Seeing then that we have such hope
Having this confidence, and being fully persuaded that God has
made us able and sufficient ministers of the Gospel, has called
and qualified us for such service; and since we have such a
ministry committed to us, which so much exceeds in glory the
ministry of Moses, a ministry not of death and condemnation, but
of the Spirit and of righteousness; not which is abolished and
done away, but which does and will remain, in spite of all the
opposition of hell and earth:
we use great plainness of speech;
plain and intelligible words, not ambiguous ones: or "boldness";
we are not afraid of men nor devils; we are not terrified by
menaces, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself: or "freedom of
speech"; we speak out all our mind, which is the mind of Christ;
we declare the whole counsel of God, hide and conceal nothing
that may be profitable to the churches; we are not to be awed by
the terror, or drawn by the flatteries of men to cover the truth;
we speak it out plainly, clearly, with all evidence and
perspicuity. The apostle from hence passes on to observe another
difference between the law and the Gospel, namely, the obscurity
of the one, and the clearness of the other.
