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stoned; thrice I was shipwrecked; I have spent a night and a day in the deep,3

26 IN journies often; IN dangers FROM rivers; IN dangers FROM robbers; IN dangers from Mr countrymen; IN dangers from the heathens; IN dangers in the city; IN dangers in the wilderness; IN dangers (EV) at sea; IN dangers among false brethren.

27 In labour and toil ;1 in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness.3

28 Besides these TROUBLES from without, that which Is my daily pressure, the anxious care of all the churches.

street of Lystra, I was stoned and left as dead; thrice I was shipwrecked ; and on one of these occasions, I spent a night and a day in the deep sea.

26 For the sake of preaching the gospel, I have made long journies often; I have been in dangers while passing rivers; in dangers from robbers; in dangers from the Jews; in dangers from the Gentiles; in dangers in cities from tumults; in dangers of perishing by want and by wild beasts in desert places; in dangers at sea from storms and pirates; in dangers among false brethren.

27 In these journies and voyages, I have undergone great labour and toil: I have often passed nights without sleep; I have endured much hunger and thirst; I have often fasted whole days; I have suffered much from cold and want of clothes.

28 Besides these outward troubles, there is that which presseth me daily, my anxious care of all the churches, that they may persevere in faith and holiness, and be defended from enemies.

might have more leisure through the day to preach the gospel, 1 Thess. ii. 9. 2 Thess. iii. 8.

3. In cold and nakedness. It must have been a strong persuasion of the truth of the gospel, a disinterested zeal for the happiness of mankind, and an high degree of fortitude indeed, which moved a person of Paul's station and education, to submit to such a long course of sufferings, as reduced him to the condition of the poorest of men. And yet while we admire his disinterestedness, his fortitude, and his patience in suffering, the greatness of his spirit is no less admirable, which enabled him, notwithstanding his poverty and bad clothing, to speak to persons in the highest stations without fear, and to plead the cause of his master with such a noble freedom, tempered with respect, as we find he did to the magistrates and philosophers in Athens, to the chief priests and elders at Jerusalem, to the Roman governors Felix and Festus, to king Agrippa, nay to the emperor himself.

Ver. 28.-1. That which is my daily pressure. The Greek word is

29 Who is weak, and I

am not weak ? who is offended, and I burn not?

30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

31 The God and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

32 In Damascus the go

vernor under Aretas the king, kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend

me:

33 And through a win

dow in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.

29 Τις ασθενει, και ουκ ασθενω; τις σκανδαλίζεται, και ουκ εγώ πυρούμαι;

30 Ει καυκασθαι δει, τα της ασθενειας μου καυχη σομαι.

31 Ο Θεος και πατηρ του Κυριον ήμων Ιησου Χριςου οιδεν, ὁ ων ευλογητός εις τους αιωνας, ότι ου ψευδομαι.

32 Εν Δαμασκῳ ὁ εθναρ χης Αρετα του βασιλεως εφρουρεί την Δαμασκηνῶν πολιν, πιασαί με θελων

33 Και δια θυριδος εν σαργανῃ εχαλασθην δια του τειχους, και εξέφυγον τας χειρας

αυτου.

denotes a crowd of people surrounding and pressing upon a person, with an intention to bear him down, and trample upon him. The idea is elegantly applied by the apostle, to his anxious cares, &c.

. 2. The anxious care of all the churches. This is very properly mentioned among the apostle's sufferings, because it was none of the least of them; as one may judge from the account which he has given in this and in his former epistle, of the exceeding grief which the errors and irregularities of the single church of Corinth occasioned to him. 2 Cor. vii. 5. Within were fears. Besides, the brethren of all the Gentile churches, had recourse to the apostle in their difficulties for advice and consolation, which must have been very fatiguing to him.

Ver. 30.-1. Which relate to my weakness. His enemies had upbraided him with weakness, that is, with cowardice, chap. x. 10. Of this weakness, he told them he would boast in a particular instance; because therein the care, which both God and good men took of him, was illustriously displayed. So that it was an instance very honourable to him.

Ver. 31.-1. Who is blessed for ever. This circumstance is added to increase the solemnity of his appeal to God, for the truth of what he was going to say, not only concerning his deliverance at Damascus, but concerning the visions and revelations of the Lord, to be mentioned in the next chapter. In Corinth, the apostle had no witnesses for proving the circumstances of his danger and deliverance at Damascus. Besides, it was an event long

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29 And with respect to individuals: What brother is weak, who finds me weak in assisting him? What brother falls into sin, and I do not burn with zeal to raise him up?

30 If I must boast, being forced to it, I will boast of the things which relate to my weakness, notwithstanding my enemies upbraid me therewith.

31 These things happened in a danger the greatest of the kind that ever befel me: For the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who possesses blessedness infinite and eternal, knoweth that I do not lie, when I tell you, that

32 In Damascus, the governor belonging to Aretas the king of Arabia, at the instigation of the Jews, who were enraged against me because I preached that Jesus is the Christ, kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, that he might apprehend me, and deliver me to them. In such a danger, where even the form of a trial was not to be expected, what could I do but flee?

