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put away from among
yourselves that wick-
ed perfon.
and reforms:

your Duty as a Christian Church, and excommunicate that wicked incestuous Perfon, till he repents

4.D.

CHAP. VI.

The CONTENTS.

It feems by this Chapter as if the Cafe of the incestuous Perfon had been try'd in the Heathen Courts of Justice,. at least fome other Quarrels between the Chriftians of Corinth had been fo, to the great Scandal of the Religion of Chrift. The Apostle reprimands them for this great Imprudence; fhows that Chriftians may and ought to decide their own Differences among themselves, and not bring them into Heathen Judicatories; exhorts them to Justice, Purity, and Peace. Warns them again from the great Sin of Uncleannefs. Uncleanness is a particular Difgrace to the Body of a Christian, and an Affront to Chrift, whofe Members we are. Our Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghoft. They are dedicated to the Service of Chrift, and are to partake of the future Glory and Happiness.

4. D. 57.1. DARE any of

you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjuft, and not

before the faints?

1.

F then it be your Privilege

Society, to cenfure and condemn the grofs Miscarriages of your own Members, how imprudent and foolish is it in you to bring this Cafe of the incestuous Perfon, or any other Matter of Injustice and Quarrel among Chriftians, before the Heathen Courts of Justice, and not decide it among your felves?

2. Do ye not know
that the faints fhall

judge the world? and
if the world fhall be
judged by you, are

ye

2 & 3. Have your new Teachers taught you no better than this? Have they quite forgot the noble Privilege foretold by the Prophets, and promised by Christ

to

ye unworthy to judge the fmalleft matters?

to all good Chriftians, but to us A. D. 57. his Apoftles in particular, of ap3. Know ye not pearing and fitting with him in that we fhall judge Judgment upon the whole * angels? how much World, even upon wicked Spirits more things that per- themselves? And can you think tain to this life? that Persons so highly privileged, as to the future State, can be any Way unworthy or infufficient to decide a fmall Controverfy of the prefent Life; or to determine the Cause, and punish the Crime of a temporal Tranfgreffor? (See and compare Matth. xix. 28. Luke xxii. 30. Dan. vii. 9--22. Revel. xx. 4.)

4. If then ye have judgment of things pertaining to this life, fet them to judge who are leaft efteemed in the church.

4. Whenever therefore you have any Debate about Matters of Right between Man and Man, that the Parties themselves cannot agree upon, if you do not think fit to truft your Church Governors with it, refer it to an Arbitration of two or three, of even the meaneft of your Chriftian Brethren, rather than bring it before Heathen Judges that do not belong to the Church at all, but are the Perfecutors and Destroyers of it.

5. I speak to your fhame. Is it fo that there is not a wife man amongst you? no not one that is able to judge between his brethren?

6. But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers ?

5 & 6. But now let me, to their Shame, ask them that pretend to fo much Wisdom among you; are none of your philofophical Teachers wife enough, none of their Orators powerful enough, none of their Doctors learned enough to decide a fmall Cafe of common Right between Christian Neighbours: But they must needs go to Law, and expofe one anoᏃ ther

* Οι ἅγιοι Τὸν κόσμον κοινᾶσι, The Saints fall judge the World. I here give that Sense of these Words, which feems to ine the most unexceptionable of any. Dr. Hammond has fome Scripture in the Paraphrafe to fupport it; whereas those Paffages of Dan. vii. 18. and Ifai. xlix. 23. quoted by Dr. Light foot and Dr. Whitby, to prove they fignify Christian Magifiracy, are of too general a Latitude to be reftrained to temporal Power.

A. D. 57. ther in Heathen Courts, to the Scandal and Difhonour of the peaceable Religion of the Gospel?

7. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, becaufe ye go to law one with another: why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather fuffer your felves to be

8. Nay, you do wrong and defraud, and that your bre

thren.

7. Certainly you are much to blame in this Proceeding. It would be much better for a Chriftian to fuffer any tolerable Injury, than to expofe his Brother in the open Courts of Infidel People. defrauded?

8. But I find many of you are fo far from this Chriftian Temper of bearing Injuries with Patience, that you commit Injuftice upon your very Chriftian Brethren, without Confcience or Controul, as it is too evident in the Cafe of this inceftuous Perfon, and his Abettors.

9. Know ye not that the unrighteous fhall not inherit the king dom of God? Be not deceived; neither for nicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abufers of themselves with

mankind.

10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, fhall inherit the kingdom of God.

11. And fuch were

fome of you, but ye
are washed, but ye
are fanclified, but ye
are juftified in the
Jefus, and by the
Spirit of our God.

9 & 10. Strange! that your celebrated Teachers fhould fuffer you to imagine, that any unjuft Perfon can inherit the Gospel Bleffings! If they would keep you ftill in Ignorance, let me affure you, no unclean Perfon, nor Idolaters, nor Effeminate, nor Sodomite, nor Thief, nor greedy Defrauder, nor Drunkard, nor uncharitable Railer, nor Extortioner, is fit for Heaven, or can ever poffibly enjoy the Happiness of it.

II. To fuch Vices as thefe, many of you Corinthians were fubject in your Heathen State. But by becoming Chriftians, being baptized into the Faith of the Gospel, and by the Endowments of the Holy Ghost conferred on you, you were cleansed from the Guilt, and received the Pardon of them all, and fo

name of the Lord

are indifpenfably obliged for the future to renounce and A. D. 57.. forfake the Practice of them.

12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of

12. And as to that particular Vice of Uncleannefs, (as in the fpecial Cafe of the Man that married his Mother-in-Law) fuppofing it were not fo unlawful a Thing in itfelf, (as fome of you pretend) yet it would be very imprudent, and unworthy of a Chriflian to indulge himself in a fufpected, difreputable Thing, and fuffer himself to be enflaved to a domineering Appetite and Paffion.

any.

13. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God fhall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

.

13. Even in the Cafe of the promifcuous Ufe of Meats and Drinks; though Meats are made on Purpose for the Belly, and the Belly to receive them for the Nourishment of the Body, yet a prudent Chriftian would never indulge himself at Random; or be loath, upon good Reasons, to deof thofe Gratifications that belong merely to this fhort, perifhing, and animal Life. But now the Cafe of our Bodies in relation to Women, is very much higher, and more conclufive; for our Bodies were not made on Purpose for Women, (much less for Harlots) but for far nobler Purposes, viz. for the Service and Honour of Christ, to be his Members, as he is the Redeemer, Head, and Saviour of our Bodies, as well as of our Souls.

bar himself feveral

14. And God hath both raifed up the Lord, and will alfo taife up us by his own power.

bers, and will make with his own.

15. Know ye not, that our bodies are the members of Chrift?

Thall

14. For the fame divine Power that raifed up the Body of Jefus Chrift, our Head, from the Grave, will one Day raise up the Bodies of all true Chriftians, his Memthem partake of the fame Glories

15 & 16. Are you that pretend to fo much Knowledge, yet ignorant, that the very Bodies of Z 2 Chriftians,

A. D. 57. fhall I then take the members of Chrift, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

16. What, know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot, is one body; for two (faith he) fhall be one flesh.

17. But he that is

joined unto the Lord,
is one fpirit*.

Chriftians, are properly faid to be the Members of Chrift, our glorified Head? And is it fit or decent, think ye, to difparage and degrade his Members, by making them the Members of an Harlot? God forbid! For this would be to dishonour the State of Matrimony, inftituted in thofe Words, They two fhall be one Flesh, Gen.

ii. 24.

17: In like Manner, every Chriftian, by his baptifmal Profeffion, is fpiritually and religi

oufly united to Chrift, in the most strict and folemn Obligation *.

18. Flee fornication. Every fin that a man doth, is without the body: but he that committeth fornica tion, finneth against his own body.

18. Avoid the Sin of Uncleannefs therefore, as you value your own Bodies, and the noble Relation they have to Chrift. No other Sin does fuch an immediate Indignity to our Bodies as this. Other Vices indeed affect and defile the Mind in common with it, but an unclean Perfon does a direct Difgrace to his very Body.

19. What, know
ye not that your body
is the temple of the
holy Ghost which is in

which ye
you,
have
of God, and ye are
not your own?

20. For ye are bought
with a price: there-
fore glorify God in
your body, and in
your fpirit, which are
¿Gods.

19. Do you not confider that the Holy Spirit dwells in the Bodies of Chriftian People, and that they, as well as our Souls, are dedicated to the Service of God, as his own Right and Property?

20. And his own they may well be, fince he has purchased for them a glorious Refurrection by the Death of his own Son. You are bound therefore to serve and honour him with the Faculties Body and Soul, to whom you en

and Powers of both
tirely owe them, both by Creation and Redemption.

СНАР.

See and compare Ephef. v. 22, 23. to the End.

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