grace, 1.1-9 II. The contrast of their present factious state, 1.10-4.21. III. Immorality rebuked; discipline enjoined, 5.1-6,8. IV. The sanctity of the body, and Christian marriage, 6.9-7,40. V. Meats, and the limitations of Christian liberty, 8.1-11.1. VI. Christian order and the Lord's Supper, 11.2-34 VII. Spiritual gifts in relation to the body, the church, and Christian ministry, 12.1-14,40. The Authenticity of this Epistle is attested by Clement of Rome [First Epistle to the Corinthians, 47], Polycarp [Epistle to the Philippians, 11], and Irenus [Against Heresies, 4.27.3]. The city to which it was sent was famed for its wealth and commerce, which were chiefly due to its situation between the Ionian and gean Seas on the isthmus connecting the Peloponese with Greece. In Paul's time it was the capital of the province Achaia and the seat of the Roman proconsul (Ac 18:12). The state of morals in it was notorious for debauchery, even in the profligate heathen world; so much so that "to Corinthianize" was a proverbial phrase for "to play the wanton"; hence arose dangers to the purity of the Christian Church at Corinth. That Church was founded by Paul on his first visit (Ac 18:1-17). He had been the instrument of converting many Gentiles (1Co 12:2), and some Jews (Ac 18:8), notwithstanding the vehement opposition of the countrymen of the latter (Ac 18:5), during the year and a half in which he sojourned there. The converts were chiefly of the humbler classes (1Co 1:26, &c.). Crispus (1Co 1:14; Ac