Reflections on the degeneracy of the last days. Christ Jesus shall suf- by the strict rules of piety, which he has prefer persecution. worse and worse, de ceived. 13 SECT. v. scribed, not turning aside to the right hand or the left, shall suffer persecution, or opposition of 2 Tim. one kind or another; for Christ has decreed to III. 12. lead all his people to glory, through a variety of 13 But evil men and difficulties and hardships. But wicked men seducers shall wax and impostors, by whatever artifices they may ceiving, and being de- decline persecution, are in a yet more wretched state; for they provoke God to give them up to the lusts of their own heart, and so will grow continually worse and worse, more obstinate in their opposition to the gospel and its faithful ministers; deceiving others indeed by false and treacherous pretences, but being themselves much more fatally deceived by their own corruptions, which delude them with the visionary hope of some temporal advantage, while they are plunging into irrecoverable and everlasting ruin. 29 IMPROVEMENT. MUST we not, on the survey of this scripture, in comparison Ver 1, with what we every day behold in life, cry out, "Verily these are the last days?" They are assuredly times of difficulty and 2,3 peril. Self-love, pride, ingratitude, treachery, intemperance, insolence, the contempt of all authority, human and divine, each, all 4 of these characters may too plainly declare it. But none with more striking evidence than the excessive love of pleasure, on which so many are doting to destruction, while every consideration, both of religion and of prudence, falls at the shrine of this favourite idol. Men are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, more than lovers of their families, yea, though self-interest be in many instances so scandalously pursued, yet more than lovers of themselves; and when they have sacrificed every thing else to their gain, they sacrifice even that gain to luxury. And would to God there was none such, even among those that re- 5 tain the form of godliness, which so many indeed have scornfully cast off! But O! how vain the form, where the power of it is thus denied! And how peculiarly scandalous are these characters in those who call themselves teachers of religion! Yet to such they are here originally applied; and their race is not yet extinct. Blessed assistance, and his atonement for acceptance with God. Important topics, which all who desire to obtain and promote god liness, ought to dwell much upon. See a From 30 SECT. - 12 Timothy from a child had known the scriptures. Blessed be God, there are those yet remaining who are the happy reverse of these; ministers, who can appeal to the consciVer, ences of men, as to their doctrine, their conversation, their reso10 lution, their fidelity, their gentleness, their charity, and their pa 11 tience. Happy are they, how ill soever they may be treated in the world. Happy would they be, though exposed to all the terrors of persecution which the apostles and their first followers endured! But we are all warned to prepare for some degree of it; and indeed who can wonder, if amidst so many evils, they who will not go on with the multitude should sometimes be rudely pressed by them; and it may be in some instances, cast down and trampled under foot. But be it so; though cast down, they shall (2 Cor. iv. 9.) A little time will balance all. An hour of eternity will more than balance it. Let us guard against the deceits by which so many suffer. Let us guard, above all, against those deceits which men practise upon themselves, and whereby they hurt themselves infinitely more than all their fraud or violence can hurt any, who are not accessary to their own undoing. 13 not be destroyed. SECT. vi. SECT. VI. To guard Timothy against those seducing teachers, and to preserve the church from their evil influence, Paul recommends to him the study of the scriptures, and great diligence in all the parts of his ministerial work; reflecting with pleasure on his own fidelity in the nearest views of martyrdom for the truth. 2 Tim. III. 14. to the end. IV. 1—8. 2 TIMOTHY III. 14. 2 TIM. III. 14. in the things which hast learned them: I HAVE mentioned the case of these wretch- BUT continue thou ed men, who grow worse and worse, deceiv- thou hast learned, and 2 Tim. ing others, and themselves most of all. But hast been assured of, 1. 14. that thou, O Timothy, mayest effectually avoid knowing of whom thou them, continue thou, stedfast in the things which thou hast learnt from me, and hast believed upon the authority of God speaking in and by me; knowing from whom thou hast learnt [them] and what convincing proofs I have given thee, both of my general integrity, and of that extraor15 dinary inspiration by which I teach. And 15 And that from a child thou hast knowing also, that the oracles of the Old Tes- known the holy scriptament confirm the system of doctrines which I tures, which are able have taught; of which thou must be very sensi- to make thee wise un ble, because from thine infancy thou hast known to salvation, through a From thine infancy.] Hence it appears that little children may learn some the faith Jesus, Paul charges Timothy to preach the word. vi. 31 2 Tim. faith which is in Christ the sacred scriptures, in which the grand learn- SECT. ing of our Jewish nation consists, and which are indeed most worthy of being studied by all, as they are able to make thee, and all that faithful- III. 15. ly admit and follow their guidance, wise unto eternal salvation; a science infinitely nobler and more important than human literature in its greatest refinements can pretend to teach, and which is to be learned only through that faith 16 All scripture is which is in Christ Jesus. For the whole scrip- 16 given by inspiration of God, and is profitable ture, received by the Jewish church, [is] difor doctrine, for re- vinely inspired, and therefore, as may well be proof, for correction, imagined, is profitable to the highest purposes. for instruction in righ- It is fitted for doctrine, as it lays down the most teousness: fundamental principles of religion, in the view it gives us of the Divine nature and perfections, and for conviction of those opposite errors, which the licentious and perverse wit of man has invented in so great abundance, and set off with so many plausible arguments. It is also useful for the reproof of irregularities in practice, which how speciously soever they may be defended by the sophistry of those that think it their interest to plead for them, quickly fall before the authority of the Divine word. And when men have submitted to it, they will also find it effectual for instruction in righteousness, and will be led on from one degree of virtue and piety to another, with a progress which will