the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God," in the sight of God speak we in Christ.9

CHAP. III.

1 Lest their false teachers should charge him with vain glory, he showeth the faith and graces of the Corinthians to be a sufficient commendation of his ministry : 6 whereupon, entering a comparison between the ministers of the law and of the Gospel, 12 he proveth that his ministry is so far the more excellent, as the Gospel of life and liberty is more glorious than the law of condemnation.

DO we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men :

3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written

8 by the power of God. Ma. 9 of Christ. A. V.

2 PET. ii. 3: And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. See on 2 COR. iv. 2.

V2 COR. i. 12.

HEB. xi. 27: Seeing him who is invisible.

CHAP. III.

22 COR. v. 12: We commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf. do. x. 8, 12: Though I should boast somewhat more of our authority—I should not be ashamed. We dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. do. xii. 11: I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you : for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

ACTS, xviii. 27: When he [Apollos] was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him.

c1 COR. iv. 15: In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. do. ix. 1, 2: Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

d1 COR. iii. 5: Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

e

not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

h

5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think2 any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

k

6 Who also hath made us able ministers of

1 confidence. Ham. 2 re: kon upon. Dod.

e EXOD. xxiv. 12: The LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written : that thou mayest teach them. do. xxxiv. 1, 28: The LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant. the ten commandments. DEUT. x. 1, &c: At that time the LORD said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount.

f Ps. xl. 8: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. JER. xxxi. 33: This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. EZEK. xi. 19: I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh. do. xxxvi. 26 : A new beart also will I give yon, and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. HEB. viii. 10: This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts : and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. 82 COR. ii. 14.

JOHN, XV. 5: I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing. 2 COR. ii. 16. I See on 1 COR. XV. 10.

* 1 COR. iii. 5: The words under ver. 3. do. xv. 10: By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more

:

the new testament ;3 m not of the letter, but of the spirit: for "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.4

* quickeneth. A. V.

3 covenant. Ham. Wh. abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 2 COR. v. 18: All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. EPH. iii. 7: Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. CoL. i. 25, 29: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God. Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. I TIM. i. 11, 12: According to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. 2 TIM. i. 11: Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

'HEB. viii. 6, 8: But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. See on MAT. xxvi. 28. m See on ROM. ii. 27-29.

:

n DEUT. xxvii. 26: Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. Roм. iii. 20: By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. do. iv. 12, 15: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. The law worketh wrath for where no law is, there is no transgression. do. vii. 9-11: I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. GAL. iii. 10: For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

JOHN, vi. 63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Rom. i. 16: I am not ashamed of

7 But if the P ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

t

of

9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration righteousness exceed in glory.

10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

11 For "if that which was done 6 away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

6

5 in comparison of, Wh. was to be abolished. Dod.

the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. do. viii. 2: The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

P ROM. vii. 10: The words under ver. 6.

9 See on ver. 3.

Exod. xxxiv. 29, 30, 35: When Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand -that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

GAL. iii. 5: He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

t See on Roм. i. 17.

" ROM. v. 20, 21: Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:

13 And not as Moses, which put a "vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:8

14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

16 Nevertheless when it 10 shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

7 boldness. A. V. is put away. Ma. Cr.

should not see for what purpose that served which 9 senses. Rh. 10 Israel. Wi.

2 COR. vii. 4: Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. See on ACTs, iv. 29.

" Exod. xxxiv. 33, 35: Till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face. And Moses put the vail upon his face again.

* Roм. x. 4: Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. GAL. iii. 23: Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. HEB. X. 1: The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things.

y ROM. xi. 7, 25: What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 2 COR. iv. 4. See on MAT. xiii. 11. 14.

z Exod. xxxiv. 34: But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the, vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. Hos. iii. 5: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his good

s in the latter days. Rom. xi. 23, 26: And they also, if