14.) We are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, becaufe God hath chofen you to falvation, thro' fanctification of the fpirit, and belief of the truth: Whereunto be called you by the gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jefus Chrift. The apostle proceeds (ver. 15.) Therefore, brethren, ftand faft, and bold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epiftle: and certainly there is not any oral tradition that hath a jufter claim to be thought apoftolical, than this of the man of fin's fucceeding upon the decline of the Roman empire, and exalting himfelf over all. Wherefore to conclude, as the apostle concludes the fubject, (ver. 16, 17.) Now our Lord Jefus Chrift himself, and God even our Father, who hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting confolation, and good hope, through grace, Comfort your hearts, and ftablish you in every good word and work. STA latter times. T. Paul was a man of lively thought and ftrong imagination. None of the apostles had a warmer zeal for Chrift and the Chriftian religion. He was, as he faith himself, (2 Cor. XI. 23, 28, 29.) in labors more abundant; he had the care of all the churches; Who is weak, faith he, and I am not weak? who is offended and I burn not? It was natural for fuch a mind to be deeply affected with the forefight of the great apoftafy of Chriftians from the true Chriftian faith and worship, and to lament it, and to forewarn his disciples of it, as often as there was occafion. He made this apoftafy one topic of his difcourfe to the Theffalonians, while he was yet with them: and afterwards in his fecond Epiftle to them, he gave them to understand that the day of Christ was not at hand, as they apprehended; for there should come the apoftafy firft; implying that it should be both extenfive and of long duration. He mentions this apoftafy again in his first Epistle to Timothy, and describes more more particularly wherein it fhould confift, and at what time, and by what means, it should be propagated and advanced in the world. (1 Tim. IV. 1, 2, 3.) Now the Spirit fpeaketh exprefly, that in the latter times fome fhall depart from the faith, giving heed to feducing spirits, and doctrins of devils, Speaking lies in hypocrify, having their confcience feared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thankf giving of them which believe and know the truth. The paffage perhaps may better be tranflated thus, But the Spirit fpeaketh exprefly; He had been speaking before of the mystery of godliness, and now he proceeds to speak of the myslery of iniquity in oppofition to it, But the Spirit Speaketh exprefly, that in the latter times fome shall apoftatize from the faith, giving heed to erroneous Spirits and doctrins concerning demons, Through the hypocrify of liers, having their confcience feared with a hot iron, Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by the believers and them who know the truth. This tranflation will be justified by the following confiderations, wherein it is proposed to fhow the true interpretation and exact completion of this prophecy. But this fubject hath been fo fully and learnedly difcuffed difcuffed by the excellent (1) Mr. Mede, that we must be greatly obliged to him in the courfe of this differtation. The drefs and clothing may be fomewhat different, but the body and fubftance must be much the fame: and they must be referred to his works, who are defirous of obtaining farther fatisfaction. Not that we would make a tranfcript only of any writer; we should hope to inforce and improve the subject by fome new arguments and new illuftrations; as every fcribe inftructed unto the kingdom of heaven (Matt. XIII. 52.) is like unto a man that is an houfholder, who bringeth forth out of his treafure things new as well as old. I. The first thing to be confidered is the apoftafy here predicted, Some fhall depart or rather. fhall apoftatize from the faith. The apoftle had predicted the fame thing before to the Theffalonians, The day of Chrift fhall not come, except, there come a falling away or rather the apoftafy firft. In the original the words are of the fame import and derivation, αποςασία and απισήσονται ; and they should have been tranflated both alike, as the fame thing was intended in both places. An apoftaly from the faith may be total or partial, either when we renounce the whole, or when (1) See Mede's Works, B. 3. p. 623, -693. See likewife we Monf. Jurieu's Accomplishment of the Prophecies. Part 1. Chap. we deny fome principal and effential article of it. The writers of the New Testament frequently derive their language as well as their ideas from the Old: and by confidering what was accounted apoftafy under the Mofaical œconomy, we may form the better notion of what it is under the Christian difpenfation. It doth not appear that the Jews or Ifraelites ever totally renounced and abandoned the living and true God; he never ceased altogether to be their God, or they to be his people: but they revolted from their allegiance to God, when they worshipped him in an image, as in the golden calves, which was the fin and apostasy of Jeroboam; and when they worshipped other gods befides him, as Baalim and the host of heaven, which was the fin and apoftafy of Ahab and Manaffeh: and for the fame reason the idolatry of Ahaz is by the Greek interpreters called (2 Chron. XXIX. 19.) añosTaσia auтe his apoftafy, and it is faid of him" (XXVIII. 19.) that απέςη αποφασει απο τε Κυρια be apoftatized greatly from the Lord. Apoftafy therefore was idolatry in the Jewish church, and it is the fame in the Chriftian. This argument may receive fome illuftration from a (2) fimilar paffage in St. Peter; (2 Pet. II. 1.) There were falje XLIII. upon this text. p. 238, Chap. 18, 19, 20, 21. טעותא (3) |