But I do but touch it by the way : because this whole verse is but a pas- sage to another thing. Therefore I come to the seventeenth verse.
VERSE 17.
* When I therefore ivas thr(s minded (to come vnto you), did I use lightness ? or the thinys that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with vw there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay V The apostle still goes on to pre- vent scandal. f ' Woe to the world because of offences,' Mat. xviii. 7, eaith our blessed Saviour, especially offences taken. Because our nature is so corrupt, that it is subject to take offence where none is given, it will pick quarrels enough to go to hell. Proud men that have only natui'e in them, they will not be damned without reason. Tush ! I had been good, say they, but for such and such. Now St Paul was a man much exercised with the cross. He wipes away scandal from that, as we heard in the first part of the chapter. He saith, * As his crosses' for Christ abounded, so his com- forts in Christ abounded. He lost nothing by it.
That is, = ' make them be inobservant of.' — G. f That is, ' offence.' — Q.
2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 17. 339
Again, they took offence that he promised to come to them, and did not ; especially some that were not well-willers to him : therefore he labours to satisfy that.
And ^first, that he might the better satisfy them that he was no inconstant man, no unsettled man, he premiseth a description of his own disposition and course of life, he appeals to his own conscience, * This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience,' &c.
And then he appeals to their conscience. A manifest note of a man con- fident, that dares appeal to his own conscience, and to the conscience of another. Obnoxious men are always afi'aid, not only of their own con- science, lest it should tell them that which they would be loath to hear, but they are afraid of the consciences of others likewise. St Paul appeals to their conscience, ' I write no other things than what you read and acknow- ledge,' &c.
And so he comes more directly to satisfy their suspicion of him for his not coming to them. In this verse he labours to remove their false impu- tation, ' When I was thus minded to come unto you, did I use lightness ?
'\Vherein you have St Paul's purgation of himself. Here is a prevention of an objection of suspicion, that the flesh will move in them that have doubtful suspicious minds. Why ! if you intended to come, why did you not ? Saith he, ' When I was thus minded, did I use lightness ?' First, Observe hence in general, that
Obs. Men are wondrona pro7ie to jealousj/ and suspicion.
It is the state of God's childi-en here in this world to have suspicions raised of them. They are obnoxious to slanders and imputations, and they are forced to their apologies. Men are prone to suspicion, yea, and good men too : as here, they took his not coming in the worst part, by the wrong handle.
That is suspicion, when there are two handles of a thing, two apprehen- sions of a thing, and there is a proneness in the mind to the worst part ; to take things in an ill sense. They might have construed it many ways bet- ter than thus ; but they thought the worst of him : he is light in his pro- mises ; he will say, and unsay again : he is off and on. This is in natural men, yea, in Chiistians : as far as they have old Adam in them, they are prone to suspicion.
Whence is this ?
1. Partly out of thepoisoii and malice of man's natwe in many, esteeming others by themselves ; for the worst natures are alway most suspicious, out of a privity of their own indisposition in themselves. Usually those that deserve worst are most jealous, because there is most cause. Con- science of a man's own imperfections and weakness makes him think others to be as he himself is.
2. And again, there is envy in mans nature toivard excellent persons espe- cially. The malice of man's nature cannot abide eminency in others. The false teachers among the Corinthians they saw that Paul stood in their light, therefore they labour to eclipse and obscure him all they could. Hence it is, that men are willing to entertain willingly any suspicion. For not being willing out of baseness to rise to their greatness and excellency, they labour to bring them down by their suspicion to their baseness and meanness, that all may be ill ahke. Therefore baseness is subject to suspi- cion, and the fruit of suspicion, that is, slander ; to take every thing in suspicion, and to utter it in words ; because they would have men of emi- nency brought down to their meanness ; and if they cannot do it indeed,
340 COMMENTARY ON
they will bring them by reports as low as they can, that they speak, and unsp(>ak, and arc inconstant as other men. There are many causes of this ; and therefore St Paul seeing the baseness of it, he stands the more upon it.