affairs, and the knowledge I have of the matter, have already as prefent judged him, who hath fo daringly wrought out this infamous work.

4 And my fentence is this, Ye being affembled together, by the authority and will of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who hath appointed wholesome difcipline to be exercifed in his church, and of the Spirit who inspires me to give you this order, fall, with the power of our Lord Jefus Chrift,

5 deliver the guilty perfon to Satan, by a sentence which one of your prefidents fhall publicly pronounce, in order that his flesh, which he hath fo criminally indulged, may be defroyed, fo as to bring him to repentance, that his fpirit may be faved in the day of judgment.

founded, a perfon is as it were put out of the protection of God. See, however, the following note.

3. For the deftruction of the flesh. It was obferved, ch. iv. 21. note, that the apoftles were empowered to punith notorious offenders miraculoufly, with diseases and death. If fo, may we not believe, that the command which the apostle on this occafion gave to the Corinthians, to deliver the incestuous perfon to Satan, for the deftruction of his flesh, was an exertion of that power? Especially as it was to be done, not by their own authority, but by the power of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and of the Spirit who infpired Paul to give the command. Accordingly, Chryfoftom, Theophylact, and Oecumenius conjectured, that in confequence of his being delivered to Satan, the offender's body was weakened and wafted by fome painful disease. But the Latin fathers and Beza thought no fuch effect followed that fentence; because when the Corinthians were ordered, 2 Cor. ii. 7. to forgive him, no mention is made of any bodily disease that was to be removed from him. Wherefore by the deftruction of the flesh, they understood the deftruction of the offender's pride, luft, and other flefly paffions; which they thought would be mortified, when he found himfelt defpifed and fhunned by all. This interpretation, however, does not, in my opinion, agree with the threatenings written, 1 Cor. iv. 21. 2 Cor. xiii. 1. 2. 10. nor with the apoftle's defign in inflicting that punishment. For when the faction found the offender's flefh wafted, by fome grievous difeafe, in confequence of the apoftle's fentence pronounced by the church, it could not fail to terrify fuch of them as were capable of ferious thought,

Ver. 6.

Ver. 6.-1. Your boafting is not good. They had boafted in the false teacher as one who understood the gofpel better than Paul, and who, perhaps, had defended the inceftuous marriage, as a matter permitted by the gospel.

2. Leaveneth the whole lump. Many manuscripts, with the Vulgate verfion, for us, leaveneth, have here dona, corrupteth, which Mill thinks is the proper reading.

Ver. 7.-. Cleanfe out therefore the old leaven. The incestuous perfon is called the old leaven, becaufe he was not a new offender, but had continued long in the bad practice for which he was to be caft out. Or, as his crime was whoredom, it is called old leaven, because the Corinthians in their heathen ftate, had been much addicted to that vice. The Jews were commanded to put away all leaven, both old and new, before they ate the paffover, as being an emblem of wickedness, which fours and corrupts the mind, as leaven does the lump into which it is put, if it remains in it long unbaked.

2. For even our paffover Chrift is facrificed for us. Before the first born of the Egyptians were deftroyed, God ordered the Ifraelites to kill a lamb, and sprinkle the door-polts of their houfes with its blood, that the deftroying angel might pafs over their houfes, when he deftroyed the first-born of the Egyptians. Hence this facrifice was called the paffover. And to commemorate the deliverance effected by it, the feast of the pallover was inftituted to be annually folemnifed by the Ifraelites in their generations. The original facrifice, however, and the feast of its commemoration, were both of them emblematical. The former prefigured Chrift, by the fhedding of whofe blood, be. lievers, God's first born, are delivered from eternal death. Wherefore, Christ's death is the Chriftian paffover, and is fo called in this verse, Chrift our paffover, is facrificed for us. The latter, namely, the commemoration of the deliverance of the firft-born from death, in the feast of

the

6 Your boafting in the falfe teacher, and in the great knowledge he has communicated to you, is not good. Do ye not know, that as a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, so one finner fuffered, will corrupt a whole fociety by his example.

7.6 Seeing vice is fo infectious, cleanfe out the old leaven; put away the inceftuous perfon, that ye may be a pure fociety, when ye are without the leaven of his contagious company. For even our paffover Chrift is facrificed for us Gentiles: the precept given to the Jews to put away leaven, is in its emblematical meaning, applicable to

us.

8 Therefore, let us keep the feast of the Lord's fupper, not with the old leaven of sensuality and uncleanness, with which ye were formerly corrupted, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the uncorrupted qualities of fincerity in your love to God and man, and truth in your worship.

the paffover, prefigured the feaft of the fupper, which our Lord infti. tuted in commemoration of his own death as our paffover. This, therefore, is the feat which the apoftle in ver. 8. exhorted the Corinthians to keep, with the unleavened qualities of fincerity and truth.

