into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man fmite you on the face. 21. I speak as concerning reproach, as tho' we had been weak: howbeit, whereinfoever any is bold (I Speak foolishly) I am bold also. able to compare with 22. Are they Hebrews? fo am I are they Ifraelites? foam I: are they the feed of Abraham? fo am I: 23. Are they minifters of Chrift? (I Speak as a fool) I am more: in labours more abundant, in ftripes above measure, in prifons more frequent, in deaths oft. ftandings and Principles, and to 4. D. 57. 21. Thus they patiently permit 22. If they be the Defcendants 23. If they boaft of their Chriftian Miniftry, you may perhaps think me vain, but 'tis true, if I fay, I have far surpassed them in that Capacity; witness my unfpeakable Toils and Labours, my innumerable Stripes, the many Imprisonments, and Hazards of Death I have gone through for the Sake of Chrift and his Gofpel; Trials that they have had little or no Share of. 24. Of the Jews five times received I forty fripes fave one. 25. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I ftoned, thrice I fuffered fhipwrack; a 24 & 25. I was whipt five Times with thirty-nine + Strokes at a Time, by order of the Jewish Governors. Thrice I was lashed by the Heathen Officers, (Ats xvi. 23.) once ftoned, (Acts xiv. night 19.) thrice fhipwrecked, and for a * Ver. 21. Kala arquíar λśyw, I speak as concerning Reproach, i. e. either the Reproaches and Infults thofe Teachers used toward their Followers; or such as they treated St. Paul with. I have expreffed both Senses. +Ver. 24. See Deut. xxv. 3. Jofeph. Antiq. Lib. IV. Ch. viii. A. D. 57. night and a day I have a Night and a Day was toft upon a Piece of Wreck before I could * 26. Innumerable have been my Dangers and Hardships in Travels by Sea and Land, in City and Country, from Jews and Gentiles, and from falfe Brethren of all Kinds. 26. In journeying 27. In weariness and nakedness. in perils in the sea, in perils a 27. I have born the Labours of the Day, and the Watchings of the Night; the Uneafinefs of Want, and the voluntary Pains of fevere Abstinence; and have fome times not had wherewithal to skreen me from Cold and Nakedness. 28. Befides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. I have planted. 28. Nor are these outward and bodily Inconveniencies, the Whole of my Christian Sufferings; ftill greater and more conftant are the inward Cares, the Jealoufies and Fears I have for all the Churches 29. Who is weak, 29. Not a Christian Member in and I am not weak? any one of them is afflicted, whewho is offended, and ther in Mind or Body, but I fymI burn not? pathize with him, make his Diftemper my own, and bear Part of his Burden. Not a Soul is perverted, prejudiced, or misled in his Chriftian Principles, Ver. 25. So Theodoret, Telési T onáqus Diaλudév]@, πᾶσαν τήν τε νύκτα καὶ τὴν ἡμέρα διεξέλεσα τῇδε κακεῖσε ὑπὸ τῶν κυμάτων φερόμενΘ, i. e. the Ship being thatter'd to Pieces, he lived a whole Night and a Day, toft upon a Part of its Wreck. + Ver. 26. In Perils in the Wilderness. Ἐν ἐρυμία, in the Country. For fo the Word fignifies very often. 'Tis here opposed to & Toλ, the City. We read of no Woods or Wilderneses St. Paul fuffered in. Principles, but my Heart is all on Fire with Zeal to A. D. 57. ftrengthen and recover him. 30. If I muft needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. 31. The God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which is bleffed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. 32.In Damafcus the governor under Aretas the king, kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrifon, defirous to apprehend me: 33. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands. • Ver. 30 & 31. These are fuch Matters, fuch Sufferings, and fuch Affections as thefe, may warrant me to boast, if any Boafting be at all warrantable. And for the Truth of these Facts, I appeal to the ever-bleffed God, the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, whose Apostle I am. 32 & 33. My very Entrance upon my Apoftolical Miniftry, was an Entrance into a fuffering State. For at Damafcus, the first Place of my Preaching, the Roman Governor, at the Inftigation of the obftinate Jews, ordered Watch and Ward to apprehend me *; but the Chriftian Converts let me down the Town-Wall in a Bafket, and fo I escaped. 