him during his second imprisonment at Rome, and to request him to come to him before the ensuing winter. But, being uncertain whether he should live so long, he gave him in this letter a variety of advices, charges, and encouragements, for the faithful discharge of his ministerial functions, with the solemnity and affection of a dying parent; in order that, if he should be put to death before Timothy's arrival, the loss might in some measure be compensated to him by the instructions contained in this admirable Epistle. With this view he exhorts him to stir up the gift which had been conferred upon him (2 Tim. i. 2—5.); not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of Paul's sufferings (6-16.); to hold fast the form of sound words, and to guard inviolable that good deposit of Gospel doctrine (i. 13, 14.), which he was to commit to faithful men who should be able to teach others (ii. 1, 2.); to animate him to endure, with fortitude, persecutions for the sake of the Gospel (ii. 3-13.); to suppress and avoid logomachies (14. 23.); to approve himself a faithful minister of the word (15-22.); and to forewarn him of the perils of the last days, in consequence of wicked hypocritical seducers and enemies of the truth, who even then were beginning to rise in the church. These Saint Paul admonishes Timothy to flee, giving him various cautions against them. (iii.)

IV. The Epistle therefore consists of three parts, viz. PART I. The Inscription. (i. 1-5.)

PART II. An Exhortation to Timothy,

SECT. 1. To diligence, patience, and firmness in keeping the form of sound doctrine, in which is introduced an affecting prayer in behalf of Onesiphorus. (i. 2-18.)

SECT. 2. To fortitude under afflictions and persecutions, to deliver the uncorrupted doctrine of the Gospel to others, and to purity of life. (ii.)

SECT. 3. To beware of false teachers in the last times, (whose practices are described,) to be constant in his profession of the Gospel, and to be diligent in his ministerial labours. (iii. iv. 1—8.) PART III. The conclusion, containing the apostle's request to Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, together with various salutations for the brethren in Asia Minor. (iv. 9—22.)

V. As this Epistle was written to Saint Paul's most intimate friend, under the miseries of a gaol and the near prospect of death, and was not designed for the use of others, it may serve to exhibit the temper and character of Saint Paul, and to convince us that he was no deceiver, but sincerely believed the doctrines which he preached. "This excellent writing, therefore, will be read by the disciples of Christ, to the end of the world, with the highest satisfaction. And the impression which it must have on their minds, will often be recollected by them with the greatest effect, for the confirmation of their faith in the Gospel, and their consolation under all the evils which their adherence to the Gospel may bring upon them."

"Imagine," says Dr. Benson, "a pious father, under sentence of death for his piety and benevolence to mankind, writing to a dutiful and affectionate son, that he might see and embrace him again before

he left the world; particularly that he might leave with him his dying commands, and charge him to live and suffer as he had done :- and you will have the frame of the apostle's mind, during the writing of this whole epistle."

On the undesigned coincidences between this Epistle and the Acts of the Apostles, see Dr. Paley's Horæ Paulinæ, pp. 339–356.

SECTION XIV.

ON THE EPISTLE TO TITUS.

I. Account of Titus. —II. Christianity, when planted in Crete. — III. Date.IV. Scope and analysis of this Epistle.-V. Observations on it.

1. TITUS was a Greek (Dr. Benson thinks he was a native of Antioch in Syria), and one of Saint Paul's early converts, who attended him and Barnabas to the first council at Jerusalem, A. D. 49, and afterwards on his ensuing circuit. (Tit. i. 4. Gal. ii. 1-3. Acts xv. 2.) Some years after this we find that Paul sent him to Corinth (2 Cor. xii. 18.), to investigate and report to him the state of the church in that city, and particularly to report what effect had been produced by his first Epistle to the Corinthians. The intelligence brought to Paul by Titus afforded him the highest satisfaction, as it far exceeded all his expectations. (vii. 6-13.) And as Titus had expressed a particular regard for the Corinthians, the apostle thought proper to send him back again, with some others, to hasten the collection for the poor brethren in Judæa. (viii. 6.) After this, we meet with no further notice of Titus; he is mentioned in this Epistle as having been with Saint Paul in Crete. (Tit. i. 5.) How highly he was esteemed by the great apostle of the Gentiles, is evident from the affectionate manner in which he has spoken of him to the Corinthians.2 Whether Titus ever quitted Crete, we know not: neither have we any certain information concerning the time, place, or manner of his death; but according to antient ecclesiastical tradition, he lived to the age of ninety-four years, and died and was buried in that island.

