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1 TIMOTHY iv. 11--14.
"These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth; but
be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in
charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give
attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the
gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the
laying on of the hands of the presbytery."
IN some cases it is necessary to command, in others to teach; if
therefore you command in those cases where teaching is required, you
will become ridiculous. Again, if you teach where you ought to
command, you are exposed to the same reproach. For instance, it is
not proper to teach a man not to be wicked, but to command; to forbid
it with all authority. Not to profess Judaism, should be a command,
but teaching is required, when you would lead men to part with their
possessions, to profess virginity, or when you would discourse of
faith. Therefore Paul mentions both: "Command and teach." When
a man uses amulets, or does anything of that kind, knowing it to be
wrong, he requires only a command; but he who does it ignorantly, is
to be taught his error. "Let no one despise thy youth."
Observe that it becomes a priest to command and to speak
authoritatively, and not always to teach. But because, from a common
prejudice, youth is apt to be despised, therefore he says, "Let no
man despise thy youth." For a teacher ought not to be exposed to
contempt. But if he is not to be despised, what room is there for
meekness and moderation? Indeed the contempt that he fails into
personally he ought to bear; for teaching is commended by
longsuffering.
But not so, where others are concerned; for this is not meekness,
but coldness. If a man revenge insults, and ill language, and
injuries offered to himself, you justly blame him. But where the
salvation of others is concerned, command, and interpose with
authority. This is not a case for moderation, but for authority,
lest the public good suffer. He enjoins one or the other as the case
may require. Let no one despise thee on account of thy youth. For as
long as thy life is a counterpoise, thou wilt not be despised for thy
youth, but even the more admired: therefore he proceeds to say,
"But be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation,
in charity, in faith, in purity." In all things showing thyself an
example of good works: that is, be thyself a pattern of a Christian
life, as a model set before others, as a living law, as a rule and
standard of good living, for such ought a teacher to be. "In
word," that he may speak with facility, "in conversation, in
charity, in faith, in "true "purity, in temperance."
"Till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to
doctrine."
Even Timothy is commanded to apply to reading. Let us then be
instructed not to neglect the study of the sacred writings. Again,
observe, he says, "Till I come." Mark how he consoles him, for
being as it were an orphan, when separated from him, it was natural
that he should require such comfort. "Till I come," he says, give
attendance to reading the divine writings, to exhortation of one
another, to teaching of all.
"Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by
prophecy."
Here he calls teaching prophecy.
"With the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." He speaks not
here of Presbyters, but of Bishops. For Presbyters cannot be
supposed to have ordained a Bishop.
Ver. 15. "Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to
them."
Observe how often he gives him counsel concerning the same things,
thus showing that a teacher ought above all things to be attentive to
these points.
Ver. 16. "Take heed," he says, "unto thyself, and unto the
doctrine: continue in them." That is, take heed to thyself, and
teach others also.
"For in so doing thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear
thee."
It is well said, "Thou shalt save thyself." For he that is
"nourished up in the words of sound doctrine," first receives the
benefit of it himself. From admonishing others, he is touched with
compunction himself. For these things are not said to Timothy only,
but to all. And if such advice is addressed to him, who raised the
dead, what shall be said to us? Christ also shows the duty of
teachers, when He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto an
householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and
old." ( Matt. xiii. 52.) And the blessed. Paul gives the
same advice, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope."
(Rom. xv. 4.) This he practiced above all men, being brought up
in the law of his fathers, at the feet of Gamaliel, whence he would
afterwards naturally apply to reading: for he who exhorted others would
himself first follow the advice he gave. Hence we find him continually
appealing to the testimony of the prophets, and searching into their
writings. Paul then applies to reading, for it is no slight advantage
that is to be reaped from the Scriptures. But we are indolent, and
we hear with carelessness and indifference. What punishment do we not
deserve!
"That thy profiting may appear," he says, "to all."
Thus he would have him appear great and admirable in this respect
also, showing that this was still necessary for him, for he wished
that his "profiting should appear" not only in his life, but in the
word of doctrine.
Chap. v. ver. 1. "Rebuke not an elder."
Is he now speaking of the order? I think not, but of any elderly
man. What then if he should need correction? Do not rebuke him, but
address him as you would a father offending.
Ver. 1. "The elder women as mothers, the younger men as
brethren; the younger women as sisters, with all purity."
Rebuke is in its own nature offensive, particularly when it is
addressed to an old man, and when it proceeds from a young man too,
there is a threefold show of forwardness. By the manner and the
mildness of it, therefore, he would soften it. For it is possible to
reprove without offense, if one will only make a point of this: it
requires great discretion, but it may be done.
"The younger men as brethren." Why does he recommend this too
here? With a view to the high spirit natural to young men, whence it
is proper to soften reproof to them also with moderation.
"The younger women as sisters"; he adds, "with all purity."
Tell me not, he means, of merely avoiding sinful intercourse with
them There should not be even a suspicion. For since intimacy with
young women is always suspicious, and yet a Bishop cannot always avoid
it, he shows by adding these words, that "all purity" is required in
such intimacy. But does Paul give this advice to Timothy? Yes, he
says, for I am speaking to the world through him. But if Timothy
was thus advised, let others consider what sort of conduct is required
of them, that they should give no ground for suspicion, no shadow of
pretext, to those who wish to calumniate.
Ver. 3. "Honor widows, that are widows indeed."
Why does he say nothing of virginity, nor command us to honor
virgins? Perhaps there were not yet any professing that state, or
they might have fallen from it. "For some," he says, "are already
turned aside after Satan." (1 Tim. v. 15.) For a woman may
have lost her husband, and yet not be truly a widow. As in order to
be a virgin, it is not enough to be a stranger to marriage, but many
other things are necessary, as blamelessness and perseverance; so the
loss of a husband does not constitute a widow, but patience, with
chastity and separation from all men. Such widows he justly bids us
honor, or rather support. For they need support, being left
desolate, and having no husband to stand up for them. Their state
appears to the multitude despicable and inauspicious. Therefore he
wishes them to receive the greater honor from the Priest, and the more
so, because they are worthy of it.
Ver. 4. "But if any widow have children or grandchildren, let
them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their
parents."
Observe the discretion of Paul; how often he urges men from human
considerations. For he does not here lay down any great and lofty
motive, but one that is easy to be understood: "to requite their
parents." How? For bringing them up and educating them. As if he
should say, Thou has received from them great care. They are
departed. Thou canst not requite them. For thou didst not bring them
forth, nor nourish them. Requite them in their descendants, repay
the debt through the children. "Let them learn first to show piety at
home." Here he more simply exhorts them to acts of kindness; then to
excite them the more, he adds, "For that is good and acceptable
before God." And as he had spoken of those "who are widows
indeed," he declares who is indeed a widow.
Ver. 5. "Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth
in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.
But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth."
She who being a widow has not made choice of a worldly life, is a
widow indeed; she who trusts in God as she ought, and continues
instant in prayer night and day, is a widow indeed. Not that she,
who has children, is not a widow indeed. For he commends her who
brings up children as she ought. But if any one has not children, he
means, she is desolate, and her he consoles, saying, that she is
most truly a widow, who has lost not only the consolation of a
husband, but that arising from children, yet she has
God in the place of all. She is not the worse for not having
children, but He fills up her need with consolation, in that she is
without children. What he says amounts to this. Grieve not, when it
is said that a widow ought to bring up children, as if, because thou
hast no children thy worth were on that account inferior. Thou art a
widow indeed, whereas she who liveth in pleasure is dead while she
liveth.
But since many who have children choose the state of widowhood, not to
cut off the occasions of a worldly life, but rather to enhance them,
that they may do what they will with the greater license, and indulge
the more freely in worldly lusts: therefore he says, "She that
liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." Ought not a widow then
to live in pleasure? Surely not. If then when nature and age is
weak, a life of pleasure is not allowable, but leads to death,
eternal death; what have men to say, who live a life of pleasure?
But he says with reason, "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while
she liveth."
