236

SECT.

The apostle proceeds to the case of the incestuous person ¿

May God give to his ministers more of this truly apostolical viii. spirit, more of those overflowings of holy love, attempering and attempered by that ardent zeal against sin, and that firm resolu tion in the discharge of duty, which shone so brightly in the apostle, and in which he so freely and justly recommends himself to the imitation of his children and brethren.

SECT. ix.

1 Cor.

SECT. IX.

The apostle proceeds to mention the irregularities which prevailed in the Corinthian church; and here handleth the case of the inces tuous person, whom he commands them to separate from their communion. 1 Cor. V. 1, to the end.

1 CORINTHIANS V. I.

HAVE spoken of coming to you with a rod
I of correction; and it is to probable I

may

1 COR. V. 1. Tis reported com.

only, that there is

fornication among

that one should have

be laid under a necessity of using it, though it you, and such formi v. 1 be an unwilling necessity. For it is generally cation, as is not so reported, [that there is] a kind of lewdness much as named a among you, and that too such scandalous and mongst the Gentiles, enormous lewdness as is not heard of even among his father's wife. the heathen, degenerate as they are, and abandoned as their practices are known to be, even that a certain person should have used criminal 2 converse with his father's wife. One would 2 And ye are puff. have imagined that a scandal like this, should ed up, and have not have thrown the whole society into distress and humiliation, like the public mourning of a Jewish synagogue on the apostacy or ejection of one of its members; and yet it is said, that ye are puffed up with this spirit of pride and carnality which I have been mentioning and reproving. Should ye not rather have lamented on this sad occasion? and pursued those strenuous measures for reformation which the genius

No. 2.

rather mourned,that

Generally reported.] Dr. Whitby incredibile, & inauditum, an incredible and thinks, that the scandalous stories that unheard of wickedness. See also Grot. de were generally told among the heathen, Jure Bel. & Pac. Lib. II. Cap. v. § 14, of the incestuous practices of primitive Christians, had their original from the misrepresentation of this fact. Many quotations, brought by this learned author, and others, on this text, shew, that incest was held in high abomination among the heathen; and an enormity of this kind is, (as well known,) called by Cicero, Scelus

Criminal converse.] Probably some father had parted with his wife, perhaps provoked by her indiscretion, and his son, to whom she was mother in law, had married her; for by 2 Cor. vii. 12, it seems probable, the person injured was yet alive.

and exhorts them to deliver him to Satan,

237

he that hath done of the gospel so evidently dictates, that he who SECT. this deed, might be hath committed this fact should be taken away ix. taken away from a- from you, and be no longer allowed to continue

mong you.

1 Cor.

3 For I verily, as in your communion? But howevernegligent you .3 absent in body, but have been, and whatever consequence I draw present in spirit,have judged already as upon myself, by interposing in this affair, I canthough I were pres. not, I will not be silent. I am absent indeed in ent, concerning him body, and therefore cannot take those vigorous that hath so done steps which my zeal for the honour of Christ,

this deed;

and my tender concern for your reputation and happiness dictate: but I am present in spirit, I have a distinct view of all the circumstances of the case, and therefore in as determinate a manner, as if I were actually present, I have judged and passed sentence on him who I know 4 In the name of has indeed committed this enormity. And the 4 Lord Jesus sentence I have passed is this: That ye being Christ, when ye are all solemnly gathered together in full assembly, and my spirit, with in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and my the power of our spirit being present with you, with the efficaLord Jesus Christ. cious power of our Lord Jesus Christ, acting according to my determination, though I be at

our

for the destruction

such a distance, and being ready to add an aw-
5 To deliver such ful efficacy and sanction to your censure, Do, 5
an one unto Satan by a public and express act, deliver such an one
of the flesh, that the by name to Satan, to be by him, as the terrible
spirit may be saved executioner of the Divine justice and displeas-
in the day of the ure, chastised and tormented, in order to the
Lord Jesus.

destruction of the flesh, that, for this shameful
indulgence of its lascivious appetites and de-
sires, it may be emaciated and enfeebled, and
the offender, alarmed by sufferings of so extraor-
dinary and formidable a nature, if possible, may
be brought to true repentance and humiliation,
that so the immortal spirit may be saved in the

e Present in spirit.] Some think this
refers to
an extraordinary gift which
St. Paul had of discerning clearly and
circumstantially what was done at a dis-
tance. Compare Col. i 5, 2 Kings v.
26, chap. vi. 12. See Dr. Benson's Hist.
Vol. II. p. 16.

ered over to Satan; but it seems much more reasonable to believe, that this refers to the infliction of some bodily pains or diseases, in which Satan might act as the instrument of the Divine justice. Compare 1 Tim i. 20, and this was for the destruction of the flesh; not directly of the To deliver such an one to Satan, &c.] fleshly principle, for in that sense it could Some think, that, as Satan is considered not be opposed to the saving the spirit in as the head of all who are not under the day of the Lord; but probably, as Christ as their head, that is, in the church the paraphrase intimates, for the emaciof Christ, every one, who was cut off ating and enfeebling the powers of animal from the church, must of course be deliv- nature.

238

Lest a little leaven should leaven the whole lump.

SECT. day of the Lord Jesus, from those infinitely ix. more insupportable and everlasting agonies to which it might otherwise be doomed.

1 Cor. 1.6

And give me leave on this occasion farther 6 Your glorying
to tell you, that your boasting, whether of such is not good. Know
a person as your friend, if he be remarkable for ye not, that a little
leaven leaveneth
any peculiar distinction in gifts, abilities and the whole lump?
circumstances, or against him, as your enemy,
if he be of an opposite faction, [is] not by any
means good. Do you not know, in a familiar
instance, which it may be profitable for you to
recollect, that a little leaven quickly diffuses it-
self by a secret fermentation, till it leaveneth the
whole mass. Thus will evil examples tend to
spread in the church; and if a brand of infamy
be not quickly set upon the incorrigible offend-
er, wickedness will grow familiar, and lose its
horror; so that many other members of your
society may be polluted, insnared and dishon-
7 oured. Set yourselves therefore with a resolu-
7 Purge out there-
tion and diligence, like that which the Jews fore the old leaven,
shew, in all their dwellings, when the annual that ye may be a
new lump, as ye are
feast of the passover is approaching, to purge unleavened. For e
out the old leaven: search for it, as it were, ven Christ our pass
with lighted candles, wherever you suspect any
over is sacrificed for
of it to lurk unobserved, that ye may indeed be
entirely a new mass, as ye are by your Christ-
ian profession unleavened, let there be no mix-
ture of any thing inconsistent with that sim-
plicity and purity which the gospel teaches.

It is a diligence and resolution that becomes
you; for we have not only the Divine command
to enforce it, but this tender additional obliga
tion, that even Christ our passover was slai for
us.f
He hath made his precious blood the
price of our redemption, that he might make it
the means of our sanctification, and that we,
instead of being smitten by the sword of the

us.

•Your boasting is not good.] L'Enfant dialogue with Trypho the Jew, accuses would read it interrogatively, Have you the Jews with having taken out of the not a fine subject for boasting? which is in- book of Esdras the following words, deed more animated than our version; but "The passover is our Saviour, and our re I think, not in the taste and manner of fuge." L'Enfant thinks these words of St. Paul, nor does it seem exactly to suit the original.

Christ our passover was slain.] It is well known, that Justin Martyr, in his

St. Paul are an allusion to them. It is a very inconclusive inference of some from this context, that this epistle was written about the time of the passover. Compare chap. xvi. 8.

ix.

1 Cor.

v. 8

He charges them not to be familiar with lewd persons ; 239 avenging angel, might sit down to a divine sECT. 8 Therefore let us banquet in peace. Let us then keep the holy keep the feast, not feast which he hath at such an expense providwith old leaven, neither with the leaven ed for us, and in which he feedeth us even with of malice and wick- his own flesh; and let us celebrate it in a manedness; but with the ner which may do him the greatest honour, unleavened bread of and be most pleasing to the adorable Author of sincerity and truth. our liberty and our happiness; that is, not with the old stale leaven of uncleanness, so common in your Gentile estate, nor with the leaven of malignity and mischief, which your Judaizing teachers would infuse, though it is as inconsistent with the benevolence, as the other with the purity of the gospel: but avoiding these with the strictest care, keep it with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth; with the most simple and sincere desire of knowing and prac tising every branch of our duty; which if we really have, it will keep us from all these evils, and secure an uniformity of behaviour, honourable to our profession, and agreeable to the glorious scheme and design of its illustrious Author.

9 I wrote to you

in an epistle, not to company with fornicators.

In this connection it occurs to me, and I 9 conclude you remember, that I wrote to you an epistle which I sent you before your messengers reached me, that you should not converse with fornicators and lewd persons, or others 10 Yet not alto- of ill fame and character. But I think you 10 gether with the for- must apprehend, that by what I then wrote, I Ricators of this world, or with the intended not entirely to forbid all converse with covetous or extor- the lewd people of this world, or with covetous tioner, or with idol- men, or extortioners, or idolaters, among your aters; for then must heathen neighbours; for then, as these charye needs go out of the world. acters so generally prevail among mankind in this degenerate state, you must indeed go out of the world, and seek some solitary abode in the wilderness; which is what I never intended 11 But now I have to require or encourage. But the intent of 11written unto you, not what I then said, and of what I have now writto keep company, if any man that is ten unto you, is, that if any who is named a called a brother be Christian brother, be evidently a lewd person, or

Lewd persons.] I have rendered opvos, lewd persons, in these verses, as I think it very plain the apostle intended the word should be taken in that extent; his argument concluding yet more strongly against

some other species of lewdness, than against what is called simple fornication, detestible as that is. See Vol. I. p. 202, note f; and Vol. II. p. 220, note §.

240

1 Cor.

or a railer, or adrunk

and not to eat with such a one, if called a brother. SECT. remarkably covetous, or in acts of occasional, a fornicator, or cov ix. though not stated and customary worship, an etous, or an idolater, idolater, or even a railer, who labours to pro- ard, or an extortionv.11 voke or injures any in their absence by slander- er, with such an ous reports, or a drunkard, and in any other one no not to eat. respects, an abandoned sensualist, or rapacious extortioner, you should not converse familiarly, or so much as eat with such an one, in common life, and much less, in such religious solemnities as are peculiar to the church of Christ, which ought ever to be a pure and holy society.

12

a

your

Itodo to judge them also that are withthem that are without? do not ye judge

12 For what have

in ?

You must understand my caution with such a limitation as this: for what have I to do, as Christian apostle, to judge those that are without the pale of the church? Of others indeed I may speak; for do not even you, in more private capacity, judge those that are within? I have taught you, that every private Christian should be concerned in his station to maintain the discipline of the church of Christ, and to bear his testimony against disorderly walkers, which may at present have a place in it. 13 But let it be remembered, that those who are without, God judgeth; and he will find a way, are without, God sooner or later, to testify his awful displeasure against them for crimes which they have com- mong yourselves that judgeth. Therefore put away from amitted against the law of nature, and that ac- wicked person. quaintance with it which he knows they actually had, or might have attained.

Therefore

in consideration of this, both in one view, and
the other, let it be your immediate care, as you
regard the peace of the church, and the safety
of your own souls, speedily, and with all due
solemnity, to take away from among yourselves
the wicked person I have mentioned, and any
others, whose characters may, like his, be scan-
dalous and infectious.

Those who are without, God judgeth.] Dr. Whitby thinks this is an oblique reference to the mother in law of the incestuous person, who was a heathen; which, from the apostle's giving no directions concern ing her, is not improbable. But I think, the views of St. Paul in this clause, were

13 But them that

more extensive, and have paraphrased them accordingly.

to imply, that the Corinthians had a power Take away, &c.] This seems plainly of excommunication in themselves, as has generally been pleaded by congregations writers from this text.