Commentary on the Epistles and Revelation of John

CHAP. IIII. Verse 1. Let a man so account]

QUasi dicat, Though we are yours, as Chap. 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. Under-rowers to Christ the Masterpilot, 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) what ever else there is.

Verse 2. That a man be sound faithful ] Giving every man his due proportion of fit food, Mat. 24.45. not as he in the emblem, that gave straw to the dog, and a bone to the asse.

Verse 3. But with me it is, &c.] A good Minister reviled, may reply, as once a Steward did to his pa •• onate Lord, when he called him knave, &c. Your honor 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 reprehendende non intelligent, saith Augustine. Augustus did but laughed at the Satires and buttoniers, 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. Doc well and hear ill is written upon heaven gates, said M ^r Bradford the Martyr. Thou art an heretic, said Woodroofe the Sherifte to M ^r Rogers the protomartyr in Queen Mary's days. That shall be known, quoth he, at the day of judgment. Some men slatter me, saith Politian, some others slander me, I think neither the better nor the worse of myself for that: no more then I think myself taller or lower for that my shadow is longer in the morning and shorter at noon.

Verse 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.

Verse 5. Untill the Lord come ] Tot argumenta quot verba, saith Pareus. Every word here hath it's weight. There shall be a resurrection one day of names, as well as of bodies: let that stay us, when belied or misreported.

Verse 6. I have in a figure, &c.] i. e. I have represented and reprehended your partialities under our own names, when I brought you in saying, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, &c. 1 Cor. 1.12. For the heads of your factions were your own ambitious Doctors, whose names yet I spared, and took the business upon myself and Apollos, for your sakes.

Verse 7. For who maketh thee ] He directeth his speech to those Theologi gloriae, as Luther usually called 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? As that insolent Arminian did, Ego meipsum discerno, I make myself to differ.

And what hast thou, &c.] There are that would hammer out their own happiness, like the Spider, climbing by the thread of her own weaving, with Motto accordingly, Mihi soli debeo

Why dost thou glory ] As great a folly, as for the groom to be proud of his masters horse, the stage-pla • er of his borrowed robes, or the mud wall of the Sun-shine. Of all the good that's in us, we may well say as the young man did of his hatchet, Alas, master, it was but borrowed.

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

Verse 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. 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.

Verse 10. We are fools, &c.] Not to the world, 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 found and substantial learning.

Verse 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 in their power to have relieved him.

Verse 12. And labor, working, &c.] Whereas they might object, Are you hungry, thirsty, naked? It's because you are idle. No, saith he, We labor, working with our hands ( 〈◊〉 shame for you to suffer it) and yet can hardly sweat out a poor living.

Verse 13. Being defamed, we entreat ] Though Luther call me devil, said Calvin, yet I will honor 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 slow, or as a carrion in the slime of it. The word signifies, The sweepings of the world, or the dirt scraped off the pavement thereof.

And the of-scouring of all things ] Detersorium, sordes, purgamenta, reject • menta. Piaculares & obominales, saith Pareus. The word signifies, the dung-cart (saith one) that goes thorough the City, into which everyone brings and casts his filth. Everyone had some filth to cast upon Paul and the Apostles. Constantine a Citizen of Rhoane with three others, being for defense 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 that death was a sweet odour unto God. Budaeus is of 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, oftering them up to Neptune with this form of word, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Be thou a propitiation for us. So for the removal of the pestilence they sacrificed certain men to their goods: these they called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , filth, loading them with revilings and cursings.

Verse 14. To shame you ] An innocent person sometimes, upon the fullness of an aspersion, may conceive shame, as David dip, Psal. 44.15. yet usually shame is the effect of an evil conscience, and may prove, by God's blessing, a means of repentance, 2 Thess. 3.14.

Verse 15. Ten thousand instructors ] Gr. Pedagogues, who oft prove Orbiliusses, sharp and severe above measure, Verberibus pluunt, colaphis grandinant. So did these Corinthian schoolmasters, 2 Cor. 11.20. They were also too well skilled in the Dorick dialect, crying, Give, Give: and taught little more then elegant elocution.

Verse 16. Be ye followers of me ] As dear children. A bove majori discit ar are minor. Constantine's children resembled their father exactly, they put him wholly on, saith Eusebius, and were, as it were, very he.

Verse 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 19. The Kingdom of God ] i.e. The administration of his Ordinances and Government of the Church.

Verse 20. 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. Non erudit pater nisi quem amat, nec corripit nisi quem diligit, saith another.

CHAP. V. Verse 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. Of this incestuous marriage came Antiochus Theos, or Antiochus the god, so called of the Milesians, because he did put down their tyrant Timark. 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 Popes pardons being more ri • e in those parts, then in any part of Europe for these abominable filthiness, whereout he sucketh no small advantage. 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 behavior, 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 2. could call Arch-duke Albert, both brother, cousin, nephew and son. For all this was he to him either by blood or affinity: being uncle to himself, cousin germane 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.

That one should have his father wise ] Ethelbald King of West-Saxons, with great infamy marrying his fathers widow Judith, enjoyed his kingdom but two years and a half.

Verse 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.

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

Verse 3. Have judged already, &c.] q. d. I by mine Apostolical authority do excommunicate him. And yet how fiercely doth learned Erassus contend with Calvin and Beza about Excommunication, denying the Church any such power?

Verse 4. With the power of our Lord ] Promised, Matth. 18.18 19, 20. This makes it to be a heavy case to be rightly excommunicated. Indeed it may fall out that Jonas shall be cast out of the ship, when Cham shall be reserved in the Ark. Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my names 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 • omine Domini, 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.

Verse 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 stagitious courses.

Verse 6. Your glorying is not good ] It is the height of wickedness to glory in wickedness, as Lamech Gen 4. and Alexander Pheraeus, who consecrated the Javelin, wherewith he had slain Polyphron. Protagoras boasted that he had spent forty years in corrupting of youth. Mark Antony vomited out a book concerning his own ability to eat and drink much. Joannes a Casa, Dean of the Popes chamber, wrote a Poem in commendation of his own beastly sin of Sodomy. And Stokesly Bishop of London in King Henry 8. time, lying at point of death, rejoiced, boasting that in his life time he had burned fifty heretics, that is, good Christians.

A little leaven leaveneth, &c.] One spoonfull of vinegar will soon tart a great deal of sweet milk: but a great deal of milk will not so soon sweeten one spoonfull of vinegar.

Verse 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.

Verse 8. Let us keep the feast ] The benefits we receive by Christ should crown the Kalendar or our lives with continual feastivals: Yea, make us everlastingly merry at our convivium juge of a good conscience. Diogenes could say, That a good man keeps every day holy-day. 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, Eccles. 9.7.

Verse 9. Not to company with fornicators ] Dion Chrysostom saith, That Corinthus was the most luxurious and lascivious City in the world. Strabo saith, that Venus had a most stately Temple there, that was kept by above a thousand beautiful curtisans. Another saith, that it was the brothel-house of Greece, and a most filthy Mart-town of abominable lusts.

Verse 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.

Verse 11. Not to keep company ] Gr. Not to be mingled with them. The rivers of Peru, after they have run into the main sea, yea some write 20. or 30. miles, they keep themselves unmixed 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 Danuby and Sava (two great rivers) meet, their waters mingle no more then 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.

Verse 12. Them also that are without ] These come not under the verge of Church-censures, Revel. 22.15.

Verse 13. Therefore put away ] Gr. Ye will put away, q. d. I hope you 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 Deut. 13. 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.

CHAP. VI. Verse 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 •• ats. Jam. 2.6.

And not before the Saints ] Christians first brought their causes before the Bishops to be judged. And hence grew their power (as Pareus noteth) which the Christian Emperors first would not, and afterwards could not take away from them. This raised Papacy and Prelacy to such an height; they would be Princes as well as Bishops.

Verse 2. Shall judge the world ] That is, The wicked, called the inhabitants of the earth, and of the sea, Revel. 12.12. in opposition to the Burgesses of the new Jerusalem, Phil. 3 20. And let this comfort us under the perverse censures of worldly men, mad and besides themselves in point of salvation. The Lord seeth that their day is coming, Psal. 37.13.

Verse 3. Things that pertain to this, &c.] That serve to, and satisfy the body only, being nec vera, nec vestra, Luke 16.11, 12.

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

Who are least esteemed ] Rather then 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 mania 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 Charoudas 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.

Verse 5. No, not one that shall be able ] Our late Judge Dicr, if there came any controversies of poor men to be tried afore him, would usually say, that either the parties are willful, or their neighbors uncharitable, because their lutes were not quietly ended at home.

Verse 6. But brother goeth to law ] Once it was counted ominous to commence actions, and follow suits. Of common barretters, we may say as the Historian doth of Mathematicians, Genus hominum quod in nostra repub. & vetabitur semper, & retin •• itur.

Verse 7. There is utterly a fault ] Gr. Adisgrace, 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 & vinc • re, inglorium est, & atteri sordidum. See the Note on Rom. 12.21.

Because ye go to law ] Lightly, for every small offense (which if Mohammedans 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 others breasts, yet without wrath or intention of hurt, so, &c. The French are said to be very litigious, and full of Lawsutes.

Verse 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 betwixt Abraham and Lot, Gen. 13 8. Aristotle could say, It is better to suffer wrong then to do it. And I know how to bear injuries, said Chilo to his brother, who took it ill that he was not chosen to be one of the Judges.

Verse 9. Shall not inherit ] It is an undefiled inheritance, 1 Pet. 1 4. no dirty dog ever trampled on that golden pavement, Revel. 22.15. Heaven spewed out the Angels, shall it lick up the unrighteous? The Serpent could s •• ue himself into paradise, but no wicked could ever get into heaven.

Verse 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 1 Tim. 3.3.

Verse 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.

Verse 12. All things are lawful ] viz. All indifferent things amongst 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 at this day, that God did not give men such appetites to have them frustrate, but enjoyed, as made for the gust of man, not for his torment, wherein his Greatour delights nor. Now the Apostle grants that for • dats all things are lawful (yet in case of offense 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 surfetters, that wearing their brains in their bellies (with the Aster 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.

Verse 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: Ca • o said well, that he was an ill commonwealths man, Qui inter guttur & inguen, cuncta sub ventris ditiane positisset, that was a slave to his sensual appetite.

Verse 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 defise them with the kitchen-stu •• e of uncleanness?

Verse 15. Shall I then take ] Scipio, when a harlot was offered him, said, Vellem, si non ess • m Imperator, I would, if I were not a General, Say thou, If I were not a Christian.

Verse 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.

Verse 17. Is one spirit ] That is, One spiritual body: whiles Christ lays hold on us by his Spirit, we lay hold on him by faith. Hence the Church is called Christ, 1 Cor. 12.12. and the fullness of Christ, Eph. 1.23. We have the honor of making Christ perfect, as the members do the body.

Verse 18. Flee fornication ] With post-haste flee it. Laera venire Venus, tristis abire solet. Be not of those men that are called Borboritae of their mity filthiness, whom Epiphanius and Oecumenius speak of.

Verse 19. That your body is the Temple ] Shall we make the Temple of God, the stews of Satan? See Chap. 3.16. Antiochus and Pompey never prospered after that they defiled the Temple.

Verse 20. Ye are bought ] Shall I drink the blood of these men, said 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 an humiliation of the body.

CHAP. VII. Verse 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 estate. It is not evil to marry, but good to be wary, else conjugium may prove conjurgium, marriage a mar-age.

Verse 2. To avoid fornication ] Gr. Fornications, comprehending all lustifull burnings, self-pollutions, and all other impurities of a single life. How many are there that enter into God's ordinance (marriage) thorough the devils portall (fornication) that take such liberty before, that after marriage they rue it all the days of their lives.

Let every man have his one 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.

Verse 3. Let the husband, &c.] Let them be chaste between themselves, and beware both of excess and defect. Chastity is a man's honor, 1 Thess. 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 thy physic to the soul. Raging lust is a great enemy to conjugal love.

Verse 4. The wife hath no power, &c.] The husbands body is servant to the wife, and the wives to the husband: they have passed themselves one to another by mutual covenant, and God keeps the bonds, prov. 2.17. Mal. 2 14.

Verse 5. To fasting and prayer ] Preces nobis je • uniis a lendum & 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, 'tis not so easy to come off. This is a searing sin, Hos. 4.11. Eph. 4 19.

Verse 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. Hereto Paul seems in this verse to allude.

Verse 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 his meekness was partly from his natural temper: And Luther's not being tempted to covetousness was much helped by the freeness and generousnes of his spirit.

Verse 8. I say therefore to the unmarried ] Yet doth not the Apostle simply prefer virginity or viduity before marriage as better. The Saturnilian 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 I dol 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.

Verse 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 keep 〈◊〉 man chaste and clean: And that God doth use to correct excess and dalliance betwixt married couples, with strong temptations after strange flesh.

Better to marry then to burn ] As an Oven heated by the Baker, Hos. 7.4. As those Pagans were scalded, Rom. 1.27. and these Pa • agans still are, that are forbidden to marry, and yet cannot contain.

Verse 10 Yet not I ] By prudential advice only.

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

Verse 11. Or let her be reconciled ] Ut qua modo puguarant jungant suarostra columbae. Why should marriage couples be as glass, that being once broke can never be pieced again? The Lord hates putting away, Mal. 2.1 • .

Verse 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 Ge • ius. Mend a bad wife, if thou canst: bear with her, if thou canst not.

Verse 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 wise to go to Mass, who was therefore forced to fly for her life to her brother the Electour of Brandenburg (as Luther relateth) where she died Christianly.

Verse 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 Hab • ssines (a kind of mongrell Christians in Africa ) have an odd conceit, That the souls of Infants departing afore baptisine, are saved by ve • tue of the Eucharist received by the mother after conception, which sanctifies the child in the womb.

Verse 15. But God hath called us to peace ] To domestical peace, which they that want, Plus quam dimidia beatitudinis suae parte private • sunt, saith Aristotle. They have lost the greater half of the happiness of their lives. This was verified in Phoroneus the Law-giver, and Sylla the Roman General.

Verse 16. Whether thou shalt save ] And to have any hand in saving a soul, is the highest honor.

Verse 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 1 Pet. 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.

Verse 18. Let him not become uncircumcised ] Some Jews for fear of Autiochus, made themselves uncircum • ised, 1 Maccab. 1.16. Others for shame after they were gained to the knowledge of Christ, as here. This was done by drawing up the fore-skin with a Surgeons instrument: And of this wicked invention Esau is said to be the first author and practiser.

Verse 19. But the keeping of the Commandment ] This is that Bonum hominis, Mic. 6.8. that totum hominis, Eccles. 12.23. that one thing necessary, that is better then sacrifice, 1 Sam. 15.22. Mallem obedire, quam miracula facere, saith Luther, I had rather obey, then be able to do miracles.

Verse 20. Abide in the same calling ] And therein learn to maintain good works, or to be their crafts-masters, to excel in their profession, Honestis functionibus praeesse, as some render the Apostle there. These things are good and profitable unto men.

Verse 21. Use it rather ] Liberty is that we lost by sin, and affect by nature. Servus est nomen officy. A servant is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , one that moveth absolutely of himself, he is the masters instrument, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , wholly his, saith Aristotle. O that we could be God's servants in that sort!

Verse 22. For he that is called ] See a parallel place to this Jam. 1.9, 10. Our preferment in Christ should make us hold up our heads, but not too high, and be cheerful, but not withal scornful.

Verse 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 an heresy, if their teacher propound it: for their obedience is meritorious. 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, I would do so too. But so would no wise man.

Verse 24. Let every man wherein, &c.] This is the same with verse. 20. The Apostle inculcateth it, as we not only anoint our benumbed limbs with ointments, but also rub and chafe them in.

Verse 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 betokens, Viriboni rectum & verum judicium, saith Magirus, the right and sound judgment of some good man, And furely if the Apostle had no express command from Christ, neither had he any counsel from him concerning this business.

Verse 26. I suppose therefore ] This is his judgment, his vote or verdict, the first part thereof we have here: the second v. 28. the third, v. 35.

Verse 27. Art thou bound to a wise? ] A manifest metaphor from Oxen. Hence we call them yoke-fellows, Quam male inaequales veniunt ad aratra juvenci, tam premitur magno &c. Dare not to yoke thyself with any untamed heifer that bears not Christ's yoke.

Verse 28. Thou hast not sinned ] If any man call lawful marriage a sinful defilement, he hath the apostate Dragon dwelling in him, saith Ignatius. And yet the Papists teach that it is a far greater sin, for a Priest to have a wife, then to keep many harlots.

Such shall have trouble in the flesh ] Mark that he saith, In the flesh, the delights of wedlock will be allaied 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 will show you a way how you may scape, or at least mitigate those troubles in the flesh.

Verse 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 wiers; for upon this moment depends eternity. Castigemus igitur mores & moras nostras: Up therefore and be doing.

The time is short ] Gr. Contracted and roled up, as sails use to be by the mariners, when the ship draws night to the harbor. 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 a 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.

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 at 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.

Verse 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, Gen. 23.2. He came to weep for her: where the Hebrew hath one little letter extraordinary: To note that Abraham wept but a little for her; and this, not because she was old and over-worn (as the Rabbins give the reason) but because he had hope of a happy resurrection, 1 Thess. 4.14. and because she was his still, though dead: therefore he so oft in that Chapter calleth her my dead, v. 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: And when should men be merry rather then at the recovering of the lost rib? But he was too 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.

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 one) goes thorough 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 be witch us with it's beautiful colors, and sting us to death.

Verse 31. As not abusing it ] Not shooting our affections over-far into it. David was as a weaned child, Paul as a crucified man. If Jobs 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.

For the fashion this world ] The word signifies a mathematical figure, which is a mere notion, and nothing in substance. So Psal. 39.6. Surely every man walketh in a vain shadow, he leadeth an imaginary life, rather then a life itself. The pomp of this world is but a fantasie, Act. 25.23. (See the Note there.) The glory of it, an opinion. The word here used intimateth, that there is nothing of any firmness of solid consistency in the creature. It is but a surface, outside, empty promise: all the beauty of it is but skin-deep.

Passeth away ] Temporals are as transitory, as a hasty head-long torrent. The posting Sun of all worldly pleasure, after a short gleam of vain glistering, sets in the ocean of endless sorrow. In the Popes inthromzation, 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. For of the world we may say as Plutarch saith of Herodotus. Both the words and shows of it are full of fraud. Nec tantùm fallacia sunt quia dubia (saith Lactantius) sed & insidiosa, quia dulciae.

Verse 32. Without carefulness ] That unavoidably attendeth the marriage-estate, Gen. 30.30.1 Tim. 5.8.

Verse 33. Careth how he may please ] He taketh extraordinary care to please, and so doth she, v. 34. The word implies a dividing of the mind into divers thoughts, casting this way and that way, and every way how to give best content. Thus an happy study.

Verse 34. Careth for the things ] Expeditiùs vacat.

Holy both in body and spirit ] For contemplative wickedness, and mental uncleanness also greatly displeaseth God. Incesta est, & sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit, saith Seneca, 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 vestall virgins for uttering this verse only,

Foelices nuptae! moriar ni nubere dulce est.

Oh! 'tis a brave thing to be married.

How she may please her busband ] 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.

Verse 35. That you may attend, &c.] Gr. That you may sit close to him, as Mary did, Luk. 10.40. whilst Martha was distracted about much service. Let every man bend himself to banish and beat away distractions,

Nam ne{que} chorda sonum reddit, quem vult manus & men's Poscenti{que} gravem persaepe remittit acutum.

Verse 36. If she pass the flower ] Childehood 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.

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

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

Verse 39. She is at liberty ] The Montunists therefore (and with them Tertullian in his old-age) were in an error, that condemned second marriage, and said it was no better then fornication. Howbeit that of Jerome is not to be disliked. Think daily of death; and that will be enough to forbid the banes of second marriage.

Verse 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.

CHAP. VIII. Verse 1. Now as touching things]

ANother case that they had propounded to him in their Letter, Chap. 7.1.

