276 Reflections on the right ministers have to be maintained. SECT. principles like these, the Lord Jesus Christ him- Lord ordained, that, xvi. self hath expressly commanded and ordained, they which preach that they who preach the gospel should live and the gospel, should ix. 14 subsist upon the gospel; when he declares, as 1 Cor. you know more than one of the evangelists as verse IMPROVEMENT. MAY the disciples of Christ learn from these instructions, to 1,7 honour the Lord with their substance, and the first fruits of all their increase! And may they feel those happy effects attending 11 the ministration of the gospel, and reap such an abundant harvest of spiritual blessings, that the imparting temporal subsistence and accommodation, to those who are the instruments of conveying them, may not be matter of constraint, but of free and affectionate choice! May the ministers of Christ, while they thankfully accept of that subsistence, which Providence, by the instrumentality of their brethren, sends them, ever act a moderate and gen. erous part, and maintain such a visible superiority to all secular views, as may do an honour to the gospel, and command veneration to themselves! 8, 10 May the secular advantages of the office never invite bad men into it; nor its discouragements deter good men from undertaking it. And whatever censures a malignant world, who themselves know not any higher motive than self interest, shall pass, may the ministers of Jesus ever have a testimony in their con sciences, that they seek not the properties, but the souls, of their hearers! Let us attend to the humane genius of the Mosaic law, mani. fested in the precepts which relate even to the brutes. And remember, that it is the character, and should be the care of a merciful man, to extend mercy to his beast. Much more then let us shew compassion to our fellow men. Let us not desire to enjoy the benefit of their labours, even in the lowest employments of life, without giving them some valuable equivalent. Let us bear towards all, the hearts of equitable and generous brethren, and constantly wish the prosperity and happiness of the human family. On the whole, may there be between the teachers, and Live upon the gospel.] Mr. Mede understands vagyon here, of the reward trib. in loc. and shews, that the word sometimes has that meaning in heathen authors: but it is a very uncommon signification in the sacred, and therefore not to be admitted, without farther proof. That might be said to live on the temple, who He did not mention this, to resume the right he had waved. 277 those who are taught by them, a continual intercourse of benev. SECT. olent affections, and friendly actions; as becomes those who xvi. stand in such an endearing relation to each other, and have, as Christians, the honour of being intimately related to that blessed Redeemer, who sought not his own things, but ours, and hath thereby laid the strongest engagement upon us, if we have any spark of gratitude and honour, not to seek our own things, but his! SECT. XVII. The apostle illustrates the condescension and tenderness of his conduct towards the Corinthians, in declining to accept of their contributions; and speaks of his self denial under a very expres sive simile, taken from those who contended in those Grecian games with which they were familiarly acquainted. 1 Cor. IX. 15, to the end. 1 COR. IX. 15. none of these me to die, than that any man roid. 1 CORINTHIANS IX. 15. 1 Cor. ix. 15 BUT I have used T HAVE thought it my duty, in the forego- SECT. ing discourse, to plead the natural and the xvii. things. Neither have I written these evangelical rights which the ministers of the things, that it should gospel have to be maintained by the people, to be so done unto me: whose spiritual edification they give their time for it were better for and labours. But you well know that I myself should during my abode among you, have used none of make my glorying these things; nor have I written thus, that if, according to my purpose and hope, I ever should visit you again, it should hereafter be so done unto me. I think of the generous and self denying part, which I have acted among you, in declining, for some particular reasons, to take a maintenance, with a pleasure so great, that I may even say, [it were] better for me to die for want of the necessary supplies of life, than that any man among you should make this my boasting void, by having it to say, that I have eaten his bread, and been supported at his expense. 