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Reflections on the degeneracy of the last days.

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Christ Jesus shall suf- by the strict rules of piety, which he has pre- SECT.

fer persecution.

worse and worse, de

ceived.

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

But wicked men 13

13 But evil men and difficulties and hardships.
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
deceived by their own cor-
ruptions, which delude them with the visionary
hope of some temporal advantage, while they
are plunging into irrecoverable and everlasting
ruin.

fatally dece

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 rast 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 accept ance with God. Important topics, which all who desire to obtain and promote god

liness, ought to dwell much upon. See Evans's Christian Temper, Vol. I. p. 192. a From

30

SECT.

-

12

Timothy from a child had known the scriptures.

Blessed be God, there are those yet remaining who are the v. 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 13 not be destroyed. (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.

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 Тім. Ш. 14.

which

I HAVE mentioned the case of these wretch- Buntheontinue thon 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, III. 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 extraor-

15 dinary inspiration by which I teach.

And

hast learned them:

15 And that from child thou hast

knowing also, that the oracles of the Old Tes- known the holy scrip tament confirm the system of doctrines which I tures, which are able have taught; of which thou must be very sensi- to make thee wise unble, because from thine infancy thou hast known to salvation, through

a From thine infancy.] Hence it appears that little children may learn some

faith

the

useful lessons from scripture, and that they ought to be early initiated into the study

of

Paul charges Timothy to preach the word.

31

faith which is in Christ the sacred scriptures, in which the grand learn- SFOT. Jesus.

vi.

ing of our Jewish nation consists, and which are indeed most worthy of being studied by all, as 2 Tim. they are able to make thee, and all that faithful- 111. 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 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

teousness:

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, 117 God may be perfect, hope thou, O Timothy, and every minister of thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

the gospel, will diligently apply, that the fur-
niture of the man of God may be complete, and
that he may be thoroughly fitted for every good

IV. 1. I charge thee work which his holy calling may require. IIV. 1. therefore before God, charge [thee] therefore, considering what I have Christ, who shall judge urged in the former part of this epistle, in the the quick and the dead 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

and the Lord Jesus

of the sacred letters; directly contrary to what the church of Rome teaches.

b The whole scripture [is] divinely in spired.] Grotius translates the words, the whole divinely inspired scripture is profitable, &c. which they will undoubtedly bear;

ance

and as we may be sure that, by scripture, the apostle means the books which the Jews received as canonical, that version, gives a true sense; but I take this, which is our own, to be more literal.

c They

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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 dom shall appear in full display: I charge thee his kingdom :

vi.

2 Tim. to execute the important trust committed to thee IV. 2. with the strictest fidelity. For this purpose,

? Preach the word;

out of season; reprove,

trine.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doc

preach the word of God with all possible serious- be instant in season, ness 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- heap to themselves teachers, having itch. ral and practical instructions, shall wantonly ings ears; heap up to themselves seducing teachers, whose harangues shall be just according to the prejudices 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 hear4 ers. And 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.

But

4 And they shall turn

away their ears from turned unto fables.

the truth, and shall be

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,

be a solid argument for Timothy's exert. ing himself to the utmost, in preathing the word, and endeavouring to guard the churches against errors which might other. wise soon have become fatally prevalent, I must add, that the expression, heaping up to themselves, implies, that they should be desirous of such, and that they should meet with many such a character.

d Accomplish

5 But watch thou in all things, endure af.

St. Paul's joyful prospects at death.

33

But be thou, O Timothy, diligent and watch- SECT.

vi.

fictiong do the work ful in all things that may tend to the security of an evangelist, make of thy charge; and prepare thyself resolutely to full proof of thy minis endure adversity, and to perform the full work IV. 5.

try.

ture is at hand,

of an evangelist, and fully to accomplish all the 6 For I am now rea- branches of thy ministry. And the rather, 6 dy to be offered, and the time of my depar- 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.

good fight, I have fi

Bished my course,

have kept the faith.

7 I have fought a 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 pre

serve it free from human additions and corrup

8 Henceforth there tions. It remaineth, [that] a crown of righte-8 is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 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 distinand not to me only, guished honour, before the asseinbled 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

give me at that day:

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.

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 wληροφορησον την διακονιαν σε, as an exhortation to take upon him the complete office of a bishop, becanse Paul himself was ready to quit it; not considering how ill this interpretation agrees 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 fidelity, would be very conclusive.

But it

e In that day. This text will certainly prove, that the great and most glorious reward of faithful Christians, is referred to the day of general judgment. would be very precarious to argue from hence, that there shall be no prelibation and anticipation of this happiness in a separate state. And when the many texts, which have been so often urged in proof of that intermediate happiness, are considered, it is surprising that any stress can be laid on the objection which has been drawn from such passages as this.

2 Tim.

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