in these times by men of perverse minds to dispute God out of his own. One apostle works with his hands, or two, now and then at pleasure; all the rest live upon the Church (for could those fishermen catch fish in the forests, deserts, or streets?), yet one Paul is set against all the rest of the apostles; yea, set together by the ears with himself; anything to save their purses.

Ver. 13. Being defamed, we entreat] Though Luther call me devil, saith Calvin, yet I will honour him as a servant of God.

We are made as the filth of the world] q.d. The filth of filth; for the whole world lies in wickedness, as a foul sloven in a slough, or as a carrion in the slime of it. The word περικαθαρματα signifies, the sweepings of the world, or the dirt scraped off the pavement thereof.

And the offscouring of all things] Detersorium, sordes, purgamenta, reiectamenta. Piaculares et abominabiles, saith Paraeus. The word signifies the dung cart, saith Mr Burroughs, that goes through the city, into which every one brings and casts his filth. Every one had some filth to cast upon Paul and the apostles. Constantine, a citizen of Rhoan, with three others, being for defence of the gospel condemned to be burned, were put into a dung cart, who thereat rejoicing, said that they were reputed here the excrements of the world, but yet their death was a sweet odour unto God. Budaeus is of the opinion that the apostle here alludeth to those expiations in use among the heathen, performed in this manner. Certain condemned persons were brought forth with garlands upon their heads in manner of sacrifices; these they would tumble from some steep places into the sea, offering them up to Neptune with this form of words, περιψημα ημων γενου, "Be thou a propitiation for us." (Bud. Pandec.) So for the removal of the pestilence they sacrificed certain men to their gods: these they called καθαρματα, filth, loading them with revilings and cursings. (Suidas in περιψημι.)

Ver. 14. To shame you] An innocent person sometimes, upon the fulness of an aspersion, may conceive shame, as David did, #Ps 44:15, yet usually shame is the effect of an evil conscience, and may prove, by God’s blessing, a means of repentance, #2Th 3:14.

Ver. 15. Ten thousand instructors] Gr. pedagogues, who often prove orbiliusses, sharp and severe above measure, Verberibus pluunt, colaphis grandinant. So did these Corinthian school masters, #2Co 11:20. They were also too well skilled in the Doric dialect, crying, Give, give; and taught little more than elegant elocution.

I have begotten you through the gospel] For together with the word there goeth forth a regenerating power, #Jas 1:18. The exhortations thereof are operative means of sanctification, and practical; as when God said, "Let there be light," or Christ said, "Lazarus, come forth." The Spirit maketh the seed of the word prolific and generative; and hence ministers are made fathers, as Moses was father to Aaron’s children, #Nu 3:1, who are therefore there called "his generation." And as propriissimum opus viventis est, generare sibi simile, as saith the philosopher, it is the most proper work of every living thing to beget its like; so here.

Ver. 16. Be ye followers of me] As dear children. A bove maiori discit arare minor. From the larger bull the smaller ones are taught to plough, (Ovid.) Constantine’s children resembled their father exactly, they put him wholly on, saith Eusebius, and were, as it were, very he, ολον ενεδυσαντο τον Κονσταντινον.

Ver. 17. For this cause] That ye may be followers of me, and know what I do.

Of my ways which be in Christ] It is of excellent use to know what good men, especially ministers, do, as well as what they say. Ministers’ lives should be a transcript of their sermons, or as so many sermons on the life of Christ.

Ver. 18. Now some are puffed up] Swelling in the body is an ill symptom. So it is in the soul. A swelling wall will shortly fall.

Ver. 19. Not the speech of them which are puffed up] Dicta factis deficientibus, erubescunt. Malo autem miserandum quam erubescendum, saith Tertullian, either add practice, or leave profession for shame.

Ver. 20. The kingdom of God] i.e. The administration of his ordinances and government of the Church.

Ver. 21. With a rod, or in love?] Both; but (as children) we think not so. Sed sinite virgam corripientem, ne sentiatis malleum conterentem, saith one father. (Bern.) Non erudit pater nisi quem amat, nec corripit nisi quem diligit, saith another. (Jerome.)

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. As is not so much as named] To wit, without detestation. The apostle seems to allude to Antiochus Soter, who married his step-mother Stratonice, being first like to die for love of her, as Erasistratus the physician told his father. (Aelian.) Of this incestuous marriage came Antiochus Theos, or Antiochus the god, so called of the Milesians, because he did put down their tyrant Timarehus. This god was poisoned by his wife Laodice.

Among the Gentiles] In Mexico and those parts, whoredom, sodomy, and incest (those Spanish virtues, as one calleth them) are common without reproof; the pope’s pardons being more rife in those parts than in any part of Europe for these abominable filthinesses, whereout he sucketh no small advantage. (Sir Fra. Drake.) Notwithstanding, the Indians abhor this most loathsome living; showing themselves in respect of the Spaniards, as the Scythians did in respect of the Grecians, whom they so far excelled in life and behaviour as they were short of them in learning and knowledge. Who hath not heard of the abhorred incest of the house of Austria? King Philip II could call Archduke Albert both brother, cousin, nephew, and son. (Spec. Europ.) For all this was he to him either by blood or affinity; being uncle to himself, first cousin to his father, husband to his sister, and father to his wife; and all this by papal dispensation. The Papists themselves write with detestation, that in Rome a Jewish maid might not be admitted into the stews of whoredom, unless she would be first baptized. (Espenc. de Continen. iii. 4.)

That one should have his father’s wife] Ethelbald, king of West Saxons, with great infamy marrying his father’s widow Judith, enjoyed his kingdom but two years and a half. (Daniel’s Hist. of Eng.)

Ver. 2. And ye are puffed up] And yet ye are puffed up (so Piscator reads it), viz. with your spiritual gifts, and your brave teachers; whereas you have more cause to be cast down for your other men’s sins now made yours, because unlamented by you. There were great divisions among them at this time; and when this incest occured, the other faction thought they had an advantage against the whole party, and this puffed them up,—Nay, do ye not see what one of them hath done, &c.

And have not rather mourned] That any of you should incur the censure of excommunication; at which time they did anciently fast and lament.

Ver. 3. Have judged already, &c.] q.d. I by mine apostolic authority do excommunicate him. And yet how fiercely doth learned Erastus contend with Calvin and Beza about excommunication, denying the Church any such power. The Jews had their three sorts of excommunication. The heathen also had theirs; among the old Gauls, if any one did not obey the decrees of their Druids or priests, he was forbidden their sacrifices; and therehence shunned by all as a wicked man, he had no benefit of their laws, nor any respect given him, &c.

Ver. 4. With the power of our Lord] Promised, #Mt 18:18-20. This makes it to be a heavy case to be rightly excommunicated. Indeed it may happen that Jonah shall be cast out of the ship, when Ham shall be reserved in the ark. "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake said (for a pretence), Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed," #Isa 66:5. When the sentence of excommunication began with, In nomine Domini, In the name of God, to be read against a certain martyr, he cried out, as well he might, You begin in a wrong name. And another of them, together with his five fellow sufferers, did formally excommunicate their persecutors. It grew to a common proverb, by the abuse of this ordinance in those corrupt times, In nomine Domini incipit omne malum. In the name of God all evel matters start.

Ver. 5. To deliver such an one to Satan] That he may learn not to blaspheme, that is, not to cause others to blaspheme or speak evil of the good way of God, for his flagitious courses.

Ver. 6. Your glorying is not good] It is the height of wickedness to glory in wickedness, as Lamech, #Ge 4:23,24, and Alexander Pheraeus, who consecrated the javelin wherewith he had slain Polyphron. Protagoras boasted that he had spent forty years in corrupting of youth. (Plato.) Mark Antony vomited out a book concerning his own ability to eat and drink much. Joannes a Casa, dean of the pope’s chamber, wrote a poem in commendation of his own beastly sin of sodomy. And Stokesly, Bishop of London in King Henry VIII’s time, lying at point of death, rejoiced, boasting that in his lifetime he had burned fifty heretics, that is, good Christians. (Acts and Mon.)

A little leaven leaveneth, &c.] One spoonful of vinegar will soon sour a great deal of sweet milk; but a great deal of milk will not so soon sweeten one spoonful of vinegar. One sinner may destroy much good, saith Solomon, #Ec 9:18. He may be a common mischief, if tolerated, by spreading the infection of his wickedness, which is more catching than the plague.

Ver. 7. As ye are unleavened] viz. In part sanctified. Every new man is two men. Many a one that is merry in company hath a shrew at home; so have the best their inward troubles. The comfort is, that God overlooks our involuntary infirmities, and accounts us unleavened, when yet there is much still to be purged out. The leper, when his leprosy began but to heal, was pronounced clean, because then he went on still to heal, and his leprosy to shale off.

Ver. 8. Let us keep the feast] The benefits we receive by Christ should crown the calendar of our lives with continual festivals; yea, make us everlastingly merry at our convivium iuge everflowing feast of a good conscience. Diogenes could say, that a good man keeps every day a holy day. (Plut.) And the Jews were bound to rejoice at all their feasts. "Eat therefore thy meat with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness, since God now accepteth thy works," #Ec 9:7.

Ver. 9. Not to company with fornicators] Dion Chrysostom saith, that Corinth was the most luxurious and lascivious city in the world, πολιν επαφροδιτατην. Strabo saith, that Venus had a most stately temple there, that was kept by more than a thousand beautiful courtesans. Another saith, that it was the brothel house of Greece, and a most filthy market town of abominable lusts. (Molin.) Cicero indeed calleth it lumen Groeciae, the light or eye of Greece. It might be so in some respects. But surely this sin was no small snuff in this light, but a blemish in this eye.

Ver. 10. Yet not altogether, &c.] Here he lets them know that in that former epistle (not extant now) he meant not that they should wholly sever themselves from those wicked that are yet without the Church (for that they cannot do), but from profligate professors, discinct Christians, that they may be ashamed.

Ver. 11. Not to keep company] Gr. συναναμιγνυσθαι, not to be mingled with them. The rivers of Peru, after they have run into the main sea, yea, some write twenty or thirty miles, they keep themselves unmixed with the salt water; so that a very great way within the sea men may take up as fresh water as if they were near the land. So at Belgrade in Hungary, where the Danube and Sara (two great rivers) meet, their waters mingle no more than water and oil, &c. We must so converse with the wicked, as that we commingle not by holding any needless society with such, no, not with him that is called a brother, but belies his profession. Yet still must we perform to such, though excommunicated, offices of charity, natural and civil duties, as those of parents toward their children, of children toward their parents, and the like. But come not near such stinking stuff, except ye have the wind of it.

Ver. 12. Them also that are without] These come not under the verge of Church censures, #Re 22:15.

Ver. 13. Therefore put away] Gr. εξαρειτε, Ye will put away, q.d. I hope ye will, though hitherto ye have not. Soft words and hard arguments do soonest prevail, especially when we reprove or admonish not in our own, but in God’s words, as here the apostle doth out of #De 13:1-5. Some warmth must be in a reproof, but it must not be scalding hot. Aegros, quos potus fortis non curavit, ad salutem pristinam aqua tepens revocavit, saith Gregory. They that could not be cured with strong potions, have been recovered with warm water. Gentle showers, and dews that distil leisurely, do comfort the earth, when dashing storms drown the seed.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. Go to law before the unjust] All unbelievers are, 1. Void of Christ’s righteousness imputed; 2. Of true civil righteousness, as being self-seekers in all. 3. They oppress the saints, and draw them before the judgment seats, #Jas 2:6, where they are so ill dealt with oftentimes, that they come to be of Themistocles’ mind, who professed, that if two ways were showed him, one to hell, and the other to the bar, he would choose that which went to hell, and forsake the other.

And not before the saints] Christians first brought their causes before the bishops to be judged. And hence grew their power (as Paraeus noteth), which the Christian emperors first would not, and afterwards could not, take away from them. This raised papacy and prelacy to such a height, they would be princes as well as bishops.

Ver. 2. Shall judge the world] That is, the wicked, called the inhabitants of the earth, and of the sea, #Re 12:12, in opposition to the burgesses of the New Jerusalem, #Php 3:20. And let this comfort us under the perverse censures of worldly men, mad and beside themselves in point of salvation. The Lord seeth that their day is coming, #Ps 37:13.

Ver. 3. Things that pertain to this, &c.] That serve to and satisfy the body only, being nec vera, nec vestra, #Lu 16:11,12.

Ver. 4. If then ye have judgments] As the Corinthians, being many of them merchants, had many lawsuits. But if men’s hearts were not bigger than their suits, there would not be half so many.

Who are least esteemed] Rather than go to law before heathen judges. The lowest, if of any judgment, are high enough for such a purpose. Why should those sordida poscinummia, qui latrocinia intra moenia exercent, as Columella hath it, those Crumenimulgae, the unconscionable lawyers, make a spoil of us; and then when they die, build hospitals for fools, as one of them did, saying, Of fools I got my estate, and to fools I will leave it. Of those that go to law, we may well say, as Charondas once did of those that go to sea, Se non mirari qui semel mare ingressus sit, sed qui iterum, that he marvelled not at those that went once, but at those that would go again.

Ver. 5. No, not one that shall be able] Our late judge Dier, if there came any controversies of poor men to be tried before him, would usually say, that either the parties are wilful, or their neighbours uncharitable, because their suits were not quietly ended at home. (The Practice of Quietness.)

Ver. 6. But brother goeth to law] Once it was counted ominous to commence actions, and follow suits. Of common barreters, we may say as the historian doth of mathematicians, Genus hominum quod in nostra repub. et vetabitur semper, et retinebitur. (Tacit.)

But brother] Still Satan is thus busy, and Christians are thus malicious; that, as if they wanted enemies, they fly in one another’s faces, as did Epiphanius and Chrysostom, Luther and Zuinglius, Hooper and Ridley, Taylor and Lambert, those English exiles at Frankfort in Queen Mary’s days, and Knox, &c.

Ver. 7. There is utterly a fault] Gr. ηττημα, a disgrace, a loss of victory: q.d. By your litigious lawing one another, you betray a great deal of weakness and impotency of affection. These be ignoble quarrels, Ubi et vincere inglorium est, et atteri sordidum. {See Trapp on "Ro 12:21"}

Because ye go to law] Lightly for every small offence (which if Mahometans do, they are publicly punished), and with spiteful vindictive spirits; whereas in going to law, men should not be transported with hate or heat, but as tilters break their spears on each other’s breasts, yet without wrath or intention of hurt, so, &c. The French are said to be very litigious, and full of lawsuits.

Ver. 8. Nay, you do wrong] In person and name.

And defraud] Of goods and estate.

And that your brethren] Which very name should charm and allay all discords, as between Abraham and Lot, #Ge 13:8. Aristotle could say, It is better to suffer wrong than to do it. And, I know how to bear injuries, Εγω μεν επισταμαι αδικεισθαι, said Chilo to his brother, who took it ill that he was not chosen to be one of the judges.

Ver. 9. Shall not inherit] It is an undefiled inheritance, #1Pe 1:4; no dirty dog ever trampled on that golden pavement, #Re 22:15. Heaven spewed out the angels; shall it lick up the unrighteous? The serpent could screw himself into Paradise, but no wicked could ever get into heaven. There is no happiness to be had without holiness. Let none think to break God’s chain, as Balaam, #Nu 23:10.

Ver. 10. Nor thieves, nor covetous] These two be fitly set together, as near akin; so are drunkards and railers.

Nor extortioners] Whose sin is properly immoderate getting, as that of the covetous consists in pinching and saving. So #1Ti 3:3.

Ver. 11. Such were some of you] Oh, the infinite goodness of God, that would once look upon such walking dunghills, such monstrous miscreants!

But ye are washed] In general; as in particular, 1. Ye are sanctified And that by the Spirit of our God. 2. Ye are justified And that in the name, or by the righteousness, of our Lord Jesus Christ. His blood cleanseth us from sins, both guiltiness and filthiness. It is like to those sovereign mundifying waters, which so wash off the corruption of the ulcer, that they cool the heat and stay the spread of the infection, and by degrees heal the same. {See Trapp on "Ro 11:26"} {See Trapp on "Re 19:8"} God never pays our debts, but he gives us a stock of grace.

Ver. 12. All things are lawful] viz. All indifferent things, among which the Corinthians reckoned not only meats and drinks, but also fornication (their national sin). The devil perhaps had persuaded them, as he hath done the Turks to this day, that God did not give men such appetites to have them frustrate, but enjoyed, as made for the gust (appetite) of man, not for his torment, wherein his Creator delights not. Now the apostle grants, that for meats all things are lawful (yet in case of offence or intemperance, they may become inexpedient, and so unlawful). But for fornication, it was utterly unlawful, as he proves by many powerful arguments.

But I would not be brought] As those swinish surfeiters, that wearing their brains in their bellies (with the ass fish), their guts in their heads, do dig their graves with their own teeth; being like the mule, which cannot travel, they say, without a bottle of hay hanging at his nose.

Ver. 13. God shall destroy] The belly shall be destroyed in the other world, not for the substance of it, but for the use of it. And the same may be said for the difference of sexes; the parts shall remain, the use cease. Cato said well, that he was an ill commonwealth’s man, qui inter guttur et inguen, cuncta sub ventris ditione posuisset, who between his neck and is privates he would be able to be under spread of his belly, that was a slave to his sensual appetite.

