CHAP. X.

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE

THESSALONIANS.

No. I.

IT may seem odd to allege obscurity itself as an

argument, or to draw a proof in favor of a writing, from: that which is usually considered as the principal defect in its composition. The present epistle, however, furnishes a passage, hitherto unexplained, and probably inexplicable by us, the existence of which, under the darkness and difficulties that attend it, can only be accounted for upon the supposition of the epistle being genuine; and upon that supposition is accounted for with great ease. The passage which I allude to is in the second chapter. "That day "shall not come, except there come a falling away first, "and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is cal "led God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sit"teth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is "God. Remember ye not that WHEN I WAS YET WITH know "YOU I TOLD YOU THESE THINGS? And now ye "what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time; for "the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he that "now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way; and "then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall' consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy "with the brightness of his coming." It were superfluous to prove, because it is in vain to deny, that this passage is involved in great obscurity, more especially the clauses distinguished by Italics. Now the observation I have to offer is founded upon this, that the passage expressly refers to a conversation, which the author had previously holden with the Thessalonians upon the same subject

"Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you I told "you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth.” If such conversation actually passed; if, whilst he was yet with them," he told them those things," then it follows that the epistle is authentic. And of the reality of this conversation it appears to be a proof, that what it said in the epistle might be understood by those who had been present to such conversation, and yet be incapable of being explained by any other. No man writes unintelligibly on purpose. But it may easily happen, that a part of a letter which relates to a subject, upon which the parties had conversed together before, which refers to what had been before said, which is in truth a portion or continuation of a former discourse, may be utterly without meaning to a stranger, who should pick up the letter upon the road, and yet be perfectly clear to the person to who m it is directed, and with whom the previous communication had passed. And if, in a letter which thus. accidentally fell into my hands, I found a passage expressly referring to a former conversation, and difficult to be explained without knowing that conversation, I should consider this very difficulty as a proof that the conversation had actually passed, and consequently that the letter contained the real correspondence of real persons.

Chap. iii. 8.

No. II.

"Neither did we eat any man's bread "for nought, but wrought with labor night and day, that "we might not be chargeable to any of you; not because "we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow."

In a letter, purporting to have been written to another of the Macedonic churches, we find the following decla

ration.

"Now ye, Philippians, know also that in the begin"ning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, ne

"church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiv❝ing, but ye only.”

The conformity between these two passages is strong and plain. They confine the transaction to the same period. The epistle to the Philippians refers to what passed in the beginning of the gospel," that is to say, during the first preaching of the gospel on that side of the Ægean sea. The epistle to the Thessalonians speaks of the apostle's conduct in that city upon "his first entrance in unto them,' which the history informs us was in the course of his first visit to the peninsula of Greece.

As St. Paul tells the Philippians, "that no church com"municated with him, as concerning giving and receiv"ing, but they only," he could not consistently with the. truth of this declaration, have received any thing from the neighbouring church of Thessalonica. What thus appears by general implication in an epistle to another church, when he writes to the Thessalonians themselves, is noticed expressly and particularly; "neither did we eat any man's "bread for nought, but wrought night and day, that we "might not be chargeable to any of you."

The texts here cited further also exhibit a mark of conformity with what St. Paul is made to say of himself in the Acts of the Apostles. The apostle not only reminds the Thessalonians that he had not been chargeable to any of them, but he states likewise the motive which dictated this reserve; 66 not because we have not power, but to "make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us." (ch. iii. 9.) This conduct and, what is much more precise, the end which he had in view by it, was the very same as that which the history attributes to St. Paul in a discourse, which it represents him to have addressed to the elders of the church of Ephesus. "Yea, ye yourselves "also know that these hands have ministered unto my ne"cessities, and to them that were with me. I have show"ed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support "the weak." Acts, ch. xx. 34. The sentiment in the

epistle and in the speech is in both parts of it so much. alike, and yet the words which convey it show so little of imitation or even of resemblance, that the agreement cannot well be explained without supposing the speech and the letter to have really proceeded from the same person.

No. III.

Our reader remembers the passage in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, in which St. Paul spoke of the coming of Christ. "This we say unto you by the word of "the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the "coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are "asleep; for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, "and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which "are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with "them in the clouds, and so shall we be ever with the "Lord. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." I Thess. iv. 15

-17, and ch. v. 4. It should seem that the Thessaloni ans, or some however amongst them, had from this pas-" sage conceived an opinion (and that not very unnaturally) that the coming of Christ was to take place instantly, or

; and that this persuasion 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 put upon his words. "Now we beseech you, breth"ren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our"gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken ❝ in mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor "by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." If the allusion which we contend for be admitted, namely, if it be admitted, that the passage in the second epistle re

*'QT Tsy, nemque hoc anno, says Grotius, #veganen hic di citur de re præsenti, ut Rom. viii, 38. 1 Cor. iii, 22. Gal, i. 4. Heb..

ix. 9.

lates to the passage in the first, it amounts to a considerable proof of the genuineness of both epistles. I have no conception, because I know no example, of such a device in a forgery, as first to frame an ambiguous passage in a letter, then to represent the persons to whom the letter is. addressed as mistaking the meaning of the passage, and lastly, to write a second letter in order to correct this mistake.

I have said that this argument arises out of the text, if the allusion be admitted; for I am not ignorant that many expositors understand the passage in the second epistle as referring to some forged letters, which had been produced in St. Paul's name, and in which the apostle, had been made to say that the coming of Christ was then at hand. In defence, however, of the explanation which we propose, the reader is desired to observe,

1. The strong fact, that there exists a passage 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 solicitous to remove. Had no other epistle than the second been extant, and had it under these circumstances come to be considered, whether the text before us related to a forged epistle or to some misconstruction of a true one, many conjectures and many probabilities might have been admitted in the inquiry, which can have little weight when an epistle is produced, containing the very sort of passage we were seeking, that is, a passage liable to the misinterpretation which the apostle protests against.

this.

2. That the clause which introduces the passage in the second epistle bears a particular affinity to what is found : in the passage cited from the first epistle. The clause is "We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our "Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him." Now in the first epistle the description of the coming of Christ is accompanied with the mention of this very circumstance of his saints "being collected round him." "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a