2 Corinthians 13:5-9 | |
5. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves: know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? | 5. Vosmet iposo tentate, num sitis in fide: vos ipsos probate. Annon cognoscitis vosmet ipsos, quod I esus Christus in vobis est, nisi si cubi reprobi estis? |
6. But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. | 6. At spero vos cognituros, quod nos non simus reprobi. |
7. Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. | 7. Opto autem apud Deum, ne quid male faciatis; non quo nos probati appareamus, sed ut vos quod honestum est faciatis, nos vero veluti reprobi sumus. |
8. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. | 8. Non enim possumus quicquam adversus veritatem, sed pro veritate. |
9. For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. | 9. Gaudemus enim, quum nos infirmi fuerimus, vos autem validi fueritis: hoc vero etiam optamus, vestram integritatem. |
5.
This passage, however, is deserving of particular observation on two accounts. For, in the first place, it shows the relation, 3 which subsists between the faith of the people, and the preaching of the minister -- that the one is the mother, that produces and brings forth, and the other is the daughter, that ought not to forget her origin 4 In the second place, it serves to prove the assurance of faith, as to which the Sorbonnic sophists have made us stagger, nay more, have altogether rooted out from the minds of men. They charge with rashness all that are persuaded that they are the members of Christ, and have Him remaining in them, for they bid us be satisfied with a "moral conjecture," 5 as they call it -- that is, with a mere opinion 6 so that our consciences remain constantly in suspense, and in a state of perplexity. But what does Paul say here? He declares, that all are
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This passage must be carefully observed, because it limits the power, which the Pastors of the Church should have, and fixes its proper bounds -- that they be ministers of the truth. Papists loudly tell us, that it is said,
He that heareth you, heareth me;
he that despiseth you, despiseth me, (Luke 10:16);
and likewise:
Obey them that are set over you, (Hebrews 13:17);
and under this pretext they take to themselves the utmost liberty, so as to usurp unbounded dominion, while they are, at the same time, the avowed and sworn enemies of the truth, and aim at its destruction by every means in their power. For exposing such impudence, this one statement of Paul will suffice -- which declares, that they must themselves be in subjection to the truth. 8
9.
The
1 "En la personne du Ministre;" -- "In the person of the Minister."
2 "Du tout stupides et abbrutis;" -- "Altogether stupid and besotted."
3 "La relation et correspondance mutuelle;" -- "The relation and mutual correspondence."
4 "Que ne doit point oublier le lieu d'ou elle a prins la naissance;" -- "Which ought not to forget the place, from which she has taken her birth."
5 See Calvin on the Corinthians, vol. 1. p. 112.
6 "D'vne opinion et vn cuider;" -- "With an opinion and an imagination." -- The Rhemish Translators, when commenting on this very passage, take occasion to oppose the idea of the attainableness of assurance of faith. "The Heretiques," say they, "argue hereupon, that every one may know himself certainly to be in grace; where the Apostle speaketh expressly and onely of faith, the act whereof a man may know and feele to be in himself, because it is an act of understanding, though he cannot be assured that he hath his sinnes remitted, and that he is in all pointes in a state of grace and salvation; because euery man that is of the Catholike faith is not alwaies of good life and agreeable thereunto, nor the acts of our will so subject to understanding, that we can knowe certainely whether we be good or euill." Dr. Fulke, in his Refutation of the errors of the Rhemish Doctors, (Loud. 1601,)p. 584, after furnishing suitable replies to the arguments thus advanced, concludes by remarking, that "our certeintie dependeth not upon our will or workes, but upon the promise of God through faith, that Christ is in us, and we in him, therefore we shall not misse of the performance of his promises." -- Ed.
7 "Qui estoyent dignes d'honneur sur tous autres;" -- "Who were worthy of honor above all others."
8 "Qu'il faut que ceux qui ont le gouernement en l'Eglise, seruent la verite;" -- "That it is necessary that those, who have the government of the Church, be subject to the truth."
9 "Car c'est tout vn;" -- "For it is all one."
10 "Mesme en ce faisant;" -- "Even in doing this."
11 "Or en parlant ainsi;" -- "Now in speaking thus."
12 The same view, in substance, is taken by Beza, of the meaning of the term
13 "Plus facheux et aspres;" -- "More irksome and: severe."
14 "Voire sans asseurance de guarir pour cela;" -- "Even where there is no confidence as to effecting a cure by that means."