already, as present, judged him who hath so wrought out this woRk.

4 AND MY SENTENCE IS THIS; Ye being gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of my Spirit,' shall with the power 2 of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5 deliver such an one! to Satan, 2 for the destruction of the flesh,3 that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

affairs, and the knowledge I have of the matter, have already as present judged him, who hath so daringly wrought out this infamous work.

4 And my sentence is this, Ye being assembled together, by the authority and will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath appointed wholesome discipline to be exercised in his church, and of the spirit who inspires me to give you this order, shall, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5 deliver the guilty person to Satan, by a sentence which one of your presidents shall publicly pronounce, in order that his flesh, which he hath so criminally indulged, may be destroyed, so as to bring him to repentance, that his spirit may be saved in the day of judgment.

3. For the destruction of the flesh. It was observed, ch. iv. 21. note, that the apostles were empowered to punish notorious offenders miraculously, with diseases and death. If so, may we not believe, that the command which the apostle on this occasion gave to the Corinthians, to deliver the incestuous person to Satan, for the destruction of his flesh, was an exertion of that power! Especially as it was to be done, not by their own authority, but by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Spirit who inspired Paul to give the command. Accordingly, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Oecumenius conjectured, that in consequence of his being delivered to Satan, the offender's body was weakened and wasted by some painful disease. But the Latin fathers and Beza thought no such effect followed that sentence; because when the Corinthians were ordered, 2 Cor. ii, 7. to for. give him, no mention is made of any bodily disease that was to be removed from him. Wherefore by the destruction of the flesh, they understood the destruction of the offender's pride, lust, and other fleshly passions; which they thought would be mortified, when he found himself despised and shunned by all. This interpretation, however, does not, in my opinion, agree with the threatenings written, 1 Cor. iv. 21. 2 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. 10. nor with the apostle's design in inflicting that punishment. For when the faction found the offender's flesh wasted, by some grievous disease, in consequence of the apostle's sentence pronounced by the church, it could not fail to terrify such of them as were capable of serious thought.

6 Your glorying is not good Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.

8 Therefore let us keep

the feast, not with old

leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

6 Ου καλον το καυχημα ὑμων. Ουκ οιδατε ὅτι μικρα ζυμη όλον το φυραμα ζυμοι;

7 Εκκαθάρατε ουν την παλαιαν ζυμην, ἵνα ητε νεον φύραμα, καθώς εςε αζυμοι και γαρ το πασχα ημων υπερ ἡμων ετυθή, Χριςος.

8 Ωςε ἑορταζωμεν, μη εν ζυμῃ παλαια, μηδε εν ζύμη κακιας και πονηρίας, αλλ' εν αζυμοις ειλικρινειας και andelas.

Ver. 6.-1. Your boasting is not good. They had boasted in the false teacher as one who understood the gospel better than Paul, and who, perhaps, had defended the incestuous marriage, as a matter permitted by the gospel.

2. Leaveneth the whole lump. Many manuscripts, with the Vulgate version, for Cuμs, leaveneth, have here dono, corrupteth, which Mill thinks is the proper reading.

Ver. 7.-1. Cleanse out therefore the old leaven. The incestuous person is called the old leaven, because he was not a new offender, but had continued long in the bad practice for which he was to be cast out. Or, as his crime was whoredom, it is called old leaven, because the Corinthians in their heathen state, had been much addicted to that vice. The Jews were commanded to put away all leaven, both old and new, before they ate the passover, as being an emblem of wickedness, which sours and corrupts the mind, as leaven does the lump into which it is put, if it remains in it long unbaked.

2. For even our passover Christ is sacrificed for us. Before the first-born of the Egyptians were destroyed, God ordered the Israelites to kill a lamb, and sprinkle the door-posts of their houses with its blood, that the destroying angel might pass over their houses, when he destroyed the first-born of the Egyptians, Hence this sacrifice was called the passover. And to commemorate the deliverance effected by it, the feast of the passover was instituted, to be annually solemnised by the Israelites in their generations. The original sacrifice, however, and the feast of its commemoration, were both of them emblematical. The former prefigured Christ, by the shedding of whose blood, believers, God's first born, are delivered from eternal death. Wherefore, Christ's death is the Christian passover, and is so called in this verse, Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, The latter, namely,

1

Your boasting is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

2

7 Cleanse out therefore the old leaven,' that ye may be a new lump (xqJws, 202.) when ye are without leaven; for even our passover, Christ, is sacrificed for us.'

2

8 Therefore, let us keep the feast,' not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened QUALITIES of sincerity and truth."

3

6 Your boasting in the false teacher, and in the great knowledge he has communicated to you, is not good. Do ye not know, that as a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, so one sinner suffered, will corrupt a whole society by his example.

7 Seeing vice is so infectious, cleanse out the old leaven; put away the incestuous person, that ye may be a pure society, when ye are without the leaven of his contagious company. For even our passover Christ is sacrificed for us Gentiles: the precept given to the Jews to put away leaven, is in its emblematical meaning, applicable to us.

8 Therefore, let us keep the feast of the Lord's supper, not with the old leaven of sensuality and uncleanness, with which ye were formerly corrupted, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the uncorrupted qualities of sincerity in your love to God and man, and truth in your worship.

the commemoration of the deliverance of the first-born from death, in the feast of the passover, prefigured the feast of the supper, which our Lord instituted in commemoration of his own death as our passover. This, therefore, is the feast which the apostle in ver. 8. exhorted the Corinthians to keep, with the unleavened qualities of sincerity and truth.

Ver. 8.-1. Therefore let us keep the feast. From 1 Cor. xvi. 8. we learn that when this epistle was written, the Jewish passover was at hand. If so, this verse makes it probable, that the disciples of Christ began very early to celebrate the Lord's supper, with peculiar solemnity, annually on the day on which he suffered, which was the day of the Jewish passover, called in modern language Easter.

2. Not with old leaven. In ver. 7. leaven signifies wicked persons. Here it denotes wicked practices, such as, gluttony, drunkenness, whoredom, fraud, &c. called old leaven, because the Corinthians in their heathen state had been much addicted to these practices.

3. Neither with the leaven, xantas nas worngias, of malice and wickedness. Malice is ill will in the mind; but wickedness is ill will expressed by actions, especially such as are accompanied with treachery. Hence the devil is styled, i wongos, The wicked one.—As the apostle mentions sincerity and truth in the subsequent clause, it is probable that by the leaven of malice and wick

edness, he meant all those bad dispositions and actions, which hypocrites cover by putting on a shew of piety.

4. Unleavened qualities of sincerity and truth. The apostle gives the epithet of unleavened to sincerity and truth, in allusion to the emblematical meaning of the unleavened bread which the Israelites were to eat during the feast of the passover; for thereby they were taught to celebrate that feast with pious and virtuous dispositions. Αζυμος being an adjective, we may supply as its substantive, either αρτοις, οι πραγμασι.

Ver. 10. 1. With extortioners. The word άρπαζιν, signifies those who take away their neighbours' goods, either by force or by fraud, and who injure them by any kind of violence.

Ver. 11.—1. If any one called a brother, be a furnicator, &c. The words εαν τις αδελφος ονομαζόμενο η πορν, according to Oecumenius and others, may be translated, If any brother be reputed a fornicator, &c. For ονομαζο μεν, signifies named, or famous. See ver. 1. note 2.

2. Or a covetous person. Πλεονέκτης. This word is rightly translated a covetous person, because literally it signifies, one who wishes to have more of a thing than he ought to have: one who is greedy of money, or of sensual pleasure. Hence the expression Ephes. iv. 19. To work all uncleanness, ex

9 By requiring you to cleanse out the old leaven, ver. 7. I have virtually ordered you in this epistle, not to be familiar with persons addicted to whoredom.

10 However, that ye may not misunderstand me, my meaning is, not, that ye should seclude yourselves wholly from the company of heathen fornicators, and covetous persons, and extortioners, and idolaters, since in that case ye must renounce all worldly business whatever.

11 But now, more particularly, I order you not to associate with him, if any one called a Christian brother, be a known fornicator, or a covetous person, or an occasional idolater, or areviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a person not even to eat, either in his own house, or in the house of any other person, and far less at the Lord's table; that he may be ashamed of his evil practices.

12 This, and my order to excommunicate the incestuous person, does not relate to heathens: For what right have I to punish them also, who are without the church? I have no authority over them. Have not ye a right to judge and excommunicate them who are within the church?

Troviĝia (with covetousness, that is) with greediness. See the note on that passage.

3. With such a person, not even to eat. Were we to observe this rule with strictness, now that all the world around us are become Christians, we should be obliged to go out of the world. Nevertheless, as Wall observes, The main sense of it is an everlasting rule; that a conscientious Christian should choose, as far as he can, the company, intercourse and familiarity of good men, and such as fear God, and avoid as far as his necessary affairs will permit, the conversation and fellowship of such as St. Paul here describes. This is a thing (what decay soever of public discipline there be) in each particular Christian's power.' See 2 Cor. vi. 14. note.