2 Corinthians 7:8

with a letter Rather, by the letter, i.e. the First Epistle.

though I did repent "There was a moment in the Apostle's life when he half regretted what he had done. To some persons this would be perplexing. They cannot understand how an inspired Apostle could regret what he had done: if it were done by inspiration, what room could there be for misgivings? And if he regretted an act done under God's guidance, just as any common man might regret a foolish act, how could the Apostle be inspired? But this, which might perplex some, exhibits the very beauty and naturalness of the whole narrative. God's inspiration does not take a man and make a passive machine of him. When God inspires, His spirit mixes with the spirit of man in the form of thought, not without struggles and misgivings of the human element Otherwise it would not be inspiration ofthe man, but simply a Divine echo throughthe man." Robertson. Similar conflicts of the human with the Divine in the inspired writers maybe seen in Exodus 4:10-14; Exodus 6:12; Jeremiah 1:6-9; Jeremiah 14:13; Jeremiah 20:7-9; Jeremiah 20:14-18, and in the whole book of Jonah.

for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry There are a good many various readings here, and the editors have adopted various punctuations, possibly from the difficulty mentioned in the last note. But in truth there need be no such difficulty. The right course was that taken in the First Epistle, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But after the Epistle was sent, the tender human heart of St Paul doubted whether he had done right, whether he had not given unnecessary pain, and the like, and his mind was not fully set at rest on the point until the arrival of Titus shewed him clearly the hand of God in the matter. Such self-questionings are constantly going on in the mind of every conscientious man, even when he has been acting most thoroughly under the guidance of God's Spirit. The word here translated made sorry, which is owing to Wiclif, is the same word which in ch. 2 is rendered -caused grief" and -grieved."