The life and work of St. Paul

SECOND EPISTLE TO THB CORINTHIANS. 419
wrought among you in all patience, by signs, and portents, and poweri. The single
fact that I did not benumb you with exactions is your sole point of inferiority to
other Churches. Forgive me this injustice ! See, a third time I am ready to coma
to you, and I will not benumb you, for I seek not yours but you. Children
ought to treasure up for their parents, but so far from receiving from you,
I will very gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, even though
the more exceedingly I love you, the less I am loved. But ! stop though I did not
'
burden you, yet being a cunning person I caught you by guile.' Under the pre-
text of a collection I got money out of you by my confederates ! I ask you, is that
a fact ? Did Titus or the brother whom I have sent with him over-reach you in
any respect ? Did not they behave exactly as I have done ? You have long been
fancying that all this is by way of self-defence to you. 1 Do not think it ! You are
no judges of mine. My appeal is being made in the presence of God in Christ ; yet,
beloved, it has all been for your edification. It was not said to defend myself, but
to save us from a miserable meeting, lest we mutually find each other what we
should not wish lest I find ; you buzzing with quarrels, party spirit, outbreaks of
rage, self-seekings, slanders, whisperings, inflations, turbulences and ; lest, on my
return to you, my God humble me in my relation to you, and I shall mourn over
many of those who have sinned before and not repented for the uncleanness, fornication,
and wantonness which they practised. It is the third time that I am intending
2
to visit you it will be like the ;
confirming evidence of two or three witnesses. I
have forewarned, and I now warn these persons once more that, if I come, I will not
spare. Since you want a proof that Christ speaks in me, ye shall have it. He was
crucified in weakness; we share His death and His weakness, but we shall also share
His life and power. Prove yourselves, test yourselves. Is Christ in you, or are you
spurious Christians, unable to abide the test ? You will, I hope, be forced to recognise
that I am not spurious but ; my prayer is that you may do no evil, not that my
genuineness may be manifested ; that you may do what is noble, even if therewith
we be regarded as spurious. Against the truth, against genuine faithfulness, I have
no power, but only for it. Be true to the Gospel, and I shall be powerless; and you
will be mighty, and I shall rejoice at the result. I ever pray for this, for your
perfection. That is why I write while still absent, in order that when present I
may have no need to exercise against you with abrupt severity s the power which the
Lord gave me, and gave me for building up, not for rasing to the ground." 4
He would not end with words in which such uncompromising sternness mingled
with his immense and self-sacrificing forbearance. He adds, therefore, in his own
hand " Finally, brethren, farewell ; be perfect, be comforted, be united, be at
peace'; then shall the God of love and peace be with you. Salute one another with
a holy kiss. All the saints salute you." And then follows the fullest of his Apostolic
benedictions, " thence adopted by the Church in all ages as the final blessing
of her services " " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all."*
i TroAoi (, A, B, F, G, Vulg.).
1 xii. 14. He has been atTCorinth once ; is now going a second time (ira\iv) ; and had once in-
tended to go. This is like a thing attested by two or three witnesses, and will certainly be fulfilled.
I agree with Banr
"
in saying, Let ua give up the fiction of a journty for which we can find no
reasonable grounds " (Paul. ii. 320).
*
iiroTOfjuas only in Titus i. 13, not in LXX. The metaphor is either " by way of amputation"
or " precipitately," as in Wiad. v. 23 ; in-oro/ita (Rom. xi. 22).
* xii. 13 xiii. 10.
* xiii. 11 13. As these are the last extant words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, It is interest-
Ing to see what was the condition of the Church when St. Clement of Rome wrote to them thirtyfive
years later. We find that they were still somewhat turbulent, somewhat disunited, somewhat
sceptical, and St. Clement has to recall to them the examples of St. Peter and St. Paul. On the
whole, however, we can see that the appeals and arguments of the Apostle in these two letters havs
not been in vain. About A.D 135 the Church was visited by Hegesippns (Euseb. H.E.
iy. 22), who
spoke favourably of their obedience and liberality. Their Bishop Dionysius was exercising a wide-
spread influence. In speaking of the Resurrection, St. Clement alludes to the Phoenix (ad Roin. i.
4, 25), which in that age excited much interest (Tac. Ann. vi. 28 ; Plin. H. N, x, 2). Can any one
fail to see a " grace of superintendence " in the absence of such illustrations from the page of the
Apostles ?