but whether I am afflicted, it is for your consolation and relief, which is effected by your perseverance, patiently enduring the same sufferings which I also undergo: or whether I am comforted, it is for your consolation and relief.

nay, I abandon'd my self to death, that I might not rely upon my self for deliverance, but on God who raiseth the dead.

for this is to me matter of glorying, the testimony of my conscience, that without artifice, and with religious sincerity, not by worldly wisdom, but by God's favourable assistance I have behaved my self towards all men, but more particularly to you.

In reality, we writ nothing to you, but what you may perceive by the reading, and I trust you ever will perceive.

not to call upon you as I pass into Macedonia, but in my return from thence, to be conducted by you toward Judea.

for what I, and Timothy, and Silvanus preached concerning Jesus Christ, the son of God, is not inconsistent, but invariably the same.

not that I would arbitrarily prescribe what you should believe, but rather encourage you to go on: for 'tis by faith you have stood.

But I purposed in my self, I would not be the occasion of any uneasiness to you when I come again.

why should I make you uneasy, for who then could give me comfort, but those to whom I give uneasiness?

for out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears; not to make you uneasy, but to make you sensible of the overflowing tenderness which I have for you.

but thanks be to God, who maketh me triumph, thro' Christ, and spreads his healing doctrine by me, in eevery place:

for we are not like others, who adulterate the word of God; but we preach the pure gospel of Christ, as I receiv'd it from God, and as in the presence of God.

which shows you to be the epistle of Christ, written by my ministration, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on living tables of the heart.

not that I am sufficient of myself to effect any thing by the strength of my own reason: but my sufficiency is from God.

who also hath enabled me to be a minister of the new covenant, not of the literal sense, but of the spiritual meaning: it is the letter that denounces death, but the spirit gives life.

but when their mind shall turn to the Lord, that veil too shall be taken away.

but as we lay aside the veil, the divine light gradually informs the mind, according as we attend to that spiritual sense, which points out the Lord.

but if our gospel be obscure, it is so only to those who are lost:

for we preach not our selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, professing our selves your servants for his sake.

but this treasure is lodg'd in such earthen vessels as we are, that the exceeding efficacy of it may appear to be from God, and not from us.

I am press'd on every side, yet not crush'd; perplexed, but not in despair;

persecuted, but not forsaken; dejected, but not destroyed;

for which cause I am not discouraged, but tho' my body decays, yet my mind is daily renewed.

for I have no regard to the things which are visible, but to such as are invisible: since visible things are temporary, but the invisible are eternal.

For I know, that if my body, which is but a tent for my sojourning upon earth, were dissolved, I have what is not fram'd by human art, but by the divine architect, a mansion eternal in the heavens.

we that are in this tabernacle do groan under the burden of it: not that we desire to be divested of it, but we desire to have our celestial body, that this mortal state may vanish into immortality.

and this I say, not to commend myself again unto you, but to give you an occasion of glorying on my account, that you may confront those who make a false show of glorying.

that they who are in a state of life should not live at their own discretion, but to the service of him who died for them, and rose again.

but in all things I approve myself as the minister of God, by great constancy in afflictions, in torments, in distresses, from stripes,

as unknown, and yet celebrated; as dying, and yet I am alive; as chastised, but not slain;

Are you not become associates with infidels? but what affinity is there between virtue and vice? and what communication has light with darkness?

but by the consolation I received from you by him, when he acquainted me with your earnest desire to see me, with your concern, and your zeal for me; which greatly increas'd my joy.

now I rejoice, not at your uneasiness, but at your repentance which succeeded: for your sorrow was a religious sorrow, such as convinc'd you I had done you no wrong.

for religious sorrow produces that salutary repentance, which we never regret: but worldly sorrow preys upon life.

wherefore, my writing to you so severely did not proceed from any prejudice to him, that had done the wrong, or from favour to him that suffered wrong, but to show my conscientious regard to your welfare.

so that I am not ashamed of the commendations I have formerly given you to him; but as I have always preached the truth to you, so in my commendation to Titus, I have said nothing but truth of you.

I don't mean to prescribe to you, but that the zeal of others may show you are as sincerely well-affected.

in this I only advise you: it being for your credit, since you have not only begun to execute it, but you were the first that form'd the design a year ago.

for what a man gives with a ready mind, according to his abilities, is well received; but not when he goes beyond his circumstances.

But thanks be to God, who disposed Titus to be so industrious for you.

for he not only complyed with my exhortation, but being more than ordinarily concern'd, he voluntarily went to you;

but was chosen by the churches to accompany me with this collection; which service I undertook for the sake of Christ, and to encourage your generous design.

for the execution of this charitable office, does not only supply the necessities of the converts, but by the thanksgivings of many redounds also to the glory of God.

I who am a person of a mean presence, when among you, but exert myself upon your account, when absent; I Paul intreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, not to let me exert that authority,

our military arms are not so defective, but divinely effectual to demolish all their ramparts;

but that I may not seem as if I would strike a terror in you by letters:

(for 'tis objected that my letters are weighty and powerful, but my bodily presence weak, and my preaching

for I dare not rank or compare my self with some who vaunt themselves: but they making their self-conceit the only standard whereby to judge of themselves, show their want of judgment.

I will not boast of any thing done without my province, but confine myself within that line by which God has mark'd out my bounds, and in which you are included.

I don't assume to myself the credit of other men's labours in another province, but hope, that when your faith is increased, the bounds now prescribed will be enlarged by you yet farther;

but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

for not he that commendeth himself, but he whom the Lord commendeth, is the approved.

Would you could bear with me a little in my vanity, but indeed you do bear with me.

but I fear lest by some means or other, as Eve was beguiled by the subtilly of the serpent, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is due to Christ.

if my language is inelegant, my knowledge is not contemptible; but has been fully display'd among you on all occasions.

but this I do, and shall do, to make them drop their hire, who are so bent upon hire: and then indeed they will be as they pretend to be, like me.

therefore it is not strange if his agents are so disguised as to appear like ministers of the gospel; but their end shall be answerable to their actions.

I say it again, let no man think me vain; but if they do, yet as such, bear with me, that I too may applaud my self a little.

what I say, I say it not as an apostle, but as it were to indulge my vanity in this matter of boasting.

as if I was inferior to them. but whatever they pretend to, (I must be so vain) I pretend to the like.

but thro' a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and so escap'd.

but tho' I don't know whether it was in the body, or out of the body, which God only knows,

I might glory in being the man; but I will not glory in any thing relating to myself, unless it be my sufferings.

tho' if I had a mind to glory, I might do it without vanity, for I should say nothing but what is true: but now I forbear, lest any man should ascribe more to me than my actions, or my preaching can justify.

but he said to me, "my favour is sufficient for thee: for my strength is shown to be perfect by thy weakness." with pleasure therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may be seen to dwell in me.

This is the third time I purposed to come to you; but I will not be burdensome to you; for I seek not yours, but you: since it is not expected children should lay up for their parents, but parents for their children: on the contrary,

'tis own'd I did not put you to any charges myself: but was so crafty, as to over-reach you, by others.

Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; bring yourselves to the proof; are you so little acquainted with yourselves, as not to know whether Jesus Christ be in you? but if you are destitute of proofs,

now I pray God that I may not punish you; not that I may show you my proofs to your cost, but that by your acting honestly, I may be as if I had no proofs:

for I can employ no power against the truth, but for the truth.