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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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caljs uporj . Timothy to shun . : Partake not in the sins of others . Keep thyself pure . Drink no longer water , but use a little wine , " &c To avoid all grounds of being accused of intemperance in their feasts , the faithful converts either used water alone or with a small mixture of wine : and to this custom Paul here alludes . His words are to this effect , Avoid by all means the impurities of the deceivers : but run not into the opposite extreme of declining the moderate use of wine , as it is necessary for thy weak constitution . "
Moreover , the impostors being Pharisees and Sadducees of the higher classes were men of some rank and education ; and their influence ^ operated powerfully towards screening them from the
infamy and reprehension which they so justly merited . Paul therefore enjoins on Timothy to reprove therrt—and to reprove them in public as an example to deter others , without any bias
from fear or partiality . In order to animate him to the impartial discharge of this painful duty , Paul carries hfm in imagination to the solemn place where God holds his court in administering
human affairs ; and whore , aided as it were by his Son and those superior angels who are honoured with his more immediate presence and confidence , he is preparing for the great day of judgment ,
when he shall punish the sins and reward the virtues of men . € Q I charge thee in the presence of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ ftnd ' of the-ministering arfjgels , that thou observe these things without prejudice , doing nothing by parjtiality . " The cjpecivers taught tli * U they
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were to be saved by grace , \ nd not by good works . They there - fore , as the apostle elsewhere expresses himself , consistentl y enough gloried in their shame . All however were not equally indecent and profane .. Some among them , if not at least less criminal , wished to conceal their
crimes fi'om the world . The apostle represents the former as already in the custody of Almighty justice , and led away , as it were , by their crimes to that awful tribunal where God presides and where the Lord Jesus and the
superior angels are employed in administering his decrees : the offences of the latter , however concealed from the world , he insinuates will then be made public : " The sins of some men being before known lead them on to
judgment : - others of them their sins follow ; " which is to this effect . Ci The sins of some men being already known , and previously to the dav when all the transactions of men shall be
disclosed , consign them to public reprobation and to that punish , ment which awaits them at the hands of God : the sins of others unknown to men , are yet seen by God and recorded by his an-, gejs * and however concealed at
present from the world , they will be revealed in the day of judgment : they will then be summoned , as it were , from their so , cret places and made to follow their base authors before the
dread tribunal of Almighty jus- * ticc . " The apostle emboldens Timothy to condemn and excommunicate those wicked men by representing them as already under the sen- ? tence of God and marked *> tyt for signal punishment . .
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212 Strictures on the Improved Version .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1809, page 212, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1735/page/36/
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