1 Thessalonians 2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

He sets forth in what manner the gospel was brought and preached to the Thessalonians, and how they received it. A reason is given both why St. Paul was so long absent from them, and why he was so desirous to see them.

Anno Domini 52.

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 argument 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, with power, to be his son, by raising him from the dead, agreeably to what our Lord, 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 eye-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. 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Ye know what manner 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 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 werefully 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, 1 Thessalonians 2:1.—Their persuasion of the things which they preached, they shewed at their entrance among the Thessalonians, by the persecution which they 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 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, 1 Thessalonians 2:2. Their preaching of 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, they seldom endure a long continued course of heavy sufferings in propagating these fictions; far less do they exposethemselves 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, 1 Thessalonians 2:3.

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 improper 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 received 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, 1 Thessalonians 2:4. 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; neither did they make hypocritical pretensions to piety, as a cloke to cover covetous designs. From these well known arts of impostors, St. Paul and his assistants were entirely free; as the Thessalonians, who were thoroughly acquainted with their manner of preaching, well knew, 1 Thessalonians 2:5.—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, 1 Thessalonians 2:6.—The truth is, as apostles, they had authority from their Master to enjoin their disciples what was fit (Philemon 1:8.); 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 expence, after the example of all false teachers, 2 Peter 2:3.—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, 1 Thessalonians 2:7. (See Acts 20:29.)—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, 1 Thessalonians 2:8.—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, 1 Thessalonians 2:9.—These facts, well known to the Thessalonians, were there no other, are undeniableproofs of the sincerity, honesty, and disinterestedness of the first preachers of the gospel; and, if such arguments were necessary, would 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 not 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, 1 Thessalonians 2:10. This is not the manner of life which false teachers, who are 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 Peter 2:18. Jude 1:4.—Farther, to shew that they were not blind antinomians, St. 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, 1 Thessalonians 2:11.—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 dispensationinto which he had called them, 1 Thessalonians 2:12.—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 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 impostors as have deluded the world, whose credulity may easily be traced in the weakness of their understandings, or in the viciousness of their lives. Upon the whole, as the first preachersof the gospel are distinguished from imposters in general by the qualities above mentioned; so, by the same qualities they were distinguished from the Greek philosophers in particular; who, though they spake admirably concerning the moral virtues, yet, in general, 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, 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—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, through the divine grace, established on 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 St. Paul and his coadjutors were the sincere, sober, holy, disinterested, meek persons that he has represented them to be; and that their irreproachable behaviour added great weight to their testimony concerning their Divine 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 behaviour of the preachers of the gospel, aswell as their miracles, had induced the Thessalonians, through grace, 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 which, in Judea, are in Christ Jesus; having suffered the same things from their own countrymen, as the others did of the Jews, 1 Thessalonians 2:14.—This manner of expressing the sufferings 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 that 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 persecutinghis 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 prophets, 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, 1 Thessalonians 2:15.—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, 1 Thessalonians 2:16.—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 rejectionof the gospel, their killing the Lord Jesus, and persecuting his apostles, afford not the smallest presumption, either that the gospel is inconsistent with the Jewish revelation, or that the miracles of Jesus and his apostles were false. In these things the Jews behaved as their fathers did to the prophets, who brought the former revelations from God to them; and the punishment which soon fell on them, shewed how much God was displeased with them for so doing.

Objection 2. The second objection was levelled against St. Paul and Silas in particular, being founded on their behaviour duringthe tumult at Thessalonica. These men, said the philosophers, though the chief preachers of the new doctrine, did not appear with Jason and his brethren before the magistrates, either to defend it, or to suffer for it. What could this be owing to, but to their consciousness that the whole was a fraud, or to their timidity? Either of which was inexcusable in missionaries from God, who boasted in their sufferings, as adding weight to their testimony concerning their master. Something of this sort must have been said against St. Paul and Silas; otherwise their fleeing, which was advised by the Thessaloniansthemselves, Acts 17:10 needed no apology, at least to the Thessalonians; and far less so earnest an apology as that which the Apostle has offered in this chapter, where he assures the brethren that, when he fled to Berea, he intended to be absent during the time of an hour, that is, for a short time, or for a few days only, till the rage of the Jews should subside: and that accordingly, while in Berea, he had endeavoured, with great desire, to see them, 1 Thessalonians 2:17.—and would have come to them once and again, but Satan hindered him, by bringing the Jews from Thessalonica to Berea, where they stirred up the people against him, and forced him to flee to Athens, 1 Thessalonians 2:18.—Yet, on neither of these occasions did he flee from a consciousness of fraud, or from the fear of death; but from his wishing to have an opportunity of perfecting the faith of the Thessalonians, and of converting a greater number of the Gentiles. For he assured them that he considered them, and the rest of his Gentile converts, as his hope, and joy, and crown of glorying at the day of judgment, 1 Thessalonians 2:19.—And, to convince them that he really believed his future happiness would be increased by their perseverance, and by the conversion of the Gentiles, he repeated the same assurance, 1 Thessalonians 2:20

