he called his escaping condemnation, when he made his first anfwer, a being delivered out of the mouth of the lion, 2 Tim. iv. 17. And having no hope of being acquitted at his next hearing, he looked for nothing but immediate death, 2 Tim. iv. 6. I am already poured out, and the time of my departure hath come.-7. I have finished the race.

2. The boldness with which the apostle preached the gospel to all who came to him, during the confinement mentioned by Luke in the Acts, and the success with which he defended himself against his accusers, encouraged others to preach the gospel without fear; fo that he had fellow-labourers then in abundance. Philip. i. 14. Many of the brethren in the Lord, being af fured by my bonds, have become much more bold to speak the word without fear. At that time alfo he had the service of many affectionate friends; fuch as Mark, Timothy, Luke, Tychicus, Aristarchus, and others, mentioned, Col. iv. 7. 10, 11, 12. 14. -But when he wrote his fecond to Timothy, his affiftants were all so terrified by the rage of his accusers and judges, that not so much as one of them, nor any of the brethren in Rome, appeared with him when he made his first answer, 2 Tim. iv. 16. And after that answer was made, all his affiftants fled from the city, except Luke, 2 Tim. iv. 11.

4. During the apostle's confinement in Rome, of which Luke has given an account, Demas was with him, Philem. ver. 24. and Mark, as his fellow-labourers, Col. iv. 10, 11. Philem. ver. 24. But when he wrote his fecond epistle to Timothy, Demas had forfaken him, having loved the prefent world, 2 Tim. iv. 10. And Mark was abfent; for the apostle defired Timothy to bring Mark with him, 2 Tim. iv. II. From these circumstances it is evident, that the epiftles to the Coloffians and to Philemon, and the second to Timothy, were written by the apoftle during different confinements.

To invalidate these arguments, Lardner fuppofes, that on Paul's arrival at Rome from Judea, he was shut up in close prifon as a malefactor, and expected nothing but instant death: That being in the greatest danger, all his affiftants, except Luke, forfook him and fled for fear of their own lives; that in this ftate of defpondency he wrote his fecond to Timothy; that the Emperor having heard his rft defence, mentioned 2 Tim.iv.16.

entertained a favourable opinion of his cause, and by a written order, appointed him to be confined in the gentle manner described Acts xxviii. 16. 30. That afterwards his affiftants returned; and that he preached the gospel to all who came to him, and converted many.

But these fuppofitions are all directly contrary to the apostle's own account of the matter. For, 1. After making his answer, mentioned 2 Tim. iv. 16. instead of being allowed to live in his own hired house, he was fo closely confined, that when Onefiphorus came to Rome, he had to feek him out diligently among the different prisons in the city, before he could find him, 2 Tim. i. 17.—2. After his firft defence, his judges, instead of being more favourably disposed towards him, were fo enraged against him that he looked for nothing but immediate condemnation at his next answer, 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7.—3. Luke, who was with the apostle during his first confinement, and who hath given an account of it, hath not faid one word of any danger he was then in. He only tells us, that his confinement lafted two years, Acts xxviii. 30.-4. If the liberty which the apostle fo foon obtained, was the effect of his first answer, we must fuppofe that the perfons deputed by the council at Jerusalem to an◄ fwer his appeal, either were in Rome before he arrived, or came to Rome in the fame fhip with him; and that the Emperor gave him a hearing on the fecond day after his arrival. For Luke informs us, that three days after his arrival, he had fuch liberty that he called the chief of the Jews to his own house, and spake to them what is mentioned Acts xxviii. 17. But fuch a speedy hearing, granted to a Jewish prisoner, by the head of fo great an empire, who was either occupied in affairs of government, or in pursuing his pleasures, and such a fudden alteration in the prifoner's ftate, are things altogether incredible.5. The apoftle being in a ftate of defpondency when he wrote his fecond to Timothy, he muft, as Lardner fuppofes, have written it before he made his firft anfwer, fince the alteration of his circumftances was the effect of that answer. Nevertheless from the epiftle itself, chap. iv. 16. we know, not only that it was written after the apostle had made his first answer, but that it produced no alteration whatever in his circumftances. For after making that answer, he wrote to Timothy, that the time of

his departure was come. In fhort, he was in as much defpondency after his firft anfwer, as before it.

Upon the whole, the arguments to prove that Paul wrote his fecond epistle to Timothy, during the confinement recorded in the Acts, being of fo little moment, in comparison of the facts and circumstances which fhew that it was written during a fubfequent confinement, I agree in opinion with those who hold, that the apostle was twice imprisoned at Rome; once, when he was brought thither from Judea to prosecute his appeal; and a fecond time, when he came to Rome from Crete, in the end of the year 65, while Nero was perfecuting the Christians; (See Pref. to Titus, Sect. 1. last paragr.) and that having made his first defence early in the year 66, he wrote his fecond to Timothy in the beginning of the fummer of that year, as may be conjec tured from his defiring Timothy to come to him before winter.

I have taken this pains in refuting the opinion of the learned men first mentioned, concerning the time of writing the second to Timothy, because on that opinion Lardner hath founded another notion still more improbable, but which, after what hath been faid, needs no particular confutation; namely, that what is called the apostle's second epiftle to Timothy, was written before the one which is placed firft in the Canon, and which is generally believed to have been the first written.

