adapting himself, as at Athens, to the taste of the educated classes in his style of address. The greater part indeed of the persons with whom he came in contact at Corinth, were not, as at Athens, people of cultivated minds, but belonging to the lower class, who were destitute of all refinement; for even when Christianity had spread more widely among the higher classes, he could still say, that not many distinguished by human, culture or rank were to be found among the Christians, but God had chosen such as were despised by the world, in order to exemplify in them the power of the gospel; 1 Cor. i. 26. Among these people of the lower class, were those who hitherto had been given up to the lusts that prevailed in this sink of moral corruption, but who, by the preaching of the apostle, were awakened to repentance, and experienced in their hearts the power of the announcement of the divine forgiveness of sins; 1 Cor. vi. 11. Paul could indeed appeal to the miracles by which his apostleship had been attested among the Corinthians, 2 Cor. xii. 12; but yet these appeals to the senses were not the means by which the gospel chiefly effected its triumphs at Corinth. As the gospel necessarily appeared as foolishness to the wisdom-seeking Greeks, as long as they persisted in their conceit of wisdom, so also to the sign-seeking Jews, as long as they persisted in their carnal mind, unsusceptible of the spiritual operations of what was divine, and required miracles cognizable by the senses, the gospel which announced no Messiah performing wonders in the manner their carnal conceptions had anticipated, would always be a stumbling-block. That demonstration which Paul made use of at Corinth, was the same which in all ages has been its firmest support, and without which all other evidences and means of promoting it will be in vain, the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” 1 Cor. ii. 4; the mode in which the gospel operates, by its indwelling divine power, on minds rendered susceptible of it, in consequence of the feeling of their moral necessities; the demonstration arising from the power with which the gospel operates on the principle in human nature, which is allied to God, but depressed by the principle of sin. Thus the sign-seeking Jews who attained to faith, found in the gospel a "power of God superior to all external miracles, and the believers among the wisdom-seeking Greeks found a divine wisdom, compared

with which all the wisdom of their philosophers appeared as nothing.

As was usual, Paul was obliged by the hostile disposition with which the greater part of the Jews received his preaching in the synagogue, to direct his labours to the Gentiles through the medium of the Proselytes, and the new church was mostly formed of Gentiles, to whom a small number of Jews joined themselves. That he might devote all his time and strength without distraction to preaching, he soon organized the small company of believers into a regular church, and left the baptism of those who were brought to the faith by his preaching, to be administered by those who were chosen to fill the offices in the church; 1 Cor. i. 16; xvi. 15.

In the mean time, the acceptance which the gospel here found among the heathen, powerfully excited the rage of the Jews, and they availed themselves of the arrival of the new Proconsul Annæus Gallio, a brother of Seneca the philosopher, to arraign Paul before his tribunal. Since, by the laws of the empire, the right was secured to them of practising their own religious institutions without molestation, they inferred, that whoever caused division among them by the propagation of doctrines opposed to their own principles, encroached on the enjoyment of their privileges, and was amenable to punishment. But the Proconsul, a man of mild disposition,1 showed no desire to involve himself in the internal religious controversies of the Jews, which must have appeared to a Roman statesman as idle disputes about words; and the Gentiles themselves, on this occasion, testified their disapprobation of the accusers. The frustration of this attempt against the apostle enabled him to continue his labours with less annoyance in this region, so that their influence was felt through the whole province of Achaia, (1 Thess. i. 8; 2 Cor. i. 1,) whether he made use of his disciples as instruments, or suspended his residence at Corinth, by a journey into other parts of the province, and then returned again to the principal scene of his ministry.2

1 Known by the name of the dulcis Gallio. Seneca, Præfat. Natural. quest. iv. "Nemo mortalium uni tam dulcis est, quam hic omnibus." 2 See 2 Thess. i. 4, where Paul, in an epistle written during the latter part of his residence at Corinth, says, that in several churches, and therefore not merely in the Corinthian, he had spoken with praise of the faith and zeal of the Thessalonian church.

When he had been labouring for some time in these parts, Timothy returned from Thessalonica, by whom he received accounts of the state of the church there, which were far from pleasing in every respect. The faith of the church had indeed been steadfast under its persecutions, and their example and zeal had promoted the further spread of the gospel in Macedonia, even to Achaia, but many had not been preserved pure from the corruption of heathen immorality. The expectation of Christ's reappearance had taken in the minds of many an enthusiastic direction, so that they neglected their stated employments, and expected to be maintained at the expense of their more opulent brethren. Prophets rose up in their assemblies, whose addresses contained much that was enthusiastic; while others, who were on their guard against these enthusiastic exhibitions, went so far in an opposite direction as to put in the same class the manifestations of a genuine inspiration. Probably from a dread of enthusiasm, they could not endure that any person who felt himself inwardly called, should give free utterance to his sentiments in the meetings of the church, for to this Paul's exhortation appears to refer, in 1 Thess. v. 19, "Quench not the Spirit." On all these accounts, he considered it necessary to address an epistle of encouragement and exhortation to this church.1