1 Thessalonians 2:1. Was not in vain:—This may be rendered, was not vain. Dr. Heylin translates it, was not without success.

With much contention,— Because of the opposition exerted against us by the perverse and unbelieving Jews. Acts 17:1-9. Dr. Heylin reads, even under great difficulties.

For our exhortation was not of deceit,— For our doctrine was not erroneous, nor impure, nor such as could seduce you.

But, as we were allowed, &c.— But as we have been approved of God to be intrusted, &c.

When we might have been burdensome,— The Apostle particularly refers to the right he had of being maintained at their charge. See 1 Thessalonians 2:9. 2 Corinthians 11:9. 1 Timothy 5:18, and 1 Corinthians 9. Vitringa, however, would render it, when we could have taken much [authority] upon us.

But we were gentle, &c.— "We not only gave up our own just rights, but considered you as our children, and cherished you in your infant state as a hen cherisheth her brood under her wings, or as a tender and affectionate mother nurseth her own helpless infant." Dr. Heylin renders the verse, We treated you with the tenderness and condescension of the nursing mother cherishing her children.

For, labouring night and day, &c.— What an instance of goodness and benevolence to mankind! to labour for bread with his own hands, while he spent his time in teaching all who would learn truths of the greatest importance,—how to live holily, die cheerfully, and be happy for ever!

That ye would walk worthy of God,— How much does the Apostle insist upon holiness of heart and life in all professed Christians! He urged the converted heathens to piety, purity, and virtue, from the example of the true God, in whom they now believed, Colossians 1:10 and by the great favour which was shewn them in their being received into the Christian church, Ephesians 4:1 by that purity which the gospel in general requires, Romans 8:1; Romans 8:39 and, more particularly, by the life and example of our Lord and Saviour; by his death and resurrection, by his ascension and authority, and by the prospect of his coming to judgment at the last day, as well as of their enjoying an endless life of holiness and happiness in his glorious kingdom. See 1 Corinthians 11:1. Hebrews 12:2-3.

But as it is in truth, the word of God,— That the doctrine was from God, and the apostles only as heralds, messengers, and ambassadors from God, to publish it among men, appears from comparing ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:6 and 1 Thessalonians 4:8. Matthew 10:40. Galatians 4:14. 2 Peter 3:2. Where-ever it is thus esteemed, the gospel must necessarily have a great influence; where there is a thorough and full conviction that the apostles of our Lord and Saviour were employed by heaven, and that the doctrine itself is nothingless than a message from the God of strict truth, unspotted holiness, unerring wisdom, and overflowing goodness; no wonder that it should, when accompanied by divine grace, influence such as considered it in this view, readily to renounce their false religions, to lay aside their prejudices and prepossessions, to embrace it, and live upon its principles, and to forego all temporal things whatever, on the faith of so well attested a religion, and so glorious a prospect.

1 Thessalonians 2:14.— Having before commended them for their ready and cheerful reception of the gospel, and hinted at their resolution in suffering for the cause, he goes on to commend them for their patience and fortitude, 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 and then again expresses his great affection for the Thessalonians, and his earnest desire to make them another visit; which he assures them he had more than once attempted; but Satan had always hindered him: by which vehement expression he again obliquely reflects on the unbelieving Jews, 1 Thessalonians 2:17-20. St. Paul probably calls the Christian churches in Judea, churches in Christ Jesus, to distinguish them from the Jewish churches, or the synagoguesin Judea, as well as to intimate that all the members of Christ's true church are one in him. As to the patience and fortitude of the Christian churches there, see Acts 12 and Hebrews 10:32-34. How these Thessalonians imitated them, see ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:6. Acts 17:5. &c. The Jews of Jerusalem had desired Pilate, a Gentile, to crucify our Lord; the Jews of Thessalonica had exasperated the Gentiles, and even the governors of that city, to persecute his apostle and disciples. From the representation both of the history of the Acts, and the Apostolic Epistles, as well as from other ancient writings, it appears, that most of the primitive persecutions proceeded from the malice and opposition of the unbelieving Jews.

