EPISTOLA I AD CORINTHIOS

The Corinthians are Achaeans, and these likewise heard the word of truth from the Apostle, and were subverted in many ways by false apostles. Some were led on by the wordy eloquence of philosophy, others by the sect of the Jewish law. These the Apostle calls back to the true faith and to evangelical wisdom, writing to them from Ephesus, by Timothy his disciple.

VERS. 1.-- Paul, called. That is, named by all with the privilege of 519Cthe name, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Here he does not name himself a servant: because there was rather need of authority and of commendation against the pride of the Corinthians, in whose eyes he had grown cheap. And Sosthenes. Behold, he hints that it was through him who was living among them that he had learned their faults. A brother. By this he removes it, that he had made it known to him not out of an evil mind, but out of charity and a desire of correction.

VERS. 2.-- With all. And he writes to all the suffragan Corinthians, who laboured under the same vices.

VERS. 3.-- Grace. First he sets forth what belongs to the good, that others may be conformed to these. And from the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is indeed distinguished from the Father by a personal property, but is one God with him by unity of substance.

519DVERS. 5.-- In all things. He subjoins certain particulars, in every word, that is, in every kind of tongues, or in every manner of preaching, that is, to the lesser, the middling, and the perfect.

VERS. 10.-- I beseech. Thus far he has praised the good. These being praised, he invites the others to the likeness of these.

VERS. 11.-- Of Chloe. It is the name of a place or of a person. For to some it seems to be a place, as if it were said: from those who are at Antioch. But to others she seems to have been a woman devoted to God, with whom were many that worshipped God.

VERS. 12.-- Now this I say. Here he begins to argue against the baptizers, in whom those men gloried. I indeed. Under his own name and that of the apostles he marks the false apostles, lest, if he were to say: in the name of this man or of that, he should seem 520Bto envy them, and to wish to claim it for himself. Or he set down the names of the good apostles, that he might show that if there is no glorying in the name of the greater, neither is there glorying in the name of those whose doctrine is depraved.

VERS. 13.-- Divided is according to you Christ, as if he should say: You make many Christs, that is, many givers of graces. Or he who works the same thing in all is divided, while he is believed to work more in this man, less in that. Or because you say this, now Christ is divided from you, that is, separated: Was Paul crucified? By this truth which the Corinthians held, 520Che makes them blush for the falsehoods: as by the resurrection of Christ, which they believed, he proves the resurrection of the dead, which they denied.

VERS. 14.-- I give thanks to God, etc. (AUG.) Paul gives thanks to God that he baptized none of them, who, as though they had forgotten in whose name they had been baptized, were dividing themselves by the names of men. For since baptism given through a contemptible man avails as much as that given through an Apostle, so also it is known to be not his, but Christ's, etc.

VERS. 17.-- But to preach the gospel. For even the less learned can baptize perfectly. But to preach the gospel perfectly is far more difficult and of rarer accomplishment. Therefore the teacher of the Gentiles, more excellent than many, says that he was sent to preach the gospel, not to baptize. Yet this he did at times, when necessity 520Dpressed. Not in wisdom. Against the wisdom of the world. Not in wisdom of speech. He means the wisdom of the philosophers, which is so called although it is not such: yet it is that which makes men wordy, through which the cross, that is, the death of Christ, is made void; and it is judged impossible according to nature that the immortal God should die. Of speech. The composition of words is sought there, where the truth itself does not commend itself with power for witness.

VERS. 18.-- To them that perish. That is, to the wise men of the world, whose wisdom both perishes and is shown to be false, and who themselves are to be damned.

The power of God. In that, being slain, he conquered the devil and set man free, or he gives power to believers, by which miracles are done, when the matter requires.

521AVERS. 19.-- For it is written. Therefore he did not send me in wisdom, because he had foretold that he would not receive it into the preaching of the gospel, but would destroy it and reject it from the college of his preachers: and so it was done.

VERS. 21.-- It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. That is, that by the faith of the cross eternity should come to mortals: that salvation might be found there, where foolishness is believed.

VERS. 26.-- For see. Truly the foolish and weak thing of God is wiser and stronger than men. Which you can prove in yourselves. For unwise and weak men called you, among the foolish and weak things of God such callers are numbered, who nevertheless confound the wise and the strong. And truly they are such, for there are not many wise. 521BBut he does not say, none, perhaps on his own account, who alone among the apostles was skilled in secular letters, rich in earthly goods, and conspicuous by kindred of Roman rank; who nevertheless counted these things as nothing, and did not use them.

VERS. 27.-- But the foolish things. Behold, they act openly against the ordinance of God, because they boast the wisdom of the world, while God sets forth humility. For God came humble, seeking the humble, not the lofty. And although he first chose the poor, the unlearned, the weak, yet he does not leave the wise, the rich, the noble, but if he were to choose these first, they would seem to themselves to be chosen for the merit of such things; and so there would be in them the pride by which man fell. Unless the fisherman had gone faithfully before, the humble orator would not have followed. Whence Nathanael, a learned man, was not chosen for an apostle.

521CVERS. 29.-- That no flesh may glory. Of itself, but of God, which is shown there: he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

VERS. 30.-- But of him. Let no one glory of himself, but yet there is another glory, because of him you are.

VERS. 2.-- For I judged not myself to know anything. He who speaks higher things to one less capable works not profit, but the display of himself.

VERS. 6.-- The perfect. Not those who already know and are teachers, who have no need of it, but hearers now capable.

VERS. 7.-- In a mystery. By expounding the mysteries of the Old Testament in which Christ was signified, as in the sacrifice of Abel, or of Abraham. Which is hidden. 521DBecause it is not in words, but in power: not comprehensible by human reason, but credible by the efficacy of the Spirit.

VERS. 8.-- For if they had known. Either the lesser, that he was the Messiah promised in the law, or the greater, that he was God, or the Son of God: they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.

VERS. 9.-- Nor into the heart of man. Below the heart of man is that which ascends into the heart; above the heart is that eternal thing to which the heart ascends. Or it is not man, but the spirit, that knows. Hath ascended. A thing is said to ascend in the heart when, being well understood, it pleases.

VERS. 10.-- Searcheth, etc. The Spirit of God is said to search all things, not that he may find what he does not know, but 522Abecause he leaves nothing at all that he does not know, or because he makes thee search; for what thou doest by his gift, he is said to do, because without him thou wouldst not do it.

VERS. 12.-- But the Spirit that is of God. The Holy Spirit is assuredly of the Father and of the Son, and ours as well. For what has been given is referred both to him who gave, and to those to whom he gave. And so the Holy Spirit is not only of the Father and of the Son, who gave, but is also ours, who received. And this is not that spirit of ours in which we are: because that very spirit of ours in which we are is itself the spirit of man, which is in him. And yet we have received that very spirit also which is man's. But one thing is what we receive, that we might be, another what we received, that we might be holy. But the spirit of man is taken in Scripture for the 522Bsoul itself, or for the rational power of the soul itself. For he gave us nature that we might be, a soul that we might live, a mind that we might understand. That we may know. Many have the gifts of God, and by not knowing from whom they have them, they are puffed up with impious vanity. No one is blessed by the gifts of God who is ungrateful to the giver, whence in the Gospel: He that hath, to him shall be given. To have fully is to know whence one has it. He therefore that hath not, that is, he who knows not whence he has it, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him (Luc. VIII) [Vulg. Luc. VIII, 18 reads Qui enim habet, dabitur illi: et quicumque non habet, etiam quod putat se habere, auferetur ab illo; the wording printed here is that of Matth. XIII, 12].

VERS. 13.-- Spiritual things. Which you Corinthians are not; and therefore it is your fault, not ours, that we have not spoken greater things.

VERS. 14.-- But the sensual man. A man is called sensual in respect of life, who is carried along by the dissolute wantonness of his own soul, which the spirit as 522Cruler does not hold within the bounds of the natural order, for the reason that it does not itself subject itself to God to be ruled. But in respect of the sense of the mind he is called sensual, who judges of God according to the phantasy of bodies, or the letter of the law, or philosophical reasoning. Because it is spiritually examined. The sensual man cannot understand spiritual things, because it is examined, that is, the examination and proving of those spiritual things is made only spiritually, that is, by a spiritual man, it is read personally: it is examined. Or thus: the sensual man does not understand spiritual things, because it is spiritually, that is, only through spiritual things, that it is proved that he is sensual; because he disapproves what he hears, and they are not set before him for any other cause, save that he may be examined.

VERS. 15.-- But the spiritual man. [Vulg. I Cor. II, 15 Spiritualis autem judicat omnia, without homo] He is such either in life or in knowledge: he is spiritual in life who, having the Spirit of the Lord 522Dfor his ruler, governs his soul; but he is spiritual in knowledge who, although he sees in part and through a glass, yet savours not of him according to the images of bodies, or the letter of the law, or human philosophy, but to the spirit. Subject to God, he judges most certainly and faithfully. [spiritui. Dei subjectus; read spiritui Dei subjectus, "subject to the Spirit of God" — Migne's point divides the phrase, and Dei is genitive with spiritui, not the dative subjectus governs] All things. Not indeed the whole of what divine knowledge contains, but those things which suffice for righteousness and for life, that is, all things that are to be judged.

VERS. 2.-- For you are yet carnal. He reproves those who complained that they had not long since heard spiritual things, when they were as yet unworthy to hear them.

His ministers. (AUG.) Man ministers outwardly 523Aas a servant, etc., as far as because God works both to will and to accomplish.

VERS. 8.-- Are one. It might seem that, if they give nothing of themselves, God nevertheless gives more through this man than through that.

VERS. 9.-- Helpers. In tilling the Lord's field; not corrupters, as certain men say. Which is plain from this, that you are the husbandry. Husbandry. Because he tills you unto fruit. Building, because he who tills dwells in you. And so the field and the building are the same, which is not so in visible things. We cultivate God by adoring, not by adorning. But he so cultivates us that he renders us better.

VERS. 11.-- For other foundation no man can lay. (AUG., lib. de Fide et operibus, c. 15.) The faith of Christian grace, that 523Bis, that faith which works through love, etc., as far as of which it is written: The furnace proveth the potter's vessels, and the temptation of tribulation proveth men (Eccli. XXVII) [Vulg. Eccli. XXVII, 6 et homines justos tentatio tribulationis, with justos and with no second verb].

Christ. That is, the faith of Christ, which works through love, by which Christ dwells in hearts. There is no other foundation. And this suffers no one to perish.

VERS. 12.-- But if any man. In gold, silver, precious stones excellent doctrine is signified, in the three others empty doctrine is marked out, which, if for the present it deceives, will appear in the fire: because it will burn while the good abides, and there will be for it, that is, for the good doctrine, a reward, life eternal. Wood, hay, stubble. These are not to be taken of evil works, as though faith without works saved, which it does not.

523C(AUG., in psal. XXX.) Let no one who has wicked works promise himself the kingdom of God, etc., as far as the least and lightest sins, which the fire easily consumes.

VERS. 13.-- For the day. Here it is the day of man, acting at his own nod, but in the judgment or in the death of each it is the day of the Lord, judging according to merits, nay, even here judgment begins from the house of God, that is, punishment begins from those who are to be saved, and will be consummated in the reprobate. For the elect are punished for this, that they may not be punished there. In which day there is the fire of tribulation by which the love of temporal things is burned, while they are grieved over what is lost, whence also it is said: Such shall have tribulation of the flesh. But the fire of the last judgment will endure so long, until those who are to be saved have been purged. The fire shall try. 523DWe read that there will be two fires. One eternal, by which the reprobate will be punished eternally, which will follow the judgment. The other which will go before, by which the face of this world will be burned away, which will amend those who have built upon it wood, hay, stubble. But those who have built gold, silver, precious stones are safe from either fire.

VERS. 14.-- A reward. Not only after the end, but even in this life he has the rest of his soul, which despises all things.

VERS. 16.-- Know you not, etc. This he set down beforehand that he might prick those who, living basely, violate their own bodies; and most of all that man who has his father's wife. Here he treats of the builders upon the foundation.

VERS. 17.-- But if any man. That man is saved by fire, 524Abut if any man shall have wished the temple which you are, he will destroy him. [voluerit; read violaverit, "shall have violated" (I Cor. III, 17)] And this you know not.

The temple. (AUG.) They in whom God dwells by faith are the temple of God, etc., in what manner the Angels of God also are now a temple.

(AUG.) Such a congregation is the building of the temple of God; such a congregation is made not by carnal generation, but by spiritual regeneration. And so God dwells in individuals as in his temples, and in all gathered together as in his temple. God therefore is everywhere present, and everywhere wholly present, yet not dwelling everywhere, but in his temple, to which he is by grace kind and propitious. But as dwelling he is received by some more amply, by others less. And his dwelling in sensual men and in little ones, not 524Bin age of flesh, but of mind, is for this reason, that in them he works secretly that they may be his temple, and this he perfects in those who advance and who persevere in advancing.

(ID.) But someone might say: Before God made heaven and earth, before, etc., as far as but most blessed are they, for whom to have God is the same as to know him.

For the wisdom of this world, etc. (AMBR.) Wisdom is put improperly for cunning.

VERS. 21.-- Let no man, etc. In baptizers or teachers. Let no man. Because they themselves are yours; because all things are given to serve you, and there is no glorying save in things more excellent. In men. Because they are not givers of graces, whether they be good or bad, but only ministers.

524CVERS. 22.-- For all things. Let them not claim single teachers or baptizers for themselves, since they have the use of all. The world is ours, if we set its course in the will of God. The present life is ours, if it is led modestly and with the glory of God. Death is ours, if in hope of what is to come we willingly die for Christ. Things present are ours, if we so use them that we give no offence. Things to come, if believing them we rather desire them.

Or life, etc. Both the life and the death of teachers ought to be for the edification of their subjects. Or by life understand holy men and angels: who study the advancement of the faithful, by death, the devil and his members, who, while they persecute, serve the profit of the servants of God.

VERS. 23.-- And you are Christ's. That as these things 524Dare subject to us, so we may be made subject to Christ. And Christ is God's. His proper Son, doing his will, that we also may do his. Why then, to the injury of Christ, do you hope for anything from men?

VERS. 1.-- So let a man account of us. Thus far concerning the glory of the false apostles: here he treats of the contempt shown to himself. So let a man account of us. The Apostle says this for the reason that they thought too little of him; but let a man think of him as God does, who chose him.

And the dispensers. (AUG.) Not only the good, but the bad also are dispensers, etc., as far as is, to be a partaker of it.

VERS. 2.-- Here now it is required. Thus is it to be judged of us, 525Abut here among you, which is not so elsewhere. Now in the present, when there ought rather to be a waiting until God judge.

VERS. 3.-- Myself. It is perilous for you to judge concerning the unknown things of my heart or of others'. For so great a depth must be believed to be in man that it lies hidden even from the very man in whom it is, as in Peter the depth of weakness lay hidden, when he rashly promised that he would die together with the Lord. Since therefore each one either cannot at all, or can scarcely, pass a true sentence upon himself, how can he judge of another, since no one knows what is done in a man, but the spirit of a man? By man's day. That is, by men, while they are in their own day, and it is not the day of the Lord. Man's day. Because there is a day of the Lord, in which he will judge, when each one shall render account for 525Bhimself, and then the secrets of hearts shall lie open.

VERS. 4.-- For I am conscious to myself of nothing. (AMBR.) Lest you say: We have not sinned. Saint Paul said: Although I am conscious to myself of nothing; yet he added, but in this I am not justified. And you also, if you are conscious of nothing, yet confess to the Lord, lest there be anything which passes you by.

VERS. 5.-- Until the Lord come. Otherwise an injury is done to the judge: because it is an injury to a judge if before his judgment a sentence proceeds from a servant. He will bring to light. That is, he will make open the hidden things of darkness, that is, of sins. Then shall every man have praise. To him that does or thinks well; but here it is not known who is 525Cworthy of praise.

VERS. 6.-- In me and Apollo. I have set forth a figure for all, that it may be shrunk from by all as it is by us. Lest etc., one, etc. Than that man, that is, better than he, that is, as though he were other than that man who is nobody, whether as regards himself or as regards his ministry.

VERS. 7.-- For who distinguisheth thee. From the mass of the lost? None but God. Or if thou wast baptized by Peter, how art thou distinguished from him who was baptized by Paul? That man has nothing from his baptizer, nothing hast thou. Or he refutes those same men who gloried in the teaching authority of the false apostles. As if he should say: Thou gloriest for them, but what hast thou from them which thou hast not from me? And if from me, why dost thou glory against me, as though thou hadst not received the same from me?

525DAnd what, etc. He endeavours to remove another kind of arrogance, namely, that a man be not proud on account of some grace given him by God, thinking that he has it from himself or from a minister.

But if thou hast received. This he says against those who, hearing the same things from the Apostle, gloried in the teaching authority of the false apostles, who by commending themselves through eloquence turned the glory upon themselves; whereas the Apostle had made himself seem contemptible, that he might give the glory to God. Therefore the Apostle speaks to them ironically, as though conceding what seemed to them concerning themselves, when he subjoins.

VERS. 8.-- Now you are filled. As if: I ask of you, Why dost thou glory, etc.; but I do not seem to do this rightly; because you, now filled, now rich, it is irony 526A, as if he should say: It is not so. For they are the words of one angry, not of one confirming.

You may reign. Truly to reign is to be secure concerning the hope and the promises of God, and to rejoice in adversities.

VERS. 9.-- For I think. As if he should say: It is by no means to be thought. For he speaks ironically. I say without us, because through the evils which we suffer, God hath set forth us apostles the last, men for whom no care is taken, as it were appointed to death, that is, reserved for no usefulness, but for death: which appears from this, that men come together to our spectacle as to a monster; by which we are the more proved to be friends of God. Or you ought therefore to reign with us, because I think and am certain that we are like the last men, Elias and Enoch, in tribulations.

526BAnd to angels. Good angels and good men praise, the evil deride: these are the right hand and the left. We use them for striking the enemy, that is, the devil, and neither do the former lift us up, nor do the latter break us.

VERS. 10.-- For Christ's sake. Whose cross we preach, and, keeping silence of it, you seem wise in Christ.

VERS. 13.-- As the refuse. Through all these things we are proved wise and strong in Christ.

VERS. 14.-- Not to confound you. He softens harsh things with gentle, as a healing physician.

VERS. 15.-- Of pedagogues. While he names pedagogues, he signifies children. By the gospel. He added by the gospel, lest that which is God's should be thought to be his own. For the Lord says in the Gospel: Say not to yourselves 526Ca Father upon earth, for one is the Father, God (Matth. XXIII) [Vulg. Matth. XXIII, 9 Et patrem nolite vocare vobis super terram: unus est enim pater vester qui in caelis est]; not that this name should be taken away from others, but that the grace of God, by which we are begotten unto eternal life, be not attributed to the nature or the power, or even the holiness, of any man.

VERS. 19.-- If the Lord will. He says this that he might show that, if he did not go, it was God who had not willed it, by reason certainly of their unworthiness.

VERS. 20.-- In power. He brings in words of terror, that the puffed up might be humbled and might prepare themselves to receive him. But far be it that pious sons should say: If thou art to come with a rod, do not come. For it is better to be instructed under the rod of a father than to perish in the flattery of a robber.

• 526D

VERS. 1.-- It is absolutely heard. He begins to treat of fornication, and rebukes that fornicator who was keeping his father's wife, and those who tolerated him. For they too were partakers with him, in that they suffered a man guilty of so huge a sin to come together with them uncorrected. Therefore he showed that not only was that man guilty of death, but that those also who clung to him were not free from the crime.

VERS. 2.-- You are puffed up. With the wind of pride, which drives out mercy; because if one of the members suffers, the rest suffer with it.

VERS. 4.-- In the name of the Lord. In this manner I have judged, that you, gathered together into one without any dissension 527A(with whom my authority and the power of Christ will cooperate), should deliver such a one to Satan.

VERS. 5.-- To deliver, etc. The Apostle is said to have had this power, that when he could not remove someone from his folly, he would deliver him to the devil to be vexed; until, professing penitence, he should desist from evil.

That the spirit may be saved. Thus the Apostle delivers to Satan not cruelly, but lovingly. Thus Moses judged but few among the worshippers of idols, terrifying for the present, and establishing discipline for the time to come. So also Elias and other good men: because thus both fear is struck into others, and their own sin is lessened. Whence Christ did not reprehend this example of Elias in his disciples; but because it was from hatred and not from love of correction that they desired the vengeance of fire upon those who had 527Bnot afforded them lodging; thus also Peter is read to have taken vengeance upon Ananias and his wife, or he delivers him, that the Holy Spirit, of whom the defiled are stripped, may be saved to them, not lost in the day of judgment.

VERS. 6.-- The whole lump. They were partakers, in that they suffered the guilty man. But if anyone has not the power to cast out one whom he knows to be guilty, or is not able to prove it, he is free from blame. And it is not the judge's part to condemn without an accuser, as neither did Christ cast out Judas.

VERS. 7.-- Paste. It is flour kneaded together with water without leaven, that is, unleavened bread. He wills therefore that these be some one thing through love, pure from the corruption of sin, having put on the new man, as they were made in baptism. Zyma in Greek, fermentum in Latin.

The Pasch is an immolation, not a passing over, as to certain men 527Cit seems, for first the Pasch and so the passing over: because first is the example of the Saviour, and so salvation.

(AUG.) This renewal of our life is a certain passing over from death to life, etc., as far as since Christ our pasch is immolated.

VERS. 8.-- Of sincerity. Of the new life and of truth, without any deceit, that sincerity may make life clean, and may exclude every deceit of truth.

VERS. 10.-- Otherwise, etc. Such men could not be gained for Christ, if they were to avoid conversation with them and their table; whence also the Lord ate with publicans and sinners.

VERS. 11.-- But now. Then I wrote to you, and you did not take it well, but now I write determinately. Is named. The Apostle wished that naming to be understood: 527Dwhich is pronounced against anyone with a sentence, and with judicial order, and with integrity. For if any naming whatever suffices, many innocent men must be condemned, because crimes are often falsely named against someone. By saying is named, he sufficiently shows that the wicked are to be taken away from the fellowship of the Church not rashly or in any manner whatever, but by judgment, or, if they cannot be taken away by judgment, that they should rather be borne with, lest anyone, by perversely avoiding the wicked and departing from the Church, should send those whom he seems to flee to hell.

VERS. 1.-- Doth any man dare. On occasion of such a judgment he begins to treat of judgments, in which in many ways 528Athe Corinthians sinned, as, that despising the faithful they went to unbelieving judges, or appointed foolish judges, and went to law, and defrauded, and did other things of this kind.

VERS. 2.-- That. Because by the example of their faith, perfidy of this kind will be condemned.

VERS. 4.-- If therefore you have secular judgments. Because the Apostle had said that they could judge of these least matters, he determines who are to be appointed for settling business of this kind, namely, the contemptible who are in the Church. For the greater ought to attend to spiritual things.

(AUG., lib. de opere Monac. c. 20.) The wise therefore, the faithful who were established in those places, etc., as far as or to be cut short by intervening.

VERS. 5.-- To your shame. Let them examine earthly causes 528Bwho have received the wisdom of outward things. But those who are endowed with spiritual gifts ought not to be entangled in earthly business; that while they are not compelled to dispose of lower goods, they may be able to serve the higher goods. Yet care must be taken that those who shine with spiritual gifts do by no means utterly desert the affairs of their weak neighbours, but either commit them to be handled by others for whom it is fitting, or manage them themselves.

VERS. 8.-- To your brethren. Whom you ought to help, and so you lose the kingdom, and worse, because you do it knowingly.

VERS. 9.-- Know you not. Note that he so often repeats, You know not; as if: By following me, you ought to know this; but by following the false apostles, you are become fools.

VERS. 11.-- But you are sanctified. Note that but, a repeated conjunction, gives no small weight to the sentence.

528CVERS. 12.-- All things are lawful to me. Because he said that it was rather to be borne than that causes should be ill conducted, lest anyone should think that his own goods are in no way to be reclaimed, he subjoins: It is lawful for me to reclaim all my own, but yet I will not reclaim them, because not all things are expedient for my course, but hinder it. Again he shows the same by another reason. As if: They are lawful, but I will not reclaim them, because, since I am free, I do not wish to be brought under a judge's own power [suo potestate; read sub potestate — the plate prints sub in the parallel clause on the same line]: or, I do not wish to be under the dominion of any thing, so as to offend a brother for its sake.

VERS. 13.-- Meat for the belly. For these reasons they are not to be reclaimed, nevertheless meat is due to the belly. By these understand the necessaries of nature, and therefore it is lawful for them to be reclaimed. But there must not be much labour for these, because they will be destroyed, and therefore it is lawful either that judgment be made concerning them, or that it be passed over.

VERS. 15.-- Your bodies. It cannot be that a body is not holy, 528Dwhich the sanctified Spirit uses. They are the members, etc. As all the members which are ruled by one and the same soul are one body, so all who are quickened by the same Holy Spirit are made one body in Christ. Of Christ. Because he took a body, and is the head of bodies.

VERS. 16.-- One body. Natural philosophers hand down that they are so united that, if their blood were mingled, it would be wholly joined together.

VERS. 17.-- But he that is joined, etc. Not by identity of substance, but by participation, since he who here draws near by faith so cleaves to him that he is a partaker of his beatitude, which will then be full, when his desire will be satisfied in unchangeable goods, 529Anamely in the Trinity itself, his Lord, whose image he is.

VERS. 18.-- Fly fornication. With other vices a conflict may be awaited, but flee this one, that you come not near it, because it cannot otherwise be better conquered. For every sin. No sin so dishonours and defiles the body as that one. But he that committeth fornication. It is not said on account of the greatness of fornication, that it alone is in the body, and the others outside the body. For many are as great as fornication, or greater. But on account of the quality, because it defiles the body more basely than other sins.

VERS. 19.-- The temple. From this it is plain that the Holy Spirit is God; for if he were not God, he would assuredly not have ourselves for a temple. But not only the Holy Spirit, but the Father also and the Son have us for a 529Btemple. The temple therefore of God, that is, of the whole Trinity, is the holy Church.

VERS. 20.-- And bear God. To bear God is to show the image of God in deeds well done. In your body. If thou sparest not thyself for thine own sake, spare at least for God's sake, who has made thee a house for himself. And if thou overthrowest it, thou sinnest against God, which is a grave kind of sin; but it is another kind to sin against man.

VERS. 1.-- Concerning the things whereof. On the occasion of the fornication which he forbids, he goes on to treat of marriage, whereon they had made inquiry. And he handles it in three ways, according to counsel, according to indulgence, according to precept.

VERS. 6.-- But this, etc.--Someone will say: If 529Cthe Apostle granted this by way of pardon, then marriage is a sin; for to whom is pardon granted save to sin? Plainly, what the Apostle granted to weakness by way of pardon has regard to the marital act of the wedded, where the evil of incontinence is. The evil of incontinence is that a husband knows his wife even beyond the necessity of procreating children, but there too is the good of marriage. For not because the evil of incontinence is there, is the wedlock which is apart from the intention of generation therefore not good; nay rather, not on account of that evil is this good culpable, but that evil is made venial on account of the nuptial good. This good of marriage the Apostle does not reprehend, but the evil of incontinence. That intercourse which is necessary for the cause of generation is blameless, and it alone is nuptial. But he who 529Dgoes on beyond necessity obeys not reason, but lust.

VERS. 7.-- Let every one, etc. No one ought to be constrained, lest, being forbidden what is lawful, he take up what is unlawful, but let him himself choose what he will follow, yet in this it is better to be the more inclined.

VERS. 9.-- To burn, is to be driven or overcome by desires. He does not therefore say better as though it were good to burn and better to marry, but he has followed the custom of speech.

VERS. 11.-- But if she depart. It is one thing to depart, another to abstain by common consent. For the first is evil, the second good.

(AMBR.). Therefore he does not add concerning the husband as concerning the wife, because it is lawful for a man to marry another, because the inferior does not altogether 530Ause this law, because he is the mightier, which is said to have been inserted by falsifiers.

And the husband the wife. A husband ought not to put away his wife, because he would make her commit adultery. But if she is an adulteress he does not do this, but puts away an adulteress. The cause which Christ excepted is here passed over in silence, because it is most well known, namely, that of fornication.

VERS. 12.-- But to the rest. Where both are believers, the Apostle gave this precept of the Lord. But to the rest, where not both are believers (which happened at the beginning of the Church, when the Gospel began to be preached), I say, etc. If any brother, etc. Idolatry and any harmful superstition whatever is fornication, and the Lord did indeed permit a wife to be put away for the cause of fornication, but he did not command it, and so he gave the Apostle place for admonishing, that 530Bhe who will may not put away the unbelieving wife, whereby perhaps she may be made a believer.

VERS. 14.-- Is sanctified. Because it often happens that the one is converted to the faith through the other. Or, the unbelieving husband is clean as regards the believing wife, and the believing wife suffers no uncleanness from her union with him. Otherwise. If you put away, being unwilling to dwell together, and join yourselves to others, you are adulterers, and your children bastards, and therefore unclean; but now, holy, because born of lawful marriages, and born under reverence for the Creator.

VERS. 15.-- For not. That is not so great a marriage which is without devotion to God: and therefore it is no sin for him who puts away for God's sake, if he has joined himself to another. But if both have believed, the marriage is confirmed 530Cthrough the knowledge of God. In peace. There is no need to quarrel with the one who departs, because he departs out of hatred of God.

VERS. 16.-- For how. He exhorted above by the things that had come to pass, now, because the same things can happen, he exhorts to the same. But these things are done not by the command of a law, but by free charity.

VERS. 17.-- The Lord hath distributed. To each God has given when he shall be saved, that is, he knows when he will believe, and he bears with him until he believe, so do thou also wait.

VERS. 18.-- Is any man circumcised. Nowhere does the Apostle take away a custom which, when kept, does not hinder salvation, admonishing that the hope of salvation be not placed in such things, since they are kept only for the offence of the weak. Whence he says that they are nothing, adding: Circumcision is nothing.

VERS. 20.-- Let every one abide in the same. This has regard to those conditions 530Dor usages of life which are in nothing hurtful to faith and to good morals. For as a married man, so also a robber is called to the faith of Christ. But the one in his marriage, not from his marriage. The other, however, not in his robbery, but from his robbery. For it is not necessary that married persons cease to be married for the faith of Christ, as it is necessary that robbers cease to be robbers.

VERS. 21.-- A servant, etc. Above he set down one example concerning a manner of living, here another concerning the condition of an office. Use it rather. Because the more anyone is despised in this world for God's sake, so much the more shall he be exalted in the world to come.

VERS. 22.-- A freedman. Because he has been rescued from the sins which make men servants. Therefore let neither the servant be despised for his condition, nor let the free man who has been rescued be lifted up and set himself before the servant.

531AVERS. 23.-- You are bought. Render the recompense, that you may be the servants of Christ, not of men. These are the servants of men, who subject themselves to human superstitions. The servants of men. Which happens to you if you say: I am of Paul, I of Apollo, etc.

VERS. 25.-- Concerning virgins. By occasion of that fornicator, he teaches concerning all fornication that is to be shunned.

VERS. 26.-- By necessity he means the want of the world which the married often suffer. To the weak he holds out a weak reason. For he could have rendered a worthier reason for virginity, by commending its gift more amply. For virginity passes beyond the condition of human nature, whereby men are made like to the angels. Yet the victory of virgins is greater than that of the angels. For the angels live without flesh, 531Bbut virgins triumph in the flesh.

VERS. 29.-- This therefore I say. Here he admonishes to temperance, as if he were to say: When you are joined together, that it may be done without sin; this counsel I give you, that they who have wives be as though they had none. This he does who, having a wife, renders the debt and does not exact it; who takes a wife on account of his own weakness, lamenting rather that he could not be without a wife than rejoicing that he has taken one, and most of all because they keep continence by equal consent. Those marriages surely are to be judged more blessed which, whether children have been begotten or offspring despised, have been able to keep continence by equal consent.

