his conscience, not only against his superior light, not only against his profession, but against the Body of Christ. Now this is actually said to be true of such a sin as fornication. "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot ? God forbid." I must refer the reader to my note on this place (page 92), and also my notes on Romans vi. 1-12, on pages 114-124. An attempt is made to get rid of the application of all this to the whole body of the baptised in our own day by calling the baptism of the early converts "believers' " Baptism, as distinguished from Infant Baptism, but all our Lord's words respecting the children of parents in outward covenant with God (who would naturally bring them up in the profession of the covenant) are such that we are compelled to believe that He would look upon them as just as capable of receiving grace from God suited to their years as those who could profess their faith. They come into union with the Second Adam for purposes of salvation, in the same state of unconsciousness as they came into union with the first by their conception and birth. This truth of union with Christ through faith and Sacraments is the great leading doctrine of St. Paul; it pervades his Epistles to the Romans, Ephesians, and Colossians, as it does this Epistle, and I may say that of all Churches it is most explicitly declared by the Church of England in her formularies. It pervades our Baptismal Services, but, strange to say, is not alluded to in the Baptismal Service of the Romish Church. It is referred to in the Catechism as the first truth in which the Christian child has to be grounded. It is very distinctly recognized in the Eucharistic service (though totally ignored in the Canon of the Mass). It has a place in the Solemnization of Matrimony ("keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's Body ") and in the Visitation of the Sick (" continue this sick member in the unity of the Church.") IV. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. It may be well to give a short table of the leading events in St. Paul's life, which took place between his first arrival at Corinth and his final departure. A.D. 51 or 52. 53 or 54. 54 or 55. St. Paul's second Missionary journey, at the termination of which, after passing through Macedonia and Athens, He arrives at Corinth, Acts xviii. 1. Continues at Corinth a year and a half. Here he finds Aquila and Priscilla; lodges with them, xviii. 3. Joined by Silas and Timotheus. Epistles to the Thessalonians. Writes his Left the synagogue and preached at house of Converts Crispus; had a vision from Christ to en- Gallio refuses to hear the accusation of the Jews, 16. Sailed into Syria and came to Ephesus, 18, 19. Landed at Cæsarea, went up to Jerusalem, saluted the Church, and then went down to Antioch, 22. Starts on his third Miss. journey from Antioch, 23. Passes through Galatia and Phrygia, 23. Apollos appears on the scene, is fully instructed in the truths of the Gospel by Aquila and Priscilla, and departs for Corinth, xviii. 24-28. 54 or 55 to 57. Paul arrives at Ephesus, where he stays two years, xix. 10. Purposes to go to Jerusalem through Macedonia Sends before him to Macedonia Timotheus and But himself stays in Asia for a season, i.e., till Writes First Epistle to the Corinthians. (During Departs from Ephesus to Macedonia, xx. 1. X A.D. 57. INTRODUCTION. Sends Titus to the Church at Corinth to ascertain its true state. Passes through Troas in much anxiety about this. Meets Titus in Macedonia, and is reassured by him respecting their state, 2 Cor. vii. 5, 6, 7. Sends his Second Epistle by the hands of Titus. 57 (late in year). Arrives at Corinth, and spends three months there, Acts xx. 2. Takes a circuit through Macedonia to avoid the "lying in wait" of the Jews, xx. 3. Passes through Philippi, Troas, Miletus, and thence by Tyre to Cæsarea and Jerusalem, Acts xx. xxi. 1-17. V. AUTHENTICITY. The authorship of the First Epistle to the Corinthians has never been doubted. It is referred to as written by St. Paul, by Clement of Rome, who was the contemporary of the Apostle, in the words, "Take up the Epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you at the time when the Gospel first began to be preached? Truly under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote to you concerning himself, and Cephas, and Apollos because even then parties (preferences) had been formed among you." (Ch. xlvii.) Polycarp, "But who of us are ignorant of the judgment of the Lord? Do we not know that the Saints shall judge the world? (1 Cor. vi. 2), as Paul teaches? (ch. xi.). Irenæus, "He proceeds to say, and such indeed were ye, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God... and we have the precept, 'If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator,' ""&c. Adv. Hær. iv. 27. Clement of Alexandria quotes the Epistle above one hundred and fifty times. I give one place, "Writing in this wise, 'Brethren I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as to carnal, to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk not with meat,'" &c. Miscellanies, book v., ch. 4. Tertullian quotes this Epistle an enormous number of times. One will suffice: "You have the Apostle enjoining people to marry in the Lord." "De Coronâ," ch. 13. It would be impossible to forge such a document, for every line is stamped with the marked individuality of its author. INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. ST. PAUL wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians to pre pare the Church for his coming to them at the end of his third journey. He did not desire-indeed, he dreaded to come to them as a severe reprover and stern judge; he would rather visit them as a loving spiritual father in Christ. The circumstances under which it was written were these. He had received whilst in Ephesus very unfavourable reports of their factions and divisions-of their toleration of the incestuous person, of their going to law before the heathen tribunals, and other matters; and so he wrote to them his First Epistle, full of severe and well merited rebuke. This was not actually the first letter he had written (1 Cor. v. 9), but the first of the two which have been preserved. He despatched this Epistle so that it should arrive before the coming of Timothy, whom he sent, as he tells us, to bring to remembrance his ways in Christ—what he taught in every Church (1 Cor. iv. 17). Timothy appears to have arrived in Corinth, and left before the arrival of this Epistle, or, if otherwise, the report of their reception of it was very unfavourable. Upon this he sent Titus, one whom he supposed would represent better the sterner aspect of his own character, to bring a report to him of their spiritual state: he himself setting out to come to them by way of Macedonia, Titus being ordered to meet him at Troas (2 Cor. ii. 12, 13). Finding that Titus had not arrived there, he was much discouraged, and instead of remaining some time at Troas, crossed over to Macedonia, and met him at one of the cities there, and sent Titus, and with him, perhaps, Luke, to Corinth with the present Epistle (2 Cor. viii. 17-24). The report which Titus had brought had reassured him of the loyalty of the great body of the Church, but had by no means set him at rest: for he learnt that his principal opponents, the Judaizing faction, were as malignant and as active as ever. The contents of this second letter are very chequered. He thanks God for much, he praises them as far as he can; he gladly seizes the opportunity of speaking to them lovingly and hopefully respecting the collection for the saints at Jerusalem, but he must deal faithfully with them, for he had become painfully aware that their true hold on Christ, and their profession of the true Gospel of Christ depended much on his personal influence over them, and so on their allegiance and obedience to him as their only true Apostle. To this end he is forced to assert himself-his Apostolical power, his Apostolical labours, and his Apostolical visions and revelations. In writing all this he is, one might almost say, morbidly sensitive as to how they would receive this self-assertion, and the handle which his adversaries would make of it against him; but this matters not, his one object in writing in the way he did is given at the very end of the letter: "I write these things being absent, lest, being present, I should use sharpness, according to the powers which the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction" (xiii. 10). Such is this second canonical letter to the Church of Corinth. What was its effect we know not. St. Paul stayed but a short time with them, and then went to Jerusalem by Macedonia. No doubt he intended to return to them—perhaps again and again: for they were "in his heart," but his long imprisonments-first at Cæsarea, then at Rome-would doubtless change all his plans. Clement of Rome writes to them as if, after St. Paul's departure, they continued free from the evils for which he rebuked them. Thus, in chap. ii., "Moreover ye were all distinguished by humility, and were in no respect puffed up by pride . . . thus a profound and abundant peace was given to you all, and ye had an insatiable desire for doing good . . every kind of faction and schism was abominable in your sight. Ye mourned over the transgressions of your neighbours, their deficiencies ye deemed your own.” And the seditions and deficiencies against which Clement wrote had arisen, he seems to imply, shortly before the writing of his own letter. This Second Epistle is distinguished above others—even above those written by this Apostle-for its extraordinary personality. Hə |