into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. 21. I speak as con cerning reproach, as tho' we had been weak: howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold (I speak foolishly) I am bold also. able to compare with 22. Are they Hebrews? so am I: are they Ifraelites? so am I: are they the seed of Abraham? so am I: 23. Are they minifters of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more: in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in pri fons more frequent, standings and Principles, and to A. D. 57. 21. Thus they patiently permit the very * People that despise and undervalue me, to use them * with the utmost Pride and Indignity. But as weak and infignificant a Man as they represent me; what is there in which I am not them? 22. If they be the Descendants of Abraham, Jews by Birth, by Language and Religion, so am I. 23. If they boast of their Chriftian Ministry, you may perhaps think me vain, but 'tis true, if I fay, I have far furpassed them in that Capacity; witness my unspeakable Toils and Labours, my innumerable Stripes, the many Imprisonments, and Hazards of Death I have gone through for the Sake of Christ and his Gospel; Trials that they have had little or no Share of. in deaths oft. 24. Of the Jews five times received I forty tripes save one. 25. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwrack; a night 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, (Aεις xvi. 23.) once stoned, (Atts xiv. 19.) thrice shipwrecked, and for a * Ver. 21. Καλὰ ἀτιμίαν λέγω, I speak as concerning Reproach, i. e. either the Reproaches and Insults those Teachers used toward their Followers; or such as they treated St. Paul with. I have expressed both Senses. + Ver. 24. See Deut. xxv. 3. Joseph. Antiq. Lib. IV. Ch. viii. A. D. 57. night and a day I have been in the deep : get to Land. a Night and a Day was tost upon a Piece * of Wreck before I could 26. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own country men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils a 26. Innumerable have been my Dangers and Hardships in Travels by Sea and Land, in City and † Country, from Jews and Gentiles, and from false Brethren of all Kinds. mong false brethren; 27. In weariness and painfulness, in watch nakedness. 27. I have born the Labours of the Day, and the Watchings of the Night; the Uneasiness of Want, and the voluntary Pains of severe Abstinence; and have fome times not had wherewithal to skreen me from Cold and Nakedness. 28. Besides those things that are with- churches. I have planted. 29. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 28. Nor are these outward and bodily Inconveniencies, the Whole of my Christian Sufferings; still greater and more conftant are the inward Cares, the Jealoufies and Fears I have for all the Churches 29. Not a Christian Member in any one of them is afflicted, whether in Mind or Body, but I sympathize with him, make his Diftemper my own, and bear Part of his Burden. Not a Soul is perverted, prejudiced, or misled in his Christian Principles, * Ver. 25. So Theodoret, Τελέσι τῦ σκάφος διαλυθένης, πᾶσαν τὴν τε νύκλα κὶ τὴν ἡμέρα διετέλεσα τῇδε κακῶσε ὑπὸ τῶν κυμάζων φερόμενο, i. e. the Ship being shatter'd to Pieces, he lived a whole Night and a Day, tost upon a Part of its Wreck. + Ver. 26. In Perils in the Wilderness. Ἐν ἐρυμία, in the Country. For so the Word signifies very often. 'Tis here opposed to ἐ πόλει, the City. We read of no Woods or Wildernesses St. Paul fuffered in. Principles, but my Heart is all on Fire with Zeal to A. D. 57. strengthen and recover him. 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 Damafcus the governor under Aretas the king, kept the city of the Damascenes with a garri son, defirous to apprehend me: 33. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands. 30 & 31. These are such Matters, such Sufferings, and such Affections as these, may warrant me to boast, if any Boasting be at all warrantable. And for the Truth of these Facts, I appeal to the ever-blessed God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose Apostle I am. 32 & 33. My very Entrance upon my Apoftolical Ministry, was an Entrance into a fuffering State. For at Damascus, the first Place of my Preaching, the Roman Governor, at the Instigation of the obstinate Jews, ordered Watch and Ward to apprehend me *; but the Christian Converts let me down the Town-Wall in a Bafket, and fo I escaped. Ver. 32 and 33. Atts ix. 23, 24, 25. ********** CHAP. ΧΙΙ. To weigh down still more the Disparagement the falfe Teachers had caft upon him, the Apostle further prefers himself to them, on Account of the special Revelations that God had vouchsafed to make to him. But instances chiefly in one. He is not puffed up into Pride by these great Favours and Privileges. God had provided him a natural Remedy against such an Abuse of them, viz. A Thorn in his Flesh, his bodily Infirmities, wherewith his wicked Adversaries reproach'd and mortify' d him. Yet he glories in these divine Revelations as manifest Proofs of a true Apostleship. Touches again upon his prudent Resolution not to take Maintenance from A. D. 57. their Church. Confutes the groundless Infinuation of his Adversaries, that he made private Gains of them, the he apparently refus'd to take any Thing of them. Expresses again his Tenderness toward them, and wisheth be may find no Neceffity of punishing their Obstinacy at bis next Visit to their Church. 1. IT is not expedi ent for me doubt less to glory: I will T 1. IS needless for me to enlarge any further on what I have done and fuffer'd for the Gospel, beyond any of your new Teachers. But I shall give you one Demonstration more of the Excellency and Truth of my Apostleship above theirs, from those special Revelations God has been pleas'd to make me. revelations of the 2. I knew a man in Chrift, above fourteen tell: God knoweth) to the third heaven. of the Habitation and 3. And I knew such 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 paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 2. Among several of which I shall choose to inftance at present but in one. About fourteen Years ago, being about eleven * Years after my first 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 blessed Angels and Spirits. 3. Whether, in this Manifeftation, my Soul was still joined to my Body, or separately conveyed into that blessed Abode, God only knows, for I am not able to 4. I can only say, I was in Paradise, the Seat of the Bleffed, and had a clear and certain Revelation of such 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. Ουκ ἐξὸν, It is not lawful for a Man to utter, or it is not possible, as the Word often fignifies ; & γόμῳ κὶ φόβο παρεγ + 5. Of such an one will I glory: yet of my self I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. 5. Though therefore I had A. D. 57. waved all my own Actions and Qualifications, yet these are such divine Favours toward me, and Testimonies for me, that I may justly triumph in them. As to my self, I boast in nothing but the Sufferings and Reproaches for which others are apt to despise me. 6. For though I would defire to glory, I shall not be a fool: for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. 7. And lest I should be exalted above meafure through the a bundance of the reve lations, there was giv- me, παρεγελίας τινῶ τὸ, ἐκ ἐξὸν, δυνάμει ἢ ἁγίᾳ ἄφθεγκλον Ver. 7. A Thorn in the Flesh. See NOTE on Chap. x. 10. + Ib. The Messenger of Satan to buffet me. "ΑγελΘ ΣαΤῶν ἵνα με κολαφίζη, So as that the Messenger of Satan buffets me. (Acts xii. 21, 22, 23.) I have paraphras'd this Passage according to the learned Dr. Whitby's Interpretation, as the clearest and most agreeable to other Passages in these Epiftles. If the Reader does not approve of it, he may choose that Sense which several of the antient Fathers, Chrysostom and Oecumenius, &c. give of it, who, by the Thorn in the Flesh. understand his Afflictions and Perfecutions, which his Adver faries, the Messengers of Satan, brought upon him. |