In a subsequent part of the epistle, the apostle again adverts to the same painful subject: 'Ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions,' are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not yet carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers, by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man

? 2

Nor was this the whole of the charge against the Corinthian church, or even the weightiest part of it. In another passage, the apostle sharply rebukes the Corinthians, for the disorders which had occurred at their religious meetings; and even in that solemn commemorative rite, which, more than any other, would seem to demand a union of devotion, and charity, and every pure, and holy, and tender christian feeling.

The Lord's Supper was originally ingrafted on the Jewish Passover; and, accordingly, in the first churches, it included an actual meal. The members of the society appear to have been expected to bring with them what was requisite for

brought forward this in my own person, and that of Apollos, as if what was said of others whom I, out of delicacy, forbear to mention, were applicable to us. Bloomfield.

1 dixoσraolai, separate parties (in the church). 1 Cor. iii. 3. Dissensiones, dissidia. Wahl.

2 1 Cor. iii. 3. 4. 5. 3 Hence the term das 'Abendmahl.'

UN

BRARY

a frugal and sober repast, including the bread and wine required for the representation of the body and blood of the Lord. The whole solemnity was sometimes called the 'agape,' or feast of love; as being both the symbol of the invisible communion of believers with the Lord himself, and the pledge of their brotherly fellowship with each other.

At the celebration of this divinely-appointed rite, the Corinthians had fallen into shameful irregularities. The design of the ordinance, as a memorial of the Saviour's death, in the communion of Saints, had been lost sight of; and the spirit of factious preference prevailed even at the table of the Lord. The sacred feast was turned into a convivial meeting, probably of separate companies; each of these bringing provisions only for themselves, and making a selfish meal, regardless of a decent sufficiency being provided for all in common. Some began this unseemly repast before others, with indecent haste; and the poor members of the church were neglected; for it appears that the rich brought of their abundance, merely for the private indulgence of their own appetites; and some ate and drank to excess. Thus did they imitate their heathen fellow-citizens; who were remarkable for their luxury and prodigality.

• See Neanders Kirchengeschichte. Bd. i. Abtheil. iii. 2.

Now in this that I declare,' says St. Paul, 'I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions (schisms) among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies* (parties) among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What! have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. . . . Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation.'

* ȧipéσeis. 1 Cor. xi. 19. This verse (For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you,') is evidently parenthetical. The term diperis, here rendered heresy,' does not in itself imply error in doctrine; and may always be translated in the New Testament, sect or party, as in Acts v. 17. xv. 5. xxiv. 5. xxviii. 22. Heresy is a schism or division of sentiment, which has issued in the formation of parties, sects, or, it may be, factions. A 'heretic' (άiperikòs) is a factious man in the church, a man disposed to form a party. But a heresy,' in the sense

The conduct thus described, was not only a gross violation of decency and order; but also of brotherly love. The poor were no longer placed on an equality, in the communion of the church, with the rich some, it would seem, went away without partaking of the repast at all; and the church exhibited a scene of confusion. Instead of the Christian virtues, there was nothing but alienation of feeling, strife, and a variety of evil passions; inflicting a dreadful wound on that charity which cannot live in an atmosphere of selfishness and mutual disregard; and which is kept alive, only by reciprocal good-will; and by the interchange of kind offices, as occasion may arise. With a view, therefore, to place, further, before the minds of the Corinthians, the means of remedying these lamentable disorders, the apostle proceeds to lay down the doctrine of the unity of the church of Christ, in connexion with its visible manifestation, which is charity and in this pas

of sect, party, or faction, may be characterized by antichristian error in doctrine, so as to be a heresy in the modern sense of the term. Thus St. Peter, alluding probably to some of the Gnostic speculations, speaks of those who by denying the Lord that bought them,' should, hereafter, introduce damnable (destructive) heresies ;' that is, sects holding destructive opinions. 2 Pet. ii. 1. See Campbell on the Gospels, Dissertation ix.

sage alone, as has already been remarked, the original word (schisma) is preserved in our English version:

If

'The body is not one member, but many. the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body? is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but ONE BODY. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are necessary. For God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked; that there should be NO SCHISM IN THE BODY; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST, and members in particular.'*

1 Cor. xi. 14-27.