Titus

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. The faith of God’s elect] Not the election of God’s faithful ones, as the Arminians make it.

And the knowledge of the truth] It is usual with St Paul in the beginning of his Epistles, to utter much in few, and to set down the sum of the whole gospel, as here he doth justification, sanctification, and the hope of salvation, and all by the acknowledging of the truth. This Epistle is called the abridgment of all St Paul’s Epistles; but especially of those two to Timothy, whom he more largely instructeth in point of Church government, because a younger man than Titus, and not so well exercised in ecclesiastical affairs. (Estius.)

Ver. 2. God that cannot lie] The word of promise binds God; therefore it seems, saith one, that it is stronger than God; for he can as soon deny himself as his promise.

Promised] That is, purposed, as #2Ti 1:9, or decreed to promise, or promised to Christ, or promised to our first parents from the beginning of ages, ante multa saecula, so some sense it.

Ver. 3. Manifested his word] As when he said plainly, "He that believeth in the Son hath eternal life."

Ver. 4. Common faith] Common to the communion of saints, #Tit 1:1, and to them proper and peculiar; for all men have not faith, #2Th 3:2. Or common, that is, Symbolo Apostolico comprehensum, saith one, contained in the Apostle’s Creed.

Ver. 5. Set in order] Gr. επιδιορθωση, conficias, set straight, or make up the things that I left unfinished. Straighten the things that grow crooked in the Church,

In every city] Crete had a hundred cities, and was therefore called εκατομπολις; as Thebes had a hundred gates, and was therefore called εκατομπυλος

Ver. 6. The husband of one wife] Here the apostle canonizeth, saith Scultetus, the marriage of ministers.

Ver. 7. A bishop must be blameless] As was Moses, Samuel, Paul, Bradford, Bucer, &c., who led convincing lives; so that their foes could not in anything stain them, nor their friends sufficiently commend them. It is better, saith one, to live so as thine enemies may be amazed at thy virtues than that thy friends should have cause to excuse thy vices.

Not soon angry] οργιλος, biliosus et bellicosus, testy and tetchy, easily blown up into rage, that will not be laid down without revenge.

Ver. 8. Temperate] εγκρατης. No slave to his fleshly appetite, but one that can master himself and give laws to his lusts. See my Commonplace of Abstinence.

Ver. 9. Holding fast, &c.] αντεχομενον. As with tooth and nail, against those gainsayers that would snatch it from us.

Ver. 10. For there are many unruly] Lawless, yokeless, masterless men, untractable, untameable, that refuse to be reformed, hate to be healed. God will hamper these Belialists, #2Sa 23:6.

Ver. 11. Whose mouths must be stopped] Gr. επιστομιζειν, muzzled, as bandogs are. Frogs, they say, will leave croaking if but a light be hanged over the lake wherein they are. Let but the truth come clearly in place, and heretics will be soon silenced. But if they will not, another course must be taken with them.

Ver. 12. Even a prophet of their own] Epimenides, the poet, who by his countrymen the Cretians was counted a prophet, and had divine honours done to him after his death. This uncircumcised poet Paul brings here into the temple, as before he had done Aratus, #Ac 17:28, and Menander, #1Co 15:33.

The Cretians are always liars] So were the Carthaginians, Tyriique bilingues. {a} The French had so often deceived the English that such as they mean to deceive they call by a common byword, Les Anglois, The English. The Cretians were loud liars, even to a proverb. Of Dolon, Homer saith, that he had an art in lying. But Eudaemon Joannes (that Cretian demoniac) wins the whetstone from all his countrymen, while he blusheth not to tell the world in print that these are the doctrines and practices of the Protestants, to worship no God, to frame our religion to the times, to pretend the public cause to our private lusts, to break our words as we see good for our purpose, to cover deadly hatred under fair flatteries, to confirm tyranny by shedding the blood of innocents. (Eudaemon Joannes contra Casaub.) Evil beasts, cruel as well as crafty. These two are seldom separated; as some write of the asp, that he never wanders alone without his companion; and as the Scripture speaks of those birds of prey and desolation, #Isa 34:16 "None of them wanteth his mate."

Slow bellies] That is, given to sloth and idleness, and luxurious gluttons.

{a} Fides Punica. Virgil. Cres semper mendax, mala bellua, et helluo deses. Cretizare cum Cretensib. vide Erasm. Adag. ισκε ψευσεα πολλα λεγειν ετυμοισιν ομοια. Hom.

Ver. 13. Rebuke them sharply] Gr. αποτομως, cuttingly, precisely, rigidly, severely, and to the quick. A metaphor from surgeons, who must not be melch-hearted, saith Celsus, {a} but pare away the dead flesh, Ne pars sincera trahatur. Howbeit, that is a good rule given by a godly divine, that although there must be some warmth in a reproof, yet it must not be scalding hot. Words of reviling and disgrace, they scald, as it were. But words that tend to stir up the conscience to a due consideration of the error or evil reproved, they be duly warm, and tend to make the medicine work more kindly. Evangelizatum non maledictum missus es, said Oecolampadins to Farellus: laudo zelum, mode non desideretur mansuetudo. Vinum et oleum in tempore suo infundendum. Evangelistam non tyrannicum legislatorem praestes. Thou art sent to preach, not to rail. Thy zeal I commend, so it be mingled with meekness. Wine must be poured into men’s wounds one while and oil another. Thou must show thyself a peaceable preacher, not a tyrannical lawgiver. (Oecolamp. Ep. ad Gul. Farel.) Rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering, saith Paul to Timothy, #2Ti 4:2. Timothy, they say, was somewhat sharp and tart in his reproofs; and is therefore exhorted to patience and meekness. Titus was gentle, and of a mild disposition; and is therefore thus spurred on to sharpness and severity. The Cretians also were (possibly) a worse people than the Ephesians, and were therefore to be more hardly handled. Let it ever be remembered that matters of moment must be wisely but yet seriously dealt with. To tell wicked men of their sins so softly as Eli did his sons, or reprove them so gently as Jehoshaphat did Ahab ("Let not the king say so"), doth usually as much harm as good; like a weak dose in physic, it stirreth the humours, but purgeth them not.

{a} Chirurgos misericordes esse non oportet.

Ver. 14. Not giving heed to Jewish fables] Wherewith their Talmud is full farced, which while they hug overly hard, as Cleopatra did the snakes that sucked her blood, they perish.

Of men that turn from the truth] αποστρεφομενοι, with utter aversatian and detestation, as a man turns his body from a loathsome object. These are those that will not endure sound doctrine, #2Ti 4:3.

Ver. 15. Unto the pure all things, &c.] This Piscator {in #Mr 14:3} holds a sufficient warrant for us to use, Ne forte, and other heathen expressions; like as the apostles used χρηματιζεσθαι χρηματισμος &c., abused by the Greeks to signify their wicked and devilish oracles. But Pasor is utterly against it. (Prefat. ad Lexic.)

Is nothing pure] Their own table is a snare to them, yea, God’s table. The saints are kept at hard commons, but have their keeping of freecost: the wicked have larger cares, but pay sweetly.

Conscience is defiled] To wit, with sins, and so can no more judge it than a man can discern colours in a foul and soiled glass.

Ver. 16. They profess that they know] Aliud in titulo, aliud in pyxide. Outside Christians who perform, as Ephraim, dough baked duties, are almost persuaded, as Agrippa, come near God’s kingdom with that young Pharisee; faint chapmen that go without the bargain, as he did that came kneeling to our Saviour, and saying, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" These do virtutis stragulam pudefacere, put honesty to an open shame, as Diogenes said to Antipater, who being vicious, wore a white cloak, the ensign of innocence.

Being abominable] Gr. βδελυκτοι ̔α βδεω, pedo), such as stink above ground, and are of an offensive savour.

To every good work reprobate] αδοκιμοι, or injudicious; such as cannot make a right judgment of any good works, so as to approve and relish them, to see a beauty in them, as good, &c.