Ver. 14. And will also raise us up] He will make our vile bodies to be like unto his glorious body, the standard. Shall we then defile them with the kitchen stuff of uncleanness?

Ver. 15. Shall I then take] Scipio, when a harlot was offered him, said, Vellem, si non essem imperator, I would, if I were not a general. Say thou, if I were not a Christian.

And make them the members of a harlot] A saint cannot indeed be made the member of a harlot (saith a reverend man), because not κολλωμενος, glued or knit to any sin. Though a member of Christ and sin may fall one upon another, and touch each other; yet they are of a mouldering nature, and will not cleave together. Water and oil violently shaken together may seem to mingle, but will not continue so long; there is no coalition, because they are of diverse natures; the one remaineth water still, and the other oil.

Ver. 16. Is one body] By a most strict but vicious and infamous bond (saith an interpreter), which is sufficient to untie or break any other bond, though lawful and holy, either corporal or spiritual.

Ver. 17. Is one spirit] That is, one spiritual body: while Christ lays hold on us by his Spirit, we lay hold on him by faith. Hence the Church is called Christ, #1Co 12:12, and the fulness of Christ, #Eph 1:23. We have the honour of making Christ perfect, as the members do the body.

Ver. 18. Flee fornication] φευγετε. With post haste flee it.

“ Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet.”

Be not of those men that are called Borboritae of their miry filthiness, whom Epiphanius and Oecumenius speak of.

Ver. 19. That your body is the temple] Shall we make the temple of God the stews of Satan See #1Co 3:16. Antiochus and Pompey never prospered after that they defiled the temple.

Ver. 20. Ye are bought] Shall I drink the blood of these men? saith David. So, shall I abuse my body, the price of Christ’s blood, abandon it to venery? &c.

Glorify God in your body] The very Manichees that denied God to be the author of the body, fasted on sabbath days, and in fasting exercised a humiliation of the body. Pone in pectore dextram. (Pers.) Let God have heart and hand, mind and mouth, faith and feet, spirit, soul, and body, #1Th 5:23, all which are his by a manifold right.

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. Whereof ye wrote unto me] Certain cases of conscience they had propounded, which here he answers. This he could do excellently, and so could Luther, as having had experience, and been much beaten and exercised with spiritual conflicts. Conscience is a diamond, and will be wrought on by nothing but dust of diamond, such as contrition hath ground it to.

It is good for a man] Now since the fall, it is good, i.e. convenient for the many troubles of the married state. It is not evil to marry, but good to be wary, else coniugium may prove coniurgium, marriage a mar-age.

Ver. 2. To avoid fornication] Gr. πορνειας, fornications, comprehending all lustful burnings, self-pollutions, and all other impurities of a single life. How many are there that enter into God’s ordinance (marriage) through the devil’s portal (fornication), that take such liberty before, that after marriage they rue it all the days of their lives.

Let every man have his own wife] Not many wives. Turks may have as many as they can keep. And some sensualists plead now for polygamy. See #Mal 2:15. Scotorum natio uxores proprias non habet, saith Jerome of the old Scots. And too many among us are sick of a pleurisy. {a}

{a} Inflammation of the pleura, with or without effusion of fluid (serum, pus, blood, etc.) into the pleural cavity; a disease characterized by pain in the chest or side, with fever, loss of appetite, etc.; usually caused by chill, or occurring as a complication of other diseases (scarlatina, rheumatic fever, phthisis, etc.). ŒD

Ver. 3. Let the husband, &c.] Let them be chaste between themselves, and beware both of excess and defect. Chastity is a man’s honour, #1Th 4:5. And modesty is the best preserver of nuptial chastity. Marriage as well as meats must be sanctified by the word and prayer. God must be sent for to bless this physic to the soul. Raging lust is a great enemy to conjugal love.

Ver. 4. The wife hath no power, &c.] The husband’s body is servant to the wife, and the wife’s to the husband: they have passed themselves one to another by mutual covenant, and God keeps the bonds, #Pr 2:17 Mal 2:14.

Ver. 5. To fasting and prayer] Preces nobis ieiuniis alendum et quasi saginandum. Fasting days are soul fatting days: prayer is edged and winged thereby.

That Satan tempt you not] The temptation is strong to fornication, stronger to adultery. Watch therefore. Our nature is catching this way; and once in, it is not so easy to come off. This is a searing sin, #Ho 4:11 Eph 4:19.

Ver. 6. And not of commandment] Among the Jews marriage was not held a thing indifferent, or at their own liberty to choose or refuse, but a binding command. (Targum on #Ge 1:28) Hereto Paul seems in this verse to allude. In this day every Jew is bound to marry about 18 years of age, or before 20; else he is accounted as one that liveth in sin.

Ver. 7. For I would that all, &c.] He had a peculiar gift, that he was so eminently chaste; such as might be in reprobates. So Moses’ meekness was partly from his natural temper. And Luther’s not being tempted to covetousness was much helped by the freeness and generousness of his spirit.

Ver. 8. I say therefore to the unmarried] Yet doth not the apostle simply prefer virginity on viduity before marriage as better. The Saturnalian heretics said that marriage was of the devil. And the blemish will never be wiped off some of the ancient fathers, who, to establish their own idol of I know not what virginity, which they themselves had not, have written most wickedly and basely of marriage. If the same God had not been the author of virginity and marriage, he had never countenanced virginity by marriage, as he did in the blessed Virgin.

Ver. 9. Let them marry] There is no lust so hot and violent, but God’s medicines rightly applied will cool and heal. Only remember that it is not the having, but the loving of a wife that keepeth a man chaste and clean. And that God doth use to correct excess and dalliance between married couples, with strong temptations after strange flesh.

Better to marry than burn] As an oven heated by the baker, #Ho 7:4. As those pagans were scalded, #Ro 1:27, and these papagans {a} still are, that are forbidden to marry, and yet cannot contain.

{a} Papist, Popish (with allusion to pagan). ŒD

Ver. 10. Yet not I] By prudential advice only.

But the Lord] Not in so many words, but by just consequence drawn from #Mt 19:6.

Ver. 11. Or let her be reconciled] Ut quae mode pugnarant iungant sua rostra columbae. (Ovid.) Why should married couples be as glass, that being once broken can never be pieced again? The Lord hates putting away, #Mal 2:16.

Ver. 12. Let him not put her away] For to the pure all things are pure. Uxoris vitium aut tollendum, aut tolerandum est, saith Varro in Gellius. Mend a bad wife, if thou canst; bear with her, if thou canst not.

Ver. 13. If he be pleased, &c.] If he blaspheme not Christ, force her not to deny the faith, &c., as that king of Denmark that would have compelled his wife to go to mass, who was therefore forced to flee for her life to her brother the elector of Brandenburg (as Luther relateth,) where she died Christianly.

Ver. 14. But now they are holy] With a federal holiness, and are therefore to be baptized, as being partakers of the covenant of grace. The Habassines (a kind of mongrel Christians in Africa) have an odd conceit, that the souls of infants departing before baptism, are saved by virtue of the eucharist received by the mother after conception, which sanctifieth the child in the womb. Anabaptists play the devil’s part (saith a late writer) in accusing their own children, and disputing them out of the Church and covenant of Christ; affirming them to be no disciples, no servants of God, not holy, as separated to him, when God saith the contrary, #Le 25:41,42 De 29:10-15 Ac 15:10, and here.

Ver. 15. But God hath called us to peace] To domestic peace, which they that lack, Plus quam dimidiae beatitudinis suae parte privati sunt, saith Aristotle; They have lost the greater half of the happiness of their lives. This was verified in Phoroneus the lawgiver, and Sulla the Roman general. (Bruson.)

Ver. 16. Whether thou shalt save] And to have any hand in saving a soul is the highest honour.

Ver. 17. But God hath distributed] In case you should not save your yoke fellow, yet keep your station, be content with your condition, and adorn it, #1Pe 3:1,2. It is the duty of a Christian (said Luther) to believe things invisible, to hope for things deferred, and to love God when he shows himself contrary to us.

Ver. 18. Let him not become uncircumcised] Some Jews, for fear of Antiochus, made themselves uncircumcised, #/RAPC 1Ma 1:15. Others for shame after they were gained to the knowledge of Christ, as here. This was done by drawing up the foreskin with a sergeon’s instrument. And of this wicked invention Esau is said to be the first author and practiser. (Godw. Antiq. Hebr.)

Ver. 19. But the keeping of the commandment] This is that bonum hominis, good of man, #Mic 6:8, that totum hominis, the whole of man, #Ec 12:13, that one thing necessary, that is better than sacrifice, #1Sa 15:22. Mallem obedire, quam miracula facere, saith Luther; I had rather obey than be able to do miracles.

Ver. 20. Abide in the same calling] And therein learn to "maintain good works," or to be their craftsmen, to excel in their profession, honestis functionibus praeesse, as some render the apostle there, #Tit 3:8,14. Αιεν αριστευειν και υπειροχον εμμεναι αλλων. These things are good and profitable unto men.

Ver. 21. Use it rather] Liberty is that we lost by sin, and affect by nature. Servus est nomen officii. A servant is not αυτοματος, one that moveth absolutely of himself, he is the master’s instrument, and ολως εκεινου, wholly his, saith Aristotle. Oh that we could be God’s servants in that sort!

Ver. 22. For he that is called] See a parallel place to this, #Jas 1:9,10. Our preferment in Christ should make us hold up our heads, but not too high, And be cheerful, but not also scornful. Laeti simus in Domino, sed caveamus a recidivo. Bern.

Ver. 23. Ye are bought with a price] The redeemed among the Romans were to addict themselves to the service of their redeemers, and to observe them as their parents all days of their lives.

Be not ye the servants of men] When they command you things forbidden by Christ, or when they would tyrannize over your consciences, as the Jesuits, that require blind obedience. Cardinal Tolet saith, The people may merit at God’s hand in believing a heresy, if their teacher propound it; for their obedience is meritorious. (Cases of Conscience.) If a priest teach it (saith Stapleton), be it true, be it false, take it as God’s oracle. If the Church should approve and authorize Arianism or Pelagianism, saith Erasmus (Epist. ad Firkeimer), I would do so too. But so would no wise man.

Ver. 24. Let every man wherein, &c.] This is the same with #1Co 7:20. The apostle inculcateth it, as we not only anoint our benumbed limbs with ointments, but also rub and chafe them in.

Ver. 25. I give my judgment] The Rhemists (after Erasmus) render it counsel, and thereupon ground a distinction between Divine commands and counsels. But the word γνωμην betokens viri boni rectum et verum iudicium, saith Magirus, the right and sound judgment of some good man. (In Arist. Ethic.) And surely if the apostle had no express command from Christ, neither had he any counsel from him concerning this business.

Ver. 26. I suppose therefore] This is his judgment, his vote or verdict: the first part thereof we have here; the second, #1Co 7:28; the third, #1Co 7:35.

Ver. 27. Art thou bound to a wife?] A manifest metaphor from oxen. Hence we call them yoke fellows:

“ Quam male inaequales veniunt ad aratra iuvenci;

Tam premitur magno, &c.” (Ovid. Epist.)

Dare not to yoke thyself with any untamed heifer that bears not Christ’s yoke.

Ver. 28. Thou hast not sinned] If any man call lawful marriage a sinful defilement, he hath the apostate dragon dwelling in him, saith Ignatius. (Epist. ad Philadelph.) And yet the Papists teach that it is a far greater sin for a priest to have a wife than to keep many harlots.

Such shall have trouble in the flesh] Mark that he saith, "in the flesh"; the delights of wedlock will be alloyed with troubles, to avoid surfeit. Before marriage people promise themselves much happiness in that estate, and think they could live together with all delight; but after, they see they are deceived, and therefore need to go to school to learn how to behave themselves one toward another.

But I spare you] q.d. No more of that; and yet I’ll show you a way how you may escape, or at least mitigate those troubles in the flesh. Thus this First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, though in weight of argument it be far inferior to the preceding Epistle to the Romans, yet in variety of things it ought to be judged equal, and in order of time before the other. Thesaurus sane est, imo vere mundus rerum cognitu dignissimature, as Erasmus saith of Pliny’s Natural History: surely it is a treasure, yea, a very world of things, most worthy to be understood.

Ver. 29. This then I say, brethren] The best counsel I can give you, is, that you hang loose to all these outward comforts, as having yourselves but a while to be here. You have a long task, and but a little time. God hath hanged the heaviest weights upon the weakest wires; for upon this moment depends eternity. Castigemus igitur mores et moras nostras. Up, therefore, and be doing.

The time is short] Gr. συνεσταλμενος, contracted and rolled up, as sails used to be by the mariners, when the ship draws nigh to the harbour. Others say, it is a metaphor from a piece of cloth rolled up, only a little left at the end. So hath God rolled up all his works, only he hath left a little at the end, and then all his glory shall appear. The time is short, saith the apostle, and you have business enough another way; therefore let other things (as wiving and buying, &c.) pass, and mind the main. There is water little enough to run in the right channel, therefore let none run beside. Some that have lain dying would have given a world for time: as I have heard (saith a reverend man) one crying day and night, Call time again. And I also have known the like of a great lady of this land. Let us therefore use all speed and diligence, lest (so as children have usually torn their books) we have ended our lives before we have learned our lessons; or (as Themistocles) we begin but to be wise when we come to die.

They that have wives, &c.] Not be uxorious, since they know not how soon God may take from them, as he did from Ezekiel, the delight of their eyes, their dearest spouses. The Jews of this day have a custom, when a couple are married, to break the glass wherein the bridegroom and bride drank; thereby to admonish them of their dying condition, and that there must be a parting again ere long. (Sphinx. Philos.)

Ver. 30. And they that weep] viz. In the loss of wife or children: let them moderate their grief, as Abraham did in the loss of Sarah, #Ge 23:2 "He came to weep for her"; where the Hebrew hath one little letter extraordinary, {Hebrew Text Note} to note, that Abraham wept but a little for her; and this, not because she was old and overly worn (as the Rabbins give the reason), but because he had hope of a happy resurrection, #1Th 4:14, and because she was his still, though dead; therefore he so often in that chapter calleth her "my dead," #1Co 7:4,11,13,15.

And they that rejoice] In the marrying of wives, or birth of children. The marriage day is called the day of "the rejoicing of a man’s heart," #So 3:11: and when should men be merry rather than at the recovering of the lost rib? But he was to blame that said, he had married a wife, and therefore he could not come. And he was a wiser man that said, Uxori nubere nolo meae, (Martial.)

As if they possessed not] Mind earthly things we must, as if we minded them not: as a man may hear a tale, and have his mind elsewhere; or as a man that baits at an inn, his mind is somewhere else. A right believer (saith Mr Ward) goes through the world as a man whose mind is in a deep study; or as one that hath special haste of some weighty business. Rebus non me trado, sed commodo, saith Seneca. Be not wholly dulled or drowned in the world; look at it out of the eyes’ end only, lest, as the serpent Scytale, it bewitch us with its beautiful colours, and sting us to death.

Ver. 31. As not abusing it] Not shooting our affections overly far into it. David was as a weaned child, Paul as a crucified man. If Job’s heart had not been weaned from the world, when as yet he wallowed in worldly wealth, he could not have borne so bravely the ruin of so rich a state without repining. The devil hath no way to entangle us, but to say, as he did to Christ, Mitte te deorsum, Cast thyself down, pitch upon the bait, eat and devour hook and all. We have no safer way to escape him, than by minding the main, and looking upon all things here below as by-businesses. The Fathers make this observation here; that the joys of this world are but quasi, as if they were joys, not joys indeed, but shadows or figures, as #Isa 29:8, like the commotions of the affections in a dream.

For the fashion of this world] The word σχημα signifies a mathematical figure, which is a mere notion, and nothing in substance. So #Ps 39:6 "Surely every man walketh in a vain shadow," he leadeth an imaginary life, rather than a life itself. The pomp of this world is but a fantasy, #Ac 25:23. (See the note there.) The glory of it, an opinion. The word here used intimateth that there is nothing of any firmness or solid consistency in the creature. It is but a surface, outside, empty promise; all the beauty of it is but skin-deep. The word here used signifies, say some, such a fashion as is in a comedy or stageplay, where all things are but for a while, to please the eye.

Passeth away] Temporals are as transitory as a hasty headlong torrent. The posting sun of all worldly pleasure, after a short gleam of vain glistering, sets in the ocean of endless sorrow. In the pope’s enthronization, before he is set in his chair, and puts on his triple crown, a piece of tow or wad of straw is set on fire before him, and one appointed to say, Sic transit gloria mundi, The glory of this world is but a blaze. It is indeed an ignis fatuus, a walking fire that leadeth men into brakes and ditches. And so some render this text. The fashion or hue of this world deceiveth, misleadeth, carrieth men another way, out of their way, παραγει. Fallit, transversum agit. (Bud.) For of the world we may say as Plutarch saith of Herodotus, Both the words and shows of it are full of fraud. Δολερα μεν τα σχηματα, δολερα δε τα ρηματα. Nec tantum fallacia sunt quia dubia (saith Lactantius), sed et insidiosa, quia dulcia.

