No. II.

Chap. v. 9. "Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old." 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 the first formation of the Christian church, proviin the daily ministration." It appears that, from sion was made out of the public funds of the socie

This accords with the account delivered in the

whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more." In the twenty-second and twenty-third verses of the same chapter, i. e. two verses before, the apostle makes this declaration: "And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me." This "witnessing of the Holy Ghost" was undoubtedly prophetic and supernatural. But it went no farther than to foretell that bonds and afflictions awaited him. And I can very well conceive, that this might be all which was community for the indigent widows who belonged to it. cated to the apostle by extraordinary revelation, existence of such an institution at Jerusalem, a The history, we have seen, distinctly records the and that the rest was the conclusion of his own mind, the desponding inference which he drew few years after our Lord's ascension; and is led to the mention of it very incidentally, viz. by a from strong and repeated intimations of approaching danger. And the expression "I know," which dispute, of which it was the occasion, and which St. Paul here uses, does not, perhaps, when ap-community. The epistle, without being suspected produced important consequences to the Christian plied to future events affecting himself, convey an assertion so positive and absolute as we may at first sight apprehend. In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians, and the twenty-fifth verse, "I know," says he, "that I shall abide and continue with you all, for your furtherance and joy of faith." Notwithstanding this strong declaration, in the second chapter and twenty-third verse of this same epistle, and speaking also of the very same event, he is content to use a language of some doubt and uncertainty:" Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly." And a few verses preceding these, he not only seems to doubt of his safety, but almost to despair; to 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. I.

of borrowing from the history, refers, briefly indeed, but decisively, to a similar establishment, subsisting some years afterwards at Ephesus. This agreement indicates that both writings were founded upon real circumstances.

Now this is

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 "Let not a widow be taken into the number." comes concisely and unpreparedly. the way in which a man writes, who is conscious that he is writing to persons already acquainted with the subject of his letter; and who, he knows, will 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.

Chapter iii. 2, 3. "A bishop then must be

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 * It is not altogether unconnected with our general unauthorised supposition, to which the exigency purpose to remark, in the passage before us, the selection of the case compels us to resort. Now, for this and reserve which St. Paul recommends to the gover purpose, let us examine the Epistle to the Philip.nors of the church of Ephesus in the bestowing relief upon the poor, because it refutes a calumny which has pians and the Epistle to Philemon. These two been insinuated, that the liberality of the first Christians epistles purport to be written whilst St. Paul was was an artifice to catch converts; or one of the temptayet a prisoner at Rome. To the Philippians he tions, however, by which the idle and mendicant were writes as follows: "I trust in the Lord that I also drawn into this society: "Let not a widow be taken inmyself shall come shortly." To Philemon, who to the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works; was a Colossian, he gives this direction: "But if she have brought up children, if she have lodged withal, prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have through your prayers I shall be given unto you." relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed An inspection of the map will show us that Co- every good work. But the younger widows refuse," v. 9, 10, 11. And in another place, "If any man or losse was a city of the Lesser Asia, lying eastward, woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve and at no great distance from Ephesus. Philippi them, and let not the church be charged; that it may was on the other, i. e. the western side of the relieve them that are widows indeed." And to the same effect, or rather more to our present purpose, the apostle Egean sea. If the apostle executed his purpose; writes in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians: if, in pursuance of the intention expressed in his "Even when we were with you, this we commanded letter to Philemon, he came to Colosse soon after you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat," he was set at liberty at Rome, it is very improba-i. e. at the public expense. "For we hear that there are ble 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.

all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such we some which walk among you disorderly, working not at 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 dictated those sober and prudent directions be influenced in his recommendations of public charity by any other than the properest motives of beneficence?

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 government of the church had acquired the dignified 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.

all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe in him to life everlasting." 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 Providence 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 be lieve 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, may have put such a sentiment into his mouth; or, what is Imagine an impostor sitting down to forge an the same thing, into a letter drawn up in his name. epistle in the name of St. Paul. Is it credible that But where, we may ask, is such an impostor to be it should come into his head to give such a direc-found? The piety, the truth, the benevolence of the tion as this; so remote from every thing of doc- thought, ought to protect it from this imputation. trine or discipline, every thing of public concern For, though we should allow that one of the great to the religion or the church, or to any sect, order, masters of the ancient tragedy could have given to or party in it, and from every purpose with which his scene a sentiment as virtuous and as elevated such an epistle could be written? It seems to me as this is, and at the same time as appropriate, and that nothing but reality, that is, the real valetudi- as well suited to the particular situation of the nary situation of a real person, could have sug-person who delivers it; yet whoever is conversant gested a thought of so domestic a nature.

No. IV.

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

in these inquiries will acknowledge, that to do this in a fictitious production is beyond the reach of the understandings which have been employed upon any fabrications that have come down to us

CHAPTER XII

The Second Epistle to Timothy.
No. I.

But if the peculiarity of the advice be observable, the place in which it stands is more so. The context is this: "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thy-under Christian names. self pure. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after." The direction to Timothy about his diet stands between two sentences, as wide from the subject as possible. The train of thought seems to be broken to let it in. Now when does this happen? It happens when a man writes as he remembers; when he puts down an article that occurs the moment it occurs, lest he should after-twice there suffered imprisonment; and that he wards forget it. Of this the passage before 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.

IT was the uniform tradition of the primitive church, that St. Paul visited Rome twice, and

was put to death at Rome at the conclusion of his second imprisonment. This opinion concerning St. Paul's two journeys to Rome is confirmed by a great variety of hints and allusions in the epistle before us, compared with what fell from the apostle's pen in other letters purporting to have been written from Rome. That our present epistle was written whilst St. Paul was a prisoner, is distinctly intimated by the eighth verse of the first chapter: "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner." And whilst he was a prisoner at Rome, by the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of the same chapter: "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." Since it appears from the former quotation | hind at Corinth, when St. Paul left it. But this that St. Paul wrote this epistle in confinement, it could not be meant of any journey from Corinth will hardly admit of doubt that the word chain, in which St. Paul took prior to his first imprisonthe latter quotation, refers to that confinement; ment at Rome; for when Paul departed from Cothe chain by which he was then bound, the custo- rinth, as related in the twentieth chapter of the dy in which he was then kept. And if the word Acts, Timothy was with him: and this was the "chain" designate the author's confinement at the last time the apostle left Corinth before his coming time of writing the epistle, the next words deter- to Rome; because he left it to proceed on his way mine it to have been written from Rome: "He to Jerusalem; soon after his arrival at which was not ashamed of my chain; but when he was place he was taken into custody, and continued in Rome he sought me out very diligently." Now in that custody till he was carried to Cæsar's trithat it was not written during the apostle's first bunal. There could be no need therefore to inimprisonment at Rome, or during the same im- form Timothy that "Erastus staid behind at Coprisonment in which the epistles to the Ephesians, rinth" upon this occasion, because if the fact was the Colossians, the Philippians, and Philemon, so, it must have been known to Timothy, who was were written, may be gathered, with considerable present, as well as to St. Paul. 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.

II. When the former epistles, were written from Rome, Timothy was with St. Paul; and is joined with him in writing to the Colossians, the Philippians, and to Philemon. The present epistle implies that he was absent.

III. In the former epistles, Demas was with St. Paul at Rome: "Luke, the beloved physician, 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.

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 behind, but accompanied him to that city. He was indeed the occasion of the uproar at Jerusalem, in consequence of which St. Paul was apprehended; for "they had seen," says the historian, "before with him in the city, Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. This was 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 while St. Paul was a prisoner at Rome, proves that he had returned to that city again, and undergone there a second imprisonment.

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 im prisonment, but to remark their consistency and agreement with one another.-They are all resolvable into one supposition: and although the The case of Timothy and of Mark might be supposition itself be in some sort only negative, very well accounted for, by supposing the present viz. that the epistle was not written during St. epistle to have been written before the others; so Paul's first residence at Rome, but in some future that Timothy, who is here exhorted "to come imprisonment in that city; yet is the consistency shortly unto him," ch. iv. 9, might have arrived, not less worthy of observation: for the epistle and that Mark, "whom he was to bring with touches upon names and circumstances connect. him," ch. iv. 11, might have also reached Romeed with the date and with the history of the first in sufficient time to have been with St. Paul when the four epistles were written; but then such a supposition is inconsistent with what is said of Demas, by which the posteriority of this to the other epistles is strongly indicated; for in the other epistles Demas was with St. Paul, in the present he hath "forsaken him, and is gone to Thessalonica." The opposition also of sentiment, with respect to the event of the persecution, is hardly reconcileable to the same imprisonment.

