II. CORINTHIANS T, 4. 177

There is a climax here, as Calvin says: Gradatim procedit amplificando : plus enim est gloriari, quani secure et quieto esse animo : liberari vero a moerore ex multis afflictionibus concepto, utroque majus. His boasting of them was more than having confidence in them ; and his rejoicing in the midst of his afflictions was more than being comforted. Great is my boldness of speech toicards you. The word is Trapp-qa-'ia^ which here, as in many other places, Eph. 3, 12. Heb. 3, 6. 1 John 2, 28. 3, 21. 4, 17. 5, 14, instead of its primary sense of freedom of speech, expresses the idea of joyful confidence ; i. e. the state of mind from which freedom of utterance, or boldness of speech, flows. Paul means to say that so far from wishing to condemn the Corinthians he had joyful confidence in them. And not only that, he adds, but. Great is my glo- rying of you^ (Kavx^crt?,) i. c. my hoasting over you. The ac- counts which the apostle had just received of the state of things at Corinth, and especially of the efiect produced by his former letter, had not only obliterated his feelings of anxiety and doubt concerning them, but made him boast of them. He gloried on their account. He was disposed to tell every one how well his dear Corinthians had behaved. He thus, as it were, unconsciously lays bare the throbbings of his warm and generous heart. I am filled icith comfort^ literally, ' with the comfort,' i. e. the comfort to which he afterwards refers ; or the comfort which his situation specially demanded. Such was the apostle's anxiety about the efiect of his former letter that, as he says, 2, 12, "he had no rest in his spirit," and therefore left Troas and hastened into Macedonia that he might meet Titus on liis way back from Corinth. This anxie- ty was now all gone. His mind was at rest. He was full of consolation. I am exceedingly joyful^ (vvrepTi-eptcrcrevo/xat ry Xttpa,) I more than abound in joy^ or the joy. Comp. Rom. 5, 20. He was more than merely comforted, he was overflow- ing with joy, and that too in spite of all the troubles which still pressed upon him, for he adds, hi all our tribulation. The favourable accounts which Paul had received from Cor- inth, although they had removed some of the causes of his anxiety and sufiering, left others in their full force. So that even when he wrote he was in great trouble. He therefore uses the present tense. 'I am overflowing with joy in the midst of tribulation.' Another proof that joy and sorrow may coexist in the mind. The martyr at the stake, in the midst of his agony, has often been fiUed with ecstatic joy.