will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that | fers, briefly indeed, but decisively, to a similar I also myself shall come shortly." And a few establishment, subsisting some years afterwards verses preceding these, he not only seems to at Ephesus. This agreement indicates that doubt of his safety, but almost to despair; to both writings were founded upon real circum contemplate the possibility at least of his condemnation and martyrdom: "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all."

No. 1.

stances.

But, in this article, the material thing to be noticed is the mode of expression: "Let not a widow be taken into the number."-No previous account or explanation is given, to which these words, "into the number," can refer; but the direction comes concisely and unpreparedly. "Let not a widow be taken into the number." Now this is the way in which a man writes, who is conscious that he is writing to persons already acquainted with the sub

readily apprehend and apply what he says by virtue of their being so acquainted: but it is not the way in which a man writes upon any other occasion; and least of all, in which a man would draw up a feigned letter. or introduce a suppositious fact*.

No. III.

But can we show that St. Paul visited Ephesus after his liberation at Rome? or rather, can we collect any hints from his other letters which make it probable that he did? If we can, then we have a coincidence. If we cannot, we have only an unauthorised supposi-ject of his letter; and who, he knows, will tion, to which the exigency of the case compels us to resort. Now, for this purpose, let us examine the epistle to the Philippians and the Epistle to Philemon. These two epistles purport to be written whilst St. Paul was yet a prisoner at Rome. To the Philippians he writes as follows: "I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly." To Philemon, who was a Colossian, he gives this direction: "But withal, prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you." An inspection of the map will show us that Colosse was a city of the Lesser Asia, lying eastward, and at no great distance from Ephesus. Philippi was on the other, i. e. the western side of the Ægean sea. If the apostle executed his purpose; if, in pursuance of the intention expressed in his letter to Philemon, he came to Colosse soon after he was set at liberty at Rome, it is very improbable that he would omit to visit Ephesus, which lay so near to it, and where he had spent three years of his ministry. As he was also under a promise to the church of Philippi to see them "shortly;" if he passed from Colosse to Philippi, or from Philippi to Colosse, he could hardly avoid taking Ephesus in his way.

No. II.

Chap. v. 9. "Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old." This accords with the account delivered in the sixth chapter of the Acts. "And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration." It appears that, from the first formation of the Christian church, provision was made out of the public funds of the society for the indigent widows who belonged to it. The history, we have seen, distinctly records the existence of such an institution at Jerusalem, a few years after our Lord's ascension; and is led to the mention of it very incidentally, viz. by a dispute, of which it was the occasion, and which produced important consequences to the Christian community. The epistle, without being suspected of borrowing from the history, re

Chapter iii. 2, 3. "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house."

"No striker :" That is the article which I single out from the collection as evincing the antiquity at least, if not the genuineness, of the epistle; because it is an article which no man would have made the subject of caution who lived in an advanced æra of the church. It agreed with the infancy of the society, and with no other state of it. After the govern ment of the church had acquired the dignified

* It is not altogether unconnected with our general purpose to remark, the passage before us, the selection and reserve which St. Paul recommends to the gover nors of the church of Ephesus in the bestowing relief upon the poor, because it refutes a calumny which has been insinuated, that the liberality of the first Christians was an artifice to catch converts; or one of the temptations, however, by which the idle and mendicant were drawn into this society: "Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. But the younger widows refuse." (v. 9, 10, II.) And, in another place, "If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed." And to the same effect, or ra ther more to our present purpose, the apostle writes in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians: "Even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat," i. e. at the pub walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread." Could a designing or dissolute poor take advantage of bounty regulated with so much caution; or could the mind which dictat his recommendations of public charity by any other than ed those sober and prudent directions be influenced in the properest motives of beneficence

lic expense.

"For we hear that there are some which

form which it soon and naturally assumed, this injunction could have no place. Would a person who lived under a hierarchy, such as the Christian hierarchy became when it had settled into a regular establishment, have thought it necessary to prescribe concerning the qualification of a bishop, "that he should be no striker ?" And this injunction would be equally alien from the imagination of the writer, whether he wrote in his own character, or personated that of an apostle.