Who both killed, &c.— Who have both killed the Lord Jesus, and the, or his prophets. Mill, and Wetstein. Not only heathen authors have given the Jews the character of being an obstinate, prejudiced people, contrary to all men; but even their own prophet, Ezekiel, (ch. 1 Thessalonians 3:4-9 1 Thessalonians 5:6.) and Josephus, their own historia

Forbidding us to speak— Or, hindering us from speaking. Their filling up the measure of their sins, was by murdering our Lord Jesus Christ, and persecuting his disciples. This most grievous sin was, in a manner, uniting all the guilt of mankind in one act of disobedience; and therefore it was to be punished with a most grievous and exemplary punishment; as if all the temporary punishments of sinners had been deferred till then, and were to have been collected, in order to fall upon their heads with the greater vengeance. The next clause might be rendered, more properly, For perfect wrath, or complete and durable vengeance, is coming upon them. It is true, a judicial blindness had seized them; but the remarkable destruction was approaching, prophesied of, Daniel 9:27. Matthew 24. They returned from their former captivities; but extreme vengeance, a lasting divine judgment, has befallen them, since their crucifixion of the Lord of Life. Above 1700 years have they been dispersed among the nations, and Jerusalem is still trodden under foot of the Gentiles; and shall be so, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The destruction here referred to, was drawing nigh when the Apostle wrote this Epistle, and actually happened within twenty years after; and it may be observed, that, in consequence of this destruction, the Jews suffered the divine vengeance in various other partsof the earth; particularly under Trajan, 460,000 of them were destroyed in Egypt and Cyprus; and under Adrian 580,000.

Being taken from you— The original word is very emphatical;— απορφανισθεντες. It is an allusion to that grief, anxiety, and reluctance of heart with which dying parents take farewell of their children, when they are just going to leave them helpless orphans, exposed to the injuries of the world; or that sorrow of heart with whichpoor destitute orphans close the eyes of their dying parents. The Apostle, by this metaphor, in a very lively and tender manner, expresses the concern and reluctance wherewith he had parted from his young converts at Thessalonica; being violently driven away from them by the unbelieving Jews; compelled to leave these his spiritual children amid the most restless and malicious enemies, without the guidance, defence, and support of their father in the gospel. Acts 17:5; Acts 17:10. The original, rendered, for a short time, signifies literally, for an hour's time; which is a figurative expression. It was several years before the Apostle returned to them; but his mind was full of the ideas of eternity, which annihilated, as it were, any period of mortal life.

But Satan hindered us.— When the Hebrews would express any thing remarkably great, they add the name of God to it; so they call great mountains, the mountains of God,—and the like: and thus, when they describe the most wicked men, they call them the ministers, servants, and children of Satan, and sometimes Satan himself; because they imitate and comply with the temptations of that wicked spirit who is at the head of all apostacy from God, and the most remarkable enemy in the universe to truth and goodness. The unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica, as the instruments of Satan, were the persons intended; and indeed the sense of their extreme malice seems to have dwelt strongly on the Apostle's mind during the writing of this whole Epistle.

For ye are our glory and joy.— The Apostle expected to know the Thessalonians again at the day of judgment, and in the other world; and rejoiced in the hope of meeting them among the holy and glorified in that day, especially as he had been so instrumental toward their conversion. Hence we may expect to know our friends in another world; but then, all temporal consanguinity and relation shall cease, and we shall rejoice in each other there in proportion to the degrees of grace and glory, and as we have here mutually contributed to promote each other's knowledge and divine love, piety and virtue. When this animal nature, and those affections and qualities suited to this animal state and terrestrial life, shall be put off, and we shall have qualities and affections fit only for an intellectual state, we shall then see things in a different light, and our relish will be wholly spiritual; for whererational enjoyments are in their higher perfection, rational beings, who have the true taste, will value each other in an exact proportion to their purity and perfection, knowledge, love, and holiness. What a glorious motive ought this to be to us, as it was here to St. Paul, to cultivate in ourselves, and to promote in all our friends and acquaintance divine knowledge, holiness, and virtue, goodness, and heavenly love! This will leave lasting and happy effects, when all earthly relations will be over; and be a pleasurable reflection to us and them many thousand ages hence.

