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TEXT.

2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but, by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

3 But, if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath

PARAPHRASE.

unworthily in it, nor misbecoming the honour and dignity of 2 such an employment: But, having renounced all unworthy and indirect designs, which will not bear the light, free from craft, and from playing any deceitful tricks, in my preaching the word of God; I recommend myself to every one's conscience, only by making plain the truth, which I deliver as S in the presence of God. But if the Gospel which I preach be 4 obscure and hidden, it is so only to those who are lost: In whom, being unbelievers, the God of this world has blinded their minds, so that the glorious brightness of the light of the Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, cannot en5 lighten them. For I seek not my own glory, or secular advantage, in preaching, but only the propagating of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; professing myself your servant for 6 Jesus' sake. For God, who made light to shine out of dark

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NOTES.

Gospel; which is what he means, in that figurative way of speaking, in the former chapter, especially the last verse of it, and which he more plainly expresses, in the five or six first verses of this; the whole business of the first part of this epistle being, as we have already observed, to justify to the Corinthians his behaviour in his ministry, and to convince them, that, in his preaching the Gospel, he hath been plain, clear, open, and candid, without any hidden design, or the least mixture of any concealed, secular interest.

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2 ν ̓Απειπάμεθα τὰ κρυπτὰ τῆς αἰσχύνης, “ have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty," and ỹ pavepwoei tñs àλnbelas, “ by manifestation of the truth." These expressions explain ȧvxxexaλuμμévy wрocúny," with open face," chap. iii. 18. 4 "The god of this world," i. e. the devil, so called because the men of the world worshipped and obeyed him, as their god.

* Ετύφλωσε τὰ νοήματα, σε blinded their minds,” answers ἐπωρώθη τὰ νοήματα, "their minds were blinded," chap. iii. 14. And the second and third verse of this explain the 13th and 14th verses of the preceding chapter.

Ağa, "glory," here, as in the former chapter, is put for shining and brightness; so that wayyiku tūs dóĝns toũ Xpio, is the brightness, or clearness, of the doctrine wherein Christ is manifested in the Gospel.

TEXT.

shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

11 For we, which live, are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

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ness, hath enlightened also my dark heart, who before saw not the end of the law, that I might communicate the knowledge and light of the glory of God, which shines in the face 7 of Jesus Christ. But yet we, to whom this treasure of knowledge, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is committed, to be propagated in the world, are but frail men; that so the exceeding great power that accompanies it may appear to be 8 from God, and not from us. I am pressed on every side, but do not shrink; I am perplexed, but yet not so as to despond; 9 Persecuted, but yet not left to sink under it; thrown down, but 10 not slain; Carrying about every where, in my body, the mortification, i. e. a representation of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, that also the life of Jesus, risen from the dead, may be made manifest by the energy that accompanies my preaching 11 in this frail body. For, as long as I live, I shall be exposed to the danger of death, for the sake of Jesus, that the life of Jesus, risen from the dead, may be made manifest by my preaching

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NOTE.

6 This is a continuation still of the allegory of Moses, and the shining of his face, &c. so much insisted on in the foregoing chapter.

For the explication whereof, give me leave to add here one word more to what I have said upon it already; Moses, by approaching to God, in the mount, had a communication of "glory," or "light," from him, which irradiated from his face, when he descended from the mount. Moses put a veil over his face, to hide this "light," or " glory;" for both these names St. Paul uses, in this and the foregoing chapter, for the same thing. But the "glory," or "light," of the knowledge of God, more fully and clearly communicated by Jesus Christ, is said here "to shine in his face;" and in that respect it is that Christ, in the foregoing verse, is called by St. Paul" the image of God ;" and the apostles are said, in the last verse of the preceding chapter, to be "transformed into the same image, from glory to glory;" i. e. by their large and clear communications of the knowledge of God, in the Gospel, they are said to be transformed into the same image, and to represent, as mirrors, the glory of the Lord, and to be, as it were, the images of Christ, as Christ is (as we are told here, ver. 4) "the image of God."

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12 So then death worketh in us; but life in you.

13 We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, " I believed, and therefore have I spoken:" we also believe, and therefore speak;

14 Knowing that he, which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also, by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. 16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

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12 and sufferings in this mortal flesh of mine. So that the preaching of the Gospel procures sufferings and danger of death to me; but to you it procures life, i. e. the energy of the Spirit of Christ, whereby he lives in, and gives life to those 13 who believe in him. Nevertheless, though suffering and death accompany the preaching the Gospel; yet, having the same Spirit of faith that David had, when he said, "I believe, therefore have I spoken," I also, believing, therefore 14 speak; Knowing that he, who raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise me up also, by Jesus, and present me, with you, to God. 15 For I do, and suffer, all things, for your sakes, that the exuberant favour of God may abound, by the thanksgiving of a greater number, to the glory of God; i. e. I endeavour, by my sufferings and preaching, to make as many converts as I can, that so the more partaking of the mercy and favour of God of which there is a plentiful and inexhaustible store, the more may give thanks unto him, it being more for the glory of God that a greater number should give thanks and pray to 16 him. For which reason I faint not b, I flag not; but though my bodily strength decay, yet the vigour of my mind is daily 17 renewed. For the more my sufferings are here, in propagating the Gospel, which at worst are but transient and light, the more will they procure me an exceedingly far greater addition

NOTE.

