SECOND EPISTLL TO THE COillNTHl ANS. 8) 



Kon of the passage and the epistle produced proofs wliich 

 placed it beyond doubt. "This is the third time I am com- 

 ing to you :" in the verse following these words, he adds '* 1 

 told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the 

 second time ; and being absent now I write to them which 

 Keretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come 

 again, I will not spare." In this verse the apostle is declar- 

 ing beforehand what he would do in his intended visit : his 

 expression, therefore, " as if I were present a second time," 

 relates to that visit. But, if his future visit Avould only 

 make him present among them a second time, it follows that 

 he had been already there but once. Again, in the fifteentii 

 verse of the first chapter, he tells them, " In this confidence 

 I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have 

 a second benefit." Why a second, and not a third benefit ? 

 why Sd'Tepav, and not TptT7]v ,v'"pn', if the rphov Epxofiai, in the 

 fifteenth chapter, meant a third visit ? for, though the visit 

 in the first chapter be that visit in which he was disappoint- 

 ed, yet, as it is evident from the epistle that he had never 

 been at Corinth from the time of the disappointment to the 

 time of writing the epistle, it follows, that if it were only a 

 second visit in which he was disappointed then, it could only 

 be a second visit which he proposed now. But the text 

 >hich I think is decisive of the question, if any question 

 remain upon the subject, is the fourteenth verse of the 

 twelfth chapter, " Behold, the third time I am ready to come 

 to you :' 'Idov rphov iroifiog t^" tMelv. It is very clear that 

 the Tpirov hoi^og l;i;cj kMelv of the twelfth chapter, and the 

 rpirov tovto lixoiJ-o.!- of the thirteenth chapter, are equivalent 

 expressions, were intended to convey the same meaning, and 

 lo relate to the same journey. The comparison of these 

 [hrases gives us St. Paul's own explanation of his own 

 words ; and it is that very explanation which we are con- 

 tendmg for, namely, that rpirav rov-o epxofiai does not mean 

 that he was coinmg a third time, but that this was the third 

 tirnc he was is. readiness to come, rpiroi' holuuc .'vwr. I dc 



Honr- Paul. 19 * 



