l^sii'S^lWI'' ],>:''i''wNi'''i'. ih'i 'Ml Ii 'MM It Vl " till '1 1 1 Pill it-. m , It :• I M-t7.-7lO te.) i' r/ /t'a . (.'t/y' DISCOURSES AND SAYINGS OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. ILLUSTRATED IN A SERIES OF EXPOSITIONS. BY JOHN BROWN, D.D., PROFESSOR OP EXEQETICAI- THEOLOGY TO THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, AND SENIOR MINISTER OP THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION, BROUGHTON PLACE, EDINBURGH. AEI— MNHMONETEIN TUN AOMN TOT KIPIOT IHSOX.— OATAOS. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. in. SECOND EDITION. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, No. 285, BROADWAY. MDCCCLII. CONTENTS. EXPOSITION XXV. THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. John xiv., xv., xvi. Introduction, p. 1. — Part I. Faith in God and in Christ, the antidote to heart-trouble — John xiv. 1 : — " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me," p. 6. § 1. The causes of the disciples' trouble of heart, p. 6. § 2. The means of obtaining relief from this heart-trouble — faith in God — faith in Christ, p. 8. (1.) " What is it to beheve in God and in Christ ? " p. 10. (2.) How faith in God and in Christ was fitted to relieve the heart-trouble of the dis ciples, p. 11. (3.) How faith in God and in Christ is fitted to relieve the heart- trouble of Christians, in every country and age, p. 14. Part II. Whither Christ was going, and with what purpose — John xiv. 2, 3 : — " In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself ; that where I am, there ye may be also," p. 20. § 1. The results of Christ's going away to himself, p. 21. § 2. The results of Christ's going away to his disciples, p. 25. Part III. Christ the way, the truth, and the life — John xiv. 4-6 : — " And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; and how can we know the way ? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father, but by me," p. 35. § 1. Our Lord's saying which was misapprehended by the disciples, p. 38. § 2. The disciples' misapprehension of our Lord's saying, p. 39. § 3. Our Lord's correction of the disciples' misapprehension, p. 41. (1.) He is the way, p. 41. (2.) He is the truth, p. 43. (3.) He is the life, p. 43. (4.) He is the only way to the Father, p. 45. Part IV. Oor knowledge of God is dependent on, and corresponding to, oue KNOWLEDGE OF Christ— Johu xiv. 7-11 :— " If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also : and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto him. Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, IV CONTENTS. Show us the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. Believe me that I ampn the Father, and the Father in me : or else believe me for the very works' sake," p. 51. Part V. The privileges to be enjoyed by the apostles after their Lord's return to the FATHEK—John xiv. 12-14:— "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it," p. 66. § 1. The privileges to be enjoyed by the apostles after their Lord's departure, p. 67. (1.) They shall continue to work miracles, p. 67. (2.) They shall do greater things than work miracles, p. 70. § 2. Manner in which these privileges were to be obtained— Prayer to the Father in the name of the Son, p. 74. Part 'VT. Keeping Christ's commandments a true manifestation of love to HIM— John xiv. 16 :— " If ye love me, keep my commandments," p. 79. § 1. The test, p. 86. § 2. The test applied, p. 90. Part VII. The promise of the Holy Spirit as the paraclete— John xiv. 16, 17:— "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you," p. 94. § 1. Of the meaning of the term " Paraclete," p. 97. § 2. Who the Paraclete is, p. 101. (1.) He is a person, p. 101. (2.) He is a divine person, p. 103. (3.) He is the " Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive," p. 103. § 8. How his coming to, and permanent residence with, the disciples, were to be secured, p. 106. Part VIII. The Disciples not to be left Orphans — John xiv. 18, 19 : — " I will not leave yon comfortless ; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see me," p. 109. Part IX. The Christian's fellowship in Christ's life — John xiv. 19 : — " Be cause I live, ye shall live also," p. 125. § 1. Of the Ufe of Christ, p. 127. § 2. Of the life of Christ's people, p. 130. § 3. Of the Qonnection tetween the life of Christ, and that of his people, p. 134. Part X. Christ in the Father — his disciples in him, and he in them. — John xiv. 20 : — " At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you," p. 140. § 1. The doctrines referred to, p. 145. (1.) Christ is in the Father, p. 146. (2.) Christ's people are in him, p. 149. (3.) Christ is in his people, p. 150. § 2. What it is to know these doctrines, p. 161. § 3. The fulfilment of the promise, p. 151. Part XI. The character and privilege or true Christians, and the connec tion between these — John xiv. 21-24 : — " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, (not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him. If a man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings : and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me," p. 166. § 1. CONTENTS. V The peculiar character of true Christians, p. 159. (1.) They love Christ, p. 169. (2.) They have his commandments, p. 161. (3.) They keep his commandments, p. 163. § 2. The peculiar privileges of Christians, p. 169. (1.) They are loved of the Father and the Son, p. 170. (2.) This love is discovered in the Son's manifesting hunself to them, and in the Father and the Son coming to them, and maldng their abode with them, p. 176. § 3. The connection which subsists between the pecu liar character of Christians and their peculiar privileges, p. 181. (1.) He only who possesses the character can enjoy the privilege, p. 181. (2.) He who possesses the character must enjoy the privilege, p. 182. (3.) The measure in which the char acter is possessed is the measure in which the privilege is enjoyed, p. 183. Part XII. The Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, the great Teacher and Re membrancer — John xiv. 26, 26 : — " These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you," p. 191. § 1. The introduc tory statement, p. 194. § 2. A farther description of the Paraclete, p. 196. (1.) " The Holy Ghost," p. 196. (2.) Sent by the Father in the name of the Son, p. 195. § 3. The work of the Paraclete — to explain and bring to remembrance all that Christ had said, p. 196. Part XIII. Christ's peace his legacy to his people — John xiv. 27 :¦ — " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you," p. 200. § 1. What is Christ's peace ? p. 201. § 2. How is it Christ's peace ? p. 201. § 3. How is this peace a legacy ? p. 202. § 4. How is it given " not as the world giveth " ? p. 203. Part XIV. Christ's return to his Father a fit reason, not for grief, but FOR joy, to his disciples. — John xiv. 27, 28 : — " Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father : for my Father is greater than I," p. 207. Part XV. The design of our Lord in predicting coming events — John xiv. 29 : — " And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe," p. 220. Part XVI. The approaching, but vain, assault of the prince of this world, AND our Lord's readiness to meet it — John xiv. 30, 31 : — " Hereafter I will not talk much with you ; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father ; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence," p. 228. Part XVII. The True Vine— John xv. 1-3 :— " I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away ; and every branch that beareth fruit. He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you," p. 236. § 1. The vine and its branches, p. 239. § 2. Its Cultivator, and his work, p. 242. Part XVIII. The Duty of Christians to abide in Christ, and let Christ abide in them, enjoined and enforced— John xv. 4-8:— "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is vi CONTENTS. withered- and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ve abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye wUl, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples," p. 251. § 1. The; duty enjoined, p. 252. (1.) Abide in me," p. 253. (2.) " Let me abide in you," p. 254. § 2. The duty enforced, p. 266. (1.) It is necessary to prevent unfruitfulness and its consequences, p. 257. (2.) It is necessary to secure fruitfulness and its consequences, p. 261. Part XIX. The Duty of continuing in Christ's Love— John xv. 9-11 :— " As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you : continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full," p. 272. § 1. The principle on which the precept is based, p. 274. § 2. The duty enjomed, p. 282. (1.) What is meant by Christ's love ? p. 282. (2.) What is meant by continuing in Christ's love ? p. 283. § 3. The manner in which compliance with the precept is to be yielded, p. 286. § 4. Motives to comply with the injunction, p. 290. (1.) Thus will they resemble their Lord, p. 291. (2.) Thus will they minister to their Lord's enjoyment, p. 291. (3.) Thus will they promote their own happiness, p. 294. Part XX. Christians are bound to love one another as Christ has loved THEM all— John XV. 12-17 :— " This is my commandment, That ye love one an other, as I have loved yon. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have called you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain ; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name. He may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another," p. 297. § 1. The duty enjoined, p. 298. (1.) Mutual love, p. 298. (2.) Love like that of our Lord, p. 303 ; 1. Discriminative, p. 304 ; 2. Sincere, p. 306 ; 3. Spontaneous, p. 306 ; 4. Fervent and copious, p. 367; 5. Disinterested, p. 308; 6. Active, p. 308; 7. Self- denying and self-sacrificing, p. 309 ; 8. Considerate and wise, p. 310 ; 9. Generously confiding and kindly forbearing, p. 311 ; 10. Constant, p. 311 ; 11. Enduring, p. 312 ; 12. Holy and spiritual, p. 312 ; 13. Universal, p. 314. § 2. Motives, p. 315. (1.) The commandment of Christ, p. 315. (2.) The example of Christ, p. 319. Part XXI. The disciples fortified against the hatred and opposition of the WORLD — John XV. 18-27 ; xvi. 1-15. — " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own : but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you ; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin : but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye. CONTENTS. vii should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues : yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to Him that sent me ; and none of youasketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment : of sin, because they believe not on me : of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more : of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you," p. 342. § 1. The facts stated, p. 346. § 2. The facts accounted for, p. 354. § 3. Reasons why the disciples should not be troubled by the hatred and persecution of the world, felt or feared, p. 369. (1.) The disciples had no cause to be astonished at the hatred and opposition of the world, p. 370. (2.) The disciples had no reason to be stumbled at the hatred and opposition of the world, p. 376. (3.) The disciples had no reason to be ashamed of the hatred and opposition of the world, p. 383. § 4. The dis ciples had no reason to be discouraged by the hatred and opposition of the world, p. 400. (1.) The Holy Spirit will so testify to them and by them, as that the world shall be convinced, p. 400. (2.) The departure of Christ is necessary and suflcient to secure the coming of the Holy Spirit, p. 420. Part XXII. Conclusion of the Discourse — John xvi. 16-33. — " A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again a little while, and ye shall see me ; because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again a little while, and ye shall see me : and. Because I go to the Father ? They said therefore. What is this that he saith, A little while ? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesns knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again a little while, and ye shall see me ? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice ; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come : but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow ; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in pro verbs : but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name : and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you : for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world : again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things. nil CONTENTS. and needest not that any man should ask thee : by this we believe that thou earnest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone : and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world," p. 426. § 1. Enigmatical declaration of our Lord, p. 427. § 2. The perplexity of the dis ciples, p. 436. § 3. Our Lord's explicatory remarks, p. 441. § 4. The disciples' declaration of satisfaction with their Lord's explicatory remarks, and of confirmed faith in his divine mission, p. 472. § 6. Concluding cautions and consolations, p. 479 Note A, p. 492 ; Note B, p. 493. — Additional Notes, p. 496. INDEX— I. Principal Matters, . 497 II. Greek words and phrases remarked on, . ... 503 III. Authors quoted or referred to, . . . 505 IV. Texts of Scripture remarked on, 507 DISCOURSES AND SAYINGS OUE LOED JE8TJS CHEIST. EXPOSITION XXVIII. THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. John xiv., xv., xvi. INTRODUCTION. " He shall be great," ' said the angel Gabriel, to that " highly- favoured" and most blessed of women, Mary, the espoused wife of Joseph the Nazarene carpenter, when unfolding to her the character and destinies of that wonderful child of whom, through the miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost, she was soon to be come the virgin mother. The angelic prediction has been amply verified ; and the evangelical histories furnish us with most satis factory evidence of its fulfilment. In reference to his original nature, the Son of the virgin was possessed of infinite grandeur. He was " God's own Son." He was " Emmanuel, God with us." " God manifest in flesh." « The Great God, our Saviour."' In reference to his official character and work, he possessed a kind and a degree of greatness, which exalts him far above all ' Luke i. 32. ' Matt. i. 23. 1 Tim. iii, 16. Tit. ii. 13. VOL. III. * A 2 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. men, far above all angels. What character so exalted as the Mediator between God and man — the Eevealer of God — the Saviour of the world — the Prophet like unto, but far superior to, Moses — the Priest for ever " after the order of Melchizedek" — the " King who sits at Jehovah's right hand" ? ^ What work can compare in greatness, with the expiation of guilt — the finish ing of transgression — the making an end of sin — the judgment of the world — the abolition of death — the destruction of him who has the power of death ? ' How great must he be, in whom it pleases the Father that all fulness should dwell — to whom He has given to hold all life in himself, that he may quicken whom he wills — to whom He has " given power over all flesh " — ^into whose hands He has delivered " all things in heaven an4 earth " — " under whose feet He has so put all things, as that nothing is excepted, but Him who did put them under him " — and to whom He has said, " Sit at my right hand," " reign along with me," " till all thine enemies are made thy footstool." ^ In reference, too, to his assumed nature, our Lord had all the greatness, intellectual and moral, of which that nature was capable. With the intellectual endowments of an understanding wide in its range, and clear in its perceptions — distinctly apprehending all beings and events as they really are — a judgment which nothing could bias — a determination which nothing could shake — a caution which nothing could surprise — conjoined to the moral qualities of supreme love and veneration of the divine Father, manifesting themselves in entire resignation to his will, and devotion to his glory, and a most disinterested and self- sacrificing regard for the true happiness of mankind— he was always equal to, generally far above, tbe requisitions of his cir cumstances, strange and trying as they often were. No event ever found him unprepared for it, or unprovided for doing, or saying, or suffering, whatever the exigency might demand ; and all this without any approach to ostentatious display. His move ments were calmly majestic, like those of the celestial bodies, however troubled may be the state of the lower heavens. There are few more touching displays of the moral grandeur of the man Christ Jesus, than that which is exhibited in these ' 1 Tim. ii. 6. John i. 18; iv. 42. Acts iii. 22. Psal ex 1 4 2 Dan. ix. 24. John xii. 31. 2 Tim. i. 10. Heb. ii. 14 3 Col. i. 19. John V. 26 ; xvii. 2. Matt. xi. 27 ; xxviii.' 18. 1 Cor xv 27 EXP. XXVIII.J INTRODUCTION. 3 valedictory instructions and consolations, on the consideration of which we are about to enter. These addresses to his disciples, in the immediate view of his last passion, afford a manifestation of him which has been beautifully compared to the " glorious radiance of the setting sun, surrounded with dark clouds, and about to plunge into darker, which, fraught with lightning, thunder, and tempest, wait on the horizon to receive him."^ A man of even superior strength of mind and kindliness of heart, placed, so far as he could be placed in our Lord's circumstances, would have had his mind thrown into a state of uncontrollable agitation, and most certainly would have been too entirely occu pied with his own suficrings and anxieties, to have any power or disposition to enter into, ' and to soothe, the sorrows of others. But though perfectly aware of, perfectly awake to, all the tre mendous responsibilities of his situation, — though feeling the weight of the load laid on him — the bitterness of the cup he was called to drink — and though anticipating as certain and justathand, a heavier pressure and a bitterer draught, he retained self-posses sion ; and though words failed him to express the intensity of his anguish, and he did not know what to say, — he showed no hesi tation as to what he was to do. The path, with all its obstructions and difiiculties, lay plain before him ; and with a movement steady as the sun in its orbit, he pressed onwards.' And he took as deep an interest in the anxieties and perplexities, in the fears and sorrows, of the disciples, as if he himself had not been a sufferer. And then, how deeply wise, how tenderly compassionate, how divinely calm, are these wonderful discourses ! In attempting to explain them, it is of importance that we keep constantly in view the peculiar circumstances of those to whom they were originally addressed, and for whose guidance ' Brown Patterson. 2 " The valour and fortitude of the ever-blessed Captain of our salvation has no parallel, but is trausoendently above whatever can be named. For what comparison is there betwixt that courage which is inspired from the pomp of war or single com bat, from the heat and height of the natural spirits, from the rage and hatred against an enemy, or from the love of a friend ; and such a fortitude as, being destitute of all the advantages of the animal life, nay, clogged with the disadvantages thereof, as with a deep sense of death, fear, agony, and horror, yet, notwithstanding all this, in an humble submission to the will of God, wades through with an unyielding con stancy, and this (which is not to be thought of without astonishment and amazement), not to rescue or right a friend, but to save and dehver a malevolent enemy."— Dr Henry More, " Grand Mystery of Godliness," book ii., chap. 12. 4 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. and comfort they were primarily designed. In no other way can we arrive at a satisfactory conclusion as to their meaning. But we are never to forget that they involve great principles, ever lastingly true, and' extensively applicable ; and that in speaking to the chosen eleven — for the traitor had now lefk them — our Lord, in effect, speaks " to all who have obtained like precious faith " with them, and furnishes his disciples in all ages vdth instruction and consolation during their absence from him, while the heavens which have received, must retain him. Whatsoever he says, he says not only for their sakes, but for ours also, who have be lieved on him, through their word; and we, as well as they, through the faith his words are flitted to strengthen, and the com fort they are calculated to impart, may have hope. " There are statements contained in them, which refer to what was peculiar to their character and circumstances as apostles, but by far the greater part of them refer to them, not in their official, but in their personal, character — not as apostles, but as Christians — and therefore are equally applicable to all, in every country and age, who believe in and love the unseen Saviour, who feel his absence, and long for his appearing."^ At the same time, our only safe course in seeking the instruction and comfort they are intended and calculated to afford us, is to ask in succession. What were these things to them ? What were these things to us ? A satis factory resolution of the first question, can alone lay a sure foundation for a satisfactory answer to the second.* Anything like formal method is not to be sought in such a discourse as that now before us. Yet there is a natural order. The thoughts rise out of the circumstances, and form a connected train. To afford convenient pauses in considering so long a composition, as well as to assisfin understanding it, I shall mark by divisions and subdivisions the different topics of instruction and consolation, which the Saviour brings in succession before the minds of his disciples. ' Brown Patterson. » See Note A. FAITH IN GOD AND IN CHRIST, THE ANTIDOTE TO HEART- TROUBLE. John xiv. 1. — " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me. Observing, not unlikely, from the downcast looks, troubled gestures, and sad eyes of the disciples, how deeply and how pain fully the disclosures he had made to them had affected them, our Lord, having instituted the Lord's Supper, addressed them in these words, so full of holy wisdom and kindness, " Let not your hearts be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me." ^ § 1. The causes of the disciples^ trouble of heart. Their hearts were troubled. The language is figurative. The word rendered " troubled," ' literally means, ' agitated as the water in a pool is by a tempest.' Strong, especially painful feeling, such as anxiety, fear, sorrow, produces violent movement of the heart, — and thus the agitation or troubling of the heart, comes naturally to signify, 'the restless painful emotions which the mind experiences, when evil is experienced or anticipated.' The disciples, at this time, were powerfully influenced by such emotions. They were anxious, sorrowful, fearful. And it is not wonderful that they were so. They had, under the impression made on their minds by the Saviour's miracles and discourses, and secretly drawn by the Father, through the Spirit, at his command forsaken all and followed him. They had cast in their lot with him ; and they had done this, not only because they were, with Nicodemus, persuaded that he was " a teacher come fi-om God," but because, having been taught, " not by flesh and blood, but by the Father," they " knew and were ' " Summa homilise hnjus, est credite, et hoc credite, versu 11, et deinceps urgetur, donee indicativus creditis efficitur (cap. xvi. 31) ; quo effecto, Salvator orat et abit." — Bengel. ' ^ vec^ettrCio-Bai. 6 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XJCVIII. sure that he was the Christ, the Son of God,"— the great de liverer promised to the fathers. They expected him to effect the emancipation of their nation from foreign thraldom, and confi dently anticipated for themselves high situations in the kingdom, which they had no doubt he was about to establish.^^ And though their views were very limited and obscure, yet it is plain they expected from him blessings of a higher order than the great body of their countrymen did from the Messiah— blessings refer ring to their relations to God and eternity. An intimate associa tion with him for more than three years— during which they had " beheld his glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father," ' and witnessed in endless forms his holy wisdom and love — had produced in them a most reverential, affectionate regard for him ; and they every day felt more and more how their hap piness was identified with being with him. He had not unfrequently, during the years of their inter course, made statements to them, which to us appear very plain, of his approaching sufferings and death ; but though these per plexed and amazed them, they seem, while afraid to ask him for a fuller explication, to have pleased themselves with the thought, that these sayings might be parables, which were not to be liter ally understood ; and that, at any rate, they could mean nothing which was inconsistent with his restoring the kingdom to Israel, It was clear to them that he was the Messiah, and that the Mes siah was to be an illustrious conqueror, a prosperous king ; and that whatever was obscure in their Master's sayings, must be under stood in conformity with these undoubted principles. And it is probable, their hopes never had been more sanguine of his speedily taking to himself his great power and reigning, than when, but a few days before, he entered Jerusalem in triumph, amid the acclamations of thousands hailing him as the Son of David, and asserted his rights as the Lord of the temple. * The intimation, that Mary had anointed him for his burying. 1 " Cum universali gentis opinione expectarunt restitutlonem regni Israelitici per Messiam, Act. i. 18 ; expectarunt per eum redemptionem Israelis a jugo Ethnico, Luke xxiv. 21 ; expectarunt eum sues cum pompa, festivitate, splendore et triumpho exoepturum, Matt. xx. 20; et eheu omnia evenerant contraria, paupertas, con- temptus, derisio, persecutio ; et cum Magister et Messias eorum illico sit decessurus, nulla ulterius de talibus rebus vel spes, vel expectatio. Et hoecine regnum Messise ? " — Liqhtfoot. 2 John i. 14. 3 Matt. xxi. 1-16. PART I.J FAITH THE ANTIDOTE TO HEART-TROUBLE. 7 must have sounded strange in their ears, and have awakened painful misgivings and forebodings. But his conduct and say ings during this evening, since they met to observe the Pass over, must have especially perplexed and distressed them. What could they make of his troubled gestures and mournful words ? — " Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? shall I say. Father, save me from this hour ?" What of that mysterious saying ? — " Except a corn of wheat die, it abideth alone," Nor was this all ; he had told them that he was to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and that the traitor was to be one of them : — " Verily, verily, I say unto you. That one of you shall betray me." He had told them that " Satan had desired to have them to sift them as wheat ;" that Simon Peter, the most reso lute of them, was to deny him again and again in the course of a few hours ; and that the same night they should all of them be " offended," stumbled, at what was to befall him. He had told them he was just about to go away, and not to take them along with him. ^ These things had plunged them into an abyss of perplexity, anxiety, fear, and sorrow. They dearly loved him. They leaned on him.. For him to depart into another country and leave them, would have been a great trial, even though it had been " to obtain for himself a kingdom and return ;" but to part with him by his dving, was incomparably more painful. The moment when the conviction is lodged in the mind, that we must soon part with a dear friend by death, is one of the bitterest in human life ; and then, in their case, the tremendous thought must have forced itself on them, ' If he is really to die, then those fearful sayings about condemnation to death, and delivering over to the Gentiles, and being mocked, and scourged, and spit upon, and crucified, may likely all be verified to the letter.' To think of him whom they so loved, dying, — dying so soon, — dying in such a manner, — must have caused unspeakable anguish. And still farther, the thought must have suggested itself, How could this be reconciled with — what yet they could not bring themselves to doubt of — his being the promised Messiah ? ' Must we, after all, give up our hope, that this is he who is to redeem Israel ? And what is to become of ourselves ? We have for- > John xii. 7, 24, 27 ; xiii. 18, 19, 21. Matt. xxvi. 31. Luke xxii. 31. 8 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. saken all and followed him ; and he is now to leave us— to leave us thus— the objects of the bitter scorn and fierce malignity of his triumphant foes?' Our Lord, who knew what was in man, was well aware of what was passing in the minds of his disciples. He knew how they were troubled, and what anxious, sorrowful, desponding, despairing thoughts, were arising in their hearts, and he could not but be touched with a feeling of their infirmities. There lay on his own mind a weight of anguish, which no being in the uni verse could bear along with him. Pie could not have the allevia tion of sympathy. He must tread the wine-press alone. They could not at all enter into his feelings ; but he, the magnanimous One, could enter into theirs. There was room in his large heart for their sorrows, as well as his own. He feels their griefs, as if they were his own ; and kindly comforts those who he knew were soon to desert him in the hour of his deepest sorrows, " In all their afflictions, he was afflicted ;" and he shows in the address which he made to them, that " the Lord who anointed him to comfort those who mourn, and to bind up the broken hearted," had indeed " given to him the tongue of the learned, that he might speak a word in season to them who were weary." ^ " Let not," he said, " your hearts be troubled." § 2. The means of obtaining relief from this heart-trouble — faith in God — faith in Christ. In these words, we are not to consider our Lord as blaming his disciples for being fearful and sorrowful — agitated with fear and sorrow. He knew their frame, for he made it ; and he knew it, too, for in the depth of his love he had assumed it ; and know ing it, he knew they could not but be troubled. But there is a condemnation of both the nature and the degree of some of their troubled thoughts. They should have known more than they did — they should have believed more firmly than they did — and if they had, they could not have been so troubled. The words are equivalent to, ' Do not allow these perplexing, alarming thoughts to occupy all your minds ; do not sacrifice your faith and reason to the call of overwhelming emotion. Reflect, — be lieve, — confide,' 1 Isa. Ixi. 1 ; 1. 4. PART I,j FAITH THE ANTIDOTE TO HEART-TROUBLE. 9 Our Lord understood human nature too well to suppose that the troubled mind can be commanded into tranquillity, like the raging ocean. He knew that the tempests of the soul yield not to physical force, but to moral influence, and that the only way of assuaging the sorrows and fears of his disciples, was to state truth to them fitted to enlighten and sustain them — to present encouragements adapted to their fears — consolations appropriate to their sorrows. And he does so in the discourse which follows. He begins his instructions and consolations with these words — " Ye believe in God, believe also in me," It is a peculiarity and an imperfection of the Greek language — certainly one of the most curiously constructed organs for the expression of human thought and feeling — but, though admirable, like all the works of man defective, — it is an idiom of that tongue, that the same form of a word may express an affirmation, a question, or a com mand ; and it is the context generally which has to determine which of these, in any particular place, it is intended to express. Owing to this grammatical idiom, the words before us, viewed by themselves, admit of a great variety of rendering. Besides the rendering in our version, " Ye believe in God, believe also in me," — i. e., ' Since ye believe in God, ye ought to believe in me, for He speaks in me,' — they may be translated, ' Ye believe in God ; ye believe also in me ; and if you do, why should your hearts be troubled?' Or, ' Do ye believe in God? do you also believe in. me ? Surely you do — certainly you ought ; "and if so, why be so troubled?' Or, 'Ye believe in God, — do you also believe in me ? You have faith in God, — but have you faith in me ? Your exceeding trouble of heart makes that doubtful.' Or, ' Do ye believe in God ? believe also in me. If you believe in God, how can you but beheve in me whom He has sent ? ' Or, ' Believe in God, believe also in me. Faith in God and in me, is the cure for your excessive anxiety.' A good appropriate meaning may be brought out of the words by any of these renderings. But I have little doubt, that all the words in the verse are to be considered as in what grammarians caU the imperative mood ; that they are commands or exhorta tions, not questions nor affirmations : " Let not your hearts be troubled : believe in God, believe also in me." This is the simplest mode of interpretation ; and in all cases, other things being equal, the simplest interpretation is the best. It would re- 10 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. quire a very strong reason to make it right to translate the same word in two different ways in the same sentence.^ In these words, our Saviour prescribes the sovereign remedy for improper and excessive trouble of heart — faith in his Father, and in himself. ' If you would have the trouble of your heart assuaged, " believe in God, believe also in me." ' There are three things which we must endeavour to do here. We must, first, Ascertain the meaning of the expression, " believe in God and in Christ ;" secondly. Show how believing in God and in Christ was fitted to relieve the disciples from their excessive trouble of heart ; and, thirdly. Make it evident that this faith in God and in Christ is the appropriate and effectual preventive and cure of that excessive trouble of heart, to which Christians, in all countries and ages, are liable to be exposed, (1.) What is it to believe in God and in Christ^ With regard to the first of these questions. What is it to believe in God — to believe in Christ ? it is common to say, that these phrases mean, ' to trust in God — to trust in Christ, — to rely on them — to have confidence in them.' He that believes in God, he that beheves in Christ, will certainly trust in them ; but still, to believe and to trust are two different exercises of mind.^ To believe, is to count true — to reckon certain — to be assured of; to believe in an event, is to be assured that it has happened ; to believe in a doctrine, is to reckon it true ; to believp in a pre diction, is to be persuaded that it will be accomplished; to beheve in a person, is to count true something that is said about that person, or something that that person says, I believe in the deluge — i. e., I am persuaded that event took place, I believe in the atonement — i. e., I am convinced that Christ died the just in the room of the unjust. I believe in the resurrection— i, e., I am persuaded all men will be raised again to life at the last day. I believe in Moses— i, e., I am persuaded that there was such a man as Moses, and that what is said about him in the Bible is true ; and I believe what he says, for I am convinced he was a Divine messenger,' • 1 "Imperative modo omnino rectius alii descripserunt quam indieativo. Credite jam Hilarius excitat." — Semler. 2 "Fides est prior fiducia."— Heuman. ' These views of faith are held and expounded in Sir Matthew Hale's " Knowledge PART I.j FAITH THE ANTIDOTE TO HEART-TROUBLE. 11 That there is nothing peculiar in the meaning of the phrase, when employed in reference to God or Christ, is plain from such passages as the following : " Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established ; believe in his prophets " — the very same phrase, though our translators have left out the in, in this last clause — " beheve in his prophets, so shall ye prosper."^ Our Lord, then, is to be considered as saying to his disciples, ' Believe what God says, and what is said about God, in his word ; and believe what is said of me in God's word, and what I say.' This is to believe in God — this is to believe in Christ. He who thus believes will trust : none can trust but those who thus believe. (2.) How faith in God and in Christ was fitted to relieve the heart-trouble of the disciples. Let us now shortly show how this believing in God and in Christ was fitted to relieve the disciples from their excessive trouble of heart. Their excessive trouble of spirit rose out of their not understanding and believing — their " being slow of heart to believe what God had spoken by his prophets,"^ respect ing the sufferings of the Messiah, and the glories which should follow them. What had God spoken concerning the Messiah, who, they were persuaded, Jesus their Master was ? We can only give a specimen or two. He had said, " Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself:" "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. Many shall be astonished at him, his visage being so marred more than any man's, and his form more than the sons of men.'' " He shall grow up as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." He shall " be despised and rejected of men ; " " wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities." "The Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all." " When he has made his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall of Christ Crucified"— Dr Erskine's "Dissertation on Faith "—M'Lean's "Belief of the Gospel Saving Faith"— Pike's " Nature and Effects of Saving Faith "—Stewart's " Hints on Faith"— Martin's " Essay on Faith," in his " Remains"— Douglas' " Truths of Religion " — Wardlaw " on Assurance ;" and the best defences of the identity of Faith and Trust— ' Fides' and ' fiducia,'— 1 know, are to be found in Marshall "on Sanctification," Hervey's " Theron and Aspasio," M'Crie's " Conversations between John and Ebenezer," and a small work by Dr Carlile of Dublin. It is never to be forgotten that they who hold "fides" and "fiducia" to be distinct, hold also that they are inseparable — the cause and the effect — the means and the end. 1 2 Chron. xx. 20. ^ Luke xxiv. 26. 12 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand," " Behold my servant, whom I uphold ; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth : I have put my spirit upon him ; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles," " He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment on the earth : and the isles shall wait for his law."^ Had the disciples believed in God declaring these things respecting their Lord, would not their trouble of heart have been greatly relieved? And the belief of the truth respecting God, who had made these declarations, was still farther fitted to comfort their spirits, and console their hearts. These are not the words of a man, or an angel, but of Jehovah — who can do everything but deny himself— who is " the Lord God, merciful and gracious " — whose " understanding is infinite " — who " keepeth covenant for ever " — whose " mercies are in the heavens, and whose faithfulness reacheth to the clouds," " His counsel must stand, and he will do aU his pleasure," " He is not a man, that he should lie ; nor the son of man that he should repent : hath he said it, and shall he not do it ? hath he promised it, and shall he not bring it to pass?"^ You see, then, how well fitted our Lord's first advice is to serve its purpose, ' Believe what God has said respecting these events, which are giving you so much anxiety ; and believe the truth respecting Him who says these things, that your hearts may not be thus troubled,' The second exhortation is equally fitted to serve its purpose : " Believe also in me," ' Believe the truth about me, as stated by the inspired prophets ; believe what I have said to you — what I now say to you, — beheve me to be the Messiah, You do be lieve : " Hold fast the beginning of your confidence stedfast .to the end." " Blessed is he who shall not be stumbled " — offended — " in me," Nothing that can occur should shake your con viction ; nothing that looks like counter- evidence can ever neutrahse the evidence you have received, that I am the Christ, Whatever happens, " fear not, only believe." Believe what is written in the law, and the prophets, and the psalms concerning me. Believe what is said of the Messiah, and believe it all to be true respecting me. Is it not written, " Thou wilt not leave my ' Dan. ix. 26. Isa. Iii. 13-15 ; liii. ; xlii. 1-4. 2 Exod. xxxiv. 6. Psal. cxlvii. 6. Deut. vii. 9. Psal. xxxvi. 5. Isa. xlvi. 10. Numb, xxiii. 19. PART I.] FAITH THE ANTIDOTE TO HEART-TROUBLE. 13 soul in hell, nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption "? Is it not written, " Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool"? " The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." Believe what is said of my power : " To us a Child is born, to us a Son is given ; on whose shoulder is the government : and his name is called The Mighty God." Believe what is said of my grace : " He shall feed his flock like a shepherd ; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those who are with the young." '* In fine, ' Believe what I have said to you, and what I now say to you.' He had said to them, " The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." He had said, " As Moses lifted up the ser pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." " I lay down my life for the sheep," " I give unto my sheep eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all : and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." He had said, " Whither I go, ye cannot follow me now ; but ye shall follow me afterwards." " Where I am, there shall also my servant be : if any man serve me, him will my Father honour."^ ' Believe these things, and you must be comforted. Believe what I am now about to tell you of the design of my departure. " In my Father's house are many mansions." You may believe me ; for, " if it had not been so, I would have told you ;" or, " if it had not been so, would I have said, I go to prepare a place for you ? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." ' Surely, if the disciples but thus believed in God and in their Master, though they might be " troubled on every side, they would not have been distressed ; though per plexed, not in despair ; though persecuted, not forsaken ; though cast down, not destroyed." = They would have been delivered I Psal. xvi. 10 ; ex. 1, 4. Isa. ix. 6 ; xl. 11. a Matt. XX. 28. John iii. 14, &c. ; x. 15, 28-30 ; xiii. 36 ; xii. 26. 3 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9. 14 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. from their heart-trouble, just in the degree in which they com- phed with the wise and kind commands of their Lord, " Believe in God, believe also in me," (3.) How faith in God and in Christ is fitted to relieve the lieart- trouble of Christians in every country and age. Trouble of heart is a mental disorder to which the disciples of Christ in all countries and in all ages are liable. When they become Christians, they do not cease to be men. It is true of them, as of mankind generally, that they are " born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward ;" they are " of few days, and full of trouble." ^ Poverty, reproach, sickness, disappointment, bereave ment, sorrow, pain, and death, are the lot of the saint as well as the sinner. In many cases, a larger proportion of suffering than ordinary seems to fall to the lot of the children of God. " Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."^ Besides the afflictions which are common to saints as men, there are others which are peculiar to them as Christians, They are exposed to suffering from " the world lying under the wicked one," and they are exposed to suffering from " the wicked one " himself. In the world, from the world, they have tribulation ; and their enemy, the devil, is constantly, directly or indirectly, making attempts to alarm or allure them. They mourn the absence of their Lord ; and " groan, being burdened" — often with a frail, suffering, mortal body — always with the body of sin and death. These afflictions, when pecu liarly severe and complicated, produce " trouble of heart ;" and, owing to the weakness of the Christian's faith, this trouble of heart is not only very painful, but materially interferes with the enjoyments and the duties both of religion and of ordinary life. Besides, the Christian, being a man of public spirit — a citizen of Zion, and a citizen of the world, — takes a deep interest in every thing that concerns the welfare of the church and of the world; and, when events occur, as they often do, which seem to bring into hazard the cause of truth and righteousness — events which he cannot prevent or control, — his heart is sometimes like to fail him " for fear, and for looking for the things which are coming on the earth." ' Jo^ V. 7 ; xiv. 1. 2 prov. iii. 12. PART I.] FAITH THE ANTIDOTE TO HEART-TROUBLE. 15 It is the will of our " kindly-affectioned " Lord that his people should not be thus troubled. To all such he says, as his apostle, " I would have you without carefulness," * painful anxiety, dis tressing fear—" Let not your heart be troubled ;" and the grand means for the prevention and removal of this undue anxiety and trouble of heart is faith — faith in God, faith in Christ. There is that in the faith of the truth about God and Christ — faith in the promises made by the Father and the Son — which is fitted to secure the Christian from this trouble of heart in all its forms. Why should the Christian be troubled, when God his Father who is infinitely powerful, and wise, and good — who knows what is really good for him — who is equally disposed and able to secure it for him, and who cannot he, — has said, " There shall no evil happen to the just ;" and, " all things shall work together for good to them that love God"?^ And how can the Christian who really believes this, whatever be his circumstances, be over whelmed with anxiety or fear? Will he not, if he believe in God, be disposed to say, " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble : therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." " Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? hope in God ; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."^ Why should he be troubled, when Christ his Saviour, has, by the shedding of his precious blood, made atonement for his sins ; and, ever living to make intercession, is able to save him to the uttermost, coming to God through him ; and has declared that his sheep shall never perish, but shall be raised up at the last day, and be with him where he is, beholding his glory ? and how can he, if he really believe this, be much or permanently troubled in heart ? Will he not, firmly believing these things, adopt the apostle's language, " If God be for us, who can be against us ? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth ; who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is 1 1 Cor. vii. 32. ' Prov. xii. 21. Rom. viii 28. ^ Psal. xlvi. 1-3; xliii. 5. 16 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,' or peril, or sword ? " " Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?"i It would occupy more time than we can at present devote to it, but it will be found a very pleasant and a very profitable em ployment for some of your retired hours (and every Christian, at whatever expense, should have his retired hours), to verify the general proposition, 'that in the faith of the truth respecting God and Christ, a Christian may find what will prevent or cure distressing trouble of mind, from whatever source it may arise, by thinking of the various causes of heart-trouble, whether from within or without, and then of the particular truths respecting God and Christ, and the exceeding great and precious promises made by them that exactly meet the exigence.' Afflicted Chris tians must believe if they would not faint ; and they will not faint, however much their hearts be troubled, if they only believe, " I had fainted," says a saint who was greatly afflicted, " I had fainted, unless I had believed."^ But he believed, and having thus received mercy, he fainted not. There is not one case of heart-trouble, however extreme, to which the prescription " Be lieve in God, believe also in me," will not be found applicable, — not one case in which, if attended to, it will not be followed by the storm being turned into a calm, and " the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeping the mind by Christ Jesus," There are not a few in this congregation whose hearts are now troubled by the loss of near and dear relatives, Jesus is saying to them, " Let not your heart be troubled : believe in God, believe also in me," If you do so, you must be comforted. Is the living God dead ? — can He die ? Is the immutable Savi our changed ? — can he change ? Say then, in the full assurance I Roin. viii. 31-39. a Psal. xxvii. 13. PART I, J FAITH THE ANTIDOTE TO HEART-TROUBLE. 17 of faith, " The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock ;" " Jesus is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," ^ Believe the Divine sovereignty, wisdom, power, kindness, and faithfulness. Believe the efficacy of the Saviour's atonement, the prevalence of his intercession, the omnipotence of his power, the tenderness of his compassion. Believe God when he says, " I will never leave thee," Believe Christ when he says, " I am the resurrec tion and the life ;" " Thy brother shall rise again." Be not slow of heart to believe all things which are said of the Father and the Son — all things which the Father and the Son have said — and you will find how true is the Saviour's declaration, " In the world ye shall have tribulation," but " in me ye shall have peace." ^ HapPy is that well-instructed Christian who is " anxious about nothing," because, knowing the name of God his Father, and of his Saviour Jesus Christ, he puts his trust in them, and finds their name " a high tower," to which, in all seasons of alarm, from whatever cause, he can flee, and be, and feel, safe. Happy is he who thus " dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, and abideth under the shadow of the Almighty ; and says of the Lord, He is my refuge, and my fortress : my God ; in him will I trust." * Happy is he who, by the faith of the truth, finds in the man Christ Jesus " a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place ; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." * The words before us were addressed only to the eleven dis ciples, all of whom were clean through the word of God, which had been spoken to and believed by them ; and they are, in all the extent of their meaning, applicable, and the consolation they impart is available, only to those who, like the apostles, have " fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us." But the God whose nature and name is love, who loves men, and the Saviour who died for men when they were sinners — enemies— look with pity even on the impenitent and unbelieving, whose hearts are troubled, often fearfully troubled, with worldly — guilty — anxieties and perplexities. Even to them the Saviour proclaims, " Come to me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." " Believe in God, believe also in me." The faith which 1 Psal. xviii. 46. Heb. xiii. 8. a jjeb. xiii. 6. John xi. 23, 26 ; xvi. 33. 3 Psal. xci. 1, 2. * Isa. xxxii. 2. VOL. III. * B 18 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, makes you acquainted with the truth respecting the character of God and the mediation of Christ, will introduce you into a new world, the powers of which will so overpower the influences of this world, as in a great measure to neutralise their power very strongly to agitate your mind, either with desire and satisfaction, or with fear and sorrow. And as to the only rational ground of trouble of heart in your condition — the sense of the Divine dis pleasure, the restlessness of a disordered, because depraved, nature, the terrors of everlasting destruction — these can be effectually removed only by the faith of the truth with respect to God and his Son, Believe that God is " the Lord God, merci ful and gracious, rich in mercy,"—" ready to pardon," — " a just God, and a Saviour," — " God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself," " seeing he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ;" and believe God when he says, when he swears, that " as He lives. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but wills that they turn from their evil ways and live," — when he declares, " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins," Believe that Jesus Christ hath " put away sin by the sacrifice of himself," — that "his blood cleanseth from all sin;" and believe him proclaiming — " If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" — " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who soever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," Thus believe in God, and in his Son Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, and even you who have been, who are, seeking peace where you never can find it — away from God, apart from Christ — even you, " believing, shall enter into rest," ' and your hearts shall no longer be troubled as they have been. The faith of the truth about God, " as it is in Jesus," can alone deliver either saint or sinner from that worst of all kind of trouble, — trouble of heart. With the heart whole, what cannot man do and suffer ? but who can act, who can endure, with a broken heart ? " The spirit of a man can sustain his infirmity ; but a wounded spirit who can bear ? " Spirit-stricken, heart-troubled men, — in vain do you look to 1 Exod. xxxiv. 6. Neh. ix. 17. Isa. xiv. 21. 2 Cor. v. 19. Ezek. xviii. 23, 32 ; xxxiii. 11. Isa. xliii. 25. Heb. ix. 26. 1 John i. 7. John vii. 37. John iii. 16. Heb. iv. 3. PART I,J FAITH THE ANTIDOTE TO HEART-TROUBLE. Ii) man, to earth, to time, for relief. Look to God, who, while " great and of great power," " telling the number of the stars, and calling them all by their names," " healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds," Look to Jesus, who, " though in the form of God," has become a partaker of human nature, and been made in all things, sin excepted, like his brethren ; so that he can sympathise with and succour those who are tried, and, according to the good will of the Father, bind up the broken-hearted. Believe in God — believe in Christ; and faith in them will unfold to you in heaven and in eternity, what will effectually relieve your perplexities and soothe your sorrows. Best to the heart is thus, is only thus, to be found. II. WHITHER CHRIST WAS GOING — AND WITH WHAT PURPOSE, John xiv. 2, 3. — " In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for yon. And if I go and prepare a place for yon, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." ' The trouble of heart which, at the time our Lord's discourse was delivered, so painfully agitated the disciples, and which it was his purpose to soothe and assuage, had originated in the intimation he had given them, that he was about to leave them. He had said to them, "Now I go to Him that sent me;" and because he had said this, " sorrow had filled their hearts," There are two things which chiefly make us unwilling to part with our friends, — the thought that it may not be so well with them where they go — and the thought that it may not be so well with us when they are gone. And nothing is so well fitted to reconcile us to the parting, and soothe the painful feelings such a prospect naturally awakens, as the assurance, that neither party is to lose — still more, that both parties are to gain — by the separation. The disciples were troubled at what they anticipated as about 1 1 delivered a discourse on these words some years ago, on occasion of the death of a truly venerable minister of Christ (the Rev. Dr Peddie), which was subsequently published as amerited tribute of respect to his memory. My object In that discourse was to fix the attention on those views of heaven which the text opens to the mind — as a house, — the house of God, — the house of Christ's Father, — a house of many mansions, — a house into which he is gone to prepare a place for his people, — a house to which he is ultimately to conduct all his people, and in which they are to dwell with him for ever. My intention, in the remarks that follow, is to look at the pas sage in its connection, and to consider it as a part of that statement of trtith by our Lord, which he calls on his disconsolate disciples to believe, in order that they might be delivered from those painful emotions of anxiety, and fear, and sorrow, which were now in so distressing a degree agitating their minds and troubling their hearts. In prosecuting this design, many of the truths stated in that discourse will necessarily be brought again before the mind ; but, viewed from a different stand-point, they will — most of them — be presented in a new light. It is a subject which well deserves to be looked at in all its aspects, and if a spiritual householder has his treasure mo derately well furnished — however frequently he resort to it — he will bring forth from his store things new as well as old. PART II.J WHITHER CHRIST WAS GOING— AND WHY. 21 to take place in reference to their Lord. He was to leave them, to leave them by dying, and by dying in very painful circum stances. They were troubled, too, at what they anticipated as about to take place with regard to themselves — disappointed hope — disgrace— persecution, and an endless train of ill-defined, but not on that account less dreadful or less dreaded, evils. To relieve them, our Lord, in these words, shows them that there was no sufficient ground for such extreme trouble of heart at the thought of his leaving them, either on his account or on their own ; for that ultimately his departure would prove productive of far higher advantages to both, than could have resulted from his continuance with them on the earth. Whatever temporary sacrifices and suffering the parting might occasion, it was the necessary means of his return to his Father, and his Father's house, with whom and in which he was to enjoy a state of happi ness and dignity, strikingly contrasted with that state of degra dation and suffering in which he was now placed, infinitely superior to any situation, however blissful and exalted, to which he could be raised on earth ; and it was equally the necessary means of their being ultimately made partakers of his joys and glories, by his conducting them to the mansions which he went to prepare for them, in the house of his Father, and their Father ; his God, and their God. This is the substance of the statement contained in the words before us ; and surely if the disciples believed on him who made that statement, their troubled hearts could not but be re-assured and comforted. Let us then turn our attention for a little some what more particularly to the results of our Lord's going away, first to himself, and then to his disciples, as these are exhibited in the text, and show how the consideration of these was fitted to comfort their hearts, and reconcile them to what, at first sight, seemed so fraught with discouragement and sorrow. " In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." § 1. The results of Christs going away to himself. Let us first, then, attend to the results, in reference to himself, of our Lord's going away, as they are represented in these words. 22 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. _[EXP, XXVIII, His going away, so far as he was concerned, was to terminate in his arrival at the house of his Father, and his dwelling there in holy, happy fellowship with Him, and with the blessed inhabitants of the many mansions which are to be found there. There can be little doubt that, by the house of our Lord's Father, we are to understand heaven ; that portion of the created universe where the Divinity has made the fullest manifestation of his excellences, and which he has appointed as the proper residence of unfallen and restored intelligent creatures — of his holy angels, and re deemed men. Heaven is sometimes spoken of in Scripture, as a world, — a country, — a city,^ Here it is termed a house, the house of Christ's Father, The image brought before the mind is that of a magnificent palace, which the Great King of the universe, " wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working," has " built for the house of his kingdom, by the might of his power, and for the honour of his majesty," I need scarcely say, the language is figurative ; He who fills heaven and earth with his presence, " who is a God at hand, and a God afar off," can have no special dwelling-place : but the meaning of the figure is not difficult to be discovered. The universe is God's house, — ^for there is no place in it where He is not in all the fulness of his infinite per fections, — no place in which these perfections are not more or less clearly displayed. The temple, under the Jewish economy, was God's house, for there was the symbol of his presence, and there had He commanded those religious ordinances to be observed which are the means of communion with Him. And heaven is his house, for there the most glorious revelation is made of his character, and there holy intelligences are admitted to most inti mate and uninterrupted fellowship with Him, Heaven is his house also, for He is its builder. This house has not been " made by hands " — it is not the work of the wisdom, and power — of men or of angels. Its "builder and maker is God."^ " The Lord made the heavens." " The heavens are the work of his hand."* And, finally, it is his house too, for He is its inhabitant. " The Lord is in his holy temple ;" " in heaven is his throne ;" " the Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens."^ It is there that He is to be seen, as He is. > Luke XX. 36. Heb. xi. 10, 16. 2 Heb. xi. 10. 3 Heb. i. 10. * Hab. ii. 20. Psal. ciii. 19. PART II.j WHITHER CHRIST WAS GOING — AND WHY. 23 What is seen of Him elsewhere, is only his shadow. It is there that He is to be known ; it is there that He is to be communed with. Our Lord was the Son — the only begotten Son — the well- beloved Son — of the Supreme Sovereign, whose palace is the heaven of heavens. He had, with his own most cordial concur rence, been sent by his Father to our earth — a remote region of His dominions, — to serve ends of high importance in the -ad ministration of that kingdom of truth, and righteousness, and benignity, which ruleth over all. In working out His holy and merciful purposes, he had for more than thirty years dwelt a man among men. His condition, by his own choice and his Father's appointment, was a very humble and afflicted one. " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; but " the Son of God, when he became " the Son of man, had not where to lay his head." He was " despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." ^ " The work given him to do " on earth was now all but finished. It was to be accomplished by a still lower " stoop of majesty." The ever-blessed One must die like an accursed felon on the cross, and the Prince of life lie dead in the grave. And then, after, and by means of, his sufferings, he was to return to his Father's house, to his Father's throne, to his Father's bosom. He was soon to be brought from the dust of death by his Father, as " the God of peace " — the propitiated Divinity ; and yet a little longer, and the heavens were to receive him, attended by ten thousand times ten thousand of those angelic spirits who count it their highest honour to worship him : he was to pass through these visible heavens, into the heaven of heavens, and " sit down for ever on the right hand of the Majesty on high ;" " for the suffering of death," he was to be " crowned with glory and honour ;" he was to be " glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the foundation of the world;" and the Father was to say to him, " Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool." Henceforth, his Father's house was to be his house — his Father's throne his throne ; and he was to dwell with Him in that house, sit with Him on that throne. His " glory was to be great in his Father's salvation ; ' Matt. viii. 20. Isa. liii. 3. 24 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. honour and majesty were to be laid on him. He was to be made most blessed for ever, — made exceeding glad in the light of his Father's countenance,"^ Nor was this all. In his Father's house were " many man sions "^ — many secure abiding dwelling-places, — and those man sions were not tenantless. It is probable that there is an allusion here to the numerous chambers in the sacred precincts at Jeru salem, for the ministering priests and Levites. All in the holy house above are priests — ministering priests, — and there is ac commodation for them all. There, were dwelhng the countless host of those holy angels, " who kept their first estate, and left not their own habitation ;"* and there, too, were dwelling all the redeemed from among men, from the parent pair, who trusted in the woman's seed for deliverance from the effects of their fatal transgression and the malignity of the old serpent, down to the last who had left the earth, looking for the salvation of Israel. There, dwelt Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and Elijah, and Isaiah, and multitudes more, in the king dom of their Father, In the touse of God, in the midst of these — " the elders," and " the innumerable company of angels"^ — he was to dwell, the object of their most affectionate love — most reverent adoration ; and, while the inner circle^ — redeemed men, " nearest the throne and first in song " — raise their hallelujah, " Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood," and the wondering angels surrounding them join in the ' Heb. ii. 9. Psal. ex. 1 ; xxi. 1-6. a trxyiveci al^vm. Luke Xvi. 9. " Non dicit -rvroi xojil^ol, non elxieti tcoXXbu, non irxvjtai iroXA«i, sed /torn!, mansiones." — Er^s. Schmid. " Multee, quae et angelos, et vestros fide anteoessores, et vos, et quam plurimos capiant. Ipso plurali numero videtur etiam varietas mansionum innui, nam non dicit mansio magna, sed mansiones mulUB.' — Bengei,. " Caelum vocat domum Patris sui : forsan allusione ad templum quod vocabatur Domus Jehovse. Cum vero in templo Hierosolymitano varia essent con- clavia, hinc est quod etiam in templo ccelornm, varia conclavia, et multse quasi fil3(uV nobis repraesenteutur. Vel allusione ad Eedes regias et Domum ipsius Davidis et Solomonis, in q;ua varise contignationes, innumeraeqne cameras ad usum et volnp- tatem regis et aulicorum. Sic coelum veluti Regis et Dei palatium, ab illo solo non tantum occupandum, sed ab angelis et fidelibus, ad quorum usum varise camerse et quasi mansiones etiam hie a Domino nostro commemorantur." — Le Moyne. A learned and ingenious friend suggests a doubt whether our Lord refers to heaven here, which is nowhere else in Scripture called God's house, or does not rather inti mate that, though he and his disciples were to be visibly parted from each other, they were still to be, as it were, under the same roof— it being but one femily in heaven ^nd in earth, though living in different mansions. ¦' ^ixyiTyf^ioc. Jude 6. PART II.j WHITHER CHRIST WAS GOING — AND WHY. 25 chorus, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing,'" He was to dwell with God in the midst of these holy happy beings, " the Lamb being the light "^ of that blessed region — the immediate author of all their happiness. All this is implied in our Lord's going to the house of his Father — that house in which were many mansions. This was " the joy which was set before him," and for which " he endured the cross, and despised the shame." ^ Our Lord's words could be but imperfectly understood by the disciples at this time ; but, if they had but believed them, what they could comprehend was well fitted to relieve them of that oppressive trouble of heart under which they laboured. Their Master was soon to be placed beyond the reach of his enemies, and put in possession of blessings and honours far above the highest conception they could form of happiness or of glory. True, the cross and the grave lay between ; but heaven — the heaven of heavens — closed the prospect, and their Lord there sitting on the right hand of the throne of God. Surely our Lord might well say to them, " If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, be cause I said, I go unto the Father : for my Father is greater than I."^ Such is the view which our text gives us of the re sults of our Lord's going away, so far as he himself was con cerned, and such the influence which it was fitted to have in lessening his disciples' trouble of heart. § 2. The results of Christs going away, to his disciples. But there is reason to think that that trouble of heart pro ceeded, at least as much from a consideration of the manner in which their own interests were to be affected by their Lord's departm'e, as from the anticipations of what might befall him ; and, accordingly, we find our Lord's statement directly and fully meeting their anxieties and fears with regard to themselves. When their Lord left this world, and went to the Father, he was not about to forget them. By his going to the Father, he was to secure for them a place in his Father's house ; and, when he had made everything r.eady, he was to return again, and take them to himself, that where he was, there they might be also, 1 Rev. V. 9-14. 2 Rev. xxi. 23. ' Heb. xii. 2. * John xiv. 28. 26 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, Such are the declarations he makes ; and he appeals to them selves if they had not had abundant evidence to demand the un hesitating belief that, if these things had not been so, he never would have encouraged them to cherish such hopes, " I go," says he, " to prepare a place for you." " In my Father's house are many mansions." ' There is room enough for you as well as for me. There are many there already, but there is room for many more. But that is not enough. Mansions must be prepared for you — and you must be prepared for these mansions ; and my purpose in going away, and in going away in the manner in which I am going — " going as it was written" — " going as it was determined" — is to secure both these purposes,' " I go to prepare a place for you,"^ We are not to under stand these words exclusively, or perhaps even chiefly, of what our Lord was to do after he had arrived at his Father's house in heaven. They refer fully as much to what he did in going, as to what he is doing, now that he is there. But for his going, and going in the way in which he went — through death and the grave — they never could have come to the Father in heaven ; and many as are the mansions in his house, none of his people would have ever been prepared for a place in these mansions. It may be asked. But was not the kingdom — which is but an other name for a place in Christ's Father's house (for none are there but the children, and all the children are " kings" as well as " priests to God, even the Father") — Was not " the kingdom prepared for them from before the foundation of the world" ?^ So far as the Divine purpose was concerned, it was so. But the Divine purpose can only find fulfilment in accordance with the principles of the Divine government. Preparation must be made to make the admission of such persons, as all men — the elect as well as others — are, consistent with the character and law of God as the moral governor of the universe. Had sin never entered our world, so far as admission to heaven is concerned, all things would at all times have been ready for the innocent holy children of men. Their Father's house would always have been ready for them, and they ready for then* Father's house. But all — the elect as well as the rest of men — 1 " horns ipse paratus est: vohis parabitur. Prseparatio alia absoluta, alia respec- tiva."— Bengel. ' Rev. i 6. Matt. xxv. 34. PART II,] WHITHER CHRIST WAS GOING — AND WSY. 27 have sinned, and have been condemned. That sentence of con demnation must be removed, in order to their admission to heaven ; and forgiveness and justification can proceed only on the ground of an atonement being made and accepted. There is — there can be — no place in heaven for men labouring under unexpiated guilt, unforgiven transgression. Nor is this all. Heaven must not only be opened to men, but men must be made fit for heaven. God's justice refuses admis sion into heaven to the guilty — God's sanctity to the unholy. The preparation of a place for his people in heaven implies, I apprehend, the doing all that is necessary to secure them a wel come, a suitable, a permanent place there. Now, this was the design of our Lord's going to heaven, and going to heaven in the way he did. This was the design of what he did, to open up for himself, as the representative of his people — " our forerunner" ^ — a way into heaven ; and is the design of what he is doing there, whether at the altar of incense as a high priest, or on the throne as a king. His sufferings, his death, his burial, were all penal, vicarious, expiatory — not only for our benefit, but in our room. That we might be delivered from the curse, and from death and the grave, which otherwise would certainly have prevented us from ever having had a place in the house of God — in the heavenly Jerusalem, " Christ once suf fered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,"^ We could not have been brought to God otherwise: " It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." ^ It would not have become Him to have admitted them to his house otherwise ; and we may rest assured He never would have done anything unbecoming himself. " He cannot deny himself," That man's hope of heaven is " like the giving up the ghost," that rests on the expectation that God will violate his word, or dishonour his law. And as the sacrifice of Christ was necessary to open heaven to man, so it was sufficient : " Christ being come an high priest of good things to come," " not by the blood of goats and of calves, but by his own blood, entered into the holy place, having ob- I Heb. vi.20. 2 1 Pet. iii. 18. s Heb. ii. 10. 28 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII. tained eternal redemption for us." "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promised eternal inherit ance." "It was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified " by animal sacrifices ; " but the hea venly things themselves with better sacrifices than these."^ Our Lord's going to his Father's house in the way he went — the way of expiation and atonement — was equally necessary to secure the transforming influence of the Holy Spirit, which, again, was indispensably requisite to prepare his people for the place secured for them. When Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse in our room, it was not only " that the blessing of Abraham," — a free, and flill justifica tion, making it a just thing that we should be admitted to hea ven — " should come on us," but also " that we should receive the promised Spirit in believing," whose sanctifying work on our hearts can alone make it a fit thing that we should be admitted into heaven : " For their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified through the truth," In order to present them, as the church whom he loves, to his Father, " a perfect church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," he must " sanctify them, by the washing of water, through the word," attended by the Spirit ; and for this purpose " he must give himself for them," * But securing a fit place for his people in heaven, is the design not only of what our Lord did in his going to the Fatjjer, but also of all that he is doing now that he is at the right hand of God, ever living to make intercession for them. He prays the Father, and he sends forth the Holy Spirit to produce faith, that they may be justified, and to continue and strengthen their faith, that they may be sanctified. If he had not gone away, the Com forter could not have come ; but, having gone to the Father, he sends him. He has received "all power in heaven and earth," and that power is put forth, both in the exertion of inward influence, and the production of external event, " to give eternal life to all whom the Father has given him." When he entered, he entered as "our forerunner;" when he had overcome the sharpness of death — when he had by himself purged our sins — he opened the 1 Heb. ix. 11-15, 23. a Gal. iii. 13, 14. John xvii. 19. Eph. v. 26-27. PART II.] WHITHER CHRIST WAS GOING AND WHY. 29 kingdom of heaven to all believers. By "the entrance of his flesh " ^ — his bodily entrance through the veil — he opened up a new and living way, by which his people shall also bodily pass through the veil into the immediate presence of God : " Christ hath entered into the holy places not made with hands," — of which the holy place in the tabernacle and temple was a figure, — " there to appear ^n the presence of God for us ; and he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them," ^ And we know that the admission of his people to the mansions that are thus prepared for them, forms a leading subject of that intercession which the Father heareth always : " Father," says he, " I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world," " Our Lord's going away to the house of his Father, in the way in which he did go, and his doing there what he could do only there, were necessary to mansions being prepared for his people there ; and as they were necessary, they were at the same time suited and adequate to the purpose in view. •All that we have stated is naturally suggested to us by our Lord's words. TUl the Holy Ghost was given, the disciples could, however, only partially understand them. But as, in the former case — respecting the statement as to the effect of our Lord's going away in reference to himself — this saying of our Lord, imperfectly as they must have understood it, must have had its effect in calming their troubled thoughts, had they only firmly believed in him. It is as if he had said, ' Your highest interest will be secured by that event which you anticipate with such fearful forebodings ; and it could not be secured in any other way.' The question naturally enough suggests itself. When our Lord speaks of preparing a place in his Father's house for his disciples, does he refer to the place which he secures for their separate spirits among the spirits of the just made perfect, as they in their turn " put off their earthly tabernacle, as their Lord has told them," and, by absence from the body, obtain presence with the Lord ? or. Does it refer to the many mansions I rfjv 'icrodav — 'Ivitrou — rovrir'> tvi$ tratqxoi ikutou, 3 pleb. ix. 24. * John xvii. 24. 30 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, which he is preparing for the whole holy family at the great gathering together at his coming and appearing, when, with bodies fashioned like unto his glorious body, they shall together be made perfect, and brought into the palace of the King, where they are to abide for ever, no more to go out ? There can be no doubt that it is the atonement, intercession, and Spirit — the power and the grace — of Christ which secure both ; but from what follows, it seems probable that it is the latter of these, which indeed supposes the former, that our Lord has directly in view. Still farther to comfort his disconsolate disciples, our Lord assures them that "if," or "since," or " when,"^ "he goes away, and prepares a place for them, he wOl come again, and take them to himself; that where he is, there they maybe also," It has been a question among interpreters. What are we to under stand by this coming again of our Lord, and this receiving his disciples to himself? Some suppose that it refers to the death of Christians individually, and their being, in consequence of this, admitted into the presence of their Lord — their obtaining pre sence with the Lord by absence from the body. We have no doubt that the death of every Christian is the result of the will and agency of him who has " the keys of hell and of death," nor that the Christian's spirit immediately on death is with Christ, beholding and sharing his glory ; but the language before us does not naturally describe these events. It would appear a more scriptural representation, to say that at death he sends his angels to conduct the parted spirit to paradise, where he wel comes it to a participation in his joy, than that he comes himself for this purpose : that they go to him, rather than that he comes to them. The " coming," especially the " coming again," is an expres sion that naturally intimates that the coming should be of the same kind as the departure — bodily, visible ; and the statement seems to be made with respect to his disciples as a body. The reference here, I have no doubt, is to that coming so often men tioned in the New Testament — "the coming the second time without sin, for the salvation of all those who are looking for him," — announced by the angels to the disciples, immediately » " ikv lenis particula pro cricy." — Bengel. PART II.] WHITHER CHRIST WAS GOING — AND WHY. 31 after they had witnessed his departure to the Father, " This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." When he shall have prepared a place for them, he wUl " come again ;" — that is, when he shall have finished all the arrange ments which are necessary for the final " redemption of the pur chased possession," he shall return to our world; and, having collected into one body the whole of his redeemed ones — having raised the dead, and changed the living, so that not only are they conformed to him in spirit, but their " vile bodies are fashioned like unto his glorious body," — he shall conduct them all to those regions of perfect rest and holy enjoyment which he has prepared for-them. " They which are alive and remain" till his coming " shall not prevent," or get the advantage of, " them which have been asleep" in the state of the dead. " The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : then they which are alive and remain," having been " changed in a moment, in the twink ling of an eye," so that their bodies, like those of their raised brethren, shall have become spiritual, incorruptible, immortal, glorious, — " shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet their Lord in the air : and so shall they ever be with the Lord." ^ Thus shall they be received to their Lord,^ — cordi ally welcomed home to the house of many mansions, where they shall for ever be with him where he is. Having made his house ready, he will then admit them into it as his ransomed bride, now fitly adorned for her husband. As the beloved disciple did to the honoured mother of his Lord, when from the cross He had set the seal on his filial love and friendship by commending his mother to the care of his friend, he wdll " take them to his own home."* Our Lord's words deserve close attention. " If I go and pre pare a place for you, I wiU come again, and receive you unto myself." His object would not be gained if they did not occupy the place he had prepared for them ; and they might rest assured that he would not leave his work half done. Till the place be 1 1 Thess. iv. 15-18. a "a-.os ifMeuTo». Majestatis plena locutio. Patris domus, Filii domus." — Bengel. s John xix. 27. 32 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII. prepared, tUl all things be ready, he wUl not come ; but when the place is prepared, when all things are ready, he wUl not tarry. He himself will come. To bring his redeemed ones home, is a work at once too great in itself, and too grateful to him, to be done by substitute. He himself will conduct his collected brethren to the house he has prepared for them, LUie Joseph, he himself will place his brethren, and give them a possession in the best of the land of the blessed,^ Is it not meet, then, that they should gratefully acquiesce in the arrangement, and say, " Thou shalt guide us by thy counsel, and thou shalt afterward receive us to glory," He does not say, ' I wiU come and stay with you on earth ; ' but, " I will come and receive you unto my self," He does not come to live with thetn, but to take them to live with him. It is not ' that I may be where you are,' but ' that you may be where I am,' There are some good Christians who very fondly cherish the thought, that the Saviour, when he comes, will stay with them on earth ; but we rather think they will be agreeably disappointed. He will be better to them than they hope, — he wUl take them to heaven. To have Christ with us on earth would be good, but to be with Christ in heaven is far better. We think it safer, as more scriptural, whUe it is also more pleasant, to look for him from heaven, not to remain with us on earth, but to take us to heaven. We would " set our affec tions on things above, not on things on the earth ; " we would " seek the things which are abovt, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." ' He does not say, ' I wUl come and visit you, but return without you ; ' he says, " I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also,"* Much of what we know to be included in our Lord's promise could not be known to the disciples ; but the general statement, that his departure was necessary for their welfare, and that in due time he should return, and take them to be for ever with him in a state of blessedness, was well fitted to relieve them from that excessive trouble of spirit which now oppressed them. It was true here, as it is in many other cases, the narrowness of their minds, and their mistaken apprehensions, were the great cause of their sorrows. The coming event which so alarmed ¦ Gen. xlvii. 11. a Col. iii. 1, 2. s Horton. PART II.J WHITHER CHRIST WAS GOING AND WHY. 33 them, whether looked at in reference to its ultimate results to' their Master or to themselves, was a fitter cause of satisfaction than of perplexity, of joy than of sorrow. If they loved him, they would have rejoiced because he was going to the Father ; if they loved themselves, they would have rejoiced, for he was going to prepare a place for them. In illustrating these two principles, I have explained every part of the passage before us except what looks like a parentheti cal statement, " If it had not been so, I would have told you." The construction and meaning of the original words are some what doubtful. Some connect these words with what follows, and explain them in various ways. Some, ' If there were not many mansions in my Father's house — room enough for your reception — I would say to you, I go to prepare mansions for you. I have too great a regard for you not to take care that you shall be well accommodated ; but I need not say this, for the accom modation is ready, — there are many mansions prepared.' Others,^ reading it interrogatively, ' If it were not so, would I say — what I am just about to say, and in effect have said to you already — would I say, I go to prepare a place for you ?' Others, ' Besides — moreover — I say to you, I go to prepare a place for you.' We prefer, upon the whole, the rendering of our trans lators, and the sense it brings out : ' If there had not been many mansions in my Father's house, and mansions for you,' — i. e., ' If provision had not been made for your complete and eternal happiness, — I would have told you that it was so : I would never have encouraged you, as I have done, to entertain so high hopes. I knew that you expected eternal happiness from me in a future world, as well as high places in the kingdom you expected me to establish in this world ; and I encouraged the one hope as much as I discountenanced the other. I never would have done this, had there not been an absolute certainty that that hope would never make you ashamed.' Viewed in this light, its import has been beautifully brought out by an accomplished writer : — " He was not the person to mock them with vain hopes, to cheat them with empty and fallacious promises. He had never scrupled to tell them forcibly how grievously they were deluded by the phantoms ' This is Bengel's interpretation. Semler gives the words a somewhat different turn — " Si vero res sic non haberet, — si hac in terra expectauda esset Messise politia liumana, jamdiu vos ista in sententia et spe confirmassem." VOL. III. *C 34 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. and day-dreams with which they suffered their imaginations to be dazzled in connection with his anticipated reign. Their fond visions of earthly pomp, power, and pleasures, he had unsparingly exposed and dissipated, and thus had given them the most con vincing pledge, that if these anticipations of the ' inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,' had been .equally unfounded and illusory, he would not have spared to tear from their bosoms the dear deceit, the beautiful delusion, — he would not have invited them to sacrifice all that they esteemed most precious in, this world, in order to obtain an un real shade, in order to purchase an eternal disappointment."^ How replete with instruction and consolation to the disciples of Christ in every country and age is the passage of Scripture we have thus attempted to illustrate ! How well-fitted to sustain, and invigorate, and comfort, amid the labours, and anxieties, and sorrows of life — while mourning over the graves of our friends, and looking forward to our own dissolution ! Are not the hea viest of our own afflictions light — are not the long-lived sorrows but for a moment — when compared with that exceeding and eternal weight of glory which is here held out to us ? With such a home before us, who would grudge though the road to it were rough and thorny, long and devious ? And how do the reflected glories of that region where " they have no need of the sun and moon to enlighten them, for the Lord and the Lamb are the light thereof," not only shed a heavenly radiance over the dark est scenes of this dark world, but cast so deeply into the shade all mere earthly enjoyments, as to make us feel that it is madness to seek our portion in them, and that to depart to that land where there are no shadows is indeed far better ! ' Brown Patterson. III. CHRIST " THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.' John xiv. 4-6. — " And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him. Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; and how can we know the way ? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." The power of prejudice over men is indeed wonderful. The importance of pre-occupancy, with regard to property, has passed into a proverb ; and no possessors seem more indisposed to be expelled from the tenement they have secured, than the occu pants of that little world, the mind of man. When an opinion, or feeling, however originating, has obtained a place there, and kept it for a long series of years, it is no easy matter to unsettle and dislodge it. We are very unwilling to be convinced, that what we have long counted true is false, especially in cases where, in consequence of our interests and passions being involved, a conviction of the falsity of an opinion long held, is connected with the relinquishment of expectations long and fondly cherished. On the one hand, evidence which seems to every other person perfectly conclusive, seems to the prejudiced person destitute of all force, when directed against his favourite opinion; and, on the other hand, arguments which appear to indifferent persons obviously altogether irrelevant, sophistical, and inconclusive, have on his mind the effect of powerful confirmations and most satisfactory proofs. Never, perhaps, was the power of prejudice more strikingly displayed than in the rejection, by the great body of the Jewish people, of the claims of Jesus Christ to be the Messiah promised to their fathers. The idea of a temporal Messiah — the notion, that the promised deliverer was to be a secular prince, and his kingdom a worldly empire — had taken early possession of, and had for ages held all but universal dominion over, the national mind. This notion was mixed up with all their feelings of 36 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. national pride, and all their ideas of national interest. The foundation of it was but little proportioned to the wide extent and tenacious power of its prevalence over the Jewish mind. It rested solely on some Old Testament predictions, clothed in figurative language, mistakingly, because literally, interpreted. It was indeed nothing more than a prejudice. Yet, in the mind of the great majority of the JeW'S, no evidence could remove, or even shake, this prejudice. Our Lord's innumerable, uncon- troverted miracles, abundantly attested, and the fulfilment of many prophetic declarations in his character, and doctrines, and history, seemed to them to have no force as evidence of his Mes- siahship, merely because he was not a temporal prince. Had he been so, these would have been felt and acknowledged as irre fragable demonstration. They found it easier to resist truth, founded on abundance of appropriate evidence, than to renounce a prejudice founded on no satisfactory evidence whatever. The power of this prejudice was scarcely less strikingly mani fested, though in a somewhat different way, in the case of those Jews who received, than in the case of those who rejected, the Messiahship of our Lord, If it prevented the latter from per ceiving the evidence of his mission, it greatly obstructed the former in apprehending the meaning of his doctrines. The humble rank, the destitute circumstances, of their Master, — the comparative poorness and insignificance, in a worldly point of view, of his adherents, — the general cast, both of his doctrine and his character, so unearthly and spiritual, — the plain state ments he made of the design of his mission, and of the nature of his kingdom, — the intimation he gave them of his approacMng sufferings, and shameful, as well as painful, death on the cross, were all incapable of quenching the hope that he was one day to become the temporal deliverer of his country — the breaker of her yoke — the assertor of her independence — the vindicator of her supremacy. To the very last they seem to have cherished the conviction, that all in his declarations that appeared to speak of coming disaster and death, must have some mystical meaning not inconsistent with what they held as undoubted truth — his establishment of a worldly kingdom, — to which, as a matter of course, they applied whatever he said of coming triumph and dominion. Never, probably, were these hopes higher, than a few days before his crucifixion ; and even after the resurrection. PART III.] CHRIST " THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE." 37 previously to the giving of the Spirit, whose enlightening influ ences dispelled all these delusions for ever, we find them asking, " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"^ This prejudice made these honest believers " slow of heart to understand the many things which the prophets had spoken "^ of their Master — many things which their Master had spoken of himself. It greatly tried his patience, and greatly obstructed their improvement. Of its influence in both ways, we have a striking exemplifica tion in the passage which is now to be the subject of our con sideration. Perceiving how deeply his announcement of his speedy and solitary departure from them had filled his disciples with anxiety and sorrow, our Lord, with a tenderly wise com passion, calls on them to moderate their excessive trouble of heart ; and, to secure this end, bids them believe in God and in him, — believe what God had said, and what in Scripture had been said about God, — believe what he himself had said to them, and was to say to them, and what in Scripture had been said about him. Especially, he calls on them to believe the declara tion which he was just about to make to them, a declaration well fitted to relieve their anxieties, both with regard to him, and with regard to themselves. With regard to him, he was indeed going away, but he was going to the magnificent well- furnished dwelling-place of his Father, to dwell with Him, and with those who were already dwellers in its many mansions. With regard to them, he was going to his Father's house for the purpose of making the arrangements necessary to their being admitted to a place there, and that, when these were made, it was his purpose to return and take them to himself, that where he was, and was permanently to reside, they might be, and per manently reside also. He concludes his consolatory advice with saying, " And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." The meaning and refer ence of these words are to us perfectly plain. They do not seem capable of two meanings. We wonder how any one could mis apprehend them. But they were misapprehended. We have no reason to doubt that Thomas, when he uttered the words, " Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; and how can we know ' Acts i. 0. ' Luke xxiv. 15. 38 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII, the way?" expressed a difficulty all his brethren felt, — a diffi culty rising out of the prejudice that the temporal kingdom must be set up, and that his going must have a reference to his going to do this ; but to do it, they neither knew where nor how. Our Lord removes the misapprehension by saying, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." There are three topics which the subject of discourse brings before our minds for consideration. First, Our Lord's saying, misapprehended by the disciples ; secondly, Their misapprehen sion of his saying ; and, thirdly. His correction of their misap prehension, and further iUustration of the misapprehended say ing. Let us shortly attend to these topics in their order. § 1. Our Lord's saying which was misapprehended by the disciples. Let us first consider our Lord's saying, " And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." These words have often been interpreted as equivalent to, ' You know, you are quite aware, that I am going to heaven ; and you know the way by which I am to go to heaven, — by suffering and death.' ^ Now, there is no doubt that our Lord was going to heaven ; and that he was going to heaven through suffering and death. But this interpretation is not satisfactory, for the disciples did not know that their Lord was to go to heaven ; they seem to have held the faith of their nation, that "the Christ was to abide for ever;" ^ and still less did they know that he was to go there by suffering and death. That was repugnant to all their expectations and feelings. It has been said, ' They might have known it from what the prophets had said, and from what their Lord himself had said,' and that is quite true ; but the question, is, not what they might have known, but what they did know. And we are assured, that when our Lord spoke of his sufferings, and death, and resurrection, "they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him." ^ Besides, it is quite plain, from what our 1 " Hoc senigmate Dominus subindicabat se proflcisci ad Patrem, sed per mortem crucis. Optabile erat quod adibat eum, sed iter videtur inamabile. Hoc discipuli nescire non poterant, toties auditum a Domino : sed mseror et oblivio faciebat ut quod sciebant neseirent." — Erasmus. a John xii. 34. a Mark ix. 32. PART III.] CHRIST " THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE." 39 Lord says at the 6th verse, that he spoke not so much of the way, by which he was to go where he was going, as of the way by which they were in due time to follow him.-' The right interpretation of this passage, like that of so many others, depends on considering the connection in which it is in troduced ; " Lord," said Peter, a little before, " Lord, whither goest thou?" and when our Lord had said, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now ; but thou shalt follow me after wards," he rejoined, " Why cannot I follow thee now ?" ^ Both Peter's questions, and they no doubt embodied the wishes of all the disciples, were answered by our Lord in the words imme diately preceding our text. It is as if he had said, ' You are troubled in spirit, because you know not whither I go ; and be cause I have said, "Ye cannot follow me now." Be not troubled. " Believe in God, believe in me." I am going to my Father ; to his house of many mansions : let not, then, fears about me dis tress you ; and as to your following me, — as to the reason why you cannot follow me now, — and as to the way in which you are to follow me hereafter, know that arrangements must be made for your coming to where I am going, to my Father's house of many mansions. I go to make these arrangements, and when they are completed, I will come and take you to myself, that where 1 am, there ye may be also. That is whither I am going, — that is the reason why you do not go with me, or follow me, now, — that is the way in which you are afterwards to come where I am going ; " and," i. e., and thus, " ye know," for I have plainly told you " whither I go, — and the way " in which you are to come, whither I shall have gone.' Such was our Lord's state ment as to whither he was going, and the way in which his dis ciples were to follow him thither, afterwards. It seems very plain and clear. But it was not understood. It was misunder stood. § 2. The disciples' misapprehension of our Lord's saying. This misapprehension is the second topic which the text brings under our consideration : " Thomas answered, and said to his Master, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we 1 " Potest interrogando explicari satis commode." — Semler. Gill also takes this view—" Do you not know whither I go ? do you not know the way ? " a John xiii. 36, 37. 40 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. know the way?" Thomas, as his character comes out in the gospel history, seems to have been a thoughtful, considerate man, — a man occupied, however, more with the sensible and rational, than with the spiritual, — greatly more under the influence of sense and reason than faith. We cannot think that he meant to contradict his Lord. He did not mean to deny that now he knew — for his Lord, whom he implicitly believed, had said it — that Jesus was going to his Father's house, and that, when he had made certain arrangements, he was to return, and to take them to be with him there. He understood that — he believed that. But then, he did not know what our Lord meant by his Father's house, and by going to it ; nor what he meant by com ing again, and taking them to that house of many mansions. It might mean heaven, and going to it might mean death. It is likely enough Thomas was afraid that might be the meaning, for he thought his Lord had work to do on earth ; and that He should die was something not to be calmly thought of. But his Father's house might mean some place on earth — in Judea, or in some other country— where facilities were to be found for commencing his career of aggrandizement and conquest; and "going away" might be removing to that place ; and then their way to it would just be his coming back, when arrangements were made, and taking them with him, to share in the honours of his kingdom. This, though something different from what Thomas had expected, would still have, upon the whole, corres ponded with his anticipations and wishes. His reply to our Lord's statement, " And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know," seems equivalent to, ' We do not understand your words ; we have no distinct idea respecting where you are going, and how we can have distinct ideas respecting the way in which we are, according to your declaration, by and by to follow you thither?' As Matthew Henry says, "When Christ spoke of going away, and their following him, their fancy ran on his going to some remarkable city or other — Bethlehem, or Nazareth, or Capernaum, or some of the cities of the Gentiles, as David to Hebron, there to be anointed king, and to restore the kingdom to Israel ; and which way this place lay, where their castles in the air were to be built — east, west, north, or south, they could not tell, and therefore could not know the way. Thus still," he adds, " we think ourselves more in the dark than we need to be. PART HI.] CHRIST " THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE." 41 concerning the future state of the church, because we expect its worldly prosperity, whereas it is spiritual advancement that the promise points at." § 3. Our Lord^s correction of the disciples' misappreh ension. We are now prepared for entering on the consideration of the third and principal topic suggested by the text — our Lord's cor rection of the misapprehension of the disciples, and his farther illustration of his misapprehended statement — " I am the way, the truth, and the Hfe ; no man cometh to the Father but by me."i (1.) He is the way. It is plain that these words, " I am the way," are equivalent to, ' I am the way by which you are to come to the Father.' These words — so obviously figurative, so unintelligible if taken literally — were intended to put down the false views of the dis ciples, and to show them that he was speaking, not of " things seen and temporal, but of things unseen and eternal." The disciples wished to know where he was going ; and how — by what way — they were to follow him, when he had gone. In the words before us, he intimates that he was going to the Father- — to a state of perfect holy happiness with his Father in heaven ; and that his thus going away, so far from permanently separating them from him, was the very way by which they were to be brought to him with the Father — brought to that state of entire 1 The Fathers, especially the Latin fathers, are not first-rate interpreters ; yet they often say striking things. Take a few examples in reference to these words. " Via in exemplo, Veritas in promisso, vita in prsemio." " Ego sum via incipientium : Veritas proficientium, vita pervenientium : Ego sum via lucens et serena, Veritas vivens absque poena, vita felix et amoena : Ego sum via in patibulo, Veritas in in ferno, vita in resurrectionis gaudio : Ego sum via in qua non est spina vel tribulus ; Veritas in qua non est falsitatis stimulus, vita in qua reviviscit mortuus. Ego sum via recta, Veritas perfecta, vita sine fine mansura : Ego sum via reconcUiationis, Veritas retributionis, vita aeternae beatitudinis. Nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me : q. d., nemo venit ad me veritatem et vitam, nisi per me viam." — Bernard. "In- grediamur banc viam, teneamus veritatem, vitam sequamur." — Adgustin. " Christus est via sanctse conversationis, Veritas doctrinie divinse, vita beatitudinis sempitornse." — Leo. Mag. Erasmus' paraphrase is " suo more " — very happy. " Si quseritis quo vadam, ad Patrem eo : si viam qua consequi possitis, 'Nemo venit ad Patrem, nisi per me.' Ego prsecedo — vos sequamini. Quod ego docui credite : quod polliceor cerla spe rate." 42 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. reconciliation with, and perfect conformity to, and intimate inter course and fellowship with, God, his Father and their Father, the perfection and perpetuity of which are to be enjoyed in heaven. If he did not go in the appointed way — of perfect expiation and accepted sacrifice — tp the Father, there was — there could be — no way for them to the Father. The way to heaven was shut by sin. He, as the representative of guUty men, must open up a way for himself, by " taking away sin by the sacrifice of him self." He must die, and die a victim for sin ; and on the ground of his having, in this obedience to the death, " fulfilled all righte ousness " — " finished transgression " — " magnified the law, and made it honourable " — he must be raised from the dead, be " re ceived up into glory," and have " all power given to him in heaven and earth," that by inward influence, and external dis pensation, he may in due time give eternal life to " aU whom the Father has given him " — in whose place he stood, " the just in the room of the unjust " — to bring them to the possession of per fect holiness and happiness' with himself, in his Father's house of many mansions.^ He is thus their way to the Father. On the ground of the atonement made by his death — by the agency of the Spirit, for whose influence a channel is opened by that atonement — through the instrumentality of the Gospel believed, the great subject of which is this atonement, with its results — and in the exercise of a power and authority which were conferred as the reward of the great work of atonement, sinful men are put in possession of holy happiness, in the enjoyment of the favour, and image, and fellowship of God ; the perfection of which is to be attained, when all the redeemed are together, to be brought by him who made that atonement into that final state of blessedness, which we usually terra heaven ; a state admitting of no change, but that of constant progression for ever. It is thus that he is the way to the Father, — the way set before all men in the Gospel, — the way by which all who, in believing, enter on it, shall assuredly reach its termination. The mediation of Christ is the way for men to perfect holy happiness in heaven. This is the meaning of " I am the way." ^ 1 Matt. iii. 16. Dan. ix. 24. Isa. xlii. 21. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Matt, xxviii. 18. John xvii. 2. 1 Pet. iii. 18. - o3w is much more than H-iyic. PART III.J CHRIST " THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE." 43 (2.) He is the truth. Our Lord adds, " I am the truth," " 1 am the hfe." These expressions have often, perhaps generally, been interpreted as if they were meant to describe the characteristic excellences of the mediation of Christ, viewed as the way to the Father in heaven, and were equivalent either to ' I am the true and living,' i. e., ' life-giving, conducting to life, way ; ' — or ' I am the true way to life ; ' -^ — intimating that his mediation rightly improved, will certainly conduct to true permanent happiness, — that this is the only true method of obtaining happiness, — true in opposition to all false methods, and true in contradistinction to typical repre sentations of itself. These are truths, and truths of great importance ; but they are truths which cannot in this way be brought out of the words, without doing violence to them, — without giving them an un natural, a very unusual, if not an entirely unwarranted, significa tion. The two expressions seem rather to mark those characters in Christ himself, the possession of which by him, qualified him to be the effectual mediator between God and man — fitted him for bringing men to God, in other words, for being " the way." He is "the truth," ^ the true One. Truth— holy truth — eternal truth — is, all, as it were, embodied in him. He is the reality — the true teacher— expiator — deliverer — of whom all others were either forged resemblances, or typical representa tions. " The spirit of truth " dwelleth in him without measure : his soul is the shrine of the " light in which there is no darkness at all ;" " in him are hid ?ill the treasures of wisdom and know ledge."^ Every individual, or institution, which ever had pro fessed to be a way to God for man, had either been imposition, or imperfect representation ; vanity and a lie, or imperfect sym bol, meaning nothing, but in reference to him. (3.) He is the life. He is " the life," not only the true One, but the living One. " In him was life " — the highest capacity of the highest kind of 1 " Vara via vita appellatur in soliloquiis apud Augustinum, cap. iv. Sed majorem vim habet textus. Etenim qusestioni de via respondet hoc — Ego sum via ; quaestioni de scientia — Ego sum Veritas ; quaestioni Quorsum — Ego sum vita." — Bengel. ^ oL^vtOiicc, opposed not only to -^/Et/Sofj but to rrma or i/irohii'yf/.a,. Heb. ix. 23. 3 1 John i. 6. Col. ii. 3. 44 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. action and enjoyment — and the power of communicating tliis to others. He was " the word of life" — " the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to men" when the Word, which was with God, and in which was life, " was made flesh, and dwelt among men."* This life belonged to him by necessity of nature, " for the Son has life in himself, as the Father has life in himself;" but the Father who, in the whole restorative economy, sustains the majesty of Divinity — " of whom are all things "¦ — ¦" gave "¦ — appointed — ordained — that he should, in his incarnate state and mediatorial character, " have" — hold — " this life in himself," that he might quicken whom he wUled — that he might give eternal life to all whom the Father had given him. He is " the first, and the last, and the living one : he became dead, but is now alive, and lives for evermore ; and, as the living one, has the keys of hell and of death." ^ God, from whom man has departed, is truth and life. In de parting from God, man became the victim of falsehood and of death. Man away from God, must continue in error and in death. He is false — unfit for communion with Him who is true — who is truth. He is dead — unfit for communion with him who is living — who is life. He must be transformed — he must be quickened ; fi-om the darkness of death, he must be brought into " the light of life." ' He who is true, can make true ; He who is light, can give light ; He who is life, can give life. The substance of the whole of this wonderful declaration, " I am the way, the truth, and the life," thus seems to be, ' It is through my mediation — specially by my going through death to heaven — that you are to be brought to the enjoyment, of perfect holy happiness with the Father and with me there ; and my mediation may be safely trusted to, for I am the truth and the life — the true and the living One — having all truth and life in myself, and the power and right to use these, so as to fiU you with holy truth and divine life, and thus make you fit for being for ever with the true and living God.' Indeed, the three clauses seem naturally to follow one another. " I am the way " to the Father- — by iny atoning death I open a way to heaven. But men are in ignorance and error — they do not know the way — they are in darkness, and know not whither 1 Jolin !. 4. 1 John i, 2. Juhu i. 14. = John v. 21, 26 ; xvii. 2. Rev. i. 18. 3 John viii. 12. PART III.] CHRIST " THE AVAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE." 45 they go. " I am the truth," the light of the world. I show the way I have opened up. But men are dead. " I am the life ;" I quicken the dead, and enable them both to see the way and to walk in it. What more is necessary to efficient mediation for bringing man, who is far from God — in the pollution of moral darkness and death — to the enjoyment of holy happiness in the living and true God ? (4.) He is the only loay to the Father. Having thus exhibited himself as the way to the Father, our Lord adds, " No man cometh to the Father but by me,"— i. e., ' There is no other way to the Father.' In order to the ultimate happiness of a being like man, under the government of a being like God, there must be adequate satisfaction made for the violation of the Divine law. Sin must be expiated in order to its being pardoned. The God of righte ousness cannot clear the guilty. And where can expiation be found, but in that blood which, because it is the blood of God's own Son and elect Servant, " cleanseth us from all sin" ?^ And not less necessary is a change of heart in the sinner to -make him capable of holy happiness in God. No unholy man can ever enter heaven ; and were it possible for him to enter it, he could not participate in its enjoyments. Where is this change to be obtained, but by the operation of the Spirit of Christ ? And how could that Spirit, so rich a blessing, ever be conferred on men lying under the curse, had not " He who knew no sin, be come sin in their room," had not the blessed One become a curse, " to redeem them from that curse, that they might obtain that Spirit"? And how could darkened, blind, bewildered man, find out this way, even supposing it opened, but by Christ, " the truth," in his word, by his Spirit making it known ? And how could man, " without strength," " dead in trespasses and sins," walk in this way, unless Christ " the life" quickened him, and enabled him to " walk up and down in his name"?^ Numerous are the plans which perverted human ingenuity has devised to obtain the Divine favour. All these pretended ways to the Father in heaven lead, in reality, in a very different direction. The most likely of these ways into life, is keeping ' 1 Jolin i. 7. a Rom. v. 6. Eph. ii. 1. Zech. x. 12. 46 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. the commandments — understanding by the commandments the whole law. That was once a practicable way to life for man, but since the fall of Adam, the way of entering into life by per sonal obedience has been completely blocked up. With a de praved nature, will any man ever yield a perfect obedience to the Divine law — holy, just, good, perfectly reasonable, as are all its precepts ? And at best, the law speaks on this wise : " He that doeth these things, shall live in them."* These were its terms to innocent man. But now, supposing what never has, what never can take place, that man has yielded perfect obedi ence, from a certain point. What is to become of the guilt previ ously contracted ? how is the curse to be removed ? or how is it to be borne ? And surely if there be no way into heaven, by doing what the law requires, there cannot be a way to that blessed place, by doing what that law does not require, or what that law forbids ; and to one or both of these descriptions belongs every professed way to heaven, but the way which Christ has . opened up by his death and intercession, and Spirit, and word, and mediatorial administration. It were strange if we could — by doing what God never commanded, or what God has forbid den, — offering " thousands of rams, pouring out ten thousand of rivers of oil, giving the first-born for transgressions, the fruit of the body for the sin of the soul" ^ — propitiate Him whom we had offended, and regain the favour which we had lost by our violat ing his holy commandments. At the senseless bloody rites of pagan superstition, enlightened humanity shudders and weeps, Man seems bereft of reason in seeking the expiation of his crimes, by committing others still more foul. And though less shocking, not less obviously fruitless, and still more presumptu ous, must appear the attempts of enlightened civilised men, calling themselves Christians, to secure the favour of God, and attain eternal happiness, by their own self-devised plans, by their own unassisted exertions, without Christ, or in any other way than by Christ, There is no salvation in any but Christ, He is — he alone is — the Saviour. " Other foundation no man can lay" — other way no man can open up : " There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but the 1 Gal. iii. 12. a Mic. vi. 7. PART III.J CHRIST " THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE." 47 name of Jesus." " There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," " His blood cleanseth us from all sin,"* No other blood can cleanse from any sin — his Spirit can mortify and destroy all corrupt principles, — no other power in the universe can do this. Under his influence the faith of the truth, as it is in Jesus, can pacify the conscience, and purify the heart, and give confidence before God, and fill with peace, and hope, and holy joy. The belief of nothing else can do this. He can bring us to God. No man — no angel — can. No truth is more explicitly stated than this. No terms can be plainer than those now before us. If we believe them not, we give the lie to him who " is the truth." Life is to be found only in him who is the life ; and all who, seeking life, will not come to him to obtain it, shall find that their conduct is like one who loves death, for they could not take more certain means to obtain it. There is no true happiness but in knowing, and being loved by, and having intercourse and fellowship with, the Father ; and the Father cannot be acceptably approached, either on earth or in heaven, but through him who is " the way, the truth, and the life." Those, then, who are, either in whole or in part, ex pecting to find acceptance with God at last, on any ground but that of Christ having gone, through expiatory suffering, to heaven, as our surety and representative, are assuredly deceiving themselves, aiid will find, to their everlasting disappointment, that they cannot obtain God's favour and fellowship — nay, that they cannot escape destruction from his presence and the glory of his power — who " neglect this great salvation,"^ and contemn, by overlooking, the only Saviour. To bring a sinner to God — either now, in penitent reception of the gift of his Son, and his salvation, or ultimately, in the enjoyment of perfect holy happiness in heaven, — is a wonderful exercise and manifestation of Divine omnipotence, as well as mercy. All the created powers of the universe are incapable of accomplishing either of these works. Had not God, in the exceeding greatness of his power, by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of his own Son, opened a way for bringing sinners to him as the Father, it must have continued an impossibility for one of our guilty race to experience how good it is to be near 1 Acts iv, 12. 1 Tim. ii. 6. 1 John i. 7. a Heb. ii. 3. 48 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. him. They must all have perished, being far from him. And, besides these general obstructions in the way of the sinner coming to God, rising out of the perfections of the Divine character, and the principles of the Divine government — difficulties which, from their very nature, are obviously insuperable by any power inferior to infinite,^ — there are other obstructions in the case of every individual sinner, which, if the application, as well as the impetration, of the blessings of salvation were not the work of Omnipotence, would preclude the possibility of the coming of a single sinful soul to God. There is a stupidity and thoughtlessness natural to men in their present state in reference to religious relations and interests, so great, that if anything approaching to it were manifested in reference to their other relations and interests, we should, with out hesitation, reckon it insanity, and treat it accordingly. While this madness of the heart continues — and, alas ! it often continues, with scarcely a lucid interval, till they awake, never to sleep again, amid the dread realities of eternity, — men remain unaware of, or unimpressed with, the misery and danger of those who are far from God, and who never can come to Him in mercy. Nothing but the power of God can dispel this stupor, and rouse men from this spiritual lethargy. The strongest reasoning, and the most persuasive eloquence — strains which, by their sweet ness, might charm the adder, and, by their energy, waken the dead, — produce no permanent impression. It is the voice that called creation into being that alone can effectually awaken thoughtless man to serious consideration. And even when aroused, a divine power is necessary to make the awakened sinner come to God, in the only way he can be favourably approached by sinners. In the sinner's mind there is an indisposition, invincible by aU human means, to " the way" to the Father. It is, no doubt, a great point gained, to have the deep slumbers of moral insensibihty broken, and to have men impressed with the reality of unseen and eternal things, the value of the soul, and the danger of its being lost for ever. Would to God we had any good ground to hope that this state of feeling were becoming common among thoughtless men. But this is scarcely even the first step from the city of destruction, — rather it is but the impression that there is no safe staying there. The sinner is not yet in the way to God, and nothing short of PART III.] CHRIST " THE WAY^, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE." 49 divine power will bring him into it. " It is the unremitting and indefatigable desire of the natural mind, even when awak ened, if possible to do without Christ." In the deep insensibility of his natural state, he had no wish to come to God. Now that he sees that he must come to Him, or perish for ever, he would come to Him in any way rather than by Christ : he will pray, fast, go pilgrimages, perform penances, submit to privations, do any thing, indeed, in order to come to God — i. e., obtain pardon and security from endless misery,— except what God requires him to do — to come to Him through Christ^" the way, the truth, and the life " — in believing his Gospel, depending on his atonement, relying on his Spirit. Simple and reasonable as this demand is, man will not comply with it. No, To do this, requires such an entire relinquishment of self — the cherished idol of the human heart, in all its forms — of pride of understanding, self-will, self- righteousness, self-dependence, self-glorying, — as nothing but the constraining omnipotence of Divine grace will ever induce any of the children of men cordially to make. Yet thus, my brethren, must we come to God, or we never can come to Him at all. Thus we must come, else we can never enjoy His favour here, nor His heaven hereafter. " No man cometh to the Father but by Christ." These remarks are not intended to throw obstacles in the sinner's way to God, but to remove them. They are intended to impress the conviction, not that sinners cannot be saved, but that they cannot be saved except by Christ, — not to make them despair of salvation, but to make them despair of salvation with out Christ, without Christ's atonement, without Christ's Spirit. " Men have devised innumerable ways of getting to heaven ; but none ever were — none ever will be — successful in their at tempts to reach it under the conduct of human reason or human fancy. All other ways, except Christ, are delusive paths that lead down to perdition. There were shadows and representa tions of the way to heaven under the Mosaic dispensation, which were ¦of great use in directing the steps of ancient believers in the way of peace, by directing their eyes to him who was the truth, pointed out by all the typical ordinances. But, when men's blindness and corruption substituted them in the place of that which they prefigured, they were turned into by-paths, which led to the same end with those ways devised by human VOL. III. *D 50 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII. ignorance." ^ It was only as the way to Christ that the cere monies of the law were the way to heaven. I conclude with affectionately warning those who think they are in the way to heaven, while they are not in Christ, " the way, the truth, and the life," that the path they are pursuing will, at the close of life, lead downward, not upwards. Let these " be assured, that the incarnate Only-begotten of God would not have lavished such expense of labouring, and suffering, and blood, to open and consecrate a path to the celestial blessedness, if means less costly could have accomplished the end ; and that, as it is the only way in which it is worthy of Jehovah to grant, so it is the only way in which it is possible for man to receive, access to a holy God, and admission into a holy heaven,"^ While our Lord proclaimed, " I am the way, the truth, and the life," we would proclaim to all wayfarers for eternity that come within the reach of our voice, " This " — this " is the way : walk ye in it," ' Dr Lawson. 2 Brown Patterson. IV. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS DEPENDENT ON, AND CORRES PONDING TO, OUR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST. John xiv. 7-11. — " If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also : and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him. Lord, show us the Father, and it sufiiceth us. Jesus saith unto him. Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ; or else believe me for the very works' sake." One reason why so many of our wants remain unsupplied — so many of our evils unremoved — is ignorance or misapprehen sion respecting their cause. It is by the cause being removed that the effects are to be got quit of; but while we remain unin formed or misinformed respecting the cause of an evil, we are likely, either to use no means, or to use not the right means, for its removal. We are often painfully sensible of wants which originate in other wants of which we are not sensible at all, and which can never be removed till we become sensible of what may be termed the primary, parent want, and employ the appropriate means of having it supplied. It is no uncommon thing for professing, and even real. Chris tians, to complain of a want of comfort, and, it may be, a want of holiness, while quite, or in a great measure, unconscious of that want of faith in which both these other wants originate. Or, if they admit that they want faith, it is not that faith which consists in believing the well-understood statements of the word of God, They think they understand these very well ; they think they believe these very firmly. The faith they think they want, is something quite different from this. But they are in a mistake. If they did understand and believe the truth as it is in Jesus, there could not be that want of comfort and holiness which they acknowledge, and of which they complain ; and things will 52 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII. never be better till they become sensible of their ignorance and misapprehension, till they discover the primary, parent want, and, in the study of truth and its evidence, use the appropriate means of having it supplied. A man complains of a felt want of love to God, and not with out good reason ; but, it may be, he does not advert to the fact that the cause of this is an inordinate love of the world, of which he is not conscious. It is because he does love the world in a degree he ought not, that he does not love God in the degree he ought ; and while he loves the world as he does, he never will, he never can, love God as he ought, A man is conscious of a restless dissatisfaction, but he is not aware that that restlessness must continue till his mind and heart centre in God, man's only point of rest. We are often conscious of the want of something which we cannot have without something else, of our want of which we are not conscious — ay, of which, somehow or other, we have persuaded ourselves that we are — it may be, that we have long been — possessed. The cause of felt ignorance on a subject which we are pain fully conscious of not understanding, is often real but unfelt ignorance on a subject which we have somehow persuaded our selves that we fully understand. If we really understood the subject we think we understand, we could not but understand the subject which we feel we do not understand. A person, for example, feels that he does not understand how the atonement of Christ should be so necessary as Scripture represents it to the salvation of man ; but he is quite unconscious that he is destitute of true views of the nature of sin, and the character and govern ment of God, without which the necessity of the atonement cannot be discerned, — with which it has all the clearness of a self-evident axiom or a demonstrated proposition. If he had known the truth on the latter subject, he could not but have known the truth on the former ; and till he know the truth on the latter subject, he never will — he never can — know the truth on the former. The portion of our Lord's valedictory discourse, to the Ulustra- tion of which we now proceed, furnishes us with a striking exem plification of the important principle just stated. Our Lord's disciples had a painfully-felt want, which originated in another want of which they were not at all conscious ; and our Lord PART IV,j THE FATHER KNOWN, IF THE SON BE KNOWN, 53 turns their attention to this primary, parent want, that, by getting it supplied, they might have the other want supplied also. They were painfully sensible of a want of distinct notions respecting his approaching departure. They knew not whither he was going — how he was going — where was his Father's house, to which he said he was going, and how and when they were to be brought to him there ; but they were not at all conscious that they wanted justly extended views of thfe person and official character of their Master, of the design of his mission, of the nature of the deliverance he had come to accomplish, and of the kingdom which it was his purpose to establish. They thought they knew him, though they felt they did not know the Father, They were in a mistake ; they greatly overrated their knowledge of HIM, and they did not at all perceive that their ignorance of the Father, which they painfully felt, was indeed the effect of their ignorance of their Master, the Son, of which they were not at all conscious. Our Lord informs them that the true cause of their distressing haziness of view respecting the Father and the Father's house, and his and their way to them, was a deficiency of right views respecting him, and gives them the joyful intimation that the period was just at hand when the attainment of just views of him would lead them into just and satisfactory views of the Father also. Light was about to be shed on a subject which they were not aware needed it ; and the light shed on that subject would illuminate also what at present they painfully felt to be covered with obscurity. " If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also : and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him." The first part of these words bears a very striking resemblance to what our Lord on a former occasion had said to the unbeliev ing Jews. When they tauntingly said to him, " Where is thy Father ? " he replied, " Ye neither know me, nor my Father : if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also."