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.

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:

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

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

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

Having by the same spirit the same faith as David had when he said, "I believed, and therefore have I spoken:" I also believe, and therefore I speak;

For tho' I was sorry my letter gave you some uneasiness, I do not repent of it, perceiving, that the uneasiness you had from that letter, did not dwell upon your minds.

this I did, to prevent any suspicion that might be rais'd from my having the management of so great a sum:

when I am present, which I think to exercise against some, who censure me, as if I was actuated by worldly views.

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

contemptible) let such a one depend upon this, that the same authority which appear'd in my letters, when I was absent, will appear in fact, when I am present.

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.

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.

I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother: did Titus make a gain of you? didn't we follow the same principles, and take the same measures?