1 In this epistle, he evidently assumes, that the manner of his coming from Philippi to Thessalonica was still fresh in the remembrance of the church, so that he alludes to only one residence among them, after his arrival from Philippi. What Paul says in 1 Thess. i. 9, he could only say at a period which was shortly subsequent to his departure from Thessalonica. Hence, it is certain, that the epistle was written at that juncture, and that it is the first among the Pauline epistles which have reached us, an opinion, with which its whole complexion well agrees. The reasons against this view, maintained by Schrader, some of which we have mentioned and endeavoured to refute, are not convincing. The anxiety of many persons in reference to their deceased friends (iv. 13,) proves indeed, that some of the first Christians at Thessalonica were already dead, but certainly does not justify the conclusion, that this church must have already existed a long time; for within a comparatively short time, many, especially those who were in years or in declining health at their conversion, might have died. Also the argument, that Paul, in this epistle, supposes the existence of a church organized in the usual manner with Presbyters, will prove nothing against the early composition of this epistle. For why should not Paul have accomplished all this during his short stay at Thessalonica, or put matters in a train for its being done soon after his departure? It is evident, from Acts xiv. 23, how important he deemed it to give

In his epistle, he reminds the church of the manner in which he conducted himself among them, the example of manual industry which he set, and the exhortations which he imparted to them. He calmed their anxiety respecting the fate of those who had died during this period. He warned against making attempts to determine the second coming of Christ. That critical moment would come unexpectedly; the exact time could be ascertained by no one; but it was the duty of Christians to be always prepared for it. They were not to walk in darkness, lest that day should overtake them as a thief in the night; as children of the light, they ought to walk continually in the light and the day; and to watch over themselves, that they might meet the appearance of the Lord with confidence.

After a time, Paul learned that the epistle had not attained its end; that the enthusiastic tendency in the Thessalonian church had continued to increase. In his former epistle, he had considered it necessary to guard them against both extremes; to warn them against the entire suppression of free prophetic addresses, as well as against receiving every thing as divine which pretended to be so, without examination, The higher life was to be developed and expressed freely without harassing restrictions; but all claims to inspiration ought to be submitted to sober examination.1 He must, therefore, have had

the usual constitution to the churches as soon as they were formed; and this must have been more especially the case with a church which he left in such critical circumstances, even apart from persecutors. Indeed, if the rule laid down in the First Epistle to Timothy, that no novice in Christianity should be chosen to the office of presbyter, had been from the beginning an invariable principle, we might conclude, that so new a church, which must consist entirely of novices, could have no presbytery. But there is nothing to support this conclusion, and the circumstances of the primitive apostolic age are against it. The rules given in that epistle, as well as many other points, tend to prove that it was written in the latter part of Paul's life, and in reference to a church not newly organized. And what we find in Philip. iv. 6, by no means obliges us to assume a second visit of Paul to Thessalonica, after which both epistles were written. He there says, that during the time of the first publication of the gospel among the heathen, (which cannot be referred to a later period,) when he left Macedonia, no church excepting that at Philippi had sent him a contribution-first at Thessalonica before he left Macedonia, and then once or twice at Corinth, during his longer sojourn there. 2 Cor. xi. 9.

It appears to me that 1 Thess. v. 21, altogether relates to what immediately precedes-"prove all things in the communications of the

cause to suspect danger from this quarter, even had he not received more exact information. But he was subsequently informed, that persons had come forward in the church who professed to have received revelations to the effect that the appearance of the Lord was close at hand. They also endeavoured to strengthen their assertions by distorting certain expressions of the apostle, which he had used during his residence at Thessalonica. But now since the epistle of Paul was so plainly opposed to the enthusiastic tendency which aimed at fixing the exact time of Christ's second coming, one of the promoters of this error ventured so far as to forge another epistle in Paul's name, which might serve to confirm this expectation, in which probably he took advantage of the circumstance, that the apostle in his first epistle had satisfied himself with urging what was of practical importance without giving a decided opinion on the nearness or remoteness of that great event.1 Such forgeries were not at all uncommon in this century after the beginning of the Alexandrian period of literature, and their authors were very adroit in justifying such deceptions for the purpose of giving currency to certain principles and opinions. This enthusiastic tendency also operated injuriously in producing idleness, and a neglect of a person's own affairs, united with a prying, intermeddling curiosity respecting the concerns of others. Paul, therefore, thought it necessary to write a second epistle to Thessalonica.3 In this epistle, for the purprophets, and retain whatever is good;" but in verse 22, he makes a transition to a general remark, "that they should keep themselves at a distance from every kind of evil," with which his prayer for the sanctification of the whole man naturally connects itself.

1 The passage in 2 Thess. ii. 2, might be so understood, as if only the statements in the First Epistle had been misrepresented; and it is certainly possible to imagine, that they had so misapplied Paul's comparison of a thief in the night, as if he expected the appearance of Christ to be an event close at hand, and only meant to say that the point of time could not be given more distinctly. But these words of Paul would naturally be understood of the forgery of a letter in his name, and the manner in which he guards against similar forgeries, by a postcript in his own hand, favours this opinion.

2 The Bishop Dionysius very much lamented the falsification of letters which he had written to various churches. Euseb. iv. 23.

3 He had at that time probably travelled from Corinth into Achaia, and founded other churches. Already he had sustained many conflicts with the enemies of the gospel; he had occasion to request the inter