Ver. 1. And wherein ye stand] εστηκατε, a military term, as Martyr noteth. Satan overthroweth the faith of some, 2 Timothy 2:18, and by this very engine wherewith he assaulted these Corinthians, ibid. So that the apostle was fain to make apology, 1 Corinthians 15:19, to make a barricado.
Ver. 2. By which also ye are saved] Eternal life is potentially in the word, as the harvest is potentially in the seed, or as the tree is in the kernel or scion, James 1:21. If ye keep in memory] He limiteth the promise of salvation to the condition of keeping in memory what they had heard. Tantum didicimus, quantum meminimus, said Socrates; many have memories like nets, that let go the fair water, retain the filth only; or like sieves, that keep the chaff, let go the corn. If God come to search them with a candle, what shall he find but old songs, old wrongs, &c.? not a promise of any word of God hidden there: for things of that nature they are like Sabinus in Seneca, that never in all his life could remember those three names of Homer, Ulysses, and Achilles. But the soul should be as a holy ark, the memory like the pot of manna, preserving holy truths.
Ver. 3. First of all] Christ is to be preached with the first, as being the prora et puppis of man’s happiness, John 16:14. It is the office of the Holy Ghost to take of Christ’s excellencies, and hold them out to the world. What then should ministers, the mouth of the Holy Ghost, do rather?
Ver. 4. According to the Scriptures] Which both foreshowed and foreshadowed it in Adam’s waking, Isaac’s reviving, as it were from the dead, Joseph’s abasement and advancement, Samson’s breaking the bars and bearing away the gates of Gaza, David’s being drawn out of the deep, Daniel’s out of the den, Jeremiah’s out of the dungeon, Jonah’s out of the belly of hell, Matthew 12:39, &c.
Ver. 5. Seen of Cephas] Adam died, and we hear no more of him. But Christ showed himself after death in six several apparitions for our confirmation. Then of the twelve] So they are called for the rotundity of the number, utcunque unus vel alter vel deesset eel abesset. Judas had made one long letter of himself, Longam literam fecit.
Ver. 6. Above five hundred] The number of believers were then greater than some would gather out of Acts 1:15. Those 120 may seem to have been chieftains, such as that any one of them might have been thought meet to succeed Judas in his apostleship.
Ver. 7. Seen of James] This is not mentioned in the Gospel, as neither that of Peter, 1 Corinthians 15:5.
Ver. 8. One born out of due time] Quasi malo astro abortus, et adversante natura coactus. One that deserved to be rejected, as that forlorn infant, Ezekiel 16:4,5.
Ver. 9. I am the least of the apostles] Not come to my just size, as one born out of due time, and not without violence. Paulus quasi Paululus, saith one, because he was least in his own eyes, “less than the least of all saints,” Ephesians 3:8. Melancthon was of a like self-denying spirit, insomuch as Luther thought he went too far this way; Certe nimis nullus in hae est Philippus, Philip is too low conceited. Not meet to be called] True humility, as true balm, ever sinks to the bottom of the water, when pride, like oil, ever swims on the top.
Ver. 10. I laboured more abundantly] See 2 Corinthians 11:23 Ro 15:19. George Eagles, martyr in Queen Mary’s days, for his great pains in travelling from place to place to confirm the brethren, was surnamed, Trudge over the world. Might not St Paul have been fitly so surnamed? Not I, but the grace of God] So those good servants, Luke 19:16, Not we, but thy talents have gained other five, and other two, &c. Let God have the entire praise of all our good. We should boast and glory of nothing, because nothing is ours, saith holy Austin, who (being wholly of St Paul’s spirit) was a great advancer of the grace of God, and abaser of man against ‘all those patrons of nature with their vitreum acumen, bright but brittle sharpness of wit, as he styleth it. Which was with me] Present with me, not which did work with me, as the Synergists would have it.
Ver. 11. So we preach, and so ye believed] A happy compliance, when the hearers’ affections and endeavours do answer the affections and endeavours of the preacher, as here, and at Ephesus, Acts 20:31-37; when people deliver themselves up to the form of doctrine, and are cast into the mould of the word, Romans 6:17.
Ver. 12. No resurrection] More than that of regeneration, Matthew 19:28, that estate of the gospel called a new heaven and a new earth, 2 Peter 3:13, the world to come, Hebrews 2:5, that resurrection already past, 2 Timothy 2:18, that first resurrection, Revelation 20:5.
Ver. 13. Then is not Christ risen] But of Christ’s resurrection there were many both living and dead witnesses, as the earthquake, empty grave, stone rolled away, clothes wrapt up, &c.