And that ye likewise read the Say unto Archippus. epistle from Laodicea. Much controversy has arisen in the church about this epistle from Laodicea; some have affirmed, that it was written by St. Paul to the Laodiceans, but lost; from whence they would infer, that the canon of the scripture is not entire. But supposing it were so, yet it follows not but that we have all things necessary to salvation in the holy scriptures. It is very probable that St. Paul himself, and several other apostles, wrote more epistles than are in the Bible. What then? We have what the wisdom of God thought fit to hand down to us, and what is sufficient to make the serious reader of it wise unto salvation. Surely Almighty God was not bound to bring down all that they wrote to us, but only what his own wisdom saw fit and necessary for us. Others understand it of an epistle from Laodicea to St. Paul, and that he answered it fully in this epistle to the Colossians, and sending it back, desired the Colossians might read it, for better clearing of some passages in his epistle to them. Lastly, Some understand it of the epistle to the Ephesians, Ephesus being the metropolis, or the chief city, of Laodicea; and accordingly, some call the epistle to the Ephesians, the epistle to the Laodiceans. The truth is, there is a very great affinity betwixt the epistle to the Ephesians, and this to the Colossians; the doctrines, exhortations, and many expressions, are the very same so that it is no wonder if he desired they should both be read at Colosse, to let them see that he wrote the same doctrine to other churches, which he had done to them. 17 And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it. This Archippus is, with good reason, supposed to be the minister at Colosse, in the room of Epaphras, now with St. Paul at Rome. Some think, that in the absence of Epaphras, he was grown somewhat remiss and slack in his ministerial duty, he directs therefore the Colossians to admonish him to the exercise of greater diligence, in discharging all the parts of his trust committed by Christ unto him. Say unto Archippus, Take heed, &c. Observe here, A double charge, 1. A charge of message, The Colossians must say it. St. Paul could have wrote a private letter to him; but they must excite him, yea, say to him to his face, not of him behind his back. 'Tis the people's duty to stir up their ministers to the faithful performance of their duty; the fire of our ministerial zeal doth not burn so bright, but we may need our people's bellows to inflame it; but this must be done with prudence by the people, in a way of exhortation, not by way of exprobation: so stir up your minister to his duty, that you forget not your own. 2. The charge of an office, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfil it. Here note, 1. A duty enjoined; to fulfil the ministry. But what is that: Negatively not to secure the success of our ministry; we may deliver our own souls, though our people's be not delivered : the nurse is not charged with the life of the child, but with the care of the child, she shall be paid whether it live or die; nor is it absolutely to perform every part of our ministerial duty without the least deficiency. No, we rejoice in the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have done our duty. Positively to fulfil the ministry, is to perform all the parts of our duty with care and faithfulness, to persevere in diligence, particularly public preaching and private inspection. A non-preaching minister is no minister, a breastless nurse, a murderer of souls, a bell without a clapper, a cryer without a voice; yet doth not his work lie all in the pulpit, but the greatest part out of it. He is styled a watchman; For what? because he is to watch one hour with his people in a week? No, surely, but because he is to watch over them, and converse with them all the week, upon occasion. Is not the physician to visit his patient, as well as to prescribe his physic? Doth the husbandman cast his seed into the ground, and never come into the fields to see whether it comes up, or how it grows? Verily, our people are great gainers by our profitable converse with them, and we shall be gainers by them too. We may gain more experimental knowledge by an afternoon's visiting our people, than by a week's study. Note, 2. The means here directed to, for the fulfilling of the ministry, Take heed to the ministry. What doth that import? 1. Take heed to thy study; ministerial abilities are not rained down like manna upon us. The apostles did not ers. study indeed, but one reason was, they had no time to study, they were itinerary preach2. Take heed to thy doctrine, that it be the true word of God, and delivered purely; not only in opposition to error, but in opposition to levity. 3. Take heed, that is, to thy life and practice, that we may tread out the steps before our people, which they are to make towards heaven. Note, 3. The motive to stir us all up to the fulfilling our ministerial trust; We have received it; there is the importance of a special favour, and also the importance of a strict account; what we have received, we must give an account for. 2. We have received it of or from the Lord; this implies assistance: that God that has called us to it, will assist us in it; Lo, I am with you always unto the end of the world; with you to assist, with you to succeed, with you to reward. Let Archippus then, every one in the work of Christ, take heed to the ministry which he has received of the Lord, that he fulfil it. 18 The salutation by the hand of me Paul, Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen. 2. Here our apostle closes his epistle with a general salutation under his own hand, intimating thereby, that he had not wrote the whole with his own hands. He begs them to remember his bonds; that is, 1. To sympathize with him in his bonds. To pray for him in his bonds. 3. To receive the word of God, which he had written to them in his bonds. 