But in works they deny him] Which is, as if a man should confess his faith in English and deny it again in Latin. These are no better than devils wrapped up in Samuel’s mantle; hot meteors, shooting and showing like stars.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. But speak thou, &c.] Quasi dicat, the worse others are, the better thou must be; keeping a constant counter motion to the corrupt courses that are in the world through lust. A pearl in a puddle retains its preciousness; and fish in the salt waters retain their freshness.

Ver. 2. That the old men be sober, &c.] Not as it is said of the Flemings, that quo magis senescunt eo magis stultescunt, the elder the more foolish. (Erasm. in Moriae Encom.) Solomon and Asa were so. And the heathen sages wisely warn us, that old age is to be feared, as that which comes not alone, but brings with it many diseases both of body and mind. Saepe fit ut Satan, quem iuvenero capere non potuit, annosum fallat et capiat, said Bucholcerus. Many that have held out well in youth, have failed and been shamefully foiled in old age.

Ver. 3. In behaviour] εν καταστηματι, or, in habit, apparel, gait, gesture.

Teachers of good things] As was Bathsheba, #Pr 31:1,2; Lois, #2Ti 1:5; Monica, &c.

Ver. 4. To be sober] Or wise, teaching them as schoolmasters do their disciples; so the word σωφρονιζωσι signifies. He was a foolish man that said, Μισω σοφην γυναικα, I love not to have a woman wise. (Eurip.) "A prudent wife is of the Lord." Such a one was Abigail, and Aspasia, Milesia, the wife of Cyrus, who was said to be Καλη και σοφη, fair and wise also. (Aelian. xii. 1.) To love their husbands, though old and less lovely, as that famous Valadaura in Ludovicus Vives.

To love their children] And to seal up their love, not by hugging them to death, as apes do their young; but by educating them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, as Bathsheba, #Pr 31:1. Plutarch speaks of a Spartan woman, that when her neighbours were showing their apparel and jewels, she brought out her children, virtuous and well taught, and said, These are my ornaments and jewels. Mothers must learn to love their children’s souls, #1Pe 3:4.

Ver. 5. To be discreet, chaste, &c.] Coniugium humanae divina Academia vitae. Much good may be learned by wedlock.

Keepers at home] Carrying her house on her back, as the snail doth. Sarah was found in the tent, so was Jael the wife of Heber. The Egyptian women ware no shoes, that they might the better keep home.

Ver. 6. Young men likewise exhort] {See Trapp on "2Ti 2:22"}

Ver. 7. A pattern of good] Gr. τυπος, a stamp. Digging thy sermons out of thine own breast, and living them, when thou hast done.

Ver. 8. May be ashamed, having, &c.] Oh, it is a brave thing to stop an open mouth, to throttle envy, to cut off all occasion of evil speaking.

Ver. 9. Not answering again] Not chatting or thwarting. Servus sit monosyllabus Domino, saith one. Apelles painted a servant with his hands full of tools, to signify his diligence; with broad shoulders to bear wrongs; with hind’s feet to run swiftly about his business; with the ears of an ass, and his mouth shut with two locks, to signify that he should be swift to hear and slow to speak.

Ver. 10. Not purloining] Interverting, embezzling their master’s estates, ordinary among the Romans, which made them call servants and thieves by one name, {a} ordinary among the Hebrews; whence that saying of Rabbi Gamaliel, Marbe gnabadim, marbe gezel, He that multiplieth servants, multiplieth thieves. {Pirke-aboth, #Tit 1} Ordinary also among us, whence that proverb, "He that will be rich must ask his servant’s leave."

{a} Audent cum talia fures. Virgil.

Ver. 11. For the grace of God, &c.] This is rendered as a reason why servants should be faithful, because to them also belongeth the promise of salvation, yea, the reward of inheritance, as if they were sons, and to them the gospel is preached as well as to others.

Hath appeared] επεφανη. As the sun in heaven, or as a beacon on a hill.

Ver. 12. Denying ungodliness] Every gospel truth strikes at some sin, and thereby may be discerned.

Soberly, righteously, and godly] This is the Christian man’s motto, his symbol, and the sum of his whole duty.

