\\INTRODUCTION TO 2 THESSALONIANS\\

This second epistle was written, not from Athens, as the
subscription testifies, nor from Rome, as Athanasius {a} supposes;
but from Corinth, from whence was sent the former, and where the
apostle and Timothy, and Silvanus met; and which was sent about half
a year after the other. The design of which is to comfort and
support the Thessalonians under the afflictions and persecutions
they endured for the sake of the Gospel; and to rectify a mistake
they had gone into, and which might be occasioned by what the
apostle had said in his former epistle, concerning the second coming
of Christ, as though it was just at hand; which might lead them to
neglect their worldly business, and duties of civil life, and give
the enemies of the Gospel an advantage against the whole of it as
false, should not this prove true; as also to exhort this church to
take notice of disorderly persons such as were idle, and
busy bodies, and withdraw from them, and remove them from their
communion, as being not only burdensome to them, but a reproach to
their profession.

{a} Synopsis Sacr. Script. Tom. ii. p. 129.

\\INTRODUCTION TO 2 THESSALONIANS 1\\

This chapter, besides the inscription and salutation, contains a
thanksgiving for the flourishing condition in which the graces of the
Spirit were in these saints, and consolation for them under their
suffering circumstances. The inscription and salutation are in
\\#2Th 1:1,2\\ and are as usual: the thanksgiving is in \\#2Th 1:3\\
for the growth of their faith, the abounding of their love, and their
constant patience under persecutions and afflictions, insomuch that
the apostle also gloried of them for these things among other
churches, \\#2Th 1:4\\ and as an encouragement to them to continue
patient under sufferings, he observes that this was a token of the
righteous judgment of God, and that they were reckoned worthy of his
kingdom for which they suffered, \\#2Th 1:5\\ and of which righteous
judgment they might be assured, from the nature of God himself,
whose justice required a retribution of vengeance to their
persecutors, and rest to them with the apostles, \\#2Th 1:6,7\\
the time of which rest and ease is pointed at, as that it will be at
the coming of Christ; which is described by the place from whence he
comes, heaven; by his retinue, his mighty angels; by the manner in
which he shall come, in flaming fire; and by the vengeance he will
execute: the objects of which are also described, by their ignorance
of God, and by their disobedience to the Gospel of Christ; and by
the nature of the punishment inflicted on them, which will lie in an
expulsion from the presence, power, and glory of God, and in an
everlasting destruction of soul and body, \\#2Th 1:7-9\\ but as for
them, the persecuted saints, and which is mentioned for their
comfort, Christ shall at this day be glorified and admired in them,
and by them, \\#2Th 1:10\\ wherefore the apostle prays for this
perseverance of them, that the good work of faith might be performed
in them, and they enjoy the glory they were called unto; and that
Christ might be glorified in them, and they in him; not according to
their works, but according to the grace of God through him,
\\#2Th 1:11\\.