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sponding inference which he drew from strong and repeated intimations of approaching danger (a).”

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 shew 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 (b); 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 (c); he describes the qualifications necessary for bishops and deacons, and speaks of the mysterious nature of the Gospel dispensation (d); he fortells that there will be apostates from the truth, and false teachers

(a) Dr. Paley's Hor Paul. (b) C. I.

(c) C. 2.

(d) C. 3.

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

(e) C. 4..

(f) c. 5.

(g) C, 6.

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.

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 (a)."-" 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 in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me (b)." 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

(a) C. I. v. 8. (b) C. 1. v. 16 and 17.

must

must have been written during his second imprisonment in that city.

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 first time at Rome. In no one of these Epistles does he express any apprehension for his life; and in the two last mentioned we have seen that, on the contrary, he expresses a confident hope of being soon liberated; but in this Epistle he holds a very different language; “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day (c)." The danger in which St. Paul now was, is evident from the conduct of his friends, when he made his defence: "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me (d)." This expectation of death and this imminent danger cannot be reconciled either with the general

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(c) C. 4. v. 6, &c.

(d) C. 4. v. 16,

tenor of his Epistles written during his first confinement at Rome, with the nature of the charge laid against him when he was carried thither from Jerusalem, or with St. Luke's account of his confinement there; for we must remember that in the year 63, Nero had not begun to persecute the Christians; that none of the Roman magistrates and officers, who heard the accusations against Paul at Jerusalem, thought that he had committed any offence against the Roman government; that at Rome St. Paul was completely out of the power of the Jews; and so little was he there considered as having been guilty of any capital crime, that he was suffered to dwell" two whole years (that is the whole time of his confinement) in his own hired house, and to receive all that came in unto him, preaching the word of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him (e)."

2. From the inscriptions of the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon, it is certain that Timothy was with Paul in his first imprisonment at Rome; but this Epistle implies that Timothy was absent.

3. St. Paul tells the Colossians, that Mark sa

(e) Acts, c. 28. v. 30 and 31.

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