gospel of Christ to resound, not only through Macedonia and Achaia; but also in every place to which your fellow-citizens resort for the sake of commerce, the news of your faith in the true God, is spread abroad by them; so that we have no need to speak any thing, either in our own praise, or in yours.

9 For your fellow-citizens themselves, who spread abroad the news of your conversion, publish every where concerning us, in what manner we established ourselves among you, as messengers from God; and how, convinced by the miracles wrought, ye turned to God from dead idols, to serve the living and true God alone.

we

10 And to expect not the appearing on earth of any of the gods formerly worshipped by you, but of God's Son from heaven to judge the world, whom he raised from the dead; even Jesus, our master, who, as judge, will deliver us who believe from the wrath which is to come upon them who obey not the gospel.

different occasions, promised that he would return from heaven, Matt. xvi. 27. John xiv. 3. The angels, likewise, who attended at his ascension, foretold that he will return, Acts i. 11. And as the great design of his return is to punish his enemies, and reward his faithful servants, his second coming was always a principal topic, on which the apostles insisted in their discourses; consequently it was a principal article of the faith and hope of the first Christians, a frequent subject of their conversation, and a powerful source of consolation to them in all their afflictions and troubles. May it ever be the object of our faith and hope, and the source of our consolation, especially at death!

2. Jesus who delivers. Grotius thinks puquavor, the present participle, stands here for the future, puroμsvor, who will deliver. But it is usual in scripture, to speak of things future in the present tense, to shew the certainty of their happening.

3. From the wrath that is to come. Wrath, the cause, is here put for punishment, the effect. The punishment which Christ, at the day of judgment, will inflict, and the persons on whom he will inflict it, are described, 2 Thess. i. 8. Inflicting punishment with flaming fire on them who know not

CHAPTER II.

View and Illustration of the Matters contained in this Chapter.

In this chapter, the apostle proposes his second argument in proof of the truth of the gospel. It is taken from the character, the behaviour, and the views of the persons who first preached it. Now the importance of this argumet will appear, if we consider, what the things were which the preachers of the gospel published, and required mankind to believe. They told every where, that Jesus their master is the Son of God; that he wrought many miracles in Judea; that he was crucified by the Jews, his countrymen, as a deceiver; but that God declared him to be his Son, by raising him from the dead, agreeably to what Jesus, before his death, had foretold; that after his resurrection, having spent some time on earth among his disciples, he ascended into heaven, while they looked on; and that two angels, who were present on the occasion, assured them, that in like manner as they had seen Jesus go into heaven, so he would

return.

But to induce mankind to believe matters so extraordinary, it was necessary that the persons who called themselves ey、 witnesses of them, and who reported them to the world, should be men of sound judgment and known integrity, and free from all interested views; that they should be fully persuaded themselves of the truth of the things which they told; that they should use no guile nor flattery, to procure themselves credit; and that, by their whole deportment, they should shew themselves to be pious and virtuous persons, whose only aim in this undertaking, was to promote the glory of God, and the good of mankind. Wherefore, although the apostle and his assistants had said in a general way, chap. i. 5. Ye know what sort of men we were among you, for your sake, they judged it necessary to employ the greatest part of this chapter, in setting forth distinctly, the facts and circumstances by which their sincerity, their integrity, and their disinterestedness in preaching the gospel, were evinced; together with those particulars by which their moral character was raised above all suspicion. Being in every

God, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. They shall suffer punishment, EVEN everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.-Lord Jesus deliver us from this

terrible wrath.

respect, therefore, such men as missionaries from God ought to be, the evidences of the gospel, so far as they depend on human testimony, derive great lustre from the character and behaviour of its first preachers.

His illustration of these topics, the apostle begins with shewing, that he and his assistants were fully persuaded of the truth of all the matters which they preached. For he told the Thessalonians, that their entrance among them was not false. They did not come with a feigned story in their mouth, which they themselves did not believe, ver. 1.-Their persuasion of the things which they preached, they shewed at their entrance among the Thessalonians, by the persecution which they had suffered, and were suffering for the gospel. Say they, Although we had before suffered, and were shamefully handled at Philippi, (they had been scourged, and laid in the stocks) as ye know, we were bold through our God, to speak to you the gospel of God, amidst a great combat: that is, amidst a new and heavy persecution, raised against us in your city by the unbelieving Jews, ver. 2. Their preaching the gospel under persecution, is fitly mentioned by the apostle, as a proof of their firm persuasion of the things which they preached; because impostors, having nothing in view by their fictions, but to acquire fame, or power, or riches, or pleasures, seldom endure a long continued course of heavy sufferings, in propagating these fictions; far less do they expose themselves to death, for maintaining them.-Next the apostle affirms, that their exhortation or gospel, did not proceed from error; that is, from an erroneous opinion, rashly taken up, without any foundation: nor from those impure worldly motives which influence impostors : neither did they use any guile in contriving or in gaining credit to the gospel which they preached, ver. 3.

