2. What matter there is for encouragement—
[Was Paul's sufficiency derived from God alone ? Then I also may obtain all that I need. Since the same source and fountain is open for me also, why need I be discouraged at the thought of my own impotency ? If God, in instances without number, " has revealed unto babes what he has hidden from the wise and prudent %" and " by things which are not, has brought to nought things that are";" what need have I to be discouraged? Whatever be my duties, whether personal or official, God can strengthen me for them ; yea, and " he will perfect his own strength in my weakness ^" " I will be strong then in the Lord, and in the power of his might''," and address myself to every duty in dependence on him. Then shall I not fail in any thing that I undertake : for "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me''."]
y Phil. ii. 13. « John xv. 5. a Matt. xi. 25.
b 1 Cor. i. 28. c 2 Cor. xii. 9. d Eph. vi. 10,
^ Phil. iv. 13.
2 Cor. iii. 6. Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament ; not of the letter, but of the spirit : for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
IN the Holy Scriptures there is often incidentally introduced some information of the deepest and most important nature, where the subject did not imme- diately appear to call for it. In a parenthesis, as it were, a world of instruction is often conveyed. The fact is, that the inspired writers, and especially St. Paul, had so full an insight into the mysteries of our holy religion, that they spake of them as persons familiar with the truths they uttered, and scarcely conscious, as it were, of the depths into which they so abruptly led the minds of their readers. St. Paul, vindicating himself against a supposed charge of egotism and of boasting, here acknowledges, that " all his sufficiency, for every part of his ministerial duty%" was of God. But, together with this, he gives, in few words, his entire view of the Gospel which he preached, and of the effects which he expected to follow from his labours. To set before you the pre- cise import of his words, I will shew, I. What is that Gospel which we minister —
St. Paul calls himself " a minister of the new testa- ment," or, as the word also means, " the new cove- nant :" and, for the purpose of explaining himself more clearly, he contrasts that new covenant with the old covenant, which was superseded by it.
His view of the Gospel may be thus explained — [The old covenant, as published by Moses, was written in ten commandments, upon tables of stone. The substance of those ten commandments is by our Lord comprised in two : the one of which is, " Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, and mind, and soul, and strength ;" and the other, " Thou shalt
a This is the precise idea, not of the context only, but of the text itself. See the Greek.