of it, which we have in the acts of the Apoftles, which therefore is of the next importance to us as christiansThese books having all the marks of authenticity that

any books whatever have, and much stronger of the fame kind; having been all published while the tranfactions they record were all recent, having never been contradicted by friends or enemies, having been often quoted and referred to by friends and enemies, from the earliest times, and alfo having been copied and tranflated into various languages in a very early period, they have all the authority that hiftories can have.

But befides this direct tellimony, there is an additional evidence of a more indirect and subtile kind, but if duly confidered highly satisfactory, which these epistles are calculated to give us. Being as unqueflionably genuine as the hiftorical books, we are enabled by them to perceive how the chief actors in those transactions thought and felt in their peculiar circumstances; and we can compare thofe feelings with the feelings of human nature as we now obferve it; and therefore, by confidering them in connection with the historical facts, we are the better judges of the probability of the whole flory.

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Thus if we could entertain any doubts of the truth of the Roman hiftory in the time of Cicero, the publi cation of his own letters, and thofe of his friends, correfponding with the hiflory of their times, as found in other writers, would be an abundant confirmation of it. Evidence of this kind, therefore, from the letters and private papers of perfons principally concerned in any tranfaction, is always fought after, and collected with

care

care by those who are curious in hiftory. Befides, it is more ealy to diftinguith genuine letters than genuine hiftory, as they generally contain allufions to more particular circumstances, with respect to perfons, times, and places, of which the apoftolical epiflles, especially thofe of Paul, are full; fo that no perfon can read them, and have any doubt of their being really bis, or written in the circumflances in which he reprefents himself. Alfo, the most important of them being written to whole churches, they were carefully preferred, till fo many copies were taken, that their authenticity was placed beyond all doubt.'

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No unbeliever, I am confident, has read thefe letlers with due attention; as becomes hiftorians and philofophers. If any perfon can read them attentively, and afterwards think either that there was no fuch perfon as Paul, that thefe letters were not written by him, or that the facts he refers to as known to his corref pondents were not known to them (and these facts fuppofe and imply the truth of chriftianity) or that thofe perfons could be deceived with refpect to them, he may as well believe there were never fuch places as Ephe fus, Corinth, or Rome, where the chriftians to whom he wrote lived. In fhort, he muft either not be made as other men are, or be so prejudiced, as to be out of the reach of all reafoning and argument.

It must also be observed, that the greater part of thefe Epiftles were written long before the publication of any of the gospels, fo that in fact they are the oldest records of chriflianity, and to give a clearer idea of the circumstances in which each of them was writ

ten, and the general object of them,! shall treat them in the order of time in which they were probably written, beginning with the firft epiftle to the Theffalonians, which is agreed by all to have been the first of them.

I would farther observe, that most of these epistles being written upon particular and preffing occasions, and those feemingly temporary ones, there is no appearance of their being intended for the ufe of the christian church in all ages, tho' in fact, they are of very great ufe, and muft have been fo intended by divine providene, and the more on account of their ap pearin not to have been fo intended by the writers; be cause the writers not having any diftant views, were not so particularly upon their guard, but expressed their prefent feelings without referve, as men actually do in letters written in confidence upon particular occasions, and thefe epiftles bear all the marks of having been fo written.

Still lefs is there any appearance of the writers imagining themselves to be inspired in the compofition of thefe letters. Of this the epiftles themselves bear no trace, and in fcme places the apostle Paul exprefsly dif claims all inspiration. This, indeed, was quite needlefs; and the idea of it has done great injury to the proper evidence of chriflianity. Were not the apostles men who were naturally capable of writing about what they themselves faw and did, and of expreffing their own fentiments on the occafions on which they wrote? They evidently were fo. This was quite fufficient for their purpose, and it could never be the intention of the

Divine Being unneceffarily to fuperfede the natural use of men's faculties.

Confidering, therefore, the apoftles as men writing in their peculiar circumftances, with their views of things, we are not embarraffed with any objections arifing from little imperfections in their manner of writ ing, or with any inaccuracies that we may perceive in their reasoning. For what elfe could be expected from men, who are not infallible. These incorrect. neffes however, are of very small confequence; and a conviction, with which every difcerning perfon must be impressed from reading these epiftles, of the undoubted zeal of the apoftles in propagating the gospel, ac companied with the most indifputable marks of their being neither enthusiasts nor impoftors, but plain fenfible men, of genuine piety and integrity, of which we fee traces every where, engaged in the propagation of what they deemed to be the most important truth, sparing no labour, and avoiding no rifque, I fay the full conviction of this muft neceffarily intereft every candid reader in favour of christianity. If any perfon can read these epiftles with any other feelings, it is a proof that, whatever he may pretend, or really imagine, his mind is already, from fome caufe or other, prepoffeffed against christianity. He has, in fact, fome reafon for wishing it may not be true; and in that ftate of mind the most unexceptionable evidence cannot have its proper effect. That the mind of man may be in this state, not only with refpect to religion, but science, taste, politics, and civil hiftory, we fee continually. Let those perfons, therefore, fufpect and examine themfelves, but

more efpecially let young perfons be upon their guard, against any thing that tends to indifpofe their minds for embracing christianity. If they be apprized what chriftianity truly is, viz. the revelation of a future life, by the refurrection of the dead, that every thing else is either of little moment, or fome corruption of genuine christianity; and if they expect only fuch evidence of the hiftory of Chrift and the apoftles as they do admit with refpect to other hiftories, that is, the evidence of competent witneffes of facts, ftronger indeed, and more definite, but of the fame kind, I fhall no more doubt of their believing the facts relating to christianity, than they do any others relating to remote countries and remote times, and the influence of this chriftian faith, chriftian views and expectations cannot but be moft falutary and happy.

Having dwelt fo long on this introduction, I proceed to the particular confideration of this epiftle.

Thefs. I. 1. In the feventeenth chapter of the acts of the apoftles you have an account of Paul's preaching the gospel at Theffalonica. It was in his fecond apostolical progrefs, when he was accompanied by Silas and Timothy. He had visited the churches of Afia Minor, preached the gospel in Galatia, and going over to Macedonia, had preached at Philippi; but having been imprisoned, and other wife ill treated in that city, he went to Theffalonica, where he preached first to the Jews for three Sabbaths, and then to the Gentiles. So violent, however, was the perfecution from the Jews in this place, that Paul left it, and going by Berea came

to