6

of the word (Matt. iii. 11), appear to have contemplated nothing more than repentance or contrition, - an important feature, and often an essential condition, in a true and lasting conversion; but in truth he aimed at producing a change of mind' in his countrymen, in order that they might bring willing ears and docile affections to the great Teacher himself. Sometimes the force of metanoia is made more distinct and emphatic by adjuncts, -as in Acts xx. 21, Testifying change of mind (conversion) towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ' (comp. 2 Tim. ii. 25). In Heb. xii. 17, the term appears to signify repentance properly so called; but this is only a derivative and secondary meaning of metanoia.

It is the doctrine of Scripture, that the mode of conversion, in individual cases. varies according to the good pleasure of its author, God, and the peculiar circumstances and condition of those who are its subjects (John iii. 8). The same authority places its necessity beyond a question (John iii. 3), and assigns as the test of its genuineness that faith which worketh by love' (John iii. 6; xiii. 35).

To some hath God his word address'd
'Mid symbols of his ire,
And made his presence manifest

In whirlwind, storm, and fire;
Tracing, with burning lines of flame,
On trembling hearts his holy name.

To some the solemn voice has spoken
In life's serene retreat;

Where, on the still heart, sounds have broken
As from the mercy-seat,

Swelling in the soft harmonies

That float on Evening's tranquil breeze.'

CONVOCATION (L. cum and roco, I call), a calling together; an assembly called or convened by proper authority. Such is the import of the original Hebrew (Exod. xii. 16. Lev. xxiii. 2; comp. Isa. i. 13, and iv. 5).

COOS (or Cos), a small island in the A gean Sea, lying off the coast of Caria, to the north-west of the promontory of Cnidus. It was celebrated for its wine, its fine gauzelike vestments, and its costly ointment. Its chief city, of the same name, had a muchfrequented temple of Esculapius. crates was a native of the island. visited by Paul on his way to the imperial city (Acts xxi. 1; comp. 1 Macc. xv. 23). COPPER. See METALS.

-

HippoIt was

CORAL (C. rubrum) was known to the ancients, who classed it among precious stones. Being found in various parts of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which is said to have taken its name from the hue derived from its corals, this product of nature could hardly fail to be known to the Israelites. Yet it is only twice that the word occurs in our Bible, as the rendering of the Hebrew Rahmoth (Job xxviii. 18. Ezek.

xxvii. 16). In the first passage, King James's translators appear to have been uncertain whether they had given a correct rendering; for they place the original word itself in the margin; nor is it ascertained what species of precious stone the word was intended to denote.

Coral is the product of the coral insect, which, either by a division of its own substance or by throwing out a bud, produces a small mass of gelatinous substance, studded with apertures, inhabited by polypes or worms. This substance speedily attaches itself to a portion of rock, on which it grows, and to which it becomes permanently affixed. The worms obtain their food by the action of their cilia, like vibrating hairs, with which they agitate the water, and cause fresh currents, charged with animalculæ, to flow towards themselves. The minute mass gradually secretes an internal nucleus or skeleton of calcareous matter; and having, during its existence, given birth to other and similar colonies of polypes, the animal portion dies, and the gelatinous matter, with its families of polypes or worms, perishes; but the stony skeleton is left to form, by continual accumulations of this nature, coral reefs and islands.

The

CORBAN, & Hebrew word, found in Mark vii. 11, denoting a gift, offering, or sacrifice, devoted to God (Lev. ii. 1; vii. 38). word occurs in a passage which requires some explanation, and which may be thus freely rendered: But ye (Pharisees) say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, Corban, that is, a gift, which I desire to offer for your good, ye no longer require him to do any thing for his father or mother;' that is, 'Ye teach that, if a son shall have once made an oblation for the welfare of his parents, he is acquitted of all obligation in regard to them.' In other words: 'Our religious offering for parents stands in place of a course of pious conduct towards them' (comp. Matt. xv. 5, 6; xxiii. 18).