SECT. II. Of the Place where Timothy was, when the Apoftle wrote his fecond Letter to him.

That Timothy was at Ephefus, when the apoftle wrote his fecond epiftle to him, may be gathered from the following circumstances. 1. Hymeneus and Alexander are mentioned in the first epistle, chap. i. 20. as falfe teachers, whom Timothy was left at Ephesus to oppofe. In the fecond epiftle, he is defired to avoid the vain babbling of Hymeneus, chap. ii. 16, 17, 18. and chap. iv. 15. to be on his guard against Alexander. We may therefore conjecture, that Timothy was in Ephesus, the place where these false teachers abode, when the apostle's fecond letter was fent to him.-2. As it was the apostle's custom to falute the brethren of the churches to which his letters were fent, the falutation of Prifca and Aquila, and of the family of Onefipho

rus, 2 Tim. iv. 19. fhew, that Timothy was in Ephesus when this letter was written to him. For that Ephefus was the ordi'nary refidence of Onefiphorus, appears from 2 Tim. i. 18. and confidering that Prifca and Aquila had, before this, abode fome time in Ephefus, (Rom. xvi. 3. note.) the falutation sent to them in this letter, makes it probable, that they had returned to that city.-3. From Titus iii. 12. where the apostle says, When I fhall fend Artemas to thee, or Tychicus, make hafte to come to me, it appears to have been the apoftle's cuftom, to fend persons to supply the places of those whom he called away from the stations he had affigned them. Wherefore, fince in his fecond epistle, chap. iv. 9. he thus wrote to Timothy, Make hafte to come to me; then added, ver. 12. Tychicus I have fent to Ephefus; may we not infer, that Timothy was then in Ephesus, and that Tychicus was fent by the apoftle to supply his place after his departure ?-4. The errors and vices which the apoftle, in his fecond epiftle, ordered Timothy to oppofe, are the very errors and vices which in the first, are faid to have been prevalent among the teachers at Ephefus, and which Timothy was left in Ephesus to oppose. See Pref, to 1 Tim, fect. 2. no. 4.

These arguments make it probable, that Timothy remained in Ephefus, from the time the apoftle left him there, as he was going into Macedonia, until, in compliance with his desire fignified in this letter, he fet out for Rome; confequently that Timothy received in Ephefus, both the letters which the apoftle wrote to him.

SECT. III. Of the Occafion on which the fecond Epifle to Timothy was written: And of the time of St. Paul's Death.

In the Preface to Paul's first epiftle to Timothy, fect. 3. the reader will find a brief hiftory of the apostle's travels with Timothy, from the time he was released from his first confinement at Rome, till he left Timothy in Ephefus to oppose the false teachers, as mentioned 1 Tim. i. 3. But, in regard that history will be given more fully in the Pref. to Titus, fect. 1. penult paragraph, it is only needful in this place to relate, that after the apostle left Timothy at Ephefus, he went into Macedonia to vifit the churches there, according to his promife, Philip. ii. 24.

then

then went to Nicopolis in Epirus, with an intention to spend the winter, Tit. iii. 12. and to return to Ephefus in the spring, 1 Tim. iii. 14. But, having ordered Titus to come to him from Crete to Nicopolis, Tit. iii. 2. on his arrival, he gave him. fuch an account of the state of the churches in Crete, as determined him to go with Titus, a second time, into that island. While in Crete, hearing of the cruel perfecution which the Emperor Nero was carrying on against the Chriftians, (fee the laft paragraph of this sect.) the apostle speedily finished his business, and failed with Titus to Italy, in the end of the autumn 65, rightly judging that his prefence at Rome, would be of great use in strengthening and comforting the perfecuted brethren in that city.

Paul, on his arrival at Rome, taking an active part in the affairs of the Christians, foon became obnoxious to the heathen priests, and to the idolatrous rabble, who hated the Christians as atheists, because they denied the gods of the empire, and condemned the established worship. Wherefore, being discovered to the magistrates, probably by the unbelieving Jews, as the ringleader of the hated fect, he was apprehended, and closely imprisoned as a malefactor, 2 Tim. ii. 9. This happened in the end of the year 65, or in the beginning of 66.

The apostle hath not informed us directly, what the crime was which the heathen magistrates laid to his charge. If it was the burning of the city, which the Emperor falfely imputed to the Christians in general, his absence from Rome when the city was burnt, being a fact he could eafily prove, it was a fufficient exculpation of him from that crime. Probably, therefore, the magistrates accused him of denying the gods of the empire, and of condemning the established worship. In this accusation, it is natural to fuppofe, the unbelieving Jews joined, from their hatred of Paul's doctrine: and among the reft Alexander, the Ephefian coppersmith, who having, as it would feem, apostatized to Judaism, had blasphemed Christ and his gospel; and on that account had been lately delivered by the apoftle to Satan, 1 Tim. i. 20. This virulent Judaizing teacher, happening to be in Rome when Paul was apprehended, he, in refentment of the treatment received from the apostle, appeared with his accufers

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