With a view to the extreme enormity of their crimes, and under a deep impression of the flagitiousness of their whole character as a nation, the apostle appears to have personified them, and to have represented them as a man of sin—as one whose whole composition was sin, and nothing else. And if Josephus's account of them be not overcharged, and that it is not, is pretty evident from the gospel history, this language was not too strong. And as sin and punishment are naturally enough connected together in the minds of those who contemplate them, especially when arrived at such an enormous height, the apostle appears to have carried on the personification under the relative idea of a "son of perdition”—one devoted to destruction, and the natural offspring of such a parent agreeably to what he said of them in his former epistle, that" wrath was coming upon them to the uttermost."

"Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle" (ver. 15.) Here the standing fast appears, most unquestionably, to be opposed to the being shaken in mind or troubled, as particularly mentioned in the second verse; and the traditions in which they were to stand fast seem evidently to be those relating to the coming of Christ, or to the predictions of our Lord concerning the true nature of His coming as the Messiah, or to the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, what is all this, asks Mr. Nisbett, but very strong presumptive evidence that what the apostle has said to remove the anxiety of the Thessalonians, and to enable them to stand fast, were not, as has been supposed new predictions of very distant events; but merely a

repetition of the predictions of our Lord concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, together with such additional circumstances relative to the character of the Jews as had fallen under the apostle's observation, and which the Thessalonians most unquestionably had an interest in, if only as proofs of the truth and integrity of our Saviour's character as a true prophet of God.*

* See Nisbett's "Triumphs of Christianity," pp. 193-224.

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

CHAPTER I.

"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions."—Ver. 4.

THESE fables and endless genealogies are thought, by Doddridge and others, to be Jewish tables of lineal descent, which gave rise to endless disputes; but we think, with Huther, that the fables of Paul are the Gnostic inventions of the Eons; the genealogies, the lists of their succession, which were endless and Godless. Thus Irenæus and Tertullian understand the passage; and, as Hawes observes, Paul opposes to these Gnostic aons the true consideration of the œons, in ver. 17. The more inquisitive Jews at that time mixed freely with the Gentiles. Paul does not find fault with civil genealogies; but prefixes fables, a term inconsistent with genealogies of families, which were certainly not fabulous.*

"Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient," etc.-Ver. 9.

On the meaning of this passage there is much diversity of opinion among the commentators. But better than any of them is Wesley's view of the passage, who translates, does not lie against a righteous man." Dr. A. Clarke, who agrees with

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*"Critical English Testament," in loco. See also pp. 263266, ante.

John Wesley, remarks that the law does not lie against a righteous man, because he does not transgress it; but it lies against the wicked; for such as the apostle mentions have broken it, and grievously too, and are condemned by it. The word lies, refers

to the custom of writing laws on boards, and hanging them up in public places, within reach of any man, that they might be read by all thus all would see against whom the law lay.

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CHAPTER II.

I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not."-Ver. 7.

IT is according to the Hebrew style to express a thing both affirmatively and negatively, when they desire to give it great force and emphasis. In John i. 20, the same thing is expressed three times, once negatively and twice affirmatively. "He confessed, and denied not; but confessed." He was so just and modest as to confess and not deny the truth; and what He confessed was this, that He was not the Messiah. So Paul, in the text, says, "I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not," which is a solemn and seasonable repetition, proper to convince Timothy of his pious zeal and authority.*

CHAPTER V.

"Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid."-Ver. 24, 25.

SOME ancients and moderns think this passage is to be taken in a general way of the judgment of God. Blackwall's "Sacred Classics," p. 60.

Others refer it to the ecclesiastical censures. Others, again, as Chrysostom and the Greek commentators (and, indeed, most eminent moderns), take it to relate solely to the ordination mentioned at ver. 22. This interpretation, which alone bears the stamp of truth, says Bloomfield, is well expressed by Whitby. Rosenmüller observes that hamartiai signifies the report of the sins, as pistis the report of faith, 1 Thess. i. 8.

CHAPTER VI.

"Avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called."-Ver. 20.

BARBAROUS Words were in former times used by the Magi; they were said to be possessed of a magical power, though in reality they had none, but were worthless. The reference seems to be to the wizards, who, in Isa. viii. 19, are said to "peep and to mutter;" and, as Hawes observes, Paul has substituted for kenologountos, a word of greater significance, kenophōnias; adding, that phōnē, a voice, indicates vehemence.