No. IV

Chap. v. 23. " Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities."

Imagine an impostor sitting down to forge an epistle in the name of St. Paul. Is it credible that it should come into his head to give such a direction as this; so remote from every thing of doctrine or discipline, every thing of public concern to the religion or the church, or to any sect, order, or party in it, and from every purpose with which such an epistle could be written? It seems to me that nothing but reality, that is, the real valetudinary situation of a real person, could have suggested a thought of so domestic a nature.

What was the mercy which St. Paul here commemorates, and what was the crime of which he accuses himself, is apparent from the verses immediately preceding: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." (ch. i. 12, 13.) The whole quotation plainly refers to St. Paul's original enmity to the Christian name, the interposition of Provi dence in his conversion, and his subsequent designation to the ministry of the Gospel; and by this reference affirms indeed the substance of the apostle's history delivered in the Acts. But what in the passage strikes my mind most powerfully, is the observation that is raised out of the fact. "For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." It is a just and solemn reflection, springing from the circumstances of the author's conversion, or rather from the impression which that great event had left upon his memory. It will be said, perhaps, that an impostor acquainted with St. Paul's history, But if the peculiarity of the advice be obser- may have put such a sentiment into his mouth; vable, the place in which it stands is more so. or, what is the same thing, into a letter drawn The context is this: "Lay hands suddenly on up in his name. But where, we may ask, is no man, neither be partaker of other men's such an impostor to be found? The piety, the sins keep thyself pure. Drink no longer wa- truth, the benevolence of the thought, ought ter, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake to protect it from this imputation. For, though and thine often infirmities. Some men's sins we should allow that one of the great masters are open beforehand, going before to judgment; of the ancient tragedy could have given to his and some men they follow after." The direc- scene a sentiment as virtuous and as elevated tion to Timothy about his diet stands between as this is, and at the same time as appropriate, two sentences, as wide from the subject as pos- and as well suited to the particular situation sible. The train of thought seems to be bro- of the person who delivers it; yet whoever is ken to let it in. Now when does this happen? conversant in these inquiries will acknowledge, It happens when a man writes as he remem- that to do this in a fictitious production is bebers; when he puts down an article that oc-yond the reach of the understandings which curs the moment it occurs, lest he should af- have been employed upon any fabrications that terwards forget it. Of this the passage before have come down to us under Christian names. us bears strongly the appearance. In actual letters, in the negligence of real correspondence, examples of this kind frequently take place; seldom, I believe, in any other production. For the moment a man regards what he writes as a composition, which the author of a forgery would, of all others, be the first to do, notions of order, in the arrangement and succession of his thoughts, present themselves to his judgment, and guide his pen.

No. V.

CHAPTER XII.

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

No. I.

It was the uniform tradition of the primitive church, that St. Paul visited Rome twice, and twice there suffered imprisonment; and that he was put to death at Rome at the conChap. i. 15, 16. "This is a faithful say-clusion of his second imprisonment. This ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ opinion concerning St. Paul's two journeys to Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of Rome is confirmed by a great variety of hints whom I am chief. Howbeit, for this cause I and allusions in the epistle before us, comparobtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ ed with what fell from the apostle's pen in might show forth all long-suffering, for a pat-other letters purporting to have been written tern to them which should hereafter believe in from Rome. That our present epistle was him to life everlasting." written whilst St. Paul was a prisoner, is dis

