Authenticity
1 Timothy 1:1-21Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; 2Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Timothy 1:1‑2).—Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,... unto Timothy, my own son in the faith.
PROF. EDWARD HAYES PLUMTRE, M. A.-The epistles to Timothy have been universally regarded as the productions of Paul. They are reckoned among the Pauline Epistles in the Muratorian Canon and the Pshito version. Eusebius places them among the books of the New Testament. They are cited as authoritative by Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Irenmus. Quotations from them are found in Ignatius, Polycarp, and Theophilus of Antioch. Respecting the exact date of this epistle there are two opinions, one placing it in the year 58 or 59, the other in 64 or 65.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 3255.
Genealogies
DR. ADAM CLARKE.—Fables—silly legends, of which no people ever possessed a greater stock than the Jews. Their Talmud abounds with them.—Endless genealogies—Herod destroyed the public registers of the Jews: he, being an Idumean, was jealous of the noble origin of the Jews; and that none might be able to reproach him with his descent, he ordered the genealogical tables, which were kept among the archives in the temple, to be burnt (Euseb., I., 8). From this time the Jews could refer to their genealogies only from memory, or from those imperfect tables which had been preserved in private hands; and to make out any regular line from these, must have been endless and uncertain work.— Comm., In loco.
PLUTARCH.—While we neglect and are ignorant of that which concerns ourselves we are continually searching into the genealogies of others, and can readily tell that our neighbor's grandfather was no better than a base and servile Syrian, and that his grandmother was a Thracian,—that such an one is in debt and owes three talents, and is in arrear moreover with his interest. We are inquisitive also in such matters as these—Whence came such an one's wife? what was it that such and such people talked of when they were alone together? —De Curiosit., c. 2.
The Law for Evil Doers
ARISTOTLE.—The elegant and liberal man will so conduct himself, as if he were a law to himself.— Eth., IV., 8.
Prayer to Be Offered for All
1 Tim. 2:1, 21I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. (1 Timothy 2:1‑2).—I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
CYPRIAN.—We pray to God, not only for ourselves, but for all mankind, and particularly for the emperors.—Defense before Roma Procon.
TERTULLIAN.—We pray for all the emperors, that God may grant them, long life, a secure government, a prosperous family, vigorous troops, a faithful senate, an obedient people; that the whole world may be in peace; and that God may grant both to Caesar, and to every man the accomplishment of their just desires. —Apol., c. 30.
ORIGEN.—We pray for kings and rulers, with their royal authority, they may be found possessing a wise and prudent mind.—Cont. Cel., VIII.
Prayer to Be Offered Everywhere
CICERO.—The best, the chastest, the most sacred and pious worship of the gods, is to reverence them always with a, pure, perfect, and unpolluted mind and voice.—De Nat. Dear., II., 28.
Modest Apparel
EPICTETUS.—We ought to make women sensible that they are esteemed for nothing else but the appearance of a decent, and modest, and discreet behavior. —Euchir., 40.
Woman's Place and Duty
PLATO.—If you wish to know the virtue of a woman, it is to manage well the affairs of her family, to keep safe the things in the house, and to hearken to her husband.—Men., c. III.
PHILEMON.—It is the part of a good wife, Nicostrate, not to be superior to her husband, but to obey him. A woman who rules her husband is a great evil. —Apud Stab.
PLUTARCH.—Numa taught the Roman matrons to be sober, and accustomed them to silence.— Comp. Lycurg. c. Num., c. 3.
SOPHOCLES.—Woman, thy sex's noblest ornament is silence.—Ajax, v. 293.
Apostacy Foretold and Described
1 Tim. 4:1-41Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 3Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 4For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: (1 Timothy 4:1‑4).—Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
BISHOP THOMAS NEWTON, D. D.—Some shall depart from the faith, or rather, Some shall apostatize from the faith. The apostle had predicted the same thing before to the Thessalonians. It is not every error, or every heresy, that is “apostasy" from the faith. It is a revolt in the principal and essential article, when we worship God by an image or representation, or when we worship other beings besides God, and pray unto other mediators besides "the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." This is the very essence of Christian worship, to worship the one true God through the one true Christ; and to worship any other god, or any other mediator, is apostasy and rebellion against God and against Christ.
Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, or rather, Giving heed to erroneous spirits and doctrines concerning demons (daimonion). This therefore is a prophecy that the idolatrous theology of demons professed by the Gentiles should be revived among Christians—that they should apostatize and worship demons. Demons, according to the theology of the Gentiles, were middle powers between the sovereign gods and mortal men. So saith Plato: “Every demon is a middle being between God and mortal man " (Plat. Sym., 28). So Apuleius " Demons are middle powers, by whom both our desires and deserts pass unto the gods; they are carriers between men on earth and the gods in heaven; hence of prayers, thence of gifts; they convey to and fro, hence petitions, thence supplies; or they are interpreters on both sides, and bearers of salutations; for it would not be for the majesty of the celestial gods to take care of these things." (De Deo Socr.) Of these demons there were accounted two kinds. One kind of demons were the souls of men deified or canonized after death. Thus Hesiod: "After they were dead, they were by the will of great Jupiter promoted to be demons, keepers of mortal men, observers of their good and evil Works," etc. (Of. et Di., I., 120.) So also Plato: “When good men die, they attain great honor and dignity, and become demons" (Plat. Crat., 33). The other kind of demons were such as had never been the souls of men, nor ever dwelt in mortal bodies. Both Apuleius and Ammonius speak of these; thus the latter: "There are two kinds of demons, souls separated from bodies, or such as had never inhabited bodies at all." (Plut. de Defect Orac.) These latter demons may be, paralleled with angels, as the former may with canonized saints; and as we Christians believe that there are good and evil angels, so did the heathen that there were good and evil demons.—Here St. Paul foretells that Christians, in the latter times, should attend to doctrines concerning demons. Christians never actually worshipped the evil ones, or devils, but they did come to worship demons, deceased men and women and angels.
Even in the days of the apostle there appeared the beginnings of "a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels." But the worshipping of the dead was not introduced so early into the church; it was advanced by slow degrees; and what was at first nothing more than a pious and decent respect to the memory of saints and martyrs, degenerated at last into an impious and idolatrous adoration. At first annual festivals were instituted to their honor; the next step was praying in the cemeteries at their sepulchers; then their bodies were translated into the churches; then the power of working miracles was attributed to their dead bodies, bones, and other relics; then their wonder-working relics were conveyed from place to place, and distributed among other churches; then they were invocated and adored for performing such miracles, for assisting men in their devotions, and interceding for them with God; and not only the churches, but even the fields and highways were filled with altars for invoking them.
Epiphanius, a Father of the fourth century, who was very zealous against the worship a saints and images, which was then springing up in the church, loudly complains of some Christians, who made a goddess of the blessed Virgin, and offered a cake to her as to the queen of heaven. He condemns their heresy as impious and abominable, and declares that "upon these also is fulfilled that of the apostle, Some shall apostatize from the sound doctrine, giving heed to fables and doctrines of demons; for they shall be, saith the apostle, worshippers of the dead, as in Israel also they were worshipped." It is observable that this writer explains as well as recites the words of the apostle (Epiph. adv. Hær., 78, 23).
Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. The great apostasy of the 'latter times was to prevail through the hypocrisy of liars) and hath not the great idolatry of Christians, and the worship of the dead particularly, been diffused and advanced in the world by such instruments and agents, who have " changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever?" It is impossible to relate or enumerate all the various falsehoods and lies which have been invented and propagated for this purpose; the fabulous books forged under the names of apostles, saints and martyrs; the fabulous legends of their lives, actions, sufferings and deaths; the fabulous miracles ascribed to their sepulchers, bones, and other relics; the fabulous dreams and revelations, visions and apparitions of the dead to the living; and even the fabulous saints, who never existed hut in the imagination of their worshippers. And all these stories the monks, the priests, the bishops of the church, have imposed and obtruded upon mankind, it is difficult to say whether with greater artifice or cruelty, with greater confidence or hypocrisy and pretended sanctity, a more hardened face or a more hardened conscience. The history of the church, saith Pascal, is the history of truth; but, as written by bigoted Papists, it is rather the history of lies. So well Both this prophecy coincide and agree with that in Thessalonians that the coming of the man of sin should be " after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness."
Forbidding to marry. This error also had an early origin. Saturninus, in the second century, declared matrimony to be an evil. Tatian and Marcion concurred in his opinion. The followers of these became known by the name of Continents, from their continence in regard to marriage and meats. The Gnostics asserted that to marry and beget children proceeded from the devil, and taught that men ought not to bring into the world other unhappy persons, nor supply food for death. The Council of Eliberis, in Spain, A. D. 305, forbade the clergy to marry, and commanded even those who were married to abstain altogether from their wives. The Council of Neocæsarea, A. D. 314, forbade unmarried presbyters to marry on the penalty of degradation. The monks soon after overspread the eastern church, and the western, too: and as the monks were the first who brought single life into repute, so they were the first also who revived and promoted the worship of demons. It is a thing universally known, that one of the primary and most essential laws and constitutions of all monks, whether solitary or associated, whether living in deserts or in convents, is the profession of single life, to abstain from marriage themselves, and to discourage it all they can in others. And the monks and priests and bishops of the. Church of Rome, at the present time, do not they also profess and recommend single life, as well as the worship of saints and angels? The celibacy of the clergy was fully decreed by Gregory VII. in the eleventh century; and this has been the universal law and practice of the church ever since.
Commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. As we learn from Irenæus, the ancient heretics called Continents, who taught that matrimony was not to be contracted, introduced abstinence also from animal food. It is as much the law and constitution of all monks to abstain from meats as from marriage. Frequent fasts are the rule, the boast of their order. But this idle, popish, monkish, abstinence is as unworthy of a Christian, as it is unnatural to a man. —Dissertations on the Prophecies, No. XXIII.
COUNCIL OF TRENT.—It is good and useful to supplicate the saints, and to fly to their prayers, power, and aid; but they who deny that the saints are to be invoked, or who assert that they do not pray for men, or that their invocation of them is idolatry, hold an impious opinion. —Sess., 25.
PRAYER BEFORE MASS.-In union with the holy church and its minister, and invoking the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and all the angels and saints, we now offer the adorable sacrifice of the mass, etc.
GENERAL CONFESSION.—I confess to Almighty God, to the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and to all the saints, that I have sinned exceedingly.
COUNCIL OF TRENT. —Whosoever shall say that the marriage state is to be preferred to a state of virginity, or celibacy, and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity, or celibacy, than to be joined in marriage; let him be accursed.—Tenth Article, on Marriage.
CATECHISM.—It is strictly forbidden by the church to eat flesh meat on days of abstinence. To eat flesh meat on any day on which it is forbidden, without necessity and leave of the church, is very sinful.— Dr. Butler's Catech.
IBID.—The abstinence on Saturday is dispensed with, for the faithful throughout the United States, for the space of ten years (from 1833 to 1843) except when a Fast falls on a Saturday. The use of flesh meat is allowed at present by dispensation, in the diocese of Philadelphia, on all the Sundays of Lent, except Palm Sunday, and once a day on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday in each week, except the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, and also excepting Holy Week.
Godliness Profitable
DR. ADAM CLARKE.—The man that fears, loves, and serves God, has God's blessing all through his life. His religion saves him from all those excesses both in action and passion, which sap the foundations of life, and render existence itself often a burden. The peace and love of God in the heart, produce a serenity and calm which cause the lamp of life to burn clear, strong, and permanent. Evil and disorderly passions obscure and stifle the vital spark. Every truly religious man extracts the utmost good out of life itself; and, through the Divine blessing, gets the uttermost good that is in life; and, what is better than all, acquires a full preparation here below, for an eternal life of glory above.
Thus godliness has the promise of, and secures the blessings of, both worlds.— Comm., In loco.
REV. ALBERT BARNES.—Godliness—piety or religion—is profitable unto all things—in every respect. There is not an interest of man, in reference to this life, or: to the life to come, which it would not promote. It is favorable to health of body, by promoting temperance, industry, and frugality ; to clearness and vigor of intellect, by giving just views of truth, and of the relative value of objects ; to peace of conscience, by leading to the faithful performance of duty; to prosperity in business, by making a man sober, honest, prudent, and industrious ; to a good name, by leading a man to pursue such a course of life as shall deserve it ; and to comfort in trial, calmness in death, and immortal peace beyond the grave.— Note, In loco.
