1 Corinthians 7

Solomon had put all the creatures into a Limbeck, and when he came to extract the spirits and quintessence, all was vanity (Ecclesiastes 2:11). The Apostle calls it [illegible], a show or apparition (1 Corinthians 7:31), having no intrinsical goodness. 3. The third lesson is the…

- 1. Fixedness of mind. - 2. Fervency of devotion. - 3. Uprightness of aim. 1. Fixedness of mind: then we spiritualize duty when our minds are fixed on God; (1 Corinthians 7:35). That you may attend on the Lord without distraction.

1. Distraction. 1 Corinthians 7:35. That you may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

If parents should indeed counsel a child to match with one that is irreligious or Popish, I think the case is plain; and many of the learned are of opinion, that here the child may have a negative voice, and is not obliged to be ruled by the parent. Children are to marry in the…

(1.) Something implied: that the ordinance of marriage should be observed. (1 Corinthians 7:2) Let every man have his own wife, and every woman have her own husband. Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled (Hebrews 13:4).

Therefore children in their infancy being God's servants, why should they not have baptism, which is the tessera, the mark or seal which God sets upon his servants. Third Arg. Is from 1 Corinthians 7:14: "But now are your children holy." Children are not called holy, as if they…

Thirdly, he is able indiscernably to communicate all his false reasonings (though never so spiritual) which he does forge and invent, and that in such a manner as to deceive us by them and to make them take with us. First, he is able not only to put into the heart suggestions an…

For, too much delight in fleshly pleasures, smothers the grace of God in us, and lets loose all sins, and gives life unto all corruptions. Secondly, we must use this world as though we used it not; that is, even the necessary comforts and delights thereof: they be the very words…

For, if he had loved and liked the pomp of Egypt, he would have had his sepulcher among them; but, giving commandment to the contrary, it shows plainly, that his heart was never set on that glory and pomp in which he lived. By whose example we are taught, that in using the world…

And the same reason must move every one of us, to use this world, and all things herein (even all temporal benefits) as though we used them not: being, always willing and ready to leave them whensoever God shall call. This same reason does Paul render when he persuades the Corin…

For, if they had, they would rejoice in it, and not in the vain and transitory delights of this world, which perish in the using, and are lost with more torment and vexation, than they were kept with delight. We must learn then to use this world, as though we used it not, 1 Cori…

But how (will some say) shall we be answerable to this profession? Answer. For the practice hereof, we must do these three things: 1. We must use this world and the things thereof, as though we used them not; 1 Corinthians 7.31: The temporal blessings we here enjoy, we must so u…

Our love to God must be intense and vehement; like the Coals of Juniper, which are most acute and fervent, Psalm 120.4. Our love to transitory things must be indifferent; we must love quasi non, as if we loved not, 1 Corinthians 7.30. But our love to God must flame forth.

4. A righteous man has more excellent freedom (Psalm 119:45): And I will walk at liberty. Another is capable of civil freedom; he may be a Roman born; but he is still enslaved to his lusts; but a righteous person is God's freeman (1 Corinthians 7:21). His neck is out of the Devi…

Daniel 10:3: I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine within my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, until three weeks of days were fulfilled. 1 Corinthians 7:5: Defraud not one another, except it be with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fast…

Objection 4. 1 Corinthians 7:8: Paul says it is good for all to be single as he was, and in verse 38 he says it is better for virgins not to marry, and this he speaks by permission not by commandment (verse 26). Answer: Here single life is not preferred simply, but only in respe…

The fault is not in the substance of marriage but in the manner of making it. And for this cause the Apostle commands the believing party not to forsake or refuse the unbelieving party — being a very infidel, which no Papist is — if he or she will abide: 1 Corinthians 7:13. The…

This kind of vow is flat against the word of God, and therefore unlawful. For Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:9: If they cannot contain, let them marry. 1 Timothy 4:1: It is a doctrine of devils to forbid to marry.

It is as common with men, indeed, with good men, to exceed in their sorrows for dead relations, as it is to exceed in their loves and delights to living relations; and both of the one and other, we may say as they say of waters, it is hard to confine them within their bounds. It…

The great all of heaven and earth, since God laid the first stone of this wide hall, has been groaning, and weeping, for the liberty of the sons of God, (Romans 8:21). The figure of the passing-away world, (1 Corinthians 7:31), is like an old man's face, full of wrinkles, and fo…

But to the unmortified man the world smells like the garden of God: lust casts in, and comes to eye and heart and fancy, grenades and fire-balls of uncleanness; sinful pleasure has a rosy face, profit has golden fingers, court and honor has a sweet breath, the world is not to hi…

And besides, such a natural man, though he be of a magnanimous spirit in respect of fear of danger, yet such a man is often captivated of many base lusts, and sinful courses, and is not able to resist ill counsel, nor ill company; whereas a godly man is free from all these; free…

1. As he works by representation, or the fair show and splendid appearance of worldly things, you must check it. (1.) By considering the little subsistence and reality that is in this fair appearance (1 Corinthians 7:31). The fashion of this world passes away [illegible: non-Lat…

But I need not trouble you with the mention of Popish fopperies. A right-bred Christian, that has learned the truth as it is in Jesus, being thrust into a corner, knows how to improve solitariness for soul-advantage; and voluntarily does withdraw himself into a corner, that he m…

3. Objection. But I am a servant, and must obey my master; I am kept too hardly at work, to get time for secret prayer; I am called to work early, dogged to it all the day. Answer. Though you be servants to do men's work, yet not slaves to their lusts: in that respect you must n…

Paul then did not reject circumcision as a damnable thing, neither did he by word or deed enforce the Jews to forsake it. For in (1 Corinthians 7) he says: If any man be called being circumcised, let him not add uncircumcision. But he rejected circumcision as a thing not necessa…

