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lant, fober, of good behaviour, given to hofpitality, apt to teach; not given to "wine, no ftriker, not greedy of filthy "lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not co66 vetous; one that ruleth well his own "houfe."

No ftriker:" That is the article which I fingle 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 fubject of caution who lived in an advanced æra of the church. It agreed with the infancy of the fociety, and with no other state of it. After the government of the church had acquired the dignified form which it soon and naturally affumed, this injunction could have no place. Would a perfon who lived under a hierarchy, fuch as the Chriftian

"they work, and eat their own bread." Could a defigning or or diffolute poor take advantage of bounty regulated with fo 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 propereft motives of beneficence ?

hierarchy

hierarchy became when it had fettled into a regular establishment, have thought it necefsary to prescribe concerning the qualification of a bishop," that he should be no ftriker ?" And this injunction would be equally aliene from the imagination of the writer, whether he wrote in his own character, or perfonated that of an apostle.

No. IV.

Chap. v. ver. 23.

"Drink no longer 66 water, but use a little wine for thy fto"mach's fake, and thine often infirmities.”

Imagine an impoftor fitting down to forge an epistle in the name of St. Paul. Is it credible that it fhould come into his head to give such a direction as this; fo remote from every thing of doctrine or discipline, every thing of public concern to the religion or the church, or to any fect, order, or party in it, and from every purpofe with which fuch an epiftle could be written? It feems to me that nothing but reality, that is, the real valetudinary fituation of a real

perfon,

perfon, could have fuggested a thought of fo domestic a nature.

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But if the peculiarity of the advice be obfervable, the place in which it ftands is more fo. The context is this: "Lay hands fuddenly on no man, neither be partaker "of other men's fins; keep thyself pure; "drink no longer water, but ufe a little "wine for thy ftomach's fake, and thine "often infirmities: fome men's fins are

66

open beforehand, going before to judg"ment; and fome men they follow after." The direction to Timothy about his diet ftands between two fentences, as wide from the subject as poffible. The train of thought feems 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, left he fhould afterwards forget it. Of this the paffage before us bears ftrongly the appearance. In actual letters, in the negligence of a real correspondence, examples of this kind frequently take place; feldom I believe in any other production. For the moment a man re

gards

gards what he writes as a compofition, which the author of a forgery would, of all others, be the firft to do, notions of order, in the arrangement and fucceffion of his thoughts, present themselves to his judgment, and guide his pen.

No. V..

Chap. i. ver. 15, 16. “This is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, "that Chrift Jefus came into the world to "fave finners, of whom I am chief. How"beit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that "in me firft Jefus Chrift might fhew forth "all long-fuffering, for a pattern to them "which fhould hereafter believe in him to "life everlasting."

What was the mercy which St. Paul here commemorates, and what was the crime of which he accufes himself, is apparent from the verses immediately preceding: "I thank Christ Jefus, our Lord, who "hath enabled me, for that he counted me "faithful, putting me into the ministry, "who was before a blafphemer, and a perse

"" cutor

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cutor and injurious; but I obtained mercy, "because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (ch. 1. ver. 12, 13). The whole quotation plainly refers to St. Paul's original enmity to the Chriftian name, the interpofition of providence in his converfion, and his fubfequent defignation to the miniftry of the gofpel; and by this reference affirms indeed the substance of the apostle's history delivered in the Acts. But what in the paffage ftrikes my mind moft powerfully, is the obfervation that is raifed out of the fact: "For this caufe I obtained mercy, "that in me first Jefus Chrift might fhew' "forth all long-fuffering, for a pattern to "them which should hereafter believe on "him to life everlasting." It is a juft and solemn reflection, springing from the circumftances of the author's converfion, or rather from the impreffion which that great event had left upon his memory. It will be faid, perhaps, that an impostor, acquainted with St. Paul's hiftory, may have put fuch a fentiment into his mouth; or, what is the fame thing, into a letter drawn up in his name. But where, we may afk, is fuch an impof

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