DR. THOMAS DICK.—The influence of the Christian Religion on nations is not less evident and happy than on individuals. Wherever it has been received, it has brought with it superior light, and has completely banished the absurd systems of polytheism and pagan idolatry, with all the cruel and obscene rites with which they were accompanied ; and in their place, has substituted a system of doctrine and practice, both pure and rational. When it made its way through the Roman Empire, it abolished the unnatural practice of polygamy and concubinage, reduced the number of divorces, and mitigated the rigor of servitude, which among that people was cruel and severe. Polished and polite, as the Romans have been generally considered, they indulged in the most barbarous entertainments. They delighted to behold men combating with wild beasts and with one another; and we are informed by respectable historians, that the fights of gladiators sometimes deprived Europe of 20,000 lives in one month. Neither the humanity of Titus, nor the wisdom and virtue of Trajan, could abolish these barbarous spectacles, till the gentle and humane spirit of the Gospel put a final period to such savage practices, and they can never again be resumed in any nation where its light is diffused, and its authority acknowledged. It humanized the barbarous hordes that overturned the Roman Empire, and softened their ferocious tempers, as soon as they embraced its principles and yielded to its influence. It civilized, and raised from moral and intellectual degradation, the wild Irish, and our forefathers the ancient Britons, who were classed among the rudest of barbarians till the time they were converted to the religion of Jesus; so that the knowledge we now see diffused around us, the civilization to which we have, advanced, the moral order which prevails, the beauties which adorn our cultivated fields, the comforts and decorations connected with our cities and towns, and the present improved state of the arts and sciences, may all be considered as so many of the beneficial effects which the Christian religion has produced among us. In our own times, we have beheld effects no less powerful and astonishing, in the moral revolution which Christianity has lately produced in Tahiti, in the Sandwich Islands, in Madagascar, and in many other parts of the world—where races of the most degraded character and condition, have been enlightened, and transformed into civilized societies, worshipping the true and living God, and rejoicing in the hope of a blessed immortality. In fine, Christianity is adapted to every country and every clime. Its doctrines and precepts are equally calculated to promote the happiness of princes and subjects, statesmen and philosophers, the high and the low, the rich and the poor. It is completely adapted to the nature and necessities of men. It forbids the use of nothing but what is injurious to health of body or peace of mind, and it has a tendency to promote a friendly and affectionate intercourse among men of all nations. And we do not think it possible that the mind of man can receive a more convincing demonstration of the truth of Christianity than is set before us in the authentic facts on which it rests, in its tendency to produce universal happiness, and in the intrinsic excellence for which it is distinguished.—Improvement of Society, Sect. IX.
Steadfastness in Faith and Practice
MAXIMUS TYRIUS.—The good man, persevering in his goodness, both saves himself, and brings others to a better mind.—Diss., 5.
Provision for the Household
GALGACUS. —Nature dictates that to everyone, his own children and relatives should be most dear.—In Tacitus.
CICERO.—Every man should take care of his own family.—Ad Capt.
Godliness and Contentment
See chap. 4:8.
SENECA.—I can never think him a poor man who has still enough, however small a portion it may be, wherewith to be content.—Epist., I.
SENECA.—No man is born rich; every one that comes into the world is commanded to be content with food and raiment.—Epist., 20.
IDEM.—Nature, in returning, shakes off all encumbrances as in entering; thou canst not carry back more than thou broughtest in.—Epist., 20.
PHOCYLIDES. —There is no such thing as carrying riches to Hades and enjoying them there.— Phocyl., v. 104
The Love of Money
PHOCYLIDES.—The love of money is the mother of every ill; gold and silver have always been a snare to men. o gold, chief source of ills, corrupter of life, that turneth all things upside down! – Phocyl., v. 37.
ANACREON.—
Gold breaks through every sacred tie,
And bids a friend or brother die;
The fruitful source of kindred strife,
Gold would not spare a parent's life.
Long wars and murders, crimes untold
All spring from cursed thirst of gold.
—Anac., carm. 46.
JUVENAL.—
Not any vice that taints the human soul,
More frequent points the sword, or drugs the bowl,
Than the dire lust of an untamed estate—
Since he who covets wealth disdains to wait
Law threatens, conscience calls, yet on he hies,
And this he silences, and that defies;
Fear, shame—he bears down all, and with loose rein,
Sweeps headlong o'er the alluring paths of gain.
—Sat. XIV., v. 173
LUCIAN.—He thought that he who taught that riches were to be despised, ought first to show himself superior to the love of gain.—Nigr., c. 25.
The Good Fight
PLATO.—Great is the contest, great beyond all appearance, to become a good man.—De Rep., X., 8.
Vain Philosophy
PROF. PRITCHARD, Oxford.—There is no need to be frightened at the phantoms raised by such terms as matter, and force, and molecules, and protoplasmic energy, and rhythmic vibrations of the brain; there are no real terrors in a philosophy which affirms the conceivability that two and two might possibly make five; or in that which predicates that an infinite number of straight lines constitute a finite surface; or that which denies all evidence of a design in nature; or in that which assimilates the motives which induce a parent to support his offspring to the pleasures derived from wine and music; or in that which boldly asserts the unknowableness of the Supreme, and the vanity of prayer. Surely, philosophies which involve results such as these have no permanent grasp on human nature; they are in themselves suicidal, and, in their turn, after their brief day, will, like other philosophies, be refuted or denied by the next comer, and are doomed to accomplish the happy dispatch.—Address on Science and Religion before the Church Congress, at Brighton, England.