tinctly intimated by the eighth verse of the others; so that Timothy, who is here exhortfirst chapter: "Be not thou therefore ashamed "to come shortly unto him," (ch. iv. 9.) ed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his might have arrived, and that Mark," whom prisoner." And whilst he was a prisoner at he was to bring with him," (ch. iv. 11.) might Rome, by the sixteenth and seventeenth ver- have also reached Rome in sufficient time to ses of the same chapter: "The Lord give mer- have been with St. Paul when the four episcy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft tles were written; but then such a supposirefreshed me, and was not ashamed of my tion is inconsistent with what is said of Dechain but when he was in Rome he sought mas, by which the posteriority of this to the me out very diligently and found me." Since other epistles is strongly indicated: for in the it appears from the former quotation that St. other epistles Demas was with St. Paul, in the Paul wrote this epistle in confinement, it will present he hath "forsaken him, and is gone hardly admit of doubt that the word chain, to Thessalonica." The opposition also of senin the latter quotation, refers to that confine- timent, with respect to the event of the perment; the chain by which he was then bound, secution, is hardly reconcileable to the same the custody in which he was then kept. And imprisonment. if the word "chain" designate the author's| confinement at the time of writing the epistle, the next words determine it to have been written from Rome: "He was not ashamed of my chain; but when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently." Now that it was not written during the apostle's first imprisonment at Rome, or during the same imprisonment in which the epistles to the Ephe-it. But this could not be meant of any journey sians, the Colossians, the Philippians, and Philemon, were written, may be gathered, with considerable evidence, from a comparison of these several epistles with the present.

I. In the former epistles the author confidently looked forward to his liberation from confinement, and his speedy departure from Rome. He tells the Philippians (ch. ii. 24.) "I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly." Philemon he bids to prepare for him a lodging; "for I trust," says he, "that through your prayers I shall be given unto you." (ver. 22.) In the epistle before us he holds a language extremely different: "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." (ch. iv. 6-8.)

The two following considerations, which were first suggested upon this question by Ludevicus Capellus, are still more conclusive.

1. In the twentieth verse of the fourth chapter, St. Paul informs Timothy, "that Erastus abode at Corinth," Egarros skumy & Ko wow. The form of expression implies, that Erastus had staid behind at Corinth, when St. Paul left

from Corinth which St. Paul took prior to his first imprisonment at Rome; for when Paul departed from Corinth, as related in the twentieth chapter of the Acts, Timothy was with him: and this was the last time the apostle left Corinth before his coming to Rome; because he left it to proceed on his way to Jerusalem; soon after his arrival at which place he was taken into custody, and continued in that custody till he was carried to Cæsar's tribunal. There could be no need therefore to inform Timothy that "Erastus staid behind at Corinth" upon this occasion, because if the fact was so, it must have been known to Timothy, who was present, as well as to St. Paul.

2. In the same verse our epistle also states the following article: "Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." When St. Paul passed through Miletum on his way to Jerusalem, as related Acts xx. Trophimus was not left II. When the former epistles were written behind, but accompanied him to that city. He from Rome, Timothy was with St. Paul; and was indeed the occasion of the uproar at Jeis joined with him in writing to the Colossians, rusalem in consequence of which St. Paul was the Philippians, and to Philemon. The pre-apprehended; for "they had seen," says the sent epistle implies that he was absent. historian, "before with him in the city, TroIII. In the former epistles Demas was with phimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that St. Paul at Rome: "Luke, the beloved phy-Paul had brought into the temple." This was sician, and Demas, greet you." In the epistle now before us: "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is gone to Thessalonica."

IV. In the former epistles, Mark was with St. Paul, and joins in saluting the Colossians. In the present epistle, Timothy is ordered to bring him with him, "for he is profitable to me for the ministry." (ch. iv. 11.)

The case of Timothy and of Mark might be very well accounted for, by supposing the present epistle to have been written before the

evidently the last time of Paul's being at Miletus before his first imprisonment; for, as hath been said, after his apprehension at Jerusalem, he remained in custody till he was sent to Rome.

In these two articles we have a journey referred to, which must have taken place subsequent to the conclusion of St. Luke's history, and of course after St. Paul's liberation from his first imprisonment. The epistle, therefore, which contains this reference, since it appears from other parts of it to have been written

HORE PAULINEÆ.

while St. Paul was a prisoner at Rome, proves | is bestowed in the epistle upon one parent, and that he had returned to that city again, and upon her sincerity in the faith, no notice is undergone there a second imprisonment.

mother is the addition of a circumstance not taken of the other. The mention of the grand. found in the history; but it is a circumstance which, as well as the names of the parties, might naturally be expected to be known to the apostle, though overlooked by his historian.

No. III.

hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are Chap. iii. 15. "And that from a child thou | able to make thee wise unto salvation."

I do not produce these particulars for the sake of the support which they lend to the testimony of the fathers concerning St. Paul's second imprisonment, but to remark their consistency and agreement with one another. They are all resolvable into one supposition: and although the supposition itself be in some sort only negative, viz. that the epistle was not written during St. Paul's first residence at Rome, but in some future imprisonment in that city; yet is the consistency not less worthy of observation: for the epistle touches up- agrees exactly with what is intimated in the This verse discloses a circumstance which on names and circumstances connected with quotation from the Acts, adduced in the last the date and with the history of the first im- number. In that quotation it is recorded of prisonment, and mentioned in letters written Timothy's mother," that she was a Jewess." during that imprisonment, and so touches up- This description is virtually, though, I am saon them, as to leave what is said of one con- tisfied, undesignedly, recognised in the epistle, sistent with what is said of others, and con- when Timothy is reminded in it," that from sistent also with what is said of them in dif- a child he had known the Holy Scriptures.' ferent epistles. Had one of these circumstan- "The Holy Scriptures" undoubtedly_meant ces been so described as to have fixed the date the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The exof the epistle to the first imprisonment, it pression bears that sense in every place in would have involved the rest in contradiction. which it occurs. And when the number and particularity of the yet acquired the name; not to mention, that Those of the New had not articles which have been brought together un-in Timothy's childhood, probably, none of them der this head are considered; and when it is considered also, that the comparisons we have formed amongst them, were in all probability neither provided for, nor thought of, by the writer of the epistle, it will be deemed something very like the effect of truth, that no invincible repugnancy is perceived between them.gion. No. II.

existed. In what manner then could Timothy have known" from a child" the Jewish Scriptures, had he not been born, on one side or on both, of Jewish parentage? Perhaps he was not less likely to be carefully instructed in them, for that his mother alone professed that reli

No. IV.

but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, Chap. ii. 22. "Flee also youthful lusts; with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

In the Acts of the Apostles, in the sixteenth chapter, and at the first verse, we are told that Paul" came to Derbe and Lystra, and behold a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek." of this precept to the age of the person to whom "Flee also youthful lusts." The suitableness In the epistle before us, in the first chapter and it is addressed, is gathered from 1 Tim. chap. at the fourth verse, St. Paul writes to Timo-iv. 12: "Let no man despise thy youth." Nor thy thus: "Greatly desiring to see thee, being do I deem the less of this coincidence, because mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with the propriety resides in a single epithet; or joy, when I call to remembrance the unfeign- because this one precept is joined with, and foled faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in lowed by a train of others, not more applicable thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; to Timothy than to any ordinary convert. and I am persuaded that in thee also." Here It is in these transient and cursory allusions we have a fair unforced example of coincidence. that the argument is best founded. When a In the history, Timothy was the "son of a Jew-writer dwells and rests upon a point in which ess that believed:" in the epistle, St. Paul ap- some coincidence is discerned, it may be doubtplauds "the faith which dwelt in his mothered whether he himself had not fabricated the Eunice." In the history it is said of the mo- conformity, and was endeavouring to display ther," that she was a Jewess, and believed:" and set it off. But when the reference is conof the father, "that he was a Greek." Now tained in a single word, unobserved perhaps when it is said of the mother alone" that she by most readers, the writer passing on to other believed," the father being nevertheless men-subjects, as unconscious that he had hit upon tioned in the same sentence, we are led to sup- a correspondency, or unsolicitous whether it pose of the father that he did not believe, i. e. either that he was dead, or that he remained assured that no fraud was exercised, no impowere remarked or not, we may be pretty well unconverted. Agreeably hereunto, whilst praise sition intended.

