Here St Paul comes to the particular explication of what he had gene- rally spoken before. He had generally said before, that he had both com- fort and affliction ; but now he specifies what afflictions they were. ' I would not have you ignorant of the troubles which came to us in Asia,' &c.
2 CORINTHIANS CUAP. 1, VER. 8, 115
'7 would not have you vpinmnt of!' He knew it was bchoveful for them to know : therefore, to insinuate into thoir respect the more, he tells them of it. Indeed, to know both toj^ether is very sweet and comfortable, to know both the afflictions of God's people and their comforts, as here, he tells them what ill he endured in Asia, and how God delivered him : to see how these are linked together in God's people, is very comfortable. There- fore ' I would not have you ignorant.'
Now, that they might not be ignorant, he sets before their eyes the par- ticular grievance that he suffered in Asia. And see how he doth raise him- self by degrees, and represent it to them most lively.
First of all, saith he, ' We were pressed out of measure.' There is one degree, ' we were pressed.' It is a metaphor. ' We were pressed,' as a cart is pressed imder sheaves, as a man is pressed under a burden ; as a ship that is over laden is pressed deep down with too much burden. So it was with us, we were pressed with afflictions. Afflictions are of a depressing nature, they draw down the soul as comfort raiseth it up.
' Out of measure.' There is the second degree ; they were not onh- pressed, but pressed ' out of measure.'
' Above strength.' Above my strength, above ordinary strength. And he riseth higher still. The waters rise higher, ' insomuch that we despaired of life.' We despaired of any escaping out of trouble at the present en- counter, nay, we did not see how we should escape for the time to come.
Nay, it was so great, in the first place, that we passed ' the sentence of death upon ourselves.' It is a speech taken from malefactors that are condemned ; for even as they, having the sentence pronounced upon them, we account them dead men, they esteem themselves so, and so do others esteem them, the sentence being passed upon them ; so I even passed the sentence on myself, seeing no evasion or escape out of the troubles I was in, the sentence of death passed upon me. ' We had the sentence of death in ourselves.' It was not passed by God, nor by the world ; for they had not decreed to kill him, but he passed it upon himself when he saw no way to escape. He was deceived, though, as ofttimes God's children are, for he died not at that time.
And then afterwards he sets down the end why all this was, a sweet end, a double end, ' That we should not trust in ourselves.' W^hat should we trust in then ? ' But in God that raiseth the dead.'
First to speak of his grievance, and then of the reason why God did thus follow him.
* We would not have you ignorant.' He prevents all scandal by this. * I would not have you ignorant.' I am so far from caring, or fearing, or be- ing ashamed, that you should know of my affliction that I suffer, that ' I would not have you ignorant of it.' For know this, that when you know my afflictions you shall know my deliverance also. St Paul was wondi-ous scrapulous at this, lest they should take any offence at his sufferings, in- deed it is the state of God's children ; their worst ci'oss. Sometimes are censures upon them for the cross, the harsh censures of others in their troubles. It was the last, and the greatest of Job's troubles, that, and his wife together. Wlien his house was overthi'own, his children killed, his goods taken away, himself stricken with boils, then for his indiscreet friends to become ' miserable comforters,' those that should have comforted him, to become censurers and judges of him, as if he had been a riian deserted and forsaken of God, as if all had been from God as a punishment for his
116 CGMMENTABY ON
flius, this was his greatest cross, as it was his last, when his wife in his hosom, she that should have conilbrted him most, should solicit him to ill, and his friends by their rash and vile censures to make his cross heavier. So it is with God's children in the world. They cannot endure hardness in the world, they cannot be used otherwise than their cause deserves. But they must also underj:;o hard censures ; that grieves them more than the cross itself. It was the case of this blessed apostle. The Spirit of God in him therefore sets him to mention his affliction with boldness and confidence, yea, with comfort and joy. ' I would not have you ignorant,' I am not of the mind of carnal men, that would* have it concealed, nay, I would not have j'ou ignorant, I pray understand it. He lays it open to their view, that they might be aliected with it, as he was ; for those things that we are afiected with, we are large in the discourse of them. He shews that the misery, though it were past, and were oft', yet he was afl'ected with it. ' We were pressed out of measure above strength.'