There can be no doubt, that Matthew and Mark refer to the same event, and quote the same observation. They do so with a difference that merits some attention. Mark uses the Hebrew word Corban, and immediately explains it by a corresponding Greek term. Josephus does the same in these words: -Such also as dedicate themselves to God as a corban, which denotes what the Greeks call a gift' (Antiq.' iv. 4. 4). The resemblance is striking. Why did Josephus explain the Hebrew term? Because he was writing chiefly for pagan- Greek and Roman- readers. So far, then, as this one passage goes, Mark may be said to have had in view heathen readers; for writers of the Hebrew stock would no more require a translation of Corban, than Englishmen would need to have the term gift explained. But the term Corban would hardly have

occurred to a heathen writer. Whence arises an argument that Mark was a Jew.

Matthew, however, does not use the Hebrew word, but simply the Greek translation, doron, a gift, - a fact which would agree with the supposition, that his Gospel, as we now have it, was translated or transferred directly from Hebrew into Greek, or that the writer of it had in his mind pagan, and not Hebrew readers.

CORIANDER, a genus of umbelliferous plants, the C. sativum of botanists, is, on some authority, believed to be the plant intended by the Hebrew Gad, used as a subject of comparison for manna, which is described as like coriander-seed, white' (Exod. xvi. 31. Numb. xi. 7). Some have thought the resemblance to lie not merely in the colour, but also in the indented or cut appearance, of the seed: the root of Gad signifies to cut or make an incision. The fruit (or seeds) is of the size of a pepper-corn, containing an oil which has an aromatic flavour, for which it is highly prized in the East, and used as an ingredient in currypowder. Coriander is cominon in Egypt and the south of Europe, as well as in our own country. In Essex it is grown for druggists and distillers. Its leaves are used as condiments in soups, &c.

CORINTH (G.), a celebrated city, which lay on the isthmus that joins the main land of Greece with the Morea; and, from its position between the Saronicus Sinus and Alcyonium Mare, was appropriately termed bimaris, or between the two seas.' Corinth was a city in the district Corinthia, which united Megaris with Argolis. The southern part of the district consists of a chain of hills with bare high tops, deep valleys, and narrow clefts; which sinks gradually down towards a plain, in which Corinth stands, throwing out a lofty insulated hill, that sustains the citadel or acropolis of the place. From the plain the land rises again northwards, joining a range of hills which run up into Megaris. The character of the district was therefore various. Equally did its parts differ in regard to fruitfulness. The eminences were barren; the vales, the lowlands, especially the seacoast, stretching from Corinth to Sicyon, along the Sinus Corinthiacus, were enriched and adorned with the most luxuriant vegetation, which called forth from the ancients expressions of wonder and delight. And still, according to travellers, these parts produce great abundance, without the bestowal of much human labour, so rich is the soil, so genial the climate.

we know little: the new city is minutely described by ancient writers. Yet, of the worship, arts, commerce, character, and manners of the inhabitants of the old city, our information is perhaps more abundant than of any other Grecian city.

ANCIENT TEMPLE AT CORINTH.
Wordsworth's Greece.

Corinth, as a Dorian city, reckoned among its religious obligations the worship of Apollo and Diana. That of Minerva also was observed. But in an especial manner was the city addicted to the licentious rites of Venus. According to a local tradition, Helios (the Sun), to whom, in his contest with Neptune for the possession of the land, the heights of Acro-Corinthus (the citadel) had fallen, assigned these to Aphrodite (the Greek name for Venus), whose oldest and most sacred temple stood on this hill. In consequence of the connection of Corinth with trade by sea, the Phoenician idolatry exerted a baneful influence on the (in itself) bad and corrupting native worship of Aphrodite. The goddess had another temple at Craneum in Cenchreæ, lying at the northeast of Corinth. These temples were served by young females, whose lives were a scene of licentious degradation, disgraceful enough to themselves, but far more disgraceful to the priests and the system by which they were led to offer their bodies and their souls in temples of lust. These sacrifices, however, were regarded with a very different eye by the culture of classic times, as appears by a variety of facts. and by this, that an ancient writer (Suidas) has preserved the names of the most distinguished of these religious courtesans. The licentiousness of the place became proverbial, so that the very name Corinth was synonymous with the practice of harlotry.