Ver. 32. Without carefulness] That unavoidably attendeth the marriage state, #Ge 30:30 1Ti 5:8.

Ver. 33. Careth how he may please] He taketh extraordinary care to please, and so doth she, #1Co 7:34. The word μεριμνα implies a dividing of the mind into various thoughts, casting this way and that way, and every way, how to give best content. That is a happy study.

Ver. 34. Careth for the things] Expeditius vacat.

Holy both in body and spirit] For contemplative wickedness and mental uncleanness also greatly displeaseth God. Incesta est, et sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit, saith Seneca (In Declam.); and, Quae quia non licuit non facit, illa facit, saith Ovid. The very desire to do evil is to do evil. The Romans punished one of their Vestal Virgins for uttering this verse only:

“ Faelices nuptae! moriar ni nubere dulce est.

Oh! ‘tis a brave thing to be married.”

How she may please her husband] As Sarah did Abraham, calling him lord; as Rebecca did Isaac, by providing him the meat that he loved; as Livia did Augustus, by observing his disposition, and drawing evenly with him, being a piece so just cut for him, as answered him rightly in every joint.

Ver. 35. That you may attend, &c.] Gr. ευπροσεδρον. That you may sit close to him, as Mary did, #Lu 10:40, while Martha was distracted about much service. Let every man bend himself to banish and beat away distractions,

“ Nam neque chorda sonum reddit, quem vult manus et mens

Poscentique gravem persaepe remittit acutum.”

Hor. de Art. Poet.

Ver. 36. If she pass the flower] Childhood is counted the flower of age: so long the apostle would have marriage forborne. While the flower of the plant sprouteth, the seed is green, unfit to be sown.

Ver. 37. And hath so decreed] Reserving still a liberty of doing otherwise, if need require: which Popish votaries do not.

Ver. 38. Doth better] 1. For the better waiting upon God’s work without distraction. 2. For the better bearing of persecution.

Ver. 39. She is at liberty] The Montanists therefore (and with them Tertullian in his old age) were in an error that condemned second marriage, and said it was no better than fornication. Secundas nuptias pro fornicationibus habent. (Aug) Howbeit that of Jerome is not to be disliked. Think daily of death; and that will be enough to forbid the banns of second marriage.

Ver. 40. But she is happier] i.e. She shall live more at ease, and have less to care for. And we should contract our cares into as narrow a compass as we can, in hard times especially.

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. Now as touching things] Another case that they had propounded to him in their letter, #1Co 7:1.

We know] So all pretend. Sed nummos habuerunt Athenienses ad numerandum, et scientiam ad sciendum.

That we all have knowledge] But that is not sufficient, unless we have love too. There be many things concur to the making up of a good work, a lawful action.

Knowledge puffeth up] A metaphor from a pair of bellows, blown up and filled with wind. The French fitly call fools Fols, a follibus, qui nihil continent nisi aerem, from bellows which contains nothing unless filled with air. Such are all proud fools.

Knowledge puffeth up] Swelling us above measure, unless humility, laid on as a weight, keep us down, and charity regulate our knowledge for the good of others. Knowledge without love is as rain in the middle region. But how foolish were they of whom Austin maketh mention, that neglected the means of knowledge, because knowledge puffeth up, and so would be ignorant, that they might be humble, and lack knowledge, that they might lack pride. This was to be like Democritus, who plucked out his eyes, to avoid the danger of uncleanness. Or that silly friar, to whom Sir Thomas Moore wrote this distich;

“ Tu bene cavisti, ne te ulla occidere possit

Littera: nam nota est littera nulla tibi.”

Thou takest good care the letter kill thee not:

Thy skill is such, thou knowest not B from Bot.

Ver. 2. If any man think] This is one thing I know, that I know nothing, said Socrates. Neither know I this yet, that I know nothing, saith another. Though I know myself ignorant of many things (saith a third), yet I dare boldly profess with Origen, Ignorantiam meam non ignore, I am not ignorant that I am ignorant. The greatest part of our knowledge is but the least part of our ignorance. And yet how apt are we to think we know all that is knowable: as in Alcibiades’ army all would be leaders, none learners. Epicurus said, that he was the first man that ever discovered truth, and yet in many things he was more blind than a beetle. (Aug. de Civ. Dei, 16.) Aratus the astrologer vaunted, that he had counted the stars and written of them all. Hoc ego primus vidi, I first saw this, said Zabarel. And Laurentius Valla boasted, that there was no logic worthy to be read but this, which therefore he called, Logicam Laurentinam. Joseph Scaliger is for his human learning called by one Daemonium et miraculum hominis naturae, a matchless man. But surely it had been happy for him to have been ignorant of this one thing, that he knew so much. He might, by his skill in languages, have much advanced the literary republic, had he not so much admired himself, and more seriously affected to seem witty than ponderous. Wine is good, when it goes to the heart to cheer it; but when it fumes all up into the head, it maketh it giddy: so doth knowledge. Nestorius the heretic bragged that he alone understood the Scriptures; and that, till his time, all the world was benighted. He afterwards fell into horrid blasphemy, and died in banishment.

Ver. 3. But if any man love God] And his neighbour for God’s sake; his friends in God, his foes for God.

The same is known of him] That is, knows him savingly, #Ga 4:9, is taught of God, #1Th 4:9, who only gives true wisdom, #Jas 1:5.

Ver. 4. Is nothing in the world] A mere fiction it is, that the idol representeth a brat of man’s brain. We may well say of it, as one doth of Scaliger’s doctrine De emendatione temporum, Concerning the correction of times, that it is in a manner wholly fictitious, and founded upon the confines of nothing. Nothing the idol is, in respect of the divinity ascribed unto it, as the foIlowing words show. Or nothing, that is, of no virtue or value. "Shall I bow down to yonder jackanapes?" {a} said that martyr (Julius Palmer), pointing to the rood (crucifix) in Paul’s.

None other God but one] This the wiser heathen also acknowledged, and for opposing the multitude of gods Socrates suffered. Cicero in his books of the Nature of the Gods, takes pains to show the vanity of heathen deities. And after all, wisheth that he were as well able to find out the true God as to discover the false.

{a} Applied contemptuously to a crucifix. Obs. OED

Ver. 5. That are called gods] Hesiod reckons up 30,000 of them that were in his time, Τρις γαρ μυριοι εισιν επι χθονι πουλυβοτειρη αθανατοι. What an army may we think there were of them in later ages!

As there be gods many] The serpent’s grammar first taught Deum pluraliter declinare, "Ye shall be as gods," #Ge 3:5, saith Damianus.

And lords many] Demi gods, heroes, whose images were worshipped. Ninus was the first that made an image for his father Belus, and all that came to see it were pardoned for all their offences; whence in time that image came to be worshipped. But they did a very ill office that first brought in images, saith Varro (as Calvin citeth his words), "for they increased error and took away fear." And Plutarch saith, It is sacrilege to worship by images.

Ver. 6. But to us there is but one God] Be the gods of the heathen good fellows (saith one), the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another.

Of whom are all things, and we for him] So that God is the first cause and the last end of all: which two are the properties of the chief good.

Ver. 7. Unto this hour] Though they have been better taught and clearly convinced, yet they stiffly retain, at least, some tincture of their old odd superstitious conceits. No man’s speech, whether he be learned or unlearned (saith Cicero), shall ever persuade me from that opinion which I have taken up from mine ancestors concerning the worship of the immortal gods. (De Nat. Deor. iii.)

Their conscience being weak] That is, not rightly informed of the true nature of things indifferent.

Is defiled] By doing what they doubt of.

Ver. 8. But meat commendeth us not] This is another objection: meat is indifferent. The apostle answers,

Ver. 9. True, it is indifferent, so it prove not a stumblingblock to the unresolved. For in such a case thou must suspend thy liberty, and forbear to exercise it.

Ver. 10. Be emboldened] This is, Proficere in peius, aedificare in gehennam, To make in more evil, is to build in hell, as Tertullian hath it. While men look upon parti-coloured objects they bring forth spotted fruits, as Laban’s sheep did.

Ver. 11. Thy weak brother perish] Revolt to paganism, or at least pollute his conscience with mortal sin, which shall be set upon thy score? And hast thou not sins enough of thine own to answer for?

Ver. 12. And wound their weak consciences] Gr. τυπτοντες, beat upon it to make it sound heavily, as a shaulm (shawm). {a} Sin is as a stroke upon the heart, #2Sa 24:10.

Ye sin against Christ] Who holds himself highly concerned in the misusages of his servants. It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of the members, from the head. Joab had slain Abner and Amasa. David appropriates it; "Thou knowest" (saith he to Solomon) "what Joab did to me." The arraignment of mean malefactors runs in the style of wrong to the king’s crown and dignity. So here.

{a} A mediaeval musical instrument of the oboe class, having a double reed enclosed in a globular mouthpiece. ŒD

Ver. 13. While the world standeth] We must stand unchangeably resolved, neither to give offence carelessly, nor to take offence causelessly.

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. Am I not an apostle, &c.] That is to say, Do I require you to do anything more than I myself do daily, in parting with my proper rights? All things in a minister should be exemplary, and for imitation; #Tit 2:7 "In all things show thyself a pattern of good works." The word τυπος, there used, signifies a thing that makes the stamp on the coin, or the mould whereinto the vessel is cast and shaped.

Have I not seen the Lord?] viz. In visions and ecstasies. The false apostles reported him no apostle because he had not conversed with Christ in the flesh. It is ordinary with seducers to detract from the truth’s champions, that they may be the better esteemed of. Thus Bellarmine rejecteth the fathers and others that make not for him as heretics. To Iraneus, Tertullian, Eusebius, and Luther (said he) I answer, Omne manifesti haeretici sunt, they are all manifest heretics. So Arminius’s course was to detract from the authority and fame of Calvin, Zanchius, Beza, Martyr, &c., that he might build himself upon better men’s ruins. (Synod. Dordec. Praefat.) The Jesuits speak most basely of St Paul, a making much against many of their tenets; and stick not to teach in their pulpits, that he was not secure of his preaching but by conference with St Peter; nor that he dared publish his Epistle till St Peter had allowed them. Zuinglius mentioneth some bold fellows in his time, A. D. 1519, who spake very contemptuously of this great apostle: Quis tandem Paulus, &c. Calvin telleth that Quintinus the Libertine called him Vas fractum, a broken vessel. And Leo Judae, in his preface to Bullinger’s book against the Catabaptists, noteth, that albeit there were various sorts of those sects, and all at odds among themselves, yet they all concurred in this, that they vexed and disparaged the godly preachers of the truth. And do they not still antiquum obtinere, hold to their old wont?

Ver. 2. The seal of mine apostleship] See the like, #Jer 23:21 Mt 21:27, where our Saviour proveth John Baptist’s ministry to be from heaven, by the success.

Ver. 3. Mine answer to them, &c.] Or, this is mine apology to those that cavil and quarrel my calling, viz. that I have converted you and others; a real proof, a visible demonstration. So #2Co 13:3-5.

Ver. 4. To eat and to drink] At the Church’s charge; so that we do it moderately without excess, as Josiah did, and it went well with him, #Jer 22:15.

Ver. 5. To lead about a sister] At the Church’s charge likewise. The Papists that deny the lawfulness of ministers’ marriage, are condemned and cursed by their own canon law (Distinct 29 and 31.) See Acts and Monuments, fol. 1008. Paphnutius opposed this proposition in the Nicene Council, and prevailed.

Ver. 6. To forbear working] At our trade? Yes, or else I should easily be of Melancthon’s mind, who when one had said of the ministry, that it was the art of arts, and the science of sciences; if he had added (said Melancthon) that it is the misery of miseries, he had hit the nail on the head. (Joh. Manl. loc. com. 471.)

Ver. 7. Who goeth a warfare, &c.] Ministers as they should be valiant as soldiers, diligent as husbandmen, vigilant as shepherds ( Pastor, arator, eques, &c.), so should they live from their labour, as every tinker and tapster doth. It is a sign of gasping devotion, when men are so close handed to their ministers whose very cold water goes not unrewarded.

Ver. 8. Or saith not the law] Not of nations only, as #1Co 9:7, but of God expressly, Verbis non solum disertis, sed et exertis?

Ver. 9. Doth God take care for oxen?] He doth, doubtless, #Joh 4:11; he preserveth man and beast; he heareth the young ravens that cry to him only by implication. Doth he not then much more take care for men, for ministers? The Hebrews have a proverb, Bos debet edere ex tritura sua, The ox should eat of the grain he treadeth out. But today, by slight or might, they so muzzle the poor labouring ox that they make an ass of him, saith one. In many places they allow him nothing but straw, for treading out the grain; and so much straw as themselves please, saith another. Do they not now go about to deal by Christ’s faithfulest servants, as those Grecians did, that put an engine about their servants’ neck (called πανσικοπη) which reached down to their hands, that they might not so much as lick of the meal, when they were sifting it (Dr Stoughton.) It was long since complained about, that many dealt by their ministers as carriers do by their horses, they laid heavy burdens upon them, and then hung bells about their necks: hard work and good words they shall have; but easy commons and slight wages; as if they were of the chameleon kind, and could live by air, &c. The statute of mortmain {a} provided that men should give no more to the Church, but now tempera mutantur. Let it control be changed.

{a} The figurative use is often based on the notion that the ‘dead hand’ means the posthumous control exercised by the testator over the uses to which the property is to be applied. ŒD

Ver. 10. Should plough in hope] Of maintaining his life by his labour, which is therefore called "the life of our hands," because it is upheld by the labour of our hands: Ludit, qui sterili semina mandat humo. (Propert.)

Ver. 11. Is it a great thing, &c.] Do not we give you gold for brass? Cast we not pearls before you? Alexander the Great gave Aristotle for his book de Natura Animalium, 800 talents, which is 800,000 crowns at least. Theodorus Gaza translated that book into Latin, and dedicated it to Pope Sixtus. The Pope asked him how much the rich outside of the book stood him in; Gaza answered, forty crowns. Those forty crowns he commanded to be repaid him, and so sent him away without any reward for so precious a piece of work. Interrogavit asinus papa quanti ornatus constaret? (John Manl. loc. com.) How well might the poor old Grecian sit and sing,

“ Heu male nune artes miseras haec saecula tractant,

Spes nulla ulterior.” (Juven. Satir. 7.)

Ver. 12. If others be partakers] If your ordinary pastors, &c., for the false apostles preached gratis (as some gather out of #2Co 11:12), partly to draw more disciples, and partly to bring an odium upon the apostle, if he should not do the like.

Ver. 13. Live of the things of, &c.] Yea, they lived plentifully and richly, as appears by the liberal gifts of those Levites for Passover Offerings, #2Ch 35:9.

Ver. 14. Even so hath the Lord] Note that "so," saith one; "that is, as they of old lived at the altar by tithes, so ministers now. How else will men satisfy their consciences in the particular quantity they must bestow upon the ministers? The Scripture speaks only of the tenth part."

Ver. 15. Better for me to die] To be hunger starved than to do anything to the prejudice of the gospel. Affliction is to be chosen rather than sin, #Job 36:21. Quas non oportet mortes praeeligere, saith Zuinglius, Epist. 3. What death should not a man choose, nay, what hell, rather than to sin against his conscience? Daniel chose rather to be cast into the lions’ den than to bear about that lion in his own bosom. The primitive Christians thought it far better to be thrown to lions without, than to be left to lusts within. Ad leonem magis quam lenonem. (Tertul.) Potius in ardentem rogum insiluero, quam ullum peccatum in Deum commisero, said a good man once. I will rather leap into a bonfire than wilfully commit any wickedness. The mouse of Armenia will rather die than be defiled with any filth. If her hole be besmeared with dirt, she will rather choose to perish with hunger than be polluted. Such was Paul here, and such we ought all to be.

Ver. 16. I have nothing to glory of] My glorying is, that I preach it gratis, and thereby stop an open mouth, #2Co 12:16-18, give them the lie that falsely accuse me that I make a prize of you.

Yea, woe is unto me] It was death for the high priest to enter the tabernacle without his bells. Preach, man, preach; thou wilt be damned else, said one to his friend. Be instant, or stand over the work in season, out of season, επιστηθι. See Jacob’s diligence, #Ge 31:40. And Paul’s, #Ac 20:20-28, &c., which one rightly calleth St Paul’s trumpet, the voice whereof may be to every minister, like that trumpet in Mount Sinai, that hath both clangorem et horrorem: or as Samuel’s message, making Eli’s two ears to tingle and his heart to tremble. (Barlow.) Let him give good heed to it, and then say with the civilian (Ulpian), Perquam durum est: sed ita lex scripta est. Hard or not hard it must be done, or I am utterly undone. Preach I must, or perish.

Ver. 17. I have a reward] Yet not earned, but of free grace, God crowning his own works in us. He was a proud Papist that said, Caelum gratis non accipiam, I will not have heaven for nought. (Vega.) And he another, that said, Opera bona mercatura regni caelestis, Good works are the price of heaven. (Bellarm.) God will cast all such merit merchants out of his temple.

But if against my will] Virtus nolentium, nulla est. God will strain upon no man. All his servants are a free people, #Ps 110:3. All his soldiers volunteers. They fly to their colours as the doves to their windows, #Isa 60:8.

Ver. 18. What is my reward then?] My merces mundi, reward of the world, all that I have here.

That I abuse not] i.e. That I make no indiscreet use of it. Non opes, non gloriam, non voluptates quaesivi (said holy Melancthon). Hanc conscientiam aufero quocunque discedo. I never sought wealth, honour, or pleasure. This my conscience tells me, whatever becomes of me.

Ver. 19. That I may gain the more] The Greek word for gain signifieth also the joy and delight of the heart in gaining. It signifies also craft or guile, such as is that of the fox; which when he is very hungry after prey, and can find none, he lieth down and feigneth himself to be a dead carcase, and so the fowls fall upon him, and then he catcheth them. So must a minister deny himself to gain his hearers. κερδος because κεαρ ηδει

Ver. 20. And unto the Jews, &c.] Not in conforming to their impieties; but, 1. In the use of things indifferent; 2. In merciful compassion toward them.

To them that are under the law] Though not Jews born, yet proselytes, as the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius, &c.

Ver. 21. That I might gain them] A metaphor from merchants, Qui κερδαινοντες ου κοπιωσι, who are never weary of taking money. (Naz.) St Paul harps much upon this string, out of a strong desire of winning souls to God. Ministers must turn themselves into all shapes and fashions both of spirit and speech to gain souls to God. Christ useth every engine of wisdom (παση σοφιας μηχανη, saith Clemens Alexand.) that he may convert some. Ministers should labour to be masters of their people’s affections, δημαγωγοι, as the Athenian orators were called, i.e. people leaders.

Ver. 22. To the weak] Not pressing upon them the austerities of religion, but condescending and complying with them, as far as I could with a good conscience.

That I might save some] This is the highest honour in the world, to have any hand in the saving of souls. Let all of an ability put forth themselves hereunto; and if they have not fine manchet, yet give the poor people barley bread, or whatsoever else the Lord hath committed unto them, as Bucer bade Bradford. (Acts and Mon.)

Ver. 23. That I might be partaker] i.e. That I might be saved together with you. For the bell may call men to the Church, though itself never enter. The field may be well sowed with a dirty hand; the well yield excellent water, though it have much mud. Noah’s builders were drowned: and the sign that telleth the passenger there is wholesome diet or warm lodging within, may itself remain in the storms without. See #1Ti 4:16. Nihil turpius est Peripatetico claudo. Oh how many heavenly doctrines are in some people’s ears, that never were in the preacher’s heart. So true is that of Hilary, Sanctiores sunt aures plebis, quam corda sacerdotum. More consecrated are the ears of the common people than the hearts of the priests.

Ver. 24. Know ye not] The apostle argueth from their profane sports, yet approveth them not; as neither doth the Lord patronize usury, #Mt 25:27; injustice, #Lu 16:1; thefts, #1Th 5:2; dancing, #Mt 11:17.

So run that ye may obtain,] Here is the race, but above the crown, saith Ignatius to Polycarp. (ωδε μεν εστι το σταδιον, εκει δε οι στεφανοι.) Run to get the race, said Mr Bradford to his fellow sufferers, you are almost at your journey’s end. I doubt not but our Father will with us send to you also, as he did to Elias, a fiery chariot to convey us into his kingdom. Let us therefore not be dismayed to leave our cloak behind us, that is, our bodies to ashes. (Acts and Mon.)

Ver. 25. Is temperate in all things] These luxurious Corinthians were much addicted to their belly; he calls them therefore to temperance. Ill doth it become a servant of the Highest to be a slave to his palate, to have animum in patinis et calicibus, as the Sybarites. A man may eat that on earth that he must digest in hell. (Aug.)

Ver. 26. Not as uncertainly] For, 1. I forget those things that are behind, all worldly things. I set those by. 2. I have oculum ad metam (which was Ludovicus Vives’ motto), an eye upon the mark. 3. I strain and stretch toward it. See all these #Php 3:13,14. Duties are not to be done in a lazy, formal, customary strain, like the pace the Spaniard rides; but with utmost diligence and expedition.

That beats the air] As young fencers use to do, but I beat mine adversary.

Ver. 27. My body] My body of sin in the whole man, not mine outward man only. If we find the devil practising upon the flesh, the way is not to revile the devil, but to beat the flesh. Give it a blue eye, leave a blot in the face of it, as the word υπωπαιζω signifieth, batter it as those were wont, that tried masteries with plummets of lead; we owe it nothing but stripes, #Ro 8:12. It is of a slavish nature, and must be held hard under, δουλαγωγω; as slaves thrust into a mill, or bound to an oar.

A castaway] Cast out of heaven, as they were out of the fencing schools, that were either cross or cowardly; or that could offend, but not defend. An orator (how much more a preacher!) should be vir bonus dicendi peritus, a good man able to discourse. (Quintilian.) Diogenes blamed those orators that studied bene dicere, non bene facere, to speak well, but not to do accordingly. And Chrysostom saith, Nihil frigidius est doctore verbis solummodo philosophante. Hoc non est doctoris sed hishrionis. A wordy doctor is an unworthy creature, and more fit to make a stageplayer than a preacher.

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. I would not that ye should] Historiae fidae monitrices, saith Bucholcer. There is very good use to be made of other men’s examples. Historia hath its name, saith Plato, from stopping the flux of errors and evil manners. (παρα το ισταναι τον ρουν, in Crat.). For mutate nomine de te fabula narratur. What bitter effects sin hath produced in some men, it may in any man. Lege igitur historiam, ne fias historia.

Ver. 2. And were all baptized] And yet were rooted out and rejected. Baptism sayeth; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but, &c., #1Pe 3:21. By this text it appears that infants also were baptized unto Moses, who was a typical mediator; therefore they ought to be into Christ, the true. It is here objected that those infants did also eat manna and drink of the rock; therefore by a like reason, they should also now receive the Lord’s supper. For answer, 1. How doth it appear that they did eat manna, &c.? 2. Though they did, yet they may not communicate at the Lord’s table, because they cannot "examine themselves, nor discern the Lord’s body," and are therefore flatly forbidden to come there, #1Co 11:28,29.

Ver. 3. And did all eat] They fed upon sacraments, and yet died in God’s displeasure. The carcase of the sacrament cannot give life, but the soul of it, which is the thing represented. It is well observed that sacraments do not work as physic, whether men sleep or wake, ex opere operate, by virtue inherent in them; but ex opere operantis, according to the disposition and qualification of the party that partaketh.

Ver. 4. The same spiritual drink] Here was no dry communion.

That spiritual rock that followed them] The waters of the rock, the virtue and benefit, went along with them. See #Ps 105:41 De 9:21. So should the efficacy of the Lord’s supper with us. We should walk in the strength of it, as Elijah did of his cake.

Ver. 5. They were overthrown] They died with the sacramental meat in their mouths. Our privileges excuse us not, but aggravate our enormities.

Ver. 6. Were our examples] Worthily are they made examples, that will not take them. Alterius perditio tua sit cautio. The destruction of others should be a terror to us, that we may wash our feet in the blood of the wicked, #Ps 52:6. It is a just presage and desert of ruin, not to be warned.

As they also lusted] As at Kibroth Hattaavah, where by a hasty testament they bequeathed a new name to the place of their burial.

Ver. 7. And rose up to play] Now if they were so cheered and strengthened by these murdering morsels, should not we be made active and abundant in God’s word by the dainties of God’s table?

Ver. 8. And fell in one day] The apostle, instead of the cloak of heat of youth, puts upon fornication a bloody cloak, bathed in the blood of twenty-three thousand. (Knewstub. on Com. 7.)

Three and twenty thousand] Moses mentions 24,000, whereof one thousand were the chief princes, the others inferiors, provoked to sin by their example. But why doth the apostle insist in the special punishment of the people? To show (saith learned Junius) how frigid and insufficient their excuse is, that pretend for their sins the examples of their superiors.

Ver. 9. Neither let us tempt] By provoking him to jealousy, as #1Co 10:22, especially by idolatry, that land desolating sin.

Ver. 10. As some of them also] viz. #Nu 14:1-5 And God said Amen to it, #1Co 10:28. May he not justly say the same to our detestable God-damn-me’s? "As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you."

Ver. 11. For our admonition] God hangs up some, as it were, in gibbets, for public example. See #1Co 10:6. Let us therefore set a memorandum upon God’s punishments; and mark his spits with our stars. Let us be wise by other men’s woes; take a pearl out of the serpent, a good stone out of the toad’s head, suck sweet honey out of bitterest weeds, &c.

Upon whom the ends, &c.] These then are the last and worst days, the very lees and dregs of time. Now the worse the times are, the better we should be; and the rather, because an end of all things is at hand.

Ver. 12. That thinks he stands] If he do but think so, if he be no more than a seemer, he will fall at length into hell’s mouth. A man may live by a form, but he cannot die by a form. Therefore rather seek to be good than seem to be so.

Ver. 13. But such as is common] Such as is human, παν πρασδοκαν δει ανθρωπον οντα. (Xenophon.) Either such as is incident to men as men, #Job 5:6; or such as men may well bear without buckling under it; or such as come from men, not from devils; "Ye wrestle against flesh and blood," &c. Or you are yet only allured to idolatry, not forced by persecution. You gratify your idolatrous acquaintance with your presence at their idol feasts; you are tempted and soon taken.

But God is faithfid] When Mr Latimer stood at the stake, and the tormentors about to set fire to him and Ridley, he lifted up his eyes toward heaven with an amiable and comfortable countenance, saying these words, Fidelis est Deus, &c. God is faithful, Ridley also at the stake, with a wondrous cheerful look, ran to Latimer, embraced and kissed, and, as they that stood near reported, comforted him, saying, Be of good heart, brother, God will either assuage the fury of the flame, or else will strengthen us to abide it. (Acts and Mon.)

But will with the temptation] He proportioneth the burden to the back, and the stroke to the strength of him that beareth it. I thank God, said Mr Bradford, my common disease (which was a rheum, with a feebleness of stomach) doth less trouble me than when I was out of prison, which doth teach me the merciful providence of God toward me.

Ver. 14. Flee from idolatry] He calleth their sitting at the idol’s feasts, though without intent of honouring the idol, by the name of idolatry; because, 1. Hereby they yielded a tacit consent to that sin. 2. Petty matters pave a causey for the greater.

Ver. 15. I speak as to wise men] i.e. Well skilled in the doctrine of the sacraments, from one of which I am about to argue. Piscator, after he had read some of the Fathers, gave over for this reason, because scarce any of them did rightly understand the use and efficacy of baptism.

Judge ye what I say] Jovianus the emperor was wont to wish that he might govern wise men, and that wise men might govern him.

Ver. 16. The cup of blessing] Not the chalice, but the common cup. Calvin chose rather to leave Geneva than to use unleavened bread or wafer cakes at the Lord’s supper. ( Diest. de ratione studii Theol.) We may not symbolize with idolaters.

Is it not the communion] Doth it not signify and set forth, yea, as an instrument, effect and exhibit this communion?

Ver. 17. And one body] By the force of faith and love. #So 6:9 "My dove is but one; the daughters saw her, and blessed her." No such oneness, entireness, anywhere as among the saints. Other societies are but as the clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, they may cleave together, but not incorporate one into another.

Ver. 18. Are not they which eat, &c.] See #Le 7:15; hence he infers that these Corinthians also eating of the idol’s sacrifices, were defiled with idolatry; a pari, from the like.

Ver. 19. What say I then] He prevents a mistake. See #1Co 8:4. Ministers must in their discourses meet with all objections as much as may be.

Ver. 20. They sacrifice to devils] A good intention then excuseth not. The Gentiles thought they had sacrificed to God. So do the Papists, who yet worship devils, while they worship idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, #Re 9:20. The devil is ειδωλοχαρης, saith Synesius, an idol lover.

Ver. 21. Partakers of the Lord’s table] Name and thing. The Popish opinion of mass was, that it might not be celebrated but upon an altar, or at least upon a superaltare, which must have its prints and carects, or else the thing was not thought to be lawfully done. Our communion table they call an oyster board. (Acts and Mon.)

And the table of devils] Redwald, king of East Saxons, had in the same church one altar for Christian religion, and another for sacrifice to devils. (Camden.)

Ver. 22. Do we provoke the Lord] As Caligula that dared his Jove to a duel; as the raging Turk at the last assault of Scodra most horribly blaspheming God. But who knoweth the power of his anger? #Ps 90:11. It is such as none can avert or avoid, avoid or abide. To such therefore as will needs provoke the Lord, we may well say, as Ulysses’ companions said to him, when he would needs provoke Polydamas;

“Σχετλιε τιπτ εθελεις ερεθιζεμεν αγριον ανδρα.

What mean’st thou, wretch, to enrage this cruel man?”

Ver. 23. All things are not expedient] An liceat, an deceat, an expediat, Is it permitted, is it proper, is it expedient, are three most needful questions. (Bernard.) Things lawful in themselves may be unseemly for our state and calling; unbehoveful also to the benefit of others. Think unlawful for thee whatsoever implies either inexpediency or indecency.

Ver. 24. Let no man seek his own] Self miscarries us all, and makes us eccentric in our motions, nothing more.

Ver. 25. Whatsoever is sold, &c.] A portion of the consecrated flesh was usually sold by the priests, who make their markets of it, as Augustine upon the Romans testifieth.

Ver. 26. For the earth is the Lord’s] God, of his bounty, spreads a table for all; make no scruple therefore, eat freely.

Ver. 27. And ye be disposed to go] Our Saviour, when he saw that John’s austerity was censured, took his liberty in the use of creatures, and convenient company keeping, #Lu 7:33,34. I do not find where ever he was bidden to any table and refused. Not for a pleasure of the dishes, but for the benefit of so winning a conversation.

Ver. 28. The earth is the Lord’s] Therefore in case of scandal abstain. Why shouldest thou use this creature, as if there were no more but this? suspend thy liberty; hast not thou all the world before thee?

Ver. 29. Why is my liberty judged] As a profane licence. We should be shy of the very shows and shadows of sin, Quicquid fuerit male coloratum, as Bernard hath it; if a thing look but ill-favoured, abstain from it.

Ver. 30. For if I by grace] Or, by thanksgiving. The same Greek word, χαρις, signifies both; to teach us, that a grateful man is a gracious man. The unthankful and the evil are set together as the same, #Lu 6:35. God is "kind to the unthankful, and to the evil."

Ver. 31. Whether therefore ye eat, &c.] Of a reverend Scotch divine it is said, that "he did even eat and drink and sleep eternal life." These common actions also are steps in our Christian walking, despise them not, therefore, but refer them to that supreme scope. Socrates, even in his recreations, profited his companions no less than if he had been reading lectures to them. παιζων ουδεν ηττον ελυσιτελει τοις συνδιατριβουσιν αυτω. (Xenoph.) Plato and Xenophon thought it fit and profitable that men’s speeches at meals should be written. Quicquid agas propter Deum agas, saith one. Propter te, Domine, propter te, saith another. (Drus. Apophth.) The glory of God ought to eat up all other ends, as Moses’ serpent did the sorcerers’ serpents; or as the sun puts out the light of the fire. Jovinian the emperor’s motto was, Scopus vitae Christus.

Ver. 32. Give none offence] This is another end we should aim at, the edification of others. Finibus non officiis a vitiis discernuntur virtutes. (Augustine.) Two things make a good Christian: good actions and good aims.

Ver. 33. Not seeking mine own profit] This, saith Chrysostom, is the most perfect canon of Christianity, the top gallant of true religion.

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. Be ye followers of me] This verse properly belongs to the former chapter. The distinguishing of the books of Scripture into chapters is not very ancient. But that of verses was devised and done by Robert Stephens, Pio quidem at tumultuario studio, as Scultetus saith well, with a good intent, but with no great skill, as appears here and in various other places. The apostles, #1Co 10:33, had showed his own practice: here he calls upon them to do accordingly. As the ox follows the herd, so will I follow good men. Etiamsi errant, saith Cicero, although they do amiss. Sicut bos armenta, sic ego bones vires. (Cic. ad Attic.) This was more than St Paul desires. Be ye followers of me, saith he; but only so far as I am of Christ, not an inch further. Christians are not bound, as Latimer saith, to be the saints’ apes; labouring to be like them in everything. It is Christ’s peculiar honour to be imitated in all morals absolutely.

Ver. 2. And keep the ordinances] Gr. the traditions or doctrines by word of mouth. These are, 1. Dogmatic, concerning faith and practice, #2Th 2:15 2. Ritual; and these again are, 1. Perpetual, as that of the manner of administering the two sacraments. 2. Temporary, as that of abstaining from certain meats, #Ac 15:28,29. And those other pertaining to the observing of external order and decency in Church assemblies. And of these the apostle here speaketh. (Sclater.)

Ver. 3. The head of the woman is man] Were it not an ill sight to see the shoulders above the head, the woman usurp authority over the man αυθεντειν, #1Ti 2:12. A prudent wife commands her husband by obeying, as did Livia.

Ver. 4. Dishonoureth his head] As they accounted it then and there. In other places it is otherwise. The French preach covered. The Turks neither kneel nor uncover the head at public prayer, as holding those postures unmanly. Several countries have their several customs. Basiliades, duke of Muscovy, showed himself a tyrant in nailing an ambassador’s hat to his head, for not uncovering it before him.

