Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the divine appointment, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the christians throughout Achaia: favour,

for as I have greatly suffered for Christ, so I have been greatly comforted thro' Christ.

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.

and the hopes I had of you continue still the same, knowing that as you have had your share of suffering, so you will likewise have of consolation.

For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of that insupportable weight of affliction that over-whelm'd me so in Asia that I despaired even of life:

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.

as some of you have already own'd, that I am matter of joy to you, as you will be to me in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ:

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

was this design therefore the effect of levity? or do I design first one thing, and then another, as it best suits my worldly interest?

God is my witness, I never prevaricated with you.

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

now it is God who keeps you fix'd in the doctrine of Christ; who has appointed me,

I call God to witness, and may I die if it is not true, that the reason of my not coming yet to Corinth, was to avoid using any severity towards you.

the punishment, which was inflicted by the community, is sufficient on this occasion.

to whom you forgive any thing, I also forgive: for if I have forgiven any thing, I forgave it, for your sakes (as Christ is

witness) lest satan should have got some advantage of us: for we are apprized of his artifices.

for God is pleased to accept my christian labours, in favour both of those who are in a saving, and of those who are in a ruinous state:

by the one my preaching is taken as a deadly poison, to the other it is a reviving potion. and who is so sufficient for such a commission?

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.

Do I begin again to commend my self? or need I, as some others, commendatory letters to you, or from you?

It is by Christ that I have this confidence in God.

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.

now if the law engraven on stone, the letter of whose sanction is death, was delivered with such glory, that the children of Israel could not steadily behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, tho' it was transient;

if that which was only temporary was glorious, much more shall that which is permanent be glorious.

Having then such an opinion of my ministry, I use great plainness of speech.

and do not act as Moses did, who threw a veil over his face so as to hinder the children of Israel from perceiving the end of that which was to cease:

nevertheless, when Moses is read, the veil upon their mind continues unto this day: