Things are not expedient; all Things are lawful for me, but all Things
edify not. Let no Man seek his own, but every Man the Things of another.
Whatsoever is sold in the Shambles, eat ye_. And that which St. _Paul_
subjoins, agrees with what he said before: _Meats for the Belly, and the
Belly for Meats; but God shall destroy both it and them_. Now that which
has Respect to the _Judaical_ Choice of Meats, is in the Close of the
10th Chapter. _Give none Offence, neither to the Jews nor the Gentiles,
nor to the Church of God; even as I please all Men in all Things, not
seeking my own Profit, but the Profit of many, that they may be sav'd_.
Where in that he saith to the _Gentiles_, he seems to have Respect to
Things offer'd to Idols; and where he speaketh to the _Jews_ he seems to
refer to the Choice of Meats; what he says to the Church of God
appertains to the Weak, collected out of both Sorts. It was lawful, it
seems, to eat of all Meats whatsoever, and all Things that are Clean to
the Clean. But the Question remaining is, Whether it be expedient or no?
The Liberty of the Gospel makes all Things lawful; but Charity has
always a Regard to my Neighbour's Good, and therefore often abstains
from Things lawful, rather chasing to condescend to what is for
another's Advantage, than to make Use of its own Liberty. But now here
arises a double Difficulty; first, that here is nothing that either
precedes or follows in the Context that agrees with this Sense. For he
chides the _Corinthians_ for being Seditious, Fornicators, Adulterers,
and given to go to Law before wicked Judges. Now what Coherence is there
with this to say, _All Things are lawful for me, but all Things are not
expedient_? And in the following Matter, he returns to the Case of
_Incontinence_, which he had also repeated before, only leaving out the
Charge of Contention: _But the Body_, says he, _is not for Fornication,
but for the Lord, and the Lord for the Body._ But however, this Scruple
may be solv'd too, because a little before, in the Catalogue of Sins, he
had made Mention of Idolatry. _Be not deceived, neither Fornicators, nor