I speak according to dishonour, as that we were weak. And in what any dares, (I speak in rashness,) I dare also.
(For truly the epistles, he says, weighty and strong; but the presence of the body weak, and the word counted as nothing.)
What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as in madness, in this first principle of boasting.
For this I write these things being absent, that being present I should not wound severely, according to the power which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for pulling down.
Through glory and ignominy, through slander and applause: as erring, and true;
I would ye hold me up a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.