* The ge'neral truth is the same in both cases. The true know ledge of the Father, cannot be obtained but by the true know ledge of the Son ; and if the Son be really known, the Father is known also. The Father is known just so far as the Son is ' John viii. 19. 54 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. known — no farther. Tbe circumstances of the two cases, how ever, were very different ; and the same words have by no means the same meaning when addressed to the disciples, as when addressed to the unbelieving Jews. The Jews recognised in Jesus nothing but a low-born unedu cated man of Nazareth, acting the part of a public teacher, for which they thought him unqualified, laying claim apparently to honours to which, in their apprehension, he had no right, and supporting these claims by ntiiracles which they attributed to an infernal influence. They had very incorrect notions of the char acter of Jehovah, whom they called their God, and were shocked at the shameless blasphemousness, as they chose to consider it, of Jesus calling Him " his own, his proper Father." * They were entirely wrong in their whole views with regard to the character both of Jesus and the Father, It was far otherwise with the disciples. They knew the ex cellence of their Master's character, and they acknowledged the justice of his claims. They considered him not only as "a teacher sent from God," but as the Christ, the Son of David, who was to come in the name of Jehovah to deliver Israel ; nay, they considered him as the Son of God, though their views as to the constitution of his person seem to have been very imperfect, confused, and wavering. They knew the truth, to a certain ex tent, in reference to Jehovah's true character as a God of hoh- ness and mercy; and they knew that He was, in a pecufiar sense, though a sense they did not clearly apprehend, then: Lord's Father, They were thus already in possession of the elements of that knowledge of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, which is eternal life ; and they were desirous of more distinct and extensive knowledge on these most important of all subjects. They knew, and were following on to know ; but stUl they were greatly deficient both in the extent and clearness of their knowledge. They knew little of the Father in comparison of what they might have known, and ought to have known ; and the reason of this was, they knew little of their Master in comparison of what they might have known, and ought to have known; and it was because they knew so little of the Son, that they knew so httle of the Father. 1 irxTi^a iheti. John V. 18. PART IV.] THE FATHER KNOWN, IF THE SON BE KNOWN. 55 " If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also." Had they distinctly known what was the truth regarding Jesus, what has been fully revealed to us, and what was par tially revealed to them, — had they known that Jesus was an incarnation of the Divinity, the Only-begotten of God in human nature, sent to redeem lost men from a state of otherwise hope less ignorance, and error, and guilt, and depravity, and misery, by making complete atonement for their sins by the sacrifice of himself, and by the power of truth and divine influence, making foolish man wise, depraved man holy, and miserable man happy, — had they thus known HIM, they would have known his Father, — they would have recognised in Him, not the peculiar God of the Jews, but the Father of the spirits of all flesh, the holy righteous Governor, the benignant Father, of mankind. These truths were not revealed to them so clearly as they are to us, and therefore they were by no means so much to blame for their misapprehensions as we are for our misapprehensions — often as great, though of a somewhat different character. Yet still they might have known more of this truth than they did. They seem plainly to have viewed their Master as sent primarily to work out deliverance for his nation from gentile dominion — to " restore the kingdom to Israel." They thought that he was to be, though not only, still really, a temporal de liverer, a secular prince ; and this false notion bemisted all their views. They could not understand to what house of his Father he was to go, and prepare a place for them, to take them to which, he was in good time to return : they could not see how these things could be understood, in consistency with the false notions of the nature and design of their Master's mission, which all his teaching had failed to dislodge. Had they understood that he came not to punish the world, but to save the world — that he came to give his life a ransom for many — that he was to give his flesh for the life of the world, — had they known this, they would have recognised in Jehovah, as his Father, not the exclusive God of one nation, but the God who loves the world, who would have all men to be saved — the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews ; * and, their mistaken views being cleared away, they would have seen that the course which their Lord was following, I Rom. iii. 29. 56 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE'. [eXP. XXVIII. and which so filled them with perplexity, and sorrow, and fear, was just that by which he was carrying into effect the benignant designs of his Father. It has been justly said, that " it is in the way of distinctly comprehending the precise object for which the Messiah was anointed to be the spiritual Saviour and Lord of mankind — the author of a spiritual deliverance — the founder and sovereign of a spiritual empire, — it is only by this knowledge of him, that we can see in his face the glory of his Father — the illustration given in his person, and doctrine, and work, of the power and wisdom, the righteousness and benignity, which adorn the nature, and characterise the government, of Jehovah." In the degree, then, in which the disciples were ignorant of the true nature and object of our Lord's mission, in that degree were they ignorant of the character of God : in the degree their conceptions of his mediatorial office and saving work admitted of correction and improvement, in the same degree did their conceptions of the character and counsels of the sovereign Divinity require to be enlarged and rectified. It was mistake about Jesus that led them into confused notions about his Father, and his Father's house ; and they could not better know the Father, but by better knowing the Son, in whom the Father was revealed. There is reproof in these words of our Lord, as well as in some that follow ; but it is mild reproof, and fitted to moderate the perplexity which their ignorance of the Father was giving them, by tracing it to its source in their very limited and incor rect views with respect to himself, especially connected, as it is, with a declaration that they should soon be better acquainted both with him and with his Father ; for he immediately, adds, " And from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him." These words, taken by themselves, and interpreted strictly, would signify, ' From this moment, your ignorance of the Father ceases ; henceforth ye know Him, for ye know me ; yea, so inti mate, and clear, and satisfactory is your knowledge, that it may be said henceforth ye have seen Him,' That it was a possible thing for Him, to whom nothing is impossible, instantaneously to have effected such a change in the minds of the disciples, I would be far from questioning. But that no such overwhelmingly clear and satisfactory miraculous revelation was made, is abun dantly obvious. Philip's request, which immediately followed, is PART IV.] THE FATHER KNOWN, IF THE SON BE KNOWN. 57 a plain proof of it. Indeed, with such a view of the Father, and, of course, of the Son, the events which took place could never have occurred. The disciples would not that night have been offended at what befell their Master ; Peter would not have de nied him ; nor would all the rest have forsaken him and fied. It is plain that' the state of mind of the disciples continued ma terially the same, " till the Spirit was poured down from on high;" for even after the resurrection we find them saying — still dreaming of a visible theocracy, a secular empire — " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ?" * The words must be explained so as to accord with the facts of the case ; and there is no difficulty in bringing out of them a meaning, entirely harmonising with what indeed took place. The word translated, " from henceforth,"^ is not unfrequently used as equivalent to " hereafter," and is, indeed, in a number of passages so rendered : " Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." " I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." " Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." " Here after ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." ^ The words of our Lord are a prediction, which, like many predictions, is uttered in the past tense — the event not only being as certain as if it had already taken place, but appearing as accomplished to the mind of the prophet, rapt into the future by the inspiring impulse. It is equivalent to, 'Yet a very little while, and ye shall know Him — know Him so clearly, that it may be said you see Him.' The prediction was accomplished fully on the day of Pentecost. From the time these words were uttered, a series of events took place, in close succession, in which, through the atoning sufferings, and death, and glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus, the character of God the Father was gloriously illustrated. But, till after the resurrection, the disciples saw only the dark side of the cloud in which Jehovah was ; and even " till the Spirit was poured out from on high," they but indistinctly discerned the true meaning of these events. Then, indeed, > Acts i. 6. - Icrufrl. 5 Matt, xxiii. 39 ; xxvi. 29, 64. John i. 61. 58 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. " the darkness was passed, and the true light shone." The Holy Spirit " took of the things of Christ, and showed them to them." " The mystery became manifest." They saw the face of God unveiled, and themselves, unveiled and contemplating the glory of God, became changed into its image — were made luminous by its light — " light in the Lord." " He who com manded the light to shine out of darkness, shined in their minds, making them fit to give to others the light of the knowledge of his glory, in the face of his Son." Then they knew Jesus, not as a mere man, but " the Word made flesh" — " Immanuel, God with us" — " God manifest in flesh." Then " they knew Christ, no longer after the flesh," but, as he is, the spiritual, the univer sal, deliverer — knew him " in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering," — not the rescuer by conquering armies of the nation of Israel from gentile domination, but the Saviour of the world by the blood of his cross, and by the power of his Spirit. And knowing the Son, they knew the Father. They knew Him to be " the God of peace," the reconcUed Divinity ; they knew Him to be " the God, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also ;" they knew Him to be " God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to men their tres passes ; seeing He had made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,"* And this knowledge of Christ, and of the Father in him, put an end to all perplexity about His house, and Christ's going to it, and preparing a place for them there, and coming again, and taking them to himself, that where he was, there they might be also. Then they knew whither he had gone ; and they knew the way whereby he had gone, and whereby, in good time, they were to go likewise. Then they knew the Father, for they had, as it were, seen Him. " The Only-begotten, who was in his bosom," had, as " the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," " revealed Him ;" and the Spirit had so opened their eyes, that they beheld what was equally the glory of the Father and the Son — the fulness, the infinitude, of grace and of truth,^ How far they were from such distinct satisfactory views at 1 Isa. xxxii. 16. 1 John ii. 8. John xvi. 15. Rom. xvi. 26, 26. 2 Cor. iii. 18; iv. 6. John i. 14. Matt. i. 23. 2 Cor. v. 16, 19-21. ' John i. 14, 18. Heb. i. 3. PART IV.] THE FATHER KNOWN, IF THE SON BE KNOWN. 59 this time, is affectingly demonstrated by the request of PhUip, who probably spoke the sentiments and wishes of all his brethren : " Philip saith unto him. Lord, show us the Father, and it suf- ficeth us." The disciples were thorough Jews in their expecta tions and desires : " The Jews require a sign." PhUip could attach to the expression, " seeing the Father," no idea but that of having presented to the bodily eye some visible manifestation of the glorious presence and power of the Divinity — such a re presentation as was given to Moses, in answer to earnest prayer, when he was " put in a cleft of the rock," and, whUe the unsuf- ferable brightness had passed by, was allowed to gaze on the milder lustre of its retiring glories ; or, as Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel, were privi leged to behold when " they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone, and, as it were, the body of heaven in his clearness ;'' or as when, at the dedication of the temple, " the holy house was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud ; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God ;" or as when Isaiah " saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up — while his train filled the temple" — and before Him stood the cherubim, with outspread wings and veiled faces, hymning his praises, as the thrice Holy One ; or, as when Ezekiel, by the river Chebar, saw the Almighty borne on his cherub-drawn car, with wheels of beryl, amid fiames of fire, out of which went forth flashes of hghtning.* Such appearances, with even increased splendour, were expected by the Jews to characterise the economy of the Messiah ; and of them they in terpreted such passages as the following : " The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together," " Say to the cities of Zion, Behold your God, Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." " The Lord whom ye seek shall come suddenly to his temple."^ With such predictions, probably, in his mind, and anticipating, from our Lord's words, their speedy fulfilment, PhUip exclaimed, ' Exod. xxxiii. 12-23 ; xxxiv. 6-8 ; xxiv. 9-11. 1 Kings viii. 10, 11. Isa. vi. 1-4. Ezek. i. 4-28 ; iii. 12-14 ; viii. 2 ; x. 1-22 ; xUii. 2-5. s Isa. xl. 6, 9, 10. Mai. in. 1. 60 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, " Show us the Father, and this sufficeth us." ' Let us but see the long-lost Shechinah restored. Let us see Jehovah in the pillar of cloud and flame — we can ask no more ; for when He ap pears, we are sure the time is come for the restoration of the kingdom to Israel.' " When God thus arises, his enemies will be scattered, and they that hate Him will flee before Him."* Our Lord's reply, though fitted to dissipate Philip's hopes of such a visible manifestation of the Father's glory, was well cal culated to lead him into juster views and expectations respecting a spiritual revelation of the Divine character, and a spiritual vision of the Divine glory : — " Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou, then. Show us the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. ^ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me : or else believe me for the very works' sake." The question, fundamental to a right interpretation of these very remarkable words, is, Does our Lord here refer to the manifestation which he had made of the Divine character in his doctrine ? Is his statement equivalent to, ' It is strange that you should be asking to have the Father shown to you, when I have, for these three years and a half, been manifesting his char acter to you ?' Or, Does our Lord refer to the manifestation of the Divinity in his person as God- man, and to his sayings and doings as divine sayings and doings ? Is his statement equiva lent to, ' Philip, you seek a visible manifestation of the Divinity, like the Shechinah ; a far more complete manifestation has been given you in me— the Word, who was with God, who was God, made flesh, — the substantial image of the Father. Have you never yet apprehended who I am ? ' I cannot doubt that the latter is the true view of the passage. It is the more natural meaning of the words, as we shall see when we proceed to consider them somewhat more minutely; 1 Psal. Ixviii. 1. ' " Sententia integre concepta sic habet ' verba quae ego loquor vobis, non loquor a me ipso ; et opera quse facio, non facio a me ipso : sed Pater in me manens ipse loqui tur ista verba,— et iste facit ista opera.'"— Glassius. PART IV.] THE FATHER KNOWN, IF THE SON BE KNOWN. 61 and it meets PhUip's request more directly and satisfactorily than the other interpretation does. Our Lord, speaking like a prophet, to whom future events appear present, plainly had said, " Henceforth ye have seen the Father." ' Very soon ye shall be fully informed of the true character and will of the Father ; so informed as to get rid of all your present perplexities.' Philip, clearly seeing that he spoke of something future — something near at hand, — but misapplying what he said to a visible representa tion of the Divine glory, exclaimed, " Show us the Father," — ' Let us thus see Him, and we shall be satisfied.' Our Lord's reply, " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? " * &c., is equivalent to, ' Such a repre sentation as you wish for is not necessary ; a representation of the invisible God, far more adequate and glorious than the Shechinah, has been for some time, and is now, in the midst of you. " The Word made flesh " has been dwelling among you ; and ye might have seen " his glory, the glory as of the Only- begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." ^ You have something far better than what you desire. Had you been aware of the truth, you never could have made the request you have done. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father : Jehovah dwells in me in a far higher sense than He ever did in the cloud of glory.' Men might not be aware of this ; but it was not therefore the less true. The cloud of glory, to all but instructed Israelites, appeared just an extraordinary appearance in the heavens ; it was not, on this account, the less the symbol of the Divine presence. Jesus, the God-man, appeared to many just a man like other men ; but he was not the less an incarnation of God. Whosoever saw the cloud of glory, saw what was the symbol of the Divine presence. Whosoever saw Jesus of Nazareth, saw him who was God " manifested in flesh ;" and if he did not see him to be God manifest in the flesh, it was his own fault. " I am in the Father, and the Father in me." That is, ' There is the most perfect union, consistent with distinction of some ' " Quomodo separas inseparabiles, et altero oonspecto, alteram desideras conspi- cere : altero cognito, credis ignotum alteram ? Si Pater ipse vobis loqueretur, non aliud vobis, quam Ego loquor, loqueretur : si Pater ipse operaretur, non aliud opera- retur, quam Ego operor." — Erasmus. ' John i. 14. 62 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [^EXP. XXVIII. kind, between the Father and me ; a union, not merely of sen timent and design, but of agency and power, indicative of a unity of essence.' " The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." This declaration is, in one sense, elliptical; in another, complete. The ellipsis in each clause is supplied in the other. The mean ing obviously is, ' The words that I speak I do not speak as of myself — i. e., as separate from the Father, — the Father, dwelhng in me, speaks the words. The works that I do, I do not as of myself — i. e., as separate from the Father, — the Father that dwelleth in me doeth the works. My doctrine is the revelation of that divine mind which is common to me and the Father ; these works are the result of the divine power which is common to me and the Father. He who hears me speak, hears God speak ; he who sees me work, sees God work ; he who sees me, sees " God manifest in flesh " — sees " the eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto men." ' * Our Lord intimates that Philip might have known — Philip ought to have known — this. Our Lord had never, indeed, said in so many words, " I am a divine person." He had never used, with regard to his divinity, such plain direct terms as his apostles do when they call him " God over all, blessed for ever " — " the great God " — " the true God." There were good and obvious reasons why he should not have done this. But he had said, " No man knoweth the Son, but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him. As the Father knoweth me, so know I the Father. My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Whatsoever things the Father doeth, the same things also doeth the Son likewise "— the same things in the same way. " The Father hath hfe in himself — the Son hath life in himself. The Father quickeneth whom He wUl — the Son quickeneth whom he wiU. The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son : it is the will of the Father that all should honour the Son, as they honour himself. I and my Father are one." Plainly speaking of himself, he said, " I AM — was before Abraham." When accused of making himself equal to God, by caUing him his own Father, he never 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 1 John i. 2. PART IV.] THE FATHER KNOWN, IF THE SON BE KNOWN. 63 denied the charge, nor explained away the words on which it was grounded. He had, in announcing divine doctrine and law, not used the prophets' formula, " Thus saith the Lord," but " I say unto you." He had pronounced sins forgiven ; he had de clared he had " power on earth to forgive sins."* If PhUip, then, did not know that, when he saw Jesus, he saw a representation of the Father, surely he was to blame. He had had opportunities in abundance — he had been long with him — during the whole course of his ministry. PhUip was one of the earliest caUed of the disciples. It was not that his Master had not said what ought to have led him to this conclusion ; nor was it because the statements made by our Lord were not accom panied with satisfactory evidence. " Believe me," says he, in the revelation I have made of this truth, " that the Father is in me, and I in the Father ;" or, if you do not feel disposed to credit my word on its own account, " believe me for the very works' sake." ' Surely they prove me a teacher sent from God, for no man could do the works I have done unless God were with him ; and, if I am a teacher sent from God, I am undoubt edly something more, for I, accredited from God, claim to be God.' Why should PhiKp, then, say, " Show us the Father?" For three years he and his highly-favoured brethren had been gazing on a more exact and luminous manifestation of the God head, than had they been permitted, with Moses and the elders of Israel, to see the God of Israel throned on the sapphire firma ment ; or to pass with the high priest, in the earlier ages of the Jewish economy, through the curtains of that profound and awful sanctuary, where the symbol of Jehovah sparkled amid the thick darkness, above the cherub-guarded ark of testi mony. ^ Our Lord obviously speaks of his proper divinity — his oneness with the Father — as a matter of highest importance to Philip. He reiterates it, and presses it on his attention and faith. It is, indeed, a doctrine of paramount importance. If a truth at all, it is a truth the importance of which cannot be over-estimated. The whole system of christian truth, the whole fabric of human hope, rests on it. It is a doctrine we should need to be well ' Matt. xi. 27. John x. 15, 30; v. 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 26 ; viii. 58. Matt. v. 18, 20, 22, 28, 32, 84, 39, 44. Matt. ix. 2, 6, 6. Luke v. 20, 23, 24 ; vii. 48. Mark ii. 6, 10. * Brown Patterson. 64 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. established in. It is, I have little doubt, admitted verbally by aU of us. But oh, how little have the best of us realised it ! How much holier, how much happier, should we be, if we habitually lived under its power I What a book of delight to us would be his holy Gospel ! What a resting-place for our conscience and heart, his great atonement ! What an authority would clothe all his commands ! What a power would his promises have to soothe, sustain, and comfort, amid all tribulation and sorrows, could we keep constantly before the mind " the great God, our Saviour Jesus Christ !" The incarnate God does not now go up and down among his disciples. We have not the true Shechinah in the midst of us. That is in heaven, the heaven of heavens, its proper place. Where should the shrine of the Divinity be, but in the adytum of his temple ? Yet, in his divine essence, which fills all things — in his wonderful providence — in his ap pointed ordinances — in his word of truth and grace — in his vivifying, transforming, comforting Spirit, he is in the midst of us. Alas ! has He not reason to say to many of us, " Have I been so long with you, and have ye not known me ? " Some of us, I am afraid, do not know Him at all. " It is the three-and- twentieth year," said Jeremiah to his countrymen, " that I have spoken in the name of the Lord, and ye have not obeyed his voice." * All our lives, Jesus the Saviour, has been in the midst of us, stretching out his hands to us, and, alas ! alas ! are not many of us still rebellious and gainsaying? None of us know him as we ought to do — as we might do. " For the time, we might have been teachers ; but do not many of us need some one to teach us which be the first principles of the oracles of God ? " ^ Let those who know him not seek to know him. All knowledge is loss, compared to this excellent knowledge. Let those who know him follow on to know him — to know him as the expiator of guilt — the great teacher — the efficacious purifier — the supreme governor — their Saviour — their Lord — their God. Let us seek to grow in his knowledge ; and, for this purpose, let us study the revelation he has made of himself, and of the Father in him, and pray, with earnest perseverance, that he would shed forth on us abundantly the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in his knowledge ; and let us look forward, with earnest desire and humble hope, to ' Jer. xxv. 6. ' Heb. vi. 12. PART IV.] THE FATHER KNOWN, IF THE SON BB KNOWN. 65 that blessful period when he will accomplish his work of bringing us to the Father — when, " in his light we shall see light clearly " — when, perfectly purified in heart, we shall " see God," — ^Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — not " darkly in a glass, but face to face, knowing even as we are known." ' That will suffice us — it well may. I Psal. xxxvi. 9. — met. ver. Matt. v. 8. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. THE PRIVILEGES TO BE ENJOYED BY THE APOSTLES, AFTER THEIR lord's RETURN TO THE FATHER. John xiv. 12-14 " Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go uuto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." The text, if I may use the expression, of our Lord's valedictory discourse to his disciples, is to be found in its commencing words, "Let not your hearts be troubled." All that follows, is the assigning of reasons why their hearts should not be troubled in the excessive degree in which they were troubled, at the prospect of his approaching departure. The topics of consolation which he had already brought forward, are the foUowing : He was going to his Father's house of many mansions ; he was going there to prepare a place for them ; and when he had prepared that place for them, he was io return and conduct them to it, that along with him they might dweU in the house of his Father and their Father for ever. Our Lord's development of the topics of consolation, which he meant to bring before the minds of the disciples, was interrupted by the question of 'Thomas and the request of PhUip, both of which indicated great indistinctness of apprehension in reference to the character and work of their Master, but which he, however, made the occasion of stating, with peculiar plainness, the truth respecting the divinity of his person, and the design of his mission. Having, in reply to Thomas' question, as to the way in which they were to be brought to the Father, declared that he was " the way, and the truth, and the life," and that " no one could come to the Father but by him ; " and in reply to Philip's request, " Shew us the Father," stated that they had in him, who was indeed an incarnation of the Divinity, a far more adequate repre sentation of the Father than could be given by any such visible display of glory as Phihp wished for, — he, in the verse before us. PART v.] THE PRIVILEGES OF THE APOSTLES. 67 reverts to his great object, and brings forward farther reasons, why the sorrowing disciples should not let their hearts be troubled. " Verily, verily, I say unto youj He that believfeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father." § 1. The privileges to be enjoyed by the apostles after their Lord's departure. (1.) They shall continue to worh miracles. The first question to be attended to at present is. What are the works of which our Lord here speaks ? There can be no reasonable doubt — though it has not only been doubted, but denied, by many interpreters — that the works here spoken of as having been done by our Lord, are his miraculous works. The works spoken of in this verse, are, without doubt, the same works that are spoken of in the two preceding verses — works which the Father dwelling in him did by him — works to which, as obviously divine, he appealed as evidence that what he had said about the Father being in him, and about his being in the Father, was worthy of credit. The settling this question will go far to settle the next inquiry which presents itself, — To whom does the expression " He that believeth on me " * refer, and what is its meaning ? It has by some interpreters been considered as referring to all the genuine followers of Christ, and the faith spoken of has been considered as that belief of the saving truth respecting him, which, by the constitution of the economy of salvation, gives the individual believing it a personal participation in his saving benefits. It is obvious, however, that if the works which our Lord did, spoken of here, signify the miracles he performed, this cannot be the reference — this cannot be the meaning — for nothing is more certain than that the power of working miracles is neither pos sessed nor exercised by every believer on Christ in this sense of the term. All Christians are not miracle-workers. Neither of the two ways in which it has been attempted to meet this diffi culty is at all satisfactory. Some have held that every Christian might work miracles, if it was not for a deficiency in his faith ; ' Heuman inserts "e vobis" to bring out the meaning. "Recte," says Semler. 68 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. but it is enough to say in reply to this, that our Lord's declara tion is not, ' He that believeth on me may do the works which I do ' — but, " he that believeth on me shall do the works that I do." Others have sought to escape the difficulty by giving a mystical meaning to the words — ' He that believeth on me shall work moral miracles, he shall be strong in weakness — he shall live in death — he shall conquer the world — he shall trample Satan under his feet.' This is, however, most evidently to force a sense into the words, instead of bringing the sense out of the words. It seems clear that the expression, " He that believeth on me," here, like the similar expression, " Them that believe," in the gospel by Mark, * of whom it is said that " signs should follow them," that they should " cast out devils, speak with new tongues, take up serpents, and that if they drink any deadly thing it should not hurt them, and that they should lay their hands on the sick, and they should recover ;" it seems clear that these expressions must be interpreted as referring to a particular class of persons, and that their meaning must be modified by their reference. Now the natural principle of limitation in both cases is, our Lord is speaking of those he is speaking to. He is in both instances speaking to his apostles, and making a statement to encourage and comfort them. Indeed, the only safe way of interpreting the whole of this interesting valedictory discourse, and many other passages in the gospels, is to remember that it was addressed to the apostles — that every thing in it has a direct reference to them — that much that is said of them, and to them, may be said of, and to, all christian ministers, all christian men — but that much that is said of them and to them, cannot be truly said either of the one or the other of these classes, and that the propriety of applying what is applicable to them, must be grounded on some other foundation than its being found in this discourse, and couched in words which, taken by themselves, might not be inapplicable to them. It is quite plain that the believers on Christ here referred to, and those who should do the works he did, are the same indi viduals. The class referred to are the apostles and the miracle- workers of the primitive age — we say of the primitive age, for we ' Mark xvi. 17. PART V,] THE PRIVILEGES OF THE APOSTLES, 69 have no satisfactory proof of miracle-working subsequent to that age. ' How then are we to understand the phrase, " believing on Christ," as applied to this class ? It is plain from the New Testament that there was a faith which was connected with miraculous powers. The Apostle Paul speaks of a " faith which could remove mountains," and speaks of it as something which naturally is classed with speak ing with " the tongues of men and of angels," the gift of " pro phecy," and the " understanding of mysteries," ^ This was faith or belief, and faith or belief on Christ ; but here, the great ques tion, as it always is when faith is the subject of discussion, is. The faith of what ? The answer does not seem difficult or doubtful. The faith that Christ is possessed of omnipotence, and that he intends, through my instrumentality, to manifest his om nipotence in the performance of a miracle. This faith must, like all faith, rest on a revelation made to the individual ; when this is not the case, there can be no faith — there may be fancy — there may be presumption, but there can be no faith. Such a revelation Christ made to the apostles and to the seventy dis ciples, when " he gave them power against unclean spirits, and to heal diseases, power to tread on serpents, and on all the power of the enemy." ^ No man, to whom such a revelation has not been made, can work a miracle, and it would seem that, even in the case of those to whom such a revelation was made, a firm belief of the revelation and reliance on the power and faithful ness of him who made it, was necessary to the miraculous effect being produced in any particular instance. Keeping these undoubted facts in view, there is little difficulty in interpreting the words. The disciples had derived great ad vantages of various kinds frorh the exercise of their Master's power to work miracles. They were quite aware that their mira culous powers were entirely derived from him, and they prob ably anticipated that if he should leave them, not only would they be deprived of the advantage of his supernatural powers, but that their own, which were entirely dependent on him, would be withdrawn also. Now our Lord assures them in the most ' See Middleton's "Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are supposed to have subsisted in the Christian Churches from the Earliest Ages through several successive Centuries." ' 1 Cor, .xiii. 1, 2. s Liiku .v. 19. 70 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. emphatic manner, by a repetition of the formula of afflrmation, " Verily, verily, I say unto you," that his miraculous power was to continue to be exerted though he himself was about to depart; that it was to be exerted through them as a medium, and that, to its being exerted henceforth, as hitherto, faith on him, on their part, would be at once necessary and effectual. Such a statement was obviously calculated to re-assure their shaken minds, and comfort their sorrowful hearts. And we find the declaration fulfilled to the letter. They, believing on him, did the works which he did, We find them, like him, instantane ously healing the sick, casting out devils, and raising the dead. (2.) They sJiall do greater things than worh miracles. But our Lord not only promises that after he had left them, they, believing on him, should do the same miraculous works which he had been in the habit of doing ; but adds, " and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father," — q.d., ' My going away shall not deprive you of the advantage of mir acles ; you shall still, believing on me, do the works I have done ; but this is not aU, my going to the Father wUl secure that you, through the power I obtain by going to the Father, shaU do greater things than I have ever done.' It is not wonderful that interpreters should have felt difflculty in satisfactorily interpreting these words. What miracles could be greater miracles than those which our Lord had been in the habit of working ? Could there be anything more miraculous, more obvioiisly miraculous, than calming the raging ocean in an instant by a word — restoring the maimed to w-holeness, and those labouring under chronic and fatal distempers, to perfect health in a moment, — calling back to life not only from the powerlessness of death, but from the begun decomposition of the grave ? Some have supposed that the term, " greater," may refer to the supposed greater tendency of some of the miracles of the apostles to make an impression, such as their speaking in a foreign language, which they had not learned; their smiting, by a word, Elymas with blindness, and Ananias and Sapphira with death ; their healing of the sick by their passing sha dow : * but surely, though these miracles were unexampled, ' AcU ii. 1-13 ; v. 1-11, 16 ; xiii. 8-12. PART v.] THE PRIVILEGES OF THE APOSTLES. 71 they were not unmatched, if not even surpassed, by our Lord's miracles. Surely, in this respect, the servants were not above their Master. Others have supposed that the word translated " greater," has reference to " number ; " but such an interpretation is in oppo sition to the usage of the New Testament language ; * and if it were not so, there is no reason to suppose, but every reason to the contrary, that any one of the apostles was honoured to per form more miracles than He of whom our evangelist has said, " Many other signs truly did Jesus, in the presence of his dis ciples, which are not written in this book, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." ^ Working miracles seems to have been an occasional, comparatively a rare, employment, with the apostles. With our Lord, it was his every day work, A third class have supposed that the term " do" here refers, not to actual performance, but to ability — he shall have the power to do ; and our Lord's own declaration has been appealed to as a parallel in language, — "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard- seed, ye shall say unto this mountain. Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you," ^ — that is, ' If your faith does not fail you, the greatest obstacles in the way of establishing my kingdom shall be sur mounted by you.' But the cases are plainly not parallel. A fourth class have supposed that the word greater refers, not to the nature of the miracles, nor to their number, but to their effect. ' Ye shall do miracles which will produce greater effects than have been produced by my miracles,' This is, I appre hend, very nearly the true meaning ; but this is not the right way of bringing it out of the words. Greater miraculous works does not naturally describe the greater magnitude of moral effect produced by the miracles. If you look at your Bibles narrowly, you will find the word works, in the expression, " greater works," is printed in the italic character, which, you are all aware, intimates that there is no word in the original text answering to the English one. I ap prehend that there is no reference to miracles, properly so called, I //.iZnoc, not iMlna. ' John xxi. 25. ^ Matt. xvii. 20. 72 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. in this case, but to something which our Lord means to con trast, as to magnitude and importance, with the miracles both of himself and of the apostles. Our Lord's statement, if I do not greatly mistake, is, " He that believeth in me, the works which I do shall he do also; and he shall do greater things than these " — i. e., than these works, — " because I go the Father." And there is no difficulty in saying what were the things, greater than all the miracles which either our Lord or themselves had done, that were to be done by the apostles. The preaching of a clear, full revelation of the economy of mercy to a lost world, — the making manifest " the mystery which had been hid in God " since the unbeginning ages of eternity, — the turning even a single soul, far more an innumerable multitude of souls, " from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to the service of the living God," — " the pulling down strongholds," and mak ing lofty imaginations bow before the authority and the grace of the Redeemer, — the making idolaters, with their own hands, demolish their temples, or convert them into places for Christ's worship, — the laying the foundation, and greatly advancing the superstructure, of that buUding of God, of which Jesus Christ is the corner-stone, a temple of living stones worthy of the living God — " a building fitly framed together, growing into a holy temple to the Lord," far surpassing " the magnificent house " at Jerusalem, on which aU that was rich and beautiful in nature and art had been so profusely lavished, — this was, in its own nature, a greater thing than any miracle.* This was to be done through the instrumentality of the apostles ; and to give them even this indistinct glimpse of the glorious work before them, was well fitted to prevent them from being swaUowed up of overmuch sorrow, — especially as these greater things, than any mere miraculous events, were to be the effect of that very departure, the prospect of which had filled them with dark forebodings. For our Lord plainly intimates, that their doing these things, greater than all the miracles done either by their Lord or themselves, was to be the result of his going to the Father : " Greater things than these shall he do, because I go to the Father." ' He shall do them, but he shall do them I Eph. iii, 3-11. Acts xxvi, 18. 2 Cor, a, 4, Eph. ii. 20. 1 Chron. xxii, 6. PART v.] THE PRIVILEGES OF THE APOSTLES. 73 because I enable him to do them ; and I enable him to do them, because I go to the Father.' Had he not gone to the Father by an expiatory death, and a glorious resurrection and ascension to heaven, these great things could never have been done. There could have been no good news to man had not the curse been borne — borne away. There could have been no quickening, spiritual infiuence, had he not died to open a channel for it, and ascended to pour it forth abun dantly through that channel into the human heart. "All power in heaven and earth " is given him, because he became " obedient to death, even the death of the cross." It is, therefore, that he was highly exalted, and that, having " ascended on high, he re ceived gifts for men." The power they needed for this work was " power from on high," and which he could not give till he was glorified in consequence of his having humbled himself. He obtained the great for his portion, and the strong for his spoil, because he made his soul " a sacrifice for sin ;" and he commissioned and authorised his apostles to go forth and take possession of the inheritance assigned him by his Father * " in ancient covenant, and which he had made his own, by purchase since, and overpaid its value in his blood." ^ Such is, I apprehend, our Lord's declaration, ' " Let not your hearts be troubled;" the power of working miracles will still continue among you, believing on me ; and ye shall, in conse quence of my going to my Father, accomplish far greater things than any interference with the physical laws of nature.' Such a statement was very appropriately introduced with a double amen — " Verily, verily." However strange the words of our Lord may be, they are always to be firmly credited. They are the words of him who cannot lie. When his declara tions seem to us hard to be believed, let us consider who it is that speaks, how he speaks, how he confirms his declarations, and let us not be faithless, but believing. His most extraordinary declarations are all fulfilled in due season. What is promise here, has long since become accomphshment. The apostles did the works their Master did ; and greater things than any miracles did he accomplish, is he accomplishing, by their instrumentality. But both in their miracles and in their greater works, it was not 1 Matt, xxviii. 18. Phil, ii, 6-11. Luke xxiv. 49. Isa. liii. 12. ' Cowper. 74 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. they, but Christ who was in them. It was " his name, through faith in his name," that healed the diseases of those who were miraculously cured by him. It was through faith in him that the apostles fought the good fight against the powers of darkness, and rescued sinners from the chains of Satan. " Thanks be to God," said the apostle of the Gentiles, " who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge in every place." § 2. Manner in which these privileges were to be obtained — Prayer to the Father in the name of the Son. To strengthen their hope of doing these great things, which they well knew they were in themselves altogether incapable of accomplishing, our Lord informs them that, having gone to his Father, " Whatsoever they should ask in his name, he would do it, that the Father might be glorifled in the Son ;" and to im press it the more deeply on them, he repeats the assurance, " If ye shall ask any thing in my name,* I will do it." These words meet a very natural feeling on the part of the disciples, — But how are we to do these great things? The answer is, ' I will do them in you, and by you ; and I, having gone to the Father, will have " all power in heaven and in earth," to employ in fitting you for your work, and maldng it successful ; and your faith in me, without which ye can do nothing (for it is that which unites you to me), must be expressed in prayer to me ; and " whatsoever ye ask in my name, I will do it." ' The first thing to be here inquired into is, What is meant by the apostles asking " in the name " of Christ ? It is not easy in a few words, to unfold all that is implied in this expression. When the apostles, realising to their own minds their union, their intimate relation to Jesus Christ as the expiator of their guilt — their great teacher — their supreme Lord — the Mediator between God and them — him who had sent them, as his Father had sent him — asked from the Father, under the influence of Christ's Spirit, what Christ had promised, for the purpose of promoting the interests of his kingdom, the glory of his name, 1 " In V. T. adorabant Deum Abrahami, Isaaci, Jacobi ; in N. T. invocatur Dens et Pater D.N.I.C." — Bengel. PART v.] THE PRIVILEGES OF THE APOSTLES. 75 they asked in his name. Now, whatever they thus asked, our Lord assures them he would do it. The Father, now that the Son has gone to Him, hath committed all judgment, all rule, to him. And in the exercise of this power and authority, he gives them the blessings they need and ask. It was in this way that they were enabled to do the works which their Master had done, and to do those things which were greater than all miracles. This promise of their Lord, carrying a command in its bosom, was probably present to the minds of the apostles, when they lifted up their voices to God with one accord, and said, " Lord, grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name (in the name) of thy holy child Jesus." And the prayer was answered, when, in the spirit of that prayer, they said to the lame man, " In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk ; he, leaping up, stood, and walked, and leaped, and praised God." " In prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, they made their requests," respecting their high and holy minis try, known to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the result was, " His grace was made sufficient for them : his strength was perfected in their weakness ; " and Christ " wrought by them to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God ;" so that they were enabled " fully to preach the gospel of Christ, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," manifesting itself to be " the power of God unto salvation," to multitudes believing it.' The promise is an assurance that whatever was necessary, either as to inward influence or outward event, to the fulfllment of their high and holy ministry, and the accomplishment of its inestimably important objects, they should certainly obtain as the answer of believing prayer. " I wUl do it," says the Saviour, " that the Father may be glorified in the Son." It is done " that the Father may be glorified." In the economy of salvation the Father sustains the majesty of the Godhead. " That the Father may be glorified," is, then, just equivalent to — ' that God, the Divinity, may be glorified,' — that ' Acts iv. 29, 30; iii. 6-8. Phil. iv. 6. 2 Cor. xii. 9. Rom. xv. 18, 19. 76 the VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eX'P. XXVIII. the infinite power and wisdom, and especially the infinite holi ness, righteousness, faithfulness, and benignity of Jehovah may be illustrated, in the execution of his purposes and the fulfilment of his promises respecting the salvation of lost men. And it is done by our Lord, " that the Father may be glorified in the Son." The glory of God is the end of the economy of grace — the agency of the Son is the means of gaining that end ; all is of and to God the Father — all is by Christ Jesus, through his mediation, by his atoning sacrifice, his prevaUing intercession, his all-powerful Spirit. What an encouraging thought to the apostles ! — ' God's glory is concerned in our doing these great things, and being duly qualified to do these great things ; and it is put into the hand of our Lord, who knows us so well, who loves us so well, to see that God be thus glorified ; and we have only, in faith in his name, to make our requests known, and we are assured that he will " supply all our need according to his glorious riches." ' We admire the great things done by the apostles, and the spirit in which they did them ; but we see the secret spring of their great strength. Believing in Christ, in his name, they " asked, nothing wavering," and the faithful Saviour did as he had said, and the Father was glorified in the Son. The delightful and wondrous assurance is reiterated — " If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it," ' There is nothing that I will not do for you, which is necessary to the accomplish ment of the great objects of your ministry, if ye ask it in my name.' If you ask. Why does he say the same thing almost in the same words ? the answer is. The disciples were " slow of heart to understand and believe " his declaration, " Precept " required to be given " upon precept ; line upon line." Such, I am persuaded, is the primary meaning — the direct reference — of this wonderful passage. It is a promise to the apostles, that the power of working miracles should be continued with them, and that they should be enabled to accomplish, as his instruments, something far greater than any miracle, in the ordinary sense of the word — diffuse his Gospel, establish his kingdom in the world, and secure an inestimable revenue of glory to God in the salvation of men innumerable, — and that they had nothing to do but to express the earnest desires of their believing minds to him, and he would supply all their need, strengthen them PART v.] THE PRIVILEGES OF THE APOSTLES. 77 for all their labours, make them more than conquerors over all their enemies — all to the glory of God the Father, But the passage is full of instruction, and excitement, and consolation, to christian ministers, and to. Christians generally, in all countries and in all ages, Christ does not promise his ministers, nor his people generally, that they shall do also the miraculous works he did. His miracles, and those of the apostles, set forth in a plain well-accredited revelation, render this un necessary ; but he does promise, by his word and Spirit, in every age, within and around his people, to do " greater things " than miraculous works by their instrumentality. The church — i. e., the aggregate body of truly christian men and ministers — are working out their own salvation, and the salvation of the world ; and they are assured that God in Christ is working in them — by them — according to his good pleasure ; and that, to obtain fitness for their own individual edification, for that of the church, and for the salvation of the world, they have only, in believing prayer for promised blessings, to make their requests known, and the Son will do it, that the Father may be glorified in him. It is a foolish delusion to suppose that a man has only to work himself up to an expectation that God will hear his prayer, in order to obtain anything he wishes for. But it is a most plainly revealed truth, that believing prayer for promised blessings — especially believing prayer for what is necessary to the advance ment of the kingdom of God, in the Christian and around him • — is sure of being answered ; and that the little progress that that kingdom makes within us and around us, is either " because we ask not, or because we ask amiss." " The Lord is nigh to them that call on him, to all that call on him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them who fear him ; he will also hear their cry, and will save them." " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," " Ask," says our Lord on another occasion, " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened to you : for every one that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." " And if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give good things " — give the Holy Spirit — " to those who ask him?" The Apostle John, after a long life, bears this testimony to the faithfulness of his Lord, — 78 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII, " Whatsoever we ask, we receive it of him. And this is the confidence which we have in him, that whatsoever we ask ac cording to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the peti tions that we desired of him." " If any man lack wisdom," says the Apostle James, " let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering : for he that waver- eth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."* What an encouragement to hope in prayer is the considera tion that the glory of God is concerned in the answering the believing prayers of his people ! Christ the Son is engaged in promoting the glory of the Father ; and he cannot do this more effectually than in hearing the prayers, and satisfying the desires, and supplying the wants, of his people. Our Father in heaven is glorified in the holiness and happiness of his children ; and how delightful to think that Jesus, who died for us, is the de pository and dispenser of all blessings to us! '/will do it:' " Ask," says he, " and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fuU." " Hitherto ye have asked nothing." ^ We are not strait ened in him, however we may be straitened in ourselves. He is " a sun and a shield ; he will give grace and glory ; and no good thing will he withhold" from his believing, desiring, praying people. He will bestow blessings on his poor petitioners, till there is no room to receive. " Open, then, your mouths wide, that he may fill them." Praise him for his munificence — trust in his promises. Let your supplications daily be presented in his name before the throne of God, and look up for an answer. If you pray in sincerity and faith, you shall not pray in vain. Oh, that we were but as desirous of receiving — as ready to re ceive — the blessings of his salvation, as he is to bestow them ! ' James iv. 3. Psal. xxxiv. 15, 17 ; cxlv. 18, 19. James v. 16. Matt. vii. 7-11. 1 John v. 14, 15. James i. 5-7. 2 John xvi. 23, 24. VI. KEEPING Christ's commandments a true manifestation OF LOVE TO him. John xiv. 15. — " If ye love me, keep my commandments." There is an abruptness in these words, an apparent want of connection both with what precedes and with what follows them, that, at the first glance, must strike every attentive reader. They occur in the midst of a number of consolatory considerations, suggested by our Lord to abate the extreme trouble of heart which the intimation of the near approach and painful accom paniments of his departure from his apostles had produced, — considerations admirably fitted, all of them, to answer this benig nant purpose. Previously to his uttering these words, he had told them that he was going home to his Father's " house of many mansions," that his object in going thither was to prepare a residence for them there, and that when the arrangements were completed he would return, and take them all along with him, to dwell with him and his and their Father, for ever, in these heavenly man sions. He had further assured them that the power of working miracles, which they had derived from him, was not to be with drawn from them at his departure, and that they, in consequence of his departure, were to be enabled to do things which, in mag nitude and importance, should far transcend any miraculous works, whether performed by him or by them. And then, immediately after uttering the words before us, he proceeds to assure them that though they were to be deprived of the bodily presence of him who had been their instructor, their monitor, their keeper, their guide, their comforter — for all these ideas are folded up in the word " paraclete," * rendered by our translators, here, " comforter," and in the First Epistle by John so THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, " advocate " — he would in the spirit of truth send them another instructor, and monitor, and helper, and guide, and comforter, who should more than compensate for the loss of his bodily presence, teaching them all things, leading them into all truth, bringing all things to their remembrance, and remaining with them for ever. It is just in the midst of these most appropriate and powerfully consolatory considerations, which naturally run into each other, that the words of our text are abruptly, to a reader unexpect edly, introduced, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." When we call up to our minds the whole circumstances in the scene in the upper chamber after supper, the abruptness, which at first surprises, is seen to be in the highest degree natural, and " the golden words" before us will appear as full of consolation as of instruction, as expressive of benignity as of wisdom. Sorrow had filled the hearts of the disciples, filled them to an overflow — so filled them, that at present there was no room in them for other thoughts and feelings. Our Lord's exceeding great and precious promises seem to have made no sensible im pression. They could not then receive them. They could not realise future good. They only felt that, about to lose their Lord, they were very miserable. Our Lord witnessed, with tender sympathy, but not with, entire approbation, their deep distress, their sad countenances, their deep-drawn sighs, their silent tears. He saw in them genuine symptoms of a genuine love, and, with his characteristic wisdom, he appeals to the right affection for the purpose of checking what was wrong in its manifestation. It is as if he had said — ' I am sensible of your affection to me—I never doubted it — I see it now very distinctly expressed ; but there is a better way of showing your affection for me than this. If ye love me, manifest your love, not by in consolable regrets for my necessary departure, but by comphance with the injunctions I have laid on you,' " Let not your hearts be troubled : beheve in God, believe in me ; watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation," 'Take heed that ye be not offended in me this night. That were a proof of your affection to me, which would give me far more satisfaction, and bring you more relief, and in yielding which you would give > " Ne luctu ostendite amorem, sed obedientia."— Gkotius. PART VI.] OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF LOVE. 81 vent to your affectionate feelings, and thus find consolation and peace.' This seems the direct reference of our Lord's words, which, however, express the general truths, that obedience to him is the best proof of love ; and that this manifestation of love is one of the best ways of obtaining an alleviation of the sorrow produced by his departure. The case admits of easy illustration from a somewhat parallel one, of no rare occurrence in this world of bereavement and sorrow. A venerated parent, a beloved brother, " a friend that sticketh closer than a brother," is stretched on the bed of suffer- fng, soon, obviously soon, to be the bed of death. The affection ate relatives stand around in deep, speechless sorrow. The eye soon about to be closed in the darkness of death, beaming with a more than natural brightness, rests benignantly on them, and the voice soon to drop for ever into silence, in feeble but distinct accents thanks them for all the proofs of their love, and for this last one also, but requests them to show their regard to him, by habitually living under the influence of that truth, which it had been his most earnest desire to impress on their hearts. And would not compliance with that request be the best proof of their affection — would it not give unmixed satisfaction to their de parted, sainted relative, were he made aware of it — and would they not in this mode of expressing love for their departed relation, sooner and better, than in any other way, rise above the bitter ness of the unavailing regrets occasioned by their bereavement ? Oh, how full of wisdom, how full of grace, are the words of our Lord ! How kind is he in his reproofs, how considerate in his kindness ! He knows our frame — he remembers we are dust. He tells his sorrowing disciples that the acceptable way of ex pressing affection for him, was not by regretful musings on his departure and their loss, but by active diligence in obeying his commandments, and doing their duty — intimating, though ob scurely, what he expresses more distinctly by and by, that such an expression of affection would not pass unnoticed by him, but would be witnessed with delight by him from his throne on high, and send a thrill of holy satisfaction through his heart, even amid the glories and joys of the celestial state.* How would these I Brown Patterson. VOL. III. * F 82 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. words fix themselves in the disciples' inmost hearts, and what a tide of consolatory sanctifying influence would they pour forth amid all the sacrifices, and toils, and sufferings, and sorrows, which lay before them, ere they rejoined their Lord in their Father's house above ! " If ye love me, keep my commandments." These are words in which we, my brethren, have as deep an interest as they had. Let us endeavour to find out how we may turn them to good account, — first, as a test of character — and then as a guide of conduct. That was an interesting question which our Lord, a little be fore his ascension to heaven, put to the apostle Peter : — " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? " * The question was interesting in itself — doubly interesting in the circumstances in which it was proposed. None of the disciples loved their Master better than Peter did. None of them had made such strong and so fre quently-repeated professions of their love to him. It was Peter who, — when our Lord, seeing mn'dtudes, who for a season had been his admiring auditors, wi' drawing their attendance on him, said to the twelve "W ye also go away?" — replied, " Lord, to whom can we go bi co thee ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." It was Veic, who, — when our Lord asked the disciples, " Whom do ye say that I, the Son of man, am ? " — re- pHed, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ! " It was Peter who said, " Though all men should be offended in thee, I will never be offended — I am ready to go to prison and to death with thee — though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." ^ Now Peter was no hypocrite — ^he meant all he said — he felt all he expressed ; but he was rash and self-confident. He had to learn how mistaken was the estimate he had formed of his own strength — he had to learn that, " without ¦ Christ," apart from Him, " he could do nothing." ' Right affections to Christ de pend on faith ; and faith is not likely to stand firm in the hour of temptation, if we do not watch and pray. Peter was taught — effectually taught — these lessons, by bitter experience. The hour of temptation came, and it found Peter unprepared. Once, again and again, on a temptation — we may be apt to think by no I John xxi. 15. 2 John vi. C6-69. Matt. xvi. 15, 16; xxvi. 33. Luke xxii. 33. John xiii. 37. ^ John XV. 6. PART VI.] OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF LOVE. 83 means very powerful — he, with execrations, denied that he knew the Master to whom, for whom, he had, but a few hours before, declared himself prepared to die. Was it wonderful, then, that Peter should have felt the ques tion, " Lovest thou me," to be an interesting one ? — Was it wonderful that, when Jesus said, the third time, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me," Peter should have been grieved, remem bering that he, a third time, had said, " I know not the man ? " Oh, what searchings of heart must that question have caused ; and oh, how happy for Peter, that, after them all, he could bare his bosom to the inspection of his Lord, who " searcheth the heart and trieth the reins," and before whom " all things are naked and opened," and say, if not with unfaltering lips, with a good con science and honest heart, " Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee ! " The question our Lord put to Peter he now puts to us, who, like Peter, profess to be his disciples : he puts it especially to such of us as are purposing to make a very solemn profession of our love to him next Lord's day, over the instituted emblem of his holy suffering humanity. There is more similarity between our circumstances and those of the apostle than, at first sight, we may readily apprehend. Like him, we have all, again, and again, and again, made pro fession of our love to our Lord ; and have we not all, like him, again, and again, and again, denied him ? We have never , denied our Lord in the precise form in which Peter denied him — we have never been in circumstances in which that was possible. But we have all too often acted in a manner inconsistent with our profession — we have all done what our Lord forbids — we have all neglected to do what our Lord commands ; and we do not know ourselves, if we suppose that, were we placed in Peter's circumstances, and left to the natural effects of the operations of the sinful principles of our fallen nature, we would act a better part than he did. The question should excite in us, as it did in Peter, great searchings of heart ; for it is an all-important question. If I love Christ, really love him, supremely love him, all is weU with me — all is well with me for ever. For what says the faithful and the true Witness ? " If any man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto 84 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII, him, and make our abode with him,"* And is not he happy "whom God delights in, and in whom he dwells?"^ On the other hand, if I do not love Christ, love him really, love him supremely, I am in a state of condemnation, and living and dying in that state, I am assuredly undone for ever, " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he must be Anathema Maran-atha," — he shall be accursed at the coming of the Lord.' It surely becomes us all, then, to endeavour to obtain a satisfactory answer to the question proposed to us by our Lord, " Lovest thou me ? " Happy shaU he be who, after passing through the investigation, with the means of prosecuting which I am about to present you, shall, with an intelligent, honest conscience, be able to reply with Peter, " Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee."* He who puts the question ftirnishes us with the means of an swering it. He who says, " Lovest thou me ?" says also, " If ye love me, keep my commandments." Does he, think you, who uses this language, need information on the subject ? Is it, in any degree, an uncertain thing with him, with regard to any one of us, whether we love him or not ? Oh, no. The heart is, indeed, deceitful above all things — who can know it ? — He who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of fhe children of men. The darkness, in that dark place, the human heart, is light to him. His eye pierces through the disguise of the most plausible profession, and often sees that there is no love to him where there is the profession of a great deal ; and that eye, too, can see genuine affection to him and his cause, mingled with much with which it is ever struggling, in a heart in which its owner is some times much at a loss to say whether it be there or not ; and, if it be, whether it is to vanquish, or to be vanquished. But, while Christ never can be doubtful as to whether we love him or not — for there is not a thought in our minds, a feel ing in our hearts, but, lo, he knoweth it altogether — our fellow- Christians, our fellow-men, may be doubtful of it, ay, must be doubtful of it, if we do not exhibit the appropriate symptoms of true love ; and we ourselves, in this case, may be doubtful, must be doubtful — ought to be doubtful. Yes, ought to be doubtful. I do not think it at all a desirable thing for a Christian to doubt 1 John xiv. 23. 2 Cowper. ' 1 Cor. xvi. 22. * John xxi. 17. PART VI,] OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF LOVE. 85 either of Christ's love to him, or his love to Christ ; and there must be something far wrong with him when he doubts either of the one or the other. His best state is when he cannot doubt of either ; the excellence and the kindness of the Saviour being so clearly before his mind, that he cannot doubt them, and these excellences drawing forth so strongly his affections towards Him that he can as little doubt of them. The language of that most desirable — that best — state of things is, " My beloved is mine, and I am his." But it is a dreadful thing to see a man who is not a Christian, who is clearly not a Christian, flattering himself that he loves Christ, and therefore is safe ; and it is a great mercy that God has so fashioned human nature, and the economy of salvation, that no Christian can enjoy the comfort of love to Christ, in the unhesitating testimony of his conscience that he possesses it, unless he is manifesting the fruits of love to Christ, in his temper and behaviour. In no case is our persuasion that we love Christ a safe one, if it cannot bear the test contained in the words of our Lord now under consideration. Let us then set about examining the test, and applying it, " If ye love me, keep my commandments," that is, not only, " If ye love me," ye ought to "keep my commandments:" but, if ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. 'If ye keep my com mandments, then, that is satisfactory evidence that ye love me. If ye do not keep my commandments, then, nothing else can be satisfactory evidence that ye love me.' § 1. 7%e Test. But what are Christ's commandments ? The whole revela tion of the Divine will, respecting what I am to believe, and feel, and do, and suffer, contained in the Holy Scriptures, is the law of Christ. Both volumes of the Holy Scriptures, are the work of the Spirit of Christ. His first and great commandment is, — "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and strength ; " and the second great command ment is like unto the first, — " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The commandments of Christ include whatever is good, and whatever God hath required of us — " the doing justly, the loving mercy, the walking humbly with our God," — " the 86 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, the living soberly, righte^ ously, and godly, in this world." His law is " holy, just, and good," "spiritual," and "exceeding broad," and it reaches to " whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso ever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report," — to all things in which there is virtue, to all things wherein there is praise. * These commandments are generally expressed in language so clear and simple, that a child may understand them, and " he may run who reads them." These are the command ments of our Lord Jesus. Now to keep these commandments, is just to make them the rule and the reason of our faith and conduct. To keep all these commandments perfectly, in thought, word, and deed, is the duty of every Christian — of every man. The man who should thus keep all these commandments, would do no more than what it is his duty to do. To keep all these commandments perfectly, as it is the duty of every man, is the desire of every Christian. This is his wish, both for himself and his brethren — perfection. To keep all these commandments perfectly, is not only the Christian's duty and desire, but it is his endeavour. The lan guage of his conduct, as well as his heart is, " I will keep the commandments of my God." He is constantly aiming at, " press ing towards, the mark for the prize." ^ But though, to keep all the commandments of Christ perfectly — in thought, word, and deed — be the duty, the desire, and the endeavour of every Christian, it is not the attainment of any Christian. They who have made most progress towards com plete conformity to the law of Christ, are most ready to say, " Not that we have attained, neither are already perfect." " The law is spiritual, but I am carnal." " When I would do good, evil is present with me." " If we say we have no sin, we de ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." * It is plain, then, that the perfect keeping of the command ments of Christ, is not the test of love. Apply that test, and the result is, there is no such thing as a lover of Christ on the earth. " For there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good and sinneth not." Still, obedience to the commandments 1 Matt. xxii. 36-40. Micah vi. 8. Tit, ii. 12. Phil. iv. 8. » Psal, cxix. 115, Phil, iii, 14. 3 Phil. iii. 12, Rom. vii. 14. PART VI.] OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF LOVE. 87 of Christ is the test of love to him, and there will be no difficulty in applying the test, if there be only an honest desire to have the question fairly settled ; for there are certain qualities of obedi ence, which are to be found in every lover of Christ, and which are never found in any one else, and it is to these that we must attend, if we wish to know what is our character. Every lover of Christ keeps Christ's commands implicitly, impartially, cheer fully, and perseveringly, and no man who is not a lover of Christ keeps his commandments, in any, far less in all, of these ways. Let us open a little these distinguishing characters of that kind of obedience which is the test of love to Christ, and while doing so, let us apply, for the purpose of self-inquiry, what is said ; and act as if our Lord were individually addressing us, " Lovest thou me ? If thou love me, keep my commandments. He that keepeth my commandments, he it is that loveth me. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." If I love Christ, I will keep his commandments implicitly ; that is, I will do what he bids me, because he bids me. There are many who are in the habit of doing many things which Christ commands, who never yet, in the whole course of their lives, kept any of his commandments. The doing what Christ commands, may be agreeable to my inclination, or conducive to my interest ; and if on these grounds I do it, I serve myself, not the Lord Christ. What Christ commands, may be commanded by those whose authority I acknowledge, and whose favour I wish to secure. If I do it on these grounds, I keep man's com mandment, not Christ's. I keep Christ's commandment only when I do what he bids me, because he bids me. Everything he bids me do is right, and ought to be done for its own sake ; everything he bids me do is fitted to promote my happiness, and ought to be done on this account ; but it is only so far as I do it for his sake, that I keep his commandment. In many cases, I see many reasons why I should do what he commands ; but that He has commanded it, is with me the great reason. In some cases, I can see no reason why I should do what he commands, but that he has commanded it ; and this with me is a sufficient reason. If I do not thus keep Christ's commandments, I do not love Christ. If I do thus keep his commandments, I do love him. If I love Christ, I shall keep his commandments impartially. 88 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. If I keep them implicitly, it foUows as a thing of course, that I shall keep them impartially. It is but too common a thing among the professed lovers of Christ, to be " partial in his law." To use. a famUiar but expressive phrase, " they pick and choose" among his commandments. They do this, but they leave that undone, though it is commanded with equal explicitness in his law. In every such case, the soul of obedience is wanting. If I do anything, just because Christ commands me to do it, I shall " do whatsoever he commands me." Instead of thinking my strictness as to some portions of his law will be sustained as an excuse for my neglect of other portions of it, I shall, if I really love him, " account his commandments concerning all things to be right ; and I shall abhor every false way."* If I love Christ, I shall keep his commandments cheerfully ; I shall reckon it a privilege to obey his law, " to be under the law to Christ." The thought, that they are the commandments of him whom I love, because of his excellences and his kindness, makes me love his law, for it must be excellent because it is his, and it must be fitted to promote my happiness for the same reason. And I have pleasure in pleasing him, and I am pained when I am aware of having offended him ; and, therefore, I have satisfaction in doing what I am sure will please him, for he has commanded it. There are many who do many things which Christ has commanded, not because they love either him or his law, but because they are afraid if they do them not, they must go to hell ; and because they hope if they do them, they shall get to heaven. Their spirit is the spirit of bondage. But it is other wise with the lover of Christ. " Where the Spirit of the Lord Christ is, there is liberty." The language of him who is under its infiuence is, " Truly, O Lord, I am thy servant : thou hast loosed my bonds." " I will walk at liberty keeping thy command ments." " I will serve thee without fear, in righteousness, and holiness, all the days of my life." " Thy commands are not grievous." " In keeping them there is a great reward." " I will be thy servant for ever." ^ Finally, if I love Christ, I shall keep his commandments perseveringly. There are men who, under the influence of vari ous principles, do many things which Christ commands, for a 1 Psal. cxix. 128. 2 Psal, exvi. 16; cxix, 45. Luke i, 74, 75, 1 John v. 3. Psal, xix. 11. Deut, xv. 17. PART VI.] OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF LOVE. 89 time — it may be a considerable time — but still they " dure but for a while." Alas ! how many for a season run well, who are yet hindered, and who, after making " a fair show in the flesh," " having put away a good conscience," " make shipwreck con cerning faith," abandon a christian profession, and come short of eternal life. But if I love Christ, while I love him I shall keep his commandments. If I love him really, I can never cease to love him ; apd if I never cease to love him, I shall never cease to obey him. It is he who endures to the end, that shall be saved. The command with promise is, " Be faithful unto death, and I wiU give you a crown of life." * If I am not persevering in keeping his commandments, it is a proof, not only that I do not love him, but that I never have loved him. Obedience, if implicit, impartial, and cheerful, cannot be abandoned ; if obedi ence be abandoned, it is a proof that, whatever it seemed to be, it was not implicit, impartial, cheerful obedience of Christ. It is not, he that once kept my commandment, " he it is that loveth me;" but "he that heepeth my commandment, he it is that loveth me." There is a passive obedience to Christ, that is equally neces sary and equally satisfactory, as evidence of love, as that active keeping of his commandments of which we have been speaking.^ The disciples could not have given a better proof of love to their Saviour, than in their circumstances to have submitted without repining to his will, respecting his departure from them. Their impatience was a proof that they were very far from being " made perfect in love." Love to Christ in due measure, will make us cheerfully submissive to the appointments of his providence, how ever opposite they may be to our natural inclinations, inconsist ent with our worldly interests, or trying to our natural feelings ; and nothing more decidedly proves that a man does not love Christ, than habitual fretful dissatisfaction with any of his dis pensations. If I believe that all power in heaven and earth belongs to Christ, and if I love him, I must be persuaded that whatever befalls me is the result of his appointment and agency. I must rest satisfied that he means my good ; and however numer ous and severe my afflictions may be, I shall hold fast by this, ' He who gave himself for me, cannot mean me harm : No ; nQthing ' Matt. X. 22. Rev. ii. 10. ^ " They also serve who only stand and wait."— Milxok. 90 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII, unkind can come from the hands which were nailed to the cross for my salvation,' § 2, The Test applied. Now, my brethren, that we have been abundantly furnished with the means of arriving at a right resolution of the question, it comes back on each of us, " Lovest thou me ? " I am afraid there are those here who, if they bring in a verdict according to the evidence, wUl be obliged to say, ' Lord, thou who knowest all things, thou knowest I do not love thee. I do not keep thy commandments implicitly, impartially, cheerfully, perseveringly ; I do not submit to thy dispensations humbly and patiently, — I do not love thy word — I do not love thy day — I do not love thy people — I do not love thy cause — I do not love thee.' You dare not say this, but you feel it to be true. Now, if it be so, do not attempt to conceal the fearful truth from yourself. It cannot be concealed from " him with whom you have to do." Rather look the fact broad in the face, that you may distinctly perceive its true character. You do not keep His commandments, whose will aU nature, inanimate and irrational, obeys — whose commandments the angels do, " hearken ing to the voice of his word." This is He whom " ye will not have Lord over you ;" He whom " God has made both Lord and Christ ;" He who is " Lord of all." This is He of whom Jehovah speaks by Moses : — " I will raise up a prophet from among their brethren, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Reflect for a moment. Why do you not keep his commandments ? Is not his law " holy, just, and good "? Is it not right to " hear him who speaks from heaven"? Think what must the end be of disregarding his authority, and disobeying his laws : — " As for these, my enemies, who would not have me to reign over them, bring them forth, and slay them before me." It is they only " who do his commandments, that have a right to the tree of life, and that shall enter in through the gates into the city." " Oh, foolish people, and unwise ! " * But you not only do not 1 Psal. ciii. 20. Acts ii. 36. Deut. xviii. 15-19: Rom. vii. 12. Heb. xii. 25. Luke ix. 27. Deut. xxxii. 6. PART VI.] OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF LOVE, 91 keep his commandments — that is bad enough, — but you do not love him. This is absolutely monstrous : do not love the love liest and the most benignant of beings ; do not love him who is the Well-beloved of the Father, in whom He is well pleased ; do not love him on whom the Spirit rests with infinite complacency — in whom he dwells with perfect dehght ; do not love him whom saints and angels count worthy of honour, and glory, and bless ing ; do not love him, who so loved you as to give his life for you, — so loves you, as, in his Gospel, to offer you all heavenly and spiritual blessings — the salvation that is in himself, with eternal glory ! Surely, surely you are not in your right mind. You need repentance — a thorough change of mind. You can not reach heaven, nor escape hell, if you do not keep Christ's commandments ; and you cannot keep his commandments if you do not love him, for he values not obedience but where it is the fruit, the expression, of love. What you above all things need, though you may not be aware of it, is " the excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord." " Ye have not the love of Christ in you," for ye have not the knowledge of God — God in Christ. That knowledge is here — open your mind to it. Believe Jesus Christ to be what his Father's testimony here declares him to be, and you will find that you cannot but love him — you cannot but obey him. It is only in the faith of the truth that love, and obedience, and hap piness, are to be found. Our first advice to the man who does not keep Christ's commandments is, Believe the Gospel, It is only by complying with this that he can ever be made the holy happy being God would have him to be, and which, if he does not become, he must sink into such a state of depravity and wretchedness, as "good had it been for that man that he had never been born," There are others here, I doubt not, who, after a thorough self- examination of their hearts and lives, can honestly and firmly say with Peter, " Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." ' Though far, very far, from perfect obedi ence to thy holy law, thou knowest that I love it ; that " I con sent to it that it is good ;" that " I delight in it in the inner man ; " and that my habitual endeavour is implicitly, impartially, cheerfully, perseveringly, to keep thy commandments. " I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love." And I love and keep 92 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP, XXVIII, thy commandments, because I love thee. Thou wast once to me as " a root out of dry ground, in which there was no form nor comeliness;" but " He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness shined in my heart, and made me see His glory in thy face, thy person, and work, and salvation ; and that glory- has thrown into the shade all other glory." " Thou art all fair " — " the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely,"'* To such persons I would say. Seek higher, and still higher, measures of conformity to the holy law of Christ, Seek to know aU his law, that you may do it all. Let his law be in your heart, as his Fathers was in his heart ; and be, Uke him, obedient — implicitly obedient — impartially obedient — cheerfully obedient — obedient to the death. And, that you may grow in obedience, grow in love, " O love the Lord, all ye his saints!" Your love is far beneath your estimate of his excellence and kindness — how much more is it beneath the reality ! You cannot grow in obedience to Christ, but as you grow in love to Christ ; you cannot grow in love to Christ, but as you grow in faith in Christ ; you cannot grow in faith in Christ, but as you grow in the know ledge of Christ ; you cannot grow in the knowledge of Christ, but as you study Christ's word, and receive Christ's Spirit. Grow, then, in the knowledge of Christ — of Christ crucified, — that you may grow in faith, and love, and obedience. Make the resolution of the apostle more and more your own — " Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excel lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith : that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death ; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect ; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth ' Rom. vii. 16, 22. Psal. cxix, 113. Isa. liii. 2. 3 Cor, iv. 6. Song i. 15 ; v. 10. PART VI.] OBEDIENCE THE TEST OF LOVE. 93 unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark " (or, along the prescribed course) " for the prize of the high call ing of God in Christ Jesus." * " Let us," then, brethren, " as many as are perfect, be thus minded." " Let us walk by this' same rule, let us mind this same thing." And gladly and gratefully, when we come together on next first day of the week to break bread, let us, in the know ledge and love of the Lord, keep his commandment to eat bread and drink wine in believing commemoration of his atoning sac rifice : and, while we do this just because he has bidden us do it, and because we love him, let us declare to God, angels, and men, that we will do whatever he bids us do, never seeking a better reason than his bidding ; and feeling that we need no other motive besides that love which the faith of his loveliness and kindness has made rise in our heart, and which is in us " a well of living water springing up into everlasting life."^ I Phil. iii. 8-14. 2 John iv, 14. VII. THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE PARACLETE, John xiv. 16, 17. — "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." It is difficult for us to form an adequate idea of the state of perplexity, concern, and sorrow in which the disciples of our Lord were involved at the time when this valedictory discourse was addressed to them by their compassionate Master. Impressed by his discourses and miracles — influenced by the signs of the times, in connection with the ancient prophetic oracles, which had excited expectation in so many minds, and led them to wonder whether the long-promised Messiah was not about to appear — and, no doubt, drawn by the Father, through the in ward teaching of the Holy Ghost — they had, at his bidding, forsaken all and followed him. They had recognised in him not only " a teacher come from God," but the " Shiloh " of Jacob, the great " prophet " of Moses, the " Messiah " of David, Isaiah, and Daniel, the " Salvation of Israel."* In the faith that he would soon take to himself his great power and reign, restoring the khigdom to Israel, and subduing the nations under his feet, they had abandoned their ordinary employments, and become his constant attendants. In the course of their three years' discipleship, they had met with a good deal to perplex and alarm them. Instead of the ease, and wealth, and honour, which they no doubt anticipated, they had met with nothing but hardship,, poverty, and reproach, StiU, the miracles of their Master were so numerous and signal, his discourses so full of heavenly wisdom, his whole character so ' John iii. 2. Gen. xlix. 10. Deut. xviii. 18. Psal. ii. 2. Isa. Ixi. 1. Dan. ix. 25. Jer. iii. 23. PART VII.] THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE. 95 venerable and lovely, and his conduct to themselves so conde scending, forbearing, and kind, that against hope they believed in hope, and looked forward to a period — which they thought could not be very far distant — when he should lay aside that, to them, unaccountable reserve which he maintained in reference to his just claims and high purposes ; and having, by the exercise of his miraculous power securing the concurrence, or overwhelm ing the opposition, of the existing authorities, placed himself first on the throne of David, and then on that of the world, should, in substantial marks of his royal favour, more than com pensate them for all the privations and hardships to which their attachment to his cause had exposed them. That they expected from him other and better blessings — blessings spiritual in their nature, and eternal in their duration — cannot be doubted, for they were pious, though imperfectly enlightened men ; but that their ideas and sentiments respecting the nature of the kingdom, and the design of the mission of the Messiah, had much in common with the low secular views and desires of the great body of their countrymen, is not less apparent. But now, their Master has told them he is about to leave them ; and though they can scarcely believe that his words are to be understood in their literal import — to leave them by dying — by being put to death — by being put to death as a felon and a slave — they did not know what to think. How to reconcile his leaving them in any way — still more in a way which, whether the terms were to be understood literally or not, was obviously to be a very undesirable one, with their strong, and, as they thought, well-founded convictions and hopes — they could not tell. That their Master, after all, should prove either a dream ing enthusiast, or an impostor, was a supposition as irreconcilable with the facts of the case, as revolting to every feeling of their hearts. Such a thought they could not — they durst not — enter tain ; but how he could be the Messiah — how he could ac complish the expectations he had awakened in their bosoms — how he could fulfil the promises he had made to them, if he should now leave them, and leave them thus — must have ap peared to them utterly inexplicable. They had abandoned all for him, and now he seems to be about to abandon them. They had sacrificed all earthly attachments and interests for him, and till now they had never regretted this. In him they had centered 96 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII, all their hopes, bdth for this world and the next. To be deprived of him was, as it were, to be deprived of every relation — to be left helpless and comfortless in the midst of a hostile world. In consequence of having connected themselves with him, many of their friends had become their enemies ; and their situation, now that they were about to be deserted by their Master, seemed much more deplorable than if they had never known him. The perplexities and sorrows of the disciples deeply affected the mind»of their generous, affectionate Master : " In all their af&ictions he was afflicted;" and he showed that the oracle respecting the Messiah was fulfilled in him, — " The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary,"* He had already assured them, that if he went away, it was to go to his Father's house of many mansions — to make preparations for their everlasting residence there — and that when these arrange ments were completed, he would return, and take them to the place he had prepared for them, to dwell with him for ever. He had farther intimated, that the miraculous powers he had en trusted to them were not to be withdrawn or diminished in consequence of his removal ; and that they were, by power sent down from on high, to be enabled to accomplish a work far greater than any miracle ; and he had also assured them, that whatever they should ask of the Father in his name, should cer tainly be granted them. All this was well fitted to alleviate the burden of anxiety and sorrow which weighed down their hearts. But still the saddening thought is uppermost in their minds, — ' He is to leave us. We are to hear his voice — we are to see his face — no more ! What can make up for this loss?' Had all de parted, if he had but remained, it would have been as nothing. He had been everything to them. He had protected and guided, and warned, and reproved, and sustained, and comforted them. The words before us seem plainly intended to meet this state of mind : " And I wUl pray the Father, and he shall give you an other Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dweU eth with you, and shall be in you." 'Isa. Ixiii. 9; 1. 4. PART VII.] THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE. 97 § 1. Of the meaning of the term " Paraclete" To apprehend the meaning, and to perceive the peculiar ap propriateness of this consolatory declaration, it is plainly, first of aU, necessary that we rightly understand the appellation rendered by our translators " Comforter." * It is a word which is never used in the New Testament, but in the writings of the apostle John. In the gospel, our Lord uses it four times, as here,^ in reference to the Holy Ghost ; and in the first epistle, the apostle once uses it in reference to our Lord, where our translators have rendered it advocate : " We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.'" It has received various interpre tations besides the two our interpreters have given it. Some have rendered it teacher — others interpreter — others monitor — others intercessor. I rather think that we have no English word that exactly expresses its force. Though there can be no doubt that the Holy Spirit is a comforter to his people, and that, etymo logically, the term here employed might have this meaning, we must, if we closely look at the passages where the name is given him, be persuaded that that is not the primary or most prominent idea which it is intended to convey ; and it is quite obvious that, where the name is given to our Lord in the first epistle of John, that is not at all the idea which is meant to be conveyed. I shall state, as plainly and as briefly as I can, what appears to me to be the import of this remarkable word — paraclete — about which so much has been written.* ' x(i,qi.x\iiTCi. The Mohammedans, reading this word miixKwrh — illustrious, which is equivalent in meaning to Mohammed, or Achmeed in Arabic, consider this, and the other passages where the word occurs, as predictions of their prophet. From misapprehension of this fact, some have erroneously accused Mohammed of pretend ing to be the Holy Ghost. 2 John xiv. 26 ; xv. 26 ; xvi. 7. .31 John ii. 1. * From the passages quoted by Suicer, in his most useful Thesaurus, from the Greek fathers, it is plain that most of them connected the word with the Hellenistic use of irci(xxxt.m and tra^axtutms, as denoting consolation. The earlier Latin fathers followed the classical usage, and considered it as equivalent to their own Advocatus. The Vulgate does not translate the word, but gives Paracletus, or Paraclitus. The Rhemists merely give the word an English termination — Paraclete. Campbell translates it Monitor; Wakefield, Advocate. Wiclif gives Coumfortour, but it is doubtful whether he meant exactly what the modern English word " Comforter" ex presses ; — as he translates Luke xxii. 45, " And an aungel apperide to him fro hevene, and comfortide him," it is not unlikely that inwardly strengthened was the idea he meant to express. The best discussion of the subject we know, is to be found in " Knappii Soripta Varii Argumenti," though we cannot entirely coincide with him in VOL. III. * G 98 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. The literal etymological meaning of the word is, " One called to be beside another." The word is used in classical Greek, and a word of similar etymology, from which our word " advo cate" is derived, is used in classical Latin writers to denote a person who patronises another in a judicial cause, and who ap pears in support of him. It was the custom, before the ancient tribunals, for the parties to appear in court, attended by one or more of their most powerful and influential friends, who were called paracletes — the Greek term — or advocates — the Latin term. They were not advocates in our sense of the terra — fee'd counsel — they were persons who, prompted by affection, were disposed to stand by their friend ; and persons, in whose know ledge, wisdom, and truth, the individual having the cause had confidence. These paracletes, or advocates, gave their friends — " prospelates," or " clients," as they were called — the advantages of their character and station in society, and the aid of their counsel. They stood by them in the court, giving them advice, and speaking in their behalf when it was necessary. There can scarcely be a doubt that it is in allusion to this custom, and in this sense of the term, that our Lord is said to be the paraclete, or advocate, of his people with the Father — " We have an advo cate with the Father." ' We have, with the Father in heaven, one who appears in our place, and takes care of our interests — who is ever ready to interpose in our behalf, to patronise our cause, and enforce our plea — " able to save us to the uttermost" — " ever living" to interpose in our behalf, " to make intercession for us" * — " coming to the Father through him."' ^ And there can be as little reasonable doubt, I apprehend, that it is in the same sense the word is used here and in the other passages in the context. Jesus had been the paraclete of his disciples while he was with them. He had made their cause his own. He had taught them how to manage their cause with God, He had taught them to pray; and he had prayed for them. He had taught his conclusions. The remark of Asconlus Pedianus, an ancient commentator on Cicero, is worth quoting,—" Qui defendit alteram in judicio, aut patronus dicitur, si orator est ; aut advocatus, si aut jus suggerit, aut prsesentiam suam commodat amico." Nota: ad Or. in Q. Cceeil. Ernesti's dissertation, in his "Opuscula Phllologica," deserves to be consulted. ' ivrvyx^vtlv vriq xiirHt. 2 Heb. vii. 25. PART VII.] THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE. 99 them how to manage their cause with the wicked one ; bidding them watch and pray, lest they should enter into temptation ; and he had prayed for them, that their faith should not fail. When the Scribes and Pharisees attacked thera, as in the case of plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath, eating with un washed hands, and not fasting as the disciples of the Pharisees and of John did, he was ever ready to defend them. All his influence was employed in their behalf. In the great cause which was at once his and theirs against the principles and powers of evil, he was their great helper. He instructed them what to say, and how to act. He gave thera miraculous powers, and taught them how to use thera, , Thus he had been their patron — their paraclete. And he was not to cease to be so ; he was, in his Father's house of raany mansions, stUl to act, as John, in the passage already repeatedly quoted, distinctly states, as their advocate, — as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has it, '' ever living to interpose in their behalf." But he was to cease to be their paraclete on earth. Because he was their paraclete with the Father, he could not be their paraclete on earth ; and, therefore, knowing how much they needed such a patron and adviser, and monitor and helper, he says, " I will pray to the Father, and he will send you another paraclete," 'Instead of losing, you are to gain, by ray reraoval, I still continue your paraclete, where you require one, — at the court of heaven ; but by my going away I obtain for you another, not less wise, not less kind, not less powerful,' They had, in becoming his disciples, identified themselves with his cause. They stood pledged to substantiate, even before the tribunal of human reason, that the existing forms of religious belief and usage rested on false grounds, and to establish the right which their Master's principles had to be universally em braced and submitted to. This was the great litigation in which they were engaged. And all the resources of Judaism and Paganism — all the subtility of philosophy — all the seductions of idolatry — all the power of kingdoms and empires — all the craft, and activity, and energy of hell, were against thera. And what were they ? poor, unlearned, obscure raen ? Truly, they needed a powerfiil patron, a wise adviser. They had such a one while Jesus was with them, and they were not to lose him. But still 100 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. he was no more to be with thera, and they needed a paraclete on earth, as well as one in heaven. They needed one to stand by them when, before an unfavourable tribunal, they had to do with such crafty, and such powerful opponents. And such a paraclete was he whom the Saviour promises. He cannot want power, through whose plastic infiuence the world was formed — he cannot want wisdom, who " searches all things, even the deep things of God;" and we know how he guided them, and enabled them to bring to a triuraphant issue their mighty litigation. He fiUed their minds with the pure light of divine truth, and their hearts with the holy fire of divine love, and he poured grace and power into their lips ; and when brought before councils and synagogues, and governors, and kings, he gave them a force of reason, and a power of eloquence, tliat could not be withstood, " They spake with tongues, as he gave them utterance," and proclaimed the mysteries of the king dom, "not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Ghost," He clad them in a panoply of celestial armour, giving them " the girdle of truth, and the breast-plate of righteousness, and the helmet of hope, and the shield of faith, and his own sword, the word of God," " He taught their hands to war, and their fingers to fight," and with these " weapons, not carnal but mighty through God, — by pureness, by knowledge, by long- suffering, by kindness, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, the armour of righteousness on the' right hand and the left, — by these, even more than by the mighty signs and wonders — by the power of the Holy Ghost, did they pull down strongholds, cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." By " the unresistible might of weakness," he made them "raore than conquerors." " Bows of steel were thus broken by their feeble arms — aliens' armies turned to flight." " He gave thera the shield of his salvation, his right hand held them up, and his gentleness made them great." To revert to the figure before us, — He, as their paraclete, "convinced," i.e., enabled thera to convince, "the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment," so that " Satan fell as lightning from heaven." " The judgraent of the world came, the prince of this world was cast out, and innumerable PART VII.] THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE. 101 multitudes of men were drawn to him who had been lifted up."* The great controversy is not even yet finally determined. The apostles in their writings, sustained by the Paraclete, con tinue to plead the cause of Christ, and truth, and holiness, and will continue to do so, till their claims shall, even in this world, be universally acknowledged. " The kingdom of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ," and the glory of the triumph shall be gladly and gratefully ascribed to the Paraclete who is with the Father, and the Paraclete who is with the church, by the human agents acknowledging that they have " overcome through the blood of the Lamb," and that the battlig and the victory have been "not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of Jehovah." ^ The meaning of the word "paraclete," rendered by our trans lators " comforter," having thus been illustrated, let us attend a little more closely to what our Lord says with regard to this " other Paraclete," and the manner or way in which his assist ance is to be secured for the disciples. With regard to the first of these topics, we are informed that he is " the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, be cause it seeth hira not, neither knoweth him, but whom the apostles knew, for he dwelt with thera, and would be in them," With regard to the second, we are told that our Lord would " pray the Father, and he would give them another Comforter, who should abide with them for ever," § 2, Who the Paraclete is. (1.) He is a person. The first question is, Who is this Paraclete ? Does the word denote a person, or is it merely a personification of action or in fluence ? The question is an important one, for on its determi nation depends, in some degree, the doctrine of the proper divinity of the Holy Spirit, and of the existence of the one God head in a trinity of subsistences. If the Spirit be not a person, then of course he cannot be a divine person ; and if he be not a 1 Gen. i. 12. 1 Cor. ii. 14. Acts ii, 4. 2 Cor. ii. 4. Eph. vi. 11-17. 2 Cor. x. 4. Psal. xviii. 32-35. Luke x. 18. John xii. 31-34. 2 Zech. iv. 6. 102 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, divine person, then the doctrine of the trinity is without founda tion. The means of fully settling this question are numerous, and to be collected from various portions of the inspired volume, but enough is contained in the passage before us, and its iraraediate connection, to enable us to come to a conclusion on it. The name is plainly a personal one. When I speak of a patron or advocate, the natural presumption is, that I speak of a person, not an influence, or action, or attribute. It is true, influence, action, and attribute, may be personified ; but, not to dweU on the obvious reraark, that personification, a high poetical figure, would seera out of place in adrainistering comfort to the disciples, you will notice that the paraclete, here spoken of, is said to be " another paraclete." Our Lord is the one paraclete. There can be no doubt of his personality, though in the insanity of German neology, it has been asserted, that even he is but a personification of the idea of the Jewish Messiah. Surely the other must be a person, not an attribute, or influence. And still further, it may be observed, that the Spirit is spoken of as a per son, not a thing. " The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father Will send in ray narae, he," * not it, " shall teach you all things," Still raore remarkable is the following statement : " When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth," ^ Add to all this, that the Paraclete is represented as not only " abiding and dwelling," which may, without much harshness, be said of a quality or infiuence ; but to " testify," to " teach," to " guide into truth," to " bring to remembrance," to " speak," to " hear," to " show things to come." Such is the evidence which the text and the context furnish for the person ality of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. When, in addition to all this, we take into consideration the raanner in which the Holy Spirit is connected, as in the institution of baptism and the apos tolical benediction,^ with the Father and the Son, both of whom are undoubtedly persons, we are surely not going too far, when we say that nothing but the influence of preconceived system could induce any man to deny that the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit is the doctrine of our Lord and his apostles. ' vnufj,tt. TO Hytov — ixiivos. John xv. 26. * John xvi. 13. ¦.. *. «x, ixuvo;. s Matt, xxviii. 19. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. PART VII.] THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE. 103 (2.) He is a divine person. If we admit the personality of the Holy Spirit, we can have no difficulty in acknowledging his divinity. To the Spirit are plainly ascribed attributes and works, which, if he is a person, clearly prove him to be a divine person. He who, in the begin ning, brooded over the chaotic mass — he who garnished the heavens — he who is everywhere present — he who searches all things, even the deep things of God — he who framed the human nature of Jesus Christ — he who, along with the Father, and the Son, is the object of worship — he to whom if men lie, they lie to God — He surely must be divine.' (3.) He is " the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive'' This divine person is here described as " the Spirit of truth." ^ He is called "the Spirit," to mark both what is common to him with the Father and the Son, and what is distinctive. He is equally with thera a spirit — spiritual in his essence — infinitely reraoved frora the iraperfections and limitations that characterise matter — and he is the Spirit, breathed forth of the Father and the Son — related to them in a way different from that in which they are related to each other, and of which relation human language fur nishes no fitter figurative or analogical expression. " He is the Spirit of truth." The Spirit, not of falsehood, not of error, but of truth ; the Spirit who knows, who reveals, who loves the truth. It is this which makes hira a fit paraclete. He knows how to counsel, how to direct. Being the Spirit of truth, he can " lead into all truth." It was thus that he fitted the apostles for manag ing their great cause, and helped them in doing so. Of this Spirit of truth it is said, " The world cannot receive him, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him."^ To re ceive the Spirit of truth, is descriptive of the appropriate move- 1 Gen. i. 2. Psal. cxxxix. 7. Luke i. 36. 1 Cor. ii. 10 ; xiii. 14. Acts v. 3, 4. 2 TO !T»sS|ii» ¦ns iMfc/af, " Exquisitissima appellatio. Spiritus qui veritatem habet; revelat per cognitionem in intellectu ; confert per praxin et gustum in voluntate ; testatur etiam ad alios per hos, quibus revelavit ; et defendit veritatem iUam de qua cap. i. 17, gratia et Veritas. Veritas omnes in nobis virtutes veras facit. Alias est qusedam falsa cognitio, falsa fides, falsus amor, falsa spes ; sed non falsa Veritas." — Bengel. • 3 " Est quasi Epanodos (in hoc versu). Mundus non accipit quia non novit : vos nostis QOiA habetis. Itaqne nosse et habere ita sunt conjuncta, ut non nosse sit causa non habeudi, et habere sit causa noscendi." — Beng el. 104 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, ments of the mind and heart towards this divine person, just as receiving Christ is descriptive of the appropriate moveraents of the mind and heart to hira as the great teacher, expiator, and Lord, He receives the Spirit of truth, who receives his testi- raony in his word, and yields to his influence on the heart. Now, our Lord says, " the world cannot receive hira," " The world " here is a general name for mankind in their natural state, un changed by divine influence. Such men, while they continue such, cannot receive the Spirit of truth. They are under the power of the spirit of error ; and so long as they are so, they cannot receive the Spirit of truth. WhUe a man beheves a lie, he cannot believe the truth, in direct opposition to that lie. It is not that it is impossible for a worldly man to become a spiritual man ; but it is impossible for him, while a mere worldly man, to receive the Spirit. It is not that there is any physical impossi bility in the case — that the man wants any of the faculties which are necessary to the apprehension of truth, or to a correspondent state of feeling — but that it is morally impossible for a man to love falsehood and truth at the same time on the same subject. The teaching of the Spirit was never welcomed by a worldly man. The Spirit works on man, in conformity with his nature. Be fore man receives the Spirit, the Holy Spirit prepares, in a way we do not understand, the mind for his reception ; and it is only then that the mind receives hira. This plain fact — stated clearly in Scripture — entirely accordant with experience, is in no way, however, inconsistent with the other fact, that the not receiving the Spirit is the effect of immoral causes, and therefore criminal. The world does not receive the Spirit of truth, " because it does not see him, nor know him." The Spirit cannot be seen, in the strict sense of the word. To see the Spirit, is to perceive his true character — to recognise him in his word and in his worh. He is in his word, but the worldly man sees nothing divine there ; he is in his worh, but he is equally blind to this, " Neither does he know him," This, as contrasted with seeing, seems to designate personal experience of his influence and operation. It is the same general truth announced by the apos tle, when he says, " The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto hira ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." * I I Cor. ii. 14. PART VII.] THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE. 105 It was once so with the apostles ; it was so no longer. " Ye," says our Lord, " know hira, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."* The apostles, with the exception of the traitor, seem to have been converted men previously to their call to the discipleship. They were among those emblematised by the good ground. They were prepared to receive the good seed, and it readily took root and grew in their honest minds. They were to receive the Spirit in a much larger measure of his influence ; but they were already under his influence. They probably knew comparatively little of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as an ob ject of intellectual contemplation ; but they experimentally knew him. It was he who had brought them to Jesus — disposed them to believe in him — to take on them his easy yoke and light bur den. It was he who had excited in their minds and hearts an apprehension and desire of a spiritual salvation, and led them to Jesus as the Saviour, The Holy Spirit dwelt with them — ha bitually influenced them ; and should remain with them, and be in them — should permanently and more thoroughly influence them. There is a very striking resemblance between these words of our Lord, and the statements of the apostle Paul, in the second chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, The apostle's statements show how our Lord's promise had been fulfilled : " We have received the Spirit which is of God — the Spirit which searcheth all things, even the deep things of God — and he has revealed to us what eye hath not seen, what ear hath not heard, and what could not have entered into the heart of man ; so that we know the things that are freely given us of God, and speak the wisdom of God in a mystery — not in words which man's wis dom teaches, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit — wisdom which, to the world, is foolishness, but to the called ones — to those who are spiritual — perfect — wisdom indeed. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto hira ; neither can he know them, be cause they are spiritually discerned." § 3, How his coming to, and permanent residence with, the disciples, were to be secured. It only remains that I should turn your attention for a little to our Lord's statement as to the manner in which the permanent ' John xiv. 17. 106 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII. residence of the Paraclete — the Holy Spirit — with them, and in them, was to be secured : " I will pray the Father, and he wiU send you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever," The economy of grace — the great plan of saving man, — in its leading features, is here brought strikingly before the mind. In the new creation, " all things are of God " — God the Father, who in that economy sustains the majesty of Divinity : " To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things," In the exercise of His sovereign raercy, He sends the Son to be a para clete — the powerful, active, influential patron and advocate of the heirs of salvation : " To us there is one Lord, Jesus, and all things by him," He is the " one Mediator between God and man."* Blessings come to us only as we are connected with him, and are bestowed on us for his sake, in consequence of his atonement and intercession. The Father sends another para clete — the Holy Spirit, — but He sends him in consequence of the Son having finished the work He gave him to do on the earth, and, on the ground of that finished work, asking Him to do so. To borrow the thoughts, and many of the words, of an accomplished writer,^ — " As the only foundation on which de praved and guilty men can receive any spiritual blessing, is the obedience and atonement of the Son of God, accomplished in our nature and in our room, it has seemed good to God, in his sovereign wisdom, in order to make this connection conspicuous and palpable, to inform us that Jesus ever lives to make inter cession, and that, through this intercession, the great ultiraate objects of his atonement are accomplished," This intercession is addressed by him, as the High Priest within the vail, to the Father, seated on the blood- sprinkled throne of justice and mercy. The Father says, " Ask of me, and I will give thee," He caUs on the Father, and He answers him. He can ask no thing but what is in accordance with the will of the Father, for he and the Father are of one mind. The counsel of peace is between thera both. He can ask nothing which can exceed the merits of his sacrifice ; and, therefore, " him the Father heareth always," The mission of the Spirit as a paraclete is, equally with the mission of the Son, the act of the sovereign Father ; I 2 Cor. V, 18, 1 Cor, viii, 6. 1 Tim. ii. 6. ' Brown Patterson. PART VII,] THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE. 107 but the first is the act of sovereign self-moved benignity — no being asked for this, — the other is the manifestation of the Father's infinite satisfaction with the work of the Son, by which a way for the mission of the saving Spirit to men has been made con sistent with-— illustrative of — all the perfections of his character — aU the principles of his government ; and it is every way meet that the communication of the gift should be through his hands, who had accomplished this high and holy object. This Paraclete, whom the Father, in answer to the prayer of the Son, was to bestow, was to " abide with the apostles for ever." He was to continue to influence and guide them as long as they lived ; and in their writings, and by that holy influence whereby men are made to understand and believe their writings, he is to continue in the church tUl the end of all things. These words, while they have a direct and primary reference to the apostles, to whom they were spoken, are full of instruction and consolation to all christian ministers, and all christian men, in all countries and ages of the world. We are prosecuting the same great cause as the apostles. He who was their patron and guide, is ours also. We have hira in his word ; but if we are christian ministers, christian men, deserving the name, we have him too in our hearts, enabling us to turn to account his word, in the manageraent of the great controversy we are raaintaining with the world and its prince, with error and sin, in all their endless forras. To him, given us in answer to the prayer of our exalted Lord, we are to look for all that is necessary to enable us rightly to acquit ourselves in the station he has assigned us, in the sacramental host of his chosen ones. If we live as Chris tians, we " live in the Spirit." If we would walk as Christians, we must " walk in the Spirit." It is only through the Spirit that we can overcome the flesh, either in ourselves, or in others. But in him — by him — we are invincible : " Greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world." His anointing teaches us all necessary wisdom. " His strength is made perfect in our weakness," " Let us be strong in the Lord, the Spirit, and in the power of his might," He will never leave us, never forsake us, " He will abide with us for ever," " He will live in us while we live." He will not leave us when we die. He wiU be the life of our souls in paradise : and even our mortal bodies shall, in due time, be quickened, " because of that Spirit who 108 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. dwelt in them," as well as because of that Saviour who died for them. Let all who have the Spirit yield more and more to his influence. Let them not disregard him speaking in his word ; let them not counteract him working in their minds and hearts ; let them not " quench the Spirit ;" let them not " grieve the Spirit;" but ever seek growing evidence that "the promised Spirit " is indeed to them " the earnest of the inheritance, tiU the redemption of the purchased possession," that they are in deed " sealed " by him to that day of complete deliverance,* And let thera pity and pray for those who are stUl what they themselves once were — " sensual, not having the Spirit," Let them present to these men his pleadings with thera in his word ; and plead with the Father to send him forth in his invincible influence, and plead with the Son to ask the Father to give the Spirit for the conversion of the world ; and while, by bringing the message of warning and salvation, as far as is possible, to every unconverted mind, they " prophesy to the dry bones," and in God's name bid them live, let thera also " prophesy unto the wind " — the Spirit, — and say to the wind, " Thus saith the Lord God, Corae frora the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."^ What abundant encouragement have we to these exertions ! Jesus is glorified — the Spirit has been given — is being given — will be yet more abundantly given. The first paraclete is gone, the second has come, and will not depart. He is here. Let us employ hira ; he loves to be eraployed. He is a generous, a " free Spirit " — the Spirit of him who is love, — of him who died " the just in the room of the unjust." The Son is not backward to ask the powerful putting forth of his influence ; nor is the Father backward to answer the prayers of his Son, or of his be lieving people. " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall flnd ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to hira that knocketh, it shall be opened." " If ye, then, being evU, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how niuch more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ?"^ ' Eph. i. 13, 14. 2 Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10. 3 Luke xi. 9-13. VIII. THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS. John xiv. 18, 19. — " I will not leave you comfortless ; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see me." The valedictory discourse of our Lord to his disciples, is equally remarkable for the depth, the delicacy, the tenderness of the sympathy which it breathes, and for the appropriateness, the abundance, and the satisfying nature of the consolations which it imparts. The two characteristics are closely connected. The second is the natural, the necessary, result of the first. It is the friend who can thoroughly sympathise, that alone can effectually console. In proportion to his sympathy, he has at once the knowledge and the disposition, which are equally necessary to make an accomplish5d comforter. Our Lord knew all the sources of the anxiety and sorrow of his disciples. He knew them far more intimately than they themselves did ; and his infinite wisdom enabled him — his ten der compassion induced him — to employ the means best fitted to stop these fountains of bitterness, or sweeten their waters. He did the disciples the justice to believe that their anxieties and sorrows were not all selfish, and that they feared and grieved for him, as well as for themselves. He therefore tells them, first of all, that on leaving them he was going home to his Father's magnificent palace, in the numerous and ample mansions of which there was room enough for all his friends. However dark and stormy might be the journey, however rough and thorny the road, there was no reason to fear or grieve for him ; nay, if they knew all, they would be constrained to rejoice that he was going — that he was gone — to the Father. But, while he knew that they were anxious about him, he knew, too, that they were anxious about themselves. He there fore goes on to inform them, that the great object of his return to his Father's house, was to make arrangements for their reception 110 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. there; and that, when these were completed, he would return and conduct them all safely to those everlasting habitations in which, along with hira, they were to spend their happy eternity ; and assures them that he would open up for them a way, raake thera acquainted with it, and enable them to walk in it ; being to them the way, the truth, and the life, so that not one of them should fail of reaching these celestial abodes. But how are they to spend the intervening period amid the snares and terrors, the seductions, and persecutions of the present evil world ? To meet this question, he informs them, that the power of working miracles, which he had conferred on thera, was not to be withdrawn frora thera ; and that not only should they be enabled, as heretofore, to do wonderful works in his name, but should, in the establishment of his kingdom among men, accomplish a work far greater than any miracle : and that what ever they needed and asked for, the accomplishment of that work would most assuredly be granted them by his Father. But who is to teach thera what to do, and how? what to pray for, and how ? He had guided thera in the use of the powers he had given thera. He had taught thera what to pray for as they ought. But when he is gone, who is tcT be their guide and keeper, — their instructor and guard, — their sun and shield ? To raeet this question, he assures thera that he would pray the Father for them, and He would give thera another paraclete, — an instructor,- — a guide, — a monitor, — a helper, — who should do for them what he had himself been accustomed to do for thera, — the Spirit of truth, who could and would supply all their need, — one who was no stranger to them, and of whose operations, though to a great extent unconsciously, they were already the subjects, and who would never abandon them, but remain with thera for ever. Surely he has now said enough to dry all their tears — to still all their anxieties — to soothe all their sorrows. The compassion ate High Priest, who cannot but be touched with a feeling of the infirmities of his people — for he knows their frame, and has been in all things tried Uke unto them — was too well acquainted with human nature to think so. The assurance that a beloved friend, who has been parted from us by more than sea and land — removed to the region of the immortals — is happy beyond our warmest wishes, our highest conceptions — the well-grounded PART VIII.] THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS. Ill hope of, ere long, meeting him there — the finding that his con siderate care has secured that his removal should not diminish our external comforts, but, on the contrary, increase thera — all this will not repress the yearnings of the heart after the presence and converse of the departed one ; w-e cannot fully realise his happiness unless we are with hira, and the very nuraber and ira- portance of the arrangements he had made to render us happy, when he was to be no more with us, by the manifestations they afford of his considerate kindness, deepen our sorrow that we must see his face, and hear his voice, no more. Our regrets are not satisfied with being told that he has secured for us advice as wise, sympathy as kind, as his own ; and that they to whom he has committed the management of our affairs will take as good care of them as he could have done. We loved him for himself, still more than for his benefits ; and it sounds like mockery to tell us, that in consequence of his prudent and affectionate arrangements, we are to lose nothing. Alas ! alas ! we have lost himself; and that to us is more than all beside.* Had he continued with us, we would not have needed these provisions ; and though they increase our gratitude for his kindness, they do not decrease our sorrow for his loss. It was thus with the dis ciples. ' Our Master is to be happy in his Father's house ; but we are not to be with him. He is to come and take us there ; but how and when we know not. What though we should be able to work miracles, and accomplish a work greater than any miracle ? He is not to be with us, whose smile of approbation was our best reward for doing anything which he commanded and enabled us to perform. We are to have another paraclete — wiser and kinder than we deserve, or can conceive ; but still he is not Jesus — our Master — our friend — our brother — our all. What shall we do without him ? ' The transcendently tender words which lie before us for con sideration — words indicating the deepest insight into the human heart's inmost recesses, and a perfect sympathy with its most sacred sorrows — meet this state of the disciples' mourning minds : — " I will not leave you comfortless — I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see me : because I live, ye shall hve also." I Brown Patterson. 112 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. The expression, " I will not leave you comfortless," gives a very imperfect, and, to a certain extent, incorrect, view of our Lord's meaning. The marginal rendering here, as in so many other instances, is the preferable one — " orphans " * — which is, indeed, the original term with an English termination. Orphans are children under age, bereaved of both their parents. The term beautifully describes the situation in which the disciples felt as if about to be placed on their Master's departure- frora them, and in which, for a short season,^ they were actually placed. The endearing appellation which our Lord had given them — " little chUdren'" — was, in a variety of respects, very applicable to thera. They had ranch of the ignorance, and soraewhat of the waywardness, of little chUdren. They had all the helplessness of little children, and all their confiding dependence on one who was more loved and trusted by them than any earthly parent. He had been the head of their little family — more wise and watchful than any father — more tender and compassionate than any mother. The state of an orphan family, incapable of providing for them selves, bereft of both parents, and left to the support of strangers, at the mercy of enemies, was but an imperfect figure of what, in the apprehension of the disciples, was now awaiting them. Nor, supposing that the separation between them and their Master had been to be as complete and enduring as they seem to have antici pated, would their forebodings, gloomy as they were, have at all surpassed the dismal reahty ? Indeed, the word, more than any other language could have furnished, did accurately describe the state in which they found themselves from the fearful time when they parted from their Master in the garden — he in the hands of his armed enemies, officers of the law, they taking to flight, lest they too should be apprehended as criminals — till the joyful moment when, after the resurrection, they were made glad by seeing their Lord. This dreary period, I apprehend, our Lord does mean to describe as a period of orphanhood ; for his words do not say that they were not to be orphans — (the death of him ' " What led our translators, from Tyndale downwards, to render igfacvais ' com fortless,' I cannot perceive. Wicliff has ' fadirless.' • Orphans,' the marginal read ing in the authorised version, ought to have been received into the text ; for the force and beauty of the original are much impaired by the change." — Akchdeaoon Haee. '' in /^ix(i>. 