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"This we fay unto you by the word of the "Lord, that we which are alive, and remain "unto the coming of the Lord, shall not

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prevent them which are asleep; for the "Lord himself fhall defcend from heaven, " and the dead in Chrift shall rise first ; then "we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the "clouds, and fo fhall we be ever with the "Lord. But ye, brethren, are not in dark"nefs, that that day fhould overtake you as a "thief." Theff. iv. 15-17, and.ch. v. ver. 4. It fhould feem that the Theffalonians, or fome however amongst them, had from this paffage conceived an opinion (and that not very unnaturally) that the coming of Christ was to take place inftantly, οτι ενεστηκεν and that this perfuafion had produced, as it well might, much agitation in the church. The apostle therefore now writes, amongst other purposes, to quiet this alarm, and to rectify the misconstruction that had been

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* OTI EVEσTNXEV, nempe hoc anno, fays Grotius, EVEOTHER hic dicitur de re præfenti, ut Rom. viii. 38. 1 Cor. iii. 22. Gal. i. 4. Heb. ix. 9.

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put upon his words:" Now we beseech

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you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord

Jefus Chrift, and by our gathering toge"ther unto him, that ye be not foon fhaken "in mind, or be troubled, neither by fpirit nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that "the day of Chrift is at hand." If the allufion which we contend for be admitted, namely, if it be admitted, that the paffage in the fecond epistle relates to the paffage in the first, it amounts to a confiderable proof of the genuineness of both epiftles. I have no conception, because I know no example, of fuch a device in a forgery, as firft to frame an ambiguous paffage in a letter, then to reprefent the perfons to whom the letter is addressed as mistaking the meaning of the paffage, and laftly, to write a fecond letter in order to correct this mistake.

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I have faid that this argument arifes out of the text, if the allufion be admitted; for I am not ignorant that many expofitors understand the paffage in the fecond epistle, as referring to fome forged letters, which had been produced in St. Paul's name, and in which the apostle had been made to say that

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the coming of Chrift was then at hand. In defence, however, of the explanation which we propose, the reader is defired to obferve,

1. The strong fact, that there exists a paffage in the first epistle, to which that in the second is capable of being referred, i. e. which accounts for the error the writer is folicitous to remove. Had no other epiftle than the second been extant, and had it under thefe circumftances come to be confidered, whether the text before us related to a forged epiftle or to fome misconstruction of a true one, many conjectures and many probabilities might have been admitted in the enquiry, which can have little weight when an epiftle is produced, containing the very fort of paffage we were feeking, that is, a paffage liable to the misinterpretation which the apostle protests against.

2. That the claufe which introduces the paffage in the second epistle bears a particular affinity to what is found in the paffage cited from the first epistle. The clause is this: "We befeech you, brethren, by the "coming of our Lord Jefus Christ, and by "our gathering together unto him." Now in

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the first epistle the defcription of the coming of Chrift is accompanied with the mention of this very circumftance of his faints "being collected round him." "The Lord "himself shall defcend from heaven with a "fhout, with the voice of the archangel, and "with the trump of God, and the dead in "Chrift fhall rife firft; then we which are ❝ alive and remain shall be caught up toge"ther with them in the clouds, to meet the "Lord in the air." 1 Theff. chap. iv. ver. 16, 17. This I fuppofe to be the “ga"thering together unto him" intended in the fecond epiftle; and that the author, when he used these words, retained in his thoughts what he had written on the fubject before.

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3. The fecond epiftle is written in the joint name of Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus, and it cautions the Theffalonians against being mifled "by letter as from us (ως δι ημων). Do not there words " δι ημων, appropriate the reference to fome writing which bore the name of these three teachers? Now this circumftance, which is a very clofe one, belongs to the epistle at Y prefent

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present in our hands; for the epistle which we call the first epiftle to the Theffalonians contains these names in its fuperfcription.

4. The words in the original, as far as they are material to be ftated, are there : εις το μη ταχέως σαλευθήναι υμας απο τε νου, μητε θροεισθαι, μητε δια δια πνεύματος, μητε λογο,

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ημερα τε Χριστ8. Under the weight of the preceding observations may not the words δια λογέ, μητε δι' επιστολης, ως δι' ημων, be conftrued to fignify quafi nos quid tale aut dixerimus aut fcripferimus*, intimating that their words had been mistaken, and that they had in truth faid or written no fuch thing.

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* Should a contrary interpretation be preferred, I do not think that it implies the conclufion that a false epiftle had then been published in the apoftle's name. It will completely fatisfy the allusion in the text to allow, that fome one or other at Theffalonica had pretended to have been told by St. Paul and his companions, or to have seen a letter from them, in which they had faid, that the day of Chrift was at hand. In like manner as Acts xv. 1, 24, it is recorded that fome had pretended to have received inftructions from the church at Jerufalem,

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