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

I. In the twentieth verse of the fourth chapter, St. Paul informs Timothy, "that Erastus abode at Corinth," Εραστος εμεινεν εν Κορίνθω, The form of expression implies, that Erastus had staid be

imprisonment, and mentioned in letters written during that imprisonment, and so touches upon them, as to leave what is said of one consistent with what is said of others, and consistent also with what is said of them in different epistles. Had one of these circumstances been so described as to have fixed the date of the epistle to the first imprisonment, it would have involved the rest in contradiction. And when the number and particularity of the articles which have been brought together under 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.

No. II.

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." In the epistle before us, in the first chapter and at the fourth verse, St. Paul writes to Timothy thus: "Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that

and

cursory

one precept is joined with, and followed by a train
of others, not more applicable to Timothy than to
It is in these transient
any ordinary convert.
allusions that the argument is best
founded. When a writer dwells and rests upon
a point in which some coincidence is discerned, it
may be doubted whether he himself had not fa-
bricated the conformity, and was endeavouring to
display and set it off. But when the reference is
contained in a single word, unobserved perhaps
by most readers, the writer passing on to other
subjects, as unconscious that he had hit upon a
correspondency, or unsolicitous whether it were
remarked or not, we may be pretty well assured
that no fraud was exercised, no imposition in-
tended.
No. V.

Chap. iii. 10, 11.

"But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflic tions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured; but out of them all the Lord delivered me."

The Antioch here mentioned was not Antioch

in thee also." Here we have a fair unforced example of coincidence. In the history, Timothy was the "son of a Jewess that believed:" in the epistle, St. Paul applauds "the faith which dwelt in his mother Eunice." In the history it is said of the mother, "that she was a Jewess, and believed:" of the father, "that he was a Greek." Now, when it is said of the mother alone "that she believed," the father being nevertheless mentioned in the same sentence, we are led to suppose of the father that he did not believe, i. e. the capital of Syria, where Paul and Barnabas either that he was dead, or that he remained un-resided "a long time;" but Antioch in Pisidia, to converted. Agreeably hereunto, whilst praise is bestowed in the epistle upon one parent, and upon her sincerity in the faith, no notice taken of the other. The mention of the grandmother is the addition of a circumstance not 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.

Chap. iii. 15. "And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able

to make thee wise unto salvation."

This verse discloses a circumstance which agrees exactly with what is intimated in the quotation from the Acts, adduced in the last number. In that quotation it is recorded of Timothy's mother, "that she was a Jewess." This description is virtually, though, I am satisfied, undesignedly, recognized in the epistle, when Timothy is reminded in it, "that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures." "The Holy Scriptures," undoubtedly meant the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The expression bears that sense in every place in which it occurs. Those of the New had not yet acquired the name; not to mention, that in Timothy's childhood, probably, none of them 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 religion.

No. IV.

Chap. ii. 22. "Flee also youthful lusts; but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." "Flee also youthful lusts." The suitableness of this precept to the age of the person to whom it is addressed, is gathered from 1 Tim. chap. iv. 12: "Let no man despise thy youth." Nor do I deem the less of this coincidence, because the propriety resides in a single epithet; or because this

which place Paul and Barnabas came in their first apostolic progress, and where Paul delivered a thirteenth chapter of the Acts. At this Antioch memorable discourse, which is preserved in the the history relates, that the "Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came into Iconium.... And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed; but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren. Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided; and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews, with their rulers, to use them despitefully and to stone them, they were aware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about, and there they preached the Gospel.... And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe and when they had preached the Gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch." This account comprises the period to which the allusion in the epistle is to be referred. We have 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 suf fered these persecutions both in immediate suc