3 John xiii. 33. Tixiix. PART VIII.] THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS. 113 who had been to them more than both father and mother, as a raatter of course, made them orphans) — but that he will not leave them in that state, just as the promise to Messiah, " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," — i. e., the separate state — does not inti mate that his soul was not to be in the separate state, — it obvi ously proceeds on the supposition that it was, — but that it should not continue there. The state of orphanhood was not to be in their case, as it is usually, a permanent state. Their loss was not like that of ordinary orphans, to be an irreparable one. But they were to become orphans. What are all the anxieties and sorrows of children, watching the last agonies of dear parents, compared with what the apostles felt during that fearful night, and yet more fearful day that followed it. And then, after he, who was dearer, kinder, more necessary to them than parents ever were to children, had died on a cross, and was laid in the grave, ncA^er was a family of orphan children more perplexed as to what they should do — more incapable of helping themselves — more entirely destitute of support and consolation. Owing to their childish prejudices, they could not get the comfort from their Master's former declarations which they were fitted to communi cate, for they did not understand them, and " the Spirit was not yet given " — could not be given, till Jesus was glorified ; and Jesus must be humbled — humbled to the dust of death^before he could be raised to the throne of his glory. What they were to do, and where they were to look for direction or help, they knew not. Bereaved of him, they felt they were bereaved in deed. Oh, how sad their communings respecting their dis appointed hopes, and fearful though undefined forebodings !* " We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel."^ Our Lord was aware of all this : "Ye shall weep and lament," says he, " while the world shall rejoice. Ye shall be sorrowful as a woman in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come."" It is the part of a wise and a kind comforter not unduly to extenuate the sufferings of those whom he seeks to console. Nothing is a better preparative for giving consolation than to lodge in the mind of the sufferer the conviction that you do not underrate his sorrows — that you know them — that you acknow- 1 Luke xxiv. 17. ' Luke xxiv. 21. ' John xvi, 20-22. VOL. III. * H 114 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. ledge they are hard to bear, and that you are ready to share them, and do what you can to give that alleviation of them which you see and feel he so much needs. It is in this kind considerate spirit that our Lord addresses his little children, soon to become orphans : — ' I will not leave you orphans.* You must become orphans, for I must die ; but you shaU not be left orphans, for I shall rise again ; I must depart from you — and that will make you orphans ; but " I will come to you," and then you shall be orphans no longer.' There has been, and still is, great variety of opinion among interpreters as to the meaning and reference of these words, "I will come to you." Some consider them as referring to our Lord's coming to his apostles after his resurrection from the dead ; others as referring to his coming to them, and his followers in every age, in the influences of his Spirit and the blessings of his grace — his coming to them in this way, to bless them, — his being " in the midst of them " when met in his narae, — his being " with them always to the end of the world;" and others stiU, as re ferring to the coming mentioned in the beginning of the dis course — when he is to " come the second time," — not as a sin- offering, but for the complete salvation of those who are looking for him — the coming to take them all together, to be with him where he is, to behold and participate in his glory. Something may be said for, and something against, every one of these views. The fault of them all is, that they are too limited. The words of our Lord — " I will come to you " — so come to you, as to make it evident that you are not left orphans — are very general, and naturally enough include all these modes of coming. This is not giving different and incompatible mean ings to the same words. It is only considering them as a gene ral statement, which may be applicable to a great variety of separate facts. The words are equivalent to, ' I will so corae to you, as that you shall cease to be orphans. I will so come to you, as that you shall never be orphans again. I will corae to you — will always be coming to you — so that you shall live in my presence, and be guided by ray counsel, and be safe and happy under ray eye.' The abundant consolation bound up in this most pregnant I " Etiam si moriar, et vos interea futuri sitis tanquam orbi, sine Patre, sine tutore aut defeiisore; sed non diu in hoc orbitate manebitis." — Slichiinoios. PART VIII,] THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS. 115 declaration, our Lord unfolds in the words which follow : — " Yet a little while and the world seeth rae no more ; but ye see me." " Yet a little " is a phrase equivalent to, ' In a very short season.' It refers here to the period which elapsed from our Lord's speaking these words in the guest-chamber, on Thursday evening, till the laying his dead body in Joseph's sepulchre, late on the following afternoon — soraewhat less than a day. " Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more," — i. e., no raore till time shall be no longer — no raore till the voice coraes forth from the throne, which once came forth from the cross, — " It is finished." " The world" here, as usually in the New Testament, signifies, ' unbelieving men.' To " see" our Lord, is used both in a literal and in a figurative sense in Scripture, and is so even in this con text. In the last of these senses, the world never saw — never will see — our Lord. If they did, they should cease to be " the world," and become his disciples. As " the Word who was in the beginning ; who was with God, who was God — by whora all things were made, in whora was life, and that life was the light of men," he had always been " in the world, which was made by him ;" but " the world," — i. e., its unbelieving inhabitants — " knew him not" — did not perceive him. As the light he shone amid the darkness, " but the darkness comprehended him not." * As the Word made flesh dwelling among raen, full of grace and truth, his glory as the Only-begotten of the Father, was seen and acknowledged " by as raany as received him'' — as raany as believed in his name ; but the world — his unbelieving country men — did not see this glory. They saw a poor Nazarene car penter — that was all they saw ; but they saw not the Only- begotten of the Father — they saw not the sent and sealed One — Messiah the Prince, the Saviour of the worldv Yet, in one sense, they had seen hira and heard hira. They had seen and heard hira who really was all this ; and they had seen and heard what should have convinced thera, that he was all this. They had seen him and had not believed in him. Yet a little while, and they shall in no sense see him any more for ever, till the voice be heard, " Behold, he cometh in clouds ; then every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him ; 1 John i. 1-10. 116 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. and all the kindreds of the earth" — the world, in the sense of the passage before us — " shall wail because of him. Even so. Amen."* " On the next succeeding day, the unbelieving Jews, for the last time, beheld him transfixed with agony, and crowned with shame ; suffering and dying on the tree of pain, and disgrace, and curse ; and consigned in lowly funeral, with hasty rites, to the darkness of the sepulchre. Ah ! how unlike hira, when they are next to behold hira, with his countenance shining like the sun in its strength, seated on his great white throne in the heavens, with the assembled millions of the intelligent universe waiting, in silent expectation, their doom frora his lips ; while all the powers of nature stand ready to carry into execution his high and holy behests. The world was to see him no more. After his resurrection, he was seen by no man of the world ; he was seen by witnesses chosen of God, but God did not show him openly. It was not raeet that he should. Would it have been beseeming that his sacred person should again be exposed to the insults and attempted injuries of his enemies ? or if that were prevented, was it meet that he should be made a show to satisfy the vacant wonder, and gratify the idle curiosity, of a people athirst for ex citement, and voracious of marvels ? " ^ In avoiding such a display of himself, he did no more than a righteous respect for himself and his cause demanded. It was fit that he should refuse to exhibit himself as a spectacle to a people who had already treated hira with the last extreraes of contumely and of cruelty, when he dwelt among them " a man approved o'f God, with signs and wonders," ^ well aware, as he was, that they who refused to hear hira then, would not now believe though they saw hira risen from the dead. And as the world was no raore to see hira in huraan form, so was it no raore to see hira in the sense of apprehending his true character, of realising his presence at all times, and in all places. The world seeth not the Saviour, While it is the world it can not. The " great sight " of God in Christ — the glory of God in the face of his Son — is hidden frora the world ; whose eyes its own chosen god — the wicked one — the prince of darkness — has blinded, that they may not see it. Blessed be God, the eyes of 1 Rev. i. 7. 2 Brown Patterson. » Acts ii. 22. PART VIII.] THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS. 117 many of these wUfuUy blinded ones are opened ; but the first sight of Jesus' true character changes their whole character, and they are no raore of the world, but of those whora he has chosen out of the world. No, the world seeth him no more, till time be no more. And then the awful vision of hira will be but for a little time. How will they dare to look on him ? How shall they be able to look on him ? Oh, what a soul-withering glimpse shall that be of the majestic countenance — which is to be the unsetting sun of the world of glory^while they are driven from his glorious presence into the blackness of darkness for ever.* The tremendous words of Moses' prophecy will then receive their full verification : " The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart ;" and " thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." ^ " Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see rae." ' Yet a little while, and ye shall see me. I shall dis appear from your view, as well as from the view of the world ; but to you I shall re-appear, though not to them ; and I will soon re-appear to you.' The promise, for it is a promise, " Ye shall see me," has been fulfilled — is fulfilling — shall yet be more gloriously fulfilled. It was but a little time that he was absent from their view. Some of thera, we have reason to believe, wit nessed his last agony. Some of^ them saw him laid in the sepul chre late in the evening of Friday. On the morning of the First-day, the risen Saviour met the affectionate female disciples — who had been last at the cross, first at the sepulchre — retiring, trembling and amazed, from the empty grave, and said to them, " Go, tell my brethren that they go to Galilee, and there they shall see me." To Mary Magdalene, when, in the stupor of her grief, she mistook him for the gardener, he manifested himself by repeating the one word, " Mary," in a tone so familiar to her ear, so dear to her heart, and said to her, " Go to my brethren, and say unto thera, I ascend unto ray Father, and your Father ; and to my God, and your God." But his kind heart would not allow hira to postpone seeing his brethren— his orphans — his little children — till the solemn gathering in Galilee ; that same day he drew near to two of them going to the country, holding ' Brown Patterson. ' Deut. xxviii. 28, 34. 118 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. sad comrauning with each other, of what they had lost, and what might be awaiting them. As a courteous stranger, he communi cated to thera much precious instruction respecting the meaning of the ancient oracles concerning the Messiah, which produced a strange burning of heart in them ; and turning aside with them, as if to tarry for the night, " he was known of them in the breaking of bread," As the eleven sat at meat that same even ing, he " stood in the midst of thera, and said. Peace be unto you ; " and showed them, in the raarks of his wounds, the proof of the identity of his person, as well as of the depth of his love. " And he breathed on them, and said unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost." " Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." Next Lord's-day evening he again was in the midst of them ; and even doubting Thomas was constrained to exclaim, " My Lord, and my God." In Galilee, whither the apostles repaired according to his command, he appeared " at the sea of Tiberias," and gave Simon Peter an opportunity, by a threefold confession, to wipe away the stain of his threefold denial of him. On a mountain in Galilee, he was seen of five hundred brethren at once. On his first appearance in the distance, the great body of the disciples fell down in lowly worship. Some doubted if the figure in the distance was their Lord, but he was soon in the rdidst of them, and every doubt and fear gave way to conviction and joy, while he proclaimed " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." " Lo, I am with you always to the end of the world." During forty days he often was seen of them, by many infallible proofs, showing himself alive after his passion. And on a day, never to be forgotten on earth or in heaven, he met with them for the last time here below ; and having " led thera out as far as to Bethany, he lifted up his hands, and blessed thera. And, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and a cloud received him out of their sight, and he was carried up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God," * Now the heavens had received him, and, so far as his bodily presence is concerned — with some miraculous exceptions — they are to see him thus no more, till they go to be with him, to be hold his glory. But he has not left them orphans. He has not left them, though he has left them ; and they see him, though ' Matt, xxviii. 10. John xx. 14-17. Luke xxiv. 13-48. John xx. 19-22. Matt. xxviii. 16. Luke xxiv, W, 51. Acts i. 9. PART VIII.] THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS. 119 they see him not. He is spiritually present with them, and they spiritually behold hira. Think ye not he was present with them in the upper room, where abode the apostles, and where they all continued, with one accord, in prayer and supplication, with the woraen, and Mary his mother, and his brethren ? and think ye his presence was not felt and acknowledged there ? Did they feel that they were orphans then ? Did he not come to thera, as well as send, that day, when in that room there " suddenly came from heaven a sound as of a mighty rushing wind, which filled the house where they were sitting, and cloven tongues, like as of fire, appeared unto thera, and it sat on each of them ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" ? * Was not this the gift both of the Father and of the Son, and was it not the gift of a present Divinity ? Came he not to Paul in the way, and did not the first sight of his countenance — the first sound of his voice — convert the man of the world into the man of God ? ^ Did he not appear to him in the temple, and com mission him to go from thence to the Gentiles? ' Did he not stand by him at Jerusalem, bidding hira " be of good cheer, and telling hira he should yet testify of him at Rome ? " '' and at Rorae, when all raen forsook him, did not the Lord stand by and strengthen hira ? ^ Did he not see the Lord when — " whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell" — he was caught up into paradise, and saw and heard things unutterable in human language ? ^ Did not Stephen behold him standing at the right hand of God ? ' and did not John, when in the isle of Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, see his glory, and speak of him ? ' And we have no rea son to think that these recorded instances are the only ones in which he miraculously came to his servants ; and they, even with the eyes of their flesh, beheld his glory. But, beside this, and better far than this, he habitually came to them, habitually dwelt with them — in them — and they, with the eye of the mind, habitually beheld his glory. They were habi tually looking to, looking at, Jesus. In the ordinances of his worship, and in the discharge of their duties, official and per- ) Acts ii. 2-4, 2 Acts ix. .3-6, s Acts xxii. 17-21, * .Vets xxiii. 11. 5 li Tim. iv. 17. " -' Cor. xii, 2-4. ' Acts vii, ,5,'i, 56, .=>!», tiO, » Kev, i, 12-18, 120 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. sonal, they were blessed with his presence : " Truly their feUow- ship was with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." * Verily, they were not orphans whUe here : he came to them, and they saw him ; and gradually, as the great law of mortality — from whose continued dominion he has, but from whose imme diate operation he has not, redeemed his people— reraoved them from the earth, they went to enjoy in paradise a nearer view of his glories — a more intimate interchange of thoughts and feehngs — a more thorough participation in his joys. Verily, they are not orphans yonder, that innumerable multi tude, " who have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made thera white in the blood of the Lamb." No ; " they hunger no more, neither do they thirst any more ; neither does the sun light on thera, nor any heat. For the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, feeds them, and leads thera to living fountains of waters : and God wipes away all tears from their eyes." ^ And it is but a httle while — as He with whom a thousand years ase as one day, reckons duration — till, having gathered around hira the great body of his chosen ones — none remaining but the living tenants of our earth, now grown old, and ready to vanish away — the promise in the text shall receive its final and complete accomplishment. With their glorified spirits, he wUl descend from heaven, to claim, as a portion of his purchased pos session, their bodies, which have long mouldered in the dust under the power of death- — his and their last enemy ; and, call ing forth from their long resting-places these mortal, weak, dis honoured bodies, in a power, and incorruptibility, and glory, like his own glorious body — changing his embodied people, whom he finds on earth, so as to fit them to take their place with their elder brethren — he will return, with all whom the Father has given him, not one of them lost ; and they shall, with the eye of the mind, and the eye of the body too, behold their King in his beauty, and spend the ages of eternity in his presence. Then, not till then, will be understood what is folded up in these words, " I will not leave you comfortless ; I will come to you." " Yet a little while, and the world seeth rae no more ; but ye see rae." It was our Lord's death that made his disciples ' 1 John i. 3. 2 Rev. vii. 16, 17 PART VIII.] THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS. 121 orphans ; and, while he continued dead, they were orphans in deed. It is his renewed life that enables him to come to them, so as to be seen by thera, and secures that they shall never be left orphans again. But that is not all. It secures not only that he shall live to be a father to thera, but that they shall live to be his holy, happy children : " Because I live, ye shall live also." This forras our next topic of consideration. There is soraething, ay, there is rauch, in the words we have been considering, which has a peculiar reference to those to whora they were originally uttered. But there is rauch, too, in which Christians of every country and every age have just as deep an interest as the apostles. Never were any left orphans in the sense in which they were left orphans ; and we are not warranted to expect such visits from our Lord as they had from him, previously to his going to heaven, or even such miraculous visions of his glory, as some of them had after the heavens had received him. But, with these obvious exceptions, the words may be as legi timately used for our comfort, if we really belong to Christ, as they were by the apostles for their support and consolation amid all their privations, and labours, and sufferings. He may allow his people to be placed in circumstances of very deep trial, but, in the deepest flood, in the most desolating storm, in the fiercest fiery furnace, he wUl be with them, and they shall see him. If he is not seen, it is not because he is not there. But the eye of faith is dim, and our sins, like a malignant, a pestilential vapour, prevent us from seeing him. He still, according to his promise, is with his ministers, and in the midst of his people, when they meet in his narae. He is stUl to be raet with, as he has been for ages, in the courts of his house ; and it is stiU true of his chosen ones, " They have seen thy goings, O God ; even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary."* He never ' Psal. Ixviii. 24. The homely words of Ralph Erskine have an echo in many a bosom, and awaken sweet remembrances ; — " Mind'st thou the place, the spot of land, Where Jesus did thee meet. And how he got thy heart and hand ? Thy Husband then was sweet. " Ah, then the garden, chamber, bank, A vale of vision seem'd ; Thy joy was full, thy heart was franii, Thy Husband much esteem'd. 122 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. leaves them, he never forsakes them. His presence is with them, and he gives them rest. He is their keeper, he is their shade at their right hand. He preserves them frora all evil ; he preserves their soul. He preserves their going out, and their coraing in, from henceforth, and for ever.* They have sights which the world has not, and spiritual senses to discern them, of which the ", Let thy experience sweet declare. If able to remind,^ A Bochim here, a Bethel there, Thy Husband made thee find. " Was such a corner, such a place, A paradise to thee ? A Peniel, where, face to face. Thy Husband thou didst see ? " There did he clear thy cloudy case, Thy doubts and fears destroy, And on thy spirit sealed he was Thy Husband with great joy. " Whate'er thbn found'st him at thy best, He's at thy worst the same. And in his love will ever rest. Thy Husband holds his claim. " Let faith these visits keep in store, Tho' sense the pleasure miss. The God of Bethel, as before. Thy Husband always is. " In measuring his approaches kind, And timing his descents. In free and sov'reign ways thou'lt flnd Thy Husband thee prevents. " Prescribe not to him in thy heart, He's infinitely wise ; Yet, when he throws his loving dart. Thy Husband does surprise. " Perhaps a sudden gale thee blest. When walking in the road ; Or in a journey, ere thou wist, Thy Husband look'd thee broad. " Say not he's gone for ever, tho' His visits he adjourn ; For yet a little while, and lo ! Thy Husband will return."— Gospel Sonnets. P.-iiI. v\Ki. .5-8, 2 Scotch fur romeniber. PART VIII.] THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS. 123 world is destitute. They see Jesus. To them, the heavens are bright with his glory ; the earth is full of his praise. The de claration of his word, the ordinances of his grace, the dispensa tions of his providence, are all to them mirrors reflecting his ex cellences. They live in the hope of going to him when their spirit leaves this world ; and they are " looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of their Lord Jesus Christ," which is to complete their deliverance, and bring them, soul and body, into eternal, most intimate coraraunion and fellowship with hira. They are looking for hira, who is coming for their salvation. They are " looking for the Saviour frora heaven " — our Lord Jesus Christ, — " who shall change their vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his own glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself." And they shall not look in vain. He who has been faithful in so raany promises, will fulfil this also. This shall be " yea and amen in hira, to the glory of God by us." " Faithful is he who hath proraised ; who also will do it." " He that shall corae will come, and will not tarry." " Amen. Even so come. Lord Jesus."* Happy are those to whom is secured the fulfilment of all these exceeding great and precious promises. Is this happiness ours ? Certainly it once was not. Probably it may not yet be. It is — must be — ours, or we are doubly lost for ever. It may be ours. It is brought near to us — near to us now — in the word of the truth of the Gospel, He who is Christ's shall assuredly " inherit all things;" and all are Christ's who, in the faith of the truth, receive him, and give themselves to him in return — none else. Have we, then, in the faith of the truth, corae to Christ — received Christ ? Then all is well — aU is well for ever. If we have not thus come to Christ and received him, there is no time to lose, for everything is in hazard. The way to secu rity, because the way to him, is now open. It may be shut ere to-raorrow. There is no salvation in " the world," " the world lying under the wicked one." Ye raust come out and be separ ate, and not touch the unclean thing, and He whose name is " the everlasting Father " — the Father of the coming, the end less age — will be your Father ; and then you will not be orphans, but "sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty."^ Remain 1 2 Cor, i, 20. Heh. x. 23. 2 Thess. iii. 24. Heb. a. y7, Ecv, xxii. 20. 2 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. 124 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIU. "in the world," and you raust perish with the world. They who persist in seeking their portion there, will be ultimately left orphans — comfortless. It is a poor portion at best. The world cannot make you happy if it would. Jesus Christ is both able and willing to make you happy ; but, with aU his willingness, all his power to save, he can save you only by that faith which, by bringing you under the power of the world to come, delivers you from this present evil world, lying under a curse, doomed to destruction. " This is the victory that overcometh the world,"* Oh, the importance of the faith of the Gospel ! It will be found, ere long, to make all the difference between salvation and dam nation, ietween heaven and hell. There is no exaggerating the importance of the questions, closely connected, ' What is the Gospel?' and, 'Do I believe it?' Happy is he — he only is happy — who can satisfactorily answer both. Can you do it ? ' 1 John V. 4. IX. THE christian's FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S LIFE. John xiv. 19. — " Because I live, ye shall live also." These words have been considered by raany expositors as so intimately connected with those which immediately precede them, as to form a part of the same sentence. These interpreters render the whole verse thus : — " Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see me, because I live, and ye shall live"* There can be no doubt the words admit of being thus rendered, and, viewed merely by themselves, perhaps this is the raore natural translation. Some of these expositors, considering our Lord as referring solely to his soon coming to the apostles after his resurrection, and being then seen by them, view the words before us as as signing the reason for the assertion " Yet a little while, and ye shall see me ;" thus, " Yet a little while, and ye shall see me ;" ' for though I am about to die, yet the period of my continuance in the state of death is to be so short, and my resurrection is so certain, that I may say " I live," I am not to continue dead. I shall soon be alive again ; " and ye shall live." Those who are to put me to death shall not be permitted to put you to death : you are to be preserved alive : so that I will soon come to you, and you shall see me.' Others of them, taking wider, and as we think juster, views of the meaning of our Lord's coming to his apostles, and of his being -the object of vision, not to the world, but to them, find in the words a reason for both parts of the assertion made in the .preceding verse, — " The world seeth me no more : but ye see me." " I live." ' I am, through my death, to enter on a new and higher kind of life. In that new life I shall not be, I cannot be, the object of apprehension by the world. My new life is a " Calvin. 126 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. spiritual thing, and must be spirituaUy apprehended. The world is dead, — spiritually dead. Vision, which is just one species of sense, is a function of life. The spiritually dead are of course spiritually blind. " The world," continuing what it is, " cannot see me, neither know me, but ye shall see me;" for not only shall I live to be seen ; you shall be so partakers of this life as to be capable of seeing me.' This is truth — and it is truth which the words, taken by themselves, might not unnaturally be con sidered as conveying ; but there appears to me a reconditeness in the meaning, an over ingenuity in the interpretation, and for that, as well as for other reasons, which will come out in the course of exposition, I prefer, with our translators, to consider the words, " Because I live, ye shall live also," as a separate sen tence, and as embodying in them a new and very important topic of consolation. Our Lord had already said to his disconsolate disciples, — ' Let not your hearts be so troubled in the prospect of my leaving you, either about me or about yourselves. As to me, I am going home to my Father's house, and what could you wish better for me than this ? And as to yourselves, — my object in going to my Father's house is to make arrangements for bringing you thither, and when these arrangements are finished, I wiU return for you, and take you to be with Hira and with me for ever ; and in the meanwhile, the miraculous powers which I have committed to you are not to be withdrawn, and you are to be enabled to accomplish a work greater than any rairacle ; and in carrying forward that work, you have only to ask of the Father, and whatever is necessary to its successful prosecution will be granted you. And still further, at ray request the Father will send you the Holy Spirit who will supply ray place, and be your instructor, and guide, and raonitor, and helper, and comforter ; in one word, your Paraclete, And do not think that I am permanently to leave you, or that I am to leave you long in that state of orphan hood in which you will be when I am away frora you, and the other paraclete has not yet corae, I will come — soon come — and though the world will not see me, ye shall see me, I will be with you, and you shall have the comfort of knowing that I am with you till the end of the world. You will not only have my pre sence, but the consciousness of my presence.' ' But even this is not all. 1 shall not only be with you, and PART IX.] FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S LIFE. 127 you shall be aware of it, but I shall be present with- you as the living, life-giving One, and you shall enjoy fellowship with rae in my life. Though, as to bodily presence, I am about to with draw fi'ora you, I shall continue to be as really present with you as ever. There is not even to be the withdrawal of my presence as an object of distinct perception. I shall be as clearly seen to be with you, by the eye of the mind, as I have been seen to be present with you by the eye of the body ; but beyond and above all this, it is not to be the withdrawal of my presence as a source of living influence : on the contrary, as I am to live in a higher sense than I have ever yet lived as the God-man — Mediator — you are to enjoy a higher state of life than you yet possess, by communications of fellowship in my life. " Because I live, ye shaU live also."'* These words strikingly resemble the declaration of our Lord to John in Patmos, when he appeared to him in so glorious a vision that he fell at his feet as dead, — " Fear not ; I am the First and the Last : I am he that liveth and was dead ; and, be hold, I am alive for evermore. Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death." ^ Is not this just an expansion of the simpler words, " Let not your heart be troubled — because I live, ye shall live also," There are three topics which these words bring before our minds, on which I shall endeavour, in their order, to fix your attention for a little : — The life of our Lord — " I live ; " the life of his people — " Ye shall live also ;" and the connection be tween these — " Because I live, ye shall live also," § 1. Of the life of Christ. "I live." Our Lord, as a divine person, is possessed of inde pendent, infinite, immutable, eternal, life ; that is, capacity of action and enjoyment. In him — as the " Word who was in the beginning — who was with God — who was God ; by whora 'all things were made ; without whom nothing was made which was made," — " in Him was," is, and ever will be, " life," He was " that eternal life," — that eternal living one, " which was with the Father," — in his bosom before the world was — " the first, the last, the living One." He, as the Son, had " life in himself, even ' is, non iiia-u. Apoc. i. 18, lyii i im. 2 jigy_ ;_ 17^ ]^g_ 128 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII, as the Father hath life in himself" In that Godhead, which is coramon to both with the Holy Spirit, is " the fountain of life," * None but one possessed of this independent life could have effec tually interposed for the deliverance of raan — dead — twice dead. Had he not thus lived, we never could have lived by him, through him, in him. It is not, however, to the life which belongs to our Lord, con sidered simply as a divine person, that the reference is in the passages before us. That is a life in which none can participate beyond the sacred circle of Deity, It belongs exclusively to the highest order of existence. The life is the life which belongs to the Son, as God-man, Mediator — the life of a man in union with God charged with the high and holy enterprise of quickening the dead — saving the lost ; and it refers to this life in its state of full development, after his resurrection from the dead. It is plainly in reference to his state when, after a little while, he was to return to his disciples, — a state in which they were to see him, but the world was not to see him, that he says, " I live." He had lived the life of a man in union with God, even when he was on the earth in his humbled state — of the God-man, com missioned to give life — and raany and striking were the demon strations that he gave of his possession of this life. But, till sin was expiated, this life could not be fully developed nor displayed. That death in the flesh, which was the bearing, and bearing away, of the sins of men, not merely preceded, but was the pro curing cause of, that " quickening in the Spirit" which followed. The crucifixion in weakness was the procuring cause of the hving by the power of God. The living incarnate One died, so far as he could die ; but he became alive again. Not raore certain is it that he " died for our sins according to the Scriptures," than that " he rose again from the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures." Not more certain that he " was delivered for our offences," than that he was " raised again for our justifica tion." Not more certain that he " laid down his life" than that he " took it again." ^ It was not possible that he, the living One, should continue bound by the bonds of death. He was faithful to Him who appointed hira, and shrank not from going down to the mansions of the dead in prosecution of the great 1 John i, 4. 1 John i. 2. Rev. i. 18. Psal. xxxvi. 9. 2 Cor. XV. 3, 4. Rom. iv. 26. John x. 17. PART IX.] FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S LIFE. 129 object of his appointment as the Saviour ; and He who appointed him was faithful to him in fulfilling the promise on which He had caused him to hope : " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou give thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life." * It is not, however, so much to the life restored by the resurrec tion, as to the new development of,life which accompanied and followed the resurrection, that our Lord refers, when he here says, " I live," It includes both " I am alive again," and " I have the keys of hell and of death," The Father said, " Ask and I will give thee:" and "he asked life, and the Father gave it him"^ — unlimited capacities of action and enjoyment, and un bounded power to communicate these — all energy, all authority, all enjoyment, " all power over all flesh, all power in heaven and in earth, that he might give eternal life to all whora the Father has given him, quickening whom he wills, even as the Father quickens whora He wills," Raised frora the dead, " he dies no more : death hath no raore dominion over him," He has dominion over death. Having died under the condemning power of sin, he lives for ever under the powerful influences of the approbation and love of his Father, well pleased for his righte ousness' sake. He " reigns in life," His life is royal life — the life of a king, of " the King of kings and Lord of lords." " And the King's life shall be prolonged ; and his years for many genera tions : he shall abide before God for ever." " The King joys in Jehovah's strength, and in his salvation he greatly rejoices ; for He has given him his heart's desire, and not withholden the re quest of his lips. He has prevented him with the blessings of his goodness; he has set a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked life of Jehovah, and He gave it him ; even length of days for ever : his glory is great in his salvation. Honour and majesty has He laid on him : He has made him most blessed for ever. He has made hira exceedingly glad with his countenance," " Jehovah has said to our Lord,- — Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Rule in the midst of thine enemies. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek," This is the 1 Psal. xvi. 10, U. 2 Psal. xxi. 4. VOL. III. * 1 130 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, priest of whom it is equally witnessed, that he died, and " that he liveth " to die no more — that, as " priest on his throne," " he is able to save to the uttermost all coming to God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them." According to the ancient oracle, " Having poured out his soul unto death, making it an offering for sin, his days are prolonged to the ages of eternity ; he sees his seed, and the pleasure of the Lord," in the salvation of men, " prospers in his hands." * This is, we apprehend, the life of which our Lord speaks in the text — the joy which was set before him, and the anticipation of which enabled him to " endure the cross, and to despise the shame " — made him long to be baptised with blood — and pant for death as the way to life. § 2. Of the life of Christ's people. It is now time that we turn our attention to the life of our Lord's people, " Ye shall live also." That Christ, when he rose from the dead, rose as " the first-fruits of thera that sleep in hira,"^ the first-born of the chosen faraily, their representative and forerunner, is abundantly evident ; and there can be no doubt that, in this sense, " because he lives they shaU live also." But they strangely misapprehend our Lord's meaning, and hmit the intended range of his statement, who would confine the reference in our text to the blessing of a glorious resurrection at the close of the present economy. It refers to that, but It refers to much besides that. It announces the glorious doctrine so fully brought out in the apostolical writings, after their authors had received the Holy Spirit, who was to lead them into all truth, that Christians are, by the faith of the Gospel produced in them by the Holy Ghost, so identified with Jesus Christ as to be partakers with him of that holy happy life, on the complete enjoyment of which he entered, when, being raised from the dead, he sat dowm for ever on the right hand of the Majesty on high. They, enjoying " abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness," " reign in life with him" — in hira.^ This doctrine is to be found nowhere so fully stated as by the apostle Paul. He with equal clearness teaches us, that if we are iMatt. xxviii. 19. .lohn xvii. 2. Rom. v. 17. Psal. Ixi. 6, 7. Psal. xxi. 1-7 ; ex. 1-4. Heb. vii. 8. Zech. vi. 13. Heb. vii, 25, Isa. liii. 10. Heb. xii. 2. 2 1 Cor. XV. 20. 3 Rom. v, 17, PART IX.] FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S LIFE. 131 true Christians by a living faith, we died in Christ's death — and live in his life. He assures us that those who have that faith of which profession is made in baptism, are so united to Christ as to have died in his death, to have been buried in his burial, to have been raised in his resurrection to live in his life, to have been " dead by sin " and to be alive " by God in Christ Jesus our Lord." He speaks of them as " quickened together with Christ," as " raised up together with him," as " made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." He says they have "risen with Christ " — that they " have died, but that they now live," and " their life is hid with Christ in God." He says of himself, that " through law he had become dead to the law," that he " might live to God," and he explains that by saying that he had been " crucified with Christ," and so had dti^d in him, but that he " yet fives " — lives in him ; yea, " the life which he now lives in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him." * Guided by these divinely inspired declarations, let us en deavour to unfold, a little, the nature and enjoyments of this life along with Christ, this life in Christ, of which our Lord speaks, that we may see how well the belief of it is fitted to support and comfort the hearts of his people, amid all the perplexities, and anxieties, and sorrows of the present state. The life our Lord refers to, in the text, is a life of holy activity and enjoyment, rising primarily out of the manifestation of the Divine favour to him, as having in his obedience to death, as the surety of sinners, " magnified the Divine law and made it honourable," and opened a way for " grace reigning through righteousness, unto the eternal life " of an innuraerable multitude of otherwise hopelessly lost immortals. And in this life, all the people of Christ, all who believe in him, have fellowship with him. This is, by way of eminence, their life as Christians, inasmuch as connected with hira they are delivered from the condemning sentence of the Divine law, dooming them to death, and are brought into a state of favour and fellowship with God, which is " life — better than life." "In him they have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace." They " are made accepted in the Beloved," and " God for the ' Eom. vi, 3-11. Eph. ii. 6, 6, Col. iii. 1-4. Gal, ii, 19, 20. 132 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. great love wherewith He loves them, blesses them with all heavenly and spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus ;" knowing the joyful sound, " they walk in the light of Jehovah's countenance as weU pleased," for " his Son's righteousness' sake," and with thera in him ; " they rejoice in his name," as " the God of truth," and "the God of peace," "the just God and the Saviour," "the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," and our God and Father in him, all the day ; and are exalted in his righteousness. " In him they have righteousness, in him they have strength." " In hira they are justified, in him they glory."* As the Divine favour, which is the source of the life of Christ, as God-man — Mediator — manifests itself in the anointing him with the oil of gladness above his fellows, giving him the Holy Spirit as the spirit of holy gladness above measure, so does God fill all the members of the living head with the same Spirit, " the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," frora a regard to the great atoneraent, giving them the proraised Spirit, that they may be " sanctified wholly in the whole man, soul, body, and spirit," " strengthened with all might in the inner man," enabled to " walk up and down in his narae," " making mention of his righteousness, even of his only."^ Their life of holiness and happiness proceeds from the same source, and comes through the same channels, as his. It has been with equal truth and beauty said, that " all those exercises of holy thought and holy feeling, of holy disposition and holy conduct, which constitute what is termed the spiritual life, are prompted and sustained by an influence derived from him their exaltpd Prince and Saviour, the channel .through which, according to the constitution of mercy, essential Deity, the source of all holy happiness, pours forth its purifying, refreshing streams into the human heart ; or, to change the flgure, that aU the manifestations of holy activity and enjoyment which appear in the character and exercise of Christ's true disciples, are but, as it were, the pulsations and the vital operations in the limbs, of the life which, proceeding ultimately frora the Deity, the foun tain of life, is distributed as from a reservoir by hira who is the head, and circulates thence through the whole extent of the ' Psal. XXX. 5 ; Ixiii. 3. Eph, i, 3, 6, 7, Psal. Ixxxix. 16,16. Isa. xiv. 24, 26. 2 Roin. viii. 2. 1 Cor. i. 2 ; vi, 11. 1 Thess. v. 23. Col. i. 11. Zech. x. 12. Psal. Ixxi. 16. PART IX. j FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S LIFE. 133 sacred body, in heaven and in earth, ' the fulness of him who filleth all in aU.'"* Thus do believers, even here, in this land of darkness and death, live, and live in union to, and in con formity with, their living . Lord. " Eating him they live by him." " The Spirit is life because of" his "righteousness."^ But " the body is dead " — mortal, and must die, because of sin. It is so now, but it shall not be always so. In all the extent of its meaning, the promise is sure to all the seed : " Because I live ye shall hve also." " The body is dead because of sin ; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." And " He who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, shall also quicken our mortal bodies." " Mortality shall be swallowed up of life," and " the last enemy shall be destroyed." The empty grave of Jesus secures that, " yet a little while,'' and the graves of all his people shall be empty too. " This mortal shall put on immortality ; this corruptible shaU put on incorruption." " What was sown in weakness shall be raised in power ; what was sown in dis honour shall be raised in glory." The bodies of Christ's people shall, as well as their souls, be full of life ; " fashioned like unto his glorious body." It is impossible that those whora God, look ing on them in Christ, regards as only different parts of one body — one system of holy life — should for ever remain, one part of them enjoying a life of sinless perfection, unmingled felicity, boundless glory — another part, degraded in rank, polluted with sin, afflicted with suffering, trampled on by death.^ The life in the head wiU thoroughly pervade and animate all the members. " Your life is hid," says the apostle, " with Christ in God. But when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." While their bodies are " fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto hiraselfj" their spirits, purified from every stain of depravity, every shade of defect, shall become the perfect mirrors of Christ's life. They shall " be like him, seeing him as he is," * Like glorious orbs sur rounding him, the Sun of righteousness, attracted by his in fluence — lightened by his fight — made glorious by his glory — they shall, through eternity, in Jehovah's sanctuary — the firma- 1 Brown Patterson. ^ John vi. 67. Rom. viii. 10. ' Brown Patterson, 1 Rom. viii. 10, 11. 1 Cor. xv. 20, 63, 54. 2 Cor, v. 4. Col. iii, 3, 4 Phil, iii, 21, 1 John iii. 2. 134 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII. ment of power — in songs sweeter than the fabled music of the spheres, show forth the praises of hira who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light. Then wUl be understood the true import of the words, " Because I live, ye shall live also," § 3, Of the cmxnection between the life of Christ and that of h^ people. It only remains now that, in the third place, we turn your attention to the connection between the life of Christ, and the life of his people, " Because I live, ye shall live also," There are two remarks here which naturally suggest themselves. His life proves that he has done all that is necessary to secure life for them ; and his life shows that he possesses all that is necessary in order to bestow life on thera. In the first place, his life proves that he has done all that is necessary, in order to secure life for them. Had he not succeeded in doing this, he himself would not thus have lived. He was their divinely-appointed Saviour ; and he was divinely-appointed to save them, by doing what they were bound to do, but were not disposed to do — to suffer what they were bound to suffer, but were not able to suffer — to merit what they absolutely required, but never could have merited, God " made to meet on him the iniquities of us all," Had Christ failed in satisfying the demands of the Divine law and justice on those in whose room he stood, he would have died never to rise again. The grave would have closed on him never to open again. His resurrection and his celestial life are undoubted proofs that, when exaction was made, he fully answered the exaction — that he has indeed " finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness " — that he has so been " made sin for us, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him" — that he has so " become a curse for us, as to redeem us who are under the curse" — " that the blessing of Abraham," a free and fuU justifi cation by faith, " might come on us" — and " that we might re ceive the proraised Spirit through believing,"* that both the sentence adjudging us to death, might be repealed, and the in fluence that was necessary to make us live might be sent forth. Were we not to live, the great end for which he died would I Isa. liii. 6. Dan, i.\. 24. 2 Cor. v. 21. Gal. iii. 13, 14. PART IX.J FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S LIFE. 135 be frustrated. But he cannot have died, and revived, and risen again, in vain. Given for our offences, raised again for our jus tification, what can retain us in the fetters of guilt and under the power of depravity ? Here is an all-perfect atonement opening the way for the communication of an all-powerful Spirit, What can prevent those who, in the appointed way, are interested in that atonement and Spirit, frora obtaining all the activities and enjoyments of the new life ? " Our Surety freed declares us free, For whose offences he was seized ; In his release our own we see, — And joy to view Jehovah pleased." The second remark which naturally rises in the raind on this subject is, that Christ's life shows that he possesses all that is necessary to bestow life on his people. We have seen what Christ's life is — boundless capacity of holy activity and enjoy- raent. " He reigns in life," He has " all power in heaven and earth," " Angels, and authorities, and powers, are made sub ject to hira," " The Father hath given to hira to have life in himself; so that he quickeneth whom he wUl;"' — that is, the Divinity has willed it, that the glorified God-man Jesus should have all the resources of Divinity at his command, in conferring the blessings of his salvation, " It has pleased the Father, that in him all fulness should dwell," and should dweU in him for this purpose, " that out of his fulness, his people may receive, and grace for grace," * He is an inexhaustible source of life ; and he is not " a well shut up, a fountain sealed." If the people of Christ do not live, it cannot be owing to want of power on his part. Can it then be owing to want of disposition ? Ah ! he who was so ready to pour out his own life to secure our life, can never be indisposed to give life where it requires but an act of his will. His hand can never be shortened, his arm never can be weary, and his heart never can be reluctant, in bestowing and sustaining the life of his people. No ; all who know anything of his character will be ready to say, ' If he live, we are sure to live also,' He will not keep all the life to himself, especially when withholding does not enrich, and giving does not impoverish I 1 Pet. iii. 22. John v. 21, 26. Col. i. 10. John i, 16. 136 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII. him. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though he was living — though he was life, he, for our sakes, became dead, that we, through his death, might be made alive, AU who know the facts of Ill's history, will re-echo his own declaration, " Because he lives, his people shall Uve also," It requires but few words to show how this truth is calculated to sustain and comfort Christians amid all the sufferings, and anxieties, and sorrows of life and death. When the number and difficulty of duties excite alarm, viewed in connection with our own spiritual weakness — life being with us httle more than the capacity of feeling our feebleness, — how encouraging the thought, " he lives " — life is strong and active in him, — and he can and will communicate supplies of life and strength commen surate to our need 1 He can " give power to the faint, and to them that have no power he increaseth strength," He can " strengthen the things that remain, and are ready to die," We hear his voice, " My grace is sufficient for thee ; my strength is made perfect in weakness ;" and we learn to rejoice in infirmities, and find out the meaning of that paradox, " when I am weak, then am I strong;" " dying, yet, behold, we live ;" " the life of our Lord Jesus is manifest in our mortal bodies."* When the number and strength of our spiritual enemies afrighten us, and we feel our hearts dying within us, how does it give jiew life to think " our Redeemer is the living One " — " our Redeemer is strong ; the Lord of hosts is his name : he will plead our cause " — " the Lord our God in the midst of us is mighty; he wUl save !" " Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy." ^ When our nearest and dearest friends are taken from us — when father and mother, brother and sister, wife or husband, forsake us, and death seems to reign all around, — how consoling to think the great God our Saviour lives ! " He- lives for ever more, and has the keys of hell and of death." When those who were dear to us, not only in the flesh, but in the Lord, are torn from us, how consoling and full of comfort, that " this thing is true in them and in us!" He is still their life, stUl our hfe; they live in him, we live in him ; and this common life binds us still in most endearing union. They have a higher degree of life in him than they could have in this land of death. Like I Isa, xl 29, 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10; vi. 9; iv. 10. ' Job xix. 25, Jer. 1. 34. Zeph. iii. 17, Mic, viii, 8, PART IX.] FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S LIFE. 137 him, having become dead in the flesh, they are quickened in tlie Spirit. They seemed often to be " the life of our life," but we are to learn that the source of our life is elsewhere. They were but channels. Though they die we live — live in him. When holy, and able, and active, and useful christian men and ministers are removed from the midst of us, and our hearts tremble for the ark of God, how does this re-assure the heart — ' the great Shep herd is immortal, and so is his cause!' "Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." When the ravages of disease, or the gradual approach of old age, tell us death is drawing near ourselves — when heart and flesh are fainting and fading, — how delightful to think, Jesus " is the strength of our heart — our portion for ever !" He has redeemed our souls frora the lowest hell ; and with outstretched arras he stands ready to receive thera to the mansions he has prepared for thera ; and he has ransomed our bodies, too, from the power of the grave, so that we fear not to go down to the place where the Lord lay. Listen ing to him proclairaing, " Thy dead men shall live ; my dead body shall arise ; awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust ; your dew shall be as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth his dead," — we go down singing, " We know that our. Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though after our skin worms destroy this body, yet in our flesh shall we see God : whom we shall see for our selves, and our eyes shall behold, and not another ; though our reins be consumed within us." " O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." * " Because he lives, we shall Uve also." And oh, how transporting the antici pation, when those who were once dead, but made alive in him — first in spirit, then in body, — shall all be gathered together around him, a multitude no man can number, the living in the Jerusalem above, — to think how every eye and heart of those — completely redeemed from death — full of life as they can hold — their life, ever growing with their growing capacity — knowing and feeling that this double growth is to be eternal, — shall be turned towards Flim who is their life ; while the words of affec tionate gratitude and confidence shall burst from every mouth, 1 1 Cor, XV. 55-57. 138 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. " Because he died, we live ; because he lives, we live ; because he lives" — because he is the living One — " we shall live also !" Happy, surely, are the living disciples of the living Saviour ! Happy in prosperity — happy in adversity — happy in life — happy in death — happy for ever ! But this bright cloud has a dark side. The Saviour's unend ing life is full of terror to his enemies. Because he ever lives, he is raighty to save ; but it is just as true, because he ever lives, he is mighty to destroy. To his obstinate enemies he will say at last, ' Because I live, you must perish for ever,' They would not come to him that they might have life ; then they must depart from him, who is the life, into the lake pf fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Their happiness might have been permanent as his everlasting kingdom — his eternal nature. What might have been the measure of their term of enjoyment, must now be the measure of their term of punishment. " De part from me, into everlasting punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels." ' How dreadful to think that these should be the last words of him who so often, so earnestly, said, " Come !" They are not yet his words to any of you. Even to those who have longest lent a deaf ear to his merciful invitations, he is stUl saying " Come." He is still proclaiming, " As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." ' I will that they would turn — I will that they would live. Because I live, they may live. If they will but listen and believe, because I live, they shall live. But if they will not live, they must die,' " Awake, O sleeper ; call on thy God." " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise frora the dead, and Christ shall give thee light " * and life. Hast thou made " a covenant with death, and with hell art thou at agreement"? Art thou making lies thy refuge, and under falsehood art thou hiding thyself? Ah, when "judgment is laid to the line, and righteousness to the pluramet, the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding- place. And thy covenant with death shall be disannulled, and thine agreement with hell shall not stand ; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then shalt thou be trodden down by it," ^ These are not vain words. They are the words of " Him that lives for ever and ever ;" and his word is like himself, ' Eph, V, H. : Isa. xxviii. 17, 18. PART IX.] FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S LIFE. 139 " quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword ; piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, the joints and raarrow, and proving itself to be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." " It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," who " lifts up his hand, and swears, I Hve for ever ; I will whet ray glittering sword ; I will lay hold on judgraent ; ray sword is whetted ; my bow is bent ; the arrows of death are on the string. They who are far frora rae shall perish. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."* Oh, how much better to cast our selves into the arras of the compassionate Saviour, who is pro clairaing, " Come to me;" " Hearken to rae ye stout-hearted and far from righteousness." " Behold, my righteousness is brought near to you ; ray salvation shall not tarry,'' " Hear, and your soul shall live,'' " Repent ; believe the Gospel," ^ In believing the Gospel, you receive him who is the life, and who says to all who believe in him, " He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," " He that believeth in me shall never die,'" " Because I live, ye shall live also." Happy, happy they who thus pass from death to life — frora the congre gation of the dead unto the land of the living. They are written among the living in Jerusalem, and " over such the second death hath no power." ' Deut. xxxii. 40-42. Psal. vii. 11-13 ; ix. 17. - Matt. xi. 28. Isa. Iv. 3; xlvi. 12. 