16b" I faint not." What this signifies, we have seen, ver. 1. Here St. Paul gives another proof of his sincerity in his ministry and that is, the sufferings and danger of death which he daily incurs, by his preaching the Gospel. And the reason why those sufferings and dangers deter him not, nor make him at all flag, he tells them, is, the assurance he has, that God, through Christ, will raise him again, and reward him with immortality in glory. This argument he pursues, chap. iv. 17, and v. 9.

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18 While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

V. 1 For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

3 If so be, that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

4 For we, that are in this tabernacle, do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

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18 of that glory in heaven, which is solid and eternal; I having no regard to the visible things of this world, but to the invisible things of the other: for the things that are seen V. 1 are temporal: but those that are not seen eternal. For I know that if this my body, which is but as a tent for my sojourning here upon earth for a short time, were dissolved, I shall have another, of a divine original, which shall not, like buildings made with men's hands, be subject to 2 decay, but shall be eternal in the heavens. For in this tabernacle I groan earnestly, desiring, without putting off this mortal, earthly body, by death, to have that celestial body 3 superinduced: If so be the coming of Christ shall overtake 4 me, in this life, before I put off this body. For we, that are in the body, groan under the pressures and inconveniences that attend us in it; which yet we are not, therefore, willing to put off, but had rather, without dying, have it changed

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17" Weight of glory." What an influence St. Paul's Hebrew had, upon his Greek, is every where visible: 75 in Hebrew signifies "to be heavy," and "to be glorious;" St. Paul, in the Greek, joins them, and says, "the weight of glory."

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3 That the apostle looked on the coming of Christ, as not far off, appears by what he says 1 Thess. iv. 15, and v. 6, which epistle was written some years before this. See also, to the same purpose, 1 Cor. i. 7, and vii. 29, 31, and x. 11. Rom. xiii. 11, 12. Heb. x. 37.

4 The same, that he had told them, in the first epistle, ch. xv. 51, should happen to those, who should be alive at Christ's coming. This, I must own, is no very easy passage, whether we understand by yuuyol, “naked," as I do here, the state of the dead, unclothed with immortal bodies, until the resurrection; which sense is favoured by the same word, 1 Cor. xv. 37, or whether we understand "the clothing upon," which the apostle desires, to be those immortal bodies which souls shall be clothed with at the resurrection; which sense" of clothing upon" seems to be favoured by 1 Cor. xv. 53, 54, and is that which

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5 Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight.)

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

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into a celestial, immortal body, that so this mortal state may be put an end to, by an immediate entrance into an immortal 5 life. Now it is God, who prepares and fits us for this immortal state, who also gives us the Spirit, as a pledge of it. 6 Wherefore, being always undaunted, and knowing, that whilst I dwell, or sojourn in this body, I am absent from my proper 7 home, which is with the Lord, (For I regulate my conduct, not by the enjoyment of the visible things of this world, but by my hope and expectation of the invisible things of the world 8 to come) I, with boldness", preach the Gospel, preferring, in my choice, the quitting this habitation to get home to the 9 Lord. Wherefore I make this my only aim, whether staying here in this body, or departing out of it, so to acquit my

NOTES.

one should be inclined to, were it not accompanied with this difficulty; viz. that, then, it would follow that the wicked should not have immortal bodies at the resurrection. For whatever it be, that St. Paul here means, by "being clothed upon," it is something that is peculiar to the saints, who have the Spirit of God, and shall be with the Lord, in contradistinction to others, as appears from the following verses, and the whole tenor of this place.

5 The Spirit is mentioned in more places than one, as the pledge and earnest of immortality: more particularly, Eph. i. 13, 14, which, compared with Rom. viii. 23, shows that the inheritance, whereof the Spirit is the earnest, is the same, which the apostle speaks of here, viz. the possession of immortal bodies. 6, 8 h Cappotvтes and Sappoũμer, “we are confident," signifies in these two verses the same that oùx innanouμer, " we faint not," does, chap. iv. 1, and 16, i. e. “I go undauntedly, without flagging, preaching the Gospel with sincerity, and direct plainness of speech." This conclusion, which he draws here, from the consideration of the resurrection and immortality, is the same that he makes, upon the same ground, chap. iv. 14, 16.

9 i EiTe vônμstates èíre indnμoûvtes, “ whether staying in the body, or going out of it," i. e. whether I am to stay longer here, or suddenly to depart. This sense the foregoing verse leads us to; and what he says in this verse, that he endeavours (whether ivonμov, or ixônμov)" to be well-pleasing to the Lord," i. e. do what is well-pleasing to him, shows that neither of these words can signify, here, his being with Christ in heaven. For, when he is there, the time of endeavouring to approve himself is over.

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