9 But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. 10 And in deed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more:

Our apostle proceeds from an exhortation to chastity and justice, to press that of love, called here, brotherly love, because it has all christians, all our fellow-members in Christ, for its object; and he persuades to the practice of it, by a winning insinuation, that he need not say much upon this argument, because they were taught of God, that is, by the gospel of God, and influenced by the Spirit of God, to love one another. And observe we farther, The extensiveness of their love it was not confined to a party, only to them in Thessalonica, but throughout all Macedonia; however, he desires them to extend it still farther, To abound more and more, that is, first in the extent of it; let it reach not only the saints throughout all Macedonia, but even to them at the ends of the earth : secondly, in the measure of it, to excel even themselves in the degrees of their love. Learn hence, That neither brotherly love, nor any other christian grace, doth advance to such an height in any saint here, but it is still capable of further augmentation and increase; both intensively, by advancing to further measures and higher degrees of perfection, and extensively, reaching to more objects, who ought to be sharers in our love.

Rom. xii. 18.

of a peaceable spirit and temper; and the original word imports an ambitious study; it ought to be our ambitious desire to live quietly and peaceably with all men and to live so with some men require study, and earnest endeavour: If it be possible, live peaceably with all men, says St. Paul, Implying, that there are some men that it is impossible to live peaceably with: and whereas he adds, doing our own business, and working with our own hands; that apostolical injunction requires, that every person be well employed, and found in the way of an honest and industrious diligence, for no man is sent into the world to be idle; and as it is every man's duty, so it is also his privilege, to have a calling; the want of which exposes to innumerable temptations, for the devil finds an idle person always ready to

run of his errand.

12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

Our apostle having exhorted the Thessalonians to industry and diligence in the foregoing verses, he presses it with a double argument in this verse. 1. Hereby they should walk honestly towards them that are without; that is, in a decent and seemly manner in the eyes of unconverted pagans, who are said to be without, because without the pale of the visible church; and, 2. Because, by God's blessing upon their industry, they would attain to such a competency of the things of this life, as to lack nothing which the wisdom of God saw fit and convenient for them; so that, by industrious diligence we please God, we profit ourselves, are serviceable to the public, we silence and stop the mouths of the enemies of religion, and beautify our profession with a becoming conversation.

13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

Our apostle, from this verse to the end of the chapter, exhorts the Thessalonians to moderate their grief and sorrow for their friends who died in Christ, many of which, no doubt, were martyrs for the truth in those days of persecution: he lays down many

consolatory arguments as so many sovereign antidotes against immoderate sorrow for the death of pious relations; and first he acquaints them, that such sorrow as is excessive would be more like pagans than christians, who mourn without hope of any life after this, that is, of a resurrection from the grave, and a state of future immortality. Our apostle doth not forbid sorrow for the dead absolutely, which Christ showed for Lazarus, and the church for Stephen, but it is excessive sorrow only that is here condemned. Learn hence, 1. That all sorrow for the death of friends is not unlawful, or forbidden to christians: the christian religion doth not destroy natural affections, but teaches us to moderate them. Learn, 2. That there is a mighty difference between the christian's sorrow for the dead, and theirs who are strangers to christianity. The sorrow of the heathen was extravagant and excessive in the measure, foolish, cruel, and impious in the manner; they tore their hair, beat their breasts, cut their flesh, and ran howling up and down in the most desperate manner; but the christian's sorrow is sober, moderate, silent, free from ostentation, under the government of reason and religion. Learn, 3. That the belief of a future state, and the hope of a joyful resurrection, is the cause of this great difference it is the ignorance of the happiness of glorified saints in heaven, which is the cause of our immoderate sorrow for their death here on earth.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

St. Paul having, in the foregoing verse, dissuaded from immoderate grief and sorrow for the death of relations, comes now to lay down several considerations or consolatory arguments in order to it. The first word of comfort is this; that our relations over whom we mourn, are but fallen asleep; the grave is a bed, in which the saint is laid to rest, his body rests in a bed of dust, as in a safe and consecrated dormitory, till the morning of the resurrection; and if the night be long the morning will be the more joyous. The second comfort is, they sleep in Jesus, that is, in union with Jesus, as members of his body; in the faith of Jesus, that is, in such a belief of the doctrine of Christ as is accompanied with an holy obedience to the commands of Christ. The third consolatory word is this, God will

come, that is, to judgment, and when he cometh will bring his sleeping saints with him, that is, he will bring their souls from heaven, their bodies from the grave. Body and soul united he shall take up to himself into the clouds, and then carry all his saints back with him into heaven. A fourth is this, our relations are not alone in death : Jesus died, the Captain of our salvation marched before us through the black regions of death and the grave, and has perfumed the bed of the grave by his own lying in it. Note here, The apostle says Jesus died, the saints sleep; a believer's death is called a sleep. I do not find that Christ's death is called a sleep, no, his death was death indeed, death with a curse in it: but the believer's death is turned by Christ into a sweet and silent sleep. Again, Jesus died and rose again, that is a comforting consideration: he was laid, but not lost, in the grave; he rose by his own power, he rose as our head and representative, and accordingly all his saints are risen in him, and shall rise after him. Because I live, says Christ, ye shall lice also.

15 For 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.

In this verse St. Paul obviates an objection: Some might say, that the saints found alive at the last day might be sooner happy than the dead saints; no, says the apostle, they that are alive shall not prevent them that sleep, they shall not prevent their rising, nor shall they get the start of them, or get to heaven before them, or have any advantage above them: the living saints shall not be made happy without them, nor one moment before them. Learn hence, That the resurrection which the saints that sleep in Jesus shall be made partakers of, shall put them into as full a capacity of the glory of Christ's coming, as if they had remained alive in the body till that blessed hour. Nay, the dead in Christ shall rise first, that is, the saints who sleep in the grave at Christ's coming shall be so far from being made less happy, or later happy, than the saints who shall be found alive, that they shall be first remembered. care will be about his dead saints; they that have slept so long in their bed of dust shall be first awakened, before any thing be done about them that never slept: if there

Christ's first

be any privilege, any joy, any triumph, greater than others, such as sleep in Jesus, and especially such as have suffered for Jesus, shall be partakers of it at that great day. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch-angel, and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

These words give us the assurance of the certainty of Christ's second coming, and of the solemn manner of it, and of the consequence of it. Observe, 1. The certainty of our Lord's coming: The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, that is, the Lord Jesus, the Mediator: he will not depute an angel, but descend himself to finish that last part of his mediatorial office. Christ will come personally, for the judg ment will be managed visibly; and for the recompense of his abasement, it is requisite that he that was judged by the world, should come and judge the world. Reason says, he may come and judge the world, for he made it; faith says, he must and shall come to judge the world, for he has promised it, John xiv. 2. Let us then keep up our faith, and our faith will keep our hearts. Observe, 2. The awful and solemn manner of our Lord's coming; and that is threefold. (1.) He shall descend with a shout: the original word signifies such a shout as is heard among seamen when they descry the haven, and with united voices cry out, “A shore, a shore.” (2.) With the voice of an archangel: probable it is that Christ himself shall give the word of command, both to the quick and the dead, to appear before him, and that his command shall be proclaimed by an archangel. (3.) With the trump of God the angel's proclamation shall be confirmed by sound of trumpet, which will ce heard far and near, even by those who are in the graves, and in the depth of the

sea.

Learn hence, That our Lord's second coming at the great day to judge the quick and the dead, shall be attended with such solemnity, that all the terror, majesty, and dreadful reverence, which has been ever seen upon the earth, shall fall infinitely short of it. Great was the terror on mount Sinai, at the giving of the law; but far greater will the terror be at the day of judgment, when Christ comes to punish the transgressors of that law, and the disobeyers of his gospel. Observe, 3. The blessed consequence of his coming, namely, the

resurrection of his saints: The dead in Christ shall rise first; the saints shall rise with the very same bodies which they lay down in the grave; and they shall rise first, that is, before those who are alive shall that there will be no considerable difference be changed, though it is very probable of time between the glorification of the raised saints, and those that are alive at Christ's coming; yet it seems evident that the dead saints shall be raised, and in their bodies be glorified, before them that are alive shall be changed.

17 Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Observe here, 1. The triumphant ascension both of the living and sleeping saints, together into the clouds: We which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. This ascension shall be effected by the power of Christ, by the ministry of angels, and by the spirituality of the saints' own bodies. Learn hence, That the descent of the saints of God into the grave, is not with so much weakness, ignominy, and abasement, as their ascent after the resurrection, to meet their Lord in the air, shall be with power, triumph, and glory; Christ shall draw them, clouds shall carry them, angels shall conduct them. Observe, 2. The blessed meeting of all the saints together in one body, to take their flight together to meet the Lord Jesus, who comes from the third heaven to meet them in the lower region of the air, when Christ will own them in their persons, own them in their services, own them in their sufferings, and they shall receive their full and final benediction from the mouth of Christ, and take an everlasting possession of the heavenly kingdom together with Christ. Observe, 3. The saint's cohabitation and fellowship with Christ, together with its extent and duration: they shall be ever with the Lord. This implies the saints' presence with Christ, their vision and sight of him, their fruition and enjoyment of him, their delectation in him, their conformity to him. Learn hence, that the top and height of the saints' blessedness in heaven consists in this, that they shall for ever be there with Christ.

18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

That is, draw matter of consolation to yourselves from the foregoing consolations, against the loss of your deceased friends; intimating, that the best and choicest of comforts, for supporting the spirits of men under afflictions in general, and the loss of dear relations in particular, are drawn from the holy scriptures; Comfort one another with these words, that is, with such scriptural words as he had now written.

CHAP. V.

Our apostle having in the foregoing chapter treated of Christ's second coming to judgment, and foreseeing that some curious persons might take occasion from thence to inquire into the time when the general resurrection and future judgment should be, in this chapter he makes it his business to divert them from all such inquiries, and to put them upon the practice and performance of such duties as would prepare and hit them for that solemn time. Where note, That it was revealed to St. Paul when he wrote

this epistle, that there should be a second coming of Christ to judgment, and that it should not be till the departing from the faith, till the revela. tion and destruction of Antichrist, 2 Thess. ii. 3. This it seems was an after-revelation, for the Lord did not at once reveal all his secrets to his servants, but by parcels.

BUT of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

As if our apostle had said, " Although I have told you that there will be a general resurrection and future judgment, when Christ will certainly come in the clouds, and every eye shall see him, yet I suppose you do not expect that I should write to you of the particular time of his coming; for you have been told, that his coming will be like the coming of a thief, without warning, and without noise, when persons are most secure, least suspecting, and wholly unprovided for it; yea, as the pains of a a woman in travail, which are unavoidable: the thief may perhaps not come, but the pains of child-birth must come, and also be painful when they come. Learn hence, 1. That the wisdom of God has thought fit to conceal and keep secret the determinate time of Christ's coming to judgment: and yet there is an itching curiosity in man's nature to search and pry into that

profound secret, though the knowledge of it is not only impossible, but would prove unprofitable and hurtful to mankind, making the world secure and careless: whereas not knowing the hour when our Lord cometh, should oblige us to be upon our watch every hour. Note then, That our Lord will certainly come at one hour or other; but at what hour he will come cannot certainly be known, yet there is no hour when we can promise ourselves that he will not come. Note, lastly, That the pain and sorrow, the trouble and horror which the day of the Lord will bring upon such as are unready and unprepared for it, no tongue can utter, no heart can conceive; the greatest of earthly and bodily torments and sorrows, such as the pangs of a woman in travail, being but weak shadows and slender representations of it: the day of the Lord cometh as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should over5 Ye are all take you as a thief. the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

tion of our apostle in his application to the Note here, The wisdom and holy cauThessalonians: he had in the foregoing verses asserted the certainty and suddenness of Christ's coming, namely, to destroy Jerusalem, and to judge the world. Now, lest these christians should be terrified in their minds, and shaken with apprehensions of fear from that sudden destruction he had mentioned, he casts in a seasonable word of comfort here in the words before us, assuring them that were sincere christians amongst them, that how sudden soever the coming and appearance of Christ might be, yet it should not find them unready and unprepared for it, because they were not in darkness, but in the light, and were not children of the night, but of the day: that is, they were not now in a state of heathenism, but christianity; they were not any longer in their gross and natural ignorance of God, as they were before conversion; but they were the children of the light and of the day, living and walking in the light of the gospel, and in all holiness of conversation. Learn hence, That as sincere christians are freed from the gross darkness of their natural state, from the