An Exposition of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians

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Chapter I

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus tchieh are at Philippic with the bishops and deacons : Grojce he unto yaa, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship m the gospel from the first day until now ; being confident of this very thing, that lie which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Among the advantages which God has given to man above animals, there is scarcely one more wonderful, or which more clearly shows the excellence of our nature, than the invention and use of letters. Thus we read that the people of that new world which ras discovered in the time of our fathers found nothing more astonishing than this art; not heing able to comprehend how a small sheet of paper, marked with a few lines and figures, was capable of revealing to a man the secrets of another, absent many leagues from him ; and previously to having learned the meaning, they imagined that there must be some spirit or divine virtue enclosed in the character oi the letters, to produce so admirahle an effect What would they have said, had they known that this invention, not only communicates to us the conversations and the thoughts of the absent, but even of the very dead ; and, in spite of the distance of times and places, renders those present to us, whom not only many climes, but also many ages, have removed m>m us by an almost infinite space P that it makes them speak some thousands of years after their death, and even in countries where they had never been during their life P By the blessing of letters they still live, although in the tomb, and converse with many more persons since death has destrewed their tongues than they did during the whole period in which mey had the entire use of them. As the holy apostles of the Lord Jesus have carefully made the most of every kind of endowment for spreading the gospel of their Master throughout the world, they have not failed to avail themselves of this also, multiplying by the pen both their preaching and their presence, and sending in their letters, as it were, types of themselves into those places where some causes had prevented their going in person.

It is from hence that we possess the fourteen divine Epistles of the apostle »t. Paul, written on sundry occasions to the cnurches, and to the faithful, with whom his absence did not permit him to converse by the living voice. Thus you see that, while he was a prisoner in Rome, he wrote to some of those beloved churches which he had established in Asia and in Greece, watering with his pen that which he had planted with his tongue. Although absent, and in the chains of Nero, still by means of his letters he did not cease to preach, and to exercise his apostleship, in those places where he could not be present. By them he lives and preaches still in the midst of us : they have extended the presence and the intercourse of this holy man throughout all climates and in every age. Among the churches on whom he conferred this favour, that of the Philippians was not the least considerable. Having chosen the Epistle which he wrote to it to be henceforth, if it please the Lord, the subject of these discourses, I feel myself obliged, in the first place, to make you acouainted with the circumstances that occasioned it. Philippi was a city of Macedonia, on the frontiers of Thrace, built by Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. This name rendered it celebrated from the beginning. But since that time it has become much more famous, on account of the two bloody battles which the Romans fought on its plains, in one of which Julius Caesar, the first emperor of the Romans, conquered Pompey, and in the other, Augustus, the son and successor of Julius, defeated Brutus and Cassius. St. Luke tells us, in the 16th chapter of Acts, that St. Paul having passed from Asia into Macedonia, by order of a heavenly vision, Philippi was the first I town where he sowed the seed of the gospel, with

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such success that he there gained Lvdia with her family, and many others, whom he afterwards confirmed in the faitn hy his miracles and by his sufferings. For he there publicly closed the mouth of devils ; and having been brought before the magistrates and scourged with Silas for the name of Jesus, he enlightened with celestial brightness the darkness of the prison itself in which they were placed. And although the magistrates drove him from the town, still his word, his blood, and his works were so efficacious, that he left there a good company of Christians. Whilst this happy church thus grew at Philippi, St. Paul pursued his conquests by lounding others elsewhere, at Thessalonica, at Berea, at Athens, at Corinth, and at Ephesus, planting the cross of his Master in all the provinces of Greece. But the devil, envying his success, excited against him the rage of the Jews, who, not bein^ able to put him to death in Jerusalem, accused him before the Roman governors of the country ; and after a long captivity in the city of Cesarea, he was finally sent to Rome to be judged by the emperor ; there he remained for some years a prisoner. The church of the Philippians, remembermg what they owed to their master, visited him in his bonds, despatched Epaphroditus (who appears to have been their pastor) express to Rome, to inquire after him, and to dispense to him some fruits of their charity, rightly judging that, in so sad a situation, he would require assistance both for the necessities and comforts of life. Epaphroditus acquitted himself of his commission, and informed the apostle of the state of the Philippians, and of the assaults directed a^inst their faith by the false teachers among the Jews, who tried to corrupt the gospel, and to mix Moses with Jesus Christ. He assured him of the constancy of his converts, and of their perseverance in his doctrine, and was detained some time with the apostle by a serious illness with which the Lord visited him. When he recovered, St. Paul sent him back to Philippi, and charged him with this Epistle, where, after naving commended their piety and their zeal, to strengthen them in this good way, and to fortify them against the temptations of the enemy, he addressed various exhortations and necessary remonstrances to them. In the first place, he declares his cordial affection towards them ; he speaks to them of himself, and of his bonds ; he conjures them not to lose courage from the extreme dangers in which they saw him ; shows them that his imprisonment only