The worship of many other heathen deities prevailed in the city, so as to make it one vast but decorated scene of idolatry. The temples of the several divinities, espe cially those which stood on the Acropolis, and were consecrated to the more ancient worships of the city, survived in part its

destruction by the Romans: many, however belonged exclusively to the new city. Ir the service of these religious institutions, art employed all its resources; and the Corinthians had the envied praise of surpassing the rest of Greece, in the skill, taste. and sumptuousness, with which they decorated their city and their temples. To them is architecture indebted for its richest and most highly ornamental order. Equally renowned were they for superiority in the practical arts of life. In literature, however, they fell below the ordinary standard; not one eminent writer,-not one orator of renown. Yet in wise statesmen, Corinth was not wanting. Its energies were largely embarked in trade and commerce, which did more for its substance than its morals. Its position between two seas put it into immediate connection with the best marts of the East and West; while its trade was much augmented both by the difficulty ther experienced of circumnavigating the Peloponnesus, and the ease with which goods could be transported across the narrow isthmus on which it lay. Accordingly, its trade dated back to the beginnings of its civilisation, and its oldest aristocracy owed their elevation to success in trade. It became a great entrepôt for very remote parts of the world. Here were brought the natural or artificial productions of all lands: - Egypt sent its papyrus; Libya, its ivory; Syria. frankincense; Phoenicia, dates; Carthage, carpets; Syracuse, corn; Euboea, fruit; Thessaly and Phrygia, slaves. There stood ships of all forms and from all nations: on its eastern side, in the harbour of Cenchrea; on its western side, in the harbour of Lechæum. Hence, even in early periods, revenues for the state, ample enough to supply the wants and satisfy the desires of its rulers. But commerce is fickle in the favours it bestows. Alexandria arose, and drew off much of the trade of Corinth, which suffered also by the rivalry of Rhodes. The opulence of its citizens corresponded with their enterprise, skill, and industry. The population was large; the number of slaves, almost incredibly great (460,000). Wealth brought refinement of mind and manners, which encouraged the virtues of hospitality and social order, but, degenerating into ease and self-indulgence, engendered moral corruption, in which the pleasures of the senses gained an almost exclusive sway. Corinth had, in a Lais and other females, attractions so powerful, that it was expressly visited for guilty indulgences; which, however, were ruinous to all but the very opulent. But these enormous moral evils were, to the eyes of the Corinthians, not dark enough to throw a cloud over the name of a city of which they were proud, and whose fame was spread throughout the civilised world.

Of the history of Corinth we can say no

more here, than that it fell to the ground, together with the liberties of Greece, under the strong hand of the half-civilised Romans; being captured and laid waste by Mummins, 146, A.C. when the greater part of its territory fell to the Sicyonians, and its trade passed to Delos. For the space of a century, Corinth lay waste: only some temples, and the edifices on the Acropolis, survived the ruin. In the year A.D. 46, the dictator Julius Cæsar determined to raise up the fallen city, which he carried into effect, peopling it with veteran soldiers, and descendants of freedmen. Quickly did the place attain a high degree of prosperity. Under the Romans, and in the times of the New Testament, it was the chief city of the Roman province of Achaia. Restored to prosperity, Corinth again called forth all the resources of high art for its own embellishment. Art, however, may dazzle the eye, and refine the manners: it cannot cleanse the soul, or afford a sufficient guidance for life. Idolatry was a hollow thing, an empty form, however elegant and glittering. It had no living element, -no source of moral power. It might fascinate the imagination, but could not form, raise, or fill the heart. Hence Corinth was a morally abandoned place. Chrysostom terms it the most licentious city of all that were or had been.