We know ] So all pretend. Sed nummos habuerunt Athenienses ad numerandum, & 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 ] 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 • ustin maketh mention that neglected the means of knowledge, because knowledge puffeth up, and so would be ignorant, that they might be humble, and want knowledge that they might want pride? This was to be like Democritus who plucked out his eyes, to avoid the danger of uncleanness.

Verse 2. If any man think ] This 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 ignoro, 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's knowable: as in Alcibiades his 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 then a Beetle. Aratus the Astrologer vaunted, that he had counted the stars, and written of them all. Hoc ego primus vidi, said Zabarell. And Laurentius Valla boasted, that there was no. Logic worthy to be read but his, which therefore he called, Logicans Laurentinam.

Verse 3. But if any man love God ] And his neighbor for God's sake; his friends in God, his foes for God.

The same is known of him ] That is, Knows him savingly, Gal. 4 9. is taught of God, 1 Thess. 4 9. who only gives true wisdom, Jam. 1.5.

Verse 4. Is nothing in the world ] A mere fiction it is, that the Idol representeth, a brat of man's brain.

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.

Verse 5. That are called gods ] Hesiod reckons up thirty thousand of them that were in his time. What an army may we think there were of them in after-ages?

As there be gods many ] The Serpents Grammar first taught, Deum pluraliter declinare, Ye shall be as gods, Gen. 3. saith Damianus.

And Lord's many ] Demy-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 offenses: 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 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.

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

Is defiled ] By doing what they doubt of.

Verse 8. But meat commendeth us not ] This is another objection: Meat is indifferent. The Apostle answers,

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

Verse 10. Be emboldened ] This is, Proficere in pejus, aedificare in gehennam, as Tertullian hath it. Wh •• es men look upon party-coloured objects, they bring forth spotted fruits, as Laban's sheep did.

Verse 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?

Verse 12. And wound their weak consciences ] Gr. Beat upon it to make it sound heavily as a shaulm. Sin is as a stroke upon the heart, 2 Sam. 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. Joah had slain Abner and Amasa. David appropriates it: Thou knowest (saith he to Solomon) what Joab did to me. Tho arraignment of mean malefactors • uns in the style of wrong to the Kings Crown and dignity. So here.

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

CHAP. IX. Verse 1. Am I not an Apostle. &c. ]

THat is to say, Do I require you to do anything more, then 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 there used signifieth 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 truths Champions, that they may be the better esteemed of. Thus Bellarmine rejecteth the Fathers and others that make not for him, as heretics. To Irenaeus, Tertullian, Eusebius and Luther (saith he) I answer, Omnes manifesti haeretici sunt, they are all manifest heretics. So Arminius his course was to detract from the authority and fame of Calvin, Zanchi, Beza, Martyr, &c. that he might build himself upon better men's ruins. The Jesuits speak most basely of S ^t Paul, as 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 S ^t Peter: Nor that he durst publish his Epistles, till S ^t Peter had allowed them.

Verse 2. The seal of mine Apostleship ] See the like, Jer. 23, 22. and Mat. 21.28. where our Savior proveth John Baptists Ministry to be from heaven, by the success.

Verse 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, an odular demonstration. So 2 Cor. 13.3-5.

Verse 4. To eat and to drink ] At the Churches charge: so that we do it moderately without excess, as Josiah did, and it went well with him, Jer. 22.15.

Verse 5. To lead about a sister ] At the Churches 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, folio 1008. Paphnutius opposed this proposition in the Nicene Council, and prevailed.

Verse 6. To forbear working ] At our trade? Yes, or else I should easily be of Melanchthon'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 Melancth • n ) that it is the misery of miseries, he had hit the nail on the head.

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

Verse 8. Or saith not the law ] Not of Nations only, as verse. 7. but of God expressly, Verbis non solum disertis, sod & exertis?

Verse 9. Doth God take care for Oxen? ] He doth doubtless, Jon. 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?

Verse 10. Should plow in hope ] Of Maintaining his life by his labor, which is therefore called she life of our hands, because it is upheld by the labor of our hands, Ludit, qui sterili semina mandat humo.

Verse 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 Animali • m 800. talents, which is 800000 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. How well might the poor old Grecian sit and sing.

Heu male nunc arts miseras haec saecula tractant, Spes nulla ulterior, &c.

Verse 12. If others be partakers ] If your ordinary Pastors &c. For the false Apostles preached gratis (as some gather out of 2 Cor. 11.12.) partly to draw more Disciples, and partly to bring an odium upon the Apostle, if he should not do the like.

Verse 13. Live of the things of, &c.] Yea they lived plentifully and richly, as appears by the liberal gift of those Levites for Passover-offerings, 2 Chron. 35.9.

Verse 14. Even so hath the Lord ] Note that [so] saith one: that is,

Verse 15. Better for me to die ] To be hunger-starved then to do anything to the prejudice of the Gospel. Affliction is to be chosen rather then sin, Job 36.21. Quas non oportet mortes praeeligere, saith Zwingli. What death should not a man choose, nay what hell rather then to sin against his conscience? Daniel those rather to be cast into the Lions den, then to bear about that lion in his own bosom. The Primitive Christians thought it far better to be thrown to lions without, then to be left to lusts within. Potiùs in ardentem rogum insiluero, quam ullum peccatum in Deum commisero, said a good man once. I will rather leap into a bonfire, then willfully commit any wickedness. The Mouse of Armenia will rather die then be defiled with any filth. If her hole be besmeared with dirt, she will rather choose to perish with hunger then be polluted. Such was Paul here, and such we ought all to be.

Verse 16. I have nothing to glory of ] My glorying is, that I preach it gratis, and thereby stop an open mouth, a Cor. 12.16, 17, 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. See Jacob's diligence, gen. 31.40. And Paul's, Act. 20.20.

Verse 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, Coelum gratis non accipiam, I will not have heaven for naught. And he another, that said, Opera bona m • r • atura regni coelest is, Good works are the price of heaven. 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, Psal. 110.3. All his soldiers volunteers. They flee to their colors, as the Doves to their windows, Isa. 60.8.

Verse 18. What is my reward then? ] My merces mundi, 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, quocun{que}, discedo. I never sought wealth, honor, nor pleasure. This my conscience tells me, whatever becomes of me.

Verse 19. That I may gain the more ] The Greek word for gain, signifieth withal 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 carcass, and so the fowls fall upon him, and then he catcheth them. So must a Minister deny himself to gain his hearers.

Verse 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 borne, yet proselytes, as the Ethiopian Eunuch, Cornelius, &c.

Verse 21. That I might gain them ] A metaphor from merchants, Qui 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Who are never weary of taking money. S ^t 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.

Verse 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 honor in the world, to have any hand in the saving of souls. Let all of any 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 bad Bradford.

Verse 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 1 Tim. 4.16. Nihil turpius est Peripatetico claudo.

Verse 24. Know ye not ] The Apostle argueth from their profane sports, yet approveth them not: As neither doth the Lord patronize U • ury, Mat. 25, 27. Injustice, Luk 16.1. Theft, 1 Thess. 5.2. Dancing, Mat. 11.17.

So run that ye may obtain ] Here is the race, but above the Crown, said Ignatius to Polycarp. Run to get the race, said M ^r Bradford to his fellow-sufferers: you are almost at your journeys end. I doubt not but our Father will with us send to you also, as he did to Elias, a fiery charet to convey us into his Kingdom. Let us therefore not be dismayed to leave our cloke behindeus, that is, our bodies to ashes.

Verse 25. Is temperate in all things ] These luxurious Corinthians were much addicted to their belly: he calls them therefore to temperance. • ll doth it become a servant of the highest, to be a slave to his palate, to have animum in patinis & calicibus, as the Sybarites. A man may eat that on earth, that he must digest in hell.

Verse 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 me •• m (which was Ludovicus Vives his Motto) an eye upon the mark. 3. I strain and stretch toward it. See all these Phil. 3.13, 14.

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

Verse 27. My body ] My body of sin in the whole man, not mine outward man only. If we find the devil practicing upon the flesh, the way is, not to revile the devil, but to beat the flesh.

A castaway ] Cast out of heaven, as they were out of the fencing-schools, that were either cross or cowardly.

CHAP. X. Verse 1. I would not that ye should]

HIstoriae sidae monitrices, saith one. There is very good use to be made of other men's examples. Historia hath it's name, saith Plato, of stopping the flux of errors and evil manners. For muta to nomine de to Fabula narratur. What better effects sin hath produced in some man, it may in any man. Lege igitur historiam, ne sias historia.

Verse 2. And were all baptized ] And yet were rooted out and rejected. Baptism saveth; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but, &c. 1 Pet. 3.21.

Verse 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.

Verse 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: 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.

Verse 5. They were overthrown ] They died with the Sacramental meat in their mouths: our privileges excuse us not, but aggravate our enormities.

Verse 6. Were our examples ] Worthily are they made examples that will not take them. Alterius perditio tua sit cauti • . The destruction of others should be a terror to us, that we may wash our feet in the blood of the wicked, Psal. 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.

Verse 7. And rose up to play ] Now if they were so cheered and strengthened by these murthering morsels, should not we be made active and abundant in God's Word by the dainties of God's Table?

Verse 8. And fell in one day ] The Apostle instead of the cloke of heat of youth, puts upon fornication a bloody cloke, bathed in the blood of twenty three thousand.

Three and twenty thousand ] Moses mentions 24000. 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.

Verse 9. Neither let us tempt ] By provoking him to jealousy, as verse. 22. especially by Idolatry, that Land-desolating sin.

Verse 10. As some of them also ] viz. Numb. 14. And God said Amen to it, verse. 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.

Verse 11. For our admonition ] God hangs up some, as it were in gibbets, for public ex • mple. See ver. 6.

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.

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

Verse 13. But such as is common ] Such as is human, i. e. 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 comes 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 faithful ] When M ^r 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. Ridley also at the stake, with a wondrous cheatfull look ran to Latimer, embraced and kisted, and as they that stood near reported, comforted him, saying, Be of good heart, brother. God will either asswage the fury of the flame, or else will strengthen us to abide it.

