CHAPTER XIV.

"Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God." etc.-Vers. 22, 23.

MACKNIGHT has, in the following paraphrase, given the sense of these two verses, which in our translation is not very happily expressed:"I own that thou hast a just persuasion concerning the lawfulness of all kinds of meat. Hold that persuasion fast, so far as respects thine own conduct, in the presence of God; but do not use thy liberty so as to lead others to sin. Happy is he who doth not subject himself to punishment, by doing what he approveth as lawful. For he who seeth a difference in meats, is liable to punishment, if, through thy example, he eat what he thinks unclean; because he eateth not from a persuasion that it is lawful, but to please others. This is wrong: for whatever is done without a conviction of its lawfulness is really sin, though it be lawful in itself."

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE

CORINTHIANS.

CHAPTER I.

"I thank God that I baptised none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; lest any should say that 1 had baptised in mine own name."-Vers. 14, 15.

ACCORDING to this mode of translating, the apostle would not baptise any others, for fear it should be said that he baptised into his own name; that is, into his particular faith. This obscurity would vanish, however, if the words were translated, "so that no one can say."

"For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God," etc.- Ver. 21.

"The wisdom of God" here cannot refer either to the perfection of the Divine Being or to that wisdom among men which had God for its author, in neither of which senses would it suit the apostle's argument. We think, therefore, with Lightfoot, that there is an allusion to the distinction which the heathen philosophers had made between wisdom about natural things, that is, philosophy; and wisdom about God, that is, divinity. The meaning will then be, that the world, in its divinity, could not, by wisdom, know God-a truth too familiar to every person conversant with history to need proof or illustration here.

CHAPTER III.

"Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble," etc.-Ver. 12.

THE paraphrase of this passage by Doddridge accurately illustrates the meaning of the apostle. "If any man build, I say, upon this foundation, let him look to the materials and nature of his work; whether he raise a stately and magnificent temple upon it, adorned, as it were, like the house of God at Jerusalem, with gold and silver, [and] large, beautiful, and costly stones, [or] a mean hovel, consisting of nothing better than planks of wood, roughly put together, and thatched with hay [and] stubble; that is, let him look to it, whether he teach the substantial, vital truths which do indeed belong to Christianity, and which it was intended to support and illustrate; or set himself to propagate vain subtilties and conceits on the one hand, or legal rites and Jewish traditions on the other; which, though they do not absolutely destroy the foundation, disgrace it as a mean edifice would do a grand and extensive foundation, laid with great pomp and solemnity."

"If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."-Ver. 15.

In the continuation of the metaphor, the apostle represents the minister who has been thus unprofitably employed, as a builder whose edifice is consumed by fire, and who himself escapes through it with difficulty. The commentator referred to on the preceding verse thus paraphrases the one now under consideration.

"He will find that he has been spending his time and strength to little purpose, and has lost a great deal

of that reward which he might, through Divine grace, have secured, had he applied himself with vigour and zeal to the proper labours of a gospel minister. Yet, if he be upon the whole a good man, who has built upon Christ as the foundation, and, on the terms of the gospel, committed his soul to him, he shall be saved, and find mercy of the Lord; though, in comparison with that more abundant entrance into his kingdoin, which others will have, it may be said that he is saved with extreme difficulty."

CHAPTER IV.

"For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord."—Ver. 4.

OUR translators did not rightly apprehend the apostle's meaning, otherwise their rendering would have been more intelligible. Paul is here arguing to convince the Corinthians that he had not been negligent in the discharge of his trust as an apostle; and to this the words in question must be referred. Wesley, therefore, properly renders, according to the true meaning of the phrase ouden emauto suneida, "I am not conscious to myself of anything evil." So also the Rhemish translators, "I am not guilty in conscience of anything;" or, better still, Hollybushe, in 1538: "For I knowe my selfe gylty of no thynge."

CHAPTER VI.

Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world ?" etc. -Ver. 2.

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BLOOMFIELD has summed up the numerous jectures that have been offered on this obscure passage, and gives the preference, as we do, also, to

the interpretation of the Greek and Latin fathers. and commentators, though countenanced by scarcely any modern commentator, excepting Semler. They take krinō, to judge (as often) for katakrinō, to condemn; and explain, "will afford matter for their condemnation (namely, by the comparison)""shall be the means of increasing their condemnation." Chrysostom aptly compares Matt. xii. 41, "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas;" and ver. 42, The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon." And he might have added, Matt. xii. 29, (says Bloomfield), "therefore they shall be your judges."

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CHAPTER VII.

"But to the rest speak I, not the Lord."-Ver. 12.

BISHOP Wilson rightly apprehends the meaning of the words. "The Lord Christ," he remarks, "had not decided the case of the marriage of a believer with an infidel, but left this to the decision of the apostles, by the assistance of the Holy Ghost." Paul's meaning, therefore, is this:"There is not any express precept of Christ relative to this matter; but I speak, or command this, in virtue of my apostolical authority."

"For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband."-Ver. 14.

The difficulties which have been encountered in the interpretation of this passage would have been