And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
Ver. 1. Could not speak unto you] Unless I would beat the air, and lose my sweet words: q.d. You quarrel me for a shallow trivial teacher, when yourselves are in fault, as not yet capable of more mysterious matter. Our Saviour preached (not as he could have preached, but) "as the people were able to hear," Mark 4:33. So the author to the Hebrews, 1 Corinthians 5:11. Some impute not their profiting to the minister, as he in Seneca, that having a thorn in his foot complained of the roughness of the way as the cause of his limping. Or as she in the same author, that being struck with a sudden blindness, bade open the windows, when as it was not lack of light, but lack of sight that troubled her.
As unto carnal, even as unto babes] Or, at least as unto babes, not yet past the spoon, and that must have their meats masticated for them by their nurses.