3 John xi. 25, 26. X. CHRIST IN THE FATHER — HIS DISCIPLES IN HIM, AND HE IN THEM. John xiv. 20. — " At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." The importance of a definite knowledge and firm behef of the peculiar, and what may be considered as the more recondite, doctrines of Christianity, is very dimly apprehended, very greatly underrated, even by many who profess to believe these doctrines. The doctrines I refer to are such as the trinity — the incarnation — the distinctness of our Lord's natures, notwithstanding the intimacy and indissolubility of their union — the absolute unity of his person as God-man — the atonement, in its reality and effi cacy — the personality, divinity, and influence of the Holy Spirit. By the infidel these doctrines are considered as mystical dreams, scholastic abstractions, characterised by self-contradic tion and absurdity, fitted for no purpose but to perplex and con found the mind ; and because he clearly perceives that such doc trines are contained in Holy Scripture, he rejects its claim to a divine origin. The rational Christian, as he is pleased to style himself, with an implied assumption, which he scarcely attempts to conceal, that aU others who bear the name are irrational, does not differ raaterially from the infidel in the opinion he entertains of these doctrines ; so he sets himself to the difficult work of attempting to show that those passages of the sacred writings which seem to teach them, have been misinterpreted, and that those passages in the copies of these sacred writings which we possess, which it cannot be denied do teach them, are interpola tions, and did not belong to these writings, as they came from the hand of their authors ; while he, in no ambiguous language, intimates that he would rather give up the authority of the Scriptures, than acknowledge the truth of these doctrines, — that he is fully as much convinced of the falsehood of the latter, as PART X.] THE FATHER, CHRIST, AND HIS PEOPLE — ONE. 141 he is of the truth of the former, and that if he must either re ceive both or reject both, he would find Uttle difficulty in .choos ing his alternative. All this is very absurd, and wrong, and deplorable ; but it is exactly what might be expected frora the avowed principles of the infidel and the self-called rationalist. These, however, are not the only persons who dimly appre hend and greatly underrate these great distinctive doctrines of the Christian revelation. There are men— loud in proclaiming their belief of all these doctrines, bitter in defending it — who would yet be a good deal put about if required to give a clear state ment of any one of them — whose belief of them, if it deserve the name, is little more than a belief that certain propositions in which they _ are generally stated (which propositions to them might nearly as well be couched in an unknown tongue), are true — who have no doubt that they reckon them most indubit ably true, but who plainly consider thera as having little con nection with the formation of character and guidance of con duct, and on whose tempers and behaviour they seem to have — how should it be otherwise? — no perceptible infiuence. With the name Christian, and observing the external institutions of Christianity, they are yet in the inner man — in the understand ing, the conscience, the affections — just exactly what they would have been had the subjects of these doctrines no existence — had there been no Trinity, no incarnation, no atonement, no Holy Ghost, or had these topics formed no part of the Divine revela tion. They seem utterly unaware of the truth, that the vitality, the great strength, of the system of Christianity, hes in these doctrines, that it is only in the degree that a man understands, and believes, and is influenced by these doctrines, that he can be properly called a Christian, and that, till a raan is influenced by them, he has no sufficient evidence that he believes thera. Pro fessed, conscious, infidels, are not the only unbelievers. I do not worship the christian God, if I do not worship God in Christ; and as christian worship is rational worship, I cannot worship God in Christ, without knowing what is raeant by God being in Christ, and beheving it. The Saviour, on whose atone ment I as a Christian am called to rely, is the Son of God, who is in his Father, and the efficacy of his atonement depends on this. How can I rely on this atonement, if I do not know what 142 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. is meant by his being the Son of God — meant by his being in the Father? That holiness without which I cannot see the Lord, is the work of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Father and the Son. How can I obtain — how can I even seek — this holiness if I do not know that there is a Holy Ghost — know who he is, know how the exercise of his influence is connected with the grace of the Father, and the atoneraent of the Son ? AU christian motive, all christian comfort, flows frora christain doc trine, understood and believed. The iraportance of the know ledge and belief of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity is written in letters of light, in every page of the New Testament, but I do not know if, in its whole compass, a more impressive exhibition of this truth, is to be met with than in the words of our Lord, to which we are now for a little to direct your attention. One of the causes of the deep regret of the disciples at the prospect of their Lord's immediately impending separation from thera was their deep conviction and feeling, equally of the im portance of the doctrines he had taught them respecting the Father being in him, and him being in the Father — respecting him being in them, and them being in him — and other similar subjects ; and of the very indistinct conceptions they as yet had obtained of these important doctrines. Feeling that they had never rightly estimated their privilege in having hira with them till they were about to lose hira, it is very probable they deeply regretted that they had not better improved the opportunities, while he was yet with them, of obtaining from him what he was never backward to communicate, a fuller development of these truths. They knew well these were things which " eye had not seen, ear had not heard, and which it never could have entered into the heart of man to conceive." * They were persuaded that none but he who had been in the Father's bosom, and had come down from heaven, could reveal, or could farther explain to them, these obviously incalculably important, but to them very dimly appre hended, disclosures. And now that he, the true light, is about to leave thera — leave them in some respects more bewildered by these new lights than they were when he found them — was " the mystery which had been hid from former ages and generations," 1 1 Cor. ii. 9. PART X,] THE FATHER, CHRIST, AND HIS PEOPLE — ONE. 143 " hid in God from before the foundation of the world," and which seemed just unfolding to them, to be again shrouded in thick darkness, and to become more a mystery than ever? Who shall complete the work of revelation, which he, the great teacher, had left unfinished ? They felt they did not understand much that he had said to them ; and when he was gone, who was to be their teacher, who was to be his interpreter ? The promise of the Holy Spirit, in the context, as the paraclete, and the pro mises in the text of full illumination on these subjects referred to, precisely met this state of mind, and administered the appro priate support and consolation. It would be very unreasonable and unnatural to expect, in such an address as that under consideration, the strict formal raethod that is desirable in a regular treatise or discourse ; but there is more method and connection in it than a careless reader is apt to suppose — there is that order which is always to be found in the workings of a sound, well-furnished mind, however much under the influence of feeling. The thoughts are just the thoughts which the occasion demanded, and are poured forth from the heart in an order suggested by the circumstances, and well-fitted to gain the end in view. It may serve a good purpose, that we very briefly recapitulate the train of consolatory thought. It is as if our Lord had said, ' Let not your hearts be thus overwhelmed with regret, perplexity, fear, and sorrow, at the prospect of my leaving you, — thus leaving you. You have no sufficient reason for such trouble of heart on my account, I am going home to my Father's house in heaven. What could even your kind hearts wish better for me than this ? You have no sufficient reason for such trouble of heart on your own account. My object in going to my Father's house, is to make arrangements for your everlasting residence there ; and when these are finished, I will return and take you all, soul and body, to be with Him and with rae for ever. As the way, I will open up a way for you. As the truth, I wUl instruct you in that way. As the life, I will enable you to walk in that way to the Father. And, meanwhile, the miraculous powers I have entrusted to you are not to be withdrawn till, in the establishment of my king dom among men, you have accomplished a work far raore glori ous than any miracle; and in performing this work, you are sure of obtaining frora ray Father whatever is necessary for its 144 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, accomplishment, if you ask it of the Father. Nor is this all : I will pray the Father, and he will send you the Holy Spirit, who will do all, and in larger measure, and higher degree, which I did for you while with you, as your instructor, and raonitor, and guide, and protector, and governor, — in one word, your paraclete ; — and when he coraes, he never wiU depart. You are not to be deprived, permanently, or even long, of my presence. For a little time, indeed, you are to be orphans, but it is only for a very little time, I will very soon be again bodily present with you, and though that kind of presence with you is not to con tinue, I will be often visiting you — nay, I will be always with you, and so with you, as that you shall be sensible that I am with you. Moreover, in that life, on the full possession of which I am through death just about to enter, you are to be participants. And the consequence of this ray spiritual coraing to you, and of your experience of fellowship with me in my life, and of the raission of the Holy Ghost, will be, that your views of those truths — glimpses of which only you have obtained, but such glimpses, as have impressed you with the conviction, that all knowledge is valueless compared with the excellent knowledge of these, your views of these truths shall become far more clear, and comprehensive, and influential. Their raeaning and their evidence will corae distinctly out. You will understand and believe thera, and feel their powerful practical influence to strengthen for duty, and to support under trial, " At that day," — or in that day, — " ye shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you," ' The phrase, " that day," does not seem here to refer, as some have supposed, to some one day, or short fixed period, — as the time when our Lord returned to the disciplep after his resurrec tion, — or, the time of the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, — or, the time of the second coming,* I have already en deavoured to show you that the promises, " I will come to you," " because I live, ye shall live also," refer to the whole period from our Lord's coming after the resurrection, to his coming the second time for their complete salvation. The phrase, " in that day," refers to the whole of that period. It is just equivalent to then. The phrase is very often used in this way in the Old I " Dies certus non describitur, sed iempus, quod jam seeuturum erat, et quo Spiritus Sanctus animo ipsorum illapsurus orat." — Semler. PART X.J THE FATHER, CHRIST, AND HIS PEOPLE — ONE. 145 Testament Scriptures to signify the whole period of the kingdom of God ; as in Isaiah : " In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee ;" and in Zechariah, " In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ;" and, " In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one, over all the earth."* The promise contained in the text was to be fulfilled during that period ; it was to begin to be fulfilled when our Lord returned to them after the resurrection, — more fully at the giving of the Spirit, — most fully at the second coming of the Lord. In the remaining part of this dis cussion, I shall endeavour to show, — First, What are the gi'eat fundamental doctrines referred to by our Lord ; what is meant by his being in the Father — his being in his disciples, and his disciples being in him : then. Secondly, What is meant by. their knowing — as at present they did not know — these doctrines : and, Finally, How this declaration was fulfilled — how the dis ciples of Christ, at or during the period referred to, did know that he was in the Father, and they in him, and he in thera. § 1. The doctrines referred to. Let us first, then, endeavour to ascertain the meaning of our Lord's assertion, that he was in the Father, and that his dis ciples were in him, and he in his disciples. The general idea, is intimate relation, ' You shaU know that the Father and I are most intimately related, and that I and you are most intimately related ; and you shall not only know the fact, but you shall understand much that at present you do not understand, respect ing the nature, and properties, and design, and effects, of these intimate relations. Ye shall understand and believe the truth respecting these relations.' Though the same phrase is used of all these relations, we are by no means to conclude that they are all of the same nature, and that whatever is true of one is true of all. We shall, by and by, see that that is not the case — cannot possibly be the case ; but they have all this in cora mon, that they are very intimate, and properly expressed by the one person being represented, as not only with, but in, the other. 1 Isa, xii. 1. Zech. xiii. 1 ; xiv. 9. VOL. III. *K 146 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. (1.) Christ is in the Father. Let us look at the statements in their order : — First, " I am in the Father," — i.e., ' I am most intimately related to the Father,' The sentiment is more fully expressed at the 10th and 11th verses, to which the words before us look back : — " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ; or else believe me for the very works' sake," The general principle is, there is a most intimate relation between our Lord and the Father, He is in the Father, and the Father is in hira. The principle holds with regard to our Lord in the three aspects in which he is so often held up to us in Scripture, and without attending to which, we can under stand nothing aright in reference to hira — as a divine person — as the man Christ Jesus — as the God-man Mediator between God and man. In all these respects Christ is in the Father, and the Father in him ; but not in every case in precisely the same sense, A most intimate relation subsists between them in all these aspects ; but that relation is not in every case of the same nature. Let us inquire, first. What is the relation which subsists be tween our Lord and the Father as divine persons ? How is the Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son ? They are, with the Holy Spirit, possessors of the one divine essence — they are possessed of equal, which in such a case means the same, perfec tions — they have the same prerogatives of absolute universal property and dominion — they are the only living and true God, It is of Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that it is said, " Jehovah is our God — Jehovah is one " — ^" of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things." * This relation is more properly expressed by the word unity than union. It is the most intimate relation in the universe. It never began, it never can change, it never can end. The Father and the Son are one.'' This is a union with the Father common to the Son and to 1 Deut. vi. 4. Rom. xi. 36. * John x. 30. PART X.] THE FATHER, CHRIST, AND HIS PEOPLE — ONE. 147 the Spirit ; but there is a union with the Father peculiar to the Son, He is the Son of the Father — the Father is his father. What that relation is we cannot comprehend. What the ex pression does not denote — what it does denote — we may partially apprehend. It does not intimate inferiority of rank, or posteri ority of being. The very nature of the divine essence and per fection, in the possession of which they are united, makes that evident enough. And it does intimate at once identity of nature, and some kind of distinction not inconsistent with unity, so that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father ; and it inti mates also, perfect resemblance and infinite mutual complacency. More I dare not say on this subject, dark as it is with excess of brightness, lest I darken it in multiplying words — " darken counsel, by these words being without knowledge." The second question here is. What is the relation which sub sists between our Lord as the raan Christ Jesus, and the Father ? As the man Christ Jesus, he could say, " I am in the Father, and the Father in me." In our first inquiry, the Father was considered simply as a divine person, the first personal subsist ence in the Godhead. In this, and the succeeding inquiry. He is to be considered as, in the economy of redemption, sustaining the majesty of the Godhead — the fountain of all being, power, and authority. What is the relation in which the raan Christ Jesus stands to the Godhead ? The question has two answers. The first is. The man Christ Jesus is in personal union with the Divinity. He is related to God as no man ever was, ever will be, ever can be. He' was " God manifest in flesh." In him " the Word which was in the beginning, which was with God, which was God, by whom all things were created, in whora was life, who was the light of men" — the author of all truth, life, and power, and holiness and happi ness among men — in him the Word " was made flesh, and dwelt among raen." He whora the apostles " saw with their eyes, looked upon, and whom their hands handled," was " the eternal Life" — the eternal living One, " which was, with the Father, manifested to them." Thus God was in him, and he was in God. God was united to him — he was united to God. " Great is this mystery of godliness." * This is the first answer to the 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. John i. 1-14. 1 John i. 1, 2. 148 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXYIII, question. What is the relation in which the man Christ Jesus stands to God ? The second answer is, The man Christ Jesus was, from^ the very moment of his beginning to exist as a raan, brought entirely under the influence of the Holy Spirit, through whom the one Divinity does aU things. " The Holy Spirit came upon that most honoured of women, his virgin mother,'' and " the power of the Highest overshadowed her, and that which was born of her was a holy thing— the Son of God." The Spirit was given him " not by measure." * The whole frame of his nature was animated by a holy influence. His entire nature, and all its actings, were thus in perfect accordance with the wUl of God, In the relations hitherto spoken of, the Son stands alone. Here he stands, not alone, but at the head of an innumerable multitude of brethren ; but having, as he well deserves, in an infinite degree the pre-eminence. In this second sense, he was in God, and God was in him — in the same general sense as every truly good man is in God, and God in him — but the rela^ tion exists in a degree and measure in which it never existed in any other human being. There is still a third aspect in which we must contemplate our Lord as saying, " I am in the Father, and the Father in me" — that of the God-raan Mediator between God and man — and the question we have to reply to now is, ' What is the relation which subsists between our Lord and the Father in this aspect ? How is he, as God-raan Mediator, in the Father, and how is the Father in hira?' It belonged to the Father, as sustaining the majesty of Godhead, to appoint the Mediator, Our Lord took not this honour on himself He came not unwillingly ; but it is equally true, he came not unsent : " I came not of myself; the Father sent rae." He was in the Father, in this respect, as the ambassador is in his prince or sovereign ; and the Father was in him, as the prince or sovereign is in his ambassador. His doc trine was the doctrine of God ; his works were the works of God. God spoke by him — in him. God did the works : " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."^ God's name was in him. The Father appointed the Son — the Son represented the Father. • Luke i. 36. John iii. 34. 2 John v. 17. PART X.J THE FATHER, CHRIST, AND HIS PEOPLE — ONE. 149 And, from the relation in which he stood to the Father, both as a divine person, and as an incarnation of God, it is plain that there was, in his economical character, a closeness of union with God, which never did — never can — exist with regard to any other agent or messenger. The prince was in the ambassador, and the ambassador in the prince, in a manner and degree alto gether peculiar. He was the substantial image of the Father ; all others who made revelations were but shadows. The manner in which inspired raen were in God, and in which God was in inspired raen, is an image of the manner in which the Son, as sent, was in the Father, and the Father, as the sender, was in the Son ; but the difference is greater than that of the east from the west — of earth from heaven. These are some hints as to what is involved in the declaration, " I am in the Father," There subsists a most intimate relation between our Lord and the Father — as a divine person — as the man Christ Jesus — as the God-man Mediator between God and man. (2.) Christ's people are in him. Our Lord's second statement is, " Ye are in me," — i. e., ' You are most intimately related to me.' What is the meaning of this ? There is a meaning in it peculiar to the apostles ; there is a meaning in it common to all true Christians in every coun try and every age. Let us endeavour to bring out the meaning in reference to both. To the apostles, as apostles, our Lord says, " Ye are in rae." ' You are identified with rae ; the cause you sustain is my cause ; you are no less safe, as to ultimate injury, than I am ; if God take care of me. He will take care of you, for you are in me.' It will require a little more time to show the import of these words to the apostles as Christians. By the Divine constitution, every believer is brought into such an intimacy of relation with Jesus Christ, as that he is treated as if he had done what Christ has done — suffered what Christ suffered — merited what Christ merited — obtained what Christ obtained. Christ's death is, as it were, his death — Christ's resurrection his resurrection. He has the same interest in Christ's atoning death, as if he himself had offered a satisfactory expiatory sacrifice ; the same interest in his meritorious obedience, as if he had himself fulfiUed all riifhteousness. So that " in him they are justified, sanctified. 150 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIU. and redeemed"* — absolutely secured of a complete salvation, from their connection with him. Besides, Christ's people are in him — united to him — as the branch to the vine, as the members to the head. The life that is in hira is their life. They live in him — through him. Thus they are in him as their substitute and surety, who " was wounded for their transgressions, and bruised for their iniquities'^who died for them, and in whom, therefore, they died — and who is thus " the Lord their righte ousness," while they are made " the righteousness of God in him ;" and they are in hira, too, as their living, life-giving Head, As new creatures, in him " they live, and move, and have their being." According to his own wonderful declaration, " As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." ^ (3.) Christ is in his people. Our Lord's third statement is, " I am in you," This, like the former declaration, has a meaning peculiar to the apostles, and a meaning common to them and to all genuine Christians. Viewed in reference to the apostles, the meaning is, ' I am in you, as my Father is in me : He sent me, and He endowed me with his Spirit ; I send you, and I endow you with my Spirit. I was never alone ; the Father, who sent me, was always with me — was in rae. You will never be alone, for I, who send you, will be with you — will be in you, — always with you — in you — to the end of the world. When I spake, it was his speaking ; when I worked miracles, it was He who did the works ; and so shall it be with you, I will be a mouth to you — I will be wisdom to you. When you speak, I will speak in you ; when you work miracles, it will not be you, but the grace of Christ in you, I, in you, will raake you wise to speak, wise to act, strong to do, strong to suffer,' Such is the force of the expression, " I ara in you," in reference to the apostles. It is true, however, of all Christians, as well as the apostles, that Christ is in thera. They are animated by his Spirit. But that Spirit, enabling them to understand and believe his word, makes them thinli along with him, will along with him, choose along with him, walk as he also walked ; so that they are his • 1 Cor. i. 30. 2 Isa. liii. 6. John vi. 57. PART X.] THE FATHER, CHRIST, AND HIS PEOPLE — ONE. 151 animated images — they are his living epistles. They are in the world, as he was in the world. It is not so much they who live, as Christ who lives in thera ; for " the life which they live in the flesh, they live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved them, and who gave himself for thera." Such a mass of important, vital, influential truth is condensed in these few words" of our Lord, " I am in the Father ; ye are in me ; I am in you." These intimate relations are closely connected together. The essential relations of the Father and the Son, as divine persons, are the foundation on which rest the economical relations be tween the Father and the Son ; and on them again rest the saving relations between Christ and his people. § 2. What it is to know these doctrines. Let us now inquire into the import of the words, " In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you." When these words were uttered, our Lord's disciples did not know these things as they were to know them. They had heard these statements again and again frora the lips of their Lord, and they had likely some misty general conception of what they referred to ; but they had no distinct clear apprehen sion of the truths which the outpouring of the Spirit, leading to the writing of the apostolic epistles, has enabled us to state, and which are plainly folded up in his words. But the time was approaching — was, indeed, very near at hand — when their views should be enlarged, and their faith confirmed, and, in a number of the points referred to, experience should be called in to the aid of faith. They should, by the influence of the Spirit shed ding light both on events and doctrines, and by changes wrought in them and by them, be made inteUigent and firm believers of these sublime truths, so far beyond the reach of the natural mind, and so come to know and be sure that Christ was in the Father, and the Father in Christ — that they were in Christ, and that Christ was in them. § 3, The fulfilment of the promise. It only remains that we, very shortly, show how this declara tion of our Lord was fulfilled, and how, in that day — in the day of the gospel dispensation, beginning with the resurrection from 152 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. QEXP. XXVIII. the dead, and reaching to our Lord's second coming — Christians have indeed been made to know that Christ is in the Father, and they in Christ, and Christ in them. The resurrection, to some extent, cleared the minds of the disciples as to some of these points. They saw that their Master was in the Father — most intimately connected with Him. He was powerfully declared, by the resurrection, to be the Son of God, " according to the Spirit of holiness " — i. e., probably, ' according to his divine nature,' The whole apostles were so impressed with this, that they worshipped their risen Lord ; and even doubting Thomas was constrained to exclaim, " My Lord, and my God," * The outpouring of the Holy Spirit went still farther in ex tending their views and confirraing their faith. How wonderful the difference between the state of Peter's mind, as to the mean ing and evidence of these words, at the time they were uttered and six weeks afterwards, when, to a great assembly of his countrymen, he proclaimed, " The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our Fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus," " Ye denied the Holy One and the Just ; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead,"^ Then he knew that Christ was in the Father, and the Father in Christ, And when he who had quailed at the voice of a woman, was enabled, before the incensed Sanhedrim, to declare, — " We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whora ye slew, and hanged on a tree : hira hath God exalted, with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things ; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whora God hath given to them that obey him,'" — how niust he have known and felt within himself, that he now knew that Christ was in hira, and he was hi Christ ! All the apostles, with one voice, could declare, " Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ." Their writings raake us understand their knowledge of " the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ." And, not satisfied with their knowledge, so far as it was experimental, they were still seeking a larger 1 Matt, xxviii. 17. John xx. 28. ' Acts iii. 13. ' Acts v. 29-32. PART X.J THE FATHER, CHRIST, AND HIS PEOPLE— ONE. 153 measure of this excellent knowledge, that they might so know their Lord as to " win him, and be found in him, not having their own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteous ness that is by the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith, that they might know him in the power of his resurrection, and fellowship of his sufferings." * And all the true followers of our Lord, in every country and every age, find that he is faithful who hath promised ; and that this promise, as well as all the rest is, " Yea, and amen, to the glory of God by them." ^ They are all- made to know, by the teaching of his Spirit through the word, and the working of the Spirit in their hearts, — that Christ is in the Father, and the Father in Christ, — that they are in Christ, and Christ is in them. These doctrines he at the very foundation of all their hopes, and all their holiness. As they gradually rise to the world of light, they grow in their knowledge of God, of Christ, and of themselves. And in that better world, where they see not " through a glass darkly, but face to face," they see God glorified in Christ, and Christ glorified in God, — and Christians glorified in God and in Christ, and God and Christ glorified in them, in a way which it never had entered into their hearts to conceive. There they understand the meaning of these wonder ful words which are a commentary on our text : " The glory which thou gavest rae, I have given them ; that they may be one, even as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one ; that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me," ^ And at the great day of doom, when he comes in his own glory, and in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels — when he sits on the throne of universal judgraent, while all created beings stand before his tribunal, and all the powers of created nature wait to execute his sentences, — then they shall know that he is in the Father, and the Father in him. And when they find themselves clothed in bodies fashioned like unto his glorious body, — ranged at his right hand, — pronounced by him his own blessed ones — his brethren — his children — his bride, — about to enter into the full possession of the predestined, prepared, in- 1 1 John i. 3. Eph. iii. 4. Col. ii. 2. PhU. iii. 8-10. « 2 Cor. i, 20, 3 John xvii. 22, 23. 154 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII, heritance, — caught up to meet him in the air, — carried along with hira into the heaven of heavens,^-presented before the pre sence of the Father's glory with exceeding joy, — welcoraed by hira to the raansions prepared for them,— then will they know that they are in Christ, and Christ is in them. They are his, and he is theirs. They enter into his joy, — thfey sit down on his throne ; and as eternity rolls on, new depths of raeaning are found in these unfathoraable words, " The Father is in rae, and I in the Father ; I ara in you, and ye are in me," Even a glimpse of these things was surely well fitted to re assure the disciples' hearts, and to prevent them from being swal lowed up with overmuch sorrow. Surely the clear view the eye of faith may now have of them, should make Christians joyful in all tribulations,—" triumphing in God through Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation," * There njay be some of Christ's genuine people here ready to coraplain, — ' It is the day that Christ spoke of, the day of the gospel dispensation — far on in the day, — and yet we know but very iraperfectly these glorious, delightful doctrines — especially, we know but little of them in our own experience. They who know most will be most likelyto feel in this way. Brethren, we ought to be ashamed of the little progress we have made in this excellent knowdedge. But we ought not to be too deeply depressed by a sense of the narrowness of our minds — and their apprehensions — the feebleness and the scantiness of our attain ments. Let us continue studying his word — praying for his Spirit — and " then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord," ^ How happy the man who knows and is sure, on solid grounds, that Christ is in hira, and he is in Christ — who can, not in a moment of excitement, but in the exercise of the truth, and soberness of a sound raind, say, — ' My beloved is mine, and I am his — I ara Christ's, and Christ is God's.' What conceivable blessing is not secured by such a union ! And the blessings thus secured are secured for ever, " This is a union which, once formed, can never be destroyed. Its bond is stronger and more permanent than that of adamant. The shocks of earthly change cannot rend it. The touch of death, the great disseverer, cannot dissolve it. The lapse of endless ' Rom. V. 11, ' IIos. vi. 3. PART X.] THE FATHER, CHRIST, AND HIS PEOPLE — ONE, 155 age_s cannot waste it," * For ever, and ever, and ever, he dwells in them, and they in him : he the finisher of their redemption — they his completely ransomed ones. Let us all, then, in the faith of the truth, through the influ ence of the good Spirit, seek for this knowledge, — that the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son ; and we in the Son, and the Son in us. For the excellency of this knowledge let us reckon all but loss ; and let us be daily seeking to acquire larger and larger measures of clearer, wider, and more influential views of it, till we reach at last the world of unmingled light and glory, and there beholding, with unveiled face, the magnificent truth, in all its reality, respecting the union of the Father and the Son, in their own infinite essence, and in the wondrous plan for man's deliverance, and the union of the ransomed church with the Son, and through him with the Father ; and enjoying, in our own experience, the results of these marvellous unions, in the posses sion of the salvation that is in Christ, with eternal glory, pro ceeding eternally frora the Father as its source, through the mediation of the Son, " comprehend, with all saints, the height, and depth, and length, and breadth," of this promise i — " At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me and I in you," Happy they who shall for ever dwell by this river of life, clear as crystal, welling forth from beneath the throne of God and the Lamb, and " drink their fill of its pure iramortal streams," and strike their harps of gold to the honour of the wis dom, and faithfulness, and mercy, of the Father and the Son, The counsel of peace is, was, will be, between them both, — " Salvation to our God, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever," 1 Brown Patterson. XI. THE CHARACTER AND PRIVILEGE OF TRUE CHRISTIANS, AND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THESE, John xiv. 21-24. — " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will lov e him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him (not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? Jesus answered and said unto him. If a man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my saying;s : and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." These words form a part of the exhortation which was addressed by " the Master " to his disciples, after the first administration of the Lord's Supper, and though peculiarly appropriate to them, in their, in many respects, singular circumstances, they are well fitted to minister to the spiritual edification of us, who now, after a lapse of more than eighteen hundred years, have observed that holy ordinance,* and to that of all our brethren, who in future tiraes, shall, after the due order, " show the Lord's death till he corae " the second time, not as a sin-offering, but for the com plete salvation of all who are looking for him. To relieve his disciples from that extreme depression of spirit, into which the annunciation of his speedily approaching departure from them had plunged them, our Lord, among other things, had assured thera, that though a season of orphanhood awaited them, that season should be a very short one. They were not to be " left orphans," He was to " come to them," and they were to see him, and were to be partakers of that life into which we have to enter by dying, and the result of his return to them, and their seeing hira, and becoraing partakers with him of his life, was to be their knowing, in a way in which as yet they did not know, " that he was in the Father, and they in him, and he in them," To prevent misapprehension which might have occasioned per- ' What follows is the substance of a discourse after the administration of the Lord's Supper. PART XI.] CHARACTER OF TRUE CHRISTIANS, 157 plexities and doubts afterwards, to show them that what he had said of his coming to thera, and being seen by thera, and of the results of this coraing on his part, and vision on theirs, was not to be understood only or chiefly of his bodily return to them after his resurrection, and their bodily vision of him, both of which were to continue only for a few weeks — till he had suffi cient opportunity to present thera with infallible proofs of his being alive after his passion, and give the apostles whom he had chosen comraandnients respecting their conduct, till they had received the promise of the Father — (the Holy Ghost) — he, in the words before us, intimates to them that his presence with them, and his manifestation of himself to thera, and their vision of him, and their perception of the union of the Father and him, and of him and them, were all of thera to be of a spiritual kind, and were to depend on their having and raaintaining that love to him, which is based on knowing and believing his truth, and is manifested by living under the influence of this truth, and is equally the object of the complacential regard of his Father and himself, " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him," * Our Lord's words were probably but very imperfectly under stood by the apostles. It was plain to them, however, that as formerly, when he said " the world seeth me no more, but ye see me," he was speaking of some kind of manifestation which was to be peculiar to them, not comraon to their countryraen. This was altogether inconsistent with their notions respecting the kingdom they expected him to set up, a kingdom that was to " come with observation." How was he to ascend the throne of David — how was he to subdue the nations — how was he to redeem Israel — if the world was not to see hira — if he was to raanifest himself only to those who, like themselves, loved him, having received and kept his sayings ? This, like rauch that he had said of late, seemed to them " a hard saying," and they did not know how to understand it. Such a feeling was probably universal among the apostles, and Judas, our Lord's near relative, used the freedom of expressing it in the question, " How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself ' John xiv. 21, 158 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII, unto US, and not unto the world ? " a question which naturally expresses an inquiry, both as to the how and the wherefore. ' In what manner art thou to manifest thyself to us, while thou dost not manifest thyself to the world ? and what is the reason why thou art to manifest thyself to us and not to the world ? ' Judas, and the rest of the apostles, probably thought there was much more need for him to manifest himself to the world than to them. They were already convinced that he was the Christ, The great matter was to get the world to be equally convinced of this truth. Our Lord, in words, the meaning of which was probably very dimly apprehended by them at this time, but became very evident to them after the giving of the Spirit, and is abundantly plain to us, answered the question in both of its aspects, " If a man love me, he will keep ray word ; and my Father will love hira, and we will corae unto hira, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings : and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." * This reply is substantially, ' My manifestation, and the evi dence of the Father and me being with you, are of a spiritual nature, and the reason why this manifestation is made to you is, because through the continued faith of the truth, ye are capable of it ; and the reason why it is not raade to the world, is because they, being destitute of the faith of the truth, are not capable of it. The kind of raanifestation I speak of is such as is competent only to a man who loves me, having my word and keeping it. It is by my word, understood and believed, which necessarily produces love to me — it is by my word, through my Spirit, that I will manifest myself to you, and that I and the Father — for my word is his word — will come to you, and make our abode with you. The men of the world who do not love me — not having, not keeping, my sayings — are, while they continue so, that is, while they continue of the world, not capable of such a manifestation^ — not capable of such an inhabitation.' Such is the general meaning of the text in its reference to the apostles ; but it is plainly a statement which is equally applicable to the true foUowers of our Lord in all countries, and in all ages ; and my intention, in the sequel, is to turn your attention to the three following important topics : — First, The peculiar character 1 John xiv. 23, 24. PART XI.] CHARACTER OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 159 of true Christians ; Secondly, The peculiar privileges of true Christians ; and. Thirdly, The connection which subsists between the peculiar character and the peculiar privUeges of true Chris tians. The peculiar character of true Christians is : they love Christ ; they love Christ, because they have his commandment or words ; and they prove that they love Christ by keeping his commandment or words. The peculiar privileges of true Chris tians are : the Father loves them ; Christ loves them ; Christ mani fests himself to them ; and the Father and Christ come unto them, and make their abode with thera. The connection between this peculiar character, and these peculiar privileges is : the latter is enjoyed by all those, an^ can be enjoyed by those only, who possess the former. Such is the outline that, in the remaining part of the discourse, I shall attempt to fill up. § 1, Hie peculiar character of true Christians. And first, of the peculiar character of true Christians as de lineated in the text. They love Christ — they love hira because they have his coininandment or words, and they manifest this love in keeping his commandment or words. This is their char acter — their peculiar character. It belongs to every one of them. It belongs to none but them, (1.) They love Christ. Of every one of thera it can be said — wdiat can be truly said of none but thera — they " love the Lord Jesus in sincerity," * Though unseen they love him. He is the object of their supreme affection. As a divine person, he appears to thera " the Holy, Holy, Holy One," " glorious in holiness," in moral perfection and loveliness. As the incarnate Divinity, they regard him as " the glorious effulgence, the personal image," of Him whom it is most reasonable that all beings capable of love should love to the utmost limit of their capacity — " love with all the heart, and soul, and strength," As the God-man Mediator they regard him as full of all excellence and all blessings, full of holiness and benignity, truth and grace. His glory is " the glory of the Only-begotten " of Him whose name and nature is love — holy love. As the man Christ Jesus, they regard him as the " holy, J Eph. vi. 24. 160 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII. harmless, undefiled " One — " all fair, no spot in hira " — possessed of every quality which can command esteem and excite love ; and then, the benefits the Christian has received, and hopes to receive, from him, are seen to be incalculable in number, inap preciable in excellence, immeasurable in duration — benefits gain ing an inconceivable additional value from the manner in which they were procured, and the mediura through which they are bestowed. Jesus Christ appears to the Christian at once in finitely excellent, and infinitely kind ; and for both these reasons is felt to be infinitely lovely. When the believer fixes his mind on the Saviour's excellences, he says in his heart, he is the " chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely." When he fixes his mind on the deeds of kindness he has done, and the gifts of kindness he has bestowed, he says, " I love him who hath so loved rae." The love of the Christian to Christ is the union of supreme esteem, admiration, gratitude, and complacency. The Christian has other objects of affection besides the Saviour, but he is the object of his supreme affection. In comparison of hira, he hates even his father and raother. This love extends to everything in the Saviour — everything about the Saviour, Believers love his holiness, as well as his grace ; they love his laws, as well as his promises ; they love the yoke he lays on them, as well as the crown he is to confer on them ; they " love the habitation of his house," and " the place of his feet is to them glorious ;" they love his word, they love his day, they love his people, they love his cause. They count his reproach greater honour than all worldly dignity ; and they all say, ' God forbid that we should not glory in his cross ; God for bid that we should glory in anything but his cross,' This love leads thera to seek intercourse with hira ; they cannot be happy away from hira. Continually do they make prayer for the ex tension of his dominion, and daily do they praise him ; and habitually are they longing to depart to be with him — which, they are persuaded, must be " far better " than anything that can be enjoyed here below — to be " with hira where he is, and to behold " and share " his glory," This love is coraraon to all the saints. There is not one of them who does not thus love Christ, They have not all the same measure of love — that de pends on the measure of their knowledge and faith, and on the measure, too, of their natural capacity of affection ; but they PART XI.] CHARACTER OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 161 have aU the same kind of love. And as this love is common to all the saints, so it is peculiar to thera. The Christ of the Bible is — can be — the object of affection only to the Christian. To the unbelieving world, as to his unbelieving countrymen, he is " a root out of a dry ground — he has no form nor comeliness ;" and, when called to contemplate him, they see in him no beauty why he should be desired. He is " despised and rejected of men." The question naturally presents itself. And how do Christians come to love him ? They are not naturally distinguished from other men by perspicacity in discerning, or by sensibility in ap preciating, those holy «excellences, or those spiritual benefits, which, when discerned, necessarily raake Christ the object of supreme love. The text furnishes us with the means of answer ing that question : they " have his commandments" * or " his words," This is the next feature in the true Christian's charac ter, to which we were to turn your attention, (2.) Tliey have his commandments. The commandments and the sayings — the words — of our Lord, seem terras of equivalent iraport. They are not to be confined to what was, strictly speaking, preceptive in our Lord's teaching ; they include all the comraunications he has made, directly or indirectly, in his personal teaching, or by the holy prophets and apostles. All his words raay be termed his comraandraents, as they were all a revelation coraraitted to him by the Father, and comraanded to be given by hira to the world, — " The Father hath given rae commandment what I should say, and what I should speak ;"^ and therefore, all of them have a high authorita tive character ; the doctrines, as we are accustomed to call them, being intended to regulate human opinion, just as really and as extensively as the precepts were intended to regulate huraan disposition and conduct. The whole of Revelation is " the law of the Lord." ' " Habere prsecepta significat, in illis esse recte institutum ; servare autem, se et vitam formare ad regulam eorum." — Calvin, "i tx"' r«.s iiro>.^; ^oi>— audieudo : xa) Tr,fSi airxs — obcdlendo. Utrumque autem evangelice, non legaliter, accipiendum." — Ekas. Schmid. " Qui habet in memoria et servat in vita, qui habet in sermonibus et servat operibus, qui habet in audiendo et servat faeiendo, qui habet faciendo et servat perseverando, ille est qui diligit me." — Auodstin. 2 John xii. 49. VOL. 111. * L 162 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. To " have " this revelation, which has for its great subject the person and work of our Lord, is something more than to possess the book in which the revelation is made, or even to have a general knowledge of what it contains. It is to have it in the. mind and the heart,* These commandments are received when, in consequence of their meaning and evidence being apprehended, they are understood and believed from a regard to the authority of hira by whom they are given ; and he has thera who, having thus received thera, makes thera the subject of his habitual con- teraplation and continued belief. It is the belief of the " testimony of God," which is just another expression for the " words of Christ" (for, saith he, " the doctrine is not miney»but his that sent me,")* that leads to the love of Christ, We may love an unseen object, but we cannot love an unknown object. They who do not re ceive our Lord's words cannot love him. They do not know, they do not believe, him to be a proper object of affection. They who do receive our Lord's words cannot but love him, for they, in the degree in which they receive them, know and believe him to be the proper object of supreme affection. It is by believing the Gospel, that raen " know the grace of the Lord Jesus in truth ;" it is thus that his love is shed abroad in their hearts — i. e., such a conviction produced in reference to it, as necessarily, in its turn, produces a reciprocal love ; and it is in the enjoyment of these heavenly and spiritual blessings, all of which are bestowed " through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour " ' — i. e., through the truth respecting him believed and understood, — that men experimentally " taste that the Lord is gracious," and feel that he is sweet. Nothing more is necessary to make a man who was indifferent to Christ — careless about hira, nay, who disliked and hated hira — a lover of him, than to receive — to possess — his words. Had the Jews known our Lord as the Lord of glory, they would not have crucified hira. Did raen know hira as they who have his words do, they could not reject him — they could not but love him. But such is the state of fallen man, that these words of our Lord, in themselves spirit and life — plain words — words easy to be understood, — never were, never will be, received by any man — never will find their way into the understanding as true — into ' " ix"', e. q. xxTixm, ut SEepe." — Semler. ' John vii. 16. 3 2 Pet. i. 2. PART XI. J CHARACTER OP TRUE CHRISTIANS. 163 the conscience as right and iraperative, and into the affections as good — without the influence of the Holy Ghost, The words of Christ are among those " things of God " which " the natural raan receiveth not," and of knowing and believing which he is morally incapable. The grace of Christ in the Gospel is never shed abroad in the heart but through the Holy Ghost given to us. It is thus that raen begin to love Christ when, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, they begin to believe the truth re specting hira ; and men grow in the love of Christ just in the degree in which they receive, and " have," and hold fast, his words. This having Christ's word, by which men are brought to love him, is equally, with love to him, a feature — a peculiar fea ture — of true Christians. It is comraon to all that class. It is peculiar to it. They have all received, they all are in possession of, Christ's words, and Christ's words are in possession of them. And of all who love not our Lord Jesus, not one of them has received, not one of thera is in possession of, the words of Christ ; and that is the reason why they do not love him, (3,) They keep his commandments. As it is by having the words of Christ that men come to love him, so it is by keeping his words that they raanifest and prove their love to him. " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," " If any raan love me, he will keep my words." These statements are nearly synony mous with that which I lately explained to you at some length, — " If ye love me, keep my commandments ;" and with that other saying of our Lord Jesus, " Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." To keep the words or comraand- ments of our Lord, is a phrase of very comprehensive meaning. It includes the keeping them pure and entire as Christ has given them ; the keeping them in the mind as habitual subjects of thought — the keeping them in memory ; and it includes, too, that for which they are to be received into the mind, and kept in the mind — the keeping them as comraandraents — the turning them to the practical purpose which they are intended and fitted to serve. They must be kept as he gives us them. We must not de tract from them ; we must not add to them ; we must in no way 164 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. modify them ; we raust keep them as we have got them ; we must not mingle them with human ordinances, or traditions, or speculations. The command is, " Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought frora it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God." " What thing soever I command you, observe to do it ; thou shalt not add to it ; thou shalt not diminish from it," ' The words and commandments of our Lord are to be kept in the raind. They are not to be expelled ; they are not to be allowed to depart ; they are not to be perraitted to be taken out of the mind. There are men who, when divine truth has, to a certain extent, entered into the mind, find it disquieting to them, and seek to get rid of it as soon as possible. There are others who, ceasing to give it any attention, suffer it to " slip out of their mind." And there are others who permit, who invite, " the wicked one to come and take away what was sown in their hearts," ^ But the lover of Christ " lets the word of Christ dwell " in him ; he lays it up in his heart, and often reviews it as his most precious treasure. He keeps in memory the Gospel which has been preached to hira, knowing that it is only thus that he can be saved by it,' and that forgotten truth raust be uninfluential truth. He " remerabers the words of the Lord Jesus." But this species of keeping the words and coramand- ments of our Lord, is intended merely as subservient to another kind of keeping them — the turning them to the practical pur poses for which they are intended. The doctrines of our Lord are to be kept by our having no other opinions on the subjects to which they refer than those unfolded in them, and by fashioning the whole system of our sentiments and judgments with a reference to thera — rejecting whatever is opposed to them. Christians should be very free thinkers, so far as their fellow-men are concerned ; but, so far as their Master is concerned, they are to be implicit believers. They are to think as he thinks ; and they are to do so because he so thinks. The promises of our Lord are to be kept by firmly believing, in the most trying circumstances, that they will be accompUshed — hoping against hope, — deriving from them the comfort and support which, when believed, they are so well fitted ' Deut. iv. 2. 2 Matt. xiii. 19. ' 1 Cor. xv. 2. PART XI.J CHARACTER OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 165 to communicate, and employing thera as motives to " purify ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God."* The warnings of our Lord are to be kept by keeping at a distance frora whatever are their subjects, and by cherishing a habitual holy fear of tempta tion and of sin. " The word of his patience " ^ is to be kept by readily, cheerfully, submitting to suffering in his cause, and care fully avoiding whatever may lead us to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. His commandments, with regard to in ward tempers and dispositions, are to be kept by " keeping our hearts with all diligence," seeing that " the mind be in us, that was also in him;" that we " sanctify the Lord in our hearts," and " worship him with our spirits according to his Gospel."' His comraandraents, with regard to our general conduct, are to be kept by our not following " the course of this world," or " fashioning ourselves according to our former lusts in our ignor ance, but walking according to the will of God," seeking to " stand perfect and complete in it."^ His commandments, with regard to positive institutions, are to be kept by " observing all things whatsoever he has commanded " his churches, and their members, — " walking in all his commandments and ordinances blameless," ^ So comprehensive is the meaning of our Lord's expression, " keeping his comraandraents or words," Now our Lord's statement is, that every one who really loves hira, thus keeps his comraandraents and words ; and that the man who does not thus keep his comraandraents and words, does not love him. It is quite obvious that love to an individual, has a tendency to raake hira who cherishes it attentive to that indi vidual's commandments and words. And the general principle, as applied to the case before us, holds with peculiar force. He who loves our Lord with that love which grows out of the faith of his words, must be characterised by habitually keeping his coramandments in all the various aspects in which we have considered that wide-reaching expression. You raay recoUect that, when illustrating the 15th verse, I showed you at some length, that to keep the coraraandments of our Lord Jesus, in the widest and strictest sense that can be given to the words, — 1 2 Cor. vii. 1. 2 Rev. iii. 10. 3 Prov. iv. 23. Phil. ii. 6. 1 Pet. iii. IS. Rom. i. 9. •' Eph. ii. 2. 1 Pet. i. 14 ; iv. 2. Col, iv. 12. 5 Matt, xxviii. 20, Luke i, 6.. 166 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII. that to keep these commandments, aU these commandments, per fectly, is the duty of every Christian, ay, of every man, — that it is the desire of every Christian, — that it is the endeavour of every Christian, — but that, in the present state, it is not the attainment of any Christian : but that while this is undoubtedly the case, every Christian does yield an implicit, an impartial, a persevering obedience to the coramandments of Christ, so far as he knows them. He not only consents to his law that it is good, and delights in it in the inner man, — he not only accounts his commandments concerning all things to be right, and abhors every wicked way, but he constantly seeks perfect conformity of mind, and heart, and life, to the law of Christ — the royal law — the perfect law of liberty, — " not counting himself to have ob tained, neither to be already perfect, but doing this one thing ; forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth to those which are before, and pressing to the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," This keeping Christ's words — like the having these words, and the loving Christ, which originates in the latter, and is mani fested by the former — is a feature, a peculiar feature, of true Christians, Every true Christian possesses it, though by no means in equal degree ; and no man who is not a true Christian possesses it. Such a man may do many things which Christ coraraands, but he does not keep one of Christ's commandments. He does nothing just because Jesus Christ commands him to do it. Every true Christian is habitually — many times every day of his life — doing this. So much, then, for the character of the true Christian, as delineated in the passage before us : — He loves Christ Jesus ; his love rises out of his having Christ's words, and is manifested and proved by his keeping them. The appropriate use of the statements now made is, serious self-examination. Is the character delineated mine? Have I Christ's words ? Have I understood and believed the Gospel? Do I love Christ ? And am I showing my love to Christ by keeping his words ? I trust that there are many here who can, intelligently and honestly, repeat the declarations tacitly, but most expressively, given in their taking the symbolical bread and eating it — taking the pignoral cup, and drinking it. To such persons I have to say, Having " taken" again " the cup of salvation, and called on PART XI.] CHARACTER OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 167 the name of the Lord," see that ye now " pay your vows to the Lord, in the presence of all his people ;" see that ye " walk be fore the Lord in the land of the living;" see that ye "serve him without fear, in righteousness and holiness all the days of your life;" see that, having his commandments, ye continue to keep them ; see that, loving him, ye " walk at liberty, keeping his law continually," * But I am afraid there are others who, if honest, in applying the test furnished them, will be obliged to say. No, no, we do not love Christ — we have not his words — we do not keep them. Is there nobody here who, if the question were put to him. Is the character delineated in the text yours? would, if he told the truth — what he knows to be truth — be compeUed to say, — ' No, I do not love Christ — I have not his comraandraents — I keep not his sayings — I know little about him — I care less — I have no interest in, no love to, any person or thing that belongs to hira, merely because it is his, I do not keep his comraandraents — I do not subrait to his appointraents — I seldom think of him ; and when I do, I ara not delighted, but troubled, and the language of my heart towards him is, " Depart from rae — I desire not the knowledge of thy ways " — " Let me alone — what have I to do with thee?"' The conduct of multitudes makes it plain that this is the state of their hearts. They have not the love of Christ in them. Many of these persons, notwithstanding, say that they love Christ; but surely they cannot expect others to believe them. They cannot surely believe themselves. Least of aU, can they reasonably expect him with whora they have to do to believe them. " He cannot be deceived — he will not be mocked,'' And what is it but to mock him, to say, in effect, — 'I love thee, but I never think of thee ; I love thee, but I never speak of thee, and I loathe to hear of thee, I love thee, but I shun aU intercourse with thee, I love thee, but I habitually do what I know is displeasing to thee. I love thee, but I serve thine enemies,' How can the love of Christ dwell in such a man? Reflect, my poor feUow-sinner, to whose conscience these re marks may have come close — reflect how degraded must be the intellectual and moral state of the man who does not love Christ 1 Psal. cxvi. 13-19. Luke i. 74, 76. Psal. cxix. 44, 45. 168 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, — who has no esteem for him who is infinitely excellent — no complacency in him who is infinitely beautiful — no love to hira who is infinitely lovely — no gratitude to hira who has been infi nitely kind. Surely this argues gross stupidity — deep, deep de pravity. How hazardous must be the situation of such a man ! He has no saving relationship to God ; for, says our Lord, " K God were your Father you would love rae." He has no solid hope for eternity, " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he must be Anathema Maran-atha," — accursed at the coming' of the Lord, There is no room in heaven but for those who are lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ, None but those who love him who so loved them, can join in that song, — " To him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, be glory for ever and ever." * Allow me to expostulate a little with you on a subject in which your eternal interests are so deeply involved. Shut not your eyes to the dreadful truth, that you do not love Jesus Christ. Do not deny it — do not extenuate it — do not attempt to deny it. Ask yourselves, ' Is it reasonable, is it right, is it safe, that I should continue not to love Jesus Christ? What must saints, what raust angels, what must God, think of rae? And what raust the end be ? — hopeless perdition. Where raust I raake ray abode ? — in heU. There is no other region of the universe which wUl receive me as an inhabitant — I must dwell for ever with devUs and damned huraan spirits. They alone syrapathise with me in my unnatural dishke of him who, in the estimation of aU other beings, is " altogether lovely.'" But why should you continue in a state so degrading and so dangerous ? Why should you not love Christ? I think you wiU have some difficulty in answering that question. Sure I am, he is infinitely lovely and loving. He loves his enemies. He loves you. He wUls that you turn to him, and live, and love, and be happy for ever. You cannot love him unless you know him ; and the only knowledge of him that can produce love, and that is sure to produce love, is the knowledge of "his words;" — that is, of the testimony of his Father concerning him " in the word of truth in the Gospel." You must know his loveliness — you must beUeve his love — in I Rev. i. 6, 6. PART XI.J PRIVILEGE OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 169 order to your loving hira. " We love him, because he first loved us." * We invite you, then, to contemplate him as exhibited in that testiraony. Behold him, frora the unbeginning ages of eternity, having his delights in the sons of raen, foreseeing your guUt and wretchedness, and preparing his heart to approach to the Father in your behalf, and for your salvation. Behold him, in the pro secution of his plan of salvation, taking on hira the nature of a man, the form of a servant, the Ukeness of a sinner. See him bearing, and bearing away, your sins, wounded for your trans gressions, bruised for your iniquities ; see him agonising in Gethsemane, expiring on Calvary ; behold him ascending to heaven with uplifted, blessing hands ; see him on the throne of the universe a prince and a saviour, " able to save to the utter most all coraing to God by him " — " The Captain of salvation," able, and as willing as able, to conduct you to glory ,^ See him holding out for acceptance to men, to you, " all heavenly and spiritual blessings," and beseeching you to be, through hira, " reconciled to God," Look at these things as what they are — what they will, ere long, be seen to be — realities. Count these stateraents to be what assuredly they are, faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation, and the most hell-hardened heart in this assembly, ay, in our world, wUl dissolve in the love of the Saviour. I know no way that the love of Christ can be excited in the heart of man, but by the faith of the Gospel ; and of that faith it is the necessary fruit, " Faith worketh by love." ' Be lieve the Gospel, and, as a matter of course, you will love the Saviour. " Then," as that great and good man, John Howe, says, " the foundations are laid for all thy future duty, and all thy future felicity. Then how pleasantly henceforth wilt thou obey, and how blessedly wilt thou enjoy, Christ, and God in Christ, for ever and ever." § 2. The peculiar privileges of Christians. I proceed now to the consideration of the statement respecting the true Christian's peculiar privilege. " He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself to him, and we will corae to him, and make our abode I 1 John iv. 19. ' Hob. ii, 10; vii. 25. ' Gal. v. 6. 