continually advance, in proportion to the regard they pay 17 That the man of to that Divine book. To this therefore, I 17 God may be perfect, hope thou, O Timothy, and every minister of thoroughly furnished the gospel, will diligently apply, that the furniture of the man of God may be complete, and that he may be thoroughly fitted for every good work which his holy calling may require. IV. 1. charge [thee] therefore, considering what I have urged in the former part of this epistle, in the most awful manner, before the great and blessed at God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, his only begot: ten Son, who shall judge the living and the dead, and pronounce on them all their final and everlasting doom, at his last public glorious appear unto all good works. IV. 1. I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead of the sacred letters; directly contrary to what the church of Rome teaches. b The whole scripture [is] divinely inspired.] Grotius translates the words, the whole divinely inspired scripture is profilable, &c. which they will undoubtedly bear; ance and as we may be sure that, by scripture, c They 32 To watch in all things, and make full proof of his ministry. SECT. ance, when the extent and majesty of his king- at his appearing, and I vi. his kingdom: dom shall appear in full display: I charge thee 2 Preach the word; out of season; reprove, trine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doc 2 Tim. to execute the important trust committed to thee IV. with the strictest fidelity. For this purpose, be instant in season, preach the word of God with all possible seriousness and earnestness; be instant in the prosecu- rebuke, exhort with all tion of that good work, in the stated season of long-suffering and docreligious assemblies, [and] out of that season, when occasional providences may give thee an opportunity; yea, carry it into thy private conversation, in the intervals of thy public labours. Endeavour to convince the consciences of men, and to reclaim them from their erroneous principles; rebuke them for their irregularities and vices, without fearing the face of any; and exhort them to diligence and zeal in the performance of their duty, with all long suffering, though thou mayest not immediately see the desired success; and enforce these exhortations with all those well-known and important motives which 3 the doctrine of the gospel may suggest. Seize the present opportunity with all eagerness, for I see that the time will quickly come, when they trine; but after their will not endure good and wholesome doctrine, but, own lusts shall they thinking themselves above the plainness of mo- teachers, having itch heap to themselves ral and practical instructions, shall wantonly ings ears; heap up to themselves seducing teachers, whose harangues shall be just according to the preju dices of their own lusts, having nothing else to recommend them, unless it be perhaps a glare of false and affected eloquence, which may gratify the vain curiosity and itching ears of their hearAnd so unhappily will their minds be disposed, that they shall turn away [their attention from simple truth, of the greatest certainty, on which nothing less than their salvation depends, and shall be turned aside to idle fables, which they eagerly drink in, under a fond semblance of mystery and obscure science, which they pretend to be veiled in these abstruse and enigmatical forms. 4 ers. c They shall heap up to themselves teachers.] Mr Slater, in his Original Draught, &c. p. 126, urges this text, as an argument against allowing to the people the choice of their own ministers; but that right is by no means in question here. The danger there was of men's hearkening to erroneous and seducing teachers, would upon every imaginable hypothesis, But 4 And they shall torn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5 But watch thou in all things, endure af. flictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy minis try. St. Paul's joyful prospects at death. 6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. a I have fought good fight, I have fi nished my course, I have kept the faith. vi. 3333 2 Tim. But be thou, O Timothy, diligent and watch- SECT. ful in all things that may tend to the security of thy charge; and prepare thyself resolutely to endure adversity, and to perform the full work IV. 5. of an evangelist, and fully to accomplish all the branches of thy ministry. And the rather, 6 considering how soon the world will lose whatever advantage it may now receive from my personal labours ; for I may well conclude, from my age and circumstances, that I am now, as it were, just ready to be offered, to be poured out as a libation upon God's altar, and the time of my departure is near at hand; the time when I shall be dismissed from this state of confinement, when I shall weigh anchor from these mortal shores, and launch into the ocean of eternity. And, while I stand on the borders of that awful 7 state, it is with unspeakable pleasure I reflect, that I have maintained the good combat against the sharpest opposition, that I have finished [my] race, though it has been so arduous, that I have kept the holy faith committed to my trust, and, with the strictest fidelity, endeavoured to preserve it free from human additions and corrup8 Henceforth there tions. It remaineth, [that] a crown of righte is laid up for me a ousness and glory is laid up in sure reserve for which the Lord the me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, who righteous Judge shall presides in this great exercise, shall, with distingive me at that day: guished honour, before the assembled world, but unto all them also render and award to me, in that illustrious day, that love his appearing. upon which our hopes and hearts are set: and it is the joy of my soul to think, that he shall not assign it to me alone, but to all them also who love the thoughts of his final appearance to the universal judgment, and are, or shall be, making a wise and pious preparation for it. crown of righteousness, and not to me only, d Accomplish thy ministry.] It must surely have been owing to a strong prepossession in favour of Diocesan Episcopacy, that the worthy person I mentioned above could imagine these words contained an argument for it. He explains the words wangeponsor By Saxoviar or, as an exhortation to take upon him the complete office of a bishop, because Paul himself was ready to quit it; not considering how ill this interpretation egrees with his own supposition, of Timothy's being in the episcopal office when Paul wrote his first epistle to him. Whatever Timothy's office were, the argument which Paul suggests, of the satisfaction IMPROVE he found in the reflection on his own fide- e In that day.] This text will certainly 8 |