in the quotation from the epistle Lystra is No. V. mentioned, and not Derbe. And the distinc. Chap. iii. 10, 11. "But thou hast fully tion will appear on this occasion to be accu known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, rate; for St. Paul is here enumerating his perfaith, long-suffering, charity, patience, perse-secutions: and although he underwent grievcutions, afflictions, which came unto me as ous persecutions in each of the three cities "The next day he Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what perse- through which he passed to Derbe, at Derbe cutions I endured; but out of them all the itself he met with none: departed," says the historian, "to Derbe; Lord delivered me." The Antioch here mentioned was not An- and when they had preached the Gospel to that tioch the capital of Syria, where Paul and Bar-city, and had taught many, they returned again nabas resided " a long time;" but Antioch to Lystra." The epistle, therefore, in the in Pisidia, to which place Paul and Barnabas names of the cities, in the order in which they came in their first apostolic progress, and are enumerated, and in the place at which where Paul delivered a memorable discourse, the enumeration stops, corresponds exactly which is preserved in the thirteenth chapter with the history. But a second question remains, namely, how of the Acts. At this Antioch the history relates, that the "Jews stirred up the devout these persecutions were "known" to Timoand honourable women, and the chief men of thy, or why the apostle should recall these in the city, and raised persecution against Paul particular to his remembrance, rather than and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their many other persecutions with which his micoasts. But they shook off the dust of their nistry had been attended. When some time, feet against them, and came into Iconium....probably three years, afterwards (vide PearAnd it came to pass in Iconium, that they went son's Annales Paulinas,) St. Paul made a seboth together into the synagogue of the Jews, cond journey through the same country, "in and so spake, that a great multitude both of order to go again and visit the brethren in the Jews and also of the Greeks believed; but every city where he had preached the word of the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, the Lord," we read, Acts, chap. xvi. 1. that, and made their minds evil-affected against the" when he came to Derbe and Lystra, behold brethren. Long time therefore abode they a certain disciple was there named TimotheOne or other, therefore, of these cities, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave tes-us.'

We read

timony unto the word of his grace, and grant-was the place of Timothy's abode. ed signs and wonders to be done by their hands. moreover that he was well reported of by the But the multitude of the city was divided; brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium; and part held with the Jews, and part with so that he must have been well acquainted with the apostles. And when there was an assault these places. Also again, when Paul came to made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews, Derbe and Lystra, Timothy was already a diswith their rulers, to use them despitefully and ciple: "Behold, a certain disciple was there to stone them, they were aware of it, and fled named Timotheus." He must therefore have unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and been converted before. But since it is exunto the region that lieth round about, and pressly stated in the epistle, that Timothy was there they preached the Gospel.... And there converted by St. Paul himself, that he was came thither certain Jews from Antioch and "his own son in the faith;" it follows that he Iconium, who persuaded the people, and hav-must have been converted by him upon his ing stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, former journey into those parts; which was supposing he had been dead. Howbeit, as the the very time when the apostle underwent the disciples stood round about him, he rose up persecutions referred to in the epistle. Upon and came into the city: and the next day he the whole, then, persecutions at the several departed with Barnabas to Derbe: and when cities named in the epistle are expressly rethey had preached the Gospel to that city, and corded in the Acts: and Timothy's knowledge had taught many, they returned again to Lys.of this part of St. Paul's history, which know. tra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch." This ledge is appealed to in the epistle, is fairly deaccount comprises the period to which the al-duced from the place of his abode, and the lusion in the epistle is to be referred. We time of his conversion. It may farther be obhave so far therefore a conformity between the history and the epistle, that St. Paul is asserted in the history to have suffered persecutions in the three cities, his persecutions at which are appealed to in the epistle; and not only so, but to have suffered these persecutions both in immediate succession, and in the order in which the cities are mentioned in the epistle. The conformity also extends to another circumstance. In the apostolic history, Lystra and Derbe are commonly mentioned together:

served, that it is probable from this account, that St. Paul was in the midst of those perse. cutions when Timothy became known to him. No wonder then that the apostle, though in a letter written long afterwards, should remind his favourite convert of those scenes of affliction and distress under which they first met.

Although this coincidence, as to the names of the cities, be more specific and direct than many which we have pointed out, yet I apprehend there is no just reason for thinking