1 Corinthians 5

1 Corinthians 5:1

REported] Gr. heard.

fornication among you] The sinne was incest, forbidden, Leviticus 18:8. The nakednesse of thy fathers wife shalt thou not uncover; a horrible crime, and such as the very Gentiles detested, and severely punished in theirlaws, if any among them (which seldome fell out) defiled themselves with any such unnaturall contreact, or abominable act. Neither doth the Apostle diminish the foulnesse of it, by terming of it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the Greek, as stuprum in Latine, though sometimes they are restrained to one kinde of uncleannesse, which is committed between unmarried persons; yet they are generall in their own nature, and may be applied to any acts of impure lust; and as the Apostle here calleth the incest of him who lay with his mother in law, fornication: so likewise the Roman Oratour calleth Clodius his incest with his own sister, stuprum.

1 Corinthians 5:2

done] Gr. Tec. acted.

from among you] The Apostle findeth fault with the Corinthians, for that they had not excommunicated this incestuous person, before he had wrote unto them, and charged them so to do, because the fact was notorious, and the Church very much scandalized by harbouring so foul a delinquent in the bosome thereof.

1 Corinthians 5:3

I verily as absent] Gr. Tec. I verily absent. Sec Col. 2. 5.

but present in spirit] In minde, affection, and care; or the meaning may be, that the Apostle by the spirit knew all things that past at Corinth, as if he were there bodily present.

judged] Or, determined.

1 Corinthians 5:4

In the Name] Calling upon the name of Christ, or by the command of Christ, as the word is taken, Acts 3:6. and Matthew 7:22. and Luke 24. 47.

with the power] There is no doubt, but that judgement is ratified in heaven, wherein Cherist sitteth as Judge, the power both of excommunicating and absolving is Christs, and the ministery thereof only committed to the Governors of the Church.

1 Corinthians 5:5

To deliver such an one unto Satan] See 1 Timothy 1:20. What it is to be delivered to Satan, the Lord himself declareth, when he saith, Let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publicane, Matth. 18 17. that is to say, to be defranchised and put out of the right and libertie of the Citie of Christ, which is the Church. This manner of expression was used of old in the greater excommunication, and it seems to be taken from 1 Samuel 16:14. where Saul being rejected of God was caught and troubled by an evill spirit; and in the primitive times of the Church, after this greater Excommunication, (as one of the Ancients affirme) there followed great terrours in the partie excommunicated,, agonies of spirit, yea, and torments also of body, which through Gods permission were inflicted, not for the utter and irrevocable destruction of the Delinquent, but for his correction and amendment, that his soul might be saved, though his body suffered.

for the destruction of the flesh] The mortifying and destroying the old man; that is corrupt nature called the flesh, Romans 8:13. Galatians 5:24. Or, to the great macerating and pulling down of the body by sadnesse; for a broken spirit drieth the bones, Proverbs 17:22. to the pulling down and tormenting of the body, even unto death, if Gods will be so, as also death mght sometimes ensue upon the foresaid delivery to Satan, and even at the last gaspe the sinner shewing a lively repentance, was released from those bonds of excommunication, and restored to the peace of the Church, and favour of God, so that he departed this life with comfort.

that the spirit may be saved] The scope and end of the Churches severitie, is not eternall condemnation, but saying of the soul by true repentance.

in the day of the Lord Jesus] In the last day, or day of judgement; not as if salvation were deferred to the last day, or that the repenting soul should not enjoy it before that time; but because salvation then shall be consummated, and fully revealed, 1 Peter 1:5.

1 Corinthians 5:6

Know ye not that a little leaven] See Galatians 5:9. A kinde of proverbiall speech, intimating, that one scandalous offendor may infect the whole Church, a one scabbed sheep a whole flock: and hereby the Apostle declareth another end of Excommunication to be, to keep the Church sound from infection, to cut of a rotten Member, that it gangren not the whole body.

1 Corinthians 5:7

Purge out therefore the old leaven] By alluding to the Ceremony of the Passeover, he exhorteth them to cast out this unclean person from among them. In times past (saith he) it was not lawfull for them which did celebrate the Passeover, to cat unleavened bread, in so much that he was held as unclean and unworthy to eat the Passeover, whosoever had tasted of leaven; now all our whole life must be as it were the feast of unleavened bread, wherein all they that are partakers of that immaculate Lamb which was slain, must cast out, both of themselves, and also out off their houses and congregations, all impuritie.

that ye may be a new lump] That your Church may be a clean and pure body, according as you were renewed by the gift of regeneration, which can no way consist with any such mixture of reigning sinne. A figure taken from the Jewish passeover, which was alwayes to be kept with unleavened bread, Exodus 12:15.