32 and 33. As ix. 23, 24, 25. To weigh down ftill more the Disparagement the falle Teachers had caft upon him, the Apostle further prefers himself to them, on Account of the fpecial Revelations that God had vouchfafed to make to him. But inftances chiefly in one. He is not puffed up into Pride by these great Favours and Privileges. God had provided him a natural Remedy against fuch an Abuse of them, viz. A Thorn in his Flesh, his bodily Infirmities, wherewith his wicked Adverfaries reproach'd and mortify'd him. Yet he glories in thefe divine Revelations as manifeft Proofs of a true Apostleship. Touches again upon his prudent Refolution not to take Maintenance from A. D. 57 in 1. their Church. Confutes the groundless Infinuation of his Adverfaries, that he made private Gains of them, tho' he apparently refus'd to take any Thing of them. Expreffes again his Tenderness toward them, and wifheth he may find no Neceffity of punishing their Obftinacy at his next Vifit to their Church. I T is not expedi ent for me lefs to glory: I will revelations of the I.'TIS needles for me to en what I have done and fuffer'd for the Gospel, beyond any of your new Teachers. But I fhall give you one Demonftration more of the Excellency and Truth of my Apostleship above theirs, from thofe fpecial Revelations God has been pleas'd to make me. 2. I knew a man in Chrift, above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) fuch an one caught up to the third heaven. of the Habitation and 3. And I knew fuch a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth :) determine it. 4. How that he was caught up into paradife, and heard unfpeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 2. Among feveral of which I fhall choose to inftance at prefent but in one. About fourteen Years ago, being about eleven * Years after my firft Conversion to Chriftianity, I was, methought, caught up into the third Heaven, having a glorious Manifeftation of the Majefty of God made to me, and Society of bleffed Angels and Spirits. 3. Whether, in this Manifeftation, my Soul was ftill joined to my Body, or feparately conveyed into that bleffed Abode, God only knows, for I am not able to 4. I can only fay, I was in Paradife, the Seat of the Bleffed, and had a clear and certain Revelation of fuch Things made to me, as I am no Way able to exprefs. 5. Though So Dr. Whitby placeth it, Anno Dom. 46. and to have been made at Lyftra, Acts xiv. + Ver. 4. 'Oux iĘov, It is not lawful for a Man to utter, or it is not poffible, as the Word often fignifies; 5. Of fuch an one will I glory yet of my felf I will not glory, but in mine infir mities. 5. Though therefore I had 4. D. 57. waved all my own Actions and Qualifications, yet thefe are fuch divine Favours toward me, and Teftimonies for me, that I may justly triumph in them. As to my felf, I boaft in nothing but the Sufferings and Reproaches for which others are apt to despise me. 6. For though I would defire to glory, I fhall not be a fool: for I will fay the truth: but now I forbear, left any man fhould think of me above that which he feeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. 7. And left I should be exalted above meafure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, tthe meffenger of Satan to buffet me, 6. These I could much longer dwell upon, without any juft Imputation of Folly and Vanity, (for they are nothing but Truth) but I fhall fay no more, but shall refer myself to what you and other Chriftians plainly know of me. 7. Nay indeed GOD has provided againft my too high Conceit of myself, upon Account even of these Favours of Divine Revelations to me. For along with them I have those natural Infirmities and Defects* of Body, which my Adverfaries, thofe t Hh Emiffa παρεγγελίας τινΘ- το, ἐκ ἐξόν, δυνάμει ἢ ἁγίᾳ ἀφθεγκτον vas to delov unvues. Not unlawful by any divine Command, but impoffible to be exprefs'd in buman Language, as they were perfectly divine and beavenly Things. Clem. Alexand. Strom. v. pag. 586. με Ver. 7. A Thorn in the Flesh. See NOTE on Chap. x. 10. and Dr. Whitby on this Place. See alfo and compare Numb. xxxiii. 55. Job. xxiii. 13. Judges ii. 3. Ezek. xxviii. 24. + Ib. The Messenger of Satan to buffet me. "Ayfer EαJav iva μs noxapil, So as that the Meffenger of Satan buffets me. (Aas xii. 21, 22, 23.) I have paraphras'd this Paffage according to the learned Dr. Whitby's Interpretation, as the cleareft and moft agreeable to other Paffages in thefe Epiftles. If the Reader does not approve of it, he may choose that Sense which feveral of the antient Fathers, Chryfoftom and Oecumenius, &c. give of it, who, by the Thorn in the Flefb, understand bis Afflictions and Perfecutions, which his Adver faries, the Meffengers of Satan, brought upon him. |