178 RORJE PAULINA. 



''Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of 

 other men's sins : keep thyself pure. Drink no longer water, 

 hut use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often 

 infirmities. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going 

 before to judgment ; and some men they follow after." The 

 direction to Timothy about his diet stands between two sen- 

 tences, as wide from the subject as possible. The train of 

 thought seems to be broken to let it in. Now, when does 

 this happen ? It happens when a man writes as he remem- 

 bers; when he puts down an article the moment that it 

 occurs, lest he should afterwards forget it. Of this, the pas 

 sage before us bears strongly the appearance. In actual 

 letters, in the negligence of real correspondence, examples 

 of this kind frequently take place ; seldom, I believe, in any 

 other production. For, the moment a man regards what 

 he writes as a composition, which the author of a forgery 

 would of all writers be the first to do, notions of order in the 

 arrangement and succession of his thoughts present them 

 selves to his judgment and guide his pen. 



V. Chap. 1 : 15, 16: "This is a faithful saying, and 

 worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 

 world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief Howbeit, for 

 this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ 

 might show forth all long-sufTering, for a pattern to them 

 which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." 



What was the mercy which St. Paul here commemo- 

 rates, and what was the crime of which he accuses himself, 

 is apparent from the verses immediately preceding : ** I 

 thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that 

 he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry ; ivho 

 was before a blasphemer, and a jiersccutor , and injurious: 

 but I obtained Tiiercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbe- 

 lief" Ver. 12, 13. The whole quotation plainly refers to 

 St. Paul's original enmity to the Christian name, the inter- 

 position of Providence in his conversion, and his subsequent 

 designation to the ministry of the gospel ; and by this refer 



