only, and not from wilfulness : and be ready, not only with meekness and fear to assign your reasons for your conduct, but to submit those reasons to the test of sound wisdom and of real piety. In a word, endeavour " by your good and blameless conversation to win those" who would not listen to God's revealed will : so shall you prove blessings to those around you ; and bring glory to that God, in whom you trust, and whom you profess to serve.]
THE QUALITY OF MEN's WORKS DISCOVERED IN THE DAY
1 Tim. v. 24, 25. Some mens sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment ; and some men they follow after. Like- wise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand ; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.
AN attention to the context is of the greatest im- portance in explaining the Holy Scriptures : for there is not any error into which we may not run, if we overlook the connexion in which every different ex- pression stands. Yet it is possible to err even on that side : for the inspired writers are not so fettered, but that they sometimes pass from one subject to another without any connexion except what existed in their own minds, and sometimes with an easy, though not a logical, transition. Many able Com- mentators, through an excessive attention to the context, would limit the words before us to the ad- mission of persons to the ministerial office, of which the Apostle is speaking in the foregoing verses. But I am persuaded, that they ought not to be so limited. They arise indeed from that subject ; but they carry the mind beyond it ; and were intended to encourage Timothy to execute with fidelity the trust reposed in him : he must " not lay hands suddenly on any, lest he become a partaker of their sins :" but if, after all his care, he should be deceived, he shall not be deemed guilty on that account, since God alone can see the heart : and the mistakes which are made respecting the characters of men in this life, shall all be rectified in the life to come.