“ Haec tria perpetuo meditare adverbia Pauli:

Haec tria sint vitae regula sancta tuae.”

The Egyptians when they praised their deceased friends, were wont to commend them for these three things, their godliness, righteousness, and temperance. (Diod. Sicul.)

Ver. 13. Looking for] As with necks stretched out, or head put forth, αποκαραδοκια, #Ro 8:19 19; as Sisera’s mother looked out of her lattice for her son’s happy return, #Jud 5:28.

Ver. 14. That he might redeem us] God will have the price of Christ’s blood out; he will thoroughly purge us.

A peculiar people] Gr. A people that comprehend all that God sets any store by, that contain all his gettings; called elsewhere the people of acquisition, περιουσιος, #1Pe 2:9. The word here used Jerome saith he sought for among human authors, and could not find it. Therefore some think the Septuagint feigned this, and επιουσιον, used also in the Lord’s prayer. Theophylact saith it signifieth such a people as are conversant about their master’s business, procuring of wealth and riches for him.

Zealous of good works] Give God thine affections, else thine actions are stillborn, and have no life in them. Now zeal is the extreme heat of all the affections, when they are seething or hissing hot, as the apostle’s word is, #Ro 12:12, when we love God and his people out of a pure heart fervently, ζεοντες. Non amat qui non zelat, saith Austin, he loveth not at all in God’s account, whose love is not ardent, desires eager, delights ravishing, hopes longing, hatred deadly, anger fierce, grief deep, fear terrible, voice, eyes, hands, gestures, actions, all lively, as in holy Bucholcer, Luther, Laurentius, Athanasius, Ignatius, Paul, Baruch: #Ne 3:20, he earnestly fortified, seipsum accendit; he burst out into a holy heat, he wrought with a kind of anger against himself and others, because the work went on no faster. He was not of his temper that said, Deum colo, uti par est, I go as far for God as in discretion it is fit. Religiosum oportet esse, sed non religantem; such and such are more precise than wise. The reserved professor never shows himself but at halt-light; he follows Christ but afar off, as Peter, or as the people followed Saul (they tremble after him, #1Sa 13:7); he is afraid of every new step, saying as Caesar at Rubicon, Yet we may go back. Carnal discretion controls his fervency, cools his courage, keeps him that he cannot be zealous of good works, which he doth at the best in a loose, lazy, perfunctory strain, like the pace the Spaniard rides, like Adonikam, that was the last that set foot forward toward the return of the captives, and therefore had his lot below his brethren, #Ezr 8:13. Where is now our ancient zeal, heating and whetting (saith a reverend zealot)? Oh, how cold and careless, how dissolute, and dilute are we! May it not be said of most of our hearts and houses, as #Isa 47:14, there is not a coal to warm at? May not the old complaint be well renewed, "There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee?" #Isa 64:7. Let God’s love in the work of our redemption be duly pondered (as here), and it will fire us up to a holy contention in godliness.

These things speak and exhort] Lest men should think we should only preach of Christ and grace, preach thou obedience and zeal, saith the apostle.

Ver. 15. Let no man despise thee] περιφρονειτα Nemo te plus sapere ausit. Or have occasion to think himself wiser than thee. He saith not, a #1Ti 4:12 "Let no man despise thy youth," for Titus was (likely) elder than Timothy. Mr Calvin thinketh that these words are spoken to the people; they are, for the most part, of delicate ears, and cannot abide plain words of mortification.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. To be ready to every] As the bee, as soon as ever the sun breaks forth, flies abroad to gather honey and wax. A ready heart maketh riddance of religious duties.

Ver. 2. To speak evil of no man] Unless it be in an ordinance, for the reformation of the unruly; pleasing all in that which is good to edifying.

Ver. 3. For we ourselves also] I Paul, and thou Titus, were as bad as others; let us therefore show all mercy and meekness to others. Aut sumus, aut fuimus, aut possumus esse quod hic est. Either we are or will be or will be able to be who are here.

