and some to dishonour. these, he shall be a Timothy is warned to flee youthful lusts. iv. 23 2 Tim. wood, and of earth: wood and clay, the former being intended for SECT. and some to honour, honourable, the other for meaner and dishonoura ble uses and accordingly there will be, in the church of God, persons of different characters, II. 20. who will meet with very different treatment. 21 If a man there- If therefore any one cleanse himself from these, if 21 fore purge himself from he be careful to avoid the society of persons vessel unto honour, who have revolted from true religion, and made sanctified and meet for themselves instruments of impurity and iniquity, the master's use, and he shall be a vessel of honour, sanctified and useful to the immediate and personal service of his great Lord and Master; and such an one will be constantly ready, as the nobler vessels of a house, to every good work, which will be the surest test 22 Flee also youth of our real goodness. But flee from all occa-22 ful lusts: but follow sions of exciting or gratifying the passions of righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with youth; whether, on the one hand, the love of them that call on the sensual pleasure, or, on the other, rashness, conLord out of a pure tention, pride, and vain-glory, to which prepared upto every good work. heart. young persons are peculiarly obnoxious: for these will render thee unfit for the honour of being used by thy Lord for the purposes of his glory and the edification of his church. And therefore, instead of making provision for these, pursue, with the greatest ardour and intenseness of mind, righteousness and fidelity, love and peace; cultivate an upright, benevolent, candid temper towards all, and especially towardsthose that invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ out of a pure heart, so far as the con23 But foolish and duct can discover the inward temper. unlearned questions avoid foolish and unlearned questions, knowing avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. that, how curious soever they appear, they only tend to beget strifes and contentions in the church; and I reckon it a most important part of the learning of a Christian minister to guard against such occasions of offence and mischief. 24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle But 23 Let the bigotted Jews, and the vain-glorious 24 heathens, on each side, split into ever so many unto different sects and parties, and dispute as eagerly about such things as they will; but the servant of the Lord, the Christian, and especially the minister, must not strive in an angry and hostile manner, but be mild and gentle towards all, ready b Rashness, contention, &c.] These are youthful passions, of the danger of which some heady young men, who may value themselves for their freedom from other scandals, seem to think but little; yet it is plain, from the opposition between c That 24 SECT. iv. 2 Tim. Reflections on the captivity of the sinner. 25 In meekness in pose themselves; if ready to teach the ignorant, and instead of hurt- unto all men, apt to ing [and] injuring any, be willing to endure teach, patient; evil from those who, instead of receiving his II. 25. doctrine, repay his kindness with outrage. In meekness instructing opposers, if by any means structing those that opGod may perhaps, in his own due time, conquer God peradventure will their savage prejudices, and give them repentance give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth; of which, to the acknowledging of the truth; through the riches of Divine grace, we see some instances, even where there had been a long and 26 inveterate struggle against it. And surely it will be worth while to try every method on such unhappy souls, that they may awaken and of the devil, who are recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, taken captive by him who have lain sleeping, and as it were intoxicat- at his will. ed in it, having been taken by that subtile fow- 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare IMPROVEMENT. Ver. How affecting a representation is here made of the wretched 25 state of sinners! they are described as sleeping in Satan's snare, like birds in a net, taken alive, and at the fowler's mercy; while they imagine they can spring up whenever they please, and range at full liberty. Alas! they will soon perceive their fatal captivity: but they will perceive it too late, if Divine grace do not quickly awaken them. Who would not wish to do something for their 25 recovery? Let the ministers of the gospel pity them. Let us 24 pray that God, whose work it is, would give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth. Let us try every gentle method which the sincerest compassion can dictate toward effecting so happy a design, and not suffer ourselves to be transported to undue severities of language, or of sentiments, even though we should receive c That they may recover, &c.] In order to understand this beautiful image, it is proper to observe, that the word avan4wV properly signifies, to awake from a deep sleep, or from a fit of intoxication (see Elsn. Obs. Sac. in loc.), and refers to an artifice of fowlers to scatter seeds impregnated with some drugs intended to lay birds asleep, that they might draw the net over them with the greater security. The interpretation which a late writer has given of these words, who would render them, "being taken alive by him, that is, the Christian minister, for the pur. poses of the Divine will," is so unnatural, that merely to compare it with the former is to confute it. (Taylor on Orig. Sin, p. 152.) Nor can any thing be more evidently wrong than to maintain