4. To prepare for sufferings themselves, his bonds being but the forerunners of their bonds. Thus it is the people's duty to remember the pious ministers in their bonds. He adds, Grace be with you, wishing them an abiding interest in the special favour of God, with a multiplied increase of all spiritual blessings flowing from thence; increase of all grace to enable them to glorify God on earth, and to prepare them for glory with God in heaven. Amen VOL. II. THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS. This Epistle to the Thessalonians, though placed last, yet is supposed to have been written first by St. Paul to this particular church; and not without probability, because the gospel was more early preached at Thessalonica, than either at Rome or Corinth, as appears by the Acts of the Apostles. Thessalonica was the chief city in Macedonia, whither St. Paul, in a vision, was directed to go and preach the gospel; accordingly he went, Acts xvi. and xvii. and laid very early the foundation of a christian church in this city, which consisting partly of Jews, and partly of Gentiles, they were se verely persecuted by both. Now the apostle hearing what hard things the Thessaloniaus suffered, he writes this epistle to confirm them in the faith, and to prevent their being shaken by those per secutions. To encourage them to perseverance in the faith, and patience under their present persecutions, be first informs them, that it was nothing strange that they should suffer thus from those Jews and Pagans, "who had killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and were contrary to all men;" and then puts them in mind of the transcendent reward laid up for them, and the severe punishments that were prepared for their persecutors. And, lastly, he animates and encourages them by the example of his own constancy, to persevere in their holy profession; and concludes this epistle to them with particular exhortations to holiness of life, and unblamableness in conversation. CHAP. I. PAUL, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. St. Paul begins this epistle, as he does the rest, with a very kind and gracious salutation; in which we have observable, the person saluting, the parties saluted, and the salutation itself. Note, 1. The persons saluting, Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus: Paul only was the inspired writer of the epistle, the other two were his associates and assistants, instruments with him in converting the Thessalonians to christianity, and whom they had a deservedly great affection for; he joins them therefore with himself, as asserters and approvers of the truth contained in this his epistle, that so he might procure the greater respect to the doctrines it contained; he therefore names them with himself, Paul, Silvanus, or Silas, as he is called, Acts xviii. and Timotheus; but why not Paul cn apostle, or Paul a servant of Jesus Thessalonica was Christ, as in other epistles, but bare Paul only? Ans. Because his apostleship was not at all questioned by them; the Thessalonians had a seal of it in their hearts; and there were no false apostles among them, that denied his apostleship, as the Galatians and other churches had. The prudent and faithful ministers of Christ know both how and when to use those titles of honour and respect which God hath given them, and also when it is convenient to forbear the assuming of them. Note, 2. The persons saluted, The church of the Thessalonians. the metropolis, or the mother-city, of Macedonia, where the christian church was planted by the ministry of St. Paul and Silas, but with great opposition from the Jews, who forced Paul to fly to Berea for his own safety, Acts xvii. and Jason, with others that entertained him, had like to have been sacrificed in their own houses; yet there, in despite of the devil's rage, and persecutors' malice, doth God erect a glorious church, a christian church, in honour of his Son, who purchased it with his blood. Learn hence, That when and where God will gather to himself a church, no opposition either of men or devils shall be sufficient to hinder it; as in Rome itself, nay, in the court of Nero, under the nose of that bloody tyrant, was a church collected, Phil. iv. 22. No wonder the devil struggles, when his kingdom totters; it follows, which (church) is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, established in the knowledge, faith, worship, and obedience, of God the Father; they were gentiles, called off from their dumb idols, to serve the living and true God, and were distinguished from all other societies and communions whatsoever; they were in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, they enjoyed a blessed union with Jesus Christ by faith, and a sweet communion and fellowship both with Father and Son, by the bond of the Spirit. Behold the high dignity and glorious privilege of the christian church, to be thus knit and united, both to the Father and the Son, by the agency of the Holy Spirit! To the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Note, 3. The salutation itself, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Where observe, 1. The option of blessings wished, grace and peace. Grace, in scripture, signifies first, the gracious favour of God towards us; and next, all the gifts of grace, all benefits and blessings issuing forth and flowing from thence: Peace usually signifies, in scripture language, all manner of outward prosperity and happiness. 2. The author and fountain from whence these blessings flow. 1. From God the Father. 2. From the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ; intimating, That whatever spiritual grace or temporal blessing we now receive from God, is from him, not barely as Creator, but as a Father, a gracious Father in Christ, in whom he pours out the immensity of his love upon us, and through whom he conveys all kinds of blessings unto us. 2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers: 3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father: Note here, 1. The holy wisdom of our apostle, who being about to magnify and extol the grace of the Spirit wrought in the Thessalonians, particularly their faith, their love, their patience and hope, instead of commending them for these graces, he breaks forth into thanksgivings unto God for them; We give thanks to God always for your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope: his business was not to celebrate and commend them, but to admire the special grace of God conferred upon them, and conspicuous in them. Learn hence, That it is our duty, and will be our great wisdom, so to speak of the grace of God, which we see and observe in