while he reserved the others as attendants and ministers to go along with himself.

5. Nor is this merely the arbitrary sense of antiquity in the case, but seems evidently founded in St. Paul's own intimation, where he tells Titus, for this cause left 1 thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee, that is, I constituted thee governour of that church, that thou mightst dispose and order the affairs of it according to the rules and directions which I then gave thee. Ordain elders] he means bishops (says" Chrysostom) as elsewhere I have oft explained it. Elders in every city] he was not willing (as he adds) that the whole administration of so great an island should be managed by one, but that every city might have its proper governor to inspect and take care of it, that so the burthen might be lighter by being laid upon many shoulders, and the people attended with the greater diligence. Indeed Crete was famous for number of cities above any other island in the world, thence styled of old Hecatompolis, the island of an hundred cities. In short, plain it is, that Titus had power of jurisdiction, ordination, and ecclesiastical censures, above any other pastors or ministers in that church conferred and derived upon him.

6. Several years St. Titus continued at his charge in Crete, when he received a summons from St. Paul, then ready to depart from Ephesus. The apostle had desired Apollos to accompany Timothy and some others whom he had sent to Corinth, but he choosing rather to go for Crete, by him and Zenas he wrote an epistle to Titus, to stir him up to be active and vigilant, and to teach him how to behave himself in that station wherein he had set him. And indeed he had need of all the counsels which St. Paul could give him, who had so loose and untoward a generation of men to deal with. For the country itself was not more fruitful and plenteous than the manners of the people were debauched and vicious. St. Paul puts Titus in mind what a bad character one of w Homil. 2. in Tit. p. 1700. vid. etiam Theoph. & Oex Tit. i. 12.

v Tit. i. 5. cumen. in lục.

their own poets (who certainly knew them best) had given of them:

Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψσουσαι, κακὰ θηρία, γαςέρες ἀβγάς.

a

The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow-bellies. This verse St. Chrysostom supposes the apostle took from Callimachus, who makes use indeed of the first part of it, charging the Cretians to be like themselves, notorious liars, in pretending that Jupiter was not only born, but died among them, and that they had his tomb with this inscription, ENTATOA ZAN KEITAI, here lies Jupiter, when as the deity is immortal : whereupon the good father perplexes himself with many needless difficulties in reconciling it. Whereas in truth St. Paul borrowed it not from Callimachus, but Epimenides, a native of Crete, famous among the ancients for his raptures and enthusiastic divinations, Θεοφιλής ή (οφὸς περὶ τὰ θεῖα, τὴν ἐνθεσιαςικὴν κ τελεσικὴν ζοφίαν, as Plutarch says of him. From him Callimachus cites part of the verse, and applies it to his particular purpose, while St. Paul quotes it entire from the author himself. This witness (says he) is true. And indeed that herein he did not bely them, we have the concurrent testimonies of most heathen writers, who charge the same things upon them. So famous for lying, that Kerigen and Kenlige gos Kgra became proverbial, to lie like a Cretian and to cozen a cheat, and nothing more obvious than mendax Creta. Polybius tells us of them, that no where could be found. more subtle and deceitful wits, and generally more wicked and pernicious counsels; that their manners were so very sordid and covetous, that of all men in the world. the Cretians were the only persons who accounted nothing base or dishonest, that was but gainful and advantageous. Besides they were idle and impatient of labour,

y Homil. III. in Tit. pag. 1707.

z In vit. Solon. pag. 84.

2 Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσαι. καὶ γὰρ τάφον, ὦ ἄνα, σεῖο

Κρῆτες ἐπεκλήσαντο· σὺ δὲ ἐ θάνες· ἐστὶ γαρ αἰεί. Callim. Hymn, εις τ Δία. p. 1. παροιμία ἐπὶ τὸ κρητίζειν, ἐπὶ ψεύδεσθαι. Vet. Schol ibi.

ὁ Κρητίζειν, τὸ ψσεύδεσθαι. ἡ ἑτέρα παροιμία, Κρητίζειν πρὸς Κρῆτας· ἐπειδὴ ψσεύ sal, gázateœves eizí. Suid. in voc. Kuigaw. Eadem Mich. Aostol. in eod. verb. Πλην ἴσθι μηδ' αὐτὸν ἐῤῥαψαδικέναι με ταῦτα τερατευόμενον και της Κρίτας. Psel. de aperat. Dæmon. p. 37.

c Histor. 1. 6. p. 681. & 1. 4 p. 386. Edit. L.. Batav.

d

gluttonous and intemperate, unwilling to take any pains further than to make provision for the flesh; as the natural effect of ease, idleness, and plenty, they were wanton and lascivious, and prone to the vilest and basest sort of lust, περὶ τὰ παιδικὰ δαιμονίως ἐπλόηνται, (as Athenæus informs us) outrageously mad upon that sin that peculiarly derives its name from Sodom. And such being the case, what wonder if St. Paul bids Titus reprove them sharply, seeing their corrupt and depraved manners would admit of the sharpest lancets, and the most stinging corrosives he could apply to them.

