_Do we begin again_ While we thus speak and avow our integrity; _to commend_ Or recommend; _ourselves_ As some insinuate we do? Is it needful to do so? have we nothing but our own word to recommend us? St. Paul chiefly here intends himself, though not excluding Timothy, Titus, and Silvanus: _or need... [ Continue Reading ]
_Forasmuch as ye_ Some of whom were once so immoral, but who are now so pious and virtuous; _are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ_ Which he has formed and published to the world; _ministered by us_ Whom he has used herein as his instruments; therefore ye are our letter also; _written,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not that we are sufficient of ourselves_ For this great work of converting sinners, and creating them anew; or so much as _to think any thing as of ourselves_ To form even right views of the gospel and divine things, much less to communicate such views to others, and less still to render them effec... [ Continue Reading ]
_But_ The apostle having signified that he and the other true servants of Christ were intrusted with the ministry of the new covenant, in opposition to the old, proceeds now to show the great superiority of their dispensation to that which had preceded it. This he does in three important particulars... [ Continue Reading ]
_If_, &c. The apostle now proceeds to the second particular; _the ministration of condemnation be glorious_ Attended with such great glory. The law, whether moral or ceremonial, however glorious, was, to sinful and guilty, weak and depraved man, in his fallen state, no more than a _ministration of c... [ Continue Reading ]
_Even that which was made glorious_ The law, especially at its first dispensation; _had no glory in this respect_, &c. That is, none in comparison of the gospel, which has such a transcendent glory in it. The greater light swallows up the less. _For if that which is done away_ The law, and the whole... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seeing then_ Upon these grounds spoken of from 2 Corinthians 3:5; _that we have such hope_ Such confidence of the excellence of our ministry, or such an assurance that the gospel excels the law in its nature and tendency, in its glory and duration; _we use great plainness of speech_ In discoursing... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now the Lord_ Christ _is that Spirit_ Of the law of which I spake before, to whom the letter of it was intended to lead; and it is the office of the Spirit of God, as the great agent in his kingdom, to direct the minds of men to it. _And where the Spirit of the Lord is_ Enlightening and renewing me... [ Continue Reading ]