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¹ Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the divine appointment, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the christians throughout Achaia: favour, ² and peace be to you from God our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ Blessed be the God, and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, and the God of all consolation: ⁴ who comforteth me in all my tribulations, that I may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith I myself am comforted of God. ⁵ for as I have greatly suffered for Christ, so I have been greatly comforted thro' Christ. ⁶ but whether I am afflicted, it is for your consolation and relief, which is effected by your perseverance, patiently enduring the same sufferings which I also undergo: or whether I am comforted, it is for your consolation and relief.

⁷ and the hopes I had of you continue still the same, knowing that as you have had your share of suffering, so you will likewise have of consolation. ⁸ For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of that insupportable weight of affliction that over-whelm'd me so in Asia that I despaired even of life: ⁹ nay, I abandon'd my self to death, that I might not rely upon my self for deliverance, but on God who raiseth the dead. ¹⁰ and he did deliver me from so terrible a death, and on him I have relied for further deliverance: especially, ¹¹ being assisted by your prayers for me, so that thanks may be returned by many, for the gracious deliverance procur'd me by their prayers.

¹² for this is to me matter of glorying, the testimony of my conscience, that without artifice, and with religious sincerity, not by worldly wisdom, but by God's favourable assistance I have behaved my self towards all men, but more particularly to you. ¹³ In reality, we writ nothing to you, but what you may perceive by the reading, and I trust you ever will perceive. ¹⁴ as some of you have already own'd, that I am matter of joy to you, as you will be to me in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ:

¹⁵ in this confidence I purposed to visit you before now, (that you might have again the like satisfaction) ¹⁶ not to call upon you as I pass into Macedonia, but in my return from thence, to be conducted by you toward Judea. ¹⁷ was this design therefore the effect of levity? or do I design first one thing, and then another, as it best suits my worldly interest? ¹⁸ God is my witness, I never prevaricated with you. ¹⁹ for what I, and Timothy, and Silvanus preached concerning Jesus Christ, the son of God, is not inconsistent, but invariably the same. ²⁰ for all the promises of God do center in him, and are verifyed by him to the glory of God by our preaching. ²¹ now it is God who keeps you fix'd in the doctrine of Christ; who has appointed me, ²² and mark'd me with his seal, and given me the earnest of the spirit in my heart. ²³ I call God to witness, and may I die if it is not true, that the reason of my not coming yet to Corinth, was to avoid using any severity towards you. ²⁴ not that I would arbitrarily prescribe what you should believe, but rather encourage you to go on: for 'tis by faith you have stood.