This we are to mark diligently, and take it for an eminent token of the glory to which our Lord was to go, and which he should be able to give: for it relies upon the report of those who were persons of known worth and uprightness of heart, who had no design in the world to serve but only to promote such an important truth, of which they were fully assured. They appeal to all that had any acquaintance with them, whether ever they saw or had reason to suspect any false or double dealing in them, and had not rather been witnesses of their honesty and simplicity in the whole course of their ministry. For we are not, as many, saith St. Paul, кажηλeúovtes tòv dóyov TOû EOû, that sell the word of God', and make merchandise of it to enrich themselves thereby; (such might not stick to corrupt God's word, as we render it, and mix their own dreams with it) but with all sincerity, as men who are authorized by God, and have him before our eyes, to whom we must give an account of our actions, we publish the gospel of Christ: whom they accounted it a great mercy and favour from God to serve. And therefore, having received this ministry, saith hes, we are not sluggish in doing our duty, nor do we perform it in a base, unworthy manner, but have so renounced or thrust away far from us all secret devices of enriching ourselves, that we do not blush to think of our designs; (for τὰ κρυπτὰ τῆς αἰσχύνης are such practices as for mere shame men hide and cover, pretending, for instance, only the good of souls, when they intend nothing but to get their money;) nor do we walk in craftiness, appearing one thing and being another; nor corrupt the word of God, by mixing any of our own inventions with it; but in a free, open, and plain manner, we commend ourselves to all men's consciences, as having God looking on us. All that know us cannot but approve us, (if they be not led by passion more than reason;) and if they do not, God doth. This he repeats again, chap. vi, where he gives a proof of their sincerity in the exercise of their ministry from these two things: first, that they got nothing by it but many afflictions; and then, that they did nothing but good to others, in recompense for all the trouble they gave them. Of the former he speaks ver. 4, 5; of the second, ver. 6, 7; and then returns to Which argument he handles also at large the other again. towards the conclusion of the same Epistle, xi. 23, 24, &c., and once more, xii. 10. And thus he writes also to the church of Thessalonicah, who knew very well how faithfully they had discharged their trust, and that they did not accommodate themselves to any man's humour, but plainly delivered the message which God had committed to them. Nobody could say that they had used any flattering speechesi, to soothe them up in a vain conceit of themselves, nor used any colours to hide a covetous design. No, as to their words and addresses, the Thessalonians could testify the contrary; and as to their mind and heart, which God only could know, they call him to witness it never entered into their thoughts. Nor did they seek glory and fame either from them or anybody else, but despised it as much as riches; unless it were the honour of obliging them, by communicating the blessings of the gospel to them, and receiving no reward from them. They might indeed have put them to charge, and lived upon their cost, as other apostles of Christ did, and that honestly too: but he and his companions were among them with more gentleness; they parted, that is, from their own undoubted right, to spare the Thessalonians; and as a good nurse cherishes her children, so they defrauded themselves, and took the meat, as we speak, out of their own mouths, for the good of others whom they desired to breed up in Christian piety. This shows the wonderful innocency and goodness of these men, who got nothing by the gospel, (no, not what they might have lawfully and justly taken,) but only studied how to win souls to Christ. In short, he calls them and God also to witness how holily, how justly, how unblamably they behaved themselves among those that believed m. The first of which words refers to God; the second, to those actions which belong to human society; and the third, to those which every man is bound unto severally by himself in none of which could he, Silvanus, and Timotheus, be charged with any misdemeanour. On which argument he once more insists"; being so confident of his unreprovable virtue, that he desired nothing more of all that knew him but to be followers of him, and to walk so as they had him for an example". h1 Thess. ii. 4. n 2 Tim. iii. 10, II. k Ver. 6. m Ver. 10. 1 Ver. 7. i Ver. 5. All which I have the more particularly noted, because it is from these men that we receive the testimony of Jesus: who, they assure us, chose to die the most shameful death, when he could have avoided it; and with the greatest confidence, when he was expiring, commended his spirit into the hands of God. Which is an unquestionable argument that he believed and was assured that he should be with God when he went from hence, and be able to do for his followers all that he promised. Which they tell us moreover God justified when he raised him from the dead, and carried him, in their sight, up into heaven; and afterward sent the Holy Ghost upon them, to testify that he was still alive, and possessed of an unseen glory. In which, they also tell us, he appeared to several persons, as I have already related. One of which was caught up into heaven, and heard such things there as made him wish for nothing more than to leave this earth, and to be with Christ. Το whom the angels, they also assure us, witnessed upon several occasions for they attended him at his birth, and in his life, and when he died, and after his resurrection, and