rd

2 Corinthians 12

1 He rejoiceth in his preferment, 5 7 But chiefly in his humbleness, 11 And layeth the cause of his boasting upon the Corinthians. 14 He sheweth what good will he beareth them, 20 And promiseth to come unto them.
1.It is not expedient for me no doubt to rejoice: for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2.*I know a man ain Christ above fourteen years agone, (whether he were in the body, I can not tell, or out of the body, I can not tell: God knoweth) which was taken up into the bthird heaven.
3.And I know such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I can not tell: God knoweth.)
4.How that he was taken up into Paradise, & heard cwords which can not be spoken, which are not ^possible for man to utter.
5.Of such a man will I rejoice: of my self will I not rejoice, expect it be of mine infirmities.
6.For though I would rejoice, I should not be a fool: for I will say the truth, but I refrain, lest any man should think of me above that he seeth in me, or that he heareth of me.
7.And lest I should be exalted out of measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given unto me da prick in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, because I should not be exalted out of measure.
8.For this thing I besought the Lord ethrice, that it might depart from me.
9.And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made fperfect through weakness. Very gladly therefore will I rejoice rather in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
10.Therefore gI take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in anguish for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
11.I was a fool to boast my self: ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I inferior unto the very chief Apostles, though I be nothing.
12.The signs of an Apostle were wrought among you with all patience, with signs, and wonders, and great works.
13.For what is it, wherein ye were inferiors unto other Churches, *except that I have not been ^slothful to your hindrance? forgive me this wrong.
14.Behold, the hthird time I am ready to come unto you, and yet will I not be slothful to your hindrance: for I seek not yours, but iyou: for the children ought not to lay up for the fathers, but the fathers for the children.
15.And I will most gladly bestow, and will be bestowed for your ^selves: though the more I love you, the less I am loved.
16.But be it that I charged you not: kyet forasmuch as I was crafty, I took you with guile.
17.Did I pill you by any of them whom I sent unto you?
18.I have desired lTitus, and with him I have sent a brother: did Titus pill you of any thing? walked we not, in the self same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?
19.Again, think ye that we excuse our selves unto you ? we speak before God in Christ. But we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.
20.For I fear lest when I come: I shall not find you such as I would: and that I shalbe found unto you msuch as ye would not, and lest there be strife, envying, wrath, contentions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, and discord.
21.I fear lest when I come again, my God nabase me among you, and I shall bewail many of them which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and wantonness, which they have committed.

Notes

1-*.
Deut. 19.15, Mat. 18.16, John 8.17, Ebr. 10.28.
1-a.
His first coming was his dwelling among them: his second was his first epistle, and now he is ready to come the third time: which three comings he calls his three witnesses.
2-b.
In my first epistle, Chap. 4.20.
4-c.
In that he humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant.
4-d.
Christ as touching the flesh in man’s judgement was vile and abject: therefore we that are his members, can not be otherwise esteemed: but being crucified, he showed himself very God: so think, that we whom ye contemn as dead men and castaways, have through God such power to execute against you, that ye may feel sensibly that we live in Christ.
5-*.
1 Cor. 11.28.
7-e.
In man’s judgement, who for the most part rejects the best, and approves the worst.
9-f.
Having abundance of the grace of God.
10-g.
Commit not by your negligence that, that which is ordained to salvation, turn to your destruction.
12-*.
Rom. 16.16, 1 Cor. 16.20, 1 Pet. 5.14.
12-h.
Which was according to those countries in those days both of the Jews and of other nations.