VERSE 18.
' As God is true, onr ivord to you was not yea and nay.' The apostle in the fonner verse having laboured to clear himself from the imputation of lightness and inconstancy, that he did not come to them as he had promised ; and from an imputation likewise of policy for himself, that he did purpose things according to the flesh, which is the cause of inconstancy, ' of yea, yea, and nay, nay,' he comes now to that which he more in- tended than those pai-ticulars. For he was content to be thought to have disappointed them in the matter of his journey ; but that which he aims at was to stablish them in this, that his doctrine was sound, ' As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' Perhaps I promised to come, and did not. It is true. But my preaching was not ' yea and nay.' All that I taught was sound and certain. You may build your souls on it. It was ' yea.' He labours to draw them to be persuaded of the certainty of his ministry, as being very unwilling that a defect in his promise about a business of the world should weaken their faith in the truth that he de- livered as a minister.
* As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.'' He seems to make a difference between yea and nay in civil things and in divine. There is a diflerence when a holy man speaks of the things of this hfe and when he speaks of divine truths. St Paul promised to come to them ; he meant it honestly, and did intend it, but it was subject to alteration, because God stops our pm-poses in this life, yea, onr good purposes, many times. Good things may have variety. One good thing may be more convenient than another. And the cause why he came not to them was not his inconstancy, but their unfitness. It was fi'om their corruption in manners and in doctrine. They were not ready. As he saith after, ' he came not, to spare them.' They were unfit till they were humbled with his former epistle, and then, when they were humbled, he purposed to come. But now in divine truths, what things he spake to them concerning grace and glory, that was certain. ' Our word to yon was not yea and nay.'
Quest. A question may be moved briefly, how St Paul could be deceived in his journey and not in his doctrine. Being so good a man, led by the Spirit of God, how could he promise to come, and yet did not ?
Ans. I answer, the difference is much between these two. St Paul had three persons* on him.
He was a man, a Christian man, an apostle.
As a man, he was subject to all things that men are subject unto, that is,
* In the sense of the Latin persona, a character which one represents, or part which he acts. — Ed.
SrS COMMENTARY ON
he desired in truth of heart to come and visit Ijis friends ; he purposed a journcv, with a reservation that God might hinder liiiu ; and so as a man he might have a ' Yea,' that is, a pui-pose to do a thing ; and afterward a ' Nay,' upon the uncertain event of the things of this hfe. So, as a man he pui'posed to come. Nay, as a hoh/ man he puqiosed a journey to a good purpose, to stahHsh them ; but with a reservation, if God permit ; God might stop his journey. But as an apostle, he taught other things, than speaking of journeys. That he spake of only as a man, and as a holy man, alway supposing the condition of human things, and imder permis- sion, if God permit. But as an apostle he was not yea and nay. There he was certain. As an apostle he spake divine truihs, and was guided infallibly by the Spirit of God ; he delivered truths without all conditions and excep- tions. As an apostle, he did not admit of an}' such uncertainty. There is an eminency and excellency in divine truth. It is stable, and firm, and not subject to variety and inconstancy. So his doctrine as an apostle was always * Yea.'
For his journey, and coming to them, he promised his journey in veritate propositi, in the truth of a good purpose of a friend ; but as he spake of divine truths, he spake of them in the certainty of the divine Spirit. In the one, he spake in the certainty of truth ; in the other, in the truth of aft'ection. As a man, he spake in the truth of a good afiection he bare to them ; but as an apostle, he spake in the certainty of divine truth.
And you must know this, that God, as he used the apostles and excellent men to write his book, to write the word of God, to be his penmen, yet he hindered them not to be men. As he hinders not godly men to be men, but at once they may be saints and men ; so St Paul as a good man, de- sired to see them, with a resei-vation ; but as an apostle, he was guided by a certain infallible assistance of divine truth.