Commercial prospects had collected to gether in Corinth a Jewish population, who were numerous enough to support a synagogue (Acts xviii. 4); in which converts from Heathenism were found (7). To this city came Paul from Athens, during his second missionary tour. Applying himself first to the instruction of Jews and Jewish converts, he had the satisfaction to convert Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue; but, finding himself ill repaid for his labour among his countrymen, most of whom were even bitterly opposed to him, he directed his chief exertious for some two years to the Gentiles, and was rewarded with ample success (Acts xviii. 4, 8, 10). After Paul, accompanied by his friends Aquila and Priscilla, had left Corinth (Acts xviii. 18), that city was visited by the Alexandrian Jew Apollos, 'an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures,' converted to Christ from the school of John the Baptist by the same Aquila and his wife, and commended to the Corinthian chura by the Ephesians. Having arrived in that city, he applied himself with diligerce and success to the work of showing the Jews by the Scriptures, that Jesus was Christ (Acts xviii. 24-28). Apollos, as a man of culture and eloquence, and especially as furnished with the resources of philosophy, found in the refined Corinth great acceptance, and soon won an influence which was superior even to that of Paul. Philosophy, however, tends to impair religion, by

raising questions of debate, thrusting the intellect into disproportionate prominence, and introducing the mere decisions of man as explanatory of or supplementary to the great simple doctrines taught by revelation, the universe, and the human heart. The influence of philosophy, therefore, is necessarily both anti-religious and disuniting. An undue propensity to moot questions leads to diversity, and ends in disunion. Human society under philosophy, as the flowing waters under frost, is first made hard and cold, and then broken into pieces. Some such process as this had ensued in the Corinthian church from the preaching of Apollos; who, having had the great features of his mind formed in Alexandria, where the philosophies of the East and West had mixed together their heterogeneous materials to form a system which affected to be the very height of true wisdom, and as such to solve all the great problems of matter, mind, duty, and immortality, was led even unconsciously to blend in his Christian teachings much that was, however foreign to the gospel, striking and attractive, because new, ambitious, and well spoken; and so to gather around him a cirele of scholars, who, in their admiration of their immediate teacher, forgot their father in Christ, and even almost lost sight of Christ himself. This was a state of things most adverse to the gospel; scarcely less so because it seems to have arisen without any direct intention or wish of Apollos, from the natural tendencies of his own mind, and the minds of those to whom he ministered. As, however, it arose incidentally, and Apollos had no wish to form a party, he does not appear to have forfeited the good opinion of Paul, and may probably have kept himself for a time at a distance from the Corinthians, in order to allow the apostle's rebukes and exhortations to take fall effect in restoring the church to Christian simplicity of doctrine, and oneness of mind and heart (1 Cor. xvi. 12).

A Judaizing influence also manifested itself in Corinth, as in other cities where Paul preached, having a tendency to assert the views held by Peter, to the derogation of the authority of Paul (2 Cor. xi. 5). Teaching, in opposition to the latter apostle, the necessity of more or less observing the law of Moses, they appear to have recommended their doctrines by appealing, not merely to Scripture and reason, but also to the national feelings of their countrymen,― their pride as citizens of the chosen nation, and heirs of the grace promised in the now-given Messiah (2 Cor. v. 12; xi. 22; xii. 11). Hence there arose another party, having Peter as their head (1 Cor. i. 12), which, if less numerous and flourishing than that which followed Apollos, was not less active, and far more hostile to Paul.having it as a leading object, to

counteract, and, if possible, destroy his influence.

The efforts of this Petrine schism naturally awakened counter-efforts in defence of the teachings and authority of Paul. The apostle was not present to arrest this attempt in its first beginnings. In consequence, it grew into magnitude and importance, the rather because it seemed in the eyes of those who made it, to be a becoming and laudable assertion of the truth of the gospel, and the rights of him who had been, in the hands of God, the instrument by which the Corinthian church had been led to Christ.