VERS. 34.-- She thinketh, etc. For she, not fearing concerning damnation and secure concerning salvation, thinks only 531Con the things that are the Lord's. That she may be holy, etc. This the married woman also does, but the unmarried more amply, who, free from the worldly necessities by which the married woman is bound, is more intently at leisure for the heavenly precepts.

VERS. 35.-- Not that I may cast a snare. But tending to this I say what is honourable, that a man be chaste in body and in mind, not that marriage is base, but that this is more honourable and has the facility of praying to God.

VERS. 36.-- But if any man, etc. As he determined concerning virgins, so he determines concerning their guardians.

VERS. 38.-- Doeth better. Because with God he lays up merit for her, and frees her from the solicitude of the world. And therefore he rightly says: For better is that which is lawful and expedient, than that which is lawful and not expedient.

VERS. 39.-- A woman is bound. He had said that a woman who departs 531Dfrom her husband for the cause of fornication remains unmarried, or is reconciled to her husband, and he had not said whether she should so remain the whole time of her own life, or for the time of her husband; this therefore he determines. And so a virgin may always marry whom she will, but a woman, that is, one married, even though put away for the cause of fornication and separated from her husband, is bound to the law while her husband lives, etc. But if he sleep. He does not say, the first, or the second, or the how-manieth, for we are not to define what the Apostle does not define: whence neither ought I to condemn any marriages, nor ought their multiplicity to bring shame upon them. But the Lord does not condemn the woman of seven husbands, nor does he say that she cannot be in the resurrection. But only: neither shall they marry, nor be married. Whence neither, against the sense of human modesty, 532Ado I dare to say that they may marry as often as they will, nor from my heart to condemn any marriages whatsoever. What is said of a woman of one husband, this holds of every widow.

VERS. 40.-- More blessed, etc. He shows well enough that a faithful woman who marries again even after her husband's death is blessed, but that she who does not marry is more blessed. But I think. The Apostle does not doubt, but rebukes the scornful, as the Lord also, saying: If you knew me, perhaps you would know my Father also: Or, Thinkest thou, shall he find faith on the earth? By a word of doubting he convicts unbelief.

VERS. 1.-- Concerning these things. As if he should say: You know as well as I that it is lawful to eat them; because we all have knowledge. This he says of those who, having knowledge, ate with 532Boffence. These he first reproves, and says that they do not know sufficiently. But others in ignorance ate under veneration of the idol.

Knowledge puffeth up. Of itself knowledge is unprofitable, with charity it is profitable. Of itself it puffs up into pride, like the demons, who by a Greek name are so called from knowledge. For the repressing of the elation of knowledge a sting was given to Paul. It is better to know our own weakness than the natures of things; he who adds this knowledge adds the sorrow of pilgrimage out of longing for the fatherland.

VERS. 3.-- But if any man love God. He loves God who for charity's sake tempers his knowledge, that it may profit the brother for whom Christ died.

VERS. 4.-- Concerning meats. Having found fault with their knowledge, 532Che at length discloses what that true knowledge is. An idol is nothing in the world. That is, among the creatures of the world. For God formed the matter, but the folly of men gave the form. For whatsoever things are in creatures were made through the Word. But the form of a man in an idol was not made through the Word, as neither was sin made through the Word. But it is nothing, and men become nothing when they sin. But one. This he says, lest God be thought to be in the idol.

VERS. 5.-- For indeed there are many gods. That is, many to the Gentiles: whom our God terrifies, that is, the demons, who, wishing to be seen as gods, exact for themselves the things that are owed to the true God, altars, sacrifices, and the rest. But ours makes men gods.

VERS. 6.-- God. In three ways is God said. Substantively God is said, the Trinity. By adoption, the saints 532Dwho by the grace of adoption are gods. By appellation, the demons and idols. Of whom. All things are from the Father, but created through the Son. Nor are some things through the Son and others through the Father, but the same: otherwise now not all things are through the Father, nor all things through the Son; but if all things are through the Father, then all things also through the Son; therefore the same things were made through the Father which were made also through the Son; the Son therefore is equal to the Father, and the operation of both is inseparable. And one. Of Christ, in respect of his humanity, he adds it, but of the Holy Spirit it was not needful.

VERS. 7.-- Is defiled. Namely, through those who have the knowledge of one God, but not with charity, through whom the weak were led into this error, whose food is not defiled, but their conscience.

533AVERS. 12.-- Against Christ. To sin against Christ is to deny Christ.

VERS. 1.-- Am I not free. He begins to set himself forth as an example, that as he himself abstains from what is lawful for the scandal of the brethren, so also they. As if he were to say: Abstain from this lawful thing, because I have the liberty of receiving a stipend, and yet I do not receive it. And although it be so introduced, yet he intends to prove himself an apostle, because on occasion of the false apostles the Corinthians thought less of him.

VERS. 4.-- Have we not power, etc. (BEDA.) For the Lord permitted, he did not command, etc., as far as it is therefore a power, not a command of the Lord, to receive maintenance.

533BA woman, a sister. The Lord had women in his company, lest they should seem strangers to salvation, who also ministered to him; and so also the apostles.

VERS. 6.-- Of working. The word of working is more honourable than that of receiving.

VERS. 7.-- Who serveth as a soldier. Lest, because he abstains, he should seem to have reproved his fellow apostles, he adds: Who serveth as a soldier.

(CHRYS.) Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? By the former he shows perils; by this, labour and much misery and care, and he adds likewise a third example in these words.

Who feedeth, etc. (ID.) He shows the much diligence owed also by a master toward those under him. Which appears from these things: for soldiers, and husbandmen, and shepherds 533Cwere the apostles, not of wars, nor of the earth, nor of brute animals, but of souls endowed with reason [rationem; read ratione, "endowed with reason" — praeditus governs the ablative], and of that army which is armed against the demons. And of the milk. The milk of the flock is said to be whatever is given by the people to those set over them.

VERS. 8.-- Do I speak these things according to man, etc., (ID.) That is: Do I confirm my case by human examples only? or does not the law also say this?

VERS. 9.-- Doth God take care for oxen. They are indeed a care; but not so, that he should establish a law concerning them.

VERS. 12.-- That we give no offence. That is, lest it be said of us that we preach the Gospel rather for the cause of gain and of temporal profit than for the cause of the salvation of souls and of the eternal reward, and the Gospel be held as a thing for sale.

533DVERS. 13.-- Know you not. He returns again to what he had begun, showing that it is lawful for him, and yet that he does not do it. Natural reason also has this, that a man live from that whereon he labours.

VERS. 15.-- But I. The Apostle abstains from maintenance, lest he be a pattern to the rapacious false apostles.

It is good, etc. For whoever is unwilling to use what is owed to him spends the more upon the Church. The Apostle therefore had the greatest glory with God, in not exacting a stipend from the weak, or in procuring his daily food from his own labours. Glory. Which I have with God, having compassion on the weak.

VERS. 16.-- For if, etc. For a reward: or, if 534AI shall so preach the gospel, it is no glory to me; because then it would be for necessity, since woe, that is, want, would be, as it is to the false apostles. Necessity, of sustaining this life. Woe. Because I have not whence to live.

VERS. 17.-- For if I do this willingly. Because the reward is from the will. Let us see how, namely, if I so act out of love that I rather suffer want than abuse the power. But if against my will. So that what I am compelled to by necessity will profit others, but not me. A dispensation is committed to me. Here such a dispensation is understood, as that a servant dispenses another's revenue, whereof he himself takes nothing beyond his victuals. Elsewhere he is called a dispenser who, as a son, ministers the Gospel to his co-heirs. We ought not therefore to preach the Gospel that we may eat, but therefore to eat that we may preach the Gospel; so that food be not the good 534Bwhich is sought, but the necessary thing which is added.

VERS. 19.-- From all. From the businesses of men, taking nothing from them; of all, understand men, I made myself the servant, bearing with all, as a good steward bears with the weak, and most of all you, O Corinthians, through my patience. But I did this not by the craft of cunning, but by the affection of one who has compassion, that I might gain the more to Christ. [Vulg. 1 Cor 9:19 ut plures lucrifacerem, without Christo]

VERS. 20.-- As a Jew. (HIER.) Not truly a Jew, as neither truly a Gentile, to whom in meats, etc., as far as how he would wish to be served, if he were sick.

VERS. 21.-- To them that are under the law, etc. To the Samaritans, who receive the books of Moses, which the Jews do not use in common with them. But they are of Persian origin, whom, when Israel had been taken away, the king of the Assyrians or of the Persians settled to inhabit 534Cthe places of Samaria.

VERS. 22.-- All things to all men. He yielded to all, yet he did not go beyond religion.

VERS. 24.-- Know you not, etc. He shows how great is the profit of our law, in which the palm is promised not to one, but to all; and he who comes first waits that he may be crowned with the later. The prize. It is the reward of the race.

VERS. 25.-- For every one, etc. From things not to be praised many similitudes are drawn, as in the Gospel concerning the unjust judge, who would not hear the widow, and concerning the slothful man who lent loaves not out of friendship, but out of weariness; so here athletic and sportive things are not commended.

VERS. 26.-- Not as. He runs at uncertainty who 534Ddoes such things, so that from some things he may hope, from others despair.

VERS. 27.-- I chastise my body. The Apostle has terrified us by his own fear. For what shall the lamb do, where the ram trembles? Lest perhaps, etc. Which could quickly happen; then must others the more beware, lest by giving offence they be reprobate.

VERS. 1.-- For I would not. He who wishes to lay hold must so act; for baptism and the sacraments do not suffice, as some think; even as neither did the benefits of God avail the Jews, since they afterwards sinned. That our fathers. By the example of the Jews, who by their own negligence gave offence, he makes them anxious. Under the cloud. Because all things befell them in a figure of us.

535AVERS. 2.-- Baptized in Moses. Under the leadership of Moses, purged through those signs that were seen. Or, they received the sign of baptism, which availed the same for believers. They were baptized, because they were freed from death and through it cleansed from the ignorance of God which pressed upon all the nations, and made ready for receiving the law. Or they are said to be baptized because they bore the form of our sacrament. Moses signifies Christ, the cloud the Holy Spirit, the sea baptism.

VERS. 3.-- The same meat. That is, in faith: diverse in time, diverse in appearance. Spiritual. That is, signifying something spiritual. When he says spiritual, he shows that it is to be understood spiritually in Christ, and this he intimates of them all, and expounds one: The rock was Christ.

VERS. 4.-- The rock following them. That is, satisfying 535Btheir will, because wheresoever they went, overflowing waters followed; so Christ accompanies his own in the desert of this world. Or, following, that is, signifying the truth that was to follow after. And the rock. A thing which is signified is wont to be named by the name of the thing which it signifies. The rock. That is, Christ, was following, because where human support failed, he was at hand.

VERS. 7.-- Neither become idolaters, etc. He touches those who feasted in the idol's temple, thinking themselves free from crime. The people sat down. By the commemoration of those things he marks what things are in the Corinthians, showing how gravely they were punished in the Jews. To play. That is, to adore, which is like the play of boys. For childhood is prone to play. And what is so like to a boyish game 535Cas to adore idols?

VERS. 9.-- Neither let us tempt Christ. Note Christ as God, whom the Jews tempted, and therefore they perished by serpents, until the brazen serpent was raised up, and they who looked upon it were healed of the bites.

VERS. 10.-- In a figure. Behold, he shows why those signs are no longer observed, since the thing is made manifest for our correction.

VERS. 11.-- They are written. Not for us only. For by these examples we are stirred up to a more corrected life, that we may merit either a reward, if we have been obedient, or a heavier punishment if disobedient. The ends of the world. Because we are in the last age, and by so many examples of those before us we ought the more to be corrected. Or the ends of the world have come upon us, worldliness 535Dis ended in us; and therefore it is the more shameful if we sin.

VERS. 12.-- Let him take heed lest he fall. As those who, presuming upon knowledge, ate things offered to idols with scandal to the brethren, and glorying in the false ones, judged the apostle, whereas they themselves were guilty.

VERS. 13.-- Let no temptation take hold of you, etc. He exhorts that human temptation may take hold of them, not another. For human temptation is this, that in necessity or in pressure a man should not distrust God, by seeking human help. Therefore to suffer for Christ is a human temptation, whereby profit is made with God.

That you may be able to bear it. Which is done through humility. For he keeps the humble in every temptation, so that they do not 536Aburst in the furnace who have not the wind of pride.

VERS. 14.-- Wherefore, etc. Because the sacraments alone do not save, and because he who falls is punished, and because the help of God is not wanting, flee from the worship of idols. Or, lest the wise eat things offered to idols with offence to the weak, to whom they would seem idolaters. Or, lest the weak themselves be idolaters, and that you may flee I speak something lofty, as to the prudent, and therefore judge diligently. Or. now I speak to the weak, as above to the prudent.

VERS. 16.-- The chalice of blessing. Therefore must the worship of idols be fled, because as he who eats a thing offered to an idol is one with the demon, so through the body of Christ he is one with Christ.

536BThe bread which we break. (BEDA.) Christ, when he is eaten, life is eaten. But who would dare, etc., as far as he remained whole with the Father, that he might feed the angels.

VERS. 17.-- For one, etc. One bread by the union of faith, of hope and of charity. It is a body through the ministering of charity: because we are one, and ought to be of one mind. And this he says, that one faith may have one understanding and one work.

VERS. 18.-- Behold. It is a similitude for the understanding of what was said above. He therefore added, according to the flesh, because there is an Israel according to the spirit, which no longer follows the old shadows, but that truth which follows after them (which was signified by those foregoing shadows); and it offers to God in the body 536Cof Christ the sacrifice of praise, from which the God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and has called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

VERS. 19.-- What then? Because I have said, flee from the worship of idols, I seem to say that a thing offered to idols is something great, but I do not say this, but rather I say that the things which the Gentiles offer, they offer to devils: because in the idol the devil is worshipped, who is worse than the idol.

VERS. 20.-- To be made partakers of devils. (AUG., lib. II de Doctrin. Christ., c. 20, 21, etc.) To this kind belong also consultations and pacts, etc., as far as they are called mathematicians, who attempt to foretell the outcomes of actions.

536DVERS. 22.-- Do we provoke the Lord. They seem to provoke and to envy the Lord, whose kingdom they have diminished, who eat with scandal to the brethren.

VERS. 23.-- All things are lawful for me. By the power of free will and by the teaching of the natural law. Not that all things are lawful, even unlawful things, but behold, let us suppose that all things are lawful.

VERS. 25.-- Whatsoever is sold in the shambles. Because they are lawful, and yet they are not always to be used, he determines how it may be lawful to eat or not to eat.

VERS. 28.-- For his sake. Because he who serves idols will glory in this and be confirmed in his error, and a bad example is given to the brethren.

VERS. 29.-- For why. As if: What need is there 537Athat I should be thought to eat for the sake of veneration? For I am judged not to differ from an idolater.

VERS. 31.-- Whether therefore you eat. Not only therefore let thy voice sound the praises of God, but let thy works also agree with thy voice. For when thou hast sung with the voice, thou wilt sometimes be silent in life. But sing so that thou never be silent. For if thou criest out with the mouth and thinkest fraud, thou hast been silent from the praise of God, and, what is more grievous, thou hast gone on into blasphemy. For when God is praised because of thy good work, thou praisest God: and when God is blasphemed because of thy evil work, thou blasphemest God. If therefore what thou eatest and drinkest thou takest for the refreshment of the body and the repairing of the members, giving thanks to him who has bestowed on thee these mortal and frail solaces of supports, thy food and thy drink praise 537BGod. But if thou exceedest the measure owed to nature by the immoderation of voracity, and gorgest thyself with wine-drinking, however many praises of God thy tongue may sound, thy life blasphemes.

VERS. 32.-- To the church of God. As regards the weak, for whom offences are made, while by their example they cleave to those things which are hostile to God.

VERS. 33.-- I please all men. He who pleases men for the truth's sake, now not he himself, but the truth pleases them. If a man pleases for his own sake, it is pride; this is what he said elsewhere: If I pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ (Gal. I). But did he please his persecutors? He pleased every kind of men, in that he was gathering the Church of Christ, whether those already placed within, or those to be brought into 537Cit.

VERS. 1.-- Be imitators. There are degrees in the Church, of the greater and of the lesser, that the former may go before by example, the latter follow by imitation. But even those who go before will err, if they follow no one: they follow therefore someone, that is, Christ.

VERS. 2.-- I praise, etc. Here he begins to treat of veilings, wherein he reproves them as not keeping his traditions: because some of them, men, prayed or prophesied with the head veiled, and some women with the head not veiled. Whence the Apostle is also incensed against them, because, though he was their apostle, they were forgetful of his traditions, as if. Though I blame concerning other things, I praise 537Dnevertheless concerning this: irony.

VERS. 3.-- Of the man, etc. By the name of man there can here be understood the spirit, not that Holy Spirit who remains unchangeable with the Father and the Son, and is unchangeably given to worthy souls; but the spirit of man, which, as it were the husband of the soul, governs the animal affection as a wife. Christ is the head. Because the spirit of man is governed by the wisdom of God, which is Christ: in whom, as in the head, are all the spiritual senses, that is, the fulness of graces, whereof this man receives, and through this the man is the head of the woman, that is, the ruler of the animal nature, which is governed by the spirit as a woman by a man.

Praying. Because in other places where he is, he may veil, but 538Ahe does not yet present himself to his judge and speak with him, where he must needs profess his condition.

VERS. 7.-- Forasmuch as the image. Image and likeness are taken the one for the other, but yet in this properly is the likeness of the soul with God, that it is uncircumscribed, that it is everywhere whole and all at once.

(AUG., lib. XII de Trin. c. 7, 8, 9.) Man is called the image of God, and to the image: because he is not equal, etc., as far as that they who live ill may cover their foulness by speaking well.

VERS. 11.-- Nevertheless. Although in the first creation the man is not of the woman, but the contrary: even in the generation that follows this is not so. In the Lord. That is, in the operation of the Lord, in which the one is not created without the other.

538BVERS. 12.-- But all things. After he had said each thing severally, in order to subject all things to God as to one principle, he adds all things of God, that neither the woman may grieve at her subjection, nor the man be proud of his exaltation.

VERS. 13.-- You yourselves. Because the Corinthians had not kept his tradition (whereat he is incensed against them), he now persuades not from the authority of tradition, but from nature. Nature teacheth us that if a man nourish his hair, etc. [Vulg. 1 Cor 11:14 Nec ipsa natura docet vos, quod vir quidem si comam nutriat, a question with the negative, and "you" where Migne has "us"] Hair is a glory to a woman, because she has it naturally for a covering: for the hair is a token of a covering, that the will of nature may be added. And therefore the man is not naturally long-haired, because he is not to be veiled, and the law forbids a man to be long-haired.

VERS. 14.-- If the hair, etc. The hair of Samuel and of the prophets, for the covering of the old law, is laid aside in the revelation 538Cof the Gospel: whence when thou shalt have passed over to Christ, the veil shall be taken away.

VERS. 17.-- Now this I ordain. Let not the skill of one who forsakes be required, but let the authority of him who commands be regarded. Not praising. He begins to speak of the Lord's supper, wherein they sinned much.

VERS. 19.-- There must be also heresies, etc. The Apostle does not will nor wish that there be heresies, but because it will be so, he says it. And to what this is useful, he adds: That not only the reprobate (who say: I am of Paul ), but also they who are approved may be made manifest. He says heresies for those who doubt of the resurrection. The schisms were on account of spiritual gifts: and these by their own evil profit Catholics. For all the enemies of the Church, whether blinded by error or depraved by malice, profit the Church: 538Dbecause if they receive power to afflict it bodily, they exercise its patience. But if by thinking ill they oppose it, they exercise its wisdom.

VERS. 20.-- The Lord's supper. By the Lord's supper he means the receiving of the Eucharist, which they ought not to take after having dined, nor to mingle with their own tables, as did those whom the Apostle reproves, but fasting, in honour of so great a sacrament. For although after supper he gave his body and his blood to his disciples, yet the universal Church is not now to be reproached, in that it is always taken by those who are fasting. For the Saviour, the more vehemently to commend the loftiness of this mystery, willed to fix this last in their hearts and in their memory. But in what order it should afterwards be taken, he reserved to be taught by the apostles, 539Athrough whom he was about to order the churches.

VERS. 21.-- For every one, etc. He marks those who took back for themselves the gifts which they offered at the altars for the confecting of the sacrifice, when that was finished, and did not allow them to be shared with others who had none, but took them alone: so that they even became drunk therefrom, while others hungered.

(AMBR.) The gift offered becomes the whole people's, etc., as far as he repeats the form which was given by Christ in a matter of this kind.

VERS. 22.-- The church. The Church is the faithful; of whom it is said: That he might present to himself a glorious Church. Yet the Apostle testifies that by this name the house of prayer itself is called, saying, Or the church of God, 539Betc. Do I praise you? Or distinguish thus: Do I praise you in this? Assuredly I do not praise.

VERS. 23.-- For I have received, etc. He shows that the mystery of the Eucharist, celebrated in the midst of supping, is not the supper. For it is a spiritual medicine, and the memory of our redemption, that we may obtain greater things, because by the death of Christ we have been freed. Of this we ought to be mindful in eating and in drinking, having obtained the New Testament herein: because the blood is the witness of the divine benefit, whence we receive it for the protection of body and of soul: because the flesh of Christ is for the health of the body, the blood for our soul: and therefore the law foretold that blood was not to be eaten. In the night wherein. Having suffered in the night, he came to the light of the resurrection.

VERS. 24.-- He broke. In the sacrament, namely, according to 539Cwhat was seen and was believed by the faithful to be also whole. He gave one to all, that they might remain in unity: but when he broke it, he showed his voluntary passion.

VERS. 26.-- As often as. He expounds unto what commemoration of Christ, namely, his death. Until he come. Because this will not be changed, as were the sacraments of the Jews.

VERS. 27.-- Unworthily. Not because a man eats not unto salvation is the body and blood which he receives therefore any less.

VERS. 29.-- Eateth judgment to himself. It is asked: how is this, when the Lord says: He that eateth me, he himself shall live by me? But there are two manners of eating: one sacramental, whereby both 539Dthe good and the bad eat; the other spiritual, whereby the good alone. And this is not only to eat Christ and to receive his body in the sacrament, but to abide in him, and to have him abiding in oneself. For he eats spiritually who abides in the unity of the Church (which the sacrament itself signifies). For he who is at discord with Christ neither eats the flesh of Christ nor drinks his blood, even though he daily take the sacrament of so great a thing unto judgment.

VERS. 30.-- Therefore among you. This is done for the correction of others.

VERS. 32.-- While we are judged, etc. To those same who suffer, their own punishment also is sometimes a purgation, as for the prophet Addo, who ate though forbidden: who while alive 540Acould be terrified or made sorrowful concerning that which he was not going to feel when dead. For it was said to him: Thy carcass shall not be brought into the sepulchre of thy fathers (III Reg. XIII). And by this the prophet's disobedience could be punished, lest his soul be snatched away to the punishment of hell. We are chastised. In a few is the amendment of all, inasmuch as by the fear of our punishment others are amended.

VERS. 33.-- To wait for one another. That the oblation of many may be celebrated together, and ministered unto all.

VERS. 1.-- Concerning spiritual things. The Apostle begins to treat of the goods of the Holy Spirit, on account of whose greater gifts some grew proud, while the lesser envied and despised them, 540Bas though they would never have them.

VERS. 2.-- You know. Being about to hand on spiritual things, he recalls the former things, that as they were then the image of idols, so now they may be the image of God.

VERS. 3.-- Therefore I give you to understand. Because through the several graces they gave glory to men rather than to God, not knowing that this was ministered by the Holy Spirit; in all things he shows that the praise and the grace are God's, that as then the image of the idol was wholly an evil out of man, so now all good things may be believed to be from the Spirit of God. No man in the Spirit, etc. By thinking, by speaking, by working. Saith likewise in three ways, namely, by heart, by mouth and by work, anathema to Jesus, that is, some separation, from Jesus, that is, any sin whatsoever: as if: one is kept back through 540Cthe Spirit from evil.

But in the Holy Spirit. As if: To work well, and every good, is through the Holy Spirit, and therefore let not the greater despise the lesser, because he has nothing save from the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 4.-- Divisions. This is common to all: but the graces are divided, lest the lesser despair: lest the greater, while he hears of the graces, be proud.

VERS. 6.-- But the same God. This he says, lest the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit should seem to work different things separately, from the fact that he had set graces under the Spirit, and ministrations under the Lord, and operations under God, referring all to the one God he adds: Because God worketh. All in all. He does not attribute all things to one, but works all things in all, so that what one has not 540Din himself, he may have in another, and so charity and humility may abide.

VERS. 7.-- To every one. The goods are divided, and are not given to the merit of anyone severally, but for the profit of building up the Church. We too have received the Holy Spirit, if we love the Church, if we are compacted together by charity, if we rejoice in the catholic name and faith. Let us believe, brethren, as much as each one loves the Church of Christ, so much has he the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 8.-- Of wisdom. Wisdom is in the contemplation of eternal things. Knowledge, in the action of temporal things. Whence in Job: Behold, piety. [Vulg. Job 28:28 Ecce timor Domini, ipsa est sapientia, "the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom"] That is, the worship, of God, is wisdom, which in Greek is theosebia. And what is this worship of him, save the love and the knowledge of him? But to abstain from evils 541Ais knowledge: and evils are in temporal things, in which one must be conversant warily and prudently. He to whom wisdom is given is as the sun; he to whom knowledge, a moon in the night of the world; they to whom the rest are given are stars: because these things are necessary in the night.

VERS. 9.-- To another, faith. Faith too is among the gifts and endowments of God. Not therefore charity alone, but charity with faith is from God to us.

VERS. 10.-- Of speeches. Speeches are the allegorical utterances which appear in the prophets and in the Gospels.

VERS. 11.-- One and the same spirit. What he said above, that the three work, here he names the spirit: for because they are of one nature, what one works, the three work. One and the same, he says, lest there be thought to be as many 541Bas there are works: not that the Spirit works without the Father and the Son. For the operation of the Trinity is inseparable. Dividing to every one. Whence neither is this one to grieve, nor that one to be proud. As he will. Who alone knows what is fitting, and freely, not according to the merit of men.

VERS. 12.-- So also Christ. Christ is called head and body, on account of the ineffable unity of the head and of the members. One spirit will do all things in the members of the body of Christ, as one soul sees in the eye, hears in the ear, and in all the rest does all things.

VERS. 13.-- For indeed. He shows how the body of Christ is one, because we have all been baptized, that is, washed, and led in one spirit unto this, that we may be one body, that is, of one mind through that one spirit, as the whole body of a man is quickened by one soul. And because 541Cwe have all been given to drink in the receiving of the diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit, in one spirit: because he directs all the gifts to the effecting of one thing. That man's person is not to be contemned or preferred, nor is the glory of God to be given to men: because one and the same works in all.

VERS. 14.-- For the body also. He shows by the similitude of the human body that the unity of the body of Christ, that is, of the Church, has variety of offices, and that this diversity does not take away unity: as the unity of the human body consists not in singleness, but in many members, that they may render to one another what they owe.

VERS. 17.-- If the whole. As if he should say: If in the Church all were of one office, how would the need of the body be fulfilled, for whose governance divers things 541Dare needful?.

VERS. 18.-- Members, every one of them as he would. [Memora; read membra, "members" (I Cor. XII, 18)] That nothing be lacking to it: so also in the Church diverse persons to whom he has assigned diverse gifts.

VERS. 19.-- But if all were one, not only would the multitude of the senses perish, but the body also. So if in the Church all were of one office and dignity, neither the members nor the body would be distinguished.

VERS. 21.-- Or again the head to the feet. Dignity itself is contemptible without subjects. For office is that whereby dignity stands. A great emperor has need of an army.

VERS 23.-- They are uncomely. Far be it that there should be any foulness in the members of the saints: but they are called uncomely, 542Abecause they have not that beauty of comeliness which those have that are in open view. Or on account of the law of the members which comes from sin; the unlawful use of the members is base, not the members themselves. There are understood also certain brethren who, though they are comely in poverty and in habit, are nevertheless sometimes of a cleaner life. [honesti; read inhonesti, "unseemly" — the same gloss prints inhonesti of the same men two lines below] Or there are understood those who, being uncomely in the Church through some sin, are more abundantly helped by consolations and by prayers, that they may become comely.

VERS. 24.-- But our comely parts. As if he should say: So too for the brethren in whom the comeliness of their converse has adorned their zeal for skill, there is nothing that should be added by us. But God hath tempered. That which hinders being removed, he sets down that which profits, namely, a tempering together.

VERS. 25.-- But unto the same one for another. [Vulg. 1 Cor 12:25 sed idipsum pro invicem, without the preposition] As if 542Bhe said: Let the members be solicitous, that they may tend unto the same thing, that is, unto that of solicitude which is itself, that is, undifferentiated, so that it be not less for another than for oneself.

VERS. 26.-- And if one member suffer. Concerning the members of the body this is not doubtful, because if the eye or the foot be seized by some sickness, the whole body suffers with it. So too it becomes us to suffer with our brethren if any adversity has arisen, and to rejoice if it has gone well.

VERS. 27.-- Of a member. Either of Christ, or from me, by whose preaching you were instructed.

VERS. 28.-- And some indeed. Here he determines concerning the gifts of God, which are the higher and which the lower. For concerning these the Corinthians thought that the lesser was the greater, and that the greater was the lesser. First. In dignity and in time, apostles, preaching in the stead of Christ and judges of all 542C.

Secondly prophets. That is, revealing the mysteries of the Scriptures or things to come. Thirdly doctors. [Vulg. 1 Cor 12:28 exinde doctores, "thereafter doctors"] Giving precepts of living, or who instruct boys in letters.

Kinds of tongues. (CHRYS.) Behold, it is a gift of God, to know many tongues. And note that he puts last that which they put first.

VERS. 29.-- Are all prophets, etc. He who has not these things in himself, let him love them in others: and in them he now has these things which he has not in himself.

VERS. 31.-- A more excellent way. Charity, because it is a gift greater than all the aforesaid; whence at the end, to those who say, Lord, in thy name we have prophesied, we have cast out devils, we have wrought miracles, the Lord shall say: Depart from me, I know you not, workers of iniquity 542D(Matth. VII). [Vulg. Mt 7:22-23 nonne in nomine tuo prophetavimus … numquam novi vos : discedite a me, qui operamini iniquitatem; the closing words follow Lc 13:27 discedite a me omnes operarii iniquitatis]

VERS. 1.-- If I speak with tongues, etc. Here he proves that charity is the more excellent: because the others without it avail nothing, and it without them profits very much. But charity. Charity is the proper and singular fountain of good things, in which a stranger has no share. Which, like oil, cannot be pressed down to the bottom, but rises above; which, if it be lacking, the rest are had in vain: if it be present, all things are had? As sounding brass, etc. As brass resounds by some striking and not of itself, so he who speaks with tongues does so not of himself, who knows not what he speaks, but by the power of the Spirit brings forth things wherewith he may soothe his hearers.

543AVERS. 2.-- And if I should have prophecy. As Balaam, and Caiaphas, and Saul. I should know mysteries. As Judas also among the apostles, and the devil, who (as Ezechiel says) knew the divine mysteries. Knowledge. As the scribes and the Pharisees, whence: You have the key of knowledge, but neither do you enter in, nor do you suffer others to enter in (Matth. XXIII). [Vulg. Matth. XXIII, 13 vos enim non intratis, nec introeuntes sinitis intrare; the clause on the key of knowledge is Luc. XI, 52 tulistis clavem scientiae, "you have taken away the key of knowledge"] The wicked too assuredly have these things, who will also confess them in the judgment, where they will not dare to lie: to whom it will not be said, You have not had them, but I have not known you: because they had them without charity.