that wygew necessarily implies a purpose of preserving、 whereas it only imports taking a captive, without determining whether it be for servitude or for death. Compare 2 Chron xxv. 12, Septuag. In the last days perilous times shall come; iv. 25 receive the greatest injuries where we intend the most important SECT. kindness. Let those that have the honour to bear the most holy character, Ver. which any office can devolve on mortal man, avoid with the greatest care, every thing that would bring a stain, or even a suspicion, upon it. Let them revere the voice of the great apostle, 22 while it animates them to pursue righteousness and faith, love and peace, with all their fellow-Christians of every denomination, with all that invoke Christ and that trust in him. So shall they 21 be vessels of honour, so may they humbly hope that their Lord will condescend to make some special use of them, for the purposes of his own glory, and the salvation of their fellow-creatures. To conclude, let ministers and people be daily reading, with all 19 possible care, this double inscription on the foundation of God; and while we rejoice in the one, let us be admonished by the other. For what is it to us, that the Lord knows, distinguishes, and favours his own, that his almighty power protects them, and that his infinite mercy will for ever save them, if we are ourselves found among the wicked, with whom he is angry every day, among the workers of iniquity, whom he will publicly disown, and to whom he will say, I know not whence you are. To name the name of Christ with dispositions like these will be to injure and profane it; and our profession itself will be interpreted as an act of hostility against him, whom we have presumed so vainly to call the Foundation of our hopes, and the Sovereign of our souls. SECT. V. Paul cautions Timothy against that great declension and apostacy which was to prevail in the Christian world, and against those false teachers who were rising up in it; reminding him of the example he had seen in him, in the midst of such persecutions as were still to be expected. 2 Tim. III. 1—13. 2 TIM. III. 1. THIS know also, that perilous times come. shall T 2 TIMOTHY III. 1. V. 2 Tim. in the last days is the more necessary thus to urge thee to SECT. every precaution, and every effort, which may preserve the purity and honour of the Christian church, as, after all we can do for this pur- III. 1. pose, such sad scenes are to open in it. We are indeed acquainted with our duty, and we shall find our own highest account in attending to it. But this know, O Timothy, that in the last days, under the evangelical dispensation, which is to wind up the economy of Providence, and is to remain in full force even to the end of the world, difficult 26 V. 2 Tim. When men shall sink into the utmost degeneracy ; 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves,covetous, boast SECT. difficult times and circumstances shall arise, in which it will be hard to discharge our consciences, and at the same time maintain our safety. For 111. 2. men shall be lovers of themselves, in the most absurd and excessive degree; lovers of money, so ers, proud, blaspheas to be impelled to the basest practices by the mers, disobedient to hopes of obtaining it; boasters of what they have, parents, unthankful, and proud pretenders to what they have not; blasphemers of God, and revilers of their fellowcreatures; disobedient to parents, notwithstanding all the obligations they are under to their care and tenderness; unthankful, and ungrateful to other benefactors; unholy, though they profess themselves devoted to God, and consecrated unholy. natu breakers, false ac 3 to his service by the most solemn rites : They 3 Without a Men shall be lovers of themselves, &c.] Dr. Whitby takes great pains to shew that these characters were applicable to the Jews in the last days of their commonwealth; and supposes the apostle refers to the difficulty of retaining the Christian profession, or acting so as to preserve a safe conscience in it. Many of the lineaments here drawn, were no doubt to be found in the unbelieving Jews; but, especially considering, ver. 5-7, I rather chuse to interpret the words as describing some who not only professed Christianity, but pretended to teach it. And I must beg leave to refer my readers to that very learned and in genious dissertation of Vitringa (Observ. Sac. lib. iv. cap. 7), in which he attempts to prove that there was a great alteration in the face of the Christian church between the time of Nero and Trojan, within which period he apprehends great numbers of professors to have departed from the strictness of Christian morals, as well as their 4 Traitors, heady, high the purity of the faith. I cannot be satis- b Implacable and treacherous. J The word and certainly takes in both ideas, and may be applied to men, who, when once offended, will come into no treaty of reconciliation, and also to such as will not think themselves bound by such treaties, when they may answer any purposes of their own by the violation of them. c Insinuate Being corrupted in their minds, and resisting the truth : high-minded, lovers of their brethren into the hands of persecutors; pleasures more than lo- heady and rash in enterprising things, which vers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,from such turn away. 27 SECT. V.It can only issue in the disturbance of society, or 2 Tim. This temper, as I have intimated before, has 6 c Insinuate themselves, &c.] This cha racter, as we hinted above, seems rather to suit disaffected and seducing Christian teachers, than infidel Jews, who no doubt VOL X. carried it with an high hand, and would D d Jannes |