when he ascended into heaven: from whence he sent them many times, as ministering spirits, to his apostles; of which we have very large testimonies in the whole book of the Revelation. From all which we may safely conclude, that there can no other reason in the world be given why any man thus informed should not believe the gospel, but only his own desperate wickedness: for the things propounded therein are most desirable above all other. It reveals such a wonderful love of God to mankind, that all men would rejoice to hear the news of it, were they not averse to those pious and virtuous courses whereby they are told they must attain it. Nothing attracts all hearts so much as the hope of a blessed immortality: which is testified to us so credibly in the gospel, that nothing could make men turn their ears away from it by infidelity, but only the incurable wickedness of their nature; which will not let them part with those vices which the gospel says they must quit for so great a good. In one word, there is nothing in this book but what is suitable to all men's desires, save only the holy rule of life; and therefore it can be nothing else but their hatred to this which makes them reject all the rest. They would follow their nobler appetite after those good things which the gospel promises, if they had not perfectly given up themselves to those baser appetites which must be denied for their sake. For if our gospel be hid, saith St. Paul in the place before mentioned, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto themP. That which the gospel reports is as clear as the noon-day. Nothing can be more visible than the φωτισμὸς τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς δόξης τοῦ Χριστοῦ, the light or the splendour of the gospel of the glory of Christ' by which, saith Theophylact, the apostle means the belief of these great truths, that Jesus was crucified, that he was received up into heaven, and that he will give future rewards. This is the porous, splendour, the apostle speaks of, which if any man do not see, after such evident demonstrations of these things, it is his wickedness hinders him. And such men, after they have long resisted the light, fall under the power of the devil so inevitably, that he blinds their eyes. Mark, as St. Chrysostom observes, that the Scripture calls several things by the name of a god, not from their own worth and excellence, but àñò тηs àσleveías TÔV VTоTATTOμÉvov, 'from the weakness of those who are subject to them.' Thus Mammon is the god of some, and the belly the god of others, and the devil the god of all such persons; because they are basely enslaved to the love of money, and of their fleshly appetite, and he rules and governs them as absolutely as if he were their god. Yet he hath no power quite to blind their eyes, as he further observes, before they disbelieve that which is so credibly reported by such divine arguments for, as the very words of St. Paul are, he blinds the minds of them that believe not : γεγόνασιν ἄπιστοι δι ̓ ἑαυτοὺς, they became infidels of themselves;' and having given themselves over to unbelief, against such miraculous evidence of the truth of the Christain faith, God gives them over to him: to whose service they have so slavishly devoted themselves, that they cannot be recovered; but, as they deserve, must unavoidably perish. 6 From which miserable condition let all those who are inclined to infidelity take care to save themselves, by timely conp 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. q [In loc. tom. ii. p. 263 B.] [In loc. tom. x. p. 493 D.] sidering those divine demonstrations which these holy men of God have reported to us; who beheld our Saviour's glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truths. Upon which words hear what the same eloquent bishop writes; who thus sums up a great part of the evidence we have for the Christian belief. "The angels appeared in great glory upon the earth to Daniel, David, and Moses; but they appeared as servants, as those that had a Master. It is the peculiar glory of our Saviour, that he appeared as a Lord, as having power over all: and though in a poor and vile fashion, yet even in that the creation knew its Lord and Master. A star from heaven called the wise men to worship him. A great company of angels often attended him, and sang his praises. To whom others succeeded, who published his glory, and delivered this secret mystery one to another: the angels to the shepherds, and the shepherds to those in the city; and Gabriel to Mary and Elizabeth; and Anna and Simeon to those in the temple. Nor were men and women only transported with the pleasure; but an infant that had not seen the light leaped in its mother's womb; and all were strangely lifted up in hopes of what was a coming. These things all fell out straightway after his birth. But when he appeared in the world, there were more miracles, and greater than the former, appeared again. For not so little as a star and the heavens, not angels or archangels, not Gabriel or Michael, but the Father himself proclaimed him from heaven; and with the Father, the Comforter came down with a voice, and remained on him. And therefore well might the apostle say, We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father. And not by these things alone, but by those which followed after. For now not merely shepherds, and an aged prophetess, and reverend men, published the glad tidings of the gospel; but the voice itself of the things he did, louder than the sound of any trumpet: which was heard presently every where. For the fame of him, saith the evangelist, went into all Syria'; and revealed him to all, and cried every where that the King of heaven was come to men. For demons every where fled and got away; and the |