CHAP. XI. Ver. 20. When ye come together into one Place, this is not to eat the Lord's-Supper.

21. For in eating every one taketh, before

other, his own Supper; and one is hungry, and and one is hungry, and

another is drunken.

22. What, have ye not Houfes to eat and drink in, or defpife ye the Church of God, and fhame them that

have

have

You come together it is true, in one Place, and there you eat, but yet this makes it not to be the eating of the Lord's-Supper.

For in eating you eat not together, but every one taketh his own Supper, one before another. (a)

Have you not Houfes to eat and drink in at home, for fatisfying your Hunger and Thirft? Or have ye a Contempt for the Church of God,

(a) Ver. 21, To understand this we muft obferve,

1. That they had fometimes Meetings on Purpofe only for eating the Lord's Supper, Ver. 332

2. That to thefe Meetings they brought their own Supper, Ver. 21.

3. That tho' every one's Supper was brought into the common Affembly, yet they did not eat in common, for every one fell to his own Supper, apart, as foon as he and his Supper were there ready for one another, without ftaying for the reft of the Company, or Communication with them in cating, Ver. 21, 33.

In this St. Paul blames three Things especially;

1, That they eat their ordinary Food in the Affembly, or Church.

2dly, That though they eat in the common Meeting-place, yet they eat, feparately, every one his own Supper, apart; fo that the Plenty and Excefs of fome fhamed the Want and Poverty of others, Ver. 22, 34. Hereby alfo the Divifions amongst them were kept up, Ver. 18. they being as fo many feparated and diuided Societies, not as one united Body of Chriftians commemorating their common Head, as they fhould have been in celebrating the Lord's Supper, Chap. x. xvi. xvii.

3dly, That they mixed the Lord's Supper with their own, eating it as a Part of their ordinary Meal, whereby they made not that Difcrimination between it and their common Food as they fhould have done, Ver. 29.

27. Wherefore, whofoever fhall eat this Bread, and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily, fhall be guilty of the Body and

Blood of the Lord.

28. But let a Man examine himself, and fo

Thirft, but to fhew forth the Death of our Lord.

He who eats this Bread, and drinks this Cup of the Lord in an unworthy Manner, (b) not suitable to that End, fhall be guilty of a Mifufe of the Body and Blood of the Lord; that is, of the Elements that reprefent them, and will be liable to the Punishment due to fuch a Mifufe of the facramental Bread and Wine. What that Punishment was. we see at Verfe

30. By this Inftitution therefore let him examine (c) himfelf,

(b) Our Saviour in the Inftitution of the Lord's Supper, tells the Apostles that the Bread and Wine were facramentally his Body and Blood, and that they were to be eaten and drank in Remembrance of him; which was, as St. Paul interprets it, Ver. 26. to fhew forth his Death till his fecond Coming to Judgment. Whofoever therefore eat and drank them, fo as not folemnly to fhew forth his Death, followed not Chrift's Inftitution, but used them unworthily. That is, not to the End to which they were inftituted. This makes St. Paul tell them, Ver. 20. that their coming together to eat it, viz the facramental Bread and Wine, as they did, promiscuously with their other Food, as a Part of their common Meal; and that too, not altogether at one Time, and in one Company, though it were in the fame Place, was not the right, not a worthy, Manner of eating the Lord's Supper.

(c) St. Paul, as we have obferved, tells the Corinthians, Ver. 20. that to eat it after the Manner they did, was not to eat the Lord's Supper. He tells them also, Ver. 29. that to eat and drink the Elements without a due Regard had to the Lord's Body, (for fo he calls the facramental Bread and Wine, as our Saviour did in the Institution) by feparating the Bread and Wine, in the

facramental

fo let him eat of that Bread, and drink of

that Cup.

himself, and according to that (d), let him eat and drink at the Lord's Supper.

