ceived, and of which he had spoken in such exalted terms. It was a ministration of life, of power, and of glory. It revealed the grandest truths. It produced the most astonishing effects. It freed men from the condemnation and power of sin; it transformed them into the image of Christ ; it delivered them from the power of the god of this world, and made them par- takers of eternal life. These are effects which infinitely tran- scend all human power ; and to render this fact conspicuous God had committed this treasure to earthen vessels. By earthen vessels is not meant frail bodies, but weak, suffering, perishing men, because it is not on account of the frailty of the body merely that ministers are so incompetent to produce the effects which flow from their ministrations. The apostle means to present the utter disproportion between the visible means and the effects produced, as proof that the real efficien- cy is not in man, but in God. The excellency of the power^ i. e. the exceedingly great power, the wonderful efiiciency of the gospel. 3Iay 6e, i. e. may be known and acknowledged to be, of God^ i. e. to flow from him as its source, and not from us. Although what the apostle here says is true of all ministers, yet he had, no doubt, special reference to himself and to his own peculiar circumstances. He had magnified in the highest degree his oflSce, but he himself was a poor, weak, persecuted, down-trodden man. This, he says, only renders the power of God the more conspicuous, not only in the suc- cess of my ministry, but in my preservation in the midst of dangers and sufferings which it seems impossible any man could either escape or bear. It is to show, on the one hand, how weak he is, how truly a mere earthen vessel, and, on the other, how great and manifest God's power is, that in the fol- lowing verses he contrasts his trials and his deliverances.
8. 9. (We are) troubled on every side, yet not dis- tressed ; (we are) perplexed, but not in despair ; per- secuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not de- stroyed.
Our version supplies the words we are^ turning the parti- ci])les into verbs, which, in the Greek, are all connected with the verb Ixo/xtj/ [ice have) in the preceding verse. 'We, troubled, perplexed, persecuted and cast down, have, &c.' On every side, iv Trarrt, in every way and on every occasion.