2 Corinthians 3

2 Corinthians 3:1

AGaine,] hee seemes to have a relation to some reproofe of vaine glory given him by his adversaries.

2 Corinthians 3:2

Our Epistle,] the meaning is. The state of your Church, such as it is by our working, witnesseth our fidelitie, and answereth our owne consciences, and the judgement of all men.

2 Corinthians 3:3

For as much as,] all those that have any light of God, may easily perceave that the Lord hath by his spirit imprinted in your hearts the doctrine of the Gospell which wee have preached unto you, whereby hee hath, as one may say, sealed the loyaltie of our ministery, accompanying it with such evident efficacy In tables of,] as Moses Law was written Flishly,]that is to say living and sensitive ones.

2 Corinthians 3:4

Such tust,] namely to glory as confident in the effect of our ministerie Through Christ,] from whom proceeds all the vertue of the worke, and through whom both our persons and our works are acceptable to God, To God-ward,] who is the only Iudge of consciences.

2 Corinthians 3:6

Not of the letter,] which consisteth not only in word, and in writing, without conferring any inward or spirituall vertue: to bring to effect in man that which it represents unto him: but hath the vertue of the Holy Ghost joyned unto it which worketh in the heart, and there ratifieth and lively imprinteth, that which it propoundeth and promiseth, For the,] he gives a reason of this introduction of a new covenant: namely because that the first covenant of the Law, could not saue a sinner, yea served onely to denounce, confirme, and aggravate his condemnation to him, Rom. 3. 20. and 4. 15. and 7. 9. whereas the Gospell, by vertue of the spirit, gives life by faith, and nourisheth it by perpetuall comfort, and communication of grace.

2 Corinthians 3:7

If the ministration,] if God by many glorious proofes: and especially by the shining of Moses his face, Exodus 34:2, 30. would authorize the ministerie of the Law, which of it selfe had no power but to condemne and not to save: it is much more fitting that the ministery of the Gospell, which is all spirituall and effectuall to salvation, should bee made illustrious and admirable by the evident rayes of divine light, as it in in us, and by us Apostles, v. 2. 3 Was to be,] that is to say which glory was not to be perpetuall; whither it were that the beame of divine Majestie was in Moses but for a certaine time. Or that this doing away be meant to have happened by Moses death: to oppose it to Christs face, in which God had eternally manifested his glory, 2 Corinthians 4:6.

2 Corinthians 3:9

Of righteousnesse,] Namely of Evangelicall righteousnesse in Christ, given by grace, and applyed to man by faith to the sinners justification, Ier. 33. 16. Daniel 9:24. Romans 1. 17. and 3. 21. 22.

2 Corinthians 3:10

For even that,] that which I speake appeares therby, that in comparison of the glory of the Gospell, which is full, everlasting, and immutable: that little brightnesse which appeared in Moses his face was as nothing being that all that ministery was to give way to the Gospell, Gal. 33. 2, 25. Hebrews 8:13.

2 Corinthians 3:11

Was glorious,] the Italian Was by glorie,] and aftarwards in the same verse Is glorious,] the Italian, Shall be in glory,] the Apostle seemes to point at that difference of transitorie, and permanent glory, by these two kindes of speech, by glory, and in glory.

2 Corinthians 3:12

Hope,] namely a certaine confidence that our ministery is, and shall be alwayes authorized by glorious proofes of Gods vertue Plainenesse,] the Italiau, Libertie,] that is to say holy freedome fully to discover the mysteries of the Gospell, though they be scandall and folly to carnall sence.

2 Corinthians 3:13

And not,] namely that we do not hide that divine light as Moses did whose ministery kept the people under the shadowes of ceremonies, without letting them contemplate the mysteries which were figured by them, to the bottome: which was reserved from the time of the Gospell, Hebrews 10:1. wherof was a figure that vaile upon his face, to hide the divine splendor which was imprinted in it: That the children,] not that this was in the end of that act of Moses: but of that which the Apostle saith may be allegorically understood thereby: namely of the obscure dispensation of the Law To the end,] namly in the accomplishment of those transitory figures See Romans 10:4. Galatians 3:23.

2 Corinthians 3:14

But their,] this is an answer to an implid objection, from whence commeth it then, that at this present time the Iewish Nation doth not beleeve the revelation of the Law made by the Gospel, and seeth nothing therein. The Apostle answers the vaile is not upon the Gospell, but up on their hearts, by a malicious and voluntary hardning, Ioh. 9. 39. and 12, 40. Rom. 11. 7. 25. as who should say; the light shineth, but they that should behold it are blind The same,] they are as blinde and as ignorant, as if Christ, who hath put away all the shadowes, were not yet come.

2 Corinthians 3:16

When it,] the Italian, when Israel,] when the body of the nation shall be brought to receave the Gospell God shall also cause the accomplishment of ancient figures in Christ to be cleerly seene.

2 Corinthians 3:17

The Lord,] the Author of this vertue of the Holy Ghost, which displaies it selfe in the Gospell, ver. 8. is the Sonne of God Himselfe, who also produceth in us that holy freedome of preaching the Gospell without feare of refusall, or conjunction of falsehood and vanitie: being assured that he will perswade it to his elect, and will therewith convince his adversaries.

2 Corinthians 3:18

We all,] now that God hath given his Church the cleere glasse of his Gospell, in stead of the vaile of Mosaicall figures: all beleevers do freely by faith contemplate the glorious light of his mercy, truth; power, &c. and by meanes of it they are made like unto him, in glory of holinesse and newnesse of life, by the spirit of regeneration, which hath its progresses in this life, untill such time as it come to its perfection in the life everlasting.