Ver. 5. Praying or prophesying] That is, joining with the man that prayeth or prophesieth, and going along with him in her heart. Thus the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the Lord, #1Ki 8:62. And thus the unlearned say Amen, #1Co 14:16. {See Trapp on "Ro 16:1"}

Ver. 6. For a woman to be shorn] Our Hic muliers hold it now no shame. If Henry VI had seen such creatures, he would have cried out, as once he did at the sight of naked breasts, Fie, fie, ladies, in sooth you are to blame. (Daniel’s Hist.)

Ver. 7. He is the image and glory of God] Even as an image in the glass doth look toward us, from whom it is reflected. So, saith one, doth God’s image in us make the eyes of our minds view him the author of it in us. (Bayn’s Letters.) And as the eye becometh one with that which it seeth, and is after a sort in that light it beholdeth; so are we by the vision of God, which is begun in us, one with him and in him.

The woman is the glory of the man] Either because he may glory in her, if she be good; or because she is to honour him, and give glory to him.

Ver. 8. But the woman of the man] Of a bone she was made, and but one bone, Ne esset ossea, saith a divine (Vitis Palatina); a bone of the side it was, not of the head (she is not to be his mistress), not of the foot (she is not to be his handmaid), but of the side, to show that she is a companion to her husband. A bone from under the arm, to mind the man of protection and defence to the woman. A bone not far from his heart, to mind him of dilection and love to the woman. A bone from the left side, to put the woman in mind that, by reason of her frailty and infirmity, she stands in need of both the one and the other from her husband.

Ver. 9. For the woman] sc. To serve her, unless it be some women (as Artemisia, Zenobia, Blandina), specially called to and qualified for government. Among whom Queen Elizabeth, that female glory, is famous, of whom a great French duchess said, that she was Gloriosissima, et omnium quae unquam sceptrum gesserunt faelicissima femina. Besides her sex, there was nothing in her woman-like or weak.

Ver. 10. To have power] That is, a veil, called in Hebrew Radid, of Radad, to bear rule. And indeed what was this subjection to the husband, but a kind of power and protection derived to the wife, in respect of her former estate?

Because of the angels] Present in the assemblies of the saints. This was set forth of old by the hangings of the tabernacle wrought with cherubims within and without. Others understand this text of ministers, frequently called angels, #Hag 1:12,13 Re 2:1,8,12,18 3:1,7,14 Jud 2:1 (that angel is thought to be Phineas); #Ec 5:6 "Neither say thou before the angel" (i.e. before the Lord’s priest) "it was an error." (Vorstius.) Some think the apostle argues from the example of the angels; we should imitate their modesty, who were wont to cover their faces, to testify their subjection toward God.

Ver. 11. Nevertheless neither is] This is added for the woman’s comfort. There must be all mutual respects and melting-heartedness between married couples, which being preserved fresh and fruitful, will infinitely sweeten and beautify the marriage state. Love is a coin that must be exchanged between them, and returned in kind. "Husbands, love your wives," #Col 3:19. He saith not, Rule over your wives, as he had said, Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, but Love your wives; yea, let all your things be done in love: for neither is the man without the woman; he is not complete without her, he wants a piece of himself; neither is the woman without the man, she cannot subsist without him, as the vine cannot without a supporter. The rib can challenge no more of her than the earth can of him, &c.

Ver. 12. But all things of God] God consulted not with man to make him happy, saith one. As he was ignorant while himself was made, so he did not know while a second self was made out of him. Both that the comfort might be greater than was expected; as also that he might not upbraid his wife with any great dependence or obligation, he neither willing the work, nor suffering any pain to have it done.

Ver. 13. Judge in yourselves] All Christ’s sheep are rational, able to discern the things that differ, having their senses thereunto exercised, #Heb 5:14. But some sins are condemned by common sense, as here; and religion is founded upon so good reason, that though God had not commanded it, yet it had been our wisest way to have chosen it. But lust doth often so blear the understanding, that a man shall think he hath reason to be mad, and that there is great sense in sinning.

Ver. 14. That if a man hath long hair] Bushes of vanity, which they will never part with, said Marbury, until the devil put a candle into the bush. But our gallants object, that the apostle here intendeth such hair as is as long as women’s hair. Whereunto we answer, That Homer calleth the Greeks hair-nourishing men (καρηκομοωντας Αχαιους, Homer), who yet did not wear their hair long as women. How Cromwell handled the shag-haired ruffian, see Acts and Monuments of the Church, fol. 1083. How God hath punished this unnatural sin by that loathsome and horrible disease in the hair, called Plica Polonica, see Hercules de Saxonia; and out of him Mr Belfort in his Four Last Things, page 40. It begun first, saith he, not many years ago in Poland; it is now entered into many parts of Germany. And methinks our monstrous fashionists, both male and female, the one for nourishing their horrid bushes of vanity, the other for the most unnatural and cursed cutting their hair, should every hour fear and tremble, lest they should bring it upon their own heads, and among us in this kingdom. Our Henry I repressed the wearing of long hair, which though it were a gaiety of no charge, yet for the indecency thereof, he reformed it, and all other dissoluteness. (Daniel’s Hist.) See Mr Prins’ Unloveliness of Love Locks. See also a book entitled Diatriba Theologica de capillis, constans disputatione Textuali, ad #1Co 11:14,15.

Ver. 15. Her hair is given her] Now it is a vile thing to go against nature. Cyprian and Austin say that garish apparel is worse than whoredom; because whoredom only corrupts chastity, but this corrupts nature.

Ver. 16. Seem to be contentious] A doctore glorioso, et pastore contentioso, et inutilibus questionibus, liberet Ecclesiam suam Domiuus, said Luther. From a vain-glorious doctor, from a contentious pastor, and from endless and needless controversies, the good Lord deliver his Church. The word rendered "seem," signifieth, "is pleased to be, desires and hath a will to be, yea, boasts and prides himself in it," δοκει δοκησισοφος. This is a foul fault in any, but especially in ministers; who must see (saith Luther) that those three dogs follow them not into the pulpit, pride, covetousness, and contentiousness. A quarrelsome person is like a cock of the kind, ever bloody with the blood of others and himself; and divisions are Satan’s gun powder plot to blow up religion.

We have no such custom] viz. To strive about trifles, but to submit to our teachers, #Heb 13:17. It is a vile thing, saith Bifield, {on #1Pe 3} to vex our ministers by our obstinace; yea, though they were not able to make so full demonstration, yet when they reprove such things, out of a spiritual jealousy and fear that they corrupt the people’s hearts, they are to be heard and obeyed.

Ver. 17. I praise you not] q.d. I discommend and dispraise you. The Corinthians were in many things faulty and blameworthy. St Paul deals plainly and freely with them, and would not therefore take their offered kindness, #2Co 12:14-18, lest he should be engaged to them, and by receiving a courtesy, sell his liberty.

Ver. 18. There be divisions] Gr. σχισματα, schisms, rents, yea, and that about the sacrament of the Lord’s supper (that bond of love), through Satan’s malice. Now there can be no greater sin committed, saith Chrysostom, than to break the peace of the Church. Cyprian saith, It is an inexpiable blemish, such as cannot be washed off with the blood of martyrdom. {a} The error of it may be pardoned (saith Oecolampadius in his epistle to the Lutherans of Snevia) so there be faith in Christ Jesus; but the discord we cannot expiate though we should lay down our lives to do it.

{a} Hom. 11. ad Ephes.

Ver. 19. There must be heresies] Therefore much more schisms, which also, for the most part, do degenerate into heresies; as an old serpent into a dragon. In the time of Pope Clement V, Frederick, king of Sicily, was so offended at the evil govermnent of the Church, that he began to question the truth of the Christian religion. But Arnoldus de Villanova confirmed and settled him by this and such like places of Scripture, "Offences must come, there must be heresies," &c., God having so decreed and foretold it. It behoves that there be heresies in the Church; as it is necessary there should be poison and venomous creatures in the world, because out of them God will work medicines.

May be made manifest] As they are now, if ever, in these shedding and discriminating times. So in the Palatinate they fell to Popery, as fast as leaves in autumn.

Ver. 20. This is not to eat, &c.] When the Lord’s supper therefore is not rightly administered, it is no longer his; especially if the substantials thereof be omitted. As in those sacrifices, #Ho 9:4 "Their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord"; that is, the bread for their natural sustenance. He speaks of that meat offering, #Le 2:4, appointed for a spiritual use, yet called the "bread for their life or livelihood"; because God esteemed it no other than common meat. So #Jer 7:21, in scorn he calls their sacrifice, flesh, &c.

Ver. 21. Every one taketh] Eateth and communicateth with those of his own sect and faction only, not staying for others. Such among the Philippians were those of "the concision," #1Co 3:2, that made divisions, and cut the Church into little pieces and sucking congregations, making separation.

Ver. 22. What, have ye not houses?] Here he abolished their love feasts, for the disorder that happened therein. The Greek Church nevertheless retained them; but the Roman Church laid them down, as Justin Martyr witnesseth.

Ver. 23. For I have received] Rectum est regula sui et obliqui. The apostle seems to rectify them, by reducing them to the first institution; and by letting them know that he had his authority from heaven; he received what he delivered, and delivered what he received, keeping nothing back, #Ac 20:27.

The same night, &c.] It was his last bequeath to his Church, for a καθαρτηριον αλεξικακον, as Ignatius hath it, a sovereign both purgative and preservative.

Ver. 24. This is my body] En praeclaram illam consecrationem, Behold that goodly consecration (saith Beza) for the which the shavelings say that they are more holy than the very Virgin Mary; for that Mary only conceived Christ, but they create him. Whereunto the Virgin might well reply, that she carefully nourished Christ, whom they cruelly devour. Dost thou believe (said the doctor to the martyr) that Christ’s body and blood is in the eucharist really and substantially? I believe, saith he, that that is a real lie, and substantial lie. When Cranmer was brought forth to dispute in Oxford, Dr Weston, Prolocutor, thus began the disputation, Convenistis hodie, fratres, profligaturi detestandam illam haeresin de veritate corporis Christi in Sacramento, &c. We are gathered today, brothers to overthrow that wicked heresy concerning the truth of the body of Christ in the sacrament, At which mistake, various learned men burst out into a great laughter.

Ver. 25. He took the cup] {See Trapp on "Mt 26:27"}

Ver. 26. Ye do show] We need no other crucifix to mind us of Christ’s passion. Hence this sacrament was by some ancients termed a sacrifice, viz. representative and commemorative, but not properly, as the Papists make it.

Till he come] There shall be a Church then, and the pure worship of God, till the world’s end, maugre the malice of tyrants and heretics.

Ver. 27. Shall be guilty] Because they profane the holy symbols and pledges of Christ’s blessed body and blood. These are in some sense as guilty as those that spit upon Christ’s face, or that spilt his blood. As the Donatists, that cast the holy elements to dogs; or as that wretched Booth, a Bachelor of Arts in St John’s College in Cambridge, who being popishly affected, at the time of the communion took the consecrated bread, and forbearing to eat it, conveyed and kept it closely for a time, and afterwards threw it over the college wall. Not long after this, he threw himself headlong over the battlements of the chapel and so ended his life. (Bishop Morton, Instit. of the Sac.)

Ver. 28. Let a man examine] A metaphor from metallaries or lapidists, as they try their metals or precious stones, and do it exactly, that they be not cozened; so here, men must make an exact scrutiny.

And so let him eat] After preparation, participation. The heathens had their caena pura, pure supper the night before their sacrifices. The Russians receive children after seven years old to the communion, saying, that at that age they begin to sin against God. But can they say, that at that age they can examine themselves and receive preparedly? Chrysostom calleth the Lord’s table, that "dreadful table" (φρικωδης), and the ancients call the sacraments, "dreadful mysteries" (τα φρικτα μυστηρια).

Ver. 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily] He saith not unworthy (for so we are all), but unworthily, that is, unpreparedly, for a good work may be spoiled in the doing, as many a good tale is marred in the telling, and many a good garment in the making.

Eateth and drinketh damnation] He that came in without a wedding garment on his back, went not away without fetters on his feet. He was taken from the table to the tormentors. God’s table becomes a snare to unworthy receivers; they eat their bane, they drink their poison. Henry VII, emperor of Germany, was poisoned in the sacramental bread by a monk; Pope Victor II by his sub-deacon in the chalice; and one of our bishops of York by poison put into the wine at sacrament. God will deal with ill communicants as #Job 20:23. They will speed no better than Amnon did at Absalom’s feast; or than Haman did at Esther’s. Sin brought to the sacrament, picks out that time to petition against them, as Esther did against Haman at the banquet of wine, #Es 7:2,6. So that they shall cry out as that emperor beforementioned did, Calix vitae calix mortis, The cup of life is to us a cup of poison.

Ver. 30. Many are weak] The mortality at Corinth began at God’s house, and that for unworthy communicating. God will be sanctified of all that draw near to him. He loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience, and yet he takes state upon him in his ordinances, and will be served like himself, or we shall hear from him. What manner of men therefore ought we to be that come so near to God in this holy ordinance? Nadab and Abihu can tell you that the flames of jealousy are hottest about the altar. Uzzah and the Bethshemites, though dead, do yet tell you that justice as well as mercy is most active about the ark. Judgment begins at God’s own house, #1Pe 4:17; and the destroying angel begins at the sanctuary, #Eze 9:6.

Ver. 31. We should not be judged] God should be prevented, and the devil put out of office, as having nothing to say against us, but what we have said before. Let us therefore up and be doing at this most needful but much neglected work of self-judging, that God may acquit us. First search and try our ways, as examiners, #La 3:40. Next, make a bill of indictment, and confess against ourselves, as informers; aggravating all by the circumstances. Thirdly, step from the bar to the bench, and pass sentence upon ourselves, as so many judges: when we are to come to the Lord’s supper especially. Otherwise blind Popery shall rise up in judgment against us and condemn us. We read of William de Raley, bishop of Winchester, A. D. 1243, that being near death, he had the sacrament brought unto him. And perceiving the priest to enter his chamber with it, he cried out, "Stay, good friend, let the Lord come no nearer to me: it is more fit that I be drawn to him like a traitor, that in many things have been a traitor unto him." (Godwin’s Catalogue.) His servants therefore, by his commandment, drew him out of his bed unto the place where the priest was, and there with tears he received the sacrament; and spending much time in prayer afterwards, he so ended his life. The like is reported of William Langespe, base son of King Henry II, and Earl of Salisbury; that lying very sick, the bishop brought the sacrament. He understanding of the bishop’s coming, met him at the door half naked, with a halter about his neck, threw himself down prostrate at his feet, and would not be taken up until, having made confession of his sins with tears and other signs of sincere repentance, he had received the sacrament in most devout manner.

Ver. 32. That we should not, &c.] Ferre minora volo, ne graviora feram. I to bear the lesser punishments so that I will not bear the heavier ones.

Ver. 33. Wherefore, my brethren] He that reproveth and adviseth not, doth as it were snuff the lamp and not pour in oil.

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. I would not have you ignorant] To wit, of the only author and true end of them, "lest ye be vainly puffed up by your fleshly mind," #Col 2:18. Ignorance breeds pride, #Re 3:17.

Ver. 2. Even as ye were led] It is the misery of a natural man that hath not his heart stablished with grace, to be carried away as he is led, to be wherried about with every wind of doctrine, to have no mould but what the next seducer casteth him into; being blown like a glass into this or that shape, at the pleasure of his breath.

Ver. 3. Calleth Jesus accursed] As the wicked Jews do in this day in their daily prayers and abbreviature; and as the Gentiles did of old, and these Corinthians among the rest. But now they would rather die than do so; as Pliny writes to Trajan the emperor, that he could never force any that were Christians indeed, either to invocate the gods, or to do sacrifice before the emperor’s image, or to curse Christ, Quorum nihil cogi posse dicuntur qui sunt revera Christiani. (Plin. Epist.)

And that no man can say, &c.] That is, no man can, with the fiducial assent of his heart, acknowledge Christ to be the only Lord, whom he is to worship by the same impulsions, by which another curses aud blasphemes him, but by such peculiar motives as are suggested and revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost.

Ver. 4. But the same Spirit] As the divers smell of flowers come from the same influence, and the divers sounds in the organ from the same breath.

Ver. 5. Differences of administrations] i.e. Ecclesiastical functions, all of them the dona honoraria of the Lord Christ, #Eph 4:8-11.

Ver. 6. Diversities of operations] The Holy Ghost may use one of less grace to do more good than one of more; though he delights to honour those of most sincerity with most success, as #1Co 15:10.

Ver. 7. To profit withal] We are neither born nor born again for ourselves. If we be not fit to serve the body, neither are we fit to be of the body; he is not a saint that seeketh not communion of saints. Pudeat illos, qui ita in studiis se abdiderunt, ut ad vitam communem nullum fructum ferre possint, saith Cicero. They may well be ashamed that employ not their talents for a public good. {a} The Greek word το συμφερον importeth such a kind of profit, as redounds to community. It seemeth to be a metaphor from bees, that bring all the honey they can get to the common hive.