Inferences.—Surely it is not possible to conceive, from any thing but the example of the great Shepherd of the sheep, a more amiable idea of the character of a gospel minister, than that which is here exhibited. With what a frankness and openness of soul does the Apostle appeal to their consciences, as to the integrity and benevolence of his behaviour among them, while, unterrified by all the indignities and inhumanities that he had met with at Philippi, he immediately renewed the same combat at Thessalonica, and contended boldly with all the enemies of the gospel, not esteeming his liberty, or his life, on an occasion of so great importance.

With such courage let the ministers of Christ face all danger and oppositions: with such simplicity of heart let them deliver their important message; not with deceit, uncleanness, or guile, but as those who remember that they have been put in trust with the gospel by God himself, and therefore must be solicitous not to please men, but God, who trieth the heart. And may they ever be superior to those views of avarice, ambition, or popular applause, which would lead them to sacrifice truth to the affection or favour of men, or even to the fear of being thought to do it. And let them, with all this intrepidity and firmness of soul, put on a gentleness and sweetness of disposition—a gentleness like that with which a nurse cherishes her children. While their people, like new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2.), let ministers draw forth that precious nourishment to them, as imparting even their own souls unto them, and willing to wear out, or, if such should be the will of God, to sacrifice their lives in such a service.

Let them particularly endeavour, by all prudent care, suitable to the circumstances in which God has fixed them, not to make themselves burthensome to the people in temporal things, nor, under the pretence of a Divine mission, to tyrannize over their consciences; but behave with such integrity and such sanctity, that they may be able cheerfully to appeal to God as a witness of it, and may also have a testimony in the breast of each of their flock. And O that the entrance of such ministers among their people, and their labours with them, may not be in vain; but that the blessed consequence of all the charges, entreaties, and consolations which they are addressing to them, may be this—that they may walk worthy of God, worthy of that kingdom and glory, to the views and blessings of which he has condescended to call them! Then will all the fatigues of their office sit lightly upon them, while they see the blessed purposes of it answered. Then will they finish their course with joy, and bless God with their dying breath, that he ever called them to so great, so important a work.

Again. May Divine grace teach our souls ever to distinguish between the authority of the word of men and the word of God; that we may always set them at a due distance from each other, and may feel the peculiar energy of the Divine Word, with which it operates in all them that believe! May we experience this, whatever be the consequences, yea, though we should be exposed to sufferings, severe as those which Jews or Heathens at first inflicted on the professors, or even on the preachers of the gospel! Adored be that power of Divine Grace which went along with it, so that when the envious disciples of Moses, after having slain the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as their own prophets, forbad his messengers to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, these faithful ambassadors of health and life feared none of their threatenings, or cruelties, but courageously declared the matter as it was, testifying, both to Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ! Acts 20:21.

The Jews, in the mean time, filled up the measure of their sins, till wrath came upon them to the uttermost: and so will all the opposition which is made to the gospel end to those who are implacable and obstinate in it. They who believe not that Christ is He, shall die in their sins. Whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder. (John 8:24.Matthew 21:44.)

Therefore, let the ministers of Christ, however Satan may attempt to hinder them, go on faithfully and courageously in their work, and watch over the souls which they have instrumentally converted. When absent from them in body, let them not be absent in heart; but let them be thinking of their state, and often caring and praying for them: for what will be their hope, and joy, and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord?—even those faithful saints, who are converted to God by the instrumentality of their labours, or are trained up by them in the ways of holiness, and prove faithful unto death. May all those ministers, who serve God with their spirit in the gospel of his Son, have many such spiritual children: and, in the views of their increasing piety, may they daily anticipate the glory and the joy with which they hope at last to deliver them to their Divine Master!

