1 Corinthians 5

1 Corinthians 5:1

AMongst the Gentiles,] namely hath not beene used nor tolerated, but hath bin detested by a naturall consent of all men Fathers wise,] namely his owne mother in Law.

1 Corinthians 5:2

Mourned,] you have not shewed any sorrow for such a cruell misdeed: nor not have so much as proceeded to excommunication against the misdoer: in which action, as being very mournefull, they did anciently use to fast, lament, and make a publicke humiliation in the CHURCH. See 2 Corinthians 12:21.

1 Corinthians 5:3

For Iverily,] you ought to have excommunicated him, for I judge hee hath deserved it: and you having failed therein, I doe pronounce the sentence by Apostolicall authority In spirit,] in soule, in thought, and in feeling, which I declare unto you by these my words: which ought to bee of the same weight, and strength with you, as if I were present, by vertue of my owne Apostolicall power.

1 Corinthians 5:4

In the Name,] as his Minister, and by the authority received from him, and according to his order, and calling upon his holy name When yee are,] he speakes to the Pastors and conductors of the Church. The meaning is, being gathered together in ecclesiasticall judgement, having this my declaration in stead of my vote, as if I were present. So without doing any prejudice to the ordinary ministery of the Church of Corinth hee useth his Apostolicall power modestly, only to excite the other, and strengthen it.

1 Corinthians 5:5

To deliver,] this forme anciently used in the greatest kinde of excommunication, seemes to have beene taken from the example of Saul, 1 Samuel 16:14. for excommunication is a kinde of rejection from God: and in those first days of the Christian Church it was followed, with horrors anguishes of spirit, and torments of body: yet with this temperament, that it was not to totall perdition, nor irrevocable, but onely for correction untill true repentance The destruction,] to macerate, and pull downe the body extreamely, even to death, if God would have it so: as oftentimes by meanes of the foresaid things, death did follow, and at his last passage the sinner shewing a lively repentance, was loosed from those bonds of excommunication, and was reamitted into the peace of the Church and into the grace of God, and so Died with comfort That the spirit,] Namely the end of this severitie, is not eternall damnation, but the salvation of the soule, so that there bee repentance In the day,] not that salvation is reserved to the last day, and that the penitent soule doth not enjoy it before: but because in that day, salvation shall be fully revealed and accomplished, 1 Peter 1:5.

1 Corinthians 5:6

Your glorying,] Yee have no cause to glory so much as yee doe, of the flourishing eate of your Church because that such a misdeed, doth staine it and drawes Gods judgements upon it, and such a sinner may infect the whole body by his contagion.

1 Corinthians 5:7

Purge out,] take away from amongst you by excommunication: this incestuous man, and all such scandalous kinde of people, who might by their infection plunge you againe into the corruption, whereof you had beene cleansed by the Gospell Yee may bee,] Namely that your Church may bee a pure and cleane body, as you have beene renewed by the gifts of regeneration, which is incompatible, with any such like mixture of raigning sinne: figures taken from the feast of the Iewish Passeover, which was wont to bee celebrated with unleavened bread, Exodus 12:15 Unleavened,] See Iohn 13. 10 Our Passeover,] the spirituall state of Christians is the true accomplishment of the Iewish Passeover: whereupon as in that, ty used no leaven at all: So to participate of Christ who is the true Lambe of God, Iohn 1. 29. wee ought to renounce all manner of sinne, that the correspondencie may be entire.

1 Corinthians 5:8

Let us keep,] let us lead our life, which ought to be a perpetuall celebration, and remembrance of our redemption by Christ: as the Passeover which lasted eight dayes, was a remembrance of the deliverance out of Aegypt.

1 Corinthians 5:9

In an Epistle,] hee seemes to speake of some Epistle written before this, which is lost, as some other, 1 Philip. 3. 1. Colossians 4:16. yet without any dammage to the perfect fulnesse of holy Scripture Not to company,] by a voluntary, intimate, and familiar conversation.

1 Corinthians 5:10

Yet not,] yet I doe not meane that you should wholly sever your selves from all men of evill life, indifferently, for that is impossible, l〈…〉ving in the world, amongst heathens, and prophane perrons But from those, who being members of the Church doe be〈…〉e their profession, and are spots, ulcers, and leprosie in e body, whereby they must by this punishment, either bee reduced to repentance, or hee quite cut off, for the ease and cure of the whole body.

1 Corinthians 5:11

No, not to eate,] namely in the common course of life, shunne all manne of voluntary, sweet, and friendly conversation with him: according to the rigour of the ancient Discipline: and most of all in religious acts put him from the LORDS Table, which might bee prophaned by him, 2 Peter 〈◊〉. 13. Iude 12. Yet still let the necessary duties of humane societie, or the naturall, or civill duties, remaine: not forbidding the healthfull communication, of exhortations and reproofes, &c.

1 Corinthians 5:12

For what,] hee gives a reason of the precedent limitation to the members of the Church onely, over which God gives his Ministers power and not over strangers. See 1 Peter 4:15.De 〈◊〉 yee judge,] is it not a thing notorious and common amongst men, that a judge can exercise his jurisdiction, but onely over those that are within his precinct that are subject to his tribunall.

1 Corinthians 5:13

Put away,] purge your Church from this incestuous, and all suh vicious and scandalous men; and leave the care of punishing those who are strangers to the faith, to God.