33 But being conveyed into one of the houses built on the wall of the city, through a window in a basket, I was let down with ropes by the side of the wall; and so with the assistance of God and good men, I escaped from his hands.

passed, and perhaps not at all known in Greece. And with respect to the visions and revelations with which he was honoured, they were private matters known only to himself. He, therefore, very properly appealed to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the truth of what he was going to relate concerning these things.

Ver. 33.-1. And escaped. In so doing, the apostle did not act contrary to our Lord's words, John x. 12. as he had no fixed relation to the brethren of Damascus, as their pastor. See Acts ix. 23.-25.

CHAPTER XII.

View and Illustration of the Facts related in this Chapter.

AFTER enumerating in the former chapter, his almost incredible labours and sufferings for the gospel, the apostle in this, directing his discourse to the faction who had ridiculed him for praising himself, said to them ironically; Well, it does not become me to boast of any thing I have done or suffered as a minister of Christ: Nevertheless I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord, ver. 1.—But that he might not offend their affected delicacy, he did not say these visions and revelations were given to himself. He only told them, he knew a servant of Christ, who, fourteen years before the date of this letter, had been caught up as far as to the third heaven, ver. 2.—Though whether in the body or out of the body, the apostle did not know, ver. 3.-This servant of Christ, in paradise, heard things which could not be expressed in human language, ver. 4.—Concerning such a person, the apostle said he would boast; but concerning himself, he told them ironically, he would not boast except in his weaknesses, for which they ridiculed him, and of which he had boasted in the end of the preceding chapter, ver. 5. And yet, being himself that servant of Christ who had been caught up, he told them, that if he inclined to boast concerning himself, as the person who was so highly honoured, he should not be a fool, because he should speak nothing of himself but what was strictly true. Nevertheless he forbare, lest forsooth any of them should think more highly of him than his appearance, or than his manner of speaking warranted. This he said in high ridicule of their gibe, that his bodily presence was weak, but his letters weighty and powerful, ver. 6.

Farther, because he had said he would not boast, except in his weaknesses, for which they had ridiculed him, he told them, that his bodily infirmity, instead of rendering him contemptible, was an honour to him; because it was sent on him by God, to prevent him from being too much elated, with the transcendency of the revelations which had been given to him, ver. 7.-That he had besought the Lord thrice to remove it, ver. 8.—But that he told him, his grace was sufficient for making him successful as an apostle, and his power in converting the world was most illustriously displayed, in the weakness of the instruments employed for that end. The apostle therefore boasted in his own weakness, that the power of Christ might be seen to dwell upon bim, ver. 9.-Nay he even took pleasure in weaknesses, insults,

&c. for Christ's sake, ver. 10.—But added, that if he appeared a fool in thus praising himself, his friends among the Corinthians had constrained him to it; because when his enemies called his apostleship in question, they ought to have spoken in his vindication, as they well knew he was in no respect inferior to the greatest of the apostles, ver. 11.—All the proofs of an apostle he had frequently shewed in their presence, by signs and wonders and powers, ver. 12.-So that as a church, they were inferior to others in nothing, except that he, their spiritual father, had not taken maintenance from them. But in irony of their finding fault with him on that account, he begged them to forgive him that injury, ver. 13.-Yet to shew that he had done them no injury in that matter, he now told them, he was coming to them the third time, and still would not be burdensome to them: because he did not seek their goods, but their salvation; and because the children ought not to provide for the parents, but the parents for the children, ver. 14.-and therefore with pleasure he would spend his time, and waste his body for their souls sake, so much did he love them; although the more he loved them, he found the less he was beloved by them, ver. 15.-Well then, said he, ye must acknowledge that I did not burden you, by taking maintenance from you. Nevertheless the faction say, (because it is the practice of the false teacher to whom they are attached), that by this shew of disinterestedness, I craftily made you lay aside all suspicion of my loving money, that I might draw it the more effectually from you by my assistants, when absent, ver. 16.—But did I make the least gain of you, by any of them I sent to you, after my departure? ver. 17.-I besought Titus to visit you lately. Did Titus or the brother I sent with him make any gain of you? Did they not walk in the same spirit, and in the same steps with me? ver. 18. Farther, by sending Titus to you this second time, Do I apologize to you for not coming myself? In the sight of God I solemnly protest, that I speak by the direction of Christ, when I tell you that my sending Titus is designed for your edification, by giving the faulty among you time to repent, ver. 19.-Yet I am afraid that when I come, I shall not find you such reformed persons as I wish you to be, and that I shall be found by you such as ye do not wish. My meaning is, that I shall find strifes, emulations, &c. among you, ver. 20.-So that when I come, I shall be so far humbled among you by my God, as to be obliged with grief to punish those among you, who have formerly sinned, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness which they have habitually committed, ver. 21.

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