VERS. 4.-- Charity is patient, etc. These are the arms wherewith the soldier of Christ is armed. Of which armour he has set foremost, as the chief arms, patience and kindness.

(ORIG.) Patience, with an even mind, 543Bbears the evils brought upon it by its neighbours, kindness lovingly lays out its own goods upon its neighbours. It is not envious. Because another's good fortune does not sadden it. It is not puffed up. Because its own good fortune does not lift it up.

VERS. 5.-- It seeks not, etc. It is no lover of money.

VERS. 7.-- It believes all things. He does not say, it believes all men, because it believes God alone. It hopes all things. So it appeared in the fathers, that is, in the people of Israel, who hoped to have what God was promising. It endures all things. In the head, that is, in Christ, who patiently awaited the glory of the resurrection and of the ascension.

VERS. 8.-- Charity. Again, in this it is the worthier, because it is ended neither in this world nor in the world to come, even though certain of its works cease. It never falls away. If by believing and 543Choping we love what is not yet seen, how much more when it shall be seen?

VERS. 10.-- That which is in part shall be done away. It is the destruction of imperfection, when that which is imperfect is fulfilled in the whole.

VERS. 12.-- Now. The images of the truth are seen through faith. But then face to face. That is, the things themselves will be seen manifestly. Then I shall know. That is, I shall see the things promised, as he himself is, which is to be present with God, where Christ is. Or, as I have been foreknown to know that which now is secret, A glass. It is the soul: a glass by whose power we in some manner know God, but darkly. An enigma. Now an enigma is not every allegory, but an obscure one. Whence, as by the glass he signified an image, so by the name of enigma he understands a likeness, 543Dalbeit an obscure one and hard to perceive.

VERS. 13.-- Faith, hope, etc. Which knowledge and prophecy serve as soldiers, without which the life of no just man is perfect. But the greater of these is charity. Charity is that to which here faith and hope cannot be lacking, but faith and hope can be without charity.

VERS. 2.-- For he who speaks with a tongue, etc. Now this happened when one speaking with a tongue did not understand himself, as if a man knew the utterance of some language and not its signification

VERS. 6.-- But now. I have said that he who 544Aprophesies is greater than he who speaks with a tongue. But in my own person you can see that a tongue profits nothing, whereas prophecy profits. But now. If I come now to you, when you are believers, speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? as if he should say, nothing, what then did a tongue profit at that time, when you were unbelievers? as if he should say, nothing. Or in revelation. That I may expound a revelation. Revelation is when certain mysteries are shown through figures, as in the Apocalypse. Or in knowledge. That I may expound those things which pertain to knowing. These are the things which give light to faith, as concerning the nature of the Godhead. Or in prophecy. That I may expound the Scriptures which treat of things to come.

Or in doctrine. That I may expound the Scriptures which form men's manners.

VERS. 7.-- Yet the things which are without life, etc. By myself I have shown 544Bthat a tongue avails not without an interpreter. By myself, I say, I have shown it, I who am rational, yet by things without life I can show the same.

VERS. 8.-- For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound. Again by another likeness. For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, etc. Among the Jews there was a use of the trumpet at feasts and in wars, with diverse soundings.

VERS. 10-- And without a voice. There are many tongues, but they have their own significations of sounds, that they may be understood.

VERS. 11.-- If then I know not. And because others without an interpreter would not understand, I shall be a barbarian.

VERS. 12.-- So you also. Or, under one distinction, thus. And for this cause, that you be not barbarians, do you also, as I do, seek that you may abound.

VERS. 14.-- My spirit prays. The spirit is the name of that power of the soul which is lower than the mind, where the 544Clikenesses of bodily things are impressed. The mind is the other and higher power of the soul, as above. Pharaoh's spirit was informed, that he might see the images the mind of Joseph was enlightened, that he might understand. Without fruit. So it is if a man speaks in an unknown tongue, or brings forth the signs of certain things without understanding, as Latin men are wont to sing in Greek, and to be delighted with the sound of the words, not knowing however what they say.

VERS. 15.-- I will pray with the spirit. That is, I approve of so speaking, that the signs of things be formed in the spirit, and the understanding of them shine out in the mind. Or, I will pray with mouth and with mind.

VERS. 16.-- Amen. Note that this word amen, is neither Greek nor Latin, but Hebrew, and is interpreted true. And though it could have been said, true, yet he did not say it, but amen. Neither the Greek nor the Latin 544Dtranslator has dared to do this, lest, laid bare, it should grow cheap, but that it might keep its honour by the veil of a secret.

VERS. 18.-- I give thanks to God. He sets himself forth as an example, that they ought not to speak with tongues save unto edification, as he himself who knows them all.

VERS 20.-- But in malice be children. Be removed from malice, as little ones, giving your zeal to the things that profit, which is the perfection of understanding.

VERS. 21.-- In the law. The reason why one ought not to seek after tongues is that they are for a sign to unbelievers (which these men now are not), and not unto edification, which is now needful for believers. In other tongues. Not of the sabbath, and the new moons, and circumcision and the like, but the New Testament. Or, not in revelation, 545Aof which they are unworthy, but in parables the Gospel is spoken to them. And neither so will they hear. This he foretold of those whom he foreknew would not believe, to whom, because of their sins, the truth neither lies open nor is pleasing.

VERS. 22.-- Therefore tongues are for a sign. That is, the words of God in an unknown and foreign tongue are obscure, lest they be seen by the faithless, so that, when they are heard, it may be a sign that it was done because of faithlessness, lest the hearers should understand: this assuredly happens to unbelievers, whose senses are veiled, but to believers prophecy is fitting, and not an unknown tongue.

VERS. 23.-- If therefore there come together. Another reason is given here why they ought not to speak with tongues, as if he should say, because tongues are for a sign, not unto edification.

VERS. 26.-- What then. Now he begins to determine 545Bin what manner tongues are to be used; as if he should say: Since these things come of the speaking of tongues; therefore what is to be done about them? as if he should say: Use tongues unto edification, as the rest of things are to be done. Every one, etc. Therefore let no man excuse himself. Has a psalm. The praise of God, by a canticle. Doctrine. A spiritual understanding, by prudence.

VERS. 27.-- Or at the most three. Not more than three, lest he who speaks with tongues take up the day, and there be no place for the prophets who discourse upon the Scriptures.

VERS. 28.-- But let him speak to himself. He speaks to himself who is pricked in heart by the things he says. And therefore unto the honour of God, whom he praises or entreats.

VERS. 29.-- Let two prophets speak. Because the discourse of so many men suffices, and in the mouth of two or three stands every 545Cword.

VERS. 30.-- But if to another. It is given to the lesser which is not given to the greater.

VERS. 33.-- For God is not the God of dissension. But he would be a God of dissension if he compelled those whom he fills to speak all at once.

As in all the churches, etc. Let women keep silence, as I teach in all the churches.

VERS. 35.-- It is a shame. Because this is against ecclesiastical discipline.

VERS. 37.-- If any seem to be a prophet. Which assuredly he is not, if he does not acknowledge that it is so: for he who truly is one acknowledges it so, and he who is ignorant of these things shall be ignored, that is, shall be disapproved. The little ones who glory in the cross, even though they be ignorant of the things that are discussed most subtly, to glory 545Dnevertheless attain, because not one of the little ones perishes for whom Christ died. Let him acknowledge. When he says this, he intimates that the words of the epistles are hard, since he bids them be acknowledged by a prophet or a spiritual man.

VERS. 38.-- But if any man know not. But if any man is ignorant of these things, and will not believe that they are the commandments of God, he shall be ignored, as in the Gospel: I know you not, that is, I have not known you to be mine, or among the predestined.

VERS. 2.-- By which also you are saved. If you hold fast that Gospel, that is, the resurrection of the dead, on the ground on which I confirmed it to you, that is, by the resurrection of Christ. Unless you have believed in vain. Which is, if 546Ayou do not hold the resurrection of the dead. That faith is empty which is not received under the hope of resurrection.

VERS. 4.-- He rose again the third day. And this I said according to the Scriptures. For Osee says: After two days he will quicken us, and on the third day we shall rise again in his sight (Ose. VI). [Vulg. Ose. VI, 3 Vivificabit nos post duos dies ; in die tertia suscitabit nos, et vivemus in conspectu ejus, "he will raise us up, and we shall live"] If he who was dead and buried rose again, doubt not that the dead and the buried shall rise again.

VERS. 5.-- He was seen by Cephas. Before the other men to whom he is read to have appeared in the Gospel, otherwise it would be contrary to that which is read, that he appeared first to the women.

VERS. 8, 9.-- As one born out of due time. He is called one born out of due time because he was born outside the lawful season, that is, before he ought, or because, born again later and more tardily, he received the apostolate when Christ had already been taken up. Or, like one born out of due time, because I am the least, whether in time and calling, not in dignity, 546Bin labour, or in preaching. This he said truly, for humility's sake, and he proves it, saying: I am not worthy. Why then an Apostle? But by the grace of God At the first, grace alone, since no merits went before save evil ones. But afterwards, through grace, merits begin.

VERS. 10.-- More abundantly. This was the more fulfilled, because he lived by the work of his hands, and did no less for the Gospel. And lest the will without the grace of God should be thought able to do anything, he adds: Not I, but the grace, etc

VERS. 11.-- And so you believed. He reproves them: because, though this faith was manifest among all the churches, they nevertheless had fallen away from it.

VERS. 14.-- But if Christ. Thus far he has shown that Christ rose again. Now by his resurrection he proves the resurrection of the dead. The 546Cfalse apostles were denying that Christ had truly suffered, or been buried, or risen again, or come in the flesh.

VERS. 15.-- But we are found. These things and others are brought in for this cause, that the Corinthians may blush who follow the error of the false apostles, an error on which these absurdities follow, which he himself also condemns. Therefore, lest they remain in this error, he says: I have found, etc. [Inveni; read Invenimur, "we are found"] Against God. Not by a lesser, but perhaps by a greater wickedness is falsehood praised in God than truth is blamed.

VERS. 17.-- And if Christ be not, etc. If Christ has not risen again; Christ is held in death. And if in death, then also in sin, which is the cause of death And if he is held in sin, he could not remit your sins. And so you are still in your sins, which you believed had been forgiven you, and so your faith is vain.

546DVERS. 21.-- For by a man indeed. Behold the first-fruits, man and man, a man unto life, a man unto death, but that one is nothing other than man, this one is God and man.

VERS. 22.-- And as. By as, a likeness and a cause are noted, because as from the corruption of Adam unto death, so from the Spirit of Christ unto life.

VERS. 23.-- Every one. He sets forth the orders, as of a thing certain: and the times, when it was done, and when it shall be, that the dead may rise again. Then they who are. Another reading: Then these who are Christ's, at his coming, namely, shall rise again. And so those who believe in Christ, and are less worthy than he, shall rise later in time, and lesser in dignity. And who they are that are Christ's, he sets forth by adding: Who have believed at his coming, etc.

547AVERS. 24.-- Then the end. This he sets down for the commendation of the resurrection, which being fulfilled there will be the end of the world and the consummation of all things. When he shall have brought to nought. While the world lasts, angels are set over angels, demons over demons, men over men: unto the profit of the living, or unto their deception. But when men have been gathered in, among angels and men every prelacy will cease, there will not be that dissension between those who preside and those who are subject. But then it will be known to all that none of these things did any earthly or heavenly beings possess of themselves, but from him from whom are all things.

VERS. 25.-- But he must reign. The sense is: His kingdom must meanwhile be made manifest, until all his enemies confess that he reigns: by saying until he excludes a greater manifestation, not a longer 547Bcontinuance of the kingdom. Whence elsewhere: Our eyes are unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy, etc. Not that they are then turned away, but that they seek nothing further.

VERS. 26.-- But the last. Among other things it is plain that Christ has also the power of raising up, when he adds: But last of all the enemy death shall be destroyed. Now Christ reigns, and then he shall reign: but last of all, that is, after all things, death shall be destroyed, because men shall no more be dissolved, as the heretics judge. Last of all. Because there will not be anything which it may destroy; after this mortal shall have put on immortality. The enemy. To whom we are enemies: or it to us. Again a commendation of the resurrection.

VERS. 27.-- Except him who has subjected all things to him. Who, as he is from none, so by no reason can he 547Cbe subject to any: for he himself is the beginning of all things.

That God may be all. Because, when every creature shall say that Christ is its head, and that the head of Christ is God, not only in all, that is, in the confession of all, will there be one God, but every creature also will confess that he is the one from whom are all things.

VERS. 28.-- That God may be. He himself is the end which above, so often concluding, he has set down: afterwards he explains piece by piece what the consummation to come will be. All things. Which can be desired. In all, in his own members: because the reward of virtue will be he himself who gave the virtue, because God will be that whence they are satisfied.

VERS. 29.-- For the dead. That is, for the blotting out of sins. Or, for making themselves dead after the likeness of the death of Christ, what shall they do, seeing they are not to have life? 547DIf at all, etc. So that not even Christ has risen? to what end are they baptized, since sins are not remitted, if Christ has not risen again?

VERS. 31.-- On account of your glory. Or: By your glory. Behold, the Apostle swears, that we may know that to swear what is true is not a sin, but not for that reason is one to swear in doubtful matters; and it is safer not to swear than, by the habit of swearing, to forswear oneself. But to swear what is false is a most grievous sin. An oath is not against the precept: an oath which is not from the evil of him who swears, but from that of the unbeliever or the weak man, who otherwise does not believe.

VERS. 32.-- If according to man. That is, acting reasonably, because it belongs to a man to believe, and not that a man should die like a beast, I fought, that is, I disputed. Let us eat 548Aand drink, for tomorrow we shall die. This is on account of those who, as though nothing were to be after death, give their zeal to the belly only, like cattle, saying: Who has come thence? I have not heard the voice of any one coming thence. To whom it is said: Fool, if thy father should rise again, wouldst thou believe? The Lord of all has risen again, and thou dost not believe. He who willed to die and to rise again, that we all might believe one, lest we be deceived by many. Thou wouldst believe a father who will die again, and thou dost not believe one who is now immortal, who moreover has testimony in heaven, testimony on earth, testimony from the angels, testimony from those below.

VERS. 33.-- Be not seduced, etc., by the false apostles; who out of medicine seek a wound, and out of the Scriptures strive to twist a cord, whence they may cast the noose of death. 548BThey corrupt good manners, etc. (THEODOR.) Here he has called good those light ones who are easily deceived.

VERS. 34.-- Awake. This do not, but awake from the body; and so you will be just; and afterwards: Do not sin by consenting to them, because they are ignorant of God.

VERS. 35.-- But some man will say. Hitherto he has proved the resurrection of the dead by reasons, now he shows by the very nature of things that it can come to pass; as if he should say, by these things it is proved: but nevertheless someone depraved might speak thus, as though the resurrection of the dead could not come to pass by nature: And if they shall rise: or with what body, [Vulg. I Cor. XV, 35 Quomodo resurgunt mortui where Migne has Et si resurgent] as if he should say: It will not be able to be other than it now is, that is, passible and mortal. The Apostle answers: Foolish man, that is, thou who dost not attend to what thou daily seest in the grain.

548CVERS. 36.-- Foolish man, thou: that which thou sowest. So the dead man will be able to live, and in a better body: as that which thou sowest rises better.

VERS. 38.-- But God gives. As therefore the bare grain is sown, and by the nod of God rises again in some manner clothed, having many increases with it, so the dead man by the power of God will be able to live, and to rise again in a better body. To every one of the seeds. So also for us he will refashion our ancient bodies, as Job says: Whom I myself shall see, and not another. But there will be a difference in glory and in dignity, although they be of the same nature. As not all flesh is of the same dignity, though of the same elements, and this is what he says:

548DVERS. 39.-- And the same flesh. All flesh is body, but not conversely: as wood.

VERS. 40.-- Heavenly. The bodies of those who rise again are heavenly; earthly before they die, because they are from Adam. And because Christ is heavenly, from him bodies are called heavenly, and are no longer called flesh. But from Adam, because he is earthly, bodies are named earthly.

VERS. 41.-- For star differs from star, etc. In my Father's house there are many mansions, even though the penny be the same, that is, eternal life for all. For the blessedness which the just receive is one; but the quality of the reward is unequal. And although those who rise again are of unequal brightness, yet God is all in all, 549Abecause God is charity, and it will come to pass through charity; that what each one has may be in common the possession of all.

VERS. 42.-- It is sown. That is, although a man, from the time he is conceived until his dissolution, is in corruption, and afterwards swarms with worms, yet he will rise in incorruption.

VERS. 44.-- A natural body. That is, one which has nothing from the soul except that it is made to feel through it, as the beasts have. It shall rise spiritual. Passing over into the nature of spirit, that is, having certain spiritual properties, because it is nimble, light, and in no need of food. When he said that the body would pass over to incorruption, he makes mention of corruption, that the greater dignity of the resurrection may be shown. If there is a body. Truly a spiritual body will rise, because if it now is, it is natural, that is, it is established 549Bto be so; and at some time it will be spiritual. For as we are natural because our carnal father was made into a living soul: so we shall be spiritual in the resurrection: because our spiritual Father was made, in his resurrection, into a quickening spirit.

VERS. 45.-- Man. Those two men, the first and the second, are in a manner the whole human race: born of the one, born again of the other. Christ is called Adam, because he is of the same matter; the last, because after him no other man succeeds who might be the head or the author of the human body.

But not. He has said that our bodies will be spiritual; but lest any should doubt whether the natural can become spiritual, he proves it by the likeness of Christ; as if he should say, 549Che was made into a quickening spirit. But not first was there in him that which is spiritual, but that which is natural, then the spiritual. So also can it come to pass concerning us.

VERS. 47.-- The first man. He is truly the first unto a living soul; because he was formed from the dust of the earth, natural and passible by nature. The second man, because from heaven, that is, because the divine nature was united to the human, therefore heavenly, that is, spiritual in the resurrection; and because the first father was earthly, such are all men. Heavenly. Christ is said to be so, because he was conceived and born not after the manner of men, but by the divine nod.

VERS. 50.-- And this I say. The Jews believed in a resurrection to come, but after the manner of this life, that they should marry and beget: whence certain men could not answer the Sadducees concerning the woman of the seven husbands, 549Dfor these men were thinking carnally about the resurrection: but the Apostle removes this, saying:

That flesh. By flesh and blood he signifies the belly and lust, that is, the works of the flesh (which will not be there).

Neither shall corruption possess incorruption. Lest thou shouldst think that this is said according to the substance of the flesh, he has made it plain. Therefore he said that flesh shall not possess the kingdom of God: 550Abecause the corruption of mortality, which is here shown by the name of flesh, shall not possess incorruptibility.

VERS. 51.-- All indeed. Or (according to Jerome, who, writing to Marcella, asserts that those found alive will not die) all the dead will rise again, and not all who are found alive will be changed, but only the saints.

VERS. 52.-- At the last. That is, at the last sign, which shall be given, that these things may be fulfilled. This trumpet is the cry of which it is said: At midnight there was a cry made: behold, the bridegroom cometh. By the name of trumpet is meant some manifest and illustrious sign, which elsewhere is called the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, and in the Gospel is called the voice which the dead who are in the graves shall hear, and they shall come forth, etc.

We shall be changed. He sets forth how this comes to pass, or what manner of change it is.

VERS. 54.-- It is swallowed up. That is, destroyed in the victory of Christ; or in this, that it exceeded the measure of conquering, by assailing Christ; or death is the delight of sin with consent, which is conquered in this, that the servants of God will overcome the concupiscences of their flesh.

VERS. 55.-- O death, where is thy victory? These are the words of the prophet, or of the Apostle rejoicing and insulting over death in the person of those who rise again, that the resurrection may be the more certain: as if he should say: Thou hast conquered in those who die, thou art conquered in those who rise again. Thy victory, whereby thou hadst swallowed up the bodies of the dying, was temporal: that whereby thou art swallowed up in the bodies of those who rise again; will stand eternal.

• 550C

VERS. 1.-- Of the collections. After other things, he briefly admonishes them concerning the collections to be made for the saints who were in Jerusalem. Which is not against that saying: Take no thought for the morrow. [Vulg. Matth. VI, 34 Nolite ergo solliciti esse in crastinum, "be not therefore solicitous for the morrow"] For it is not taking thought for the morrow if a man think of these things after the manner of men: but if a man serve God as a soldier for the sake of these things, so that in his works he looks not to the kingdom of God, but to the getting of them.

So do you also. (AMBROS.) The Apostle commands that all the people come together on the Lord's day, etc., as far as nor is it burdensome, and much is found.

VERS. 2.-- On, etc. That is, on the Lord's day. Because this day, which we Christians call the Lord's, is called among the Jews the one day of the sabbath, or one of the sabbaths, or the first of the sabbath.

550DVERS. 6.-- I will abide, or even spend the winter, etc. There, like a physician, he made his stay, where many were sick.

VERS. 15.-- And I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanas and of Fortunatus, etc. The order of this letter looks toward and hangs upon that place, that you also be subject.

VERS. 18.-- My spirit and yours, etc. Mine, by gladness: yours, by charity.