16 For though I For if I preach the gospel, after what hath hap- 16 preach the gospel, I pened in my singular case, I have no [matter of] have nothing to glo- boasting in that, for, having received such a ry of: for necessity is laid upon me: commission, how could I refuse! I may say, a yea, wo is unto me kind of invincible necessity lieth upon me, and if I preach not the wo to me indeed, if I preach not the gospel. To decline a work, assigned to me by so condescending an appearance of Christ, when with malicious rage I was attempting to destroy his gospel. 278 To the Jews he became as a Jew, that he might gain the Jews: 17 For if I do this have a reward: but unto me. SECT. church, would be an instance of ingratitude and xvii. obstinacy, deserving the most dreadful and in1 Cor. supportable condemnation. If indeed I do this ix. 17 voluntarily, and shew upon every occasion a thing willingly, I cordial willingness to do it, I have indeed some if against my will, room to expect a reward, but if I do it unwil- a dispensation of the lingly, as I said before, a dispensation is intrust- gospel is committed 18 ed to me, and I must of necessity fulfil it. What 18 What is my re then is that circumstance in my conduct, for ward then? verily which I may expect a reward of praise from the that when I preach mouth of my Divine Master? Surely this, that the gospel, I may make the gospel when I preach the gospel of Christ, I may render of Christ without it unexpensive; that so I may be sure not in the charge, that I abuse least degree to abuse my power in the gospel to not my power in the any low and secular purposes, or carry it beyond 19 its due bounds. For in this respect, being free 19 For though I from all men, and under no obligation, in this be free from all men, yet have I manner, to give them my labours, I made my made myself ser. self the servant of all, addicting myself to the vant unto all, that most fatiguing duties, that I might advance I might gain the their happiness, and gain the more to true relig ion and salvation; in which I have found a noble equivalent for all I could do, or bear. gospel. more. 20 And I not only submitted to preach the gospel 20 And unto the - without any reward, but I made it a constant Jews, I became as a maxim, to accommodate my manner of living Jew, that gain the Jews; to to the way and relish of those about me; sacri- them that are under ficing my own humour and inclination; and the law, as under that, in some instances, when I could not do it, the law, that I might without considerable inconvenience to myself: under the law. gain them that are accordingly, to the Jews, I became as a Jew,b that I might gain over more of the Jews to Christianity to those, I say, who were, or apprehended themselves to be, under the tedious ceremonies and disagreeable restraints of the Mosaic law, I became, as if I were still in conscience under the obligations of the law, The servant of all.] This has a strong- As if I were still under the obligations er sense than can easily be expressed in of the law.] This can only signify, that the paraphrase; and intimates, that he he voluntarily complied with it, as an acted with as self denying a regard to their interests, and as much caution not to offend them, as if he were absolutely in their power, as a slave is in that of his master. b To the Jews, &c.] Compare, for the illustration of this, Acts xvi. 3, chap. xxi. 21, &c. which instances were undoubtedly specimen of many more of the like kind. indifferent thing; but it cannot by any To the weak he became as weak, that he might gain the weak. 279 21 To them that though I knew it to have been abolished; and SECT. are without law, as this, that I might gain those who apprehended xvii. without law, (being themselves to be under the bond of that law. God, but under the On the other hand, to those who were without law to Christ,) that the law of Moses, and either unacquainted with I might gain them it, or apprehended themselves under no obliga not without law to that are without law. 1 Cor. ix. 21 tion to conform to its peculiar institutions, I behaved as if I had myself also been without the law, neglecting its ceremonial precepts, which I well knew to be superseded and abolished. [et] still taking care that it might appear both from my words and actions, that I was not without law to God; but apprehended myself under a law of the most affectionate duty and gratitude to Christ, who came by new bonds to engage us to the strictest obedience. But these freedoms I used, and this moderation I manifested, not by any means for my own indulgence, but that I might gain those who are without the law, and make my ministry more agreeable and useful to such as were 22 To the weak educated among the Gentiles. I therefore be- 22 became I as weak, came to the weak, as if I had been as weak and that I might gain the scrupulous as they, in the various articles of things to all men, food and dress which might come into questthat I might by all ion, that I might gain upon the weak; for the weak: I am made all means save some. soul of the weakest appeared to me infinitely valuable; and I have the warrant of my great Master to esteem it more precious than all the treasures of the world. In a word, I became all things to all men; accommodating myself to them, so far as with a safe conscience I could, that by any, or all means if possible, I might save some and it is the daily grief of my soul, that after all these efforts the number And this I do for the sake of the 23 for the gospel's sake, gospel, to promote its success to the utmost of taker thereof with my ability; that I also may be a sharer in the generous pleasure arising from the communication of it. 23 And this I do is so small. that I might be par you. That I might gain those without the We render it, that I might be partaker with law. This seems to imply, that the you; but as the words, with you, are not Gentiles, not yet converted to Christian in the original, which is a σuvo ity, are here referred to; unless gaining the persons spoken of signifies, rendering them "better disposed to regard his decisions," which is at most but a subordi nate sense. * A sharer in the communication of it.] auls gevoμal, I rather understand the words as referring to the satisfaction he found in imparting the invaluable and inexhaustible blessings of the gospel to all around him; a sentiment most suitable to his character and office. SECT. 1 Cor. His self denial was like that of in a race, run all, I may illustrate this, by referring to the 24 Know ye not xvii. games so well known in Greece; and particu- that they which run larly to the Isthmian, so often celebrated among but one receiveth the ix. 24 you at Corinth. Do you not know, that with prize? So run that respect to those who run in the stadium or foot ye may obtain. race, all indeed run, and contend with each other whereas but one receiveth the prize ?8 Yet the uncertain hope, that each may be that one, animates them all to strain every nerve in the course. You have much greater encour agement to exert yourselves in the pursuit of celestial blessings. See to it therefore, that ye so run as that ye may obtain, and that ye lay aside every thing that would be an incum. brance to you, or render you incapable of dispatching the race with necessary vigour and 25 alacrity. And every one who contendeth in the games, whether in running, as above, or in that striveth for the wrestling, or combating, is temperate in all mastery is temper. ate in all things: things, abstaining from whatever might ener- Now they doit to ob vate his strength, and submitting to a regular tain course of diet, exercise and hardship, that he may be the more capable of exerting himself with success. [And this] they indeed [do,] that they may obtain a corruptible crown,i a garland The stadium or foot race.] On com. paring the translation I had before made of this passage, with that of my learned and worthy friend Mr. West, (in his excellent Dissertation on the Olympic Games, p. 189, 190.) I had the pleasure to find a remarkable agreement; but where there was any difference, I have generally altered what I had written, either in the version or paraphrase, to make it conformable to his whose judgment, in any point of criticism, has with me a great weight; but especially on a subject of which he appears to have been so eminent a master, that his writings upon it are as distinguished in their kind, as the games he so elegantly describes were in theirs. & One : receiveth the prize] It is true, that in some games there were several prizes of different value; yet in those to which he here refers, there was but one for the victor, and the argument is very strong and striking. 25 And every man a corruptible ↳ Temperate in all things.] Whoever considers on the one hand, to what great self denial, in articles of food, sleep, and every other sensual indulgence, they, who were to contend in their games, were obliged; and on the other, of how great importance it is, that the youth of a com. munity should be formed to a manly taste, and resolute self government; will undoubtedly see the great national prudence of the Greeks, in the institution and sup port of these games; to which it is very probable their remarkable valour and suc cess in war, during the best days of their several republics, might in some considerable degree be owing. See, for the illus tration of the temperance here referred to, Elsner's excellent note on this text, and Elian. Var. Hist. lib. III. cap. 30, lib.X.cap. 2, Corruptible crown, a garland of leaves, &c.] It is well known, that the crown in the Olympic games, sacred to Jupiter, was of wild olive; in the Pythian, sacred to Apollo, of laurel; in the Isthmian, or Corinthian, solemnized in honour of Pala: |