Thus arose three parties in that church, the party of Paul, that of Apollos, that of Cephas. Against all three, Paul, in a truly characteristic and praiseworthy manner, asserts the sole authority and the allsufficiency of the great Head of the church, Jesus Christ himself.

Already had Paul addressed a letter to the church at Corinth, which is unfortunately lost; for the two Armenian Epistles (one from the Corinthians to Paul, and one from Paul to the Corinthians), first published by Masson, are apocryphal. Whether this Letter contained any reference to the parties of which we have now spoken, we possess no means of determining. It has been thought to have been conveyed by Titus, and to have had special reference to the collection of alms for the poor in the mother church at Jerusalem, which Paul did his best to promote in Galatia and Macedonia; and to which be, doubtless, expected the wealthy merchants of Corinth to make liberal contributions (1 Cor. xvi. 1. 2 Cor. viii. 4-17; ix. 2; xii. 18). This Letter, however, spoke also on a subject of great importance, to which Paul afterwards found it necessary to give special attention:- I wrote to you, in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators' (1 Cor. v. 9). This Corinthian vice, we thus see, had at the very first invaded the church. The remedy urged by the apostle did not prove effectual. Fornication, of unusual criminality, had actually been committed by a member of the community, as Panl had learnt on credible authority (1 Cor. v. 1). Against such an enormity, it was imperative on the apostle to protest in the most emphatic manner.

Besides these reasons for composing the admirable Letter which bears in our collection the title of First to the Corinthians, there were one or two special considerations. Members of the family of Chloe had personally given Paul information of the existence and evil working of contentions and schisms in the church, which demanded the interposition of his authority (1 Cor. i. 1, seq.). In order to meet this emergency, Paul dispatched Timothy to the church of Corinth, and intimated his intention of shortly paying them

visit himself (iv. 17, seq.); who, however,

having to travel with Erastus through Macedonia (Acts xix. 22), was delayed, so that this Letter came into their hands before his arrival (1 Cor. xvi. 10).

Another inducement which the apostle had for writing the Epistle before us, was the receipt of a letter from the church of Corinth itself (vii. 1), delivered to him by special messengers, whose influence on the apostle was of a gratifying description (xvi. 17, 18). This letter sought information on various points (vii. 1; viii. 1; xii. 1; xv. 1; xvi. 1); to which the apostle willingly gave such answers as approved themselves to his mind; adding, probably, further instructions through the medium of the deputies from Corinth, Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, of whom he speaks in terms of approbation, and whom he recommends to the favour of their fellow-believers in the Corinthian church (xvi. 15—18).

CORINTHIANS, FIRST EPISTLE TO. -The occasion on which this Letter was written was manifold, as will have been learnt from the details into which we have entered in the previous article. Generally, it may be remarked that Paul was led to write it, by his wish to maintain the gospel against corruptors, to restore the unity of the Corinthian church, to answer questions proposed to him by that church, and especially to call to account one wicked member, and assert the indispensable necessity of purity of body, as well as sanctity of mind, in the professed followers of Jesus.

The contents of the Letter are as various as its subjects. After a greeting and a conciliatory introduction (i. 1-9), the apostle enlarges on and against the religious parties that had sprung up in the church, with a justification of his own teachings (i. 10—iv.). Then he passes on to the gross immorality of a particular individual, and determines that he should be expelled from the community (v.), which leads him to speak of the impropriety of Christians carrying their complaints of injustice against each other, before the tribunals of the Heathen (vi.). He proceeds, after this, to the point on which the Corinthians had expressly solicited his advice, and first dilates and gives a variety of directions on marriage (vii.). He then treats at length the question of eating, in the banquets that customarily ensued, flesh which had been offered to idols in the public temples (viii.-xi.); making a digression on the disinterested manner in which he exercised his apostolical functions (ix.). Animadversions follow in regard to praying, with or without the head being covered, and the conduct of the community in their love feasts (xi.). Then ensues an important disquisition on spiritual gifts (xii.—xiv.), which leads the writer to that eloquent and lofty eulogy on Christian love, which is enough to make his name immortal (xiii.).