Promoted the elory of the gospel ; and incited them y his example to prepare themselves for similar combats. And because ambition is the mother of discord, which opens the door to false doctrine, and to scandals, he powerfully exhorts them to humility in the 2nd chapter, proposing to them the admirable example of Jesus Chnst; and, to console them, he promises very soon to send Timothy to them, hoping shortly himself to follow, and excusing the delay of Epaphroditus, on account of his illness. In the 3rd chapter he attacks the false teachers amon^ the Jews, opposing to the pretended utility of their circumcision the fulness of Jesus Christ, and to their pride and ostentation the advantages of his own birth according to the flesh, of his former conversation in the profession of the law, and the holiness of his present life; warning them that the only object at which we all ought to strive is, that we may Have Dart in the death and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Finally, in the last chapter, after having briefly, but ardently, exhorted them to a persevering and earnest pursuit after sanctiflcation, he thanks them for their charity, and finishes, as usual, by prayers for their welfare, and by the remembrances of the believers who were at Rome. This, dear brethren, is the occasion and subject of this Epistle. May God, who inspired his apostle to write it, give us grace, to me to explain it, and to you to hear it, honestly, and in a Christian-like spirit, to the glory of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and to our common joy and edification. Amen.

Upon the present occasion, in order that I may give you a distinct understandinc^ of the verses which you nave heard, I shall, with the blessing of God, consider three points in them : First, The inscription, or address, of the Epistle, contained in the two first verses. Secondly, The thanksgivings and prayers of St. Paul to God for the Philippians, in the three following verses. And finally. The assurance that he felt of their future perseverance ; this he sets forth in the last verse of our text.

I. The inscription of the Epistle, the first of these three points, is contained in these words ; " Paul and Timotneus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons :" to which I shall join the following salutation, usual in the Epistles of this apostle ; '* Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul, the author of this Epistle, is so well known to you, that it is not necessary that I should stop to describe him ; besides which, we shall hereafter have occasion on the 3rd chapter to speak of the principal circumstances of his condition, both before and after his conversion. He does not here mention his quality of apostle, which shines in the titles of the greater numoer of his other Epistles, and in my opinion for two reasons : first, because his dignity was well known to the Philippians to whom he wrote; secondly, because he associates himself with Timothy in this place, and wrote not only in his own name, but in that of this disciple also, to whom the quality of apostle did not belong. He therefore assumes a title which was common to them both, viz. that of ** servants of Jesus Christ." It is true, that in a certain sense this title belongs to all Christians, inasmuch as it signifies generally the subjects of the Lord, who owe him, and yield to him, an absolute subjection. For as he has not only created us, but has moreover redeemed us with his blood, it is clear that we are his subjects by a double ri&^ht. But I am of opinion that St. Paul here uses tne word " servants" in another sense, meaning the ministers and officers of Jesus Christ, whom he has established in a certain charge over his flocks, to govern and to feed them, in the same way as Moses, Aaron, Samuel, and many others, are usually called servants of God, in the ancient Scriptures, by reason of the offices which they exercised in Israel. In this sense, the word " servant of Christ" is rather a name of dignity than of subjection, and is em* ployed to recommend and extol the quality of those to whom it is given, rather than for the purpose of abasing them, and reducing them to an equality with others, and only belongs to those who exercise some authority in the church : such were Paul and Timo> thy ; the first, the apostle of the Lord, which is the highest dignity in tne church ; the latter, evangelist and prophet, which was the second after the apostleship. He addresses his Epistle generally to the whole body of the church at Philippi, and then particularly to those who guided it, who have since l^en called ** the clergy," to distinguish them from the people.

He calls the former " all the saints which are at Philippi ;" that is to say, all the faithful. For you know that, in the style of the apostles, the name of saint is given generally to all true Christians, in the first place, because God has separated them from other men by his calling, thus drawing them into