Christ our passeover] Christ is termed our Passover, either by a Metonymie signati pro signo, or by a metaphor in regard of many resemblances betweene Christ and the Paschall Lambe: First, as the Lambe was without blemish, so Christ was without all spot of sinne. Secondly, as no bone of the Lambe was to be broken, so neither any bone of Christ at his passion. Thirdly, as the Lamb was offered to God for a typicall reconciliation and satisfaction, so was Christ for the true reconciliation of all his elect, & satisfaction for their sins. Fourthly, as the Paschall Lamb was to be eaten, so we feed upon Christ by faith. Fiftly, as the Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with sowre hearbs, so Christs flesh is to be eaten in the Sacrament with a sowre and bitter remembrance of our sinnes, and Christs dolorous suffering for them. Sixtly, as the Paschall Lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread, so all that eat Christ must purge out of their conscience all leaven of maliciousnesse.

Seventhly, as that Lamb was called Phase, Exodus 12. which signifieth a passing over; so Christs death, in which he was sacrificed for us, might be called Phase, or transitus, a passage; because byit he passeed from the world to his Father. Lastly, as where the door cheeks and posts were sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb, they in the family escaped the stroke of the destroying angell; so all those whose consciences are sprinkled by faith with the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, shall escape eternall destruction.

is sacrificed] Or, is slain.

1 Corinthians 5:8

let us keep the feast] Or, let us keep holy day. Let us lead or passe our life, which ought to be a perpetuall celebration and remembrance of our redemption by Christ, even as the Passeover feast, during eight dayes, was the commemoration of the deliverance out of Egypt. That which the Israelites were to do typically, and in the signe, upon the killing of the lamb for the preparation of the feast of the Passeover, and in casting out all the old leaven, and abstaining seven whole dayes from unleavened bread, according to the expresse command of God, Exodus 12. 15. let us performe in the truth or thing signified all the dayes of our lives; that is, purge out the old leaven of inbred naturall corruption, and take away all scandals from among us, after that now we are reconciled to God, through the offering and sprinkling of the blood of Christ.

1 Corinthians 5:9

in an epistle] That Epistle is not now extant, for this is the first to the Corinthians that is found in the new Testament, and although that Epistle was written bydivine inspiration, as we may piously conceive, that the Books of Nathan, Gad, Ahiah, Iddo, Semaiah, and others, mentioned in the old Testament, were, which now are thought to be lost, yet will it not hence follow, that the Canon of the Scriptures is not perfect, as the Romanists would inferre; because as the principall Contents of those former books are supposed to be found in the Books of the Chronicles and Kings, so it cannot be proved, but that all points necessary to salvation, which were set down in that former Epistle to the Corinthians, are either contained in these two Epistles which we have, or some other Booke of holy Scripture.

not to company with fornicatours] Gr. mingled with. Now he speaketh more generally, and that which he spake before of the incestuous person, he sheweth, that it pertaineth to others which are known to be wicked, and such as through their naughty life are a slander to the Church, which ought also by lawfull order to be cast out of the communion of the Church.

1 Corinthians 5:10

Yet not altogether with the fornicatours of this world] Such as belong unto the world, or addicted to the world, that are yet out of the Church; so the world is taken, John 15. 19. and 17. 9.

extortioners] Gr. raveners.

for then must ye] Gr. seeing that then ye must.

for then must ye needs go out of this world] If you would utterly abstain from such mens company, you must quit this world; therefore I speak of them which are in the bosom of the Church, which must be called home by discipline, and not of them which are without, with whom we must labour by all means possible to bring them unto Christ.

1 Corinthians 5:11

not to keep company] Gr. not to be joyned or mingled with company.

extortioner] Gr. ravener.

no not to eate] He meaneth, that we ought not to have any intimate familiaritie, or common usage, or manner of life and conversation with them; for otherwise in some case we are not forbidden simply to eat with such, sith neither the bond of Matrimonie is broken by excommunication, nor such duties hindered, much lesse cut off thereby, as we owe one to another, children to their parents, subjects to their Prince, servants to their Masters, and neighbour to neighbour, to winne one another to God.

1 Corinthians 5:13

put away from] Gr. put, or, take out from.