6. In the epistle itself, the main body of it consists of rules and directions for the several ranks and relations of men: and because spiritual and Ecclesiastical affairs are of all others most considerable, he first instructs him in the qualifications of those whom he should set apart to be bishops and guides of souls, that they be holy and harmless, innocent and inoffensive, such as had not divorced and put away their first wife that they might marry a second, whose children were sober and regular, and trained up in the Christian faith; that they be easy and tractable, meek and unpassionate, free from the love of wine, and a desire after riches by sordid and covetous designs; that they be kind and hospitable, lovers of goodness and good men, modest and prudent, just and honest, strict and temperate, firm and constant in owning and asserting the doctrines of Christianity that have been deJivered to them, that being thoroughly furnished with this pure evangelical doctrine, they may be able both to persuade and comfort others, and mightily to convince those that resist and oppose the truth. And certainly it was not without great reason, that the apostle required that the guides and governors of the church should be thus able to convince gainsayers. For whatever authors report of Crete, that it bred no serpents or venomous creatures, yet certain it is that the poison of errour and heresy had insinuated itself there together with the entertainment of Christianity, there being many unruly and

d Deipnosoph. 1. 13. pag. 601.

vain talkers, especially they of the circumcision, who endeavoured to corrupt the doctrine of the gospel with Jewish fables, groundless and unwarrantable traditions, mystical and cabalistic explications, and foolish questions and genealogies. For the Jews borrowing their notions herein from the schools of Plato, were fallen into a vein of deriving things from an imaginary generation, first Binah or understanding, then Achmoth or Cochmah wisdom, and so till they came to Milcah the kingdom, and Schekinah or the divine presence. Much after the same rate as the poets of old deduced the pedigrees of their gods, they had first their several Curvyías their conjunctions, the coupling and mixing of things together, and thence proceeded their their genealogies or generations ; out of Chaos came Erebus and the dark Night, the conjunction of whom begot Æther and the Day, and thence Hesiod proceeds to explain the whole pagan theology concerning the original of their gods.

7, In imitation of all which, and from a mixture of all together the Valentinians, Basilidians, and the rest of the Gnostic crew formed the senseless and unintelligible schemes of their and thirty Æones, divided into three classes of conjunction; in the first were four couples, Profundity and Silence, Mind and Truth, the Word and Life, Man and the Church: in the second five, viz. Profound and Mixture, Ageratus and Union, &c. in the third six, the Paraclete and Faith, Patricos and Hope, &c. Of all which if any desire to know more, they may (if they can understand it) find enough in Irenæus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius, to this purpose. The last of whom not only affirms expressly that Valentinus and his party introduced now, the fabulous and poetic fancies of the heathens, but draws a particular parallel between Hesiod's Theogonia, and their thirty ones or ages, consisting of fifteen couples or conjugations, male and female, which he shows exactly to agree both in the number, design, and order of them. For instance, Valentinus's tribe begins thus ;

e Tit. i. 10.

h Hesiod. Theogon. p. m. 466. tull. de Præscript. Hæret. c. 7. p. 204.

f Verse 14.

g Verse 3.9. i Hæres. XXXI. pag. 76. vid. Ter

All which was nothing but a trifling and fantastical imitation of Hesiod's progeny and generation of the gods, which being joined in conjugations succeeded in this order; Chaos, Night; Erebus, Earth; Æther, Day, &c. There being (as he observes) no difference between the one scheme and the other, but only the change and alteration of the names. This may suffice for a specimen to show whence this idle generation borrowed their extravagant conceits, though there were that had set much what the like on foot before the time of Valentinus. By such dark and wild notions and principles the false Apostles both in Crete and elsewhere, sought to undermine the Christian doctrine, mixing it also with principles of great looseness and liberty, that they might the easilier insinuate themselves into the affections of men, whereby they brought over numerous proselytes to their party, of whom they made merchandise, gaining sufficient advantage to themselves. So that it was absolutely necessary that these men's mouths should be stopped, and that they should not be suffered to go on under a show of such lofty

1 Καὶ αὕτη μὲν ἡ τῶν τριάκοντα αἰώνων παρ' αὐτοῖς μυθοποιημένη τραγωδία, και ή και συ ζυγίαν πνευματικοῦ δῆθεν πληρώμαῷ κενοφωνία, ἣν ἐὰν τις (υγκρίνων τῇ παρὰ Ἡσιόδα και Στησιχόρω κι τοῖς ἄλλοις ποιηταῖς τῶν ἑλλήων παραθηται, ειρειἂν ἐκ παραλλήλοι τα αὐτὰ ὄντα, καὶ ἐδὲν ἕτερον, θαυμασὶν οἱ τῶν θαυμάτων αιρεσιάρχαι μυςηριωδῶς ἐπαγγέλ λονται λέγειν· ἐδὲν γὰρ ἄλλο, ἢ ἑλλήνων ἀπεμάξαντο τὴν ἐπίπλαςον ποιητικὴν ἕξιν τ' ἔθνο μύθε πλάνης κ, διδασκαλίας, ἐδὲν ἀλλοιώσαντες, πλὴν δ παρ' αὐτοῖς παραπεποιημένης βαρ βαρικῆς ὀνομαλοποιίας. Id. ibid.

Tit. i. 11.