Serving divers lusts] As the Persian kings were lords of the world, but slaves to their concubines. {a} The Assyrians led away the Egyptians naked and barefoot, #Isa 20:2, so doth Satan sinners. Hence, though never so great they are called vile perrons, {b} as Antiochus, #Da 11:21, because they have as many lords as lusts Felix, at that very time that he trembled before Paul, could not but covet and expect a bribe from him.

Hateful] Gr. στυγητοι, of στυξ. Horrible, as hell itself, or justly odious to others.

{a} Captivarum suarum captivi. Plutarch. Roma victrix gentium, captiva vitiorum. O rem miseram! Dominum ferre non potuimus, conservo servimus. Cic. Epist.

{b} Arch. A platform, to which one ascends by steps, in front of a church, mansion, or other large building, and upon which the door or doors open; sometimes applied to a double flight of steps ascending to such a front door. ŒD

Ver. 4. Kindness and love] His native good ness, and his communicated goodness to us, not yet existing, nay, resisting.

Ver. 5. Which we have done] We that are bankrupts in Adam, would yet fain be doing, and think to be saved for a company of poor beggarly duties; as bankrupts will be trading again, thougth but for pins, &c.

But according to his mercy] God is no merchant; his kingdom is not partum, but paratum He that said, Coelum gratis non accipiam, I will not have heaven on free cost, went without it. (Vega.)

He saved us by the washing of regeneration] So baptism saveth us, #1Pe 3:21. It sacramentally saveth, by sealing up salvation to the believer: hence it is called the laver of regeneration. It is a noble question in divinity (saith Mr. Burgess, Vindic. Legis.), seeing regeneration is attributed both to the word and to baptism, how one worketh it differently from the other. Or if both work it, why is not one superfluous?

Ver. 6. Which he shed] Gr. εξεχεεν, Poured out (as it were by pail fulls) his Spirit (the best thing) upon all flesh (the basest thing), #Joe 2:28.

Ver. 7. Be made heirs] Not purchasers; all is of free grace. Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut sim meus. Paul was a most constant preacher of grace. (Bernard. Augustine.)

Ver. 8. That thou affirm constantly] Be well settled in it thyself, and avouch and aver it confidently to others; being ready to make it good, if questioned, Διαβεβαιουσθαι.

Be careful] Bend their wits, and beat their brains, φροντιζωσι.

To maintain good works] To exceed and excel others in their honest functions and faculties; to be their crafts masters, to bear away the bell from all that are of the same trade or profession. This was Cicero’s study, to be best at anything he ever undertook: should it not then be a believer’s? Αιεν αριστευειν και υπειροχον εμμεναι αλλων, παντων κρατιστον. (Plutarch.)

Ver. 9. But foolish questions] Such as is that of the Papists, whether an ass drinking at the font do drink the water of baptism, and so may be said to be baptized? Est questio digna asinis, saith Melancthon. Such questionists are (as Stapleton saith of Bodin) magni nugatores, great triflers.

Ver. 10. A man that is a heretic] All heresies are found to flow (saith Chemnitius) either from the supercilious pride of Samosatenus, or from the sophistry of Arius, or from the ignorance of Aetius. (Loc. Com., i. 2.) These men’s wits will better serve them to devise a thousand shifts to elude the truth, than their pride will suffer them once to yield and acknowledge it. And here this rule of St Paul takes place. Nestorius was an unlearned and proud man, but very bold and well spoken; insomuch as thereby he often carried it, and so seduced the emperor Theodosius, as that Cyril, a very good bishop, was thrown out of his place. Howbeit he was afterwards restored again with honour, when the emperor had better bethought himself, and the heretic Nestorius was condemned and cast out. (Zanch. Misc. Epist. Dedicat.)

After the first and second admonition reject] Or, avoid, devita, which some Popish dolts interpreted de vita tolle, kill them (as Erasmus reporteth), so to justify their bloody practice of putting Protestants to death. But what saith the same Erasmus speaking of Berquin the martyr, burnt by them for religion; Damnari, dissecari, suspendi, exuri; To be condemned, hanged, quartered, burned, beheaded, are things common to good and bad people. (Scultet. Annal.) To condemn, hang, quarter, burn, behead, is a thing common to righteous judges with pirates and tyrants. The judgments of men are various; happy is he that is absolved by God the Judge of all. And this was as much as he dared say against their proceedings, who for saying so much as he did, hardly escaped with this reproach, that for Erasmus they named him Erat-mus; because he so truly but bitterly biteth their ulcers.

