We are oblig'd, my brethren, to render thanks to God continually upon your account, as it is but just; since your faith still improves, and your mutual love is always increasing.

so that you are the subject of our glorying in the churches of God, for the constancy of your faith, under all the persecutions and afflictions you endure from men,

and that you, who are distress'd, should obtain your repose, together with us, when the Lord Jesus, with his angels, the ministers of his power, shall descend from heaven,

and with all the vile methods of imposture, to the ruin of those, who are averse to the truth, by which they might be saved.

As for you, my brethren, the favourites of the Lord, we are oblig'd to render perpetual thanks to God, for having chosen you from the beginning, in purifying you by his spirit, upon your believing the gospel.

now being inform'd, that there are among you people of an irregular conduct, who neglect their own business, and busy themselves with the affairs of others: