ight not be exalted overmuch.
(8)Concerning this I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart
from me. (9)And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for my
power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather
boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may abide upon me.

(10)Wherefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for
when I am weak, then I am powerful.

(11)I have become foolish; ye compelled me. For I ought to have been
commended by you; for in nothing was I behind these overmuch apostles,
though I am nothing. (12)Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought
among you in all patience, by signs, and wonders, and miracles.
(13)For what is there, wherein ye were inferior to the rest of the
churches, except that I myself was not a charge to you? Forgive me
this wrong.

(14)Behold, I am ready to come to you the third time; and I will not
be a charge to you; for I seek not yours, but you; for the children
ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
(15)And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though
the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. (16)But be it so,
I was not myself a charge to you[12:16]; but yet, being crafty, I
caught you with guile. (17)Did I make gain of you, by any of those
whom I have sent to you? (18)I exhorted Titus [to go], and sent with
him the brother. Did Titus make gain of you? Did we not walk in the
same spirit; did we not in the same steps?

(19)Do ye again suppose that we are excusing ourselves to you[12:19]?
Before God in Christ we speak; and all, beloved, for your edification.
(20)For I fear, lest haply, when I come, I shall find you not such as
I would, and I too shall be found by you such as ye would not; lest
there be wranglings, envyings, wraths, rivalries, backbitings,
whisperings, swellings, tumults; (21)lest, when I come again, my God
shall humble me among you, and I shall bewail many of those who have
sinned before, and repented not of the uncleanness, and fornication,
and wantonness, which they committed.

XIII.

THIS third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two witnesses, and
of three, shall every word be established. (2)I have before said, and
now say beforehand, as when present the second time, so also now when
absent, to those who heretofore have sinned, and to all the rest, that
if I come again