1 70 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII. with him," The peculiar privUege of the true Christian is, that he is the object of the pecuUar love of the Father and of Christ, which love displays itself in Christ's manifesting himself to him, and in the Father and Christ coming to hira and making their abode with him. This is the proposition contained in the text, and we now set ourselves to its illustration, (1,) They are loved of the Father and the Son, There are three different senses in which Christians may be considered as objects of the special love or favour of the Father and of the Son, as persons elected in sovereign love to eternal life, as persons actually united to Christ by believing, and as persons transformed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, When, in the first of these aspects, we say that Christians are the objects of the love of the Father and the Son, we mean that from a principle of pure sovereign benignity, for which no cause can be found but in the Divine nature and will, the Father pre destinated, in love, all those of the human race, viewed as fallen, who should be heirs of salvation, and the Son, voluntarily under taking to do all that was necessary to make their salvation con sistent with, and illustrative of, the holy Divine character, and the righteous Divine government, "from everlasting, in the beginning ere ever the earth was," had " his delights in these sons of men," They were the objects of the favour and love of the Father and the Son, inasmuch as the Father determined that they should be saved, and the Son engaged to save them, " They who shall be heirs of salvation," * are in their native condition, as to state and character, just on a level with the rest of the fallen race of which they form a part. They are guilty and depraved, the objects of the judicial displeasure, and of the moral disapprobation, of God, They are under the sentence — " Cursed is every one who continueth not in aU things, written in the book of the law to do thera," — they are " chUdren of wrath," conderaned already ; and there is nothing in their char acter or conduct, on which the eye of Omniscient purity can rest with complacency. Many of their principles and actions are positively condemned by God in his word, which is just the de claration of the state of bis mind, and not one of these principles ' Heb. i. 14. PART XI,J PRIVILEGE OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 171 or actions is such as He can entirely approve of, for not one of them originates in what must lay the foundation of all approba tion in the Divine mind, not one of thera originates in holy love. When the purpose of mercy is developed towards the individual elect sinner in his conversion through the faith of the truth, a great alteration takes place, both relatively and really — both in reference to him, and in him. Such changes take place, both in his state and character, as open the way for the manifestation of the special love of the Father and the Son, in forras which other wise it never could have assumed. According to the economy of salvation, the effectually called sinner is by faith united to the Saviour, connected with him by a relation so close, that it becomes a righteous thing to confer on hira blessings which he does not deserve, but which the Saviour merited, " He who was a child of wrath," is now actually " an heir of salvation," He whose only inheritance was the curse, now becomes " an heir according to the promise," is " begotten again to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading," " For the great love wherewith he loves him, God blesses him with aU heavenly and spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus," He is "justified freely by God's grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus," He has " in him redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins," and is " made accepted in the Beloved," God delights in him, "to do hira good," and the Saviour, out of the exhaustless fulness which it hath pleased the Father should dwell in him, gives him " grace for grace," * Nor is this all. The special love of the Father and the Son, towards the converted sinner, in consequence of his union with the Saviour, not only takes the form of the bestowal of saving benefits, but it assumes also the form of complacential approba tion and delight. The converted sinner is not only justified but sanctified. His character as weU as his state is changed. He becomes " a new creature," by being brought into a new creation. He is " born again of the word of truth," obeying which, in the spirit, purifies his soul. He is " transformed through the renew ing of his mind," He " puts off the old man who is corrupt, with his lusts," the object of the holy abhorrence of God, and " puts on the new man, after God, renewed in knowledge and I Gal. iii. 29. Eph. i. 3, 6, 7. Rom. iii. 24. 1 Pet. i. 4. 1 72 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. true hoUness," the object of the holy complacency of God, So far as thus renewed, he appears in the eye of God as " very good," * He is, in a new signification of the terra, " in the love of God," and whUe he thinks and acts according to his new nature, he " keeps hiraself in the love of God ;" and as the principles of this new nature develop themselves, he " grows in the grace," ^ that is, the favour, the love, of God, as he grows in that knowledge of God, by which this holiness is promoted. He regains, in some raeasure, "the glory,"' the good opinion, of God, which he lost by sin, and he rejoices in the hope of one day completely enjoying it, having become the holy, happy being God would have him to be. The love of God and of Christ, in the first two senses, is the origin, not the result, of the Christian's character. In these re spects God and Christ do not love him, because he loved them — he loves them, because they first loved him ; but in the last sense, both the Father and Christ say of the Christian — " I love them that love rae," ^ It is plainly of the love of the Father and of Christ, in this last sense, that our Lord here speaks. It is love that has for its object men, not viewed simply as elect, or as justified, but as lovers of Christ, having and keeping his comraandraents. This is our Lord's own account of it, " As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you," He kept the Father's command ments, and on this account the Father loved him. He continued to keep his Father's commandments, and he abode or continued in his love. His disciples had received and hitherto kept his comraandraents ; on this account he loved thera — he approved of them — he had complacency in them ; and he says, " If ye keep my coraraandments, ye shall abide in ray love ; even as I have kept ray Father's coramandments, and abide in his love." " Having thus endeavoured to ascertain the precise meaning and reference of " the love of God and of Christ " in this passage, let us now proceed to illustrate our proposition, that this special love of the Father and of Christ — this complacential approbation and delight, in the displays it naturally makes of itself, in the Saviour's manifesting himself, and in the Father and him coraing 1 2 Cor. V. 17. James i. 18. 1 Pet. i. 22, Rom. xii. 2. Eph. iv. 22-24. 2 2 Pet. iii. 18, ' Uix. Rom. iii. 23 ; v. 2, comp. John v. 41, 44. « Prov. viii. 17. « John xv. 9, 10. PART XI.J PRIVILEGE OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 173 and making abode with its objects — is the grand peculiar privi lege of those who are possessed of the peculiar character of true Christians — the loving Christ arising out of having his word, and leading to the keeping of his words. ' He that loveth me, in consequence of his having my commandments, and who shows that he loveth me, by keeping these commandments, shall be loved of my Father.' Such men are already the objects of the Father's love. They were, from eternity, the objects of the Father's love. It was be cause He loved them, that He gave them to his Son — that He drew thera to his Son — that He circumcised their hearts to love his Son — but He now loves them, as He never loved them before ; He is now loving them, because they have his Son's command ments — ^because they love him — and prove this by keeping his comraandraents. Before such men loved Christ, all you could say of the Father's love to them was, He loved them because He loved them ; and, when they began to love Christ, the true account of the matter was, because the Father loved thera. He disposed them, by his Spirit, to love and obey his Son, as the necessary and effectual means of gaining the object of his eter nal sovereign love to them — their complete and everlasting salvation. But now He loves them for what He has himself made them to be and do, as believing, obedient, lovers of his Son. He is well pleased with having his Son's comraandraent received, attended to, understood, and believed ; He is well pleased with having his Son loved ; He is well pleased with this love being manifested in the keeping of his commandments ; and He cannot but be well pleased with those who, having Christ's commandments, love him, and who, loving Christ, keep his commandments. Christ's word is His own word. " My doctrine," said our Lord, " is not- mine, but his who sent me." God cannot but be displeased with those who neglect or reject the revelation of his will ; He cannot but be pleased with those who attend to it and believe it. " The Father loves the Son," and therefore He can have no coraplacency in those who do not love him ; and He cannot but be pleased with those who do. It pleases God to see his rational creatures of one mind and heart with Hira : pleases Him, because it is right ; pleases Him, because it is necessary to their happiness ; and no kind of con- 174 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII, formity of mind and heart with Him pleases Him so much, as con formity of mind and heart in reference to his well-beloved Son, with whora — in whom — He is weU pleased, A common object of affection is one of the most solid grounds — the strongest bonds — of mutual affection, Christ's commandments are his Father's commandments. He must, then, be displeased with those who break them ; He must be pleased with those who observe them, and observe them be cause they love him who gives them. This, then, is the privilege of him who loves Christ, and shows that he loves Christ, by keep ing his commandments. And is not this, my brethren, a privUege of a very high order? To be an object of the esteem and love of good and wise men — to have our characters and actions the objects of their approba tion, and our persons of their complacent affection, and our hap piness of their sincere and ardent wishes, — is a privilege far more valuable than any amount of worldly wealth or sensuous enjoy ment. But what is the concentrated esteem and affection of aU holy creatures, human and angelic, in the highest degree they are capable of entertaining them, in comparison of the privUeges here promised by our Lord to those who love and obey him : to be approved of — to be loved — to be delighted in, by Him, who is infinite in loveliness and in love — in holiness and benig nity — in power and wisdom ! Think on his infinite, eternal, im mutable grandeur and grace ! think on his disposition and his power to bless the objects of his approbation and complacency ! His power is omnipotence ; " his kingdora ruleth over all," Think on his unsearchable wisdora, in choosing what is to make the objects of his love happy, and the means of putting them in possession of these objects ! — none of his kind designs can either be misdirected or miscarry ; and, in fine, think of the intensity of the affection, which corresponds with the perfections of Hira who cherishes it; and to give us some distant conception of which, the sacred writers (under the guidance of that Spirit who knows what is in God, as the spirit of a man knows what is in him — who searches " the deep things of God," — the — to all the other beings — unsearchable " riches of his grace — in kindness" towards his people), exhaust all the stores of imagery supplied by the nearest and dearest relations of created beings. Think that, " as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride," so does the Father PART XI,J PRIVILEGE OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 175 rejoice over him who loves and obeys the Son ; and that, " as a father pitieth his chUdren," and " spares his own Son who serves him," so He pities and spares him who loves and obeys Him and his Son. Hear Hira proclaiming to the lover of his Son, " Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her womb ? yea, she may forget, yet will I not forget thee." * Surely to be thus loved by the Father is a privilege indeed. But this is not all. The Saviour adds, " And I will love him," ' I will love hira who, having my commandments, loves me, and who, loving me, keeps my commandments,' Everything that has been said about the Father's love of complacency being the natural, necessary, result of enlightened influential love to Christ, and of the greatness of this privilege, is equally applicable to the love of the Son as a divine person. But our Lord plainly speaks of himself as the man Christ Jesus — the mediator between God and raan. It is as if he had said, ' Such love on your part will delight my heart, and call forth sentiments of the most compla cential approval. Your kindness will not be met with coldness or indifference ; " I love them that love me," In your love to me, and obedience to me, I see the end of ray mediation gained, in the glory of my Father, and your salvation. When you love and obey me, you glorify me, and the Father is glorified in the Son, Loving me, you love Hira ; obeying rae, you obey Him, It was for this I laboured, and suffered, and died ; and when I see you loving and obeying me, I " see of the travail of ray soul, and ara satisfied," " The pleasure of the Lord prospers in my hand," When ye keep my comraandraents from love to rae, ye " continue in my love, and ray joy is fulfilled in you."' What a privilege to be the object of the coraplacent regard of him, " in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdora and knowledge," who has " all power in heaven and in earth to give eternal life" to all who love and obey him : who — himself a man — knows what is necessary to make man happy ; who " can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been in all things tempted like as we are;" and who retains, on the throne of universal govern ment, that power to sympathise, which " he learned by the things which he suffered,"^ What is the disapprobation of the world, 1 1 Cor. ii. 10. Isa. Ixii. 6. Psal. ciii. 13. Mai. iii. 17. Isa. xlix. 16. 2 Col. ii. 3. Matt, xxviii. 18. Heb. ii. 18 ; iv. 15 ; v. 8. 176 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. if we have his approval ? what their cold contempt, or cruel per secution, if we have his sympathy ? what their hatred, if we have his love ? (2.) This love is discovered in the Son's manifesting himself to them, and in the Father and the Son coming to them, and mak ing their abode with them. But even this is not all. The Saviour adds, "And I will manifest myself to hira," ' ' I will not only love hira, but I will clearly show hira that I love him, I will reveal myself in my true character to him ; I wUl show him that I am his friend — HIS Saviour, I wUl give hira distinct and perceptible tokens of my affection ; I wUl afford hira experimental conviction of my love.' The reference is not here to our Lord's appearances to his disciples after his resurrection, nor to such miraculous ap- pearaiices as those which he made after his ascension to heaven — to Saul in the way, and Paul in the temple, and John in Pat mos, ^ The promise is raade to all who, in every age, having his comraandraents, love hira, and loving him, keep'^his command ments. The reference is plainly not to sensible but to spiritual mani festations. The promise seems to me to imply two things, very closely — indeed indissolubly — connected, but so distinct, as to admit of separate consideration by the raind. The general idea is, ' I will make thera know who and what I ara as a Saviour — as THEIR Saviour ;' and the Saviour does this by enabling them, through the working of the good Spirit, to understand and be lieve the revelation of the truth respecting his character and work, made in the Scriptures, and also by actually bestowing on thera the blessings of his salvation, making thera experimentally know that he is a Saviour — their Saviour. The whole Bible is a revelation of the glory of God in the face of his Son. Its great object is to unfold the truth respect ing his person and work — the necessity and efficacy of his media tion — the perfection of his atonement — the prevalence of his intercession — the fulness and freeness of his salvation — his un- ' The connection between the love and the manifestation of Divinity as the proof of love, is beautifully illustrated in the words of Moses, as they stand in the LXX. — Exod. xxxiii. 13, — tt ouv tli^vixx x^i'^ ivxvrUv irov, t[ji.^xyiirov fjLDi ffExuToy. 2 Acts ix. 3-7. Rev. i. 10-18. PART XI.J PRIA'ILEGE OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 177 limited and uncontrollable dominion — and his rich and bound less grace. This revelation is laid open to all to whom the Gospel comes. But to the great body of mankind it is not " a manifestation of Jesus Christ." He is there in the midst of them, plainly set forth — the Saviour — the divinely- qualified Saviour — the divinely-accredited Saviour — the divine Saviour, But they do not see him, neither do they know him. The god of this world has so blinded their eyes, that they believe not. It is by a manifestation of himself, produced by the Holy Spirit fixing the mind of the sinner on the meaning and evidence of the truth respecting him, that Christ produces love in his heart ; and one of the principal ways in which he shows his complacent regard for those who have thus been brought to love him and keep his commands, is just by the Spirit keeping the truth and its evidence before the mind ; thus giving them wider, deeper, more influential views of his person and character. He in this way shows them his glory, unfolds to thera the inexhaustible treasures of his grace. It is in this way he declares the Father — it is in this way he raanifests himself. It is thus that they become raore intimately acquainted with hira, and know how great and how gracious he is. On the Christian who, knowing his Lord, loves hira, and, loving him, keeps his commandment, the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of wisdom and good understand ing, is shed forth abundantly by the Saviour, and he follows on to know the Lord — grows in the excellent knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, — while his love grows with his knowledge and judgment ; and the eyes of his understanding being en lightened, he obtains the fuU assurance of understanding, and knows whom he has believed. The Saviour is no stranger to him — no merely occasional visitant. He habitually manifests himself to him when reading, or hearing, or meditating on, the word of the truth of the Gospel. In the exercise of faith, under the influence of the Spirit, he sees Jesus, and thinks and feels in reference to him and his salvation, not as the world thinks and feels — not as if they were fictions or abstractions, — but glorious realities. While, we apprehend, the words, " I will manifest myself to him," imply this, we are persuaded also they are intended to convey another idea : ' I will actually bestow on hira the bless ings of my salvation ; I will experimentally manifest myself to VOL. III. * M 178 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII. him as a Saviour — as his Saviour ; I wiU give hira peace and holiness ; I wiU sustain hira in weakness ; I will comfort him in sorrow ; I wUl counsel hira in perplexity ; I wUl supply aU his need, according to my glorious riches ; I wiU manifest myself to him in the character which suits his circumstances ; I will show him how powerful, and how gracious, how wise, and how faith ful I ara as a Saviour.' This kind of manifestation is the result of that which we have already been considering, for it is by enabling his people to be lieve the truth about him, that he strengthens, and supports, and comforts, and guides, and blesses them as their Saviour. The manifestation of Christ, then, spoken of in the text, does not refer to new revelations, or to miraculous interpositions, or to unaccountable impressions. It is not by an audible voice from heaven, nor in any similar way, that we are warranted to look for the manifestation of the Saviour. These manifestations are imparted in a way suited to the constitution of oux nature, and the declarations of his word. Of hira we can know nothing but by his Gospel ; and that Gospel can produce no saving effect on us, but in the raeasure in which it is known and believed. It is through the truth understood and believed, under the influ ence of the Spirit, that our Lord performs to his people all the various functions of a Saviour frora sin. " Inattention to this principle," it has been justly observed by a judicious living writer, " has frequently been the cause of no small distress to many genuine Christians. Instead of labouring to know the truth respecting the Saviour, and to trust in him, as revealed in the Scriptures, they pant after manifestations of him, of which they themselves can forra no definite idea — mani festations that, somehow or other, are to affect their senses, and awaken their feelings. They suspend their comfort on such experiences, and, when disappointed in realising them, they are thrown into great perplexity. They are ready to envy the privi leges of the ancient believers, to whom the Son of God appeared in huraan forra — whom he instructed by sensible representations — whose faith he sometiraes condescended to confirm by visible signs ; and they are disposed to think that, if such manifesta tions were vouchsafed to thera, their trust, and love, and hope, would all be greatly invigorated. They forget that that mode of dispensation arose out of the weak and infantine state of the PART XI.J PRIVILEGE OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. 179 church — that the revelation of the Divine will was then incom plete — that the more sensible the raode and means of life are, the less spiritual and god-like the life itself must be — that the written word is declared to be at least as sure as any voice from the holy mount, and that this word is appointed by God to be the exclusive mediura of saving manifestation in the present state. ' To the law and to the testimony,' — if religious experi ence, as well as doctrine, are not conformable to this word, it is because there is no light in it."* The peculiar privilege of a true Christian is farther described by our Lord as his Father's and his " coming to him, and mak ing their abode with him : " " If any man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him,"^ The language is figura tive, but it is not on that account the less impressive. It is plain that local motion is utterly inapplicable to Hira who is omni present ; and, so far as our Lord is concerned in the statement, it is obvious that it is not his bodily but his spiritual presence that it referred to. " Coming," when used in reference to God, as it not unfrequently is in the Scriptures, refers to the manifes tation of his presence — as when it is said, " Where I record my name, I will come'' ' In the place I appoint for worshipping me, I will give tokens of my presence, in bestowing blessings on the worshippers. I will corae — I will bless, " Our God shall corae and save us " — shall raanifest his presence by saving us,' In Uke manner, our Lord is said to " corae in his kingdora," when he proves his presence among men, by setting up his kingdom within them and among them. There does, indeed, seem to be, in the whole passage, a tacit reference to the promise of Jehovah to Israel — " I will come, and I will bless. I will meet with the children of Israel, and Israel shall be sanctified by my glory. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God."' When the Father and the Son are said to come to the man who loves Christ, and keeps his words, the meaning is, that 1 stark. 2 Semler would refer xItoi, in the last clause, to the Father, — ' We,' that is I, and he who loves me and keeps my words, ' shall come to Him, and abide with Him.' This brings out a very good sense ; but it would require a very strong reason to make it right to give a different reference to xum in the two successive clauses of the same sentence. It is scarcely what he calls it — " facillima explicatio." 3 Exod. xxix. 43-45. 180 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. they will give evidence, in the heavenly and spiritual blessings which they bestow on him, that they are near him to protect, and guide, and comfort, and bless hira. When a man is aban doned to ruin, God is said to depart from hira ; and when a man prospers, in the best sense of the word, then it is said the Lord is with him. The general meaning is, ' It shall be made plain to the lover of Christ, that he enjoys the guardianship of a prfe- sent God and Saviour,' And this shaU not be an occasional or transient enjoyment. The Father and Christ will not only corae to him, but abide with him for ever. However lowly his habitation, these High and- Holy Ones will dwell with him, not as a stranger, turning aside to tarry as for a night, but as permanent residents — nay, they will dwell in him, and walk in him, and he shall be one of their people, and they will be his God and Saviour, With regard to every lover of Christ, they will say, ' This is our rest — here wUl we dwell, for we have desired it ! ' This is a privilege which belongs to all true Christians. The Spirit of God dwells in thera all; and "if any raan have not the Spirit of Christ," — i. e., have not Christ spiritually dwelling in hira, — " he is none of his," They are " teraples of God," Christ " lives in thera " — " dwells in their hearts by faith." He " comes in to them, and sups with them, and they with hira." ' And what a wonderful privilege is this — " God in very deed dwelUng with man on the earth," We cannot, in the present state, ascend to heaven, to be with God and Christ, In this respect we must, till death permits us to go home, be " absent frora the Lord ;" but the Father and the Son, of their infinite kindness, corae to us by the Spirit, and dwell with us till we go to dwell with thera, " What is raan that God should thus visit hira ? " Men count it a great honour when an earthly sovereign takes up his residence, but for a night, under their roof; what, then, is the dignity of being the continual residence of the King of kings and Lord of lords ? And the advantage is equal to the honour, which is not usually the case with the visits of earthly sovereigns. These celestial guests bring with thera their unex hausted treasures, bring thera with thera to distribute thera with liberal hand. What the apocryphal writer says of wisdora is ' 1 Rom. viii. 9.- Cor. iii. 16 ; vi. 19. Gal. ii. 20. Eph. iii. 17. Rev. iii. 20. PART XI.] CONNECTION OF CHARACTER AND PRIVILEGE. 181 true of them — " AU good things came to me with her, and in numerable treasures were in her hands." * And then all these blessings are for perpetuity. " They make their abode with him — in him." They will never leave him — never forsake him. When they enter, they say, " This is our rest for ever." How incon ceivably great the blessedness of the true Christian whom God loves, and with whora he makes his abode — " Whom God delights in, and in whom he dwells." 2 Is not the presence of the Father and the Son enough to pro tect him amid all dangers, to embolden him in the presence of all enemies ? If the presence of two divine persons be not suffi cient to assure him of safety and happiness in the way of holiness, he has the promise of the Spirit likewise. " The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost," ' shall be on all lovers of Christ, keepers of his sayings, from henceforth and for evermore, world without end. Amen, " The tabernacle of God is with these raen, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God hira self shall be with them, and be their God,"* § 3, The connection which subsists between the peculiar character of Christians and their peculiar privileges. It only remains now, that we point out the connection which subsists between the peculiar character, and the peculiar privilege of true Christians, The whole truth on that interesting subject may be stated in three propositions : — He alone who possesses the character can enjoy the privilege. He who possesses the character must enjoy the privilege ; and, the measure in which the character is possessed is the measure in which the privilege is enjoyed. These propositions, after what has beefi said, must appear to be nearly self-evident ; but I shall say a few words in illustration of each of thera, (1.) He only who possesses the character can enjoy fhe privilege. He alone who possesses the peculiar character of the true Christian, can enjoy the peculiar privUeges of the true Christian, What are these peculiar privileges ? God and his Son regard ' Wisd. iv. II. ' Cowper. ' 2 Cor. xiii. 14. * Rev. xxi. 3. 182 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. him with complacent love, and show this by manifesting them selves to him as his reconciled Father and effectual Saviour, coming to hira, and abiding with him. How could an impeni tent, unsanctified sinner enjoy these privileges? Could God regard with complacency the man who tramples equally on his authority and grace ? Could Christ regard with complacency the man who " counts the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and does despite to the Spirit of grace " ? Could God manifest himself to such a one, as well pleased with his character and conduct ? or Jesus Christ regard him with the love which he bears to those who love him ? Is it not clear as a sun-beam, that the man who does not receive Christ's words does not love him, and does not keep his commandments, just because he does not receive his words ? and, so long as he does not receive them, he is, in the very nature of things, incapable of the privilege of being the object of the complacent regard of God and of Christ, and of having this coraplacency raanifested to hira in their com ing to him, and dwelling in hira. What cares he about their love ? Their companionship would be a source of anything but pleasure to him. He bars the door of his mind and heart against thera ; and were they, in this unchanged state, to enter, instead of gladly receiving, he would contumeliously expel, thera, (2,) He who possesses the character must enjoy the privilege. Then, in the second place, he who possesses the character must enjoy the privilege. Can God, infinitely wise, and holy, and good, but approve of receiving Christ's word, loving him, keeping his commandments — can he but complacently regard him who, having Christ's words, loves him — who, loving him, keeps his commandments ? Can Christ see of the travail of his soul, and not be satisfied ? Can he who is love do anything but love those who love him, and give them all appropriate mani festations of his love ? After God and Christ have fashioned a fit, though humble, dwelling-place for themselves in a human heart, can they refuse to occupy it ? The very faith of the truth, by which the Christian comes to love Christ, is the means by which his dwelling in the heart is realised ; for he " dwells in the heart by faith." The truth, believed and obeyed, believing obediential regard to Christ's saying, is the very medium through which Christ manifests himself to his own, as he does not to the PART XI.] CONNECTION OF CHARACTER AND PRIVILEGE. 183 world. None, then, but a lover of Christ can enjoy the privilege ; and every lover of Christ must enjoy the privilege. (3.) The measure in which the character is possessed is the - measure in which the privilege is enjoyed. The third proposition is. The measure of the possession of the character is the measure of the enjoyment of the privilege. This follows as a matter of course, from what has been already said. The more a raan loves Christ, the raore raust both God and Christ love hira. The more holy he is, — i. e,, the more he keeps Christ's commandments, — the more must he be the object of their complacent regard. The better he knows, the firmer he believes, the word of Christ, — the fuller, clearer, manifestation must he have of Christ, the greater assurance must he have that the Father and the Son have taken up their abode with hira, and will never forsake their chosen dwelling-place ; while, on the other hand, every declension in faith, and love, and holiness, raust, from the very nature of the case, lead to a diminution in the enjoyment of the privUeges described in the text. In establishing this connection between the peculiar character and the peculiar privileges of Christians, God strikingly illustrates his holiness, his wisdora, and his benignity. Were Christ not manifesting himself in a way he does not to the world, to those who, having his word, love him, and loving him, keep his cora mandments — were he and his Father not to give to those pos sessed of this character peculiar tokens of his love — were he involving in deep spiritual distress the soul that trusts in him with humble confidence, embraces him with pure and ardent affection, and keeps his word — would not a dark shade be cast on his character, and a heavy discouragement thrown in the way of becoming his servants ? Were spiritual comforts comrauni- cated — supposing such a thing possible — without reference to holy character, would not a darker shadow still fall on the Divine character, and a leading raotive to the cultivation of holiness in heart and life be destroyed ? There was one instance — only one — in the whole history of God's dealings with man, in which the comforts of God's salvation were withdrawn from a soul delight ing to do God's will, one in which He forsook a heart which had not forsaken Him, but was cleaving to Him with the most perfect faith and love. That perfectly holy man was our surety, stand- 184 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII; ing in our place, suffering our deserts. Hence the loud and exceeding bitter cry, " My God, my God, why hast thou for saken rae? "* The absolute singularity of his position accounts for the absolute singularity of his experience. The lover of Christ, the raan who has and keeps his sayings, may be visited with severe afflictions, but amid all his afflictions he wUl, in the raeasure of his faith, and love, and obedience, have the satisfaction arising from the knowledge that God loves him, that Christ loves him, that Christ is manifesting himself to him — that the Father and the Son are come to him, and making their abode with him. But if Christ's words are not held fast — if the love of tbe Saviour waxes cold — if his words are not kept — then it is not wonderful that the consolations of God are small with the back sliding Christian — then it is not wonderful that suspicion and mistrust, creating terror and alienation, should fill the soul. The Saviour is not manifesting himself; but what is the reason? His word is not kept ; therefore he does not come and make his abode with the soul. Our sins have separated between us and our God, Our iniquities have hid his face from us. He has withdrawn from us, for we have withdrawn from him ; and it will be well for us if we learn effectually the lesson — " It is an evU thing, and a bitter, to depart from the Uving God," The point of christian experience which is thus brought up, is a very important one, and, I am afraid, a very ill understood one, I shall conclude these Ulustrations with a few remarks on it, in which I shall avail myself of some of the weU-digested thoughts and " sound words " of one of the ornaments of our religious denomination,^ in his valuable discourse on the " Character of Divine Manifestation," " It may be said — it has often been said — ' Is it not a fact that many true Christians are often with out comfort, and enjoy but in a small degree the peace of God, which passeth all understanding?' Admitting the fact, the question naturally arises, ' What is the state of their raind and heart in reference to Christ and his words, when they are in this condition ? ' Are they, having his word, loving him ? are they, loving him, keeping his sayings ? If they are, we deny that they are — that they can be — destitute of comfort, except I Matt, xxvii. 16. 3 James Stark, D.D. PART XI.] CONNECTION OP CHARACTER AND PRIVILEGE. 185 from the influence of mental or bodily disease. We must never doubt the declaration of the faithful and true Witness — ' If any man will love me, and keep ray words, my Father will love hira ; and we will corae to him, and make our abode with hira.' These words are too plain to be misunderstood ; and while none can misapprehend their meaning, who dare question their truth? With the exception already made, want of spiritual comfort on the part of Christians, must be traced to deficient or mis taken views of the Gospel — of the salvation of Christ — or of the way in which it is brought near to them as sinners, and is to be received by them ; or to some prejudice against the way of salvation, in its absolute freedom, originating in these deficient and mistaken views, leading them to expect comfort from them selves, and not from the finished work of Christ clearly revealed in the Gospel, and to place that dependence on fluctuating feel ings which can be safely rested only on eternal truth ; or, finally, to the indulgence of sorae sinful affection, or the neglect of some duty — the commission of some sin. They are not keeping Christ's word ; and it is therefore that he does not manifest him self to thera — that he does not come and raake his abode with thera. The fellowship with God and Christ, which yields cora- fort, must be fellowship in truth, and love, and holiness. If the Christian puts the psalmist's question, ' Oh, when wilt thou come to me ? ' the words which follow suggest the answer — ' Walk in a perfect way. He meeteth him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,'* Live in faith, and let faith work by love. Hold fast the truth. Do not ' hold it' — confine it — ' in unrighteousness,' and you shall not want comfort or peace." " Let Christians beware of ascribing their want of the mani festations spoken of in the text, merely or chiefly to Divine sovereignty, God's sovereignty invariably harmonises with his wisdom, righteousness, and benignity. But this would not be the fact if — after having declared that He is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him — that He fills such persons with joy and peace in believing — that they who love his law have great peace — that He wiU keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him — that they who wait on Him shall renew their strength that to them who, having his word, love his Son, and loving his ' Psal. ci. 2. Isa. Ixiv. 5. 186 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII, Son keep his commands. He will come and make his abode with them — if, after all this. He should yet, without any reason but sovereign will, withhold or withdraw peace, hope, and joy, from those who are seeking Him, trusting in Him, waiting on Him, keeping his word, and involve them in darkness, perplexity, and cheerless despondency. He affronts God who, even in thought, imputes such caprice to Him, No ; though sovereign. He is not capricious. He never withholds — He never withdraws — without a reason, and a good one. And when a Christian loses his com fort, it is wise in him to inquire. Is there not a cause ? and what is it?" " The practical consequences of indulging these mistaken views, as to the cause of want of christian comfort, to which we are adverting, are most injurious. They prevent us from looking into our own hearts and lives for the causes of the want of spiritual comfort in the enjoyment of manifestations of the Saviour, and the presence of the Father with us ; and from using the appropriate means of having these causes removed; they teach us to look on God with an unkindly and jealous eye, as if He were treating us with undue severity ; they lead us to regard the despondency, and perplexity, and terror, which are the natural and threatened effects of backsUding in heart or life from God, as afflictions imposed on us for our trial — under which we may confidently look both to Christ and to our brethren for compassion and syrapathy, without any exposure of our sin, or reproofs for it — and they discourage faith in the truth, depend ence on the Saviour, and holy obedience, by representing them as not effectual for the purpose which they are certainly intended to serve as the open channel for the coraraunication of peace and comfort to the soul." But while we are to remember that they are the open channel, we are never to suppose they are the source of peace and com fort. When we want comfortable manifestations of Christ — the felt delight of fellowship with the Father and the Son — we may be assured there is sorae wrong in us, as the cause of this. This we may oftentimes be able, if we are honest and dUigent in our search, to discover ; at other times, from whatever cause, we may not be able to discover it. One thing is absolutely certain : poring over our sorrows, and endeavouring to dig out a channel for Divine comfort by our PART XI,J CONNECTION OF CHARACTER AND PRIVILEGE. 187 own regrets, resolutions, and endeavours, will do little good — may do much harm. We raust go directly to the word, the sayings, the coraraandraents of Christ, We raust look to hira, and we shall be lightened. Looking at hira in his person and work, we shall love him ; loving hira, we shall walk at liberty, keeping his coraraandments ; and then, most assuredly, we shall find how true is the promise, Christ will manifest himself to us, and the Father and he will come and make their abode with us. Our case will never improve while we remain away from him, and we can corae to hira only in the faith of the truth in refer ence to hira. " Nor should we suppose that we may not depend with confidence on him for the benefit of his atoning blood, and reviving sanctifying grace, till we have attained some satisfactory evidence that we are his children — till we be satisfied that our former religious exercises and enjoyments were no delusion. This is to build our confidence, not on the Rock of ages — the character and work of the Saviour — but on ourselves, and to establish another reason and rule of dependence and hope, than the free exhibition to sinners as such, of all the blessings of the christian salvation, to becorae theirs in the belief of the truth," It does seem very plain, that the power of the truth to comfort can be experienced only by believing it. It is God dwelling in the heart, through the belief of the truth, who is " the God of all consolation," It is Christ in us, through believing, who is " the hope of glory," " the consolation of" the spiritual " Israel,"* His personal excellences — the truth and freeness of his love — the per fection and infinite worth of his saving work — the fulness of his redemption, so dearly purchased, so freely bestowed, presented in the Gospel to mankind-sinners, as such, for their acceptance and use, — if known and believed, will infallibly revive and restore the soul — will " give it beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." The appointed way of obtaining spiritual comfort, is that so clearly pointed out in the text — the faith of the truth — the love of the Saviour — the keeping his coramandments — the habitual enjoyraent of his manifestations of himself, and of the coming and abode of him and of his Father, This is the beginning — this is the progress — this is the end, of true christian rehgion, I Rom. XV. 5. Col, i, 27, Luke ii. 25. 188 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. The elements are the same throughout ; the only difference is, when the Christian keeps in the way his faith becoraes more firm — his love raore ardent — his obedience raore uniforra — the manifestations of the Divine love are raore clear and less inter rupted — the Divine presence is more habitually realised and ex perienced in all its sanctifying and blissful results. Alas, how little of this holy happiness is enjoyed by us Chris tians, in comparison of what might be. And what is, and what can be, the reason ? Ah, it is not far to seek. It is to be found in our ignorance, our unbelief, our indolence, our love of the world, our neglect of what we know to be right, our doing what we know to be wrong. And shall we rather forego these mani festations of the Redeemer, shall we shut the door against the heavenly visitant, who would come and make his abode with us, rather than renounce and crucify our sinful propensities, mortify our worldly affections, and give all dUigence to grow in know ledge, and faith, and love, and holiness ? " Ah, how much do we, by our indolence and worldliness, deprive ourselves of ! And for what do we sacrifice such high and holy deUghts ? For some paltry perishing gratification, or because we will not be at the pains rightly to understand our privUeges, or the order estab lished for obtaining the enjoyraent of thera," Let us forra a juster estimate of these high and holy privileges. Let us be persuaded that, in comparison of thera, everything caUed enjoyraent is insipid and worthless. Let us seek a larger measure of the character, with the possession of which their enjoyment is so inseparably connected. Oh, let us avoid every thing that unfits us for manifestations of Christ, for the coming and abode of the Father — everything fitted to quench and grieve the Holy Spirit who brings the Father and the Son to us. Let us study the Scriptures. Let us abound in prayer. Let us deny ourselves. Oh, let us more and more hold fast our Lord's sayings — more and raore love him — raore and more keep his coraraandments. Thus will he ever clearly manifest himself to us more and more, as he does not to the world. Then wUl he and his Father love us, and show that they love us by coming and abiding with us, and then, in due time, shaU we be taken to that blessed world, where we shall see him as he is, and be for ever with the Lord. And now " beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep your- PART XI.J CONNECTION OF CHARACTER AND PRIVILEGE, 189 selves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life," * I cannot persuade myself to close the illustration of this sub ject, without one word to those who are entirely destitute of the privileges we have been speaking of. Continuing destitute of them, they must be strangers to all true happiness in life and in death, through time and eternity. They are incapable of enjoy ing it, and they are so because they are wilfully ignorant, unbe lieving, impenitent. Let them know that their destitution is not a matter of arbitrary arrangement. It grows out of their own depraved character. The words we have been illustrating are, as it were, but one side of an antithesis. The other is, ' He that loveth me not keepeth not my saying;' and he is not, he cannot be, while he continues what he is, the object of the com placent regard, the subject of the favourable fellowship, either of Christ or his Father. They cannot love hira — they cannot come and make their abode with hira. If he would enjoy these privi leges, he must repent and be converted, God does love him, Christ does love him, inasmuch as they have no pleasure in his death. They will that he turn from his evil ways, and live in the enjoyment of their favour and fellowship ; but he must come to the knowledge of the truth, in order to being thus saved, God and Christ cannot love hira with a love of coraplacency — cannot corae and dwell with hira — unless he keep their sayings ; he cannot keep their sayings unless he love theitiselves — he cannot love them unless he know them— -he cannot know them unless he receive and hold fast their words. Here we are again at the point at which we so often arrive in the course of our teaching. There is no holiness, no happiness, for the sinner, but through the faith of the truth as it is in Jesus, This is the sinner's immediate duty — this is the gate of life — the entrance equaUy to true holiness and true happiness — the means equally of the formation of the peculiar character, and of the enjoyment of the peculiar privileges, of the true Christian, BeUeve in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be sweetly constrained to love him and keep his commandments, and, loving him and keeping his comraandraents, he and his Father will love you, and will mani fest themselves to you, and will come to you, and make their 1 Jude 20, 21. 190 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII. abode with you. Remain in unbelief, and thou must remain estranged from God and his Son — unacquainted with the holy satisfactions of their love and fellowship — the object of their dis approbation and displeasure — and thus, far frora God, thou must perish. XII, THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE PARACLETE, THE GREAT TEACHER AND REMEMBRANCER, John xiv. 26, 26. — " These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, what soever I have said unto you." The inferiority of the epistles to the gospels in the New Testa ment, as to authority and importance, is a favourite dogma of those who have assumed to themselves the distinctive appellation of rational Christians ; and " Not Paul but Jesus," or " Jesus and not Paul," is the quaint title of a very weak book, by a very able raan, in support of this dograa. The professed object of the book is to deraolish the authority of the apostles, in order to establish the authority of their Master. The author would have us seek our religion exclusively in the gospels. According to him, the sayings of Jesus, as recorded there, are divine oracles ; the writings of the apostles are only human, and sometimes mis taken, comraentaries on these oracles. The distinction thus attempted to be established, as to the origin and authority of the two constituent portions of the New Testaraent, the gospels and the epistles, is utterly unfounded,* The authority of Christ and his apostles must stand or fall to gether. The doctrine taught by the apostles in the epistles, is not " diverse " from that taught by their Master in the gospels. It is substantially the same. AU the doctrines of Christianity, as taught by the apostles — even those of them most unpalatable to self-called rational Christians, — such as the trinal distinction ' " I should be astonished at the opinion of some divines who make light of the Epistles, did I not plainly perceive why they do so. It seems probable they cannot reconcile many things in these with their favourite notions. It is not the difficulty of understanding them that leads them to these sentiments. The scheme of exalting the evangelists above the epistles was first begun by Thomas Chubb of SaJisbury, in a tract which he styled 'The True Gospel of -Christ.'" — Job Orton. There is but little original in late infidel literature. 192 the valedictory discourse, [exp. xxviii. in the one divine nature — the true divinity of the Son — the dis tinct personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit — rederaption through substitutionary and expiatory suffering — justification by faith of the truth — transformation of character through Divine influence — the resurrection of the body, — all these doctrines in their elements, many of them very clearly expressed, are to be found in our Lord's discourses. The authority claimed for these doctrines by the apostles, and attested by their miracles, was as really and entirely divine as the authority claimed by Jesus for his doctrine. They declared that they spake " the wisdom of God in a mystery, hidden from the world, revealed to them by his Spirit," who " searcheth all things, even the deep things of God ; " and that they spake this divine wisdom, not in words taught them by man, but in words taught thera by the sarae Spirit who had revealed to them the doctrine. They declared that they were " ambassadors of Christ," as he was the ambassador of God ; that " they had his mind," and that " he spoke in them;" and they warned those who re jected their testiraony, or disobeyed their injunctions, that " he that despised, despised not raan, but God, who had also given to them his Holy Spirit," * And, in making such clairas, they were fully warranted by the declarations of our Lord, as recorded in the gospels ; so that he who refuses to subrait iraplicitly to the teaching of the apostles, raust, to be consistent, renounce the authority of Jesus, If we take him for the one Master, we must take them for the qualified and accredited, infallible interpreters of his doctrine, " As the Father hath sent rae," said he to thera, " even so send I you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost," " He that receiveth you, receiveth me ; he that despiseth you, despiseth me," Their doctrine, like his, then, was not theirs, but his who sent them,^ If a distinc tion is to be taken, not as to authority, but as to iraportance, between the gospels and the epistles, viewed as sources of doc trinal instruction, the advantage is on the side of the latter. The great design of our Lord's mission was, no doubt, to make that revelation of God which the circumstances of man required ; but that was a revelation to be made fully raore by what he was and did than even by what he said — in his person and work, than ' 1 Cor. ii. 7, 10, 13, 16. 2 Cor. v. 20. 1 Thess. iv. 8. 2 John XX. 21, 22. Luke x. 10. PART XII,J THE SPIRIT, TEACHER, AND REMEMBRANCER, 193 in his personal teaching ; and, for obvious reasons, the fuU de velopment of the doctrine of his person and work could not pro perly be given till that work was accomplished ; and that de velopment is given — professedly given — in the apostolical epistles. He as reaUy spoke from his throne in the heavens, through his apostles in the apostolical epistles, inspired by his Spirit, as he did, when on the earth, through the medium of his huraan nature ; and if they escaped not who refused to hear hira speak ing on earth, they are not likely to escape who refuse to hear him speaking from heaven. One of the most reraarkable of our Lord's personal attesta tions of the authority of apostolical teaching, is given in that passage of his valedictory discourse which comes now before us for exposition : — " These things have I spoken to you, being yet present with you ; but the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you," Nor is it a singular attestation. We have others, and, if possible, still more explicit ones, in the sequel of the discourse : — " When the Comforter is come, whom I wUl send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear witness," " Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he wUl guide you into all truth : for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak : and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you," * These remarks, naturally suggested by the words for exposi tion, are intended, and, if well understood and seriously reflected on, will be found sufficient, to put down that disposition which exists in many minds which, though they would revolt with horror from the doctrine, " Jesus, and not Paul," are yet inclined to consider the epistolary part of the New Testaraent, though of great value, as of but secondary iraportance, when viewed along side the evangelical history. We cannot overrate the gospels, but we raay — I ara afraid many of us do — practically underrate the epistles. We do not study them with the frequency and attention they deserve, as containing in them the completed 1 John XV. 26, 27 ; xvi. 13-16. VOL, III, * N 194 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. revelktion of the mystery of Divine power and wisdom, righte ousness and grace, in the redemption of man ; and, therefore, we are so far from " comprehending its height and depth, and length and breadth, and being fiUed with aU the fiilness of God."* Let us now proceed to examine somewhat more particularly the words which lie before us, § 1, The introductory statement. "These things^ have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you," The expression, " these things," has, by some inter preters, been referred td the whole statements made by our Lord to his disciples, during the entire period of their companying with hira ; we think it raore natural to understand them of the communications he had made to them at this time, "these things," here, being contrasted with the " all things " in the next verse, which he had said to them, and which the Holy Spirit was to call to their remembrance. The whole statement in the verse is just equivalent to, ' I have said these things to you while I remain with you,' The words express no more than this, but they naturally suggest, they seem plainly intended to suggest, more. It is as if he -had said, ' My time is short, — the hour is at hand when I must leave you, I have not said all that is in my heart, I have raany things to say to you, but I have not time to say them, — you are not prepared to hear them ; — but " these things " I felt it necessary to say, — I feel it sufficient to have said. Had these things not been said, you would have been unprepared for what is about to take place ; they will con duce to allay your fears, and to strengthen your faith, I have said these things now that I ara with you, and just about to de part frora you, I shall have more, rauch more, to say when we meet again, I, as your paraclete, have made these revelations to instruct, and sustain, and guide, and comfort you. Another paraclete ere long, will still more fully, still more effectually, give you all necessary instruction and consolation,' I cannot help thinking, that they were especially intended to convey this idea, as introductory to what follows ; ' I have said these things to you, but I perceive they have very imperfectly found their way into your minds and hearts. You have a very indistinct apprehen- ' Eph. iii. 18, 19. a " txZtx — hcBc, non plura."— Bengel. PART XII.J THE SPIRIT, TEACHER, AND REMEMBRANCER. 1 95 sion of thera ; and you are likely to have but an indistinct recol lection of thera. I know, I see, they have not entirely cleared up your difficulties, nor reraoved your fears, nor calraed your sorrows : but they are not lost, — they have had sorae effect, — they will have their full effect in due time, I have said these things, but the Holy Ghost wUl teach you them. He will be their inter preter, and your remembrancer. He will teach you these things, and all things that I have spoken to you. He will bring these things, and all things that I have spoken to you, to remembrance,' § 2, A farther description of the paraclete. I have already had an opportunity of explaining to you at large, the iraport of the remarkable designation here given to the Hofy Spirit, rendered by our translators, " Comforter," but in reality suggesting the idea of instructor, monitor, and helper, as well and fully as much as consoler. (1.) 75^6 Holy Ghost. This paraclete, who, when first promised, was called "the Spirit of truth," is here termed, " the Holy Ghost," or " Spirit ;" the appellation by which the third person of the Trinity is most usually in the Scriptures designated. The name, " Spirit," not only indicates the immateriality of the divine nature of which, in common with the Father and the Son, he is possessed, but prob ably also indicates the peculiar relation he stands in to the two other divine persons. He is their Spirit, or breath, just as the second person is the Son of the first. It may be doubted if anything more is intended by such analogical expressions than to indicate the truth, that the 'divine persons, though most inti mately united, are in some way distinct frora each other, and that the relations of each to each are peculiar. The epithet, " holy," indicates that absolute perfection, especially that abso lute moral perfection, by which the Holy Spirit is immeasurably removed from the imperfections of all created spirits, dwelling apart with the Father and the Son, in the pure inaccessible light, (2,) Sent by the Father in the name of the Son. It is said that the Father would send this Holy Spirit as the paraclete, and send hira in the narae of the Son, When the Holy Spirit is said to be sent by the Father, the idea is, that 196 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [jlXP. XXVIII, that remarkable coraraunication of his influence, and raanifesta tion of his operations, which were to characterise the new dispen sation, were, like the mission of the Son, the execution of a portion of that Divine saving purpose, in the formation and execution of which the Father is always represented as sustain ing the majesty of the Godhead, and the Son and the Spirit as the great agents by which the mighty scheme is carried into ac complishment ; and when he is said to be sent " in the name " of the Son, we are taught, either that he is sent as his representa tive, or substitute ; or rather, that he is sent on his account, through his mediation, in consequence of his atonement and intercession, , The apostle Paul tells us, that " Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith ;"* i, e., ' the promised Spirit through believing,' And our Lord himself says, that " if he went not away " (by his expiatory death, and by the glorious exaltation which testified the efficacy of that expiation), " the Comforter would not come, but that if he went away he would pray the Father, who would send him " " to the disciples ; and we are inforraed that the Holy Ghost, by whom we are renewed, is "shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour,"^ It deserves to be remarked by the way, that the insertion of the personal pronoun he,^ between the ap pellation, the Holy Spirit, which is in the neuter gender in the original, and the verbs with which it agrees, renders the passage before us one of the most distinct attestations of the personality of the Holy Ghost : it being difficult to account for such an inser tion on any other supposition, than that it took place for the ex press purpose of guarding us against supposing that the Holy Spirit was a mere personification of divine infiuence. § 3. The work of the Paraclete — to explain and bring to remembrance all that Christ had said. This divine person, our Lord assures the disciples, when sent by the Father in his name, should " teach them aU things,* and 1 Gal. iii. 13, 14. a John xvi. 7. 3 Tit. iii. 6. * " ixums pro ixiiyo. Significatur hac enallage Spiritum Sanctum esse ver^ per sonam." — Glassius. '^ " Ixmas. Ille docebit. Non Alius sine Spiritu Sancto dicit, nee docet sine filio Spiritus Sanctus, sed omnia dicit et docet Trinitas : sed nisi hsec sigillatim commen- daretur, earn nuUo modo humana caperet inflrmitas." — Augustin, PART XII.J THE SPIRIT, TEACHER, AND REMEMBRANCER. 197 bring to their remembrance whatever (literally, all things) he had said to them." When it is said that the Holy Spirit was to teach the apostles " all things," it "is plain we are not to under stand the words in the greatest extent of raeaning of which they are susceptible. He was not to make thera omniscient. That was, in the nature of things, impossible ; nor was he to make them know everything which it is possible for men to know. It was not to acquaint them with aU the facts of the past history of all nations and individuals, nor to lay open to their minds all the secrets of futurity, or treasures of science and of art. We are plainly to understand the declaration with a reference to the subject concerning which it was made. Some have supposed the meaning to be, ' He will teach you all things that are neces sary to your savingly understanding, and infaUibly teaching, the way of salvation through Christ,' considering it as just equivalent to the expression used elsewhere, " He will lead you into all truth," or rather all the truth, — " the truth as it is in Jesus."* There is no doubt that it was so, and that the words not un naturally express this ; but I think it raore natural to connect the words " all things," in both cases, with the concluding words, " which I have said unto you." ' He will teach you' — i. e., 'he will raake you understand — all things that I have said to you ; and, in order to this, he will bring all these things to your remembrance. I have said many things which you did not, which you do not, understand. I know you often understood not my sayings, and were afraid to ask rae ; but he will teach you all these things. He will make you fully to understand the meaning of ray declarations, and to perceive their harmony from seeing their connections and dependencies. All the strange and hard sayings will be fully explained to you ; you will no longer marvel at its being said, " Ye must be born again :" the Ufting up of the Son of man will be no longer a mystery : you will then know whither I have gone, and you will know the way : He will teach you what you do not now know — how " I am the way, and the truth, and the life" — how " the Father is in me, and X in the Father" — how " ye are in me, and I in you." He will make you understand how and why " I raanifest myself to you, and not to the world," and how " the Father and I are to ' Eph. iv. 21. 198 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII, come to you and abide with you," He wUl so teach you, as that you will no longer need to ask me any questions. Everything I have said, whether in parabolical or in literal statement, he will fully iUustrate, The whole mystery of the gospel economy wiH be unfolded to you, ' And that he raay thus teach you the meaning of all things which I have said unto you, he will bring all these things to your remembrance — that you, remerabering them, and under standing thera, may be enabled to communicate infaUibly an accurate knowledge of them to men of all nations and genera tions,' The New Testament writings — the gospels and the epistles — are most satisfactory evidence that this remarkable prediction has been accomplished. Without such an influence how could such books have been written by any set of men ? especially, how could they have been written by the men who, we know, did write them? If the genuineness of the New Testament writings be but admitted — and few facts of equal antiquity, if any, are so abundantly attested — the inspiration of the writers is the only hypothesis which can satisfactorily account for the appearances. There can be no doubt that the painful consciousness of the dimness of their apprehensions, respecting much of what their Master had said to thera on forraer occasions, and even at this time, must have added to the trouble of heart which they now experienced ; and this declaration was well fitted to re-assure and comfort them. These words, though in their primary and full extent appli cable only to the apostles, are replete both with instruction and comfort to Christians of every age. Who does not feel how im perfectly he understands — how easily he forgets — the sayings of our Lord and of his apostles ? Though we are not to expect the miraculous teaching of the inspiring Spirit, we are warranted to expect, if we ask in faith, and use the appropriate means, that what we know not, God will teach us ; that by the aids of his Spirit he will enable us to understand his word, calling it season ably to our recollection, and enabling us wisely to apply it to our peculiar circumstances, " for doctrine and reproof, for cor rection and instruction in righteousness," John was not writing to apostles, but to ordinary Christians, when he said, " Ye have PART XII,] THE SPIRIT, TEACHER, AND REMEMBRANCER, 199 an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things," * We are exhorted to "be filled with the Spirit"^ — an exhortation which plainly implies that God is ready to communicate the influences of the Spirit, in an abundant measure, to those who seek them according to the due order. Let us, then, fill our minds with the words of Christ, even although we may but imperfectly understand them. We may afterwards be made to understand them, by hira who is the great teacher and remembrancer. We are not to expect that he will reveal to us truths that are not in his word ; but we may reason ably expect that he will enable us better to understand, and more wisely to 'improve, these truths. He will raake us more fully apprehend their meaning, perceive their evidence, taste their sweetness, and behold their glory. The word of Christ is the means by which the Holy Spirit sanctifies and comforts the soul. It is unreasonable to expect the enlightening, transforming in fluence, if we neglect the means along with which that influence is usually put forth. Our prayers for the Spirit to enable us to understand saving truth, are vile hypocrisy, if we do not read and hear with attention that word which was dictated by hira, and is eraployed by him in the performance of his most glorious work — the " creating men anew in Christ Jesus, after the image of God, in knowledge, and righteousness, and true holi- ' 1 John ii. 20. ' Eph. v. 18. ' Eph. iv. 24. Col. iii. 10. XIII. CHRIST'S PEACE HIS LEGACY TO HIS PEOPLE, John xiv. 27.—" Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto youi not as the world giveth, give I unto you." A NEW topic of consolation is brought forward in the 27th verse. The topics already introduced are these : ' I go to a state of the highest honour and happiness ; I go there to make provision for your coming there, and, when that is completed, I will return, and conduct you thither, I have opened the way for you ; I wiU make you acquainted with the way; I will give you the energy necessary to go along that way, I will not withdraw from you the miraculous powers I have conferred on you ; I wUl enable you to perform a work far greater than any miracle. Whatever you need for the discharge of this work, on asking, you shall assuredly obtain. A divine person will be sent to supply my place, as your instructor, guide, monitor, helper, and comforter. You shall be left in an orphan state only for a short season. I will return to you — return to you in the possession of a higher life, of which you shall be made partakers. You shall obtain a rauch raore extended, and accurate, and influential view of all that is most important and delightfiil in my doctrine ; and, in proportion to your love of me, I wiU manifest myself to you, and my Father and myself, as proof of our love, will come to you, and abide with you ; and, through the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit, you shall be made to remember and under stand all the declarations of truth I have raade to you.' The new topic of consolation is, ' Though about to part from you, I leave you a valuable legacy — peace — my own peace ; and this, like all my gifts, is very different frora — is far superior to — the gifts bestowed by the world on its favourites : " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give* unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." ' 1 " Aftffl/tj is the stronger expression ; while aji/Vi is rather the negative term, iiiufi,! expresses positively imparting, bestowing actively. — Olshausen. PART XIII.J PEACE, CHRIST'S LEGACY TO HIS PEOPLE. 201 The words, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," have been considered by some learned interpreters as just equivalent to a soleran farewell. There seems no reason to doubt that " Peace be to you" was an ordinary parting, as well as meeting, salutation among the Jews ; but there is no evidence that " I leave peace to or with you," " I give peace to you," were formulas of salutation. The more satisfactory interpretation is that which represents our dying, departing Lord as leaving a legacy to those he left behind hira, and Ulustrating the value of that legacy, by con trasting it with the legacies or gifts which the world, or mankind generally, confer on their favourites. There are four questions here which require to be answered : What is this peace ? how is it Christ's peace ? why is it represented as his legacy or his gift ? and how does this legacy of our Lord differ from the legacies the world leaves to, the gifts the world confers on, its favourites ? § 1. What is Christ s peace? It is coraraon to say, that peace is happiness, and no doubt that is true ; but it is happiness viewed in a peculiar aspect, as peace — a state of reconciliation and" tranquillity — in opposition to a state of enmity, and warfare, and tumult. The fundamental part of the blessing here spoken of is reconciliation with God — the bringing us into a state, in which our final happiness is raade consistent with — is secured by — the perfections of the Divine character, and the principles of the Divine governraent. Then there is the well-grounded assurance of this, rising out of the faith of the Gospel, produced in the heart by. the effectual opera tion of the good Spirit ; then there is the tranquillity of con science which springs out of this ; then there is the harraonious operation of all the faculties of the mind in the Divine service, which is the native result of these ; and, finally, there is an agreement of mind and heart with aU the wise and good part of the creation, so that the peace here mentioned is peace with God, peace with ourselves, and peace with all the innocent and restored creatures of God. § 2. How is it Christ s peace '^ The second question is. How is this peace Christ's peace ? It has often been said, Because he procures it by his atonement. 202 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII, reveals it in his word, bestows it by his Spirit, This is all true ; but I rather think, with Jonathan Edwards, that our Lord's idea is, that the peace he bestows is substantially the same as what he himself enjoys. He is in a state of the most perfect amity with God. He enjoys the most perfect inward tranquiUity, all the principles of his nature are in complete unison, and he is of one mind and heart with all the wise and holy throughout the universe. " The peace here described," as the great divine referred to remarks, " is a participation of the peace which their glorious Lord and Master hiraself enjoys by virtue of the same blood by which Christ himself entered into rest. It is a partici pation of the same justification, for believers are justified with Christ, He was justified when he rose frora the dead, and as he was made free frora our guilt which he had as our surety, so believers are justified in him and through him, as being accepted of God in the same righteousness. It is in the favour of the same God and heavenly Father, that they enjoy peace, 'I ascend to my Father, and your Father, to my God, and your God,' It is in a participation of the same Spirit, that they, as believers, have the peace of Christ, " He had that Spirit given hira without measure, and ' out of his fulness do they all receive, and grace for grace,' * It is the oil of gladness shed on the head of the mystical body, that re freshes and deUghts all the members. It is as partakers of Jesus Christ, that believers enjoy this peace." § 3, How is this peace a legacy f The third question. Why is this peace represented as a legacy, a gift ? — " Peace I leave with you, or to you ; my peace I give to you," — is easily answered. As to the first point, It is a legacy, for it could become ours only through our Lord's death. He raade peace through the blood of his cross. Our Lord goes, but he leaves behind a perfect accepted atonement — trans gression finished— sin taken away — reconciUation for iniquity fully raade— everlasting righteousness brought in — all this left as his legacy, becoraing ours through his death. He was "de livered for our offences, raised again for our justification." " Being then justified by faith, we have peace with God through ' John i. 16. PART XIII.J PEACE, CHRIST'S LEGACY TO HIS PEOPLE. 203 our Lord Jesus Christ." Without his atoning death these bless ings never could have been ours. " A testament has force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the testator liveth." And as to the second point, it is a gift, not be stowed as a reward for work done, an equivalent for a price paid by us. It is " the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." " By grace are we saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God." * § 4, How is it given ? — not as the world giveth. It now only remains that we propose the question. What is raeant by our Lord's leaving this legacy, giving this gift, " not as the world giveth," " Not as the world giveth, give I unto you," ^ It has been common to suppose, that the contrast here is between the peace which Christ leaves as a legacy — gives as a gift — to his people, with the peace which the world gives, or professes to give, to her favourites ; and it has been justly said, " all the peace that the world can give is, at the best, but super ficial and external. It is not heart-peace ; while, on the other hand, Christ's peace is profound and spiritual, reaching to the deepest springs of feeling, and in the heart, as its pecuUar sphere, laying to rest all turbulence, saying. Peace, be still. The peace which the world bestows is uncertain and inconstant ; Christ's peace is solid, stable, and irarautable. The peace which the world gives is scared by death, and extinguished in eternity. The Saviour's peace converts death into a raessenger of joy, and eternity into a scene of boundless blessedness and glory. The world often proraises far more than it can bestow ; but the pro- raises of Jesus are not merely realised, but far outdone, in the accomplishment," ^ 1 Rom. V. 21. Eph. ii. 8. 2 " Verum quidem est quod observarunt viri docti, mundum ssepe mentiri quum dat pacem, mundum stepe aggredi quantum non potest praestare, cum dat pacem, etiam quum non mentitur sed serio agit. Nam mundus vel fallax est, vel inops con- silii et virium ; itaque qui nituntur mundo non consulunt sibi, nituntnr enim eo quod vel decipit fraude vel deficit imbecillitate virium, Hsec quidem verissima sunt et altius infigenda animo. Sed aliud tamen videtur voluisse Christus, atque inspicienti propius locum liquebit banc fuisse Christi mentem, nempe, mundus dat pacem ut amoliatur res adversas carni: Christus non ita dat pacem, sed pax Christi turn demiuu viget, quum rebus secundum carnem adversis non premimur modo, sed pene opprimimur. Conferatur cum hoc loco cap. iv. ad Philip., vers. 6 et 7, et res erit manifesta." — Cameko. " xxSin i xirfuis iHami. Saepe satis lubricam, fallacem, insidi- osam, periculosam, et damnosam." — Ekas. Schmid. 3 Brown Patterson. 204 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII. All this is truth, — important, most important, truth ; but the contrast seems to us to be, not so much between the peace Christ gives, and the peace the world gives, or pretends to give, as be tween the legacy and gift of our Lord, and the legacies and gifts of the world generally. The world's legacies and gifts are like itself. They consist in its own riches, or honours, or pleasures. How far inferior are these to our Saviour's legacy and gift ! — Peace — including favour and fellowship with God, — peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, — a composed, tranquil mind, and a heart filled to an overflow with ennobling love and triuraphant hope. Surely, silver shall not be weighed for the price of such a gift or legacy as this, " It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it ; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls : for its price is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold." * Ask hira who has felt his need of the gift of this peace, and, in the faith of the truth, has obtained possession of it, as Christ's legacy, — ask him how he estimates it ? We have his answer in the words of the christian poet : — " 'Tis heaven, all heaven, descending on the wings Of the glad legions of the King of kings ; 'Tis more, 'tis God difFus'd in every part, — 'Tis God himself triumphant in the heart." There is a difference in the manner, as well as in the substance, of the legacy and gift of our Lord, and of the legacies and gifts of the world. The world gives like itself, and so does Christ. It often gives hypocritically ; he always gives sincerely. The world often gives capriciously; he gives always wisely. The world often gives selfishly ; he always gives disinterestedly. The world often gives penuribusly ; he gives generously. The world often gives to those who least need its gifts ; he bestows his on those who, without his gifts, must perish. The world often "resumes the blessings it bestows;" ^ his gifts are without repentance, — his peace is "assurance for ever;" his salvation an " everlasting salvation," ° ' Job xxviii. 16-19. 2 " Mundus ita dat, ut raox eripiat : non rcZtniyurt."— Bekgel. ? Isa. xxxii. 17 ; xiv. 17. PART XIII.J PEACE, CHRIST'S LEGACY TO HIS PEOPLE, 205 Might not our Lord, then, well add, " Let not your heart be troubled, neither be afraid" ? Why should he be troubled — why should he be afraid — who is secured of such a legacy — en riched by such a gift ? Such a person needs only to believe the truth, and " the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," must keep his heart and mind through Christ Jesus, Well may he, however exposed to affliction, say and sing, " The lines have fallen to rae in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage," " I shall not be moved. My heart is glad ; my glory rejoiceth ; my fiesh, also, shall rest in hope,"* It is an important question, which demands the iraraediate and urgent attention of all of us : Have we received the Saviour's gift? Do we enjoy the Saviour's legacy? Have we peace? And, Have we his peace ? Alas ! how raany are strangers to peace ! Alas ! how many more are the dupes, . soon to be the victims, of a false peace ! There can be no safe peace in sin. There can be no real abiding peace from the world. True peace is to be found only in Christ, " He is our peace," " — the pro curer — the bestower — the preserver — the perfecter — of our peace. It is to be found by all who really seek it, — seek it in the ap pointed way ; by all who are disposed to receive it, — receive it in the appointed way. Come to him in the faith of the truth respecting him, and you wiU assuredly obtain peace — rest to your souls, Jehovah will proclaim to you, ' I was angry with you, but now I comfort you ; I am pacified towards you for all the iniquity which you have done :' and being at peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, He, as " the God of peace, will give you peace always, by all means." "His peace will keep your heart and mind." He will "keep you in perfect peace," keeping your raind stayed on hira ; and though " in the world ye should have tribulation, in hira ye shall have peace." He wiU raake all things contribute to your welfare ; " even in the floods of great waters he will preserve you from trouble, and in due time compass you about with songs of deliverance ;" and, meanwhile, " He will deliver you in six troubles ; yea, in seven no evil shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death ; and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hid frora the scourge of the tongue ; neither shall you be afraid 1 Psal. xvi. 6-11. 2 Eph. ii. 14. 206 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. of destruction when it cometh. At destruction and famine you shall laugh ; neither shall you be afraid of the beasts of the field. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field ; and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee." " And your latter end shall be peace." * You shall not be driven away ; you will go in peace. Your body shall rest in the grave in hope ; and your spirits enter into the peace of paradise." Your peace will not be interrupted, but confirmed and perfected by the fearful convulsions which shall put an end to the present order of things. " The issue of all," as President Edwards says, " will be your arrival, soul and body, in heaven, — that land of rest, — that region of everlasting joy, where your peace and hap piness shall be perfect, without the least raixtute of trouble or affliction ; and never be interrupted, world without end." Such peace is to be found in Christ — to be found in Christ by all who will but gladly and gratefully receive it in the faith of the truth. It is to be found only in him — not in sin, — not in ourselves, — not in the world. It is to be found now. It may not be found to-morrow ; nay, it may not be found next hour ; for to-morrow — next hour — raay find you in eternity ; and he who has not found peace in Christ here, will never find peace, even in him, there. ^ I Isa. xii. 1. Ezek. xvi. 63. 2 Thess. iii. 16. Phil. iv. 7. Isa. xxvi. 3. Psal. xxxii. 6, 7. Job v. 19-24. Psal. xxxvii. 37. 2 This seems the natural close of the discourse — ^the Farewell. But our Lord ap pears loath to leave his disciples, especially to leave them so sad. There are two or three places in these discourses where you would expect the close, but he still goes on. His kind heart will not allow him to part with them thus. It puts us in mind of the exquisitely beautiful lines of the Roman poet : — " Ter limen tetigi, ter sum revocatus, et ipse Indulgens animo, pes mihi tardus erat. Saspe VALE dioto rursns sum multa locutus, Et quasi discedens oScula summa dedi." XIV. Christ's return to his father a fit reason, not for grief, but for joy, to his disciples. John xit. 27, 28 " Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afi-aid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father : for my Father is greater than I." There is no form of benevolent exertion more needed among mankind in the present state, than the administration of suitable and effectual comfort. Our world is so full of dangers and accidents, bereavements and sufferings, naturally producing fear and anxiety, anguish and sorrow, that he who would do much good in it, raust seek to be, like Job, " one that coraforteth the mourners." To the formation of this character, and to the right discharge of its duties, wisdom as well as kindness, a clear head as well as a tender heart, is absolutely necessary. He needs " the tongue of the learned " — the wise, instructed, experienced tongue, — who would speak with effect " a word in season to him who is weary :" for it is no easy matter to allay fears, and soothe anxieties ; to tranquillise the disturbed mind, and to comfort the sorrowful heart. Stirred from its depths, the tide of feeling is not easily stemmed. The billows of grief are scarcely more controllable than the waves of ocean. There is but one voice that can with effect say to either amid their agitation — ' Peace, be still,' Even in the very subordinate part raan can act in comforting the mourner, both the faculties of his mind and the feelings of his heart find full occupation. The topics of consola tion must be skUfuUy selected, and cautiously, as well as kindly and powerfully, urged. The waywardness of the mourner, hardening himself in sorrow, and refusing to be comforted — finding additional reasons for his grief, it may be, in the very considerations eraployed to assuage it, — raust be patiently borne with. Yes ; the hurt mind, the broken, bleeding heart, needs 208 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, dexterous as weU as tender handling. The attention must be again, and again, and again, turned towards the sources of con solation ; and whatever is fitted to alleviate the burden, or sup port under it, must be presented in the form in which the en feebled distempered sufferer is raost likely to be induced to make use of it, " Precept " must be " upon precept, precept upon precept ; line upon line, line upon line ; here a little, and there a little," * Without paying attention to these things, the com forter, however well-intentioned, is not likely to gain his benevo lent object ; and, indeed, is in danger of deepening the impres sion he meant to efface — aggravating the disease he intended to cure. Our Lord Jesus, who can be touched with human infirmities, having been " in all things tried like his brethren," has, in this department of duty, as in every other, " set us an example that we should follow in his steps," How accomplished a comforter does he appear in that valedictory discourse which we have been considering ! How wise, how discriminating, how faithful, how tender, how patient, how persevering ! The topics he selects are just those best adapted to the anxieties, and fears, and sor rows, both for him and for themselves, with which the intima tion of his speedily approaching departure had filled the minds of his disciples. He, no doubt, must go, but he goes home to his Father's house of many mansions ; he goes thither to make arrangements for their permanent residence there along with hira ; and, when these arrangements are completed, he will re turn to conduct thera to the abode he has prepared for them. He wiU open up a way for them to the Father, he will instruct them as to that way, and enable them to walk in it. His re moval is not to involve in it the withdrawment of those miracu lous powers which he had bestowed on them ; these shall be continued, and they shall be enabled to perform a work far more great and glorious than any physical miracle. In the perform ance of this work they are assured of whatever they need, if they but ask it of his Father and theirs ; and the Spirit of truth is promised to them permanently to take his place as their in structor, and guide, and monitor, and helper, and comforter. For a season, indeed, they are to be left orphans — the season of I Isa. xxviii. 10. PART XIV.] CHRIST'S DEPARTURE CAUSE FOR JOT. 209 his absence before the Holy Spirit is given, — but that is to be a very brief season. He is very soon to return to them in the possession of an enlarged and everlasting life, of which they are to be made partakers ; their knowledge of the most interesting and important truth is to becorae far more clear and extensive ; he is to manifest himself to thera in a manner and degree alto gether peculiar ; and his Father and he are to corae to thera and make their abode with thera. He must, indeed, as to his bodily presence, leave them ; but he bequeaths thera as his legacy — he bestows on thera as his parting gift — true peace — peace which the world cannot give, and cannot take away. What could be better fitted, than these considerations, to calra the troubled hearts of the disciples ? Surely, if they believed God, if they believed their Lord, they must be comforted. But the state of their minds, their Jewish prejudices, their very limited and inaccurate views of truth, along with the per turbation of their spirits, prevented these heavenly consolations frora producing their proper effects. Indeed, they could but very imperfectly find their way into their minds ; how, then, could they appropriately affect the heart ? Our Lord saw, in the sadness which still sat on their countenances, that their hearts remained still troubled. But he does not abandon the work of consolation. He again says to thera, " Let not your hearts be troubled;" and he adds, "neither be afraid," He recaUs their minds to some of the leading topics to which he had already adverted, and intimates to thera that, if understood and believed, they would not only alleviate their "sorrow, but turn it into joy, " Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, be cause (I said) I go unto the Father ; for the Father is greater than I." Our Lord here sets an example to aU his servants, when they are attempting to comfort mourners, to raise up the bowed down, to strengthen the weak hands, to confirm the feeble knees, to bind up the broken-hearted. They should not be discouraged, though what appears to them a very full and plain statement of very appropriate and very powerful consolations should seera to produce but little effect ; and they are to endeavour to recall the mourners' rainds to those truths which are peculiarly fitted to meet their case, and which, if they could be but got into VOL. Ill, * o 210 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII, the heart through the understanding, could not fail to give relief. The words, " Let not your heart be troubled, neither be ye afraid," stand in at least as close connection with the words that follow as with those which precede thera, and probably should have formed the beginning of the 28th verse, rather than the end of the 27th verse. Indeed, the division into such minute portions as our verses does not well suit such compositions as our Lord's valedictory discourses. It obscures the natural connec tion. It makes breaks where the course of thought and feeling is continuous, and in this way not merely prevents us frora see ing all their beauties, but leads us occasionally to misapprehend their meaning. If you would either understand or enjoy these four wonderful chapters, read them at one sitting, and read them without allowing the distinction into chapters and verses to make any impression on your minds. The words, " Let not your heart be troubled, neither be ye afraid," viewed in connection with those which follow, are just equivalent to, ' Oh, do not indulge these perplexing anxieties, these gloomy forebodings. If you would but attend to — if you but understood and believed, what I have said, your distressing cares and fears would be dispelled, and joy would take the place of sorrow, " Ye have heard* how I said unto you, I go away, and come again to you;" and should not this have been enough to quiet your inward agitation ? ' "I have said, I go away,'' And because he said this, sorrow had filled their hearts ; but surely it is because they did not rightly understand these words. It was not — it could not be — agreeable to thera to think of his leaving them, and stUl less to think of the way in which he was to leave them ; but still there was much in these words to aUay apprehension. They were well-chosen words. It is not, " I am to be taken from you — I am to be reluctantly driven out of the world." No, our Lord's going was voluntary. He went like a lamb to the slaughter. The victim was not dragged to the altar. He cheerfully went along both " the path "- of death and that " of life " shown him ^ by his Father, No unforeseen accident had befallen him. The appointed time for his going was come, ' " iixmaxn. Hoe quod dixit de abitu, discipuli valde attenderant idque cum tristitia." — B engel. 2 Psal. xvi. 11. PART XIV.J CHRIST'S DEPARTURE CAUSE FOR JOY, 211 and he was ready to go. " No man took his life frora hira ; he laid it down of himself," He was willing to go ; why should they be so unwilling to let hira go ? And then when he said, " I go away," he told thera both whither he was going, and why he was going there. When he said ' I go away^' he said also, ' I go to the Father — I go horae,' However rough the road, and stormy the weather, that was the end of the journey, and he was sure to reach it. And he further told thera that he went away there for the express purpose of preparing a place for thera in that house of raany raansions, where they might abide with him for ever. There was nothing so alarming, then, in these words, which had so gone to the dis ciples' heart, " I go away," But if there was comfort even in these words, there was " abundant consolation and good hope " in the words which ac companied them. If he had merely said " I go away," it would not have been wonderful that they had been anxious and fearful ; but when he had added, " I come again to you," was not that a good reason why their heart should not be troubled, why* they should not be afraid ? He speaks to thera in another way than he does to the world. With regard, to the world he says, " I come unto the world, I go to the Father," with regard to thera, " I go away, and come again to you," The coming again of our Lord, as we have already endeavoured to show, is descriptive, not of a single passing event, but of a series of comings, all looking forward to his final coming — his coming for their complete salvation. When he said " I come again," the declaration referred to his return to them, immedi ately after his resurrection from the dead — his coraing to thera in the way of manifesting himself to them, as he does not to the world — his coming to thera along with his Father, and raaking his abode with thera, and his coraing to take them altogether to be with him in his Father's house of many mansions, to be spec tators and sharers of his glories and felicities for ever. These stateraents he had substantially made to them, and even the imperfect apprehension they could have of their meaning, had it been accompanied by firm faith, must have dispelled to a considerable degree their oppressive anxieties, and gloomy appre hensions. It raust have led to the reflection, ' If these declara tions are to be fulfiUed, our future cannot be that region of dole- 212 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. ful shades our fears have represented it to us. He is to return — to return to us — to return to us soon — and though he is not per manently to be with us as he has been with us on earth, he is really to be with us — constantly, perraanently, with us — and ultimately he is to return to take us to be perraanently with him. Surely the words, then, " I go away," and " come again to you," should have stilled our alarm. Surely he has good reason to say, " Let not your heart be troubled, neither be ye afraid," ' But our Lord intimates to the disciples, that his words which they had heard, should not only banish painful anxiety, hopeless sorrow, and glooray apprehension, but excite feelings of satisfac tion and joy. If he had said he was going without telling them whither, they raight have been alarmed. If he had said merely, ' I am going to the bar of the Sanhedrim, to the judgment-hall of the Roman governor, to the cross, to the grave,' they might well have been filled with sorrow and terror ; but he had said, again, and again, and again, " I ara going to the Father," Now, says he, " If ye loved rae ye would rejoice, because I said," or rather (leaving out the words " I said," which are not to be found in the best manuscripts), " ye would rejoice because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I," Our Lord had told thera that God was his Father in a sense altogether peculiar. They knew, and were sure, that he was the Son of God — his own Son — his beloved only begotten Son. They knew that heaven, the heaven of heavens, the most glorious and happy region of the universe, was the residence of that Di^dne majesty and glory of which the Shechinah was a dim shadow. There theu: Lord had dwelt frora eternal ages, and thither he was to return, that he might be glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the world was. When he said to the disciples, " I go to the Father," they could not understand anything less or anything else, than that he was about to depart into a state of the highest dignity and happiness. The Father, to whom he was going when he departed, is de clared by our Lord to be greater than he. These words admit of, and have received, various interpretations. Those who deny the proper deity of our Lord, and who hold that however high maybe our Lord's place in the scale of creation, he has his place in that scale, consider this passage as one of the bulwarks of their cause. If, however, as can easily be proved, there are raany PART XIV.J CHRIST'S DEPARTURE CAUSE FOR JOY. 213 most explicit testimonies that Jesus Christ was an incarnation of Divinity ; that he has all the distinctive perfections and works of Deity ascribed to him in Scripture ; that he is possessed of all the prerogatives, and is entitled to all the honours of Deity ; and if the words before us are capable of an interpretation quite accord ant with these testimonies, it surely would be absurd to impute to thera a meaning which would involve our Lord in a contra diction, both of his own declarations, and of the declarations of his holy apostles, who " had his mind," because he had given them his Spirit, The precise iraport of the words depends on the connection in which they may be considered as standing. They may be con sidered as in direct and sole connection with the words, " I go to the Father ;" and in that case they state the reason why our Lord must go to the Father : — " I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I ; " or, they may be considered as stand ing in connection with the words, " If ye loved me ye would rejoice, because I go to the Father" — and then they contain in them the reason why the disciples should rejoice that their Master was gone to the Father ; because the Father was greater than he. Viewed in the first connection, the words bring out the doctrine, which is so frequently and clearly stated, both by our Lord and his apostles, and which is in entire accordance with the prophetic representations of the economy of man's salvation, — that the Father, in the whole of this wondrous economy, sustains the majesty of Godhead, He sends the Son to be the saviour of men — He sends the Spirit to be the sanctifier of men — He appoints, qualifies, sustains, and rewards, him whom He has appointed " mediator between God and man " — He gives him a work to do, by which he was to glorify Hira on the earth ; and when that work was done. His " righteous servant " returns to give in his account with joy, and to receive frora Him his merited reward. Had the words, " I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I," stood by themselves, I should have been disposed to think that this was probably their meaning ; but looking care fully at the whole statements as forming a part of our Lord's consolatory discourse to the disciples, I think the other mode of connection much more natural. The Father being greater 214 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. than the Son, seeras assigned as the reason why the disciples should rejoice in their Master's going away to be with the Father. Let us inquire into the meaning of the expression, viewed in this connection, and endeavour to show its force as a reason why the disciples, if they loved their Master, should rejoice because he was going to the Father, Admitting, as we well raay, the proper divinity of our Lord, which we have often proved to you, it is plain that it is not in reference to this, that the Father is said to be greater than he. In his divinity, he was one with the Father, and could no more say that the Father wa,s greater than he, than that God was greater than God, Such an assertion implies, nay is, the raost monstrous of all incongruities and absurdities. But he who was in the forra of God consented to become a man, and, as God-man, to become God's servant, and man's saviour. Both in his assumed nature, and his official character, he was inferior to the Father, The Father was greater than he. The Father was superior to the man Christ Jesus. The supe riority there was inimeasurable — it was the superiority of the Uncreated to the created — of the Creator to the creature — of the Infinite to the finite — of the Independent to the dependent. The Father was superior to the Son in his economical character, as well as in his assumed nature. Throughout the whole of this discourse — throughout the whole prophetic and apostoUcal Scrip tures — the Son is represented, in respect of office, as the messen ger, the minister, the servant of the Father, frora whom he had received coraraission, and to whora he was to render account ; for whose glory, and under whose authority, he spoke and acted at every step of his raediatorial rainistry, and to whora, at the close of his raortal life, he thus presented his account : — " I have glorified thee upon the earth : I have finished the work thou gavest rae to do," * Viewed in either of these ways, it is not difficult to bring out of the words a reason why the disciples should rejoice because their Lord was going to the Father, It is a glorious thing for any man to exchange earth for heaven — for any man to be brought so near God, as every one is who goes there — but it was a peculiarly desirable exchange for the man Jesus — " who was a ' John xvii. 4. PART XIV,J CHRIST'S DEPARTURE CAUSE FOR JOY. 215 worm and no man" — " a reproach of men, and despised of the people" — especially as he was to be brought near to God so as no man ever had been, or ever would be. It was honourable and blissful beyond what man or angel can conceive, for the Mediator, raade perfect through suffering, to go to Him who appointed him, to receive his dearly-purchased reward. Who can wonder if Daniel, the man greatly beloved, when allowed to contemplate the scene, through the far-stretching vista of pro phetic vision, had said, as on another occasion, " There remained no strength in rae, neither was there breath left in me." " I be held the Ancient of days, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool ; his throne was like the fiery flarae, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth frora before Hira : thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him," " I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before Hira, And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdora, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdora that which shall not be destroyed,"* The thought that the raan Christ Jesus was to be " crowned," as no raan ever had been, with " glory and honour," by being brought to the Father — that the voluntary servant, though the essential equal of the Father, was to have " a narae above every name," a throne above §very throne, by being brought to the Father — was assuredly fitted to excite lively joy in all who loved him,^ At the same time, I apprehend, that as the contrast here is certainly not that which exists between the divinity of the Father and of the Son — for a thing does not admit of comparison with itself — so neither is it that which exists between the economical characters of the Father and the Son, nor that between the human nature of the Son, and the divine essence of the Father, I am inclined to agree with those interpreters, who think the contrast is between the condition of the incarnate Son, now on earth, and that of the Father, in the heaven of heavens. What ' Dan. vii. 0-14. 3 Heb. ii. 9. Phil. ii. 9, 10, 216 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. was the condition of our Lord ? * He was in a state of indigence and suffering ; " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" a hated, despised, heart-broken man. " The foxes had holes, the birds of the air lodging-places ; he had not where to lay his head."^ Such had he been aU his Ufe long— such was he lUiely still more to becorae, continuing on earth. And what was the condition of the Father — "the King eternal, iramortal, and invisible"— the ever-blessed God, enthroned on high in the cen tral brightness of the inaccessible light — retaining his glory uneclipsed, his feKcity unimpaired — displaying the fuU majesty of the supreme Divinity — far elevated above the experience or the fear of change — surrounded by the highest and hoUest of created beings, the object of their supreme love, and uninter rupted praise ? Is not the Father greater than the Son ? and who that loves the Son can but wish that he were with the Father — " glorified with the glory he had with Him before the foundation of the world?" In going to the Father, the incar nate Son would enjoy a vast advancement of condition. He would realise a gain unspeakable. It was reasonable to expect that, by those who truly loved him, the tidings, that he was about to go to the Father, should be received with joy, and not with grief — should be the subject of congratulation, and not of com plaint. Surely our Lord might well say, " If ye loved me ye would rejoice, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I." We are not to suppose, from these words, that our Lord en tertained any doubt of the sincerity or ardour of his disciples' regard to him. They loved him as they never had loved any one 1 " Nihil hie ad naturam quamdam refertur : nihil dicitur quod praeoipne ad hu- manam aut ad divinam pertineat : quia nihil ad scopum et consilium Christi pertine- bat. Nulla enim vis ad erigendos discipulorum mcerentium animos inesset illas orationi : — ' Pater major est quam ego, in humana natnra spectatus.' Tantum describitur alius et amplior iiafats."— Semler. " Neque ad personarum ordinem, neque ad distinctionem unius naturse ab altera dictum istud referatur, sed ut statum suae infirmitatis Christus cum secuturo glorificationis statu oontulerit, cujus auctorem facit Patrem, suo more sese ad captum rudium adhuc discipulorum accommodans." — Beza. " Non confert hie Christus Patris divinitatem cum sua, nee humanam suam naturam divinae Patris essentise comparat, sed potius statum presentem coelesti glorias ad quam mox recipiendus erat." — Calvin. " Non est cur aegre meam ad Patrem profeetionem feratis : Pater enim in longe majori gloria et felicitate constitutus est, atque ego nunc sum ; cujus ego gloriae paternae, hinc ablatus, compos et particeps ero." — MosiiEiM. 2 Matt. viii. 20. PART XIV.J Christ's departure cause for joy. 217 else ; and well did he know, and rauch did he value, their honest affection. He knew that love to him was one great cause of their present perplexity and sorrow. Had they loved him less, or not loved him at all, their hearts would not have been so troubled. The meaning plainly is, ' You may love me well, but you do not love rae wisely,* If ye loved rae as ye ought — if you regarded rae with an enlightened attachment — if your affection rested on a just acquaintance with all the circumstances, and more especially with aU the results, which are to ensue, in reference to myself — the sentiment of affection in your hearts — that pure and generous emotion, which finds one of its deepest satisfactions in the advantage and happiness of the beloved object — would derive a hallowed content from the prospects with which my departure hence is connected. If your affection were as pure, and enlightened, and ardent as it ought to be, you would forget your own apprehended loss in your Master's obvious ex ceeding gain. Whatever it may be for you, for him to depart and be with the Father is far better,' But if the disciples had understood what was implied in their Lord's departure — to be with the Father, who was greater than he — they would have re joiced on their own account, as well as his. It was only by going to the Father — by fully finishing the work the Father had given hira to do, and then going to receive the proraised reward — that he could secure their salvation. He must merit all power in heaven and in earth — in the exercise of which he saves to the uttermost, all that come to God by him — and he must go to the Father to receive it, in order to his becoming " the author of salvation to all who obey hira." If love to the Saviour should have made the disciples rejoice in his going to the Father, surely much more ought we, to whom " the mystery of the Father and of Christ " has been fully mani fested, to rejoice that he is gone to, that he is with, the Father. Who would wish to see him again dwelling a man among men, even in the possession of the highest dignity and the enjoyment of the purest happiness earth could afford ? Let us admire the love that brought him from heaven to earth, and kept him there till the work which could be done nowhere else was accomplished. Let us rejoice that he has long ago exchanged earth for heaven — I " Imo discipuli, quia Christum diligunt, dolent. Diligunt et non diligunt. Dili- gunt dolenter, sed non sapienter." — Bernard. 218 THE VALEDICTORY discourse. [eXP. XXVIII. the thorny garland for the crown of glory — the " Crucify him, crucify him," of sinful men, for the halleluiahs of angels. Let us be thankful for his spiritual presence with us, and never dream of possessing, never desire to possess, on earth, what can be enjoyed only in heaven. An enlightened self-love will heighten our joy, for we believe that he who died for us lives and reigns for us, and will in due time make us sharers of his glory. He has gone to the Father ; and in the best possible way, at the appointed season, will he bring all his brethren — the many sons — the heirs of salvation — to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God, The words of our text, uttered by our Lord to reprove the sorrow of the disciples for themselves, unmitigated as it was by joy for their Lord in the prospect of his going to the Father, are very applicable to those Christians who, having lost christian friends, are mourning for them as if they had no hope, " Why do we weep, departed friends. Or shake at death's alarms ? " ' They have gone away ; they were not driven away. They re signed their spirits ; they died at the commandment of the Lord, They would have willingly stayed ; but they gladly went. They have gone away ; but they have gone horae : their bodies to their long, though not last, home in the dust ; their spirits to a better home in their Father's house above. They have gone away, but it is from temptation and sin, from suffering and sorrow. They have gone away, but it is to the land of perfect purity and perfect peace. They will come again, come again to us. Their spirits the Lord will bring with hira when he comes from heaven the second time, for the complete salvation of all his chosen, and their bodies will come forth out of their graves to meet them, incorruptible, immortal, powerful, glorious, and all death-divided christian friends shall meet to part no more, " Even now, absent from the body, they are present with the Lord," ^ They are with Christ, who is with the Father, Is it not better — ^far better — with thera, than it ever was, than it ever could have been, on earth ? Are they not rauch better accom modated in the building of God not made with hands, eternal in ' Watts. 2 2 Cor. v, 6, PART XIV,J CHRIST'S DEPARTURE CAUSE FOR JOY, 219 the heavens, than they were — than they could have been — in the earthly house of this tabernacle ? Have they not better com panions, nobler employments, sweeter joys ? Since we love thera, we cannot but grieve for our loss. But if we loved them with an enlightened, pure, christian love, would we not also rejoice for their gain ? If we loved thera, would we not rejoice that they are gone to the Father? Ought we — if a wish could recall thera — ought we to wish thera back again ? Our nature is so frail that it is well that this is not in our option, .The delight of intercourse with departed friends, like every other blessing doubly valuable in our estiraation when we are deprived of it, might seem to be so desirable that we could not resist the irapulse to recall it by a wish, if a wish could recall it, " But no, what here we call our life is such. So little to be loved, and they so much — That we would ill requite them to constrain Their unbound spirits into bonds again." i Let us learn frora the lesson of our Lord, rather to endeavour to raaster the selfish part of our affection, and give thanks at once for our Saviour, who has overcome and sat down on his Father's throne, and for those to whom, having become more than conquerors through his love, he has given to sit down with him on his throne. We would not wish their joys diminished that our sorrows may be abated. No, we will rejoice that He and they are safely housed from all the wintry blasts of this in hospitable region, though ourselves yet exposed to the pelting of its pitiless storras, and instead of indulging a selfish melancholy, by the help of our God we will follow Him and them, forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to those which are before, if by any raeans we raay partake with thera the joys of paradise, and attain with them the glories of the resurrection of the just. • Cowper. XV. THE DESIGN OF OUR LORD IN PREDICTING COMING EVENTS, John xiv. 29. — " And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe." Miracle and prophecy are the two pillars on which rests the stately fabric of the external evidence of divine revelation, and of the divine raission and Messiahship of Jesus Christ. They are well fitted to serve their important purpose. Both involve the exercise of superhuman, of divine, attributes. No power short of divine, can supersede or control the operation of the ordinary laws of nature, and in this the essence of a miracle consists ; and no knowledge, no wisdom, inferior to divine, can penetrate the veil which covers futurity, minutely foretelling a series of events, the occurrence of each of which is dependent on the free ex ercise of the choice and agency of multitudes of unconnected intelligent beings : " declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done." It is obvious, then, that miracle and prophecy have this in common, that both indicate Divine interposition, and it is this common quality which fits them for being employed as evidences of a Divine revelation. Miracles may be performed — predictions may be uttered — without any human or created instrumentality. Such miracles would, however, prove nothing but the existence of a power which can control or suspend the ordinary laws of nature, and of a Being to whora this power belongs as an attribute. Such predictions, when fulfilled, would only prove that there is a Being who has the certain knowledge of the future, and the power of so creating or controlling events, that what He foretells shall assuredly take place. They would prove the existence of a Being whose knowledge and power far transcend huraan knowledge and power, and to which, indeed, we could set no limits ; but they would prove nothing more. PART XV.] THE DESIGN OF OUR LORD'S PREDICTIONS. 221 But, by employing huraan instruraentality in connection with miraculous operation and prophetic declaration, God has rendered them far more extensively useful as sources of evidence of im portant truth. Strictly speaking, God is — raust be — the only agent both in miracle and prophecy. It is He who works the wonder. It is He who perceives and unveils the future. But, almost uniformly. He has put forth his miraculous agency in connection with certain individuals speaking certain words, or doing certain actions, which individuals in no proper sense did the rairacles ; but, in consequence of a revelation made to their minds, indicated that the Divine power was about to be mani fested in a miraculous manner. In the case of prophecy, the mind of the prophet is the subject of miraculous operation ; God reveals to him what, in the ordinary course of nature, he could not have known, God does not give the prophet a faculty of seeing the future — He merely comraunicates to hira a portion of his own knowledge of the future, and the prophet merely com municates to others what he has been divinely informed of; and» the fulfilment of the prediction is the evidence of the reality of the rairacle. We thus see that miracle and prophecy are by no means things so entirely distinct as they have often been represented. They seem, when closely examined, to melt into each other. Miracle, so far as it is man's work, is just prophecy ; and prophecy, as it is God's work, is miracle. The miracle-worker, as he is com monly called, is in reality just the announcer of a revelation miraculously made to him ; and the proof of such a revelation having been made, is the external miracle which not he, but God, performs ; and the prophet is hiraself the subject of a miracle, in having the secrets of futurity laid open to hira ; and the proof of the reality of this miraculous revelation is the fulfil ment, by God, of the prediction, either in the ordinary course of his providence, or otherwise. We are now in circumstances to perceive how miracle and prophecy, both of thera being substantially the reception of a divine coraraunication made to the individual, satisfactorily attested, are fitted to yield attestation to other statements, which the miracle-worker and the prophet declare to be divine com munications. The fact that indubitable evidence has been afforded of an individual having had one or more communica- 222 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. tions from God, which is the case in every true miracle, and in every fulfilled prediction, is the raost appropriate and satisfactory way of accrediting that individual as a Divine raessenger. The miracle which, in both cases, God alone could work, is the Divine seal appended to the credentials of his messenger. We are constrained to acknowledge men to be teachers sent of God, when, in connection with their instrumentality, works are done, which " no man could do if God were not with him;" and, when the oracle has been ratified by the result, what con clusion can we come to, but that " He, who seeth the end from the beginning, who frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners raad, hath confirmed the word of his servants, and per formed the counsel of his messengers "? The pillars of miracle and prophecy, to revert to the figure with which I comraenced these observations, are very closely connected. They rest on the sarae base ; and they are again united, where they yield their support to the superincurabent edifice of divine revelation, ¦. These reflections raay, perhaps, be of sorae use in giving sim plicity and clearness to our views as to the manner in which miraculous operation and fulflUed prediction yield satisfactory evidence of the truth of doctrines, by proving the divine mission of those through whose instrumentality the flrst is performed, and the latter uttered ; and I have been led to them by observ ing how our Lord, in the words which constitute the subject of our exposition, represents his predictions respecting his death and resurrection, and the gift of the Spirit, and other important events in the history of his religion, to follow these, as intended and calculated to strengthen the faith of the disciples in his divine mission, and in the truth of all the doctrines he had taught them, and all the proraises he had made to them, — " Now, I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe,"* " The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus," ^ It gives evidence of — bears witness to — hira. It does so in the predic tions spoken and written by the holy men of old, who spoke and wrote under its influence. The Old Testament Scriptures are full of oracles respecting the Messiah ; and the exact fulfilment of these oracles in the person, character, work, and history of 1 " Verbum, semen ; fides fruetus."— Bengel. 2 Rev. xix. 10. PART XV,j THE DESIGN OF OUR LORD'S PREDICTIONS, 223. Jesus Christ, most satisfactorily proves him to be the Messiah, No man acquainted with the facts can doubt, without doing violence to the laws of evidence, that Jesus Christ is the person referred to in these oracles, and that the fulfilment of these pre dictions affords satisfactory evidence of his divine mission. The language of Phihp is the natural expression of the sentiment of every one who, with care and candour, has compared the pre dictions of the Old Testaraent and the facts of the New, — " In Jesus of Nazareth we have found hira of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write," * It is not only, however, in this way, that " the spirit of pro phecy is the testimony of Jesus," " The spirit of prophecy" dwfilt in Jesus himself He was the author, as well as the sub ject, of predictions, and the fulfilment of these predictions was fitted and intended to afford corroborative evidence of the divinity of his mission, and of the truth of his doctrine. They proved hira to be a true prophet. He staked his credit on their fulfilment. That fulfilment directly proves, that in these in stances he had a knowledge which nothing but intercourse with the Omniscient One could communicate, and warrants the infer ence that whatever he reveals as of divine authority, is to be received as such. At a very early period of his ministry, he began to utter predictions respecting himself and his cause, sometimes couched in enigmatical language, but so expressed, as that, when the events referred to occurred, there could be no doubt that the prediction related to them ; and, as the close of his ministry approached, these predictions became raore frequent and more explicit. The first of these predictions recorded, is the answer he gave to the Jews, when they asked what sign or miracle he had to show to justify his driving the sellers and buyers out of the temple : " Destroy this teraple, and in three days I will raise it up." " He spake of the temple of his body." ^ The Jews did not understand him, neither did his disciples ; but he spoke this, in order that, when the event referred to, which would identify itself, took place, they might believe ; and it served the purpose ; for the evangelist informs us, that " when he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, ' John i. 46. '' John ii. 19-21. 224 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said." On another occasion he said, " a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas," " for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of raan be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." * From the time that he made an explicit declaration of his being the Messiah to the disciples, he began to show to them, " how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again on the third day." ^ Plain and unmistakeable as appears to us the raeaning of these words, so powerful was the influence of Jewish prejudice, that the disciples seera to have thought they had sorae mystical signification ; and when he, for the purpose indicated in the text, pressed thera to " Let these sayings sink down into their ears," we are told that " they under stood not this saying, and it was hid frora thera, that they per ceived it not : and they feared to ask him of that saying," ' When going up to Jerusalem for the last time with his disciples, we find him saying to them, " Behold, we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. And shall deliver hira to the Gentiles, to raock, and to scourge, and to crucify hira : and the third day he shall rise again," * To us it seeras all but inconceivable, but still there can be no doubt of the fact so distinctly stated by the Evangelist Luke, that the disciples " understood none of these things : and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." On another occasion, he predicted his death and its consequences in these words, so dark to his disciples then, so plain to them afterwards, " Now is the judgment of this world : now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said," adds the evangelist, "signifying what death he should die," ° He predicted the treason of one of the disciples, and gave the reason of his predicting it as the fulfilment of an ancient oracle respecting the Messiah, in words nearly identical with those now ' Matt. xvi. 4. 2 Matt. xvi. 21. 3 Luke ix. 43-45. Matt. xvii. 22, 23. Mark ix. 30-33. " Matt. XX. 17-19. Mark x. 32-34. Luke xviii. 31-34. 5 John xii. 32. PART XV,] THE DESIGN OF OUR LORd's PREDICTIONS, 225 under consideration, " Now, I tell you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he," In the discourse which is the subject of exposition, among other things, he predicted that he ' was going soon — very soon — to his Father, — that the miraculous powers of his apostles were not to be withdrawn, — and that they were to be enabled to accomplish a work greater than any miracle, — ^that he would send them the Holy Spirit as their instructor, monitor, remembrancer, guide, and comforter, — that though he was to leave them for a short season as orphans, he was to return to them in possession of life, of which they were to be made partakers,' That these predictions, like all that went before them, were very imperfectly understood by the disciples, appears from the words .of Thomas, and Philip, and Judas : " Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way ? " — " Show us the Father;" — "How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the world?" The disciples very probably won dered why their Master should say so many things to them, to which they could attach no definite meaning. The words before us meet this state of mind. It is as if our Lord had said, ' These statements which seem so strange to you, will be plain by and by. They wUl ere long serve an important purpose, which could not otherwise have been served. It is necessary that they should be made ; and the reason why they are raade will soon be appa rent. " I teU you these things now, before they come to pass, that when they come to pass you may believe,"' The question naturally occurs. Believe what ? That question is answered by referring to the parallel statement in reference to the treason of Judas just quoted,* " That ye may believe that I ara he," ' that I ara the Messiah, — the divinely appointed, qualified, proraised, accredited Saviour — the divine Saviour — and of course, that all ¦ I have taught you is indubitably true ; and all I have proraised to you absolutely certain,' The disciples did believe this,'but their faith was feeble ; it requfred confirraation. It was to be exposed to severe trials, and needed support ; and the declara tion by him of these events before they took place, was of all things the best fitted for giving their faith that requisite confir mation and support. The word believe seems to be used here in ' John xiii. 19. VOL, III. * P 226 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP,. XXVIII. the same way as the evangelist * employs it, when he says, that after the miraculous conversion of water into wine at Cana, our Lord's disciples believed in him, — i. e., had their faith confirmed and strengthened, — for it is plain that before this they had be lieved in him, and made profession of their faith ; Andrew had said, "We have found the Messiah," — Philip had said, "We have found hira of whora Moses in the law, and the prophets did write," — and Nathaniel had said, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the King of Israel." Some of the events pre dicted by our Lord were in their own nature fitted to stumble and confound the disciples ; to shake their faith even to dissolu tion. The going away at all was not what they expected — they thought they had read in the law, that Christ abideth for ever ; and stUl less did they expect hira to go away as he did. The treason of Judas, the conderanation by the Sanhedrira, the cruci fixion by the hands of the Gentiles, were events which, had they corae on them unwarned, would have gone far to have convinced thera that Jesus, whoever he was, could not be the Christ, Dis tinctly predicted by him, those very events which would have been evidence against hira, became evidence in his favour. Under the influence of the Spirit, this prevented thera, — even stunned and stupified as they were by amazement and sorrow, — from making shipwreck of faith altogether, in that season of extreme trial which elapsed between their Lord's betrayal in the garden, and his return to them after his resurrection. And if it saved them frora apostasy then, how, in connection with the fulfilraent of the other predictions respecting the resurrection, and the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the success of the Gospel, did it after wards confirra their faith, — make thera strong in faith, — stedfast and immoveable ! Most of these events, being miraculous, would, in themselves, have been convincing evidence of our Lord's divine mission ; but their force, as evidence, was greatly increased by their having been predicted, not only by the ancient prophets, but by himself. There is a general truth of some importance suggested to us by this passage, which we raay notice in passing. We are not to suppose that any word of Christ is unworthy of our closest attention, and of being treasured in our raemory, because we do 1 .John ii. 11. PART XV .] THE DESIGN OF OUR LORD'S PREDICTIONS. 227 not at the time distinctly perceive its meaning, or see the pur pose which it is calculated and intended to serve. Such truths as we cannot at present turn to any account, raay, at some future period, prove very useful to us, and we may have cause to bless God for putting them in his word, bringing them to our know ledge, and sending his Spirit to recal them to our remembrance. Every word of God, then, should be treasured up in our minds, though we may at present but iraperfectly understand it, and though we raay not at all perceive our own individual concern in it. The providence of God may place us in circumstances which will give a new light to it, and make us feel that it has a value in itself, and a suitableness to us of which we little dreamt. XVI, THE APPROACHING, BUT VAIN, ASSAULT OF THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD, AND OUR LORD'S READINESS TO MEET IT, John xiv. SO, 31. — " Hereafter I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father ; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence." The words, " Hereafter I will not talk much with you," seem intended to impress on the minds of the disciples the importance of their deeply pondering what he had said, and what he was about to say to them. They were to be among the last words he would speak to them in his hurabled state ; and they would all be needed to sustain their fainting faith, till he raet them again in greatly altered circumstances. It was a consideration well fitted to serve its purpose. What an interest would we take in every thing said by a dear friend, if we were aware at the time that we were to see his face and hear his voice no more ! How at tentively would we Usten to a discourse which we knew, or even suspected, to be the last we should ever hear from the lips of a revered and beloved minister of Christ I How power fully, then, must these words have arrested the attention of the disciples, " Henceforth I wUl not talk much with you !" The sweetest enjoyments we experience, the most valuable privileges we possess here, are transitory and uncertain ; and the thought should induce us to improve them to the utmost during their continuance. The reason why our Lord was henceforth, during his continu ance on earth, to have but little conversation with his disciples, is specified in the words that follow : " For the prince of this world cometh." Our Lord was now about to be otherwise and fully engaged. When expounding the 31st verse of the twelfth chapter of this gospel, I had an opportunity of iUustrating, at fuU length, the PART XVI.] ASSAULT BY THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. 229 reference and the meaning of this remarkable appellation, " the prince of this world." It is one of the names of the chief of the angels who sinned, and indicates the extensive infiuence he possesses over fallen man. Taking for granted that you have not forgotten what was then said, I proceed to inquire. What we are to understand by this powerful and malignant spiritual being coraing to our Lord ? I apprehend, under this comprehensive and raost emphatic ex pression, our Lord meant to describe the whole of the bodily and mental sufferings which the evil one, whether directly or indirectly, was about to bring upon him, for the purpose of shak ing his confidence in his Father, and leading him to deny the truth, and abandon the great work of human salvation entrusted to hira. Satan had entered into Judas, and the foul treason was fully ripe for execution. Under diabolical influence, the Jewish Sanhedrim, and the Roman governor, the chief priests, and the people, and the Roman soldiers, were all prepared for their vari ous parts in the fