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 goshel, they delivered its doctrines and precepts exactly as they re

CHAP. II 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 procuring 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 bur• dened, 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 cuthusiasm, 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

qualities above mentioned; so, by the same qualities they were distinguished from the Greek philosophers in particular; who, though they were free from enthusiasm, and spake admirably concerning the moral virtues, yet followed the most dissolute courses in private; and in teaching had no regard to any thing, but to the hire which they received for their instructions.

The apostle and his assistants, having, in this and the preceding chapter, proved the divine original of the gospel, by the miracles which they wrought in the presence of the Thessalonians; by the miraculous gifts which they conferred on them who believed; by the disinterestedness which they shewed in preaching the gospel; and by the holiness of their lives,—the more fully to convince after-ages, that what they have written concerning these things was strictly true, they tell us, They gave thanks to God without ceasing, because when the Thessalonians received the preached word of God from them, they knew that they embraced not the word of men; but, as it is in truth, the word of God: which also wrought effectually in them who believed, such an attachment to Christ, and such fortitude, as enabled them to suffer for the gospel, ver. 13. By thus ending the arguments taken from the miracles, the character, the views, and the behaviour of the first preachers of the gospel, with a solemn thanksgiving to God for the faith and sufferings of the Thessalonians, the apostle not only told them plainly, that their faith was founded in their own knowledge of the things he had written, but he appealed to God for the truth of them. There cannot, therefore, be the least doubt, that Paul and his coadjutors, were the sincere, sober, holy, disinterested, meek persons, he hath represented them to be; and that their virtuous behaviour added great weight to their testimony concerning their master.

Before the Apostle proceeded to his third argument, he answered certain objections, which it is probable were much insisted on by the learned Greeks, for discrediting the gospel. And, because these objections were levelled against the miracles and character of the Christian preachers, they are introduced with great propriety, after finishing the arguments drawn from these topics.

Objection 1. The apostle, after thanking God, that the beha viour of the preachers of the gospel, as well as their miracles, had induced the Thessalonians to receive their word as the word of God, proceeds to observe, that they shewed the strength of their faith, by becoming imitators of the churches of God in Judea having suffered the same things from their own countrymen, as the

others of the Jews, ver. 14.-This manner of expressing the suf ferings of the Thessalonians for the gospel, the apostle adopted, because it gave him an opportunity of answering a very plausible objection, which the philosophers raised against the gospel, from the unbelief of the Jews in Judea. Said they, the Christian preachers build the gospel upon the Jewish revelation, and tell us, that their master gave himself out in Judea, as the great personage foretold by the Jewish prophets; and that in confirmation of his pretensions, he wrought many miracles in different parts of the country. But the rejection of the gospel by the Jews, their putting Jesus to death, and their persecuting his disciples, are strong presumptions, or rather clear proofs, that the gospel is inconsistent with the Jewish revelation; and that the Jews did not believe the miracles which Jesus pretended to perform, but considered him as an impostor, and his` miracles as feats of magic. This objection, it is true, the apostle has not stated: but, seeing what follows is a direct answer to it, and comes immediately after the Thessalonians are said to have suffered like things from their own countrymen, as the churches of God in Judea had suffered from the Jews, we cannot avoid supposing, that when he says of the Jews, Who have both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have greatly persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, &c. he intended to remove any suspicion that might arise to the prejudice of the gospel, from the unbelief of the Jews, their crucifying the Lord Jesus, and their persecuting his apostles. For it is the same as if he had said, the Jews indeed have killed the Lord Jesus; but they have also killed their own proshets, notwithstanding they wrought miracles among them, and were universally acknowledged to be true prophets. The same persons have persecuted us, the apostles of Jesus, in the persuasion that they please God. But they do not please God: for, in this, as in their whole conduct, they are enemies to mankind, ver. 15.—and in a little time God will shew his extreme displeasure with them, for crucifying his Son, and persecuting his apostles, by destroying their nation, ver. 16.-So remarkable were the Jews in all ages for their enmity to the messengers of God, that Stephen challenged the council to shew which of the prophets their fathers had not persecuted. This being the character of the Jews, their rejection of the gospel, their killing the Lord Jesus, and their persecuting his apostles, afford not the smallest presumption, either that the gospel is inconsistent with the Jewish revelation, or