II. We have no certain information when or by whom Christianity was first planted in Crete. As some Cretans were present at the first effusion of the Holy Spirit at Jerusalem (Acts i. 11.), Bishop Tomline thinks it not improbable, that, on their return home, they might be the means of introducing the Gospel among their countrymen.3 But Michaelis, Dr. Hales and many other critics, are of opinion that Christianity was first planted there by Saint Paul, during the year and a half that he spent at Corinth, between the latter part of A. D. 51, and the former part of A. D. 53. It appears from 2 Cor.

1 Preface to 2 Tim. p. 517. The topics above noticed are ably treated at length

by Dr. Macknight in his Preface to 2 Tim. sect. 3.

2 See particularly 2 Cor. ii. 13. vii. 6, 7. 13–15. viii. 16—23. and xii. 18.

3 Elements of Christian Theology, vol. i. p. 446.

xii. 14. and xiii. 1. that the apostle did make an excursion during this interval, and returned to Corinth. In this excursion it is supposed that he made a voyage to Crete, in order to preach the Gospel there, and took Titus with him as an assistant, whom he left behind to regulate the concerns of that church. (Tit. i. 5.) Josephus informs us that there were many Jews' in this island at the time Saint Paul wrote this Epistle to Titus. The Cretans were formerly notorious for piracy, luxury, debauchery, and especially for lying. So infamous were they for their habitual practice of falsehood, that xg, to act like a Cretan, was a proverbial term for telling a lie. With these vices they were charged by Epimenides, one of their own poets; and Saint Paul has quoted him as expressing their true character. (Tit. i. 12.)

III. No date is so controverted as that of Saint Paul's Epistle to Titus. Michaelis, who thinks it was written soon after his supposed visit to Crete, is of opinion, that, in the chronological, arrangement of Saint Paul's Epistles, it should be placed between the second Epistle to the Thessalonians (A. D. 52) and the first Epistle to the Corinthians (A. D. 57). Dr. Hales accordingly dates this Epistle in A. D. 52; Dr. Lardner, in 56; Lord Barrington, in 57; Dr. Benson and Bishop Tomline, in 64; and Bishop Pearson, Drs. Whitby and Paley, and the Bible chronology, in A. D. 65. The subscription states this Epistle to have been written from Nicopolis of Macedonia, probably because Saint Paul desired to meet him at a city called Nicopolis, but which could not be the place intended by the author of the subscription; for the Nicopolis referred to by him was situated on the river Nessus in Thrace, and was not built till after this period, by the emperor Trajan. As Saint Luke is totally silent concerning Saint Paul's preaching at Crete, though he has noticed that he touched at the Fair Havens and Lasea in his first voyage to Rome, it is most probable that this Epistle was written after his liberation from his first imprisonment, A. D. 64. And this opinion is strengthened by the verbal harmony subsisting between Saint Paul's first Epistle to Timothy and the letter to Titus; which cannot be naturally accounted for, but by supposing that they were both written about the same time, and while the same ideas and phrases were present to the writer's mind. The genuineness and authenticity of the Epistle to Titus were never questioned.3

IV. Titus having been left in Crete to settle the churches in the several cities of that island according to the apostolical plan, Saint Paul wrote this Epistle to him, that he might discharge his ministry among the Cretans with the greater success, and to give him particular instructions concerning his behaviour towards the judaising teachers, who endeavoured to pervert the faith and disturb the peace

1 Ant. Jud. lib. xvii. c. xii. § 1. De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 7. § 1, &c.

2 Among other instances, that might be adduced, compare 1 Tim. i. 1-3. with Tit. i. 4, 5. 1 Tim. i. 4. with Tit. i. 14. 1 Tim. iv. 12. with Tit. ii. 7. 15. and 1 Tim. iii. 2-4. with Tit. i. 6-8.

3 It is cited or alluded to by all the fathers who have quoted the two Epistles to Timothy. See the references to them in p. 374. supra.

of the Christian church. The Epistle therefore consists of three parts. PART 1. PART II. Instructions to Titus,

he inscription. (i. 1—4.)

SECT. 1. Concerning the ordination of elders, that is, of bishops and deacons, whose qualifications are enumerated. (5-9.) Further, to show Titus how cautious he ought to be in selecting men for the sacred office, Paul reminds him of the acts of the judaising teachers. (10-16.)

SECT. 2. That he should accommodate his exhortations to the respective ages, sexes, and circumstances of those whom he was commissioned to instruct; and, to give the greater weight to his instructions, he admonishes him to be an example of what he taught. (ii.)

SECT. 3. That he should inculcate obedience to the civil magistrate, in opposition to the Jews and Judaising teachers, who, being averse from all civil governors, except such as were of their own nation, were apt to imbue Gentile Christians with a like seditious spirit, as if it were an indignity for the people of God to obey an idolatrous magistrate; and also that he should enforce gentleness to all men. (iii. 1—7.)

SECT. 4. That he should enforce good works, avoid foolish questions, and shun heretics. (iii. 8-11.)

PART III. An invitation to Titus, to come to the apostle at Nicopolis, together with various directions. (iii. 12-15.)

V. From a comparison of the Epistle of Titus, with the two Epistles to Timothy, Dr. Macknight remarks, we learn that the judaising teachers were every where indefatigable in propagating their erroneous doctrine concerning the necessity of obedience to the law of Moses, as the only means of obtaining salvation; that in the most distant countries they uniformly taught the same doctrine, for the purpose of rendering the practice of sin consistent with the hope of salvation; and that, in order to draw disciples after them, they encouraged them in sin by the vicious practices which they themselves followed, in the persuasion that they would be pardoned by the efficacy of the Levitical sacrifices. That eminent critic thinks it probable, from the apostle's commanding Titus in Crete, and Timothy in Ephesus, to oppose those errors, that the judaising teachers were more numerous and successful in Ephesus and Crete than in other places. As, however, Titus was a Gentile convert, whose interest it was to maintain the freedom of the Gentiles from the law of Moses, and also a teacher of long standing in the faith, Saint Paul was not so full in his directions and exhortations to him, as to Timothy neither did he recommend to him meekness, lenity, and patience in teaching, as he did to Timothy, but rather sharpness. (Tit. i. 13. . 15.) Dr. Macknight accounts for this difference in the apostle's letters to those two evangelists, by supposing that Titus was a person of a soft and mild temper; whereas Timothy, being a young man, might have been of a more ardent spirit that stood in need of some restraint.1

I Dr. Macknight's Preface to Titus, sect. 4. fine.

On the undesigned coincidences between this Epistle and the Acts of the Apostles, see Dr. Paley's Horæ Paulinæ, pp. 357-367.

SECTION XV.

ON THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON.

I Account of Philemon.-II. Date.-III. Genuineness and authenticity. IV. Occasion and scope of this Epistle.-V. Observations on it.

I. PHILEMON was an inhabitant of Colossæ, as appears from Saint Paul's mentioning Onesimus in his Epistle to the Colossians (iv. 9.), as one of them, and also from his saluting Archippus in this Epistle (ver. 2.), who appears from Col. iv. 17. to have been a pastor of that church. Philemon seems to have been a person of great worth as a man, and of some note as a citizen in his own country: for his family was so numerous, that it made a church by itself, or at least a considerable part of the church at Colossæ. (ver. 2.) He was likewise so opulent, that he was able by the communication of his faith, that is, by his beneficence, to refresh the bowels of the Saints. (6, 7.) According to Grotius, Philemon was an elder of Ephesus; Beausobre and Dr. Doddridge suppose him to have been one of the ministers of the Colossian church: and from Saint Paul's requesting him (22.) to provide a lodging for him at Colossæ, Michaelis thinks that he was a deacon of that church. These opinions appear to have been founded on the inscription of this Epistle, where Saint Paul calls him a fellow-labourer. But this appellation, Drs. Whitby, Lardner, and Macknight have remarked, is of ambiguous signification; being given not only to those who were employed in preaching the Gospel, but also to such pious individuals, of either sex, as assisted the apostles in any manner.1

Philemon was, most probably, a converted Gentile, and from the nineteenth verse of this Epistle, some have supposed that he was converted under the ministry of Saint Paul; but, from the apostle's saying in the fifth verse that he had heard of Philemon's faith in Christ, (which was his usual phrase when writing to Christians whom he had never seen,)2 Dr. Benson is of opinion that, during Paul's long stay at Ephesus, some of the Colossians had gone thither, and heard him preach the Christian doctrine (Acts xix. 10. xx. 31.); or that the apostle had sent some of his assistants who had planted the Gospel at Colossæ. If Saint Paul had not come into those parts of Asia Minor, it is highly probable that Philemon would never have become a Christian; the apostle might therefore well say, that Philemon owed unto him, himself, or his own soul.

II. It appears from verses 1. 10. 13. and 23. of this Epistle, that Saint Paul was under confinement when he wrote it; and as he expresses (22.) his expectation of being shortly released, it is probable that it was written during his first imprisonment at Rome, towards

1 See instances of this in Rom. xvi. 8. and 3 John 8.

2 See Eph. i. 15. iii. 2. Col. i. 4. and ii. 1.