But that thou mayest see this, let us now see what is the state of the
dead, and what of the living, and in which shall we place such an
one? The living perform the works of life, of that future life,
which is truly life. And Christ has declared what are the works of
that future life, with which we ought always to be occupied. "Come,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye
gave me drink." (Matt. xxv. 34, 35.) The living differ
from the dead, not only in that they behold the sun, and breathe the
air, but in that they are doing some good. For if this be wanting,
the living are not better than the dead. That you may learn this,
hear how it is possible that even the dead should live. For it is
said, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
(Matt. xxii. 32.) But this again you say is a riddle. Let us
therefore solve them both. A man who liveth in pleasure, is dead
whilst he liveth. For he liveth only to his belly. In his other
senses he lives not. He sees not what he ought to see, he hears not
what he ought to hear, he speaks not what he ought to speak. Nor does
he perform the actions of the living. But as he who is stretched upon
a bed, with his eyes closed, and his eyelids fast, perceives nothing
that is passing; so it is with this man, or rather not so, but
worse. For the one is equally insensible to things good and evil, but
the latter is sensible to things evil only, but as insensible as the
former to things good. Thus he is dead. For nothing relating to the
life to come moves or affects him. For intemperance, taking him into
her own bosom, as into some dark and dismal cavern, full of all
uncleanness, causes him to dwell altogether in darkness, like the
dead. For when all his time is spent between feasting and
drunkenness, is he not dead, and buried in darkness? Even in the
morning when he seems to be sober, he is not sober in reality, since
he has not yet rid and cleansed himself of yesterday's excess and is
still longing for a repetition, and in that his evening and noon he
passes in revels, and all the night, and most of the morning in deep
sleep.
Is he then to be numbered with the living? Who can describe that
storm that comes of luxury, that assails his soul and body? For as a
sky continually clouded admits not the sunbeams to shine through it, so
the fumes of luxury and wine enveloping his brain, as if it were some
rock, and casting over it a thick mist, suffer not reason to exert
itself, but overspread the drunken man with profound darkness. With
him who is thus affected, how great must be the storm within, how
violent the tumult. As when a flood of water has risen, and has
surmounted the entrances of the workshops, we see all the inmates in
confusion, and using tubs and pitchers and sponges, and many other
contrivances to bale it out, that it may not both undermine the
building, and spoil all that is contained in it: so it is when luxury
overwhelms the soul; its reasonings within are disturbed. What is
already collected, cannot be discharged, and by the introduction of
more, a violent storm is raised. For look not at the cheerful and
merry countenance, but examine the interior, and you will see it full
of deep dejection. If it were possible to bring the soul into view,
and to behold it with our bodily eyes, that of the luxurious would seem
depressed, mournful, miserable, and wasted with leanness; for the
more the body grows sleek and gross, the more lean and weakly is the
soul; and the more one is pampered, the more is the other hampered.
As, when the pupil of the eye has the external coats over it too
thick, it cannot put forth the power of vision, and look out, because
the light is excluded by the thick covering, and darkness often
ensues; so when the body is constantly full fed, the soul must be
invested with grossness. But the dead rot, and are corrupted, you
say; and an unwholesome moisture distills from them. So in her "that
liveth in pleasure," may be seen rheums, and phlegm, catarrh,
hiccough, vomitings, eructations, and the like, which, as too
unseemly, I forbear to name, For such is the dominion of luxury,
that it makes one endure things, which we do not even think proper to
mention.
But you still ask, how is the body dissolved whilst it yet eats and
drinks? Surely this is no sign of human life, since creatures without
reason too eat and drink. Where the soul lies dead, what do eating
and drinking avail? The dead body, that is invested with a flowery
garment, is not benefited by it, and when a blooming body invests a
dead soul, the soul is not benefited. For when its whole discourse is
of cooks, and caterers, and confectioners, and it utters nothing
pious, is it not dead? For let us consider what is man? The
Heathens say that he is a rational animal, mortal, capable of
intelligence and knowledge. But let us not take our definition from
them, but whence? From the sacred writings. Where then has the
Scripture given a definition of man? Hear its words. "There was a
man perfect and upright, one that feared God, and eschewed evil."
(Job i. 2.) This was indeed a man! Again, another says,
"Man is great, and the merciful man is precious." (Prov. xx.
6, Sept.) Those who answer not to this description, though they
partake of mind, and are never so capable of knowledge, the Scripture
refuses to acknowledge them as men, but calls them dogs, and horses,
and serpents, and foxes, and wolves, and if there be any animals more
contemptible. If such then is man, he that liveth in pleasure is not
a man; for how can he be, who never thinks of anything that he ought?
Luxury and sobriety cannot exist together: they are destructive of one
another. Even the Heathens say, "A heavy paunch bears not a subtle
mind." Such as these the Scripture calls men without souls. "My
Spirit (it is said) shall not always abide in these men, because
they are flesh." (Gen. vi. 3, Sept.) Yet they had a soul,
but because it was dead in them, He calls them flesh. For as in the
case of the virtuous, though they have a body, we say, "he is all
soul, he is all spirit," so the reverse is said of those who are
otherwise. So Paul also said of those, who did not fulfill the works
of the flesh, "Ye are not in the flesh." (Rom. viii. 9.)