{a} Paulum sepultae distat inertiae celata virtus. Hor.

Ver. 8. The word of wisdom] "The tongue of the learned," to time a word, #Isa 50:4, to set it upon its circumferences, #Pr 25:11, to declare unto man his righteousness, when not one of a thousand can do it like him, #Job 33:23.

The word of knowledge] This, say some, is the doctor’s office, as the former word of wisdom is the pastor’s (Mr Edwards). But the essential difference between pastors and doctors in each congregation is much denied by many learned and good divines. Others by "the word of wisdom" will have understood knowledge infused by divine revelation; as by "the word of knowledge," that knowledge that is acquired by study and industry. (Barlow. Taylor upon Titus.)

Ver. 9. To another faith] The faith of miracles, which a man may have, and yet miscarry, #1Co 13:2. So doth not any one that hath the faith of God’s elect; that fails not, #Lu 22:32. Some say the apostle here meaneth historical faith; and this seems the more probable, because he speaketh of the working of miracles, #1Co 12:10.

Ver. 10. Discerning of spirits] They discerned not men’s hearts of themselves (for to God only), but by a special work of God’s Spirit discovering them to their eyes, as Peter discerned Ananias, and afterwards Simon Magus, whom Philip mistook and baptized. (Rolloc. de Vocatione.)

Ver. 11. One and the self-same Spirit] Who yet is called the seven spirits of God, #Re 1:4, for his manifold and various operations.

Dividing to every man severally, as he will] It is reported that in Luther’s house was found written, Res et verba Philippus. Res sine verbis Lutherus. Verba sine re Erasmus. Everyone hath his own share; all are not alike gifted; yet by "one and the self-same Spirit," that one and that self-same Spirit, as the Greek text runs, repeating the article, very elegantly and emphatically, το εν και το αυτο πρευμα..

Ver. 12. So also is Christ] Mystical Christ, the Church. Christ the Saviour of his body {#Eph 5:23} accounts not himself complete without his Church, #Eph 1:23. So God is called Jacob, #Ps 24:6.

Ver. 13. For by one Spirit, &c.] By the testimony of the two sacraments, whereof we all partake, the apostle proveth that we are all but one body, and should therefore as bees bring all our honey to the common hive.

Are we all baptized] The apostles received all into the Church that believed and were baptized, without particular probation for some days, weeks, months, or years, and entering into a private solemn covenant.

And have been all made to drink] Potionati sumus, We have drunk, saith Piscator, and so prove ourselves to be of the corporation and company of believers. But what was the meaning of that passage in the old Church catechism, "There are but two sacraments only, as generally necessary," &c. Are there any more than two, though not absolutely and generally necessary to all men in all times, states, and conditions whatsoever? The Papists themselves say, that five of their sacraments at least are not generally necessary.

Ver. 14. Not one member, but many] As man’s body curiously wrought, and as it were by the book, #Ps 139:16. Had God left out an eye or hand in his common place book (saith one) thou hadst wanted it.

Ver. 15. If the foot should say, &c.] Inferiors must not envy those above them, but be content, since it is God that cutteth us out several conditions; and a scavenger may honour God in his place, as well as a minister in his.

Ver. 16. If the ear] A man had better be blind, lame, dumb, than deaf; because by the ear life enters into the soul, #Isa 55:3.

Ver. 17. If the whole body, &c.] It is proper to God to be πανοφθαλμος, all eye; Sic spectat universos quasi singulos, sic singulos quasi solos.

Ver. 18. God hath set, &c.] And he, as only wise, doth all in number, weight, and measure. Shall we not rest in what he hath done as best "What can the man do that cometh after the king?" #Ec 2:12.

Ver. 19. Where were the body?] So the body political consisteth not of a physician and a physician (saith Aristotle), but of a physician and a husbandman, &c.

Ver. 20. But now are they many members, &c.] 1. Use; 2. Necessity; 3. Honour; 4. Comeliness, 5. Mutual consent,—commend these things. Let every man try his membership (1. If sociable with Christ and his people; 2. If useful and serviceable to the body; 3. If sensible and compassionate, &c., being himself also in the body), as was before advised.

Ver. 21. The eye cannot say, &c.] Superiors may not slight their inferiors, since they cannot be without them, as one time or other they will be forced to acknowledge. It was a saying of General Vere to the king of Denmark, that kings cared not for soldiers until such time as their crowns hung on the one side of their heads.

Ver. 22. Which seem to be, &c.] As the organs of nourishment, not so noble, but more necessary than those of the senses.

Ver. 23. And those members] As the organs of excretion and generation, called less honourable and uncomely, non per se, sed comparate, comparatively in respect of those parts that are singularly comely.

Our uncomely parts, &c.] It was at the abomination of Baal-peor, or Priapus, that his worshippers said, Nos, pudore pulso, stamus sub Iove, caelis apertis, &c. God taught our first parents to make coverings to hide their nakedness, and the contrary is often threatened as a curse, #Isa 3:17.

Ver. 24. For our comely parts] A fair face needs no dress, is its own testimonial, a bait without a hook, said Socrates, δελεαρ ανευ αγκιστρου..

Ver. 25. Should have the same care] As if the heel do but ache, the whole condoleth and cureth, and careth; and yet without dividing care, that there might be no schism in the body.

Ver. 26. And whether one man suffer] This spiritual sympathy, mirum est quam frigide tractetur inter Christianos hodie, saith Aretius on this text. {See Trapp on "1Co 12:20"} {See Trapp on "1Co 12:27"} Luther in a certain epistle of his to Lampertus Thorn, a prisoner for Christ, thus writeth, Consolabor me quod vestra vincula men sunt, vestri carceres et ignes mei sunt; sunt vero, dum ea confiteor et praedico, vobisque simul compatior, et congratulor, that is, I doubt (and it is a grief to me) that I shall never have the honour of martyrdom as you have. But herein I can comfort myself, that your bonds are my bonds, your imprisonment and burning at a stake mine; for so they are so long as I confess and extol them; so long as I both suffer with you and rejoice with you. (Tom. ii. Epist.)

Ver. 27. Now ye are, &c.] St Cyprian’s sympathy is remarkable, Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, moeroris et funeris pondera luctuosa participo; Cum plangentibus plango, cum deflentibus defleo. Hereby he showed himself a living member.

Ver. 28. Diversities of tongues] This comes in last, either to bid check to their pride, who gloried so much in their many languages; or because he meant to say more to it in the words following.

Ver. 29. Are all teachers?] Yes, some would have it so, as in Alcibiades’ army all were leaders, no learners.

Ver. 31. Covet earnestly, &c.] Ζηλουτε, ambite. This is the best ambition. Christians should strive to excel, and be the best at what they undertake. Melancthon saith that Frederick the elector of Saxony had cropped off the tops of all virtues.

A more excellent way] What was that? Charity to God and men, #1Co 13:1. Graces are better than gifts. A shopful of barrels enrich not, unless full of commodities. Gifts as to heaven are but the lumber of a Christian; it is grace maketh him rich toward God; and is therefore chiefly to be coveted. Care also is to be taken that we get not the spiritual rickets; grow big in the head (in gifts), decay in the vitals, i.e. in grace and the exercise of it.

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. Though I speak with the tongues] The Corinthians gloried much in this gift of tongues; but this a man may have, and yet perish, as Mithridates, who is said to have spoken two and twenty languages. And Cleopatra was a great linguist, she could give answers to Ethiopian, Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian, Median, and Parthian ambassadors, saith Plutarch; yea, she could turn and tune her tongue as an instrument of many strings to what dialect she pleased, την γλωτταν ωσπερ οργανον τι πολυχορδον ευπετως τρεπουσα..

And of angels] Not that angels have tongues; as neither have they wings, though they are said to fly, and even unto weariness of fight, #Da 9:21. A certain friar undertook to show to the people a feather of the angel Gabriel’s wing, and so verified the old proverb, "a friar, a liar." But the apostle here useth a high kind of expression, such as is used #Ac 6:15 Ps 78:25. Unless, perhaps, saith Chrysostom here, the angels have suo modo sua colloquia. The schoolmen have great disputes about it, and tell us that when an angel hath a conceit in his mind of anything, with a desire that another should understand it, it is enough, it is done immediately. But are not these they that intrude into those things that they have not seen? #Col 2:18, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, #1Ti 1:7. Like unto these are our new millenaries, that upon a mistake of some high expressions in Scripture, which describe the judgments poured out upon God’s enemies in making a way to the Jews’ conversion by the pattern of the last judgment, think that Jesus Christ shall come from heaven again, and reign here upon earth a thousand years. (See Mr Cotton’s Sixth Vial.)

Or a tinkling cymbal] Sounding only for pleasure, but signifying nothing. Tiberius the emperor was wont to call Apion the grammarian cymbalum orbis, the cymbal of the world, for his much prattle. (Sueton.) And Jerome inveighs against some in his time, qui verbis tinnulis et emendicath utebantur, that used only tinkling and tickling words, without weight or worth.

Ver. 2. And have not charity] If I knew and did all for ostentation, not for edification; as Stephen Gardiner, who blew up his gifts to the view of others, as butchers blow up their flesh. Chrysostom saith that to show mercy is a more glorious work than to raise from the dead. Removing of mountains is instanced, because noted by our Saviour as a master miracle, #Mt 17:20 Lu 17:6. A man may cast out devils, and yet be cast to the devil.

And have not charity, it profiteth me nothing] The same is true of all other parts of obedience, whether active or passive. If we were as constant frequenters of the Church as Anna the prophetess was of the temple, #Lu 2:36-38, si aures nostrae ad portam Ecclesiae fixae essent, saith one, if our ears were nailed to the church doors, if our knees were grown as hard as camel’s knees with much kneeling before the Lord, if our faces were furrowed with continual weeping, as Peter’s is said to have been, yet if we lacked charity, all were nothing.

Ver. 3. Though I bestow all my goods] Unless I draw out my soul as well as my sheaf to the hungry, #Isa 58:10. Many shrink up charity to a handbreadth, to giving of alms.

And though I give my body, &c.] As Servetus the heretic did at Geneva, A. D. 1555. So Mauzius the Anabaptist gave his body to be drowned at Tigure, A. D. 1527 (Scultet. Annal.); Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, to be beheaded for holding the pope’s supremacy; Friar Forest, to be hanged for the same cause. And how many of our popish martyrs (malefactors or traitors, I should say) have worn the Tyburn tippet, {a} as Father Latimer phraseth it! And more of them must, for they be some of them knaves all, as the L. Audley, chancellor of England, once said to the thirteen Calais prisoners for religion, whom he discharged; and like bells they will never be well tuned till well hanged. For what reason? they are flabella et flagella Reip., &c.

{a} A jocular name for a hangman’s rope: usually Tyburn tippet. ŒD

Ver. 4. And is kind] χρηστευεται, or, is easy to be made use of, ready to any good office. Charity is no churl.

Vaunteth not itself] With the scorn of others. Arrianus saith, that he is περπερος, that blameth others and is restless in himself. Such a one was Timon of old and Laurentius Valla of late.

Is not puffed up] Hence charity is portrayed as a naked child with a merry countenance, covered in a cloud, with a bloody heart in the right hand, giving honey to a bee without wings.

Ver. 5. Behave itself unseemly] οισχημονει, or, doth not disgrace any one.

Is not easily provoked] παροξυνεται, falls not into any sharp fit, as they did, #Ac 15:39, so as that her teeth are set on edge, or that she should show her anger by the trembling of the body.

Thinketh no evil] Is not suspicious, or doth not meditate revenge.

Ver. 6. Rejoiceth with the truth] Nulla est igitur inter males charitas, sed coniuratio potius, saith a grave expositor. It is not charity, but conspiracy, that is found in wicked men. (Dr Sclater.)

Ver. 7. Beareth all things] στεγει, tegit. Covereth faults with her large mantle, dissembleth injuries, swalloweth down whole many pills that would prove very bitter in the chewing. The Greek word is metaphora a tignis, say some, and signifies, that charity "beareth all things," as the cross main beam in a house supporteth the whole building. (Pareus a Lapide.)

Believeth all things] Is candid and ingenuous, yet not blind and blockish. No man may ravish me out of my wits, saith one; to conclude as Walter Mapes did of his Church of Rome, after he had related the gross simony {a} of the pope, Sit tamen Domina materque nostra Roma baculus in aqua fractus, et absit credere quae vidimus. If a Papist see one of their priests kissing a woman, he is by their canon law bid to believe that the priest is giving her counsel only. Their rule to their novices is, Tu et Asinus unum estote. You and an ass shall be one.

Endureth all things] Love, as it is a passion, so it is tried rather by passions than actions.

{a} The act or practice of buying or selling ecclesiastical preferments, benefices, or emoluments; traffic in sacred things. ŒD

Ver. 8. Prophecies, they shall fail] The archprophet shall teach us immediately, as he had done Moses and Elias, who appearing to Christ in the transfiguration, knew and could say far more to our Saviour for his comfort and confirmation against the bitterness of his death than ever they could while here living upon earth, #Lu 9:31.

Whether there be knowledge] Gotten by study, and communicated to others. For Lilmod lelamreed, say the rabbins, we therefore learn that we may teach.

Ver. 9. We prophesy in part] We therefore know but imperfectly, because we are taught but imperfectly. My greatest knowledge, said Chytraeus, is to know that I know nothing. (Melch. Adam.) And not only in most other things am I ignorant, said Augustine, {Epist. cxix. chapt. xxi.} but even in the Scriptures (my chief study and trade of life) multo plura nescio quam scio I am ignorant of more matters than I know. The rabbins in their comments upon Scripture, when they meet with hard knots that they cannot explicate, they solve all with this, Elia cum venerit, solver omnia, Elias, when he comes, shall assoil all our doubts. Erastus at the point of death said, that he therefore held it a happiness to die, because now he should fully understand an answer to all those harder questions wherein here he could have no satisfaction. (Melch. Adam, in Vita Erasti.)

Ver. 10. Then that which is in part] As the old slough falls off when the new skin comes on. As a man returns no more to the free school that hath proceeded in the university.

Ver. 11. When I was a child] Adrian VI, before he became pope, taxed the Church of Rome for many errors; but afterwards, being desired to reform them, he wickedly abused these words for an answer, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, &c., but now being a man," &c.

Ver. 12. In a glass, &c.] See #Nu 12:8.

But then face to face] i.e. Distinctly, Clearly, immediately, beatifically. And surely, if Lipsius thought when he did but read Seneca that he was even upon Olympus’ top, above mortality and human things; what a case shall we be in, when we shall behold Christ in his glory, and consider that every vein in that blessed body bled to bring us to bliss! If the mathematics alone are so delectable, that men think it sweet to live and die in those studies; what shall we think of heaven’s happiness, which we shall one day clearly apprehend, but not fully comprehend?

Now I know in part] The present tense in grammar is accompanied with the imperfect; the perfect with the plusquam perfectum pluperfect. And such is the condition of our present and future happiness.

Even as I am known] We shall know the creatures by knowing God; as God now knows all his works by knowing himself.

Ver. 13. The greatest of these] Because longest lasting. Gifts that suppose imperfection in us, as faith and hope, or misery in others, as pity, &c., shall be put away. Secondly, because it is diffusive of itself to the use of others; whereas faith and hope are private goods; they are confined to the person of the believer. That was a memorable saying of Elizabeth Folks, martyr, at the stake, "Farewell all the world, farewell faith, farewell hope"; and so taking the stake in her hand, she said, "Welcome love."

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. Follow after charity] Διωκετε, follow it hot-foot, as they say; pursue and practise it. It is more than to desire or to be zealous of a thing, as it follows in the next words, Ζηλουτε, "Be zealous of spiritual gifts." Follow charity close, as the hunter doth his prey, or as the persecutor doth the martyr, that will hide or escape if he can. Charity may be fitly compared to the precious stone Pantarb, spoken of by Philostratus; a stone of great beauty and of strange property; so bright it is and radiant, that it gives light in the darkest midnight; and that light is of that admirable virtue, that it brings together the stones that it reacheth into heaps, as if they were so many hives of bees; but nature, lest so precious a gift should be undervalued, hath not only hid this stone in the secret bowels of the earth, but hath also put into it a property of slipping out of the hands of those that hold it, Nisi provida ratione teneatur, unless they hold it fast indeed.

Ver. 2. In an unknown tongue] So they that preach in a kind of a Roman English, and not in a low language to the people’s capacity.

But unto God] Canit sibi et Musis, as the proverb is; and as good he may hold his tongue, for God needs him not.

Ver. 3. To edification, to exhortation] These three ends every preacher ought to propound to himself: 1. Edification in knowledge and holiness. 2. Exhortation, that is, reprehension and admonition. 3. Consolation, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, #Heb 12:13.

Ver. 4. Edifieth the Church] Therefore prophecy is the more worthy, because profitable. Prodesse melius quam praeesse.

Ver. 5. I would that ye all spake with tongues] Gr. "I will." He here prefers prophesying (which was most edifying) before speaking with tongues, which they most affected, because it served most ad pompam, for applause and admiration.

Ver. 6. If I come unto you, &c.] This you would not like in me. And is that Venus in Caio Venus in Gaius, that is Naevus in Titio? a mole in Titius, a blemish in one that is a beauty in another?

By revelation, or by knowledge, or, &c.] Piscator reads it by revelation or by knowledge; that is, either by prophesying or by doctrine. The apostle expounding himself.

Ver. 7. Except they give a distinction] Unisono nihil auribus molestius. Discords in music make the best harmony. Through all Turkey there runs one tune, nor can every man play that; yet scarcely any but hath a fiddle with two strings.

Ver. 8. For if the trumpet] Similes are excellent for illustration, and must be fetched from things familiar.

Ver. 9. Ye shall speak into the air] You shall lose your labour, and may as well keep your breath to cool your broth.

Ver. 10. So many kinds of voices] Seventy-two material languages, they say.

Ver. 11. A barbarian] So the Grecians called all nations that spoke not their language. It is reported that nowhere in this day is spoken more barbarous language than at Athens, once the Greece of Greece. (Neand. Chron.)

Ver. 12. To the edifying of the Church] Clouds when full pour down, and the presses overflow, and the aromatic trees sweat out their precious and sovereign oils; and every learned scribe must bring out his treasure for the Church’s behoof and benefit.

Ver. 13. Pray that he may interpret] Pope Innocent III never prayed thus; for he said, that the Church decreed the service in an unknown tongue, Ne sacrosaneta verba vilescerent, lest the holy words should be underprized. But public prayers in an unknown tongue, saith Erasmus, must be attributed to the change of time itself in Italy, France, and Spain, for there a long time the Latin was understood by all. But when afterwards their speeches degenerated into those common tongues now there used, then the language, not of the service, but of the people, was altered.

Ver. 14. Is unfruitful] In regard of others’ edification. It were a great grace, said Lambert the martyr, if we might have the word of God diligently and often spoken and sung unto us in such wise, that the people might understand it; then should it come to pass that craftsmen should sing spiritual psalms sitting at their work, and the husbandman at his plough, as wisheth St Jerome. Pavier, townclerk of London in Henry VIII’s time, was a man that in no case could abide to hear that the gospel should be in English; insomuch that he once swore a great oath, that if he thought that the king’s Highness would set forth the Scripture in English, and let it be read by the people by his authority, rather than he would so long live, he would cut his own throat. But he broke promise, for shortly after he hanged himself.

Ver. 15. I will pray with understanding] To an effectual prayer there must concur intentio et affectus, the intention of the mind and the affection of the heart; else it is not praying, but parroting. I have read of a parrot in Rome, that could distinctly say over the whole Creed. (Sphinx. Philos.)

Ver. 16. Say Amen] This the apostle reckons for a great loss. The poor misled and muzzled Papists are enjoined not to join so far with a Protestant in any holy action, as to say Amen. But in that there is no so great loss. (Specul. Europ.)

Ver. 17. But the other is not edified] This we should all labour, viz. to edify others. Synesius speaks of some, who having a treasure of tongues and other abilities in them, would as soon part with their hearts as their meditations; the canker of whose great skill shall be a witness against them.

Ver. 18. I thank my God, &c.] Skill in tongues is, as now, a great blessing. Indeed at first when men began θεομαχειν, to fight against God, they were compelled λογομαχειν, to babble in divers languages, 72, as Epiphanius affirmeth. But God hath turned this curse into a blessing unto his people, #Ac 2:4-13, and as in the first plantation of the gospel, so in the late reformation; God sent it before, as his munition to batter the forts of Antichrist, who had banished arts and languages, overspreading all with barbarism and atheism. Graece nosse suspectum erat. Hebraice fere haereticum.

Ver. 19. In an unknown tongue] A Parisian doctor tells us that though the apostle would have God’s service to be celebrated in a known tongue, yet the Church for various weighty reasons hath otherwise ordered and appointed it. (Benedict.) The Mahometans read their Koran (which they supposed were profaned if it were translated into common tongues) and perform their public devotions in the Arabic tongue, which is their learned language. (Montan. in #1Co 14)

Ver. 20. Be not children] Mentibus scilicet, sed moribus, #Mt 18:3. {See Trapp on "Mt 18:3"}

In malice be ye children] In innocence and ignoscence.

In understanding be men] Is it not a shame to have no more understanding at 80 than at eight years of age?

Ver. 21. With men of other tongnes] God threatened the Jews, that since they would not hearken to their own prophets, they should hear foreign enemies, #Isa 28:11 Jer 5:15. So those that will not obey the sweet command of Christ, "Come unto me," shall have one day no command to obey, but that dreadful discedite, "Depart from me," &c.

Ver. 22. But for them which believe] To confirm and comfort believers; this is the chief end of preaching. Let this comfort those that cannot say they have converted any by their ministry.

Ver. 23. Will they not say ye are mad?] And may they not say as much if we jangle and dissent in opinion, one holding this, and another that. Ammianus Marcellinus taxed the ancient bishops of his time for their hateful miscarriage in this kind.

Ver. 24. He is convinced of all] God smiteth the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips doth he slay the wicked, #Isa 11:4. By his word he telleth a man (as he did the Samaritaness, #Joh 4:16,17,39) all that ever he did.

Ver. 25. The secrets of his heart] God’s word is a curious critic, #Heb 4:12 "a discerner of the thoughts," &c. It finds and ferrets out secret sins.

Ver. 26. Let all things, &c.] There is edifying even in appointing of fit Psalms.

Ver. 27. Or at the most by three] Lest the hearers be tired out. Our infirmity will not suffer any long intention, either of body or mind. Long services can hardly maintain their vigour, as in tall bodies the spirits are diffused. Erasmus hath observed that Origen never preached above an hour, often but half an hour: Consultius iudicabat crebro docere, quam diu, saith he. He held it better to preach often, than long. (Eras. Praefat. ad Orig. Opera.)

Ver. 28. Let him keep silence] Such as stuff their sermons with Greek and Latin are here silenced, further than they interpret the same. If thou canst help my hearers to Greek and Latin ears (saith a reverend preacher) they shall have Greek and Latin enough.

Ver. 29. Let the other judge] But is not this a disparagement to the prophets? may some say: no, but an honour. #1Th 5:20,21, after "despise not prophesying," he subjoineth, "try all things."

Ver. 30. That sitteth by] And is extraordinarily inspired and qualified; a little otherwise than our enthusiasts, that brag of their lumen propheticum, light of prophecy.

Ver. 31. That all may learn] The most learned may learn something by the discourses of others less learned than themselves. Apollos, a learned teacher, may yet be taught by a tentmaker. The Jewish rabbins acknowledge that they came to understand #Isa 14:23, by hearing an Arabian woman mention a besom in her language to her maid, אטאט (R. David in Radic.)

Ver. 32. Are subject to the prophets] To be scanned and examined: which they should not be, unless they took their turns in course to prophesy. Eloquere, said one, ut quid sis videam: Speak, that I may see what is in thee.

Ver. 33. Not the author of confusion] Nec author, nec fautor. Unquiet spirits are of the devil, who keeps ado, and fills the Church with confusion by his turbulent agents and emissaries, sowing sedition and spreading schisms.

Ver. 34. Let your women, &c.] {See Trapp on "Ro 16:1"}

Ver. 35. Ask their husbands] Who therefore must dwell with them according to knowledge, #1Pe 3:7, and be manly guides unto them in the way to heaven. The master’s breast must be the household’s treasury.

For it is a shame for women, &c.] She was a singular example that taught the Greek and Latin tongues at Heidelberg, A.D. 1554; her name was Olympia Fulvia Morata, an Italian, of the city of Ferrara. Ancient histories indeed make mention of one Aratha, who read openly in the schools at Athens 25 years, made 40 books, and a hundred philosophers to her scholars. Leoptia likewise wrote against Theophrastus; Corinna often contended with Pindarus in versifying.

Ver. 36. What? came the word, &c.] As if he should say (and he saith it with some displeasure), Are ye the first, or the only Christians? are ye too good to be admonished? take heed lest your arrogance and high spiritedness lay you low enough, even in that slimy valley, #Job 21:31,32.

Ver. 37. The commandment] And therefore to be obeyed by the best of you. Aut faciendum, aut patiendum: Aut poenitendum, aut pereundum. Either do it, or die for it.

Ver. 38. But if any man be ignorant, &c.] If stubbornly ignorant and uncounsellable; let him take his own course. I have cleared the truth in things now controverted, and there I rest me. Who so blind as he that will not see? such put not light under a bushel, but under a dunghill, and shall give a heavy account of it to God. When I hear men (saith Lord Kemp) under all the means that we enjoy, yet think that their ignorance shall excuse them, it makes me think of the answer of the agent of Charles V, emperor to the ambassador of Sienna. The Siennois having rebelled against the emperor, sent their ambassador to excuse it; who when he could find no other excuse, thought in a jest to put it off thus: What, saith he, shall not we of Sienna be excused, seeing we are known to be all fools? the agent replied, Even that shall excuse you, but upon the condition which is fit for fools, which is, to be kept bound and enchained.

Ver. 39. Wherefore, brethren] This he adds as a corollary, to prevent mistakes, as if that he were an enemy either to prophecy or tongues, so soberly and orderly used. Arbitror nonnullos in quibusdam locis librorum meorum, opinaturos me, sensisse quod non sensi, aut non sensisse quod sensi, saith Augustine (lib. iii. de Trin. c. 3): I foresee that some will construe many passages of my writings far otherwise than I intend them: and it happened accordingly, as Baronius testifieth. (Annul. tom. 6, A. D. 450, n. 17.)

Ver. 40. Let all things, &c.] A general rule of great moment. In things both real and ritual decency and order must be observed in Church meetings. For this the Colossians are much commended, #Col 2:5. Our Saviour caused the people whom he had fed to keep order in their sitting on the grass; they sat down rank by rank, as rows or borders of beds in a garden; so the Greek imports. {a} Whereupon an expositor noteth, Ordinatim res in Ecclesia faciendae, order must be observed in the Church.

{a} πρασιαι πρασιαι, Hebraisc. ut #Ex 8:14. Cartwright.

Chapter 15

Ver. 1. And wherein ye stand] εστηκατε, a military term, as Martyr noteth. Satan overthroweth the faith of some, #2Ti 2:18, and by this very engine wherewith he assaulted these Corinthians, ibid. So that the apostle was fain to make apology, #1Co 15:19, to make a barricado.

Ver. 2. By which also ye are saved] Eternal life is potentially in the word, as the harvest is potentially in the seed, or as the tree is in the kernel or scion, #Jas 1:21.

If ye keep in memory] He limiteth the promise of salvation to the condition of keeping in memory what they had heard. Tantum didicimus, quantum meminimus, said Socrates; many have memories like nets, that let go the fair water, retain the filth only; or like sieves, that keep the chaff, let go the corn. If God come to search them with a candle, what shall he find but old songs, old wrongs, &c.? not a promise of any word of God hidden there: for things of that nature they are like Sabinus in Seneca, that never in all his life could remember those three names of Homer, Ulysses, and Achilles. But the soul should be as a holy ark, the memory like the pot of manna, preserving holy truths.

Ver. 3. First of all] Christ is to be preached with the first, as being the prora et puppis of man’s happiness, #Joh 16:14. It is the office of the Holy Ghost to take of Christ’s excellencies, and hold them out to the world. What then should ministers, the mouth of the Holy Ghost, do rather?

Ver. 4. According to the Scriptures] Which both foreshowed and foreshadowed it in Adam’s waking, Isaac’s reviving, as it were from the dead, Joseph’s abasement and advancement, Samson’s breaking the bars and bearing away the gates of Gaza, David’s being drawn out of the deep, Daniel’s out of the den, Jeremiah’s out of the dungeon, Jonah’s out of the belly of hell, #Mt 12:39, &c.

Ver. 5. Seen of Cephas] Adam died, and we hear no more of him. But Christ showed himself after death in six several apparitions for our confirmation.

Then of the twelve] So they are called for the rotundity of the number, utcunque unus vel alter vel deesset eel abesset. Judas had made one long letter of himself, Longam literam fecit.

Ver. 6. Above five hundred] The number of believers were then greater than some would gather out of #Ac 1:15. Those 120 may seem to have been chieftains, such as that any one of them might have been thought meet to succeed Judas in his apostleship.

Ver. 7. Seen of James] This is not mentioned in the Gospel, as neither that of Peter, #1Co 15:5.

Ver. 8. One born out of due time] Quasi malo astro abortus, et adversante natura coactus. One that deserved to be rejected, as that forlorn infant, #Eze 16:4,5.

Ver. 9. I am the least of the apostles] Not come to my just size, as one born out of due time, and not without violence. Paulus quasi Paululus, saith one, because he was least in his own eyes, "less than the least of all saints," #Eph 3:8. Melancthon was of a like self-denying spirit, insomuch as Luther thought he went too far this way; Certe nimis nullus in hae est Philippus, Philip is too low conceited.

Not meet to be called] True humility, as true balm, ever sinks to the bottom of the water, when pride, like oil, ever swims on the top.

Ver. 10. I laboured more abundantly] See #2Co 11:23 Ro 15:19. George Eagles, martyr in Queen Mary’s days, for his great pains in travelling from place to place to confirm the brethren, was surnamed, Trudge over the world. Might not St Paul have been fitly so surnamed?

Not I, but the grace of God] So those good servants, #Lu 19:16, Not we, but thy talents have gained other five, and other two, &c. Let God have the entire praise of all our good. We should boast and glory of nothing, because nothing is ours, saith holy Austin, who (being wholly of St Paul’s spirit) was a great advancer of the grace of God, and abaser of man against ‘all those patrons of nature with their vitreum acumen, bright but brittle sharpness of wit, as he styleth it.

Which was with me] Present with me, not which did work with me, as the Synergists would have it.

Ver. 11. So we preach, and so ye believed] A happy compliance, when the hearers’ affections and endeavours do answer the affections and endeavours of the preacher, as here, and at Ephesus, #Ac 20:31-37; when people deliver themselves up to the form of doctrine, and are cast into the mould of the word, #Ro 6:17.

Ver. 12. No resurrection] More than that of regeneration, #Mt 19:28, that estate of the gospel called a new heaven and a new earth, #2Pe 3:13, the world to come, #Heb 2:5, that resurrection already past, #2Ti 2:18, that first resurrection, #Re 20:5.

Ver. 13. Then is not Christ risen] But of Christ’s resurrection there were many both living and dead witnesses, as the earthquake, empty grave, stone rolled away, clothes wrapt up, &c.

Ver. 14. Then is our preaching vain] Never was there any imposture put upon the world as Christianity, if Christ be yet in the grave.

Ver. 15. False witnesses of God] For they might safely say with Jeremiah, Lord, if we be deceived, thou hast deceived us.

Ver. 16. Then is not Christ raised] And so God’s decree is cassated, #Ac 13:33 cf. Ps 50:7.

Ver. 17. Ye are yet in your sins] #Ro 4:25. If he had not been let out of prison, our debt had remained upon us. But God sent his angel to roll away the stone, as the judge sends an officer to fetch one out of prison, and to release him. And this is the strength of our Saviour’s reason, #Joh 16:10. The Spirit shall convince the world of righteousness (that I am Jehovah their righteousness), because I go to the Father, which I could not have done, unless you were acquitted of all your sins.

Ver. 18. Asleep in Christ] The Germans call the churchyard God’s Acre, because the bodies are sowed therein, to be raised again. The Greeks call them κοιμητηρια, sleeping houses. The Hebrews call the grave Becbajim, the house of the living, Job calls it the congregation house of all living, #Job 30:23. As the apostle calls heaven the congregation house of the firstborn, #Heb 12:23.

Ver. 19. Most miserable] Because none out of hell ever suffered more than the saints have done.

Ver. 20. The firstfruits, &c.] As in the firstfruits offered to God, the Jews were assured of God’s blessing on the whole harvest; so by the resurrection of Christ, our resurrection is insured.

Christ is risen] This was wont to be the form of salutation among Christians of old, Christus resurrexit, Christ is risen from the dead.

Ver. 21. By man came also, &c.] God’s justice would be satisfied in the same nature that had sinned.

Ver. 22. Shall all be made alive] The saints shall be raised by virtue of the union with Christ to glory, the wicked shall be dragged to his tribunal by his Almighty power as a judge, to be tumbled thence into hell’s torment.

Ver. 23. At his coming] As in the meantime their very dust is precious; the dead bodies consumed are not so destroyed, but that there is a substance preserved by a secret influence proceeding from Christ as a head. Hence they are said to be dead in Christ, who by rotting refineth them.

Ver. 24. Delivered up the kingdom] Not his essential kingdom, as God, by his economical, as Mediator.

Ver. 25. Till he hath put] And after too, but, 1. Without adversaries; 2. Without any outward means and ordinances.

Ver. 26. That shall be destroyed] It is already to the saints swallowed up in victory, so that they may say to it, as Jacob did to Esau, "Surely I have seen thy face as the face of God." This Esau, death, meets a member of Christ with kisses instead of frowns, and guards him home, as he did Jacob to his father’s house.

Ver. 27. All things under his feet] This, #Ps 8:7,8, spoken of man in general, is properly applied to the man Christ Jesus; in whom also it extendeth to the saints, who are therefore more glorious than heaven, earth, or any creature, and shall have power over all, #Re 2:26. (Cameron. de Eccles.)

