PREFACE,

CONTENTS.

PAGE

ix

First Epistle.

PART I. (CHAPS. I.-IV.)

THE DISSENSIONS OF THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH.

SECTION I. (Chap. I. 1-31.) Introduction. Divisions in the

Church. No legitimate place for them in a Religion

which was neither a Philosophy, nor a System of Doc-

trines, nor a Law, but a Spirit of Life; God alone being

the Giver, and Christ alone the channel of the Gift.

SECTION II. (Chap. II. 1–16.) Dissensions from Speculative

sources. Unity cannot be broken in Things that are

only spiritually discerned, with which the Speculative

Faculties are not vitally concerned.

SECTION III. (Chap. III. 1-21.) Dissensions arising from

the Pretensions and vulgar Passions of Individuals.

SECTION IV. (Chap. IV. 1-21.) An Apostle's way of apply-

ing Apostolic Authority to the Strifes of a Church.

PART II. (CHAPS. V.-XI.)

THE IMMORALITIES AND PERPLEXITIES OF THE

CORINTHIAN CHURCH.

SECTION I. (Chaps. V. VI. VII.) Speculative Pretensions

and Moral Laxity. Incest. Litigations. Domestic

Relations between Believers and Unbelievers.

SECTION II. (Chaps. VIII, IX.) Perplexities and Perils to

the recent Converts to Christianity, from the connec-

3-20

21-43

44-59

60-77

81-103

PAGE

. . 104-122

tion of Gentile manners with Idolatrous observances.

Knowledge without Love no Principle of Christian

Action. Paul's appeal to his own example of Forbear-

ance from lawful things for the sake of others.

SECTION III. (Chaps. X. XI. 1.) A Caution against Self-

Confidence; lest an unscrupulous familiarity with

Polytheistic habits might lead to a relapse into Hea-

thenism. The Parallel case of the Jews of old. Fel-

lowship with Christ excludes all trifling with Idolatry.

Love should control Liberty in Things indifferent.

SECTION IV. (Chap. XI. 2-34.) Irregularities from some

abuse by Woman of her spiritual Equality; and from

a Heathenish abuse of the Lord's Supper.

PART III. (CHAPS. XII.-XIV.)

THE OFFICE OF LOVE IN DRAWING INDIVIDUALS

INTO A COMMUNITY.

SECTION I. (Chap. XII. 1–30.) Unity amid Diversity. The

Church and its Members, as the Body with its Organs

and Limbs. The Gifts and Graces of each, the Wealth

and Adornment of all.

SECTION II. (Chap. XII. 31.-XIII. 1-31.) Love: its Cha-

racteristics. Above Faith and above Hope, as common

to us and God himself.

123-139

140-158

161-180

· 181-198

SECTION III. (Chap. XIV.) Love gives precedence to the

Gifts that edify; and obtrudes not on the Church the

peculiarities of Individuals. Prophecy. Tongues.

Rules of Order.

PART IV. (CHAPS. XV.-XVI.)

199-217

CORINTHIAN AND PAULINE VIEWS OF THE RESURRECTION.

CORINTH AND JERUSALEM ONE CHURCH AND

FAMILY.. -CONCLUSION.

SECTION I. (Chap. XV.) State of Opinion on the Doctrine

of a Resurrection. St. Paul's Arguments. Christ's

Resurrection a Pattern and a Pledge. The case of

the Apostles, on the supposition of no Resurrection.

Analogies of Nature.

Celestial Bodies. The new

Births of Death.

SECTION II. (Chap. XVI.) Sympathy of the Corinthian

Church for the distressed Brethren of Jerusalem.

Paul's views of Duty in Matters of Money. His pro-

posed visit to Corinth. Timothy. Apollos. Exhor-

tation.-Conclusion.

PAGE

221-240

241-259

Second Epistle.

PART I. (CHAPS. I.-VII.)

VIEWS OF SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY, ADDRESSED CHIEFLY

TO THOSE WHOM THE FIRST EPISTLE BROUGHT

INTO SYMPATHY WITH PAUL.

SECTION I. (Chaps. I. II. 1-4.) St. Paul's thankfulness for

an experience which qualified him for the Ministry

of Consolation. Fellowship in Suffering for a holy

cause should protect from Misconstruction. Explana-

tion of his deferred Visit.

SECTION II. (Chap. II. 5–17—III. 1-18.) Paul's restoration
of the Penitent. The Salvation of Forgiveness. His

thankfulness that the Light had healed, and not ag-

gravated Sin. Truthfulness his whole Competency as

an Apostle of Truth. Letter and Spirit.

:

SECTION III. (Chap. IV.) Sensibility to Human Opinion.

Paul's reliance on combined Truthfulness and Love.

Christ the Truth. The power of Faith in him to

sustain the inner Man.

SECTION IV. (Chaps. V. VI. VII. 1.) The two Redemp-

tions;
of Soul, and of Body. The Christian on Earth

has obtained the one, and looks for the other. This

Spiritual Redemption makes Self-glory a Self-contra-

diction, for to live in Christ is to be dead to Self as

Christ was dead. In this law of the Spirit of Life in

Christ Jesus, St. Paul finds protection for the Corin-

thians, and a Defence of himself, against false Teach-

ers and Apostles.

263-280

281-296

297-312

313-330

SECTION V. (Chap. VII. 2-16.) The Law of Moral Influence.

Paul's intense thankfulness that his remonstrance

with their Sins had not spiritually injured the Co-

rinthians. The doctrine of Contrition. The Sorrow

that is rooted in the World; and the Sorrow that is

rooted in God.

PART II. (CHAPS. VIII. IX.)

ST. PAUL URGES THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH TO DISCHARGE

THE FULL DUTIES OF BROTHERLY LOVE TOWARDS

THEIR AFFLICTED BRETHREN OF JERUSALEM. THE

LAW OF GIVING.

PART. III. (CHAPS. X.-XIII.)

PAGE

331-347

351-370

ST. PAUL'S CLOSING VINDICATION OF HIS APOSTOLIC

CHARACTER AND AUTHORITY AGAINST HIS

DETRACTORS AT CORINTH.

SECTION I. (Chaps. X. XI.) St. Paul's Opponents. His

Personal Infirmities. His Apostleship denied: its

Warrants. His Disinterestedness misconstrued. Self-

commendation: its folly, and its justification. . . 373-391

SECTION II. (Chaps. XII. XIII.) St. Paul's qualifications

not from himself, but of God's Grace: his Visions

and Revelations. The accompaniment of the chas-

tening Thorn in the Flesh. His claims upon the

Love and Obedience of the Corinthian Church: his

prayer that their restoration to a Christian Mind may

reduce their Apostle to the level of their Brother. Ex-

hortation and Benediction.

BRITISH

392-408

PREFACE.

I WARN off scholars, and deep students of the Scriptures, from these pages. They are designed for the unlearned; for those whose only qualification for the reception of religious Truth is in the desire, that spiritual Things may by them be spiritually discerned; and who seek and worship Truth, as they worship and seek after God, with a hunger and thirst for Realities, and with a Love that casts out Fear. For such I think something, indeed much, needs yet to be done, to bring them into any actual communion with the mind and spirit of St. Paul.

This work will not serve for all the purposes of a Commentary. It does not attempt to solve every difficulty of expression; nor even to notice all the accidental views, the investiture of circumstance and tradition, which were clearly not inherent in the soul of Paul, nor essential to his conception of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. I have not in