24 2 Tim. Reflections on the captivity of the sinner. In 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if SECT. ready to teach the ignorant, and instead of hurt- unto all men, apt to iv. 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. meekness instructing opposers, if by any means God may perhaps, in his own due time, conquer God peradventure will their savage prejudices, and give them repentance give them repentance to the acknowledging to the acknowledgment of the truth; of which, 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 selves out of the snare 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 Jer, and, like a living prey, detained captive by him at his cruel pleasure, while perhaps they have been dreaming of liberty and happiness, in the midst of the most shameful bondage and the extremest danger. 26 And that they recover them may IMPROVEMENT. Ver. How affecting a representation is here made of the wretched 26 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 aran4wo 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 sceds 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 purposes 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; 25 receive the greatest injuries where we intend the most important SECT. kindness. iv. 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 2 TIMOTHY III. 1. V. 2 Tim. in the last days IT 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 unholy. 3 Without natu 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 III. 2. men shall be lovers of themselves, in the most selves,covetous, boastabsurd 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 3 to his service by the most solemn rites: They will be destitute of natural affection, even to their ral affection, truceown children, as well as of piety toward their breakers, false cusers, incontinent, parents; implacable where enmities have been fierce, despisers of those commenced, and treacherous in their mutual that are good, engagements, when there has been a pretence of making them up; false accusers, in which they will imitate that diabolical malignity which renders the great enemy of mankind so justly odious; intemperate in their pleasures, fierce in their resentments, cruel in their revenge; destitute of all love to goodness, though it so naturally extorts a tribute of veneration and affection from every human heart which is not sunk into the last degeneracy. They will be traitors to those that place the greatest confidence in them, such base traitors, as even to give up 4 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 ingenious 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 Trajan, within which period he apprehends great numbers of professors to have departed from the strictness of Christian morals, as well as their ac 4 Traitors, heady, high the purity of the faith. I cannot be satis- b Implacable and treacherous. J The word acorda 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; 27 SECT. V. 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 character, 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 28 V. Moses, so do these al and Jambres withstood so resist the truth; the faith. But Timothy knew Paul's doctrine, conduct, and sufferings. SECT. ciples. And these designing wretches, of whom 8 Now as Jannes I have been speaking, seize on such as their pro2 Tim. per prey, and just as Jannes and Jambres, the II. 8. Egyptian magicians, withstood Moses when he men of corrupt minds, came to Pharaoh with a message from God, so do reprobate concerning these men also withstand the truth of the gospel. I speak of persons whose minds are utterly corrupted, who with respect to the faith are disapproved, and worthy of being rejected as enemies to it, and unworthy to know it, though they pretend so much zeal in its defence. But I foresee, that they shall not proceed much farther in these artifices, for their folly shall be manifested to all, as theirs also was, when God sent upon the Egyptians plagues, which far from being able to remove, or mitigate, they could not, as in former instances, so much as imitate. 9 10 9But they shall proceed no further; for their folly shall be matheirs also was. nifest unto all men, as 10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, pur tience, But thou hast exactly traced, and been accurately acquainted with my doctrine, and my con versation, the steadiness of my aim, purpose, and pose, faith, long-sufresolution in the cause of God; that firm and fering, charity, pauniform fidelity which I have always strenuously maintained, without yielding up any the least article of it; my long-suffering, when I had been treated in the most injurious manner; my love to all, however different in opinion, not excepting even mine enemies and persecutors; and at Iconium at Lystra ; 11 my patience under such pressing trials. Parti- 11 Persecutions, afcularly under the persecutions [and] sufferings fictions which came which befel me in the Pisidian Antioch, Acts unto me at Antioch, xiii. 45, in Iconium (xiv. 2) in Lystra (xiv. 19) what persecutions I where thou hast not only heard, but seen, what endured; but out of persecutions I endured; but the Lord Jesus, them all the Lord deliwhom I serve, was still with me, and rescued me 12 out of them all. Yea, and all who are resolutely determined upon it, that they will live godly in will live godly in Christ Jesus, that they will conduct themselves d Jannes and Jambres.] It is remarkable that the former of these is mentioned together with Moses, by Pliny, and both of them by Numenius the philosopher, quoted in Eusebius, as celebrated magicians. See Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 30, cap. i. and Euseb. lib. 9, cap. 8. It is of no importance to enquire, by what tradition their names came down to so distant an age. e Shall not proceed much farther.] Translating it thus, will easily reconcile this with what is afterwards said of their grow by vered me. 12 Yea, and all that Christ ing worse and worse, ver. 13, and of their word eating as a gangrene. Diodate indeed explains this and the 13th verse of different persons; this, of some who had already appeared; that, of others who were soon to arise. But there seems not the least need of having recourse to such a solution. f Live godly in Christ Jesus, &c.] This, as Dr. Evans justly observes, may import something peculiar in the godliness to be exercised by Christians, as being agreeable to the revelation of Christ, animated by his example, dependent on his Spirit for assistance |