come, who both will bring to light the hidden "things of darkness, and will make manifeft the "counfels of the heart; and then fhall every man have praise of God;"-and these things, brethren, I "have in a figure transferred to myself, and to Apollos

for your fakes, that ye might learn in us, not to "think of men, above that which is written, that "no one of you be puffed up for one against ano"ther."-The reafoning the apoftle adduces, to prove the folly of fuch arrogant claims on the part of the teacher, and fuch exceffive reverence on the part of the disciple, is exactly the reverse of that which enthusiasm uniformly employs. The enthusiast afferts his divine miffion, and conceives himself in confequence exalted above every other human being, and entitled to the profoundest reverence; the apoftle maintains that, because the teachers of the gospel were selected by the free choice of God, and enabled to obtain fuccefs folely by the divine Power; therefore they had no right to value themselves on this felection, or this fuccefs, fince both were to be ascribed, not to their own merit, or their own exertion, but folely to the will and the power of God.

"Who maketh thee (fays he) to differ from ano "ther? and what haft thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory cc as if thou hadft not received it ?"-What can be at once more pious, more humble, and more rational than this? what more directly contrary to the fpiritual pride of an overweening enthusiast ?

Through

Through the entire of the first epistle to the Corinthians, we find the fame fpirit of meekness and mildness prevail; willing to avoid all felf-commendation, and not to cenfure or rebuke his adverfaries, while forbearance was poffible, he claims the regard and obedience of the Corinthians, on the humble, but affecting ground of his having been their father in Christ. " "I write not these things to fhame you, " but, as my beloved fons, I warn you; for though

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ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet "have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jefus "have I begotten you, through the gofpel; where

"fore I beseech ye, be ye followers of me."

The second epiftle to the Corinthians was written under circumftances fomewhat different from the first this had produced a confiderable effect on that church, a great majority of the Christians there, had been awakened to a due fenfe of their errors and offences; they had in confequence publicly excommunicated the incestuous perfon-they had forsaken their falfe teachers, and fubmitted to the authority of the apostle with the fincereft marks of penitence; but still these falfe teachers preferved fome influence, and feveral partizans; to maintain their party, they laboured to exalt their own characters, and to degrade and mifreprefent, with the most infidious malignity, the character and conduct of St. Paul: here then the apoftle was under the neceffity of

u 1 Cor. iv. 14.

Speaking

fpeaking plainly and fully, to curb the arrogance of his opponents to vindicate himself to convince their deluded followers of the crime and danger of following fuch false guides; but in doing this, much difficulty occurred; * if he answered nothing to what was charged against him, his filence might be interpreted guilt and confufion; if he defended himself, he was accused of vanity, felf-commendation and folly; but he extricates himself out of all thefe difficulties with fingular addrefs.

The falfe teachers feem to have been Jews, and to, have prided themselves on their proficiency in the Jewish law, the permanent obligation of which they probably maintained; they had also brought 'letters of recommendation to the Corinthians, which contributed not a little to maintain their authority. St. Paul, without denying the divine original, or difpa raging the excellence of the Jewish law, fhews that it was now fuperfeded by the Christian, the fuperiority of which he proves, from its greater clearness, its more extensive object, and its universal obligation; and he alledges, that having difpenfed to the Corinthians this facred gift of divine mercy with fincerity, and taught the word of God in truth, he required no letters of recommendation to them, for "that their "conversion to Christianity was his commendation, "known and read of all men." That he was to them, an ambassador of Chrift, and therefore used great.

u Vid. Locke's Note on 2 Cor. v. 12.

2 Cor. iii.

plainnefs

plainnefs of fpeech, ftudying only to be accepted at the judgment feat of God; that "to God he was "manifeft, and he trufted his integrity was also "manifeft to the confciences of the Corinthians ;" that if he commended himself, it was not from vanity, but to give them materials to answer on his be half those who gloried in appearance and not in "heart."-Whenever he introduces any appeal to his inftruction, his fufferings, and his merits as an apostle, it is with many apologies, for what he terms this "foolishness of boafting," thus forced on him. Every where he attributes his power and his fuccefs to their true origin, the Divine aid, and speaks of himself with the profoundest self-abasement. And as the apostle speaks of himself with the caution and humility of a compofed, but pious mind, fo he speaks of his opponents with the firmness of conscious innocence, and the steady tone of just authority, without rushing into the violence of invective, or finking into the meanness of hypocritical conceffion. Sometimes he employs a strong, but refined irony. Sometimes he states his own conduct and fufferings, for the purpose of their being contrafted with the conduct of the false teachers; but after stating his own claims to the regard of the Corinthians, forbears drawing the oppofite fide of the picture, and leaves his readers, who were all acquainted with the facts, to form the comparison themselves.

z 2 Cor. v. 12. and chap. xi.

a Vid. 2 Cor. x. from verse & to the end,

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In one paffage, and only one, does the apostle exprefsly load his opponents with the severe charges of being "falfe apoftles"-" deceitful workers❞—— "minifters of fatan, who transformed themselves "into angels of light, appearing as minifters of " righteousness ;"-but the occafion explains and justifies the severity of these reproaches. The apostle, cautious of giving the leaft room for fufpicion or fcandal, amongst a people fo corrupt as the Corinthians, had uniformly declined accepting from them any pecuniary assistance in his wants; this disinterested and prudent conduct, the malignity of his enemies mifrepresents, as a proof either that he had no affection for the Corinthians, or that he was conscious of having no apoftolic power, fince he made no claim to this apoftolic privilege-a privilege which many paffages indicate they had availed themselves of with the most interested avidity. Such malignant and mercenary views furely required and juftified the feverity of the apostle.-It is however exceedingly remarkable, that St. Paul afferts in the strongest manner, the general right of the teachers of the gospel to claim fupport from thofe in whofe inftruction they employed their lives, though he judged it expedient totally to wave the exertion of this right in his own person as to the Corinthians, and never to accept fuch fupport, when he could by the labour of his own hands, fuftain himself; if fuch difinterestedness, united with fuch prudence, does not vindicate

b

2

Cor. xi. from 7 to 15.

St.