Ver. 28. That God may be all in all] Till sin and death be abolished we have no access to God but by Christ. But after that all enemies be trod under foot, then shall we have an immediate union with God; yet so, as that this shall be the proper and everlasting praise of Christ, as he is the procurer of that union.

Ver. 29. Which are baptized] The several senses that are set upon this text, see in Beza, Piscator, but especially our new annotations upon the Bible.

Ver. 30. In jeopardy every hour] Carrying our lives in our hands, as both the Hebrews and Greeks phrase it, εν τη χειρι την ψυχην εχειν. (Athenseus.)

Ver. 31. By our rejoicing] i.e. By our infirmities, afflictions, wherein he so much glorieth, #2Co 11:23-12:10, as an old soldier doth of his scars. As if the apostle should say, I appeal to all those miseries that I have suffered among you for a testimony.

Ver. 32. If after the manner, &c.] Paul fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men, that is, say some, the men of Ephesus fought with him after the manner of beasts. (Beza, Sclater.) Others more probably understand it literally; If after the manner of men, that is, as men use to do, to show their valour (he meaneth those Bestiarii fighters with wild beasts at shows among the Romans), I have been cast to the beasts, and have either overcome them, as Lysimachus did the lion, or have been spared by them, as corpora sanctorum martyrum tangere multoties refugiebant bestiae, saith the historian, what advantageth it me, &c. And this latter sense is a stronger argument of the resurrection. (Chrysost. Ambros.)

Let us eat and drink] An ill inference of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth. Chrysostom saith, There were a sort of such in his time, as said δος μοι την σημερον και λαβε την αυριον, Give me today, and take thou tomorrow (την αυριον τις οιδεν. Anacreon.) And have not we those that say, Let us be merry while we may, we shall never be younger, Ede, bibe, lude, post mortem nulla voluptas, Eat, drink and play, there is no pleasure after death, it was wisely done of the Romans to banish Alaecus and Philiscus, a couple of swinish epicures, lest they should by their evil communication and conversation corrupt others. St Paul, though he allegeth this saying out of #Isa 22:13, yet he alludeth (likely) to Sardanapalus’s epitaph at Tarsus, a city built by this Sardanapalus, Εσθιε, πινε, παιζε, ως της αλλα τουτου ουκ αξια, Ede, bibe, lude; nam caetera omnia nec huius sunt; Eat, drink, sport; for all other things are not worth a fillip: for so his statue was carved as if his hands had given a fillip, and his mouth had spoken these words. (Greg. Posthum.)

Ver. 33. Evil communication] Evil words are not wind, as most imagine, but the devil’s drivel, that leaves a foul stain upon the speaker, and often sets the like upon the hearer. Shun obscene borborology (filthy talk) (saith one) and unsavoury speeches; thou losest so much of thine honesty and piety as thou admittest evil into thy tongue.

Ver. 34. Awake to righteousness] Go forth and shake yourselves (as Samson did) out of that dead lethargy whereinto sin hath cast you; your enemies are upon you, and you fast asleep the while.

I speak this to your shame] Ignorance is a blushful sin. Are ye also ignorant? said Christ to his apostles; q.d. that is an arrant shame, indeed. The Scripture sets such below the ox and the ass.

Ver. 35. But some man will say] Some epicure will object, and say, How can these things be? A privatione ad habitum non datur regressus. {See Trapp on "Ac 17:18"}

Ver. 36. Thou fool] A hard knot must have a hard wedge, a dead heart a rousing reproof. He confutes atheists from the course of nature, which they ascribe so much unto.

Ver. 37. And that which thou sowest] This is an answer to the epicure’s second demand, #1Co 15:35, with what body do they come? with a dead, diseased, rotten body, &c.? No, no, saith the apostle. Sin is only rotted with its concomitancies, infirmities; but the rotting of the body is but as the rotting of a kernal under the clod, that it may arise incorruptible. Or as the melting of an old piece of plate in the fire, to bring it out of a better fashion. Christ was buried in a garden, to note that death doth not destroy our bodies, but only sow them: the dew of herbs will revive them again. {See Trapp on "1Co 15:18"}

Ver. 38. But God giveth it a body] Deus naturae vires et vices ita moderatur, &c., saith one. God so orders all, that nothing is done without him. The same Hebrew word הוילמ that signifieth an ear of grain, doth also signify a word; because every field of grain is a book of God’s praise, every land a sheaf, every sheaf a verse, every ear a word, every corn of wheat a letter to express the power and goodness of God.

Ver. 39. All flesh is not the same] This is another answer to the epicure, who might haply reply, and say, If man’s flesh, when rotted, shall revive, why not likewise the flesh of other creatures? The apostle answereth, "All flesh is not the same," &c. Man’s flesh only is informed by a reasonable and immortal soul, not so the flesh of other creatures: and hence the difference.

Ver. 40. There are also celestial] Stars and spirits (the inhabitants of that other heaven) I find, saith a divine, like one another. Meteors and fowls in as many varieties as there are several creatures. Why? Is it because man, for whose sake they were made, delights in variety, God in constancy? Or is it because that in these God may show his own skill and their imperfection?

The glory of the terrestrial] The glory of our terrestrial bodies shall at the resurrection be celestial; they shall be more like spirits than bodies, so clear and transparent, saith Aquinas, that all the veins, humours, nerves, and bowels shall be seen, as in a glass: they shall be conformed to the glorified body of Christ, as to the standard.

Ver. 41. One star differeth, &c.] The morning star is said to cast a shadow with its shine. "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the seven stars?" #Job 38:31, whose work is to bring the spring, and which, like seven sisters or lovers (as the word signifies), are joined together in one fair constellation. Or "loose the bands of Orion?" the star that brings winter, and binds the earth with frost and cold. "Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth," the southern constellations? "Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons," that is, the northern stars, those storehouses of God’s good treasure, which he openeth to our profit? #De 28:12.

Ver. 42. So also is the resurrection] Whether there are degrees of glory, as it seems probable, so we shall certainly know, when we come to heaven. Three glimpses of the body’s glory were seen, in Moses’ face, in Christ’s transfiguration, and in Stephen’s countenance.

Ver. 43. It is raised in power] The resurrection will cure all infirmities. At Stratford-le-Bow were burned in Queen Mary’s days, at one stake, a lame man and a blind man. The lame man after he was chained, casting away his crutch, bade the blind man be of good comfort, for death would heal them both; and so they patiently suffered.

Ver. 44. A spiritual body] Luther saith the body shall move up and down like thought. Augustine saith, they shall move to any place they will, as soon as they will. As birds (saith Zanchius) being hatched, do fly lightly up into the skies, which being eggs, were a heavy and slimy matter; so man, being hatched by the resurrection, is made pure and nimble, and able to mount up into the heavens.

Ver. 45. A quickening spirit] Christ is called a spirit from his Deity, as #Heb 9:14, and a quickening spirit, because he is the principle of life to all believers.

Ver. 46. And afterward, that is spiritual] Nature, art, grace, proceed from less perfect or more perfect. Let us advance forward, and ripen apace, that we "may be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead," #Lu 20:35.

Ver. 47. Of the earth, earthy] Gr. dusty, slimy, ex terra friabili. Let this pull down proud flesh. Let us throw this proud Jezebel out of the windows of our hearts, and lay her honour in the dust, by remembering that we are but earth and dust. Adam of Adamah, red earth; homo ab humo. Humility comes from the same root, because it lays a man flat on the ground; and because, like the earth, it is the most weighty of all virtues.

The Lord from heaven] Not for the matter of his body, for he was "made of a woman"; but for the original and dignity of his person, whereof see a lively and lofty description, #Heb 1:2,3.

Ver. 48. They that are earthy] κερυμος ο ανθρωπος, Vulgus fictilis. Man is but an earthen pot, #Isa 64:8.

Ver. 49. The image of the heavenly] See #Php 3:21. Our bodies shall be fashioned like to Christ’s glorious body in beauty, brightness, incorruption, immortality, grace, favour, agility, strength, and other unspeakable qualities and excellencies. Whether they shall have that power as to toss the greatest mountains like a ball, yea, to shake the whole earth at their pleasure, as Anselm and Luther think, I have not to say.

Ver. 50. Flesh and blood] The body as it is corruptible, cannot enter heaven, but must be changed; we shall appear with him in glory. The vile body of Moses, that was hidden in the valley of Moab, was brought forth glorious in the hill of Tabor, #Mt 17:3.

Ver. 51. I show you a mystery] Not known till now to any man living. This, likely, was one of those wordless words, ρηματα αρρητα, that Paul heard in his rapture, #2Co 12:4.

Ver. 52. The trumpet shall sound] As at the giving of the law it did, #Ex 19:16. If the law were thus given (saith a divine), how shall it be required? If such were the proclamation of God’s statutes, what shall the sessions be? I see and tremble at the resemblance; the trumpet of the angel called to the one; the trumpet of the archangel shall summon us to the other. In the one the mount only was on a flame; all the world shall be so in the other. To the one Moses says, God came with ten thousands of his saints; in the other thousand thousands shall minister to him, and ten thousand thousands shall stand before him.

Ver. 53. For this corruptible] Pointing to his body, he speaketh, as #Ps 34:6 "This poor man cried, the Lord heard him." So the old believers, when they rehearsed the creed, and came to that article, I believe the resurrection of the flesh, they were wont to add, Etiam huius carnis, even of this self-same flesh. So #Job 19:27.

Ver. 54. Death is swallowed up] As the fuel is swallowed up by the fire; as the sorcerers’ serpents were swallowed up by Moses’ serpent.

Ver. 55. Death, where is thy sting?] This is the sharpest and the shrillest note, the boldest and the bravest challenge, that ever man rang in the ears of death. Sarcasmo constat et hostili derisione, qua mors ridenda propinatur, saith one. Death is here out-braved, called craven to his face, and bidden do his worst ( Tollitur mors, non ne fiat, sed ne obsit. Aug.). Death destroy, let it not happen but let it not hurt. So Simeon sings out his soul, Hilarion chides it out, Ambrose is bold to say, I am neither ashamed to live, nor afraid to die. Anne Askew, the martyr, thus subscribeth her own confession: Written by me, Anne Askew, that neither wisheth for death, nor feareth his might; and as merry as one that is bound towards heaven. Mr Bradford being told he should be burned the next day, put off his cap, and lifting up his eyes, praised God for it.

Ver. 56. The sting of death is sin] Christ having unstinged death, and as it were disarmed it, we may safely now put it into our bosoms, as we may a snake whose sting is pulled out. If it shoot forth now a sting at us, it is but an enchanted sting, as was that of the sorcerers’ serpents. Buzz it may about our ears, as a drone bee; but sting us it cannot. Christ, as he hath taken away not sin itself, but the guilt of sin; so not death itself, but the sting of death.

Ver. 57. But thanks be to God, &c.] Here St Paul, Christ’s chief herald, proclaims his victory with a world of solemnity and triumph.

Ver. 58. Always abounding, &c.] This will strengthen faith, as the often knocking upon a stake fastens it. When faith bears fruit upward, it will take root downward.

Forasmuch as ye know] Bestir you therefore. It troubled a martyr at the stake that he should then go to a place where he should ever be receiving wages and do no more work. It will repent us (if it were possible to repent in heaven) that we began no sooner, wrought no harder.

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. Collection for the saints] The poor believers at Jerusalem, #Ro 15:26, who had suffered hard things of their own countrymen, #1Th 2:14, and taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, #Heb 11:34, and were therefore relieved by the Churches of the Gentiles at Paul’s motions, #Ga 2:10. The word here used for saints signifieth such as are taken off from the earth. {a} The saints, though their commoration be upon earth, their conversation is in heaven.

{a} Not οσιοι, but αγιοι, from α and γη.

Ver. 2. Upon the first day] The Christian sabbath, the Lord’s day, as the Greek scholiast well renders it; which to sanctify was in the primitive times a badge of Christianity. When the question was propounded, Servasti Dominicum? Hast thou kept the Lord’s day? The answer was returned, Christianus sum; intermittere non possum, I am a Christian, I can do no less than keep the Lord’s day. But the world is now grown perfectly profane (saith Dr King, on Jonah, Lect. 7), and can play on the Lord’s day without book; the sabbath of the Lord, the sanctified day of his rest, is shamelessly troubled and disquieted.

Lay by him in store] Gr. as a treasure, #1Ti 6:18. Manus pauperum gazophylacium Christi, The poor man’s box is Christ’s treasury.

As God hath prospered him] Gr. ευοδωται, Given him a good arrival at the end of his voyage, and enabled him; for we may not stretch beyond the staple, and so spoil all.

Ver. 3. Your liberality] Gr. your grace; that which having received of God’s free grace you do as freely part with to his poor people.

Ver. 4. That I go also] And go he did, #Ro 15:25 Ac 24:17. The very angels hold not themselves too good to serve the saints.

Ver. 5. When I shall come, &c.] He was not then yet come into Macedonia, neither was this Epistle written at Philippi (as the subscription saith,) a chief city of Macedonia.

Ver. 6. Yea, and winter with you] They had ill deserved such a favour of him; for the more he loved them the less he was beloved of them, #2Co 12:15; but sought he not theirs, but them. Discourtesies must not discourage us from God’s work. Calvin, though but coarsely used at his first coming to Geneva, brake through all.

Ver. 7. If the Lord permit] The Lord ordereth a good man’s goings, #Ps 37:23 See #Ac 16:7-10 cf. Jas 4:13. It was rather rashness than valour in our Richard I, who being told (as he sat at supper) that the French king had besieged his town of Vernoil in Normandy, protested that he would not turn his back until he had confronted the French, And thereupon he caused the wall of his palace that was before him to be broken down toward the south, and went to the sea coast immediately into Normandy.

Ver. 8. But I will tarry at Ephesus] From thence then he wrote this Epistle, and not at Philippi, as the subscription hath it. See #1Co 16:5.

Ver. 9. And effectual] ενεργης, or, busy, that requires great painstaking. The ministry is not an idle man’s occupation, as some fools think it.

And many adversaries] Truth never lacks an opposite. In the beginning of the late Reformation, Eckius, Roffensis, Cajetan, Moore, Faber, Cochlaeus, Catharinus, Pighius, all these wrote against Luther, Summo conatu, acerrimo desiderio, non vulgari doctrina, as one saith, with utmost desire and endeavour.

Ver. 10. For he worketh, &c.] So doth every faithful minister, though of meaner parts: the vine is the weakest of trees, but full of fruit. A little hand may thread a needle. A little boat may do best in a low river. Philadelphia had but a little strength, #Re 3:8, and yet it served turn, and did the deed.

Ver. 11. Let no man despise him] For his youth; for he hath lived much in a little time (as it is said of our Edward VI), and is an old young man, μειρακιογερων, as was Macarius the Egyptian.

Ver. 12. I greatly desire him] Paul did not compel or command him as the pope takes upon him to do, even to princes and potentates. Oh, that all kings would answer him in this case, as Philip the Fair of France did Pope Boniface, claiming a power there to bestow prebends and benefices Sciat tua maxima fatuitas. (Alsted. Chron.)

Ver. 13. Watch ye, &c.] Solomon’s wisdom, Lot’s integrity, and Noah’s sobriety felt the smart of the serpent’s sting. The first was seduced, the second stumbled, the third fell, while the eye of watchfulness was fallen asleep.

Ver. 14. Let all your things, &c.] Love is the saint’s livery, #Joh 13:35. Heathens acknowledged that no people in the world did love one another so as Christians did. In the primitive times, Animo animaque inter se miscebantur, as Tertullian speaketh. But now, alas, it is far otherwise love began to grow cold among these Corinthians. Hence this sweet and savoury counsel. Charity in Christ’s days was much decayed; in Basil’s time, dried up. Latimer saw much a lack of it, that he thought the last day would have been just then. It were to be wished that this apostolical precept were well practised; and that we were all (in a sober sense) of the family of love.

Ver. 15. To the ministry of saints] To serve them in collecting and distributing alms to the nessissitous.

Ver. 16. That ye submit] Giving them due honour, doing them all good offices.

Ver. 17. They have supplied] viz. Your absence; for in them I take a short view of you all.

Ver. 18. They have refreshed] Ipse aspectus viri boni delectat. It is some comfort to see a good man’s face.

Ver. 19. Aquila and Priscilla] Paul’s fast friends and constant companions, worth their weight in gold.

Ver. 20. With a holy kiss] Not hollow, as Joab and Judas; not carnal, as that harlot, #Pr 7:13. See #Ro 16:16.

Ver. 21. With mine own hand] Well known to the Corinthians, to prevent imposture.

Ver. 22. If any man love not] That is, desperately hate. A sin so execrable, that the apostle would not once name it. So the Jews would not name leaven at the passover, nor a sow at any time, but called it dabar achar, another thing.

Anathema, Maranatha] Accursed upon accursed, put over to God to punish. This is a dreadful curse. (Elias Thisbit.) See a gracious promise, #Eph 6:24. God may suffer such as love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, to be Anathema secundum dici (as Bucholcer said), but not secundum esse. See an instance, #Isa 66:5, and say with David, "Let them curse, but do thou bless, Lord."

Ver. 24. My love, &c.] Though I have sharply rebuked you, &c., #Tit 1:13.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16