For

facramental Ufe of them, from the common Use of them for Hunger and Thirit, was to eat and drink unworthily. To remedy their Disorders herein, he fets before them Chrift's own Inftitution of this Sacrament, that in it they might fee the Manner and End of its Inftitution, and that every one might compare his Behaviour at the Lord's Supper, in order to judge whether it were fuitable to them. In the Account which he gives of the Inftitution, we may obferve, that he particularly remarks to them, that the eating and drinking there was no Part of common eating and drinking for Hunger and Thirst, but was inftituted in a most folemn Manuer, after they had fupped, and for another End, viz. to be eaten and drank in Remembrance of him; to reprefent Chrift's Body and Blood; or, as St. Paul expounds it, to fhew forth his Death. They might alfo obferve another Thing in the Inftitution, viz. that this was to be done when they were all, at one Time, united together in one Company. All which put together fhews, what the Examination, or Judging, here recommended, is. For, the Apoftle's Defign being to reform their Abuses in the Celebration of the Lord's Supper, by that alone we must understand his Directions about it, if we will suppose that he talk'd pertinently, to this captious and touchy People. And if his Account of the Inftitution were not the Rule by which they were to examine their Behaviour on this Occafion, and adjust themselves to it, to what Purpose was this Account given? The Examination, therefore, propofed, was no other than an Examination whether their Manner of eating the Lord's Supper, comported with the Inftitution, and with the End for which it was inftituted; which farther appears to be fo by the Punishments annexed to their Mifcarriages, which were temporal ones, in order to prevent their being condemned to eternal Death in the next World. If the Unworthiness, here meant, were any of those Sins which are usually made the Matter of Examination, and for which Men will be punished with infinitely greater Judgments than God inflicted upon thefe diforderly Corinthians, it is highly reasonable to fuppofe, that the Apostle would not have paffed over fuch Sins in Silence.

(d) So let him eat. That is, let him examine his Carriage by the Institution, and according to that let him eat. This Interpretation may, to an English Reader, feem wrong; for these Words, Let a Man examine himself, and so let him eat, are commonly unperftood in the fame Sense with thefe, let a Man examine, and THEN let him eat; and, if this were the Senfe of the Words,

they

29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself, not difcerning the Lord's Body.

30. For this caufe many are weak and

fickly among you, and many fleep.

For he who eats and drinks after an unworthy Manner, without a due Refpect had to the Lord's Body, in a difcriminating (e) and purely facramental Ufe of the Bread and Wine that represent it, draws a Punishment (f) upon himself by fo doing.

And hence it is that many among you are weak and fick, and a good Number are gone to their Graves. But

they fignified no more but that Examination fhould precede, and Eating follow; which I take to be a quite different Thing from the Meaning of the Apoftle here, whofe Sense the whole Defign of the Context fhews to be this: I here fet before you the Inftitution of CHRIST, by THAT let a Man examine himfelf, AND ACCORDING TO that let him eat; let him conform the Manner of his eating to THAT.

(e) Not difcriminating, not putting a Difference between the facramental Bread and Wine (which St. Paul with our Saviour calls Chrift's Body) and other Bread and Wine, in the folemn and feparate Ufe of them. The Corinthians eat the Lord's Supper in, and with, their ordinary Supper; whereby it came to be not fufficiently diftinguished from common eating for bodily Refreshment, nor from the Jewish pafcal Supper, and the Bread broken, and the Cup of Bleffing ufed in that; nor did it, in this Way of eating it, in feparate Companies, (as it were, in private Families) fhew forth the Lord's Death, as it was intended to do, by the Concurrence and Communication of the whole Affembly of Chriftians, jointly united in the partaking of Bread and Wine, in a Way peculiar to them, with Reference folely to Jefus Chrift. This was that which St. Paul calls eating unworthily, as is evident from this Place.

(f) Damnation. This is taken for eternal Damnation, but it appears plainly from Ver. 30, 32, that the original Word fignifies Punishment of quite another Nature.