they do: nor could he wish them more habitually to cheat themselves with a mere name and form of godliness than they do ]
And this is the state of all, without exception — [Men have their different tastes : one loves gross im- morality, whilst another prefers a self-complacent round of outward duties. But these are only the baits which they affect : their radical neglect of God and of his Christ is the same in both. The Apostles themselves, not excepting St. Paul in his unconverted state, were once subjects of this great usurper: "We ourselves," says St. Paul, "were some- times foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures^" And by whose influence they were kept in this awful condition, he tells us in another place : " And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the potver of the air, the spirit that notv worketh in the childreii of disobedience : among whom we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind^" Here, you perceive, they were actuated by their own lusts ; yet did they most effectually accomplish the will of the great
deceiver'' "His they were, and him they served;"
and from that kingdom of darkness must all be delivered, if ever they would " be translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son*^."]
The directions given to Timothy, for the regulation of his conduct towards them, leads me to notice,
II. The efforts of ministers in their behalf —
Ministers are appointed of God to instruct the world in the things which belong to their everlasting peace.
They are to rescue men, if possible, from the power of Satan —
[They find men sleeping in security, and, like persons in a state of intoxication, unconscious of their danger*-': and they endeavour to awaken them. With this view they cry, " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give thee light^" They call the poor unhappy victims to " repentance, and to an acknowledgment of the
» Tit. iii. 3. ^ Eph. ii. 1—3. <= Rev. xii. 9. ^ Col. i. 13. ^ Acts xxvi. 18. This seems to be implied in the term dvayrfil/uxny. f Eph. V. 14.