Ver. 11. Is subverted] Gr. εξεστραπται, Is turned topsy turvy, as a tumbler that hath his heels in the air and his head on the earth; as a ship turns up her keel, or as a man "wipeth a dish and turneth it upside down," #2Ki 21:13; some render it thus, He hath the fairest side outward, and make it a metaphor from foul linen, the foul side turned inward; as if he should have said, such a man, whatsoever shows he maketh, is a naughty man. (Mr Cranford on #2Ti 2:17)

Condemned of himself] Since, as a headstrong horse, he gets the bit between his teeth, and runs away. Thus did the Pharisees, Toties puncti, et repuncti, minime tamen ad resipiscentiam compuncti, as one saith; they shut the windows lest the light should come in, and so were condemned, by their own consciences. Or, "he is condemned of himself" by excommunicating himself from the holy assemblies (as our church forsakers do), which other sinners are condemned to by the Church. The fornicator, the adulterer, the murderer, &c., are cast out of the Church by the Church officers. But heretics condemn themselves by a wilful departure from the Church; quae recessio propriae conscientiae videtur esse damnatio, and this seems to be the sense of the apostle’s self-condemned, saith Jerome upon this text.

Ver. 12. Come unto me to Nicopolis] The inhabitants of this city are said so to have hated the braying of an ass, that they would not endure to hear the sound of a trumpet. So some pretend such a hatred of hypocrisy, that they will not abide the profession of piety.

Ver. 13. That nothing be wanting] Those that labour in the Lord’s work must have all necessary accommodations and encouragements. They must be set forth and brought forward on their journey and in their negotiations worthy of God, #3Jo 6. Deduetione honorifica, #Ac 15:3 20:38 21:5. A Balaam will not deal hardly with his ass, if once he perceive the Lord to be in him, and to speak by him; shall we deal unworthily with God’s ministers, in whom God is of a truth, #1Co 14:25, and hath given unto them the ministry of reconciliation? #2Co 5:8.

Ver. 14. To maintain good works] {See Trapp on "Tit 3:8"}

That they be not unfruitful] As drone bees or body lice, living upon others’ labours, and so opening the mouths of heathens who will be ready to say, as he once did, Odi homines ignava opera, philosopha sententia, I hate those that can give fair words, but that is all they are good for. See we not how every creature in its kind is fruitful The sun, moon, and stars in their courses restlessly move to impart their light, heat, and influence to the inferior creatures. The clouds fly up and down emptying themselves, to enrich the earth, from which notwithstanding they reap no harvest. The earth is cut and wounded with shares and coulters, yet is patient, and yields her riches and strength to the tiller; yea, what herb, plant, or tree grows upon the earth which is not in its kind fruitful, spending itself and the principal parts of its sap and moisture in bringing forth some pleasant berry or such like fruit? (Plin.) And shall only man remain unfruitful, and not serve God and man with cheerfulness in the abundance of all things? Shall he be like the cypress tree, which the more it is watered, the more it is withered? Or like cyparet, whose neither fruit, nor leaves, nor berry, nor shadow is useful, but rather hurtful? Hear what Cicero saith, Pudeat illos qui ita vixerunt, ut ad vitam communem nullum fructum afferre possint. Let them learn to be ashamed of their sloth that have so lived, as to have been altogether useless and unfruitful.

Ver. 15. That love us in the faith] That best ligament of love. The Church is the only daughter of her mother, and is called Ecclesia , of calling all hers together. Religion hath its name of binding, because it binds men all in a bundle, and makes them be of one heart and of one soul, #Ac 4:32, to serve the Lord with one shoulder, #Zep 3:9, to glorify God with "one mind and with one mouth," #Ro 15:6, there being no such oneness in the world as among true believers.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3