Ver. 8.-. Therefore let us keep the feaft. From 1 Cor. xvi. 8. we learn that when this epittle was written, the Jewish paffover was at hand. If fo, this verfe makes it probable, that the difciples of Chrift began very early to celebrate the Lord's fupper with peculiar folemnity, annually on the day on which he suffered, which was the day of the Jewish paffover, called in modern language Eafter.

2. Not with old leaven. In ver. 7. leaven fignifies wicked perfons. Here it denotes wicked practices, fuch as, gluttony, drunkenness, whoredom, fraud, &c called old leaven, because the Corinthians in their heathen ftate had been much addicted to these practices.

3. Neither with the leaven, xxxias xai Tongas, of malice and wickedness. Malice is ill will in the mind; but wickedness is ill will expreffed by actions, efpecially fuch as are accompanied with treachery. Hence the devil is ftyled, Tovnp, The wicked one.- -As the apostle mentions fincerity and truth in the subsequent claufe, it is probable that by the

15

kaven

12 For what have I to do

11 Νυν δε έγραψα ὑμῖν μη συναναμιγνυσθαι, εαν τις αδελφο ονομαζομεν, πορν», η πλεονεκτης, η ειδω λολατρης, η λοιδορα, η μετ θυσα, η άρπαξ, τῳ τοιέτῳ μηδε συνεσθίειν.

12 Τι γαρ μοι και τες

to judge them allo that are εξω κρίνειν ; εχι τες εσω ύ

without? do not ye judge

them that are within?

μεις κρίνετε;

leaven of malice and wickedness, he meant all thofe bad difpofitions and actions, which hypocrites cover, by putting on a fhew of piety.

4. Unleavened qualities of fincerity and truth. The apoftle gives the epithet of unleavened to fincerity and truth, in allufion to the emblematical meaning of the unleavened bread which the Ifraelites were to eat during the feast of the paffover; for thereby they were taught to celebrate that feaft with pious and virtuous difpofitions.-Αζυμοις being an adjective, we may fupply as its fubftantive, either αρτος, or πραγ

μασι,

Ver. 1o. With extortioners. The word άρπαζιν, fignifies thofe who take away their neighbours' goods, either by force or by fraud, and who injure them by any kind of violence.

Ver. 1 1. 1. If any one called a brother, be a fornicator, &c. The words εαν τις αδελφο ονομαζόμενο η πορν», according to Oecumenius and others, may be tranflated, If any brother be reputed a fornicator, &c. For ονομαζομεν, fignifes named, or famous. See ver. 1. note 2.

2. Ora covetous perfon. Πλεονεκτης. This word is rightly translated a covetous perfon, becaufe literally it fignifies, one who wishes to have more of a thing than he ought to have one who is greedy of money, or of fenfual pleasure. Hence the expreffion Ephef. iv. 19. To work

all

9 (Eygafa) I have written to you in (ry, 71.) this epiftle, not to affociate with fornicators.

10 (Kai, 205.) However, not univerfally with the fornicators of this world, and with the covetous, and with extortioners, and with idolaters, fince then, indeed, ye must go out of the world.

II But now, I write to you, not to affociate with HIM, if any one called' a brother be a fornicator, or a covetous person, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a perfon

not even to eat.3

12 (Tı yag uoi, fup. wponue;) for what have I TO DO to judge them 'alfo who are without? do not ye judge them who are within?

9 By requiring you to cleanse out the old leaven, ver. 7. I have virtually ordered you in this epifile, not to be familiar with perfons addicted to

whoredom.

10 However, that ye may not mifunderstand me, my meaning is, not, that ye fhould feclude yourselves wholly from the company of heathen fornicators, and covetous perfons, and extortioners, and idolaters, fince in that cafe ye must renounce all worldly bufsnefs whatever.

11 But now, more particularly, I order you not to afficiate with him, if any one called a Chriftian brother, be a known fornicator, or a covetous perfon, or an occafional idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with fuch a perfon not even to eat, either in his own houfe, or in the houfe of any other perfon, and far lefs at the Lord's table; that he may be ashamed of his evil prac

tices.

12 This, and my order to excommunicate the incestuous perfon, does not relate to heathens: For what right have I to punish them also, who are without the church? I have no authority over them. Have not ye a right to judge and excommunicate them who are within the church?

all uncleanness, Ey Theoveği (with covetousness, that is) with greediness. See the note on that paffage.

2. With fuch a perfon, not even to eat. Were we to obferve this rule with ftrictness, now that all the world around us are become Christians, we should be obliged to go out of the world. Nevertheless, as Wall obferves, The main fenfe of it is an everlasting rule; that a con• fcientious Chriflian fhould choose, as far as he can, the company, 'intercourse and familiarity of good men, and fuch as fear God, and avoid as far as his neceffary affairs will permit, the converfation and fellowship of fuch as St. Paul here defcribes. This is a thing (what decay foever of public difcipline there be) in each particular Chriftian's power.' Sec 2 Cor. vi. 14. note.

Ver. 13.