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panion and assistant in the year 51, he would in the year 64 be thirty-three, to which age it is thought the Apostle would not apply the word youth. To this it may be answered, that Timothy might be younger than persons usually were, who were intrusted with such commissions. He certainly was young when compared with the importance of the business in which he was engaged, and St. Paul thought that he stood in need of particular instructions and directions from himself. Or Timothy might be younger than those whom he had to oppose, or those whom he had to correct, and on that account Paul might fear that people would not be disposed to submit to his authority; or this passage might have reference to some circumstance which had occurred at Ephesus, and which is not transmitted to us. In any case the word youth seems to be of so indefinite a signification, and is so often used in a relative sense, that we cannot draw from it any positive conclusion concerning the precise age of a person to whom it is applied. But the force of this objection is entirely destroyed by the consideration, that St. Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy gives him this precept, "Flee also youthful lusts";" for it will afterwards appear that the second Epistle to Timothy was written during St. Paul's second imprisonment at

a Aulus Gellius, lib. x. cap. 28., informs us, that Servius Tullius, in classing the Roman people, divided their age into three periods; childhood, which extended

to the age of seventeen; youth, from seventeen to forty-six; and old age, from forty-six to the end of life.

b2 Tim. ii. 22.

Rome, and consequently after the year 64, and yet even then the Apostle considered Timothy as a young man.

The other objection arises from St. Paul's declaration to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, in the year 58, "That they should see his face no more"," which is considered as a prediction that he should never go to Ephesus again; whereas the date assigned by us to this Epistle necessarily implies that he was at Ephesus in the year 64. But we must remember that, though St. Paul was an inspired apostle, his Inspiration by no means extended to every thing which he said, nor did it enable him to foresee exactly what would happen to him: this appears in the clearest manner from this very speech to the Ephesian elders: "And now behold," says St. Paul, "I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and afflictions await me." Thus he expressly declares the limited and partial nature of Inspiration; that the Holy Ghost had revealed generally that he was about to suffer bonds and afflictions, but that the communication went no farther; and if he did not know the particular events which awaited him even at Jerusalem, whither he was then going, much less probable is it that he was enabled to foresee with certainty, whether he should ever be at Ephesus again. The declaration, therefore, that the Ephesian elders Acts, xx. 22, 23.

a

Acts, xx. 25.

b

b

would no more see his face, appears not to have been dictated by the Holy Ghost; it was merely "the conclusion of his own mind, the desponding inference which he drew from strong and repeated intimations of approaching danger.""

III. The principal design of this Epistle was to give instructions to Timothy concerning the management of the church of Ephesus; and it was probably intended that this Epistle should be read publicly to the Ephesians, that they might know upon what authority Timothy acted. After saluting him in an affectionate manner, and reminding him of the reason for which he was left at Ephesus, the Apostle takes occasion from the frivolous disputes, which some Judaizing teachers had introduced among the Ephesians, to assert the practical nature of the Gospel, and to show its superiority over the Law; he returns thanks to God for his own appointment to the apostleship, and recommends to Timothy fidelity in the discharge of his sacred office"; he exhorts that prayers should be made for all men, and especially for magistrates; he gives directions for the conduct of women, and forbids their teaching in public; he describes the qualifications necessary for bishops and deacons, and speaks of the mysterious nature of the Gospel dispensation; he foretells that there will be apostates from the truth, and false teachers in the latter

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times, and recommends to Timothy purity of manners and improvement of his spiritual gifts; he gives him particular directions for his behaviour towards persons in different situations of life, and instructs him in several points of Christian discipline; he cautions him against false teachers, gives him several precepts, and solemnly charges him to be faithful to his trust.

a iv.

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PART II.

CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH.

OF THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

I. DATE OF THIS EPISTLE. -II. WHERE TIMOTHY WAS WHEN IT WAS WRITTEN TO HIM. III. SUBSTANCE OF IT.

a

I. THAT this Epistle was written while Paul was under confinement at Rome, appears from the two following passages: "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner." "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, but when he was at Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me." And if we have done rightly in dating the first Epistle to Timothy, after St. Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, it will follow that this second Epistle must have been written during his second imprisonment in this city.

b

The Epistle itself will furnish us with several arguments to prove that it could not have been written during St. Paul's first imprisonment.

1. It is universally agreed that St. Paul wrote his Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and to Philemon, while he was confined the

a

i. 8.

i. 16, 17.

VOL. I.

B B

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