me? &c.-That this was a real, not a metaphorical combat with beasts, may be collected from what the apostle told the Corinthians, 2 Cor. i. 8. and from the phrase manner of men, which means the barbarous custom of the men of that age. See Pref. sect. 5. p. 10.—For the difference of fighting with, and the being exposed to wild beasts, see chap. iv. 9. note 1.

2. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. This, which may be called the Epicurean's manual or creed, hath been the favourite maxim of the sensual and profané in all ages. Accordingly Isaiah tells us, that the wicked in derision of his prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, said to one another, chap. xxii. 13. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. The author of the Book of Wisdom likewise, hath very well expressed the sentiments of the wicked in his time, chap. ii. 1.— 9. from which it appears, that by dying they meant their own utter annihilation.

Ver. 33.-1. Evil communications corrupt good manners. It is commonly supposed, that this is taken from the Thais of Menander, the celebrated Athenian poet, because it is found among the fragments of his works, p. 178. And Tertullian remarks, that in quoting, the apostle hath sanctified the poet's sentiment; by which he seems to insinuate, that he had made it a part of inspired scripture. But I rather think it is a proverbial expression, which need not be referred to any particular author, having been commonly used. The Greek word quial, signifies not only discourses, but every kind of familiar intercourse. And therefore, as Alberti observes, the phrase quia naxar, might be translated bad company. The persons whose company the apostle desired the Corinthians to shun, were those who reasoned against the immortality of the soul and a future state.

Ver 34.-1. Awake as is fit. So far das literally signifies. Exvno, is to become sober after having been drunk. The figure is striking.

what is the advantage to me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.2

33 Be not deceived: Evil communications corrupt good manners.1

34 Awake as is fit,1 and do not sin; for some of rou are ignorant of God':2 (*pos, 289. Eypowy iμ, Asya) for shame to you I speak THIS.

35 But some one will say, (TWG EYELрovтα) How can the dead be raised up? and with what kind of body do they come?1

What is the advantage of that combat to me, if the dead rise not? It had been better to have followed the maxim of the wicked, let us enjoy every pleasure, for we are soon to die, and after death there is nothing.

33 Shun the company of the wicked, that ye be not deceived by their false reasonings. Profane discourses and vicious examples corrupt even those who are virtuously disposed.

34 Awake, as is fit, and do not sin any longer in the fancy that there is no future state. For some of you, by denying the resurrection, shew that ye are ignorant of the character and perfections of God. For shame to such I speak this.

35 But some one will say, how is it possible that the dead can be raised up, whose body is eaten of worms, or consumed by fire, or converted into the bodies of other men? And if it is possible to raise them, with what kind of body do they come out of the grave?

It represents the corrupt part of the Corinthians as intoxicated with false doctrine and sensual indulgences. For which reason the apostle called on them to awake as was fit, out of the deep sleep occasioned by that intoxication, and to recover the use of their reason.

2. Some of you are ignorant of God. Such of the Corinthians as denied the resurrection and a future state, shewed great ignorance both of God's character as moral Governor of the world, and of his perfections, especially his power and goodness set forth in the works of creation.

Ver. 35.-1. How can the dead be raised up? And with what kind of body do they come? Here, as in ver. 12. the present of the indicative, is used for the present of the subjunctive: How can the dead be raised up? See Ess. iv. 9. According to this translation, the apostle mentions two questions which were put by the philosophers, for the purpose of overthrowing the doctrine of the resurrection. The first, How is it possible that the dead can be raised up? The second, If it be a thing possible, With what kind of body do they come out of the grave? But if the indicative sense of the verb is retained in the translation, there will be one question here twice proposed. For the question, With what kind of body do they come? is in meaning precisely the same with How are the dead raised up? and makes a tautology,

36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.

37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain.

38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

56 Αφρον, συ ὁ σπείρεις ου ζωοποιειται, εαν μη αποθανῃ.

37 & Και ὁ σπείρεις, ου το σωμα το γενησομενον σπει ρεις, αλλα γυμνον κοκκον, ει

τυχοι, σίτου, η τινος των λοι

πων.

38 Ο δε Θεός αυτῷ διδωσι σωμα καθως ηθέλησε, και έκαςῳ των σπερμάτων το ιδιον σωμα.

which ought not to be imputed to so logical and concise a writer as St. Paul. Besides, in what follows, these are answered as different questions. For in answer to the first question, How can the dead be raised up? the apostle begins with proving the possibility of the resurrection, by appealing to the power of God displayed in raising grain from seed which is rotted in the ground, and in giving to each of the kinds when it is grown up, the body proper to it: Also in making bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial, each having its own properties by which it is distinguished from all others. And from these instances of the power of God, the apostle infers, that the resurrection of the dead is possible, ver. 36.-42.-His answer to the second question, With what kind of body do they come? the apostle gives from the middle of ver. 42. to ver. 54. beginning with the body of the righteous, (See ver. 42. note 3.) whose properties he contrasts with the properties of the body which is laid in the grave. Then at ver. 44. he tells us, that earthy or wicked men, are to come out of the grave with an earthy or fleshly body, like that which they derived from the earthy man Adam, and in which they died. Next, With respect to the righteous who are found alive on the earth at the coming of Christ, he declares that their body will be changed in a moment, into an incorruptible and immortal body, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, ver. 50—54.

Ver. 36.-1. Thou fool. The apostle gave the false teacher at Corinth the appellation of fool, in the same sense, and for the same reason that our Lord himself called the Pharisees fools, namely, on account of their ignorance and wickedness, Matt. xxiii. 17.

2. What thou sowest, is not quickened unless it die. To illustrate the possibility of the resurrection, the apostle appeals to a thing which men every day behold, and which is little less wonderful than the resurrection itself: the reproduction of grain from seed sown, which does not grow unless it be rotted in the ground. But after its body is destroyed, something springs out of it, which by a wonderful process, the effect of the power of God, ends in the reproduction of the same kind of grain, not bare as it was sown, but richly adorned with blades, stalk, and ear.

36 Thou art a fool in thinking the resurrection of the dead impossible for these reasons. Things equally improbable happen daily. What thou sowest is not quickened, unless it

、rot.

37 And, as to what thou sowest, thou 80west not the very body that shall be produced, but bare grain: grain without stalk, blades, and ear; perhaps of wheat, or of some of the other kinds, of which there is a great number, all different from each other.

38 But, which shews the greatness of his power, God giveth it a body, consisting of blades, stalk, and ear, in form as it hath pleased him: and to each of the seeds produced from sowing, he giveth the body proper to its own kind.

Ver. 37.-1. Thou sowest not the body which shall be. By affirming, that the grain produced from the seed sown, is not the very body which is sown, the apostle I think insinuates, that the body to be raised is not numerically the same with the body deposited at death, but something of the same kind formed by the energy of God. Having such an example of the divine power before our eyes, we cannot think the reproduction of the body impossible, though its parts be utterly dissipated. Farther, although the very numerical body is not raised, yet the body is truly raised, because what is raised, being united to the soul, there will arise in the man thus completed, a consciousness of his identity, by which he will be sensible of the justice of the retribution which is made to him for his deeds. Besides, this new body, will more than supply the place of the old, by serving every purpose necessary to the perfection and happiness of the man in his new state. See ver. 44. note. According to this view of the subject, the objection taken from the scattering of the particles of the body that dies, has no place; because it does not seem necessary, that the body to be raised, should be composed of them. For the scripture nowhere affirms, that the same numerical body is to be raised. What it teaches is, that the dead shall be raised.

2. But bare grain. In the opinion of some, the example of the grain which first dies and then revives, is mentioned to insinuate, that in the human body there is a seminal principle which is not destroyed by death; and which, at the appointed season, will reproduce the body in a more excellent form than before, through the quickening influence of his power. But is a seminal principle any thing different from that power? What occasion then have we

39 All flesh is not the 39 Ου πασα σαρξ, ἡ αυτή same flesh: but there is σαρξ· αλλα αλλη μεν σαρξ

one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial but the glory of

the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resur

ανθρώπων, αλλη δε σαρξ κτηνων, αλλη δε ιχθυών, αλλη δε πτηνων.

40 Και σώματα επουράνια, και σώματα επιγεια αλλ' ἑτερα μεν ή των επουρανίων δοξα, ἑτερα δε ἡ των επιγείων.

41 Αλλη δοξα ήλιου, και αλλη δοξα σεληνης, και αλλη δοξα αςερων αςηρ γαρ αςερος διαφέρει εν δοξη.

42 ουτω και η αναςασις

rection of the dead. It is των νεκρων.

to carry our thoughts in this matter beyond God's power.-Besides, as there is no inextinguishable prínciple in plants, the analogy doth not hold. I therefore suppose this wonderful, though common instance, is mentioned to shew that the resurrection of the body is not beyond the power of God to accomplish; and that it may certainly be expected, according to Christ's promise.

Ver. 39. 1. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, &c. Locke thinks flesh in this verse means an organized animal body. But I rather imagine it denotes, the substance of which animal bodies is composed. For, as in the preceding verse, the apostle directs us to consider the greatness of the power of God, displayed in the production of that endless variety of vegetable substances for food to man and beast, with which we are surrounded : 1: so in this verse he directs our attention to the same power of God, displayed in that wonderful diversity of animal substances which it hath formed into different sorts of organized bodies, each with members properly adapted to the instincts of its inhabitant, and to the manner of life for which it is designed. The greatness of the divine power, the apostle observes, is likewise conspicuous in the diversity of inanimate bodies both celestial and terrestrial which it hath produced. And from the whole he draws this conclusion, ver. 42. Wherefore even the resurrection of the dead is possible; that is, God's power being so gloriously manifested in the greatness and variety of the material substances which he hath already formed, and in the diversity of their configuration, he must be a fool indeed, ver. 36. who takes