But the freedom of the apostles, and other ministers of the word, from error, impurity, and guile, being circumstances which rendered their testimony credible in the highest degree, it was proper to speak of these things at more length. And therefore, beginning with their freedom from guile, the apostle observes, that as persons commissioned of God to preach the gospel, they delivered its doctrines and precepts exactly as they re

ceived them from God; at no time preaching so as to please men, but God who knew their hearts. And this they did, notwithstanding they were sensible, that the doctrines of the gospel, as they delivered them, would be reckoned by the Greeks foolishness; and that its precepts would be condemned as unreasonable severities, because they were contrary to the maxims and practices of the world, ver. 4. Who does not see, that if the Christian preachers had been impostors, they never would have framed a gospel, or scheme of religion of this kind?-And as the Christian preachers used no guile in framing their exhortation, or gospel, so they used none of the base arts practised by impostors for prócuring credit to it. They never accosted any person, with fawning flattering speeches to win his affections, (Ephes. ii. 1.-3. ;) neither did they make hypocritical pretensions to extraordinary piety, as a cloak to cover covetous designs. From these well known arts of impostors, Paul and his assistants were entirely free; as the Thessalonians, who were thoroughly acquainted with their manner of preaching, well knew, ver. 5.-Next, with respect to impurity, the apostle and his assistants were not influenced by any of those corrupt motives which actuate impostors. Instead of seeking to make ourselves powerful, or rich, by the gospel, we never demanded the honour of obedience, nor of maintenance, either from you or from others; although we could have been burdensome to you, in both these respects, as the apostles of Christ, ver. 6.The truth is, as apostles, they had authority from their master to enjoin their disciples what was fit, (Philemon, ver. 8. ;) and on that pretext, if their ruling passion had been the love of power, they might have exercised an absolute dominion over their disciples, as false teachers never fail to do. They had also a right to be maintained by those to whom they preached; and on that score, if they had loved money, they might have enriched themselves at their expense, after the example of all false teachers, 2 Pet. ii. 3.--But so far were the ministers of the gospel from behaving among their disciples at Thessalonica in an imperious insolent manner, that they were gentle among them, as a nurse towards her own sucking children, ver. 7. (see Acts xx. 29.)— And took a most affectionate care of them; and were well pleased to impart to them, not only the gospel of God, but also their own lives: which in fact they hazarded, by preaching it to them: and all this, from no motive, but because the Thessalonians were become dear to them, on account of their love of truth, ver. 8.-And with respect to maintenance, they put the Thessalonians in mind, that

instead of demanding any thing from them on that account, they wrought night and day that none of the Thessalonians might be burdened, while they preached to them the gospel of God, ver. 9. These facts, well known to the Thessalonians, were there no other, are undeniable proofs of the sincerity, honesty, and disinterestedness, of the first preachers of the gospel; and add no small degree of credibility to the things which they have testified concerning their master. Lastly, with respect to error: to shew that in believing the gospel, the apostle and his associates were neither blinded by the fervours of euthusiasm, nor prejudiced by the influence of vicious inclinations, they appealed to the sober, holy, and virtuous manner of living, which they all along followed among their disciples, and especially among the Thessalonians. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably, we lived among you who believe, ver. 10. This is not the manner of life which false teachers, who are blinded by the fumes of euthusiasm, or seduced by corruption of heart, follow among their disciples. Such never fail to make themselves known, by some vicious practice which cleaves to them, and which they justify by their erroneous principles. See 2 Pet. ii. 18. Jude 4. -Farther, to shew that they were not blind enthusiasts, Paul and his assistants called on the Thessalonians to bear witness to the earnestness, with which they exhorted every one of them, even as a father his children, to follow all the branches of holiness, ver. 11.-And, how they solemnly testified, that they should walk worthy of the true God, whom they now worshipped; and suitably to the nature of that glorious dispensation, into which he had called them, ver. 12. Appeals of this kind, made by the preachers of the gospel to their own disciples, concerning the manner in which they lived among them, and concerning the instructions and exhortations which they gave them, are incontestable proofs, both of the soundness of their understanding, and of the purity of their heart. Wherefore, no reasonable person can suspect, that they were influenced, either through weakness or vice, to receive a scheme of error, held out to them by their master, without any evidence to support it. To be the more convinced of this, we need only compare with them, the first disciples of such euthusiasts and impostors as have deluded the world; whose credulity may easily be traced, in the weakness. of their understandings, and in the viciousness of their lives. Upon the whole, as the first preachers of the gospel are distinguished from euthusiasts and impostors in general by the