Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

4. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jefus Chrift;

5. That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge:

6. Even as the te-
ftimony of Chrift was
confirmed in you.
7. So that ye come
behind in no gift;
waiting for the com-
ing of our Lord Jefus

Chrift:
fhall be to God, at

8. Who fhall alfo confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blamelefs in the day of our Lord Jefus

Chrift.

4. And expreffing my hearty 4. D. 57. Thanks to God for the great Bleffing and Happiness of your Converfion to the Chriftian * Re- * Xáus. ligion.

5 & 6. A Converfion fo entire, that you are now endowed with those very Powers † and Graces, + Xáes both for understanding and preach- fupra. ing it, by which you were at first brought to the Faith of it.

7. And are inferior to no other Chriftian Churches in any extraordinary Endowments of the Holy Spirit, which are so many Pledges to affure you, how acceptable you the great Day of Chrift's Appearance.

8. Who, if you be not wanting to yourfelves, will enable you fo to perfevere in his Religion, as to be fully acquitted at that folemn Trial, and reap the Bleffings promis'd in his Gospel.

9. For, if you do your Part, you may be confident that God, who has thus redeemed and received you as his true Church in Jefus Chrift, will never fail of

9. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fel lowship of his Son Jefus Christ our Lord. performing his Promifes.

10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jefus Chrift, that ye fpeak the fame thing,

all

and

10. Now, the chief Occafion
of my writing this Epiftle to you,
dear Brethren, is to exhort and
befeech
you, as you value your t
Chriftian Profeffion, to endeavour
X 4

after

Ver. 10. Aldiviμal Kugis. By the Name of our Lord Jefus Chrift, emphatically fet in Oppofition to those under whofe Names they ranked themselves into Parties and Di vifions, in Ver. 11, 12, &c. compar'd with Ver. 15.

A. D. 57. and that there be no divifions among you; but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the fame mind, and in the fame judgment.

11. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the boufe of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

12. Now this I fay, that every one of you, faith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of

Christ.

after Peaceableness and Unanimity in your religious Principles, and to avoid all needlefs Difputes, Divifions and Animofities in your Converfation with one another.

11. For I am certainly informed by fome of Chloe's Family, that fince my preaching among you, you are fallen into Factions, and Divifions, ranking yourselves under different Heads and Lead

ers.

12. Some of your Gentile Converts call themselves the Disciples of * Paul (because I converted them, and ftand up for their Freedom from the Jewish Law) others of them cry up Apollos; (as great Admirers of his Eloquence) fome of your Jewif Chriftians will own no Teacher but Peter (because he was made the Apoftle of the Circumcifion.) While others flight us all, and pretend Christ* to be their only Mafter.

13. Is Chrift divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in

the name of Paul?

13. Now, how irrational and abfurd is all this? Did Christ institute more than one Religion; or preach different and contrary Doctrines: As your different Sects of Philofophy are wont to do? Did either I, or Apollos, or Peter die for your Sins, and become your Saviour? Or were any of you baptized into a Religion of our making? Have you not all one Saviour, and one and the fame Articles of Religion?

14. I thank God that I baptized none

of

14, 15 & 16. To prevent any Man from making me the Head

of

Ver. 12. And I of Chrift, i. e. Either pretended their Doctrines to have been immediately learnt from Chrift himfelf; or else were zealous for Circumcifion, alledging the Example of Chrift who was himself circumcifed; as Epiphanius and others think.

[blocks in formation]

17. For Chrift sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words, left the cross of Chrift fhould be

made of none effect.

of a Sect, or fo much as pretend- A. D. 57.
ing he was baptized into my par-
ticular Faith, I am very glad I
perfonally baptized none of
Crifpus and Gaius, unless it were
Stephanas and his Family.

you but

I know not whether I baptized any

17. And indeed my peculiar Office was to preach the Gospel, and perfuade Men into the Faith of the Chriftian Religion: having thofe under me to perform the Office of Baptizing, when they found People fit to receive it. And my Method of bringing Men to embrace this Faith, was not to amuse them with Philofophical Niceties, and fine Turns of Rhetorick (the Thing perhaps that makes you Gentile Converts admire Apollos fo much.) For this would be to lofe the main Stress of the Chriftian Doctrine, which lies in this one plain Article: That Mankind is to be faved by Faith in JESUS CHRST, as a Saviour crucified for our Sins.

18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolifhnefs: but unto us which are faved, it is the power of God.

18. This plain and clear Article of a crucify'd Saviour, looks * indeed to obftinate Unbelievers, Men conceited of their philofophical Speculations, and proud of their own Learning, like a ridiculous and mean Method of Salvation and Happiness. But to all Chriftians who have duly confider'd and embraced it, it appears the most effectual that can be for the Honour of God, and the Benefit of finful Mankind.

19. For it is written, I will deftroy the wisdom of the wife,

and

19. And this Difpenfation of God, and the proud Behaviour of the Philofophers and Jewish Rab

bins

* Ver. 18. Τοῖς μὲν ἀπολλυμένοις. Το them indeed that perish. So in ver. 23. 'IxSaios mir oxávdanov. To the Jews indeed a Stumbling-block. For want of which Particle sv, our Tranflation drops the Stress of the Antithefis.

A. D. 57. and will bring to no- bins under it, is very agreeable to those Words of Ifai. xxix. 14. and xxxiii. 18. Wherein God

thing the understand-
ing of the prudent.

faith, He would difpofe and order Things quite otherwise than the worldly-wife Men of that Age expected.

20. Where is the
wife? where is the
fcribe? where is the
difputer of this world?
hath not God made

foolish the wisdom of
this world?

Jewish Doctors.

21. For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleafed God by the foolishness of preach ing to fave them that believe.

20. For just so it is now, God having, by this wonderful and unexpected Method of Man's Salvation, demonftrated the Vanity of Philofophical Schemes, and buman Speculations; and baffled the Learning and Traditions of the

2.1. So that the Wisdom of Providence having permitted Men, for a long Time, to exercise this vain Philofophy, which never brought them to any Right and practical Knowledge of God, and their Duty; that human Learning, I fay, wherein your new Teachers do fo much pride and exalt themselves, must needs appear a weak Thing; fince by this one plain and intelligible Doctrine of a crucify'd Saviour, Mankind has learn'd infinitely more of God, and the Way to true Happiness, than all the Philofophers in the World could

ever arrive at.

22. For the Jews require a fign, and the Greeks feek after wif

dom:

23. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the

22 & 23. For the chief Notion and Expectation the Jewish Doctors had concerning Chrift the Meffiah, was, that by Signs and Wonders he would declare himself a mighty * temporal Prince, and

[ocr errors]

Con

Ver. 22. The Jews require a Sign Note, 'Tis plain, from the Gospel Hiftory, that our Lord wrought many Signs, John xx. 30. As xi. 22. Yet the Jews perpetually demanded of him a Sign, and a Sign from Heaven, Matth. xii. 38. xvi. 1. What Sign would they particularly have had? Jofephus clearly explains it, De Bel. Jud. Lib. II. Cap. 13. 34. and Antiq. Lib. XX. Cap. 7. §. 6. The Deceivers (falfe Christs)

" fays

the Jews a ftumbling- Conqueror, for advancing the 4. D. 57block, and unto the particular Grandeur of their NaGreeks foolishness. tion; and the Gentile Philofophers

look upon nothing in Religion fo much as deep Speculation, and refin'd Eloquence. Whereas the true and faving Religion of the Gospel confifts mainly in this plain Fact, of Jefus Chrift being a Saviour crucify'd for our Sins. An Article which accordingly gives great Offence to the Jews, who had quite other Notions of their Meffiah; and which the Gentiles difcredit as a weak and ridiculous Thing.

24. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Chrift the power of God, and the wisdom

of God.

24. But all thofe Gentile Converts, who have thoroughly confider'd and embraced it, find it more exceeding full of the most divine Wisdom and Goodness toward a loft and finful World, than any former Syftem of Philofophy could ever teach them; and the Jewish Believers muft needs acknowledge the miraculous Evidences by which it is confirmed, to exceed all that ever went before, and to be directed to a much nobler Purpose than that of a temporal Monarchy.

25. Because the foolishness of God is wifer than men and the weakness of God is ftronger than men.

25. And thus it proves, that thofe divine Difpenfations which fenfual and prejudiced Men are apt to flight and undervalue, become the most remarkable and

clear Inftances of God's Power, Wisdom and Mercy toward Mankind.

26. For ye fee your calling, brethren, how that not many wife men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

[ocr errors]

26. Accordingly you fee a plain Reason, why the Philofophical Part of the Gentile World, and the Doctors among the Jews, are leaft inclin'd, of all other Men, to believe and embrace the Gospel Reli

fays be, perfuaded the People to follow them, promifing "them Miracles, and anusia insubsgias, Signs of Liberty," i. e. of Deliverance from, and Victory over, the Romans, to whom they were in Subjection.

« AnteriorContinuar »