tion, as in 10, 16, "participation of the blood of Christ," 2 Cor. 13, 13, "participation of the Holy Ghost." We are called to be partakers of Christ ; partakers of his life, as members of his body ; and therefore, partakers of his charac- ter, of his sufferings here and of his glory hereafter. This last idea is made specially prominent. Believers are called to be partakers of the glory of Christ, Rom. 8, 17. 23. 2 Thess. 2, 14. It is because behevers are thus partakers of Christ, that the apostle was assured they could never perish. The person with whom believers are thus intimately united, is the /Son of God, of the same nature, being the same in substance and equal in power and glory. He is also Jesus, a man ; conse- quently he is both God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person. This incarnate God, the Saviour, is the Christ, of whom the Old Testament says and promises so much. He is also our Lord, we belong to him ; he is our possessor, our sovereign, our protector. How can they apostatize and per- ish who stand in this relation to the eternal Son of God ?
Of the JDivisions in the Church of Corinth, Vs. 10-16.
As one of the principal objects of this epistle was to cor- rect the evils which had arisen in the church of Corinth, the apostle adverts, first, to the divisions which there existed. He exhorts the members of that church to unity, v. 10. The reason of that exhortation was the information which he had received concerning their dissensions, v. 11. These divisions arose from their ranging themselves under different religious teachers as party leaders, v. 12. The sin and folly of such divisions are manifest, in the first place, because Christ is in- capable of division. As there is one head, there can be but one body. As there is but one Christ, there can be but one church. And in the second place, because religious teachers are not centres of imity to the church. They had not re- deemed it, nor did its members profess allegiance to them in baptism, v. 13. These divisions, therefore, arose, on the one hand, from a forgetfulness of the common relation which all Christians bear to Christ ; and, on the other, from a misappre- hension of the relation in which believers stand to their reli- gious teachers. Paul expresses his gratitude that he had not given any occasion for such misapprehension. He had bap- tized so few among them, that no man could suspect him of a desire to make himself the head of the church or the leader of a party, vs. 14-16.