Justification by works is a yoke that none could ever bear (Acts 15). The vow of single life is as a snare, or as the noose in the halter to strangle the soul (1 Corinthians 7:34). So is the doctrine which teaches that men after their conversion, must still remain in suspense of…

If the root be holy, the branches are holy (Romans 11:16). If either of their parents believe, their children are holy (1 Corinthians 7:14). In a civil contract, the father and his heir make but one person, and the father covenants for himself, and his posterity: even so, in the…

In Acts 2:39, Peter says to the Jews that heard him preach, The promises belong to you, and to your children. Paul says, If the parents believe, the children are holy (1 Corinthians 7:14). If holy, then are they in the covenant: now they are holy: because we are in the judgment…

This authority shows itself, specially in two things: in the marriage, and in the calling of the child. In the marriage of the child, the parent is the principal agent, and the disposer thereof (Deuteronomy 7:3; Exodus 34:16; 1 Corinthians 7:38). Where observe, that the commandm…

Thus magistracy and Christian liberty may stand together: and the rather, because liberty is in conscience, and the magistrate's authority pertains to the body. Here is further comfort for all the godly: for even by Christian liberty, their consciences are exempted from the powe…

Synecdochically, not of perfect and absolute knowledge, for we all know but in part (2 Corinthians 13:12), but of initiate, or inchoate knowledge, which shall be consummate in the life to come. Further, upon this distinction it follows, that hearers are not to intermeddle with t…

Abraham was of an excellent faith, and constancy, of singular meekness, and holiness, yet had he not this gift. Christ himself testifies that it is not given to all, even then when his Apostles so highly commended single life (Matthew 19:6, 10, 11, 12), and Saint Paul says the l…

For not only the eyes, but even the concealed flames of the heart, render men guilty of adultery. Accordingly, Paul makes chastity (1 Corinthians 7:34) to consist both in body and in mind. But Christ reckoned it enough to refute the gross mistake which was prevalent: for they th…

We know, on the contrary, that none of those who walk in their ways are ever left destitute of the assistance of the Spirit. For the sake of avoiding fornication, says Paul, let every man marry a wife, (1 Corinthians 7:2). He who has done so, though he may not succeed to his wis…

2. Think often of him amidst your other affairs. Every one as he is called (be his state or way of living what it will, be he bond or free) is required therein to abide with God (1 Corinthians 7). And how is that but by often thinking of him, as being a great part (and fundament…

And touch not with that which you cannot recommend to God by prayer for a blessing. Be well satisfied in that Station and Imployment in which Providence has placed you, and do not so much as wish your selves in another, 1 Corinthians 7:20 Let every man abide in the same Calling,…

The Priest said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is hallowed bread, if the young men have kept themselves at least from women; if they have but that outward preparation: the meaning is, if they had kept themselves from their wives; David affirms it was so, in t…

This high and most laudable benefit as no tongue can express it, so can no tongue also praise it enough. And therefore does Paul exhort and warn us of the abuse of this benefit, saying (1 Corinthians 7): You are dearly bought (namely, with the blood of Jesus Christ) be not you s…

Here much love and sympathy appears in these three things, 1. That she is called a sister, 2. our sister, 3. little sister, and without breasts, which do express much tenderness of affection and sympathy. By sister, is sometimes understood, more strictly, such as are renewed con…

For we find the holy fathers have still taken the care of the disposal of their children in this affair. And the Apostle (1 Corinthians 7:36-37) declares, that it is in the parents' power either to marry their children, or to keep them in a single estate. But yet no question so,…

Therefore polygamy was unlawful in the beginning, even then when the necessity of increasing the world might seem to plead for it; and how much more unlawful now, when that necessity is ceased. Besides this the Apostle has commanded (1 Corinthians 7:2), Let every man have his ow…

Who never were up before the sun, nor break an hour's rest; For your poor souls, as you have done so often, for a beast. Learn once to see the difference; between eternal things; And these poor transient things of sense: that fly with eagle's wings. (2 Corinthians 4:18; 1 Corint…

For every man shall kiss his lips that gives a right answer (Proverbs 24:26). In the conjugal relation, it is taken for granted (1 Corinthians 7:33-34) that the care of the husband is to please his wife; and the care of the wife is to please her husband; and where there is that…

O brethren, labor to practice these things: O what a blessed thing were it that all of us might come to convert souls! Though women may not preach in the Church, they may preach abroad in their lives, and in their families, by their humble and godly conversations; 1 Cor. 7:16 Wh…

Again, all things that do befal us in this world, and all the ways of Gods providence, do but tend to the furtherance of us to our reward, and to the increase of our reward, and that is the wonderful happiness of Gods people, this should sweeten all conditions: If I be in a mean…

Haggai 1:6. We earn Wages, and put it into a Bag with holes, and disquiet our selves in vain; all our Relations full of trouble. The Apostle speaking to those that Marry, says, 1 Corinthians 7:28. Such shall have trouble in the flesh. Upon which words one glosseth thus: Flesh an…

Take no thought for your life (says the Lord) what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; or for the body, what you shall put on: Which he backs with an Argument from God's Providence over the Creatures, and enforceth it with a [much rather) upon them, Matth. 6. 25, 31. God wou…

APPLICATION. Thus mutable and inconstant are all outward things, there is no depending on them: Nothing of any substance, or any solid consistence in them, 1 Corinthians 7:31. The fashion of this world passes away. It is an high point of folly to depend upon such vanities, Prove…

It is not sufficient to perform general duties of Christianity, unless also we be conscientious in performing the particular duties of our several callings. A conscientious performance of those particular duties is one part of our walking worthy of the vocation with which we are…