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¹ Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the appointment of God our saviour, and of Jesus Christ our hope, ² to Timothy my sincere convert, favour, mercy and peace from God our father, and Jesus Christ our Lord. ³ At my departure from Macedonia, I advised you to stay at Ephesus in order to charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, ⁴ or trouble their heads with fables and endless genealogies, which rather promote disputes than the gospel-dispensation:

⁵ such a charge will produce that charity, which arises from purity, from a good conscience, and a sincere belief: ⁶ for want of which, some have lost themselves in frivolous disputes, ⁷ pretending to be doctors of the law, tho' they neither understand what they advance, nor upon what it is founded. ⁸ I own that the law is good, if a man make a right use of it: ⁹ it being plain, that the law was not design'd against the just, but against the lawless and refractory, against irreligion and vice, impiety and prophaneness, parricide and man-slaughter, ¹⁰ against licentiousness and unnatural passion, against men-stealers, lyars, perjured persons, and every thing that is inconsistent ¹¹ with the salutary doctrine of the gospel of immortality, which the blessed God committed to my trust.

¹² I offer thanks to Jesus Christ our Lord, who qualified me for the ministry he has plac'd me in, for having appointed me to such a trust, ¹³ who was before a blasphemer, and a violent persecutor; but I obtained mercy, because I acted thro' ignorance in incrudelity. ¹⁴ but the favour of our Lord display'd itself by that faith and charity, which was wrought in me by Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ it is a proposition worthy to be believ'd, and be embrac'd by all, that Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the greatest. ¹⁶ however I obtained mercy, that Jesus Christ might demonstrate the greatness of his clemency, by making me an eminent instance of it to those who should hereafter believe in him, in order to eternal life. ¹⁷ to the king of the world, the immortal, invisible, and the only God be honour and glory to endless ages. amen.

¹⁸ This charge, my son Timothy, I recommend to you, agreeably to the prophetic gifts heretofore conferr'd on you, by virtue of which you might carry on a successful warfare, ¹⁹ assisted by faith and a good conscience: for some having discarded the one, have entirely lost the other. ²⁰ Hymeneus and Alexander are of that number, whom I have deliver'd to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.