REFLECTIONS.—1st. The Apostle reminds the Thessalonians,

1. Of his manner of preaching among them. For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain, with great swelling words of vanity, or empty ineffectual harangues, but with the power of the gospel, and the mighty word of truth. But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, undismayed at the persecutions which we had endured, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention, as in an agony labouring after your conversion, amidst all the opposition that we had to encounter. For our exhortation was not of deceit, we broached no false doctrine, nor had any intention to deceive; nor of uncleanness, but tending to discourage all manner of impurity; nor in guile, for we spoke the truth from the heart; but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, and had this honour conferred upon us to be appointed his ambassadors, even so we speak, under a sense of the weighty charge committed to us; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts, to whom we study, to approve ourselves in simplicity and godly sincerity: for neither at any time used we flattering words, in order to insinuate and ingratiate ourselves into your confidence, or to encourage you with the least imagination of impunity in your sins, as ye know; nor did we put on a cloak of religion, to conceal designs of covetousness, in order to make an advantage of you; God is witness to the uprightness of our hearts respecting you. Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, desiring human applause, or esteem, when we might have been burdensome, and demanded our maintenance of you, as the apostles of Christ.

2. Of his conduct and conversation among them. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children, with the greatest tenderness: so being affectionately desirous of you, of your happiness and salvation, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, ready to spend and be spent in the service of your faith, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, with our own hands, to earn our maintenance, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God freely. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe, conscientiously discharging every duty of religion towards God, and of righteousness towards men: as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, with the affection and authority of the kindest parent, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory, to the blessings of his grace in time, and of his glory in eternity; and will bestow them upon you, if you perseveringly cleave to the Son of his Love. Note; (1.) They can speak boldly who can appeal to their own conduct for the example of what they teach. (2.) The more love and tenderness accompanies our exhortations, the more effectual are they likely to prove.

2nd, The Apostle proceeds,
1. To thank God for their ready reception of the gospel word. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, which may be fallacious, or at best of uncertain authority, but as it is, in truth, the word of God, and, as such, deserving the deepest reverence and obedience; which effectually worketh also in you that believe, producing the most blessed consequences, and carrying with it the evidence of its divine original. Note; (1.) Though the treasure of God's word is committed to earthen vessels, its excellence is not therefore the less: and we must remember not so much who dispenses it, as whose word it is, that with reverence and godly fear we may hear and obey. (2.) Wherever the gospel is received into the heart, it works effectually to the present salvation of the soul, casting the whole man into its blessed mould.

2. They were honoured with the cross, and bore it most exemplarily. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, and sustained the shock of persecution with the same unshaken fortitude and unwearied patience.

3. He mentions with horror the dreadful guilt and rooted enmity of the Jewish zealots, his and their chief opponents, who both killed the Lord Jesus, with the most atrocious wickedness imbruing their hands in his sacred blood, and murdered their own prophets, and have with the utmost violence persecuted us his apostles; and they please not God, though they flatter themselves that they are his only favourites; they act in direct opposition to his will, and are contrary to all men, abhorring both Gentiles and Christians, and filled with implacable malice against those who use any means for the conversion of the Heathen to Christ; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles the gospel of God's grace, that they might be saved, to fill up the measure of their sins alway, and to hasten the full vials of God's vengeance upon their devoted heads: for the wrath is come upon them, and hath begun to seize them in their rejection of God, and will be poured out to the uttermost, or to the end, in the entire destruction of their city, nation, and temple, and in the eternal perdition of the impenitent. Note; When the sinner's iniquities are at the full, then wrath cometh to the uttermost.

3rdly, The Apostle,
1. Excuses his absence, which was not voluntary, but through unavoidable hindrances. But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time, in presence, not in heart, and obliged reluctantly to leave you as helpless orphans, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire, longing to converse with you, and build up your souls on the true foundation. Wherefore we would have come unto you, (even I Paul,) once and again, and made efforts for that purpose; but Satan hindered us, sowing such dissentions and raising such difficulties as made our abode in these parts, where we now are, absolutely necessary. Note; We have a busy enemy, who is ever seeking to lay obstacles in our way. We need therefore to watch against his devices, and to resist his wiles.

2. He assures them of his high affection and regard for them. For what is our hope in our labours, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? what revives, animates, and comforts our souls under all our work and sufferings? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Yes, verily, For ye are our glory and joy; while, looking forward to the great day of Christ's appearing, we confidently hope to present you before him as the happy fruits of our labour, to your eternal blessedness, and to our own immortal honour.