the other, though he retains the phrase, kingdom of Christ, yet appears to convey the same meaning: I am the more confident this was his intention, since he has so plainly expressed his views of a similar phraseology, in his notes on Mark x. 24, 25, Luke xviii. 24, 25, and John iii. 3, 5, to which the reader is referred.

1. GILL. Kingdom of Christ and of God: meaning either a gospel church state, in which persons of such characters, and living in such sins, ought not to be, or else the kingdom of heaven and of glory,' &c. Expos. in loc.

2. GILPIN. Let all impurity likewise be avoided, as well as sins against your neighbor. The philosopher of this world may excuse impure practices under the name of natural inclinations; but assure yourselves they are utterly inconsistent with the kingdom of Christ.' Expos. in ver. 1-5.

SECTION XCIII.

And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.'— PHIL. i. 28.

THIS passage has been thought to furnish proof that some shall not be saved. But the orthodox writers, quoted below, do not so understand it.

1. GILPIN. Not let any worldly fears, nor worldly adversaries, discompose you. The opposition of your enemies marks their hard and impenitent hearts, but brightens your hope in the mercies of God-purifying your religious principles, as I hope in God it hath done mine, by adding suffering to faith.' Expos. in ver. 28— 30.

2. MACKNIGHT. This writer has a different view of the apostle's meaning. He thinks perdition signifies damnation, in the popular sense of the word. But the

reader will observe he says their opposers thought the Christians would be damnned; but in thus judging, they erred, in as much as those persons should assuredly be saved. Hence, in his opinion, this text affords no support to the doctrine of endless misery, since, as he asserts, those persons shall be saved, who were thought to be in danger of endless danination.

The firmness with which the Philippians refused to obey the law of Moses, was considered, not only by the unbelieving Jews, but by the Judaizing Christians, as a proof of their damnation. In like manner, the resolution with which the Christians refused to join the heathens, in their worship, was considered by the heathens as an obstinacy in atheism, which would bring on them eternal punishment in Tartarus.'

In accordance with this view of the subject, Macknight gives the following paraphrase of the verse :

And show that ye are not terrified, in any shape, by the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, your adversaries, though numerous and powerful; which fortitude, to them indeed, is a demonstration of your damnation, because they consider it as obstinacy in error, but to you it is a clear proof of your salvation, and that from God him'self.' Com. and Note in loc.

SECTION XCIV.

'Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.'-PHIL. iii. 19.

As destruction is said to be the end of these persons, some have supposed they must be endlessly miserable in the future life. This surely is not the most obvious meaning of the word destruction, nor of the Greek word thus rendered. And that such is not its import in this

place, but that it indicates a destruction of natural lifein other words, that it indicates that these persons should be punished with death, is the opinion of the writers quoted below.

1

1. HAMMOND. But shall, in fine, gain little by it, but be destroyed with the Jews in their approaching ruin, 2 Pet. ii. 1, the Gnostics, I mean, who mind nothing but their sensual appetites, boast of all those things which they ought to be ashamed of-their base lusts, &c., and so can never look up towards heaven.' Annot. in loc.

2. PYLE. 'Their notions and views of religion are all temporal, and their chief aim is at the gratification of their sensual appetites and pleasures; they boast in what they ought to be ashamed of; and, for such irreclaimable prejudices and practices, God will destroy their whole nation with a most exemplary destruction.' Par. in loc.

3. WHITBY. This passage is applied to the temporal destruction of the Jewish nation in particular, by Dr. Whitby, in his annotation on 2 Thess. ii. 3, quoted in its proper place.

SECTION XCV.

Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.' 1 THESS. ii. 16.

THAT the wrath here mentioned indicates merely temporal punishment, and has no reference to torments after death, is admitted in the following quotations:

the

1. WHITBY. Our Lord had said to them, fill ye up measure of your fathers, by adding to the murder of the prophets, the murder of me, and of those prophets and wise men I shall send to you, Matt. xxiii. 32—35, that upon you of this generation may come all the blood shed from Abel to this present time, Luke xi. 49, 51. This pre

SO

diction, saith the apostle, is now fulfilled; and they, by fulfilling it, have filled up the measure of their sins; and God's wrath is so incensed against them, that it will now destroy their church and nation to the uttermost; that it shall not be now as formerly, when they were sometimes in bondage, and again in freedom from their enemies-sometimes were captives, and then returned again, after seventy years, to their own land, found God for a while angry, and anon, reconciled to them. But this wrath shall now remain upon them to the uttermost, till the times of the Gentiles are come in, Luke xxi. 24. See note on Rom. xi. 25. Or, till they be consumed ::-so the phrase is used often in the Old Testament, as Numb. xvii. 13, Josh. viii. 24, x. 20—i. e., God's wrath hath begun to fall upon them, and they will still continue under it, till they be consumed by it.' Annot. in loc.

2. MACKNIGHT. The past time is here put for the present, and is plain, from this, that the wrath of God had not yet fallen on the Jewish nation. The apostle speaks of their punishment as at hand, being taught it, either by Christ's prediction, or by a particular revelation made to himself. The version which our translators have given of this phrase, namely, to the utmost, is improper. For, though the calamities brought on the Jews, by the Romans, were very great, they did not utterly destroy them. According to God's promise, that he never would make a full end of the Jews, a remnant of them was left; and in the posterity of that remnant, now multiplied to a great number, the promises, concerning the conversion and restoration of Israel, will be fulfilled.' Note in loc.

3. HAMMOND. 'And this, generally, is the ground of their quarrel with us, that, in spite of their prohibition, we preach to the Gentiles, use means that they might repent of their idolatries, &c., by which, and the former things, the Jews do so fill up the measure of their sins, that the wrath of God, to the utter destruction of them, is now come upon them, already denounced, and, within a very little while, most certain to overtake them.' Par. in loc.

4. DUTCH ANNOTATIONS.

This is by some understood

of the heaviness of the judgment, or wrath of God, which God is wont to send down upon the heads of such men, both here and hereafter; by others, as fitly, of the continuance of the judgment or wrath of God, which came upon this stiff-necked generation of the Jews, shortly after that time, when God exemplarily punished them, with the greater part of the rest, assembled out of all quarters at Jerusalem, by the Romans, and so destroyed them, that they are yet no more a people, but remain scattered amongst all nations, and are generally hardened in unbelief.' Annot. in loc.

5. KNATCHBull. 'The wrath of God is come upon them in the end. They have killed Jesus and their own prophets, and they have persecuted us, neither care they for God, but are contrary to all, forbidding us to preach that ye might be saved; but the vengeance of God is come upon them in the end. Their measure was full, and the destruction of Jerusalem was at hand.' Annot. in loc.

unto you,

6. CALMET.God was to visit them immediately in vengeance, to scatter them among all nations, to destroy the largest portion of them, and to cause the remnant of this miserable race to bear the most manifest marks of his indignation. This came to pass about seventeen years after Paul wrote this epistle, to wit, in the year of Jesus Christ, seventy.' Com. in loc.

SECTION XCVI.

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you, who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.'-2 THESS. i. 6-10.

THIS passage has been alleged as containing positive