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 M ^r Bradford, my common disease (which was a rheum with a feebleness of stomach) doth less trouble me then when I was out of prison, which doth teach me the merciful providence of God toward me.

Verse 14. Flee from Idolatry ] He calleth their sitting at the Idols-feasts, though without intent of honoring 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.

Verse 13. 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.

Verse 16. The cup of blessing ] Not the Chalice, but the common cup. Colvin chose rather to leave Geneva, then to use unleavened bread or water-cakes at the Lord's Supper. 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?

Verse 17. And one body ] By the force of faith and love, Can. 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.

Verse 18. Are not they which eat, &c.] See Levite. 7.15. Hence he infers that these Corinthians also eating of the Idols-sacrifices, were defiled with idolatry: a pari.

Verse 19. What say I then? ] He prevents a mistake. See cha. 8.4. Ministers must in their discourses meet with all objections as much as may be.

Verse 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, whiles they worship idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, Revel. 9.20. The devil is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Synesius an Idol-lover.

Verse 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 it's prints and carects, or else the thing was not thought to be lawfully done. Our Communion Table they called an oyster-board.

And the table of devils ] Redwald King of East-Saxons had in the same Church one alter for Christian Religion, and another for sacrifice to devils.

Verse 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? It is such as none can avert or avoid, avoid or abide.

Verse 23. All things are not expedient ] An liceat, an deceat, an expediat, are three most needful questions. Things lawful in themselves may be unseemly for our state and calling; unbehovefull also to the benefit of others. Think unlawful for thee whatsoever implies either inexpediency or indecency.

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

Verse 25. Whatsoever is sold &c.] A portion of the consecrated flesh was usually sold by 〈◊〉 Pr • ests, who made their markets of it, as Aug • stine upon the Romans testifieth.

Verse 26. For the earth is the Lord's ] God, of his bounty, spreads a Table for all: Make no scruple therefore, eat freely.

Verse 27. And ye be disposed to go ] Our Savior when he saw that Johns austerity was censured, took his liberty in the use of creatures, and convenient company-keeping, Luk. 7.33, 34. I do not find where ever he was bidden to any table and refused. Not for the pleasure of the dishes, but for the benefit of so winning a conversation.

Verse 28. The earth is the Lord's ] Therefore in case of scandal abstain. Why shouldst thou use this creature, as if there were no more but this? Suspend thy liberty: Hast not thou all the world afore thee?

Verse 29. Why is my liberty judged ] As a profane license. We should be shy of the very sh • ws and shadows of sin, Quiequid fuerit male color atum, as Bernard hath it: if a thing look but ill favored, abstain from it.

Verse 30. For if I by grace ] Or, By thanksgiving. The same Greek word signifies both: to teach us, that a grateful man is a gracious man. The unthankful and the evil are set together as the same, Luk. 6.33. God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.

Verse 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 then if he had been reading Lectures to them. 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, said another.

Verse 32. Give none offense ] This is another end we should aim at, the edification of others. Finibus, non officys a vitys, discernuntur virtutes. Two things make a good Christian, good actions, and good aims.

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

CHAP. XI. Verse 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 one saith well) with a good intent, but with no great skill, as appears here and in divers other places. The Apostle chap. 10.33. had shown his own practice: here he calls upon them to do accordingly. As the Ox follows the herd, so will I follow good men, Etiamsi ruant, saith Cicero, although they do amiss. This was more then S ^t Paul desires: Be ye followers of me, saith he: but only so far as I am of Christ, not an inch further.

Verse 2. And keep the ordinances ] Gr. the traditions or doctrines by word of mouth. These are 1. Dogmatical, concerning faith and practice, 2 Thess. 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, Act. 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.

Verse 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? A prudent wife commands her husband by obeying, as did Livia.

Verse 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 prayers, as holding those postures unmanly. Several countries have their several customs. Basiliades Duke of Muscovia shown himself a tyrant in nailing an Ambassadors hat to his head, for not uncovering it before him.

Verse 5. Praying or prophesying ] That is, joining with the man that prayeth or prophecieth, and going along with, him in her heart. Thus the King and all Israel with him offered Sacrifice before the Lord, 1 Kin. 8, 62. And thus the unlearned sey, Amen, 1 Cor. 14.16. See the Note on Rom. 16.1.

Verse 6. For a woman to be shore ] Our Hic-muliers hold it now no shame. If Henry the sixth had seen such creatures, he would have cried out, as once he did at the sight of naked breasts, Fie, fie, Ladies, insooth you are too blame, &c.

Verse 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. 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 honor him, and give glory to him.

Verse 8. But the woman of the man ] Of a bone she was made, and but one bone, N • esset ossea, saith a Divine: A bone of the side it was, not of the head (she is not to be his mistress) nor 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 defense 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.

Verse 9. For the woman ] sc. To serve her: unless it be some women, specially called to, and qualified for government. Amongst whom Queen Elizabeth that female-glory is famous: Of whom a great French Duchess said, That she was, Gloriosissima, & omnium quae unquam sceptrum gesserunt foelicissima faemina, Besides her Sex, there was nothing in her woman-like or weak.

Verse 10. To have power ] That is, a veil, called in Hebrew Radid, of Radad to beat 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 fromer 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. Revel. 2. and 3. Judge. 2.1. (that Angel is thought to be Phintas) Eccles. 5.6. Neither say thou before the Angel (i. e. before the Lord's Priest) it was an error.

Verse 11. Nevertheless neither is ] This is added for the woman's comfort. There must be all mutual respects and melting-heartedness betwixt married couples, which being preserved fresh and fruitful, will • fi • tely sweeten and beautify the marriage-estate. Love is a quom that must be exchanged betwixt them, and returned in kind. Husbands love your wives, Colos. 3.16. 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, then the earth can of him, &c.

Verse 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 did he not know while a second self was made out of him: Both, that the comfort might be the greater then 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.

Verse 13. Judge in yourselves ] All Christ's sheep are rational, able to discern of 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 oft so bleer the understanding, that a man shall think he hath reason to be mad, and that there is great sense in sinning.

Verse 14. That if a man have long hair ] Bushes of vanity, which they will never part with (said Marbury ) until the devil put a caudle 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, who yet did not wear their hair long as women. How Cromwell handled the shag-haired ruffian; See Acts and Monuments of the Church, folio 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 M ^r Bolion in his four last things, pag 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 their most unnatural and cursed cutting their hair, should every hour fear and tremble, lest they should bring it upon their own heads, and amongst us in this kingdom. Our henry 1. repressed the wearing of long hair: which though it were a gaiety of no charge, yet for the undecency thereof, he reformed it, and all other dissoluteness. See M ^r Prynne's Unlovelinesse of love-locks.

Verse 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 then whoredom: because whoredom only corrupts chastity, but this corrupts nature.

Verse 16. Seem to be contentious ] Adectore glory • s • , & Pastore contentioso, & inutilibus quaestionibus, liberet Ecclesiam suam Dominus, said Luther. From a vain-glorious Doctor, from a contentious Pastor, and from endless and needless controversies, the good Lord deliver his Church.

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 one, to vex our Ministers by our obstinacy; yea, though they were not able to make so full demonstration, yet when they reprove such things, out of a spiritual j • alousie and fear that they corrupt the people's hearts, they are to be heard and obeyed.

Verse 17. I praise you not ] q. d. I discommend and dispraise you. The Corinthians were in many things faulty and blame-worthy. S ^t Paul deals plainly and freely with them, and would not therefore take their offered kindness, 2 Cor. 12. lest he should be engaged to them, and by receiving a courtesy, fell his liberty.

Verse 18. There be divisions ] Gr. Schisms, rents, yea, and that about the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper (that bond of love) thorough Satan's malice. Now there can be no greater sin committed, saith Chrysostom, then to break the peace of the Church. Cyprian saith, It is an inexpiable blemish, such as cannot be washed ost with the blood of martyrdom. The error of it may be pardoned (saith Oecolampadius in his Epistle to the Lutherans of Suevia ) so there be faith in Christ Jesus: but the discord we cannot expiate, though we should lay down our lives to do it.

Verse 19. There must be heresi • s ] Therefore much more schisms, which also, for most part, do degenerate into heresies; as an old Serpent into a Dragon. In the time of Pope Clement the fifth, Frederick King of Sicily was so offended at the evil government of the Church, that he began to question the truth of the Christian religion. But Arnoldus de villa nova 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 fore-told it.

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

Verse 20. This is not to cat, &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, Hos. 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, Levite. 2.5. appointed for a spiritual use, yet called the bread for their life or livelihood; because God esteemed it no other then common meat. So Jer. 7.21. in scorn he calls their sacrifice, flesh, &c.

Verse 21. Everyone taketh ] Eateth and communicateth with those o • his own sect and faction only, not staying for others. Such among the Philippians were those of the concision, Chap. 3.2. that made divisions, and cut the Church into little pieces and sucking Congregations, making separation.

Verse 22. What? Have ye not houses ] Here he abolisheth their love-feasts, for the disorder that fell out therein. The Greek Church nevertheless retained them: but the Roman Church laid them down, as Justin Martyr witnesseth.

Verse 23. For I have received ] Rectumest regula sui & obliqui. The Apostle seems to rectify them, by reducing them to the first institution.

The same night, &c.] It was his last bequeath to his Church, for a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Ignatius hath it, a sovereign both purgative and preservative.

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, then 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 a substantial lie. When Cranmer was brought forth to dispute in Oxford, D ^r Weston Prolocutour thus began the disputation, Convenistis body fratres, profligaturi detestandam illam haeresin de veritate corporis Christi in Sacramento, &c. At which mistake, divers learned men burst out into a great laughter.

Verse 25. He took the Cup ] See the Note on Matthew 26.27.

Verse 26. Ye do show ] We need no other crucifix to mind us of Christ's passion.

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

Verse 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 spilled his blood: As the Donatists that cast the holy elements to dogs; or as that wretched Booth a Bachelor of Arts in S. Johns 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.

Verse 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, 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, and the Ancients call the Sacraments dreadful mysteries.

