TEXT. 15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a covering. 16 But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. PARAPHRASE. would have the distinction of sexes preserved, teach you, that if a man wear his hair long, and dressed up after the manner of women, it is misbecoming and dis15 honourable to him? But to a woman, if she be curious about her hair, in having it long, and dressing herself with it, it is a grace and commendation; since her hair 16 is given her for a covering. But, if any show himself to be a lover of contention, we, the apostles, have no such custom, nor any of the churches of God. NOTE. 16 Why may not this, "any one," be understood of the false apostle, here glanced at? SECT. VIII. CHAP. XI. 17-S4. CONTENTS. ONE may observe from several passages in this epistle, that several judaical customs were crept into the corinthian church. This church being of St. Paul's own planting, who spent two years at Corinth, in forming it; it is evident these abuses had their rise from some other teachers, who came to them after his leaving them, which was about five years before his writing this epistle. These disorders therefore may with reason be ascribed to the head of the faction, that opposed St. Paul, who, as has been remarked, was a jew, and probably judaized. And that, it is like, was the foundation of the great opposition between him and St. Paul, and the reason why St. Paul labours so earnestly to destroy his credit among the corinthians: this sort of men being very busy, very troublesome, and very dangerous to the gospel, as may be seen in other of St. Paul's epistles, particularly that to the galatians. The celebrating the passover amongst the Jews was plainly the eating of a meal distinguished from other ordinary meals, by several peculiar ceremonies. Two of these ceremonics were eating of bread solemnly broken, and drinking a cup of wine, called the cup of blessing. These two our Saviour transferred into the christian church, to be used in their assemblies, for a commemoration of his death and sufferings. In celebrating this institution of our Saviour, the judaizing corinthians followed the jewish custom of cating their passover; they cat the Lord's supper as a part of their meal, bringing their provisions into the assembly, where they eat divided into distinct companies, some feasting to excess, whilst others, ill provided, were in want. This eating thus in the public assembly, and mixing the Lord's supper with their ordinary meal, as a part of it, with other disorders and indecencies accompanying it, is the matter of this section. These innovations, he tells them here, he as much blames, as, in the beginning of this chapter, he commends them for keeping to his directions in some other things. TEXT. 17 Now in this, that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that ye come together, not for the better, but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they, which are approved, may be made manifest among you. PARAPHRASE. 17 Though what I said to you, concerning women's behaviour in the church, was not without commendation of you; yet this, that I am now going to speak to you of, is without praising you, because you so order your meetings in your assemblies, that they are not to your advan18 tage, but harm. For first I hear, that, when you come together in the church, you fall into parties, and I partly 19 believe it; Because there must be divisions and factions TEXT. 20 When ye come together, therefore, 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 another is drunken. 22 What! have ye not houses to eat and drink in? Or despise ye PARAPHRASE. amongst you, that those who stand firm upon trial, may 20 be made manifest among you. 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. 21 For, in eating, you eat not together, but every one takes 22 his own supper one before another. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in, at home, for satisfying your hunger and thirst? Or have ye a contempt for the church of God, and take a pleasure to put those out of countenance, who have not wherewithal to feast there, as you do? What is it I said to you, that I praise you NOTES. 21 a To understand this, we must observe, (1.) That they had sometimes meetings, on purpose only for eating the Lord's supper, ver. 33. (2.) That to those meetings they brought their own supper, ver. 21. (3.) That though every one's supper were brought into the common assembly, yet it was not to eat in common, but every one fell to his own supper apart, as soon as he and his supper were there ready for one another, without staying for the rest of the company, or communicating with them in eating, ver. 21, 33. In this St. Paul blames three things especially. 1st. That they eat their common food in the assembly, which was to be eaten at home, in their houses, ver. 22, 34. 2dly, That though they eat in the common meeting-place, yet they eat separately, every one his own supper apart. So that the plenty and excess of some shamed the want and penury of others, ver. 22. Hereby also the divisions amongst them were kept up, ver. 18, they being as so many separated and, divided societies, not as one united body of christians, commemorating their common head, as they should have been in celebrating the Lord's supper, chap. x. 16, 17. 3dly, That they mixed the Lord's supper with their own, eating it as a part of their ordinary meal, where they made not that discrimination between it and their common food, as they should have done, ver. 29. 22 He here plainly refers to what he had said to them, ver. 2, where he praised them for remembering him in all things, and for retaining rà τὰς @xçαsocis natus wafidwna, what he had delivered to them. This commendation he here retracts; for, in the matter of eating the Lord's supper, they did not retain & mapidaxa, ver. 23, what he had delivered to them, which, therefore, in the immediately following words, he repeats to them again.. the church of God? shall I say to you? not. TEXT. And shame them that have not? What Shall I praise you in this? I praise you 23 For I have received of the Lord, that, which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night, in which he was betrayed, took bread : 24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, "Take, 66 eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in re"membrance of me." 25 After the same manner also, he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: "this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. 27 Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 66 PARAPHRASE. for retaining what I delivered to you? On this occa23 sion, indeed, I praise you not for it. For what I received, concerning this institution, from the Lord himself, that I delivered unto you, when I was with you; and it was this, viz. That the Lord Jesus, in the night, 24 wherein he was betrayed, took bread: And, having given thanks, brake it, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you: this do in remem25"brance of me." So, likewise, he took the cup also, when he had supped, saying, "This cup is the new tes"tament in my blood: this do ye, as often as ye do it, 26" in remembrance of me." So that the eating of this bread, and the drinking of this cup of the Lord's supper, is not to satisfy hunger and thirst, but to show forth 27 the Lord's death, till he comes. Insomuch that he, who eats this bread, and drinks this cup of the Lord, in an unworthy manner, not suitable to that end, NOTE. 27 Avažiwę, “unworthily." Our Saviour, in the institution of the Lord's supper, tells the apostles, that the bread and the cup were sacramentally his body and blood, and that they were to be eaten and drank in remembrance of him; which, as St. Paul interprets it, ver. 26, was to show forth his death till he came. Whoever, therefore, eat and drank them, so as not solemnly to show forth his death, followed not Christ's institution, but used them unwor TEXT. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. PARAPHRASE. shall be guilty of a misuse of the body and blood 28 of the Lord. By this institution, therefore, of Christ, let a man examine himself; and, according NOTES. thily, i. e. not to the end to which they were instituted. This makes St. Paul tell them, ver. 20, that their coming together to eat it, as they did, viz. the sacramental bread and wine promiscuously with their other food, as a part of their meal, and that though in the same place, yet not all together, at one time, and in one company, was not eating of the Lord's supper. "Evora, shall be liable to the punishment due to one, who makes a wrong use of the sacramental body and blood of Christ in the Lord's supper, What that punishment was, vid. ver. 30. 28 St. Paul, as we have observed, 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 it, without a due and direct imitating regard had to the Lord's body, (for so he calls the sacramental bread and wine, as our Saviour did, in the institution) by separating the bread and wine from the common use of eating and drinking, for hunger and thirst, was to eat unworthily. To remedy their disorders herein, he sets before them Christ's own institution of this sacrament; that in it they might see the manner and end of its institution; and, by that, every one might examine his own comportment herein, whether it were conformable to that institution, and suited to that end. In the account he gives, of Christ's institution, we may observe, that he particularly remarks to them, that this eating and drinking was no part of common eating and drinking for hunger and thirst, but was instituted in a very solemn manner, after they had supped, and for another end, viz. to represent Christ's body and blood, and to be eaten and drank in remembrance of him; or, as St. Paul expounds it, to show forth his death. Another thing, which they might observe in the institution, was, that this was done by all who were present, united together in one company, at the same time. All which put together, shows us what the examination here proposed is. For the design of the apostle here, being to reform what he found fault with, in their celebrating the Lord's supper, it is, by that alone, we must understand the directions he gives them about it, if we will suppose he talked pertinently to this captious and touchy people, whom he was very desirous to reduce from the irregularities they were run into, in this matter, as well as several others. And if the account of Christ's institution be not for their examining their carriage by it, and adjusting it to it, to what purpose is it, here? The examination, therefore, proposed, was no other but an examination of their manner of eating the Lord's supper, by Christ's institution, to see how their behaviour herein comported with the institution, and the end, for which it was instituted. Which farther appears to be so, by the punishment annexed to their miscarriages herein, which was infirmities, sickness, and temporal death, with which God chastened them, that they might not be condemned with the unbelieving world, ver. 30, $1. For if the unworthiness, here spoken of, were either unbelief, or any of those sins, which are usually made the matter of examination, it is to be presumed the apostle would not wholly have passed them over in silence: this, at least, is |