Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Timothy 1:5

5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart , and of a good conscience , and of faith unfeigned .

The word Translated Commandement here is [non-Latin text not transcribed], which rather signifies a particular charge given by superiors as to some thing, then a general Law, Acts 5.28. and 16.24. and so in this chapter ver. 18. which inclineth me to think that though the proposition be true of the whole Law of God, (for love is the fulfilling of the Law,) and more eminently of the divine Doctrine in the Gospel, for the end and perfection it aims at and produces is a pure ardent love of God, and of men for his sake, and of the Gospel, yet it is rather here to be restrained to the Commandement relating to Preaching, or discoursing the revealed Will of God relating to mens Salvation, the End of which is doubtless Charity, which ought to be finis operantis, the end of the workman, what he ought to intend and aim at; and is finis operis the effect of the work, viz. the begetting in the Souls of people love to God and their Neighbour, neither of which can rationally be obtained, by Preachers telling people idle Stories, and filling their heads with idle questions and speculations.

Which love to God and men must proceed from a clean, and holy, and sincere heart.

And a good and holy life, when Conscience doth not sowrely reflect upon men, for presumptuous miscarriages. Which

must all be rooted in, and attended with a faith unfeigned rooted in it as Faith signifies a steady assent to Divine Revelation attended with it, as it signifies, the Souls repose and rest upon Christ for the fulfilling of the promises annexed to him that beleives, and liveth up to such propositions. These are the noble the ends of whole Law of God, and particularly of the charge, or command God hath given Ministers as to Preaching, which can by no means be attained, by Teachers discoursing Fables and endless Genealogies to people, nor by Peoples attendance to such discourses, for they can onely fill peoples heads with notions and unprofitable questions which serve to gender strife, and contention amongst people, instead of Love either to God or Men, and so to defile instead of purifying the Heart, and have no influence at all upon an Holy Life, all which can grow out of no root but an unfeigned Faith.

Marginal references: Rom. 13.8, 10. Gal. 5.14,