Thus those who live in luxury are not in the soul or in the spirit.
MORAL. "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth."
Hear this, ye women, that pass your time in revels and intemperance,
and who neglect the poor, pining and perishing with hunger, whilst you
are destroying yourself with continual luxury. Thus you are the causes
of two deaths, of those who are dying of want, and of your own, both
through ill measure. But if out of your fullness you tempered their
want, you would save two lives. Why do you thus gorge your own body
with excess, and waste that of the poor with want; why pamper this
above measure, and stint that too beyond measure? Consider what comes
of food, into what it is changed. Are you not disgusted at its being
named? Why then be eager for such accumulations? The increase of
luxury is but the multiplication of dung! For nature has her limits,
and what is beyond these is not nourishment, but injury, and the
increase of ordure. Nourish the body, but do not destroy it. Food
is called nourishment, to show that its design is not to injure the
body, but to nourish it. For this reason perhaps food passes into
excrement, that we may not be lovers of luxury. For if it were not
so, if it were not useless and injurious to the body, we should not
cease from devouring one another. If the belly received as much as it
pleased, digested it, and conveyed it to the body, we should see wars
and battles innumerable. Even now when part of our food passes into
ordure, part into blood, part into spurious and useless phlegm, we
are nevertheless so addicted to luxury, that we spend perhaps whole
estates on a meal. What should we not do, if this were not the end of
luxury? The more luxuriously we live, the more noisome are the odors
with which we are filled. The body is like a swollen bottle, running
out every way. The eructations are such as to pain the head of a
bystander. From the heat of fermentation within, vapors are sent
forth, as from a furnace, if bystanders are pained, what, think
you, is the brain within continually suffering, assailed by these
fumes? to say nothing of the channels of the heated and obstructed
blood, of those reservoirs, the liver and the spleen, and of the
canals by which the faeces are discharged. The drains in our streets
we take care to keep unobstructed. We cleanse our sewers with poles
and drags, that they may not be stopped, or overflow, but the canals
of our bodies we do not keep clear, but obstruct and choke them up,
and when the filth rises to the very throne of the king, I mean the
brain, we do not regard it, treating it not like a worthy king, but
like an unclean brute. God hath purposely removed to a distance those
unclean members, that we might not receive offense from them. But we
suffer it not to be so, and spoil all by our excess. And other evils
might be mentioned. To obstruct the sewers is to breed a pestilence;
but if a stench from without is pestilential, that which is pent up
within the body, and cannot find a vent, what disorders must it not
produce both to body and soul? Some have strangely complained,
wondering why God has ordained that we should bear a load of ordure
with us. But they themselves increase the load. God designed thus to
detach us from luxury, and to persuade us not to attach ourselves to
worldly things. But thou art not thus to be persuaded to cease from
gluttony, but though it is but as far as the throat, and as long as
the hour of eating, nay not even so long, that the pleasure abides,
thou continuest in thine indulgence. Is it not true that as soon as it
has passed the palate and the throat, the pleasure ceases? For the
sense of it is in the taste, and after that is gratified, a nausea
succeeds, the stomach not digesting the food, or not without much
difficulty. Justly then is it said, that "she that liveth in
pleasure is dead while she liveth." For the luxurious soul is unable
to hear or to see anything. It becomes weak, ignoble, unmanly,
illiberal, cowardly, full of impudence, servility, ignorance,
rage, violence, and all kinds of evil, and destitute of the opposite
virtues. Therefore he says, Ver. 7. "These things give in
charge, that they may be blameless."
He does not leave it to their choice. Command them, he says, not to
be luxurious, assuming it to be confessedly an evil, as not holding it
lawful or admissible for the luxurious to partake of the Holy
Mysteries. "These things command," he says, "that they may be
blameless." Thus you see it is reckoned among sins. For if it were
a matter of choice, though it were left undone, we might still be
blameless. Therefore in obedience to Paul, let us command the
luxurious widow not to have place in the list of widows. For if a
soldier, who frequents the bath, the theater, the busy scenes of
life, is judged to desert his duty, much more the widows. Let us
then not seek our rest here, that we may find it hereafter. Let us
not live in pleasure here, that we may hereafter enjoy true pleasure,
true delight, which brings no evil with it, but infinite good. Of
which God grant that we may all be partakers, in Jesus Christ, with
whom,
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