Verse 29. 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 the seventh Emperor of Germany, was poisoned in the Sacramental bread by a Monk. Pope Victor 2. 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 then Amnon did at Absolom's feast.

Verse 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 32. That we should not, &c.] Ferre minora volo, ne graviora feram.

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

CHAP. XII. Verse 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 fl • shly mind. Ignorance breeds pride, Rev. 3.17.

Verse 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.

Verse 3. Calleth Jesus accursed ] As the wicked Jews do at this day in their daily prayers and abbreviatures: And as the Gentiles did of old, and these Corinthians among the rest. But now they would rather die then 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 Emperors image, or to curse Christ.

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 lame impulsions, by which another curses and blasphemes him, but by such peculiar motives as are suggested and revealed unto him by the holy Ghost.

Verse 4. But the same spirit ] As the divers smells of flowers come from the same influence, and the divers sounds in the organ from the same breath.

Verse 5. Differences of administrations ] i. e. Ecclesiastical functions, all of them the dona honoraria of the Lord Christ, Ephes. 4.8-11.

Verse 6. Diversities of operations ] The holy Ghost may use one of less grace, to do more good then one of more: though he delights to honor those of most sincerity with most success, as 1 Cor. 15.10.

Verse 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 studijs 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.

Verse 8. The word of wisdom ] The tongue of the learned, to time a word, Isa. 50.4. to set it upon it's circumferences, Prov. 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 Doctors office, as the former word of wisdom is the Pastors. But the essential difference betwixt Pastors and Doctors in each Congregation is much denied by many learned and good Divines.

Verse 9. To another faith ] The faith of miracles, which a man may have, and yet miscarry, 1 Cor. 13.2. So doth not any one that hath the faith of God's elect; that fails not, Luk. 22. Some say the Apostle here meaneth historical faith: And this seems the more probable, because he speaketh of the working of miracles, verse. 10.

Verse 10. Discerning of spirits ] They discerned not men's hearts of themselves (for so God only) but by a special work of God's Spirit discovering them to their eyes, as Peter discerned A • anias, and afterwards Simon Magus, whom Philip mistook and baptized.

Verse 11. One and the self same spirit ] Who yet is called, the seven spirits of God, Revel. 1.4. for his manifold and sundry operations.

Verse 12. So also is Christ ] Mystical Christ, the Church. Christ the Savior of his body (Ephes. 5.23.) accounts not himself complete without his Church, Eph. 1. ult. So God is called Jacob, Psal. 24.6.

Verse 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, 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 anymore then 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.

Verse 14. Not one member, but many ] As man's body curiously wrought, and as it were, by the book, Psal. 139.16. Had God left out an eye or hand in his common-place-book (saith one) thou hadst wanted it.

Verse 15. If the foot should say &c.] Inferiors must not envy those above them, but be content, •• th it is, God that cutteth us out our several conditions; and a Scavenger may honor God in his place, as well as a Minister in his.

Verse 16. If the ear ] A man had better be blind, lame, dumb, then deaf; because by the ear life enters into the soul, Isa. 55.3.

Verse 17. If the whole body, &c.] It is proper to God to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all-eye: Sic spectat universos quafi singulos, sie singulos quasi solos.

Verse 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? Eccles. 2.12.

Verse 19. Where were the body? ] So the body politic consisteth not of a Physician and a Physician (saith Aristotle ) but of a Physician and an husbandman, &c.

Verse 21. The eye cannot say, &c.] Superiors may not slight their inferiors, since they cannot be without them; as one •• ne 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.

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

Verse 23. And those members ] As the organs of excretion and generation.

Our uncomely parts, &c.] It was at the abomination of Baal-peor or Priapus, that his worshippers said, Nos, pudore pulso, stamus sub Jove, celeis apertis, &c. God taught our first parents to make coverings to hide their nakedness; and the contrary is oft threatened as a curse.

Verse 24. For our comely parts ] A fair face needs no dress, is it's own testimonial, a bait without an hook, said Socrates.

Verse 25. Should have the same care ] As if the heel do but ache, the whole condoleth and cureth.

Verse 27. Now ye are, &c.] S. Cyprians sympathy is remarkable, Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, meroris & funeris pondera luctuosa participo: Cum plangentibus plango, cum deflentibus defleo. Hereby he shown himself a living member.

Verse 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.

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

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

A more excellent way ] What was that? Charity to God and men, Chap. 13.1. Graces are better then gifts.

CHAP. XIII. Verse 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 tongues as an instrument of many strings, to what dialect she pleased.

And of Angels ] Not that angels have tongues; as neither have they wings, though they are said to fly, and even unto weariness of flight, Dan 9 21. A certain Frier undertook to show to the people a feather of the Angel Gabriel's wing, and so verified the old proverb, A Frier a liar. But the Apostle here useth an high kind of expression, such as is used, Act. 6.15. Psal 78.25. Unless perhaps, saith Chrysostom here, the angels have. suo modo, sua co • oquia. 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, Colos. 2.18. understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm, 1 Tim. 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.

Verse 2. And have no charity ] If I knew and did all for ostentation, not for edification: As Stephen Gardener, who blew up his gifts to the view of others, as Butchers blow up their flesh.

Verse 4. 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 an handbreth to giving of alms.

And though I give my body, &c.] As Servetus the heretic did at Geneva, anno 1555. So Manzius the Anabaptist gave his body to be drowned at Tigure, anno 1527. Fisher Bishop of Rochester to be beheaded, for holding the Popes supremacy. Frier Forest to be hanged, for the same cause. And how many of our Popish Martyrs (malefactors or traitors, I should say) have worn the Tiburn-tippet, 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 13. Calais prisoners for religion, whom he discharged: and like bells they will never be well tuned, till well hanged.

Verse 4. And is kind ] 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that blameth others, and is restless in himself. Such an one was Timon of old, and Laurentius Valla alate.

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

Verse 5. Behave itself unseemly ] Or, doth not disgrace any one.

Is not easily provoked ] Fals not into any sharp fit (as they did, Act. 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.

Verse 6. Rejoiceth with the truth ] Nulla est igitur inter malos charitas, sed conjuratio potiùs, saith a grave Expositor. It is not charity, but conspiracy that is found in wicked men.

Verse 7. Beareth all things ] Covereth faults with her large mantle, dissembleth injuries, swalloweth down whole many pills, that would prove very bitter in the chewing.

Beleeveth 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 of the Pope; Sit tamen Domina mater{que} nostra Roma baculus in aqua fractus, & 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 & Asinus unum estote.

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

Verse 8. Prophecies, they shall fail ] The Arch-prophet 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 Savior for his comfort and confirmation against the bitterness of his death, then ever they could, whiles here living upon earth, Luk. 9.31.

Whether there be knowledge ] Got by study and communicated to others. For Lilmod lelammed, say the Rabbins, we therefore learn that we may teach.

Verse 9. We prophecy 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. And not only in most other things am I ignorant, said Austin, but even in the Scriptures (my chief study and trade of life) Multo plura nescio quam scio. The Rabbins in their Comments upon Scripture, when they meet with hard knots that they cannot explicate, they solve all with this, Elius cum venerit, solvet omnia.

Verse 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.

Verse 11. When I was a child ] Adrian 6. 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.

Verse 12. In a glass, &c.] See Numb. 12.8.

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

Verse 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.

CHAP. XIV. Verse 1. Follow after charity]

FOllow it hot-foot, as they say: pursue and practice it. It is more then to desire or to be zealous of a thing, as it follows in the next words, 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 Pantarbe 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 providâ ration teneatur, unless they hold it fast indeed.

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

But unto God ] Canit sibi & Musis, as the proverb is: And as good he may hold his tongue, for God needs him not.

Verse 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.

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

Verse 6. If I come unto you, &c.] This you would not like in me. And is that Venus in Caio, that is, Naevus in Titio? 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.

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

Verse 8. For if the Trumpet ] Similies are excellent for illustration, and must be fetched from things familiar.

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

Verse 10. So many kinds of voices ] Seventy two maternall languages, they say.

Verse 11. A Barbarian ] So the Grecians called all Nations that spoke not their language. It is reported that nowhere at this day is spoken more barbarous language then at Athens, once the Greece of Greece.

Verse 12. To the edifying of the Church ] Clouds when full, pour down, and the presses over-flow, and the Aromatical trees sweat out their precious and sovereign oils, and every learned Scribe must bring out his treasure for the Churches behoof and benefit.

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

Verse 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 plow, as wisheth S. Jerome, Pavier Town-clark of London in Henry the eighths time, was a man that in no case could abide to hear that the Gospel should be in English: Insomuch that he once sware a great oath, that if he thought that the Kings highness would set forth the Scripture in English, and let it be read of the people by his authority, rather then he would so long live, he would cut his own throat. But he broke promise; for shortly after he hanged himself.

Verse 15. I will pray with understanding ] To an effectual prayer there must concur intentio & affectus, the intention of the mind, and the affection of the heart. Else it is not praying but parotting. I have read of a Parot in Rome, that could distinctly say over the whole Creed.

Verse 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.

Verse 17. But the other is not edified ] This we should all labor, 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.

Verse 18. I thank my God, &c.] Skill in tongues is, as now, a great blessing. Indeed at first when men began 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to fight against God, they were compelled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to brabble in divers languages, seventy two, as Epiphanius affirmeth. But God hath turned this curse into a blessing unto his people, Act. 2. 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. Greece nosse suspectum erat, Hebraice fere haereticum.

Verse 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 divers weighty reasons hath otherwise ordered and appointed it. The Mohammedans read their Quran (which they supposed were profaned, if it were translated into vulgar tongues) and perform their public devotions in the Arabic tongue, which is their learned language.

Verse 20. Be not children ] Mentibus scilicet, sed moribus, Mat. 18.3. See the Note there.

In malice be ye children ] In innocence and ignoscency.

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

Verse 21. With men of other tongues ] God threatened the Jews, that since they would not hearken to their own Prophets, they should 〈◊〉 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 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 miscarriages in this kind.

Verse 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 Samaritesse, Joh. 4.) all that ever he did.

Verse 25. The secrets of his heart ] God's Word is a curious Critick, Heb. 4.12. a discerner of the thoughts, &c. It finds and ferrets out secret sins.

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

Verse 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 vigor, as in tall bodies the spirits are diffused. Erasmus hath observed that Origen never preached above an hour, oft but half an hour: Consultiùs judicabat crebro docere, quam diu, saith he. He held it better to preach oft, then long.

Verse 28. Let him keep silence ] Such as stuff their Sermons with Greek and Latin are here silenced, further then 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.

Verse 29. Let the other judge ] But is not this a disparagement to the Prophets? may some say: No, but an honor, 1 Thess. 5.20, 21. After Despise not prophesying, he subjoineth, Try all things.

Verse 30. That sitteth by ] And is extraordinarily inspired and qualified: a little otherwise then our Enthusiasts, that brag of their lumen propheticum.

Verse 31. That all may learn ] The most learned may learn something by the discourses of others less learned then themselves. Apollos a learned teacher, may yet be taught by a Tent maker. 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.

Verse 32. Are subject to the Prophets ] To be scanned and examined; which they should not be, unless they took their turns in course to prophecy. Eloquere, said one, ut quid sit videam, Speak that I may see what's in thee.

Verse 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.

Verse 34. Let your women, &c.] See the Note on Rom. 16.1.

Verse 35. Ask their husbands ] Who therefore must dwell with them according to knowledge, 1 Pet. 3.7. and be manly guides unto them in the way to heaven. The masters breast must be the households treasury.

For it is a shame for women, &c] She was a singular example, that taught the Greek and Latin tongues at Heidelburg, anno 1554. Her name was Olympia Fulvia Morata an Italian, of the City of Ferrara.

Verse 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 God for your arrogancy and high spiritednes lay you low enough, even in that slimy valley, Job 21.31, 32.

Verse 37. The Commandments ] 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.

Verse 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?

Verse 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 nounullos in quibusdam locis librorum meorum, opinaturos me sensisse quod non sensi, aut non sensisse quod sensi, saith Augustine. I foresee that some will construe many passages of my writings far otherwise then I intended them: and it fell out accordingly, as Baronius testifieth.

Verse 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, Chap. 2.5. Our Savior caused the people whom he 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. Whereupon an Expositor noteth, Ordinatim res in Ecclesia faciendae. Order must be observed in the Church.

CHAP. XV. Verse 1. And wherein ye stand]

A Military term, as Martyr noteth. Satan overthroweth the faith of some, 2 Tim. 2.18 and by this very engine wherewith he assaulted these Corinthians, ib. So that the Apostle was fain to make Apology, v. 19. to make a barricado.

Verse 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 sience, Jam. 1.21.

If ye keep in memory ] Helimiteth 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 sives 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 or any sword of God hid 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, Ulisses, and Achilles. But the soul should be as an holy Ark, the memory like the pot of Manna, preserving holy truths.

Verse 3. First of all ] Christ is to be preached with the first, as being the prora & 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?

Verse 4. According to the Scriptures ] Which both fore-shown and fore-shadowed it in Adams waking, Isaac's reviving, as it were from the dead, Josephs abasement and advancement, Samsons 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 out of the belly of hell, Mat. 12.39. &c.

Verse 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.

Verse 6. Above five hundred ] The number of believers then were greater then some would gather out of Act. 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.

Verse 7. Seen of James ] This is not mentioned in the Gospel, as neither that of Peter, v.5.

Verse 8. One born out of due time ] Quasi malo astro abortus, & adversante natura coactus: One that deserved to be rejected, as that forlorn Infant, Ezek. 16.4, 5.

Verse 9. I am the least of the Apostles ] Not come to my just bigness, as one born out of due time, and not without violence.

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.

Verse 10. I labored more abundantly ] See 2 Cor. 12.23. Rom. 15.19. George Eagles, Martyr in Q. 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 S ^t Paul have been fitly so surnamed?

Not I, but the grace of God ] So those good servants, Luke 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.

Verse 11. So we preach, and so ye believed ] A happy compliance, when the hearers affections and endeavors do answer the affections and endeavors of the preacher, as here, and at Ephesus, Act. 20.31-37. When people deliver themselves up to the form of doctrine, and are cast into the mould of the Word?

Verse 12. No resurrection ] More then that of regeneration, Math. 19.28. that estate of the Gospel, called a new heaven, and a new earth, 2 Pet. 3.13. the world to come, Heb. 2.5. that resurrection already past, • Tim. 2.18. that first resurrection, Revel. 20.5.

Verse 13. Then is not Christ risen ] But of Christ's resurrection, there were many both living and dead Witnesses, as the earth-quake, empty grave, stone rolled away, clothes wrapped up, &c.

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

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

Verse 16. Then is not Christ raised ] And so God's decree is cassated, Act. 13.33. with Psal. 2.7.

Verse 17. Ye are yet in your sins ] Rom. 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 Savior's reason, John. 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.

Verse 18. A sleep in Christ ] The Germans call the Churchyard Godsaker, because the bodies are sowed therein, to be raised again. The Greeks call them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , sleeping-houses. The Hebrews call the grave Bothchaijm, 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 first-born, Heb. 12.23.

Verse 19. Most miserable ] Because none out of hell ever suffered more then the Saints have done.

Verse 20. The first fruits, &c.] As in the first-fruits offered to God, the Jews were assured of God's blessing on the whole harvest: so by the resurrection of Christ, our resurrection is ensured.

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

Verse 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-torment.

Verse 13. At his coming ] As in the mean time, 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.

Verse 24. Delivered up the Kingdom ] Not his essential kingdom, as God, but his economical, as Mediator.

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

Verse 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 fathers house.

Verse 27. All things under his feet ] This Psal. 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 then heaven, earth, or any creature, and shall have power over all, Rev. 2.26.

Verse 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 underfoot, then shall we have an immediate union with God: yet so, as that this shall be the proper and everlasting praise of Christ, that he is the procurer of that union.

Verse 29. Which are baptized, &c.] The several senses that are set upon this Text. See in Beza, Piscator, but especially our new Annotations upon the Bible.

Verse 30. In jeopardy every hour ] Carrying our lives in our hands, as both the Hebrews and Greeks phrase it.

Verse 31. By our rejoicing ] i. e. By our infirmities, afflictions, wherein he so much glorieth, 2 Cor. 11. and 12. as an old soldier doth of his scars. As if the Apostle should say, I appeal to all those miseries that I have suffered amongst you for a testimony.

Verse 32. If after the manner, &c.] Paul sought 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. Others more probably understand it literally: If after the manner of men, that is, as men use to do to show their valor (he meaneth those B • stia • ii 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 later sense is a stronger argument of the resurrection.

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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Give me today, and take thou tomorrow. 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 v • luptas. 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.

Verse 33. Evil communication ] Evil words are not wind, as most imagine, but the devils drivell, that leaves a foul stain upon the speaker, and oft sets the like upon the hearer. Shun obscene borborology (saith one) and unsavory speeches: thou losest so much of thine honesty and piety, as thou admittest evil into thy tongue.

Verse 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 blushfull sin. Are ye also ignorant? said Christ to his Apostles: q. d. that's an arrant shame indeed. The Scripture sets such below the Ox and the Ass.

Verse 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 the Note on Act. 17.18.

Verse 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.

Verse 37. And that which thou sowest ] This is an answer to the Epicures second demand, verse. 35. with what body do they come? with a dead, diseased, rotten body, &c? No, no, saith the Apostle. Sin only is rotted with it's concomitancies, infirmities: but the rotting of the body is but as the rotting of corn 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.

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

Verse 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. Mans flesh only is informed by a reasonable and immortal soul, not so the flesh of other creatures: And hence the difference.

Verse 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 then bodies: so clear and transparent, saith Aquinas, that all the veins, humors, nerves and bowels shall be seen, as in a glass: they shall be conformed to the glorified body of Christ, as to the standard.

Verse 41. One star differeth, &c.] The morning-star is said to cast a shadow with it's shine. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the seven stars? 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 lose 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 store-houses of God's good treasure, which he openeth to our profit? Deut. 28.12.

Verse 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 bodies glory were seen, in Moses his face, in Christ's transfiguration, and in Stephens countenance.

Verse 43. It is raised in power ] The resurrection will cure all infirmities. At Stratford-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, bad the blind man be of good comfort; for death would heal them both. And so they patiently suffered.

Verse 44. A spiritual body ] Luther saith the body shall move up and down like a 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 46. And afterward, that is spiritual ] Nature, Art, Grace, proceed from less perfect to 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, Luk. 20.35.

Verse 47. Of the earth, earthy ] Gr. Dusty, slimy, ex terra friabili. Let this pull down proud flesh.

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.

Verse 48. They that are earthy ] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Vulgus fictilis. Man is but an earthen pot., Isa. 64.8.

Verse 49. The image of the heavenly ] See Phil. 3.21. Our bodies shall be fashioned like to Christ's glorious body in beauty, brightness, incorruption, immortality, grace, favor 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 the • r pleasure, as Anselm and Luther think, I have not to say.

Verse 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 hid in the valley of Moab, was brought forth glorious in the hill of Tabor, Math. 17.

Verse 51. I show you a mystery ] Not known till now to any man living. This, likely, was one of those wordlesse words that Paul heard in his rapture, 2 Cor. 12.4

Verse 52. The trumpet shall sound ] As at the giving of the law it did, Exod 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 Arch-angel 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.

Verse 53. For this corruptible ] Pointing to his body, he that speaketh, as Psal. 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 hu •• s carnts, even of this self-same flesh. So Job 19.27.

Verse 55. Death is swallowed up ] As the fuel is swallowed up by the fire: as the Sorcerers serpents were swallowed up by Moses his serpent.

Verse 56. Death, where's 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 & hostili derisione, quâ mors ridenda propinatur, saith one. Death is here out-braved, called craven to his face, and bidden, Do his worst. 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. M ^r Bradford being told he should be burned the next day, put off his cap, and lifting up his eyes, praised God for it.

Verse 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. Buzze it may about our ears, as a drone Be; 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.

Verse 57. But thanks be to God, &c.] Here S. Paul, Christ's chief Herald, proclaims his victory with a world of solemnity and triumph.

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

CHAP. XVI. Verse 1. Collection for the Saints]

THe poor believers at Jerusalem, Rom. 15.26. who had suffered hard things of their own Country-men, 1 Thess. 2.14. and taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, Heb. 10.34. and were therefore relieved by the Churches of the Gentiles at Paul's motion. The word here used for Saints, signifieth such as are taken off from the earth. The Saints, though their commoration be upon earth, their conversation's in heaven.

Verse 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 then keep the Lord's-day. But the world is now grown perfectly profane (saith one) 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, 1 Tim. 6.18. Manus pauperum gazophylacium Christi. The poor man's box is Christ's treasury.

As God hath prospered him ] Gr. 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 4. That I go also ] And go he did, Rom. 15.25. Act. 24 17. The very Angels hold not themselves too good to serve the Saints.

Verse 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.

Verse 6. Yea, and winter with you ] They had ill deserved such a favor of him: for the more he loved them, the less he was beloved of them: But he sought not theirs, but them. Discourtesies must not discourage us from God's work. Calvin, though but c • u • lly, used at his first coming to Geneva, brake thorough all.

Verse 7. If the Lord permit ] The Lord ordereth a good man's goings, Psal. 37. See Act. 16. with Jam. 4.13. It was rather rashness then valor in our Richard 1. 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 posted to the Sea-coast immediately into Normandy.

Verse 8. But I will tarry at Ephesus ] From thence then he wrote this Epistle, and not at Philippi, as the subscription hath it. See verse. 5.

Verse 9. And effectual ] Or, Busie, that requires great pains-taking. The Ministry is not an idle man's occupation, as some fools think it.

And many adversaries ] Truth never wants an opposite. In the beginning of the late Reformation, Eckius, Roffensis, Cajetun, More, Faber, Cochlaus, Cutharinus, Pighius, all these wrote against Luther, Summo conatu, acerrimo desiderio, non vulgari doctrina, as one saith, with utmost desire and endeavor.

Verse 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, Revel. 3.8. and yet it served turn, and did the deed.

Verse 11. Let no man despise him ] For his youth: for he hath lived much in a little time (as it is said of our Edw. 6.) and is an old young man, as was Macarius the Egyptian.

Verse 12. I greatly desired 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. &c.

Verse 13. Watch ye, &c.] Solomon's wisdom, Lots integrity, and Noah's sobriety felt the smart of the serpents sting. The first was seduced, the second stumbled, the third fell, whiles the eye of watchfulness was fallen asleep.

Verse 14. Let all your things, &c.] Love is the Saints 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 anima{que}; 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.

Verse 15. To the ministry of the Saints ] To serve them in collecting and distributing alms to the necessitous.

Verse 16. That ye submit ] Giving them due honor, doing them all good offices.

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

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

Verse 19. Aquila and Priscilla ] Paul's fast friends and constant companions; worth their weight in gold.

Verse 20. With an holy kiss ] Not hollow, as Joab and Judas; nor carnal as that harlot, Prov. 7.13. See Rom. 16.16.

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

Verse 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 of the Passover, nor a sow at any time, but called it dabar achar, another thing.

Anathema Maranatha ] Accurst upon accurst, put over to God to punish.

Verse 23. My love, &c.] Though I have sharply rebuked you, &c. Tit. 1.13.

CHAP. I. Verse 1. Our brother]

I N the faith, not in the flesh, Sanctior est copula cordis, quam corporis, Prov. 18.24.

Verse 2. From God the Father ] The Father is the Fountain, the Son the conduit, whereby all good things are derived to us.

Verse 3. The Father of mercies ] Only it must be remembered, that as he is Pater miserationum, so he is Deus ultionum, Psal 94.1. As he hath ubera, so he hath verbera. Christ is girt about the paps with a golden girdle, to show his love; but yet he hath eyes like flaming fire, and feet like burning brass, Rev. 1. to look thorough and keep under his enemies.

The God of all comfort ] It is he that shines thorough the creature, which else is but as the air without light. It is he that comforteth by the means. It is not the Word alone; for that is but as the veins and arteries that convey the blood and spirits: So the Spirit being conveyed by the promises, helpeth the soul to lay itself upon Christ by faith, and so it is comforted. Sometimes comfort comes not by the use of the means till afterwards, that he may have the whole glory, Cant. 3. The Church found not him, whom her soul loved, till she was a little past the watchmen. The soul is apt to hang her comforts on every hedge, to shift and shark in every by-corner for comfort. But as air lights not without the Sun, and as fuel heats not without fire, so neither can anything soundly comfort us without God.

Verse 4. By the comfort wherewith ] How forcible are right words? especially when uttered more from the bowels then the brain, and from our own experience: which made even Christ himself a more compassionate high-priest, and Luther such an heart-affecting preacher, because from his tender years he was much beaten and exercised with spiritual conflicts, as Melancthon testifieth. He was also wont to say that three things make a Preacher, Reading, Prayer, and Temptation. Reading maketh a full man, Prayer an holy man, Temptation an experienced man.

Wherewith we ourselves are comforted ] Goodness is communicative. M ^r Knox, a little afore his death, role out of his bed; and being asked wherefore, being so sick, he would offer to rise? He answered, that he had had sweet meditations of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that night, and now he would go into the Pulpit, and impart to others the comforts that he felt in his soul.

Verse 5. As the sufferings of Christ ] So called either because the Saints suffer for Christ, or because they have him suffering with them, Act. 9.4. God is more provoked then Nehemiah, Nehem. 4.3, 5.

So our consolation ] As the lower the ebb, the higher the tide. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Ignatius. The more pain, the more gain. It is to my loss, if you bate me anything in my sufferings.

Verse 6. And whether we be afflicted ] Let the wind sit in what corner soever it will, it blows good to the Saints, Cant. • .16. Though North and South be of contrary qualities, yet they make the Churches spices to flow and give forth their sent.

Verse 7. So shall ye be also, &c.] Our troubles therefore are compared to the throws of a travelling woman that tend to a birth, and end in comfort Joh. 16.21.

Verse 8. For we would not, &c.] It is of great use to know the sufferings that others have sustained before us. The Primitive Christians kept Catalogues of their Martyrs. D ^r Tailor the Martyr at his death gave his son Thomas a latin book, containing the sayings and sufferings of the old Martyrs, collected by himself. In the English Seminaries beyond seas, they have at dinner time their Martyrology read, that is, the legend of our English Traitours.

We despaired even of life ] God is oft better to us then our hopes: he reserves usually his holy hand for a dead lift. He comes in the nick of time: and our extremity is his opportunity. See the Note on Luk. 18.8.

Verse 9. But we had the sentence ] Gr. The answer or denunciation of death. Here we must distinguish between answers of trial, and direct answers. This was of the former sort: for Paul died not at that time. When Leyden was so long, and so strictly besieged by the Duke of Alva, that they were forced for their sustenance to search and scrape dung-hills, &c. and the Duke, in the language of blasphemy, threatened the defendants with cruel death, that very night the winds turned, the tide swelled, and the waters came in, and forced him to raise the siege.

That we should not trust ] Hope is never higher-elevated then when our state in all men's eyes is at lowest.

Verse 10. In whom we trust ] Experience breeds confidence. Thou hast, thou shalt, is an ordinary medium made use of by the Psalmist.

Verse 11. You also helping together ] The best may have benefit by the prayers of the meanest. Melancthon was much cheered and confirmed by the prayers of certain women and children, whom he found tugging with God in a corner for the settling of the Reformation in Germany.

Verse 12. For this is our rejoicing, &c.] He was merry under his load, because his heart was upright. The sincere will well stand under great pressures, because they are sound. Whereas if a bone be broke, or but the skin rubbed up and raw, the lightest load will be grievous.

And godly sincerity ] A fine word he here useth: and it is a Metaphor either from the Eagle that trieth her young by holding them forth against the full sight of the Sun; (so should we the motions of our minds to the Word of God) or else from a wise and wary chapman, that holds up the cloth he buys, betwixt his eye and the Sun.

Verse 13. Then what ye read, &c.] Or, then what you can both recognize and approve of: for you have known me thorough and thorough.

Verse 14. You have acknowledged in part ] q. d. You ought to have done it more fully: but you have been carried away, as ye were led by the false Apostles.

Verse 15. A second benefit ] Gr. Grace not converting only, but confirming also. All is but enough.

Verse 16. And to pass by you ] So indefatigable and unsatisfiable was he in doing God service. Calvin said, Ne decem quidem maria, &c. That it would not grieve him to sail over ten seas, about a uniform draught for religion.

Verse 17. Did I use lightness ] So the false Apostles suggested against him. Ministers must carefully clear themselves of suspicions and aspersions cast upon them, either by a verbal or real Apology.

Verse 18. Our word toward you, &c.] God's children are all such as will not lie, say and unsay, blow hot and cold with a blast, Isa. 63.8.

Verse 19. For the Son of God ] What is that to the purpose? Thus: if the Gospel that Paul preached be not yea and nay, then neither are Paul's promises yea and nay. This is his intendment: else his inference is nothing. And by that which follows, it reacheth all Christians, q. d. Look what a Christian doth promise, he is bound by the earnest-penny of God's Spirit to perform. He dares no more alter his words to the discredit of his profession, then the Spirit of God can lie.

Verse 20. In him are yea and amen ] That is, truth and assurance. They will eat their way over all alpes of opposition, as one speaketh.

Verse 21. Hath anointed us ] i. e. Consecrated and qualified us.

Verse 22. Sealed us ] As the Merchant sets his seal upon his goods.

The earnest of the Spirit ] Whereof God should undergo the loss, if he should not give the inheritance, as Chrysostom noteth.

Verse 23. I call God to record ] He purgeth himself by oath. So those Josh. 22.22.

Verse 24. Dominion over your faith ] As Masters of your consciences: such as the Bridge-maker of Rome will needs be.

CHAP. II. Verse 1. That I would not come again]

ILle dolet, quoties cogitur esse ferox. It goes as much against the heart of a good Minister, as against the hair with his people, if he say or do anything to their grief. It is no pleasure to him to fling daggers, to speak millstones, to preach damnation, &c. But there is a cruel lenity, as was that of Eli to his sons, and evil men must be sharply rebuked, that they may be sound in the faith, Tit. 1.13.

Verse 2. But the same which is made, &c.] Nothing can cure a faithful Minister of his cordolium, of his hearts grief, but his people's amendment. Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord, 1 Thess. 3.8. else we are all amort, and you kill the very hearts of us.

Verse 3. Of whom I ought to rejoice ] Nothing sticks a man more then the unkindness of a friend, then expectation of love dashed and disappointed: All evils, as elements are most troublesome, when out of their proper place, as impiety in professors, injustice in Judges, unkindenes or untowardnes in a people toward their Pastor, &c.

Verse 4. With many tears ] Non tàm atramento quam lachrymis chartas illevit, saith Lorinus. S. Paul's epistles were written rather with tears then with ink.

Verse 5. Have caused grief ] Wicked livers are Hazaels to the godly, and draw many sighs and tears from them. Lots righteous soul was set upon the rack by the filthy Sodomites. Jeremiah weeps in secret for Judah's sins. Paul cannot speak of those belly-gods with dry eyes, Phil. 3.18.

Verse 16. Sufficient to such a man ] The Novatians therefore were out, that refused to receive in those that repented of their former faults and follies. The Papists burnt some that recanted at the stake, saying that they would send them out of the world, while they were in a good mind.

Verse 7. Should be swallowed up ] It was a saying of M ^r Philpot, Martyr: Satan goes about to mix the detestable darnel of desperation with the godly sorrow of a pure penitent heart.

With overmuch grief ] Some holy men (as M ^r Leaver ) have desired to see their sin in the most ugly colors, and God hath heard them. But yet his hand was so heavy upon them therein, that they went always mourning to their graves; and thought it fitter to leave it to God's wisdom to mingle the potion of sorrow, then to be their own choosers. It is a saying of Austin, Let a man grieve for his sin, and then joy for his grief. Sorrow for sin, if it so far exceed as that thereby we are disabled for the discharge of our duties, it is a sinful sorrow, yea though it be for sin.

Verse 8. Confirm your love, &c.] Gr. Ratifie it, and declare it authentic, as it were in open court, and by public sentence (as Gal. 3.15.) and that at mine instance, as an advocate.

Verse 9. Whether ye be obedient ] First to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God, 2 Cor. 8.5. Confer Heb. 13.17. Isa. 50.10.

Verse 10. To whom ye forgive ] Or, Gratifie. Mercy is that we must mutually lend and borrow one of another. Let the rigid read Gal 6.1. See the Note there.

Verse 11. Lest Satan ] That wily merchant, that greedy blood-sucker, that devoureth not widows houses, but most men's souls. See ver. 7.

For we are not ignorant ] He is but a titular Christian that hath not personal experience of Satan's stratagems, his set and composed machinations, his artificially-molded methods, his plots, darts, depths, whereby he outwitted our first parents, and fits us a penny-worth still, as he sees reason.

Verse 12. A door was opened ] An opportunity offered. Where the Master sets up a light, there is some work to be done; where he sends forth his laborers, there is some harvest to be gotten in.

Verse 13. I had no rest, &c.] Gr. No relaxation, viz. from my former cares and anxieties about you, because he was not yet returned to tell me how it was with you, 2 Cor. 7.6. God's comforts are either rational, fetched from grounds which faith ministereth, or real from the presence of comfortable persons or things.

Verse 14. Now thanks be to God ] Deo gratias was ever in Paul's mouth, ever in Austin's. And a thankful man is ever ready with his present, as Joseph's brethren were, Genesis 43.26.

Causeth us to triumph ] Maketh us more then conquerors, even triumphers; whiles he rides upon us as upon his white horses all the world over, Conquering and to conquer, Rev. 6.2.

Verse 15. A sweet savor ] The Church is the mortar, preaching the pestell, the promises are the sweet spices, which being beaten, yield an heavenly and supernatural smell in the souls of the godly hearers.

Verse 16. The savor of death ] Aristotle writeth, that vultures are killed with oil of roses. Swine (saith Pliny ) cannot live in some parts of Arabia, by reason of the sweet sent of aromatical trees there growing in every wood. Tigers are enraged with perfumes. Vipera interficitur palmis, saith Pa • sanias, Moses killed the Egyptian, saved the Israelite. Obed-Edom was blessed for the Ark, the Philistines were cursed. The Sun of the Gospel shining upon one that is ordained to eternal life, reviveth and quickeneth him: but lighting upon a child of death, it causeth him to stink more abominably.

And who is sufficient ] And yet now who is it almost that thinks not himself sufficient for that sacred and tremend function of the Ministry? Who am I? saith Moses: Who am I not? saith our upstart. Bradford was hardly persuaded to become a Preacher. Latimer leapt when he laid down his Bishopric, being discharged, as he said, of such an heavy burden. Luther was wont to say, That if he were again to choose his calling, he would dig, or do anything rather then take upon him the office of a Minister. So said reverend M ^r Whately of Banbury once in my hearing.

Verse 17. Which corrupt the word ] Gr. Which huckster it, by handling it craftily and covetously, not serving the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies, as those Popish trencher-flies, and our Court parasites.

In the sight of God ] It is impossible to speak as in God's presence, and not sincerely.

CHAP. III. Verse 1. Do we begin again, &c. ]

AS we had done before, cap. 1.12.

To commend ourselves ] Quod magnificum referente alio fuisset, ipso qui gesserat recensente vanescit. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth, Prov. 27.2. Laus proprio sordescit in ore. But the Apostle was necessitated to it.

As some others, letters of commendation ] As the false Apostles, who carried it by testimonials: in giving whereof many good people are much too blame. Beauty needs no letters of commendation, saith Aristotle: much less doth virtue, where it is known. If moral virtue could be seen with mortal eyes, saith Plato, it would soon draw all hearts to itself.

Verse 2. You are our Epistle ] The fruitfulness of the people is the Preachers testimonial: as the profiting of the scholar is the teachers commendation.

Written in our hearts ] Or rather in your hearts, as tables; the Spirit writing thereon, by his Ministers as pens, that form of doctrine, Rom. 6.17. that law of their minds, Rom. 7.23. Heb. 8.10. to be known and read of all men.

Verse 3. Ministred by us ] Who are devoted to the service of your faith, and are the Lord Christ's Sectaries.

But in fleshly tables ] In the softened heart God writes his law, puts an inward aptness answering the Law of God without, as lead answers the mould, as tally answers tally, as indenture answers indenture.

Verse 4 Such trust have we ] i. e. Such boldness of holy boasting, If Tully could say, Two things I have to bear me bold upon, the knowledge of good arts, and the glory of great acts; how much more might Paul?

Verse 5. Not that we are sufficient ] Lest they should think him arrogant. Cyrus had this written upon his Tomb, I could do all things, as Arrianus reports. So could Paul too; but it was thorough Christ which strengthened him. Phil. 4.1 • .

All our sufficiency is of God ] Had not Ministers then need to pray? Bene orasse est been studnisse, saith Luther. And whether a Minister shall do more good to others by his prayers or preaching, I will not determine (saith a reverend Writer) but he shall certainly by his prayers reap more comfort to himself. Whereto I add, that unless he pray for his hearers as well as preach to them, he may preach to as little purpose as Bede did, when he preached to an heap of stones.

Verse 6. Not of the letter ] To wit, of the law, which requireth perfect obedience, presupposing holiness in us, and cursing the disobedient: But the Gospel (called here the Spirit) pre-supposeth unholiness, and, as an instrument, maketh us holy, John. 17.17. Act. • 0.32. For we preach Christ, 1 Cor. 1.23. We give what we preach. The Spirit is received by the preaching of faith, Gal 3.2. This Manna is rained down in the sweet dews of the Ministry of the Gospel, 1 Pet. 1.22.

For the letter killeth ] Many Popish Priests, that hardly ever had seen, much less read S ^t Paul's writings, having gotten this sentence by the end, The letter killeth; took care of being killed, by not meddling with good literature. Hence that of S ^r Thomas Moore to one of them,

Verse 7. The ministration of death ] That is, the Law. David was the voice of the Law awarding death to sin, He shall surely die. Nathan was the voice of the Gospel, awarding life to repentance for sin, Thou shalt not die.

For the glory of his countenance ] Which yet reflected not upon his own eyes. He shone bright and knew not of it: He saw God's face glorious, he did not think others had so seen his. How many have excellent graces, and perceive them not?

Verse 8. Be rather glorious ] Let this comfort the Ministers of the Gospel under the contempts cast upon them by the mad world ever besides itself in point of salvation. See Isa. 49.5.

Verse 9. Exceedin glory ] A throne was set in heaven, Rev. 4.2. Not in the Mount, as Exod. 25 9. The pattern of our Church is shown in the heavens themselves, because of that more abundant glory of the Gospel above the Law. And therefore also John describeth the City far greater and larger then Ezekiel, Revel. 21. Because Ezekiel was a Minister of the Law, John of the Gospel.

Verse 10. Had no glory ] To speak of, and in comparison. The light of the Law was obscured and overcast by the light of the Gospel. The sea about the altar was brazen, 1 King, 7.23. and what eyes could pierce thorough it? Now our sea about the throne is glassie, Rev. 4.6. like to crystall clearly conveying the light and sight of God in Christ to our eyes.

Verse 11. Much more that, &c.] As the Sun outshineth Lucifer his herald.

Verse 12. Plainnesse of speech ] Or, much evidence, as John. 10.24. and 11.14. and 16.29. with much perspicuity and authority we deliver ourselves: we speak with open face, not fearing colors.

Verse 13. Could not steadfastly, &c.] Could not clearly see Christ the end of the Law, Rom. 10.4. Gal. 3.24.

Verse 14. But their minds ] Unless God give sight as well as light, and enlighten both organ and object, we can see nothing.

Which veil is done away ] See Isa. 25.7. Faith freeth from blindness: we no sooner taste of that stately feast by faith, but the veil of ignorance, which naturally covereth all flesh, is torn and rent.