others, as that they may not be puffed up with any conceit of their own excellences, but see matter of praise and thanksgiving due unto God only, and nothing to themselves. Note, 2. The special and particular graces which St. Paul observed in the Thessalonians: their faith, their love, their hope, together with the evidence of the sincerity of those graces : their faith was a working faith, that is, fruitful in good works; their love was a laborious love, promoting the good of all the saints; and their hope in the Lord Jesus rendered them patient in and under all tribulations for his sake. There is no such way to judge the truth of the inward habits of grace in the heart, as by observing the effects and fruits of that grace in the life: the apostle concluded they had true faith, because a fruitful faith; true love, because a laborious love; a good hope in Christ, because accompanied with patience under the cross of Christ. Note, 3. St. Paul's offices and acts of love performed on the Thessalonians' behalf, namely, thanksgiving and prayer. 1. Thanksgiving, We give thanks unto God always for you all. But why, O blessed apostle, art thou so thankful for the graces of God's Holy Spirit wrought in these Thessalonians? For thy own sake, no doubt, as well as theirs; he saw in them an eminent seal of his apostleship, the happy fruit and blessed effect of his ministry among them. This, O! this it was that drew forth his very soul in thanksgivings to God. Learn, That the faithful ministers of Christ rejoice greatly at the sight and appearance of the grace of God in any person, but when they see it in their own people, as the seal of their ministry, and the blessed fruit of their own painful endeavours amongst them, this carries them out into transports of thankfulness; verily, the joy of their hearts is too big to come out at their mouths, they give thanks for such a mercy without ceasing. Yet, 2. He subjoins prayers with his praises, adds supplications to his thanksgivings: Making mention of you always in my prayers; to let them know that there was still more grace wanting in them to keep them humble, as well as great grace in them to make him thankful: our prayers for grace must be thankful prayers, or accompanied with thanksgiving; when we pray to God for more grace, we must ever be thankful for what we have received; and when we return thanks for grace received, we must be earnest and instant with God for further and fresh supplies of grace wanted. Note, 3. The frequency, yea, constancy, of our apostle in performing these duties of prayer and thanksgiving on the behalf of the Thessalonians: We give thanks to God always for you, remembering you without ceasing, in the sight of God and our Father; that is, as often as we appear before God our Father, we incessantly pray for you, and constantly praise God on your behalf. Where observe, The comfortable relation in which the saints of God do approach and draw near unto God in prayer: they come to him as a Father, yea, as their Father; in the sight of God our Father. The Holy Spirit of God, vouchsafed to believers under the gospel, enables them to come before him in prayer, with a full assurance of his fatherly affection to wards them, as being the sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, and it enables them to cry, Abba, Father; and they are very careful to improve this their relation to God, and interest in him, as a Father, in prayer on behalf of themselves, and all their fellow-brethren and members in Christ. Thus, St. Paul here, We give thanks for you, and remember you without ceasing, in the sight of God and our Father. 4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. 5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. Observe here, 1. One special ground and reason assigned, why the apostle's heart was thus extraordinarily carried out in praise and thanksgivings unto God, on the Thessalonians' behalf, and that was, the Knowing knowledge of their election. your election of God: that is, knowing certainly and infallibly, by your proficiency in the fore-mentioned christian graces of faith, love, and hope, that God had certainly chosen you out of the gentile world, to be a church and people to himself, and that it was the good pleasure of God to gather a christian church at Thessalonica and also he did know and believe, with a judgment of charity, that Almighty God had chosen them to eternal life also, to be a part of his church triumphant in heaven, as well as of his church militant upon earth, the preaching of the gospel having met with such visible success amongst them. It is our unquestionable duty, and we learn it from St. Paul's example, in charity to number those among God's chosen, in whom we see, as much as man may see, the fruits and signs of God's election. Observe, 2. The ground which St. Paul had to build his confidence upon, that the Thessalonians were a people chosen of God; and that was, rational evidence: Knowing your election of God; for our gospel came to you not in word only, but in pow er. Where note, The piety and prudence of St. Paul's charity; it was not weakly grounded and credulous, but guided by reasonable evidence: Charity hopeth all things, that is, all things which it hath good ground to hope, but nothing more than what probable evidence may induce it to hope. St. Paul, when he saw the apostasy of Hymenæus and Alexander into error and vice, without censoriousness and uncharitableness, pronounces, that they had made shipwreck of faith, 1 Tim. i. 20. For he had sufficient reason to believe, there could be no faith, where there was no holiness. There are a generation of men amongst us, who brand the ministers of God with censoriousness, and rash judging the present state of men, though they judge by their lives and actions; they would have us hope well concerning them, against hope, and judge quite contrary to rational evidence: we must beknowledge; that they are right penitent lieve them to have faith, when they have and sorrowful for their sins, when they make a sport of sin; that their hearts are chaste, when their mouths foam out nothing but filthiness: but let them know, we dare not bring a curse upon ourselves, by calling good evil, or evil good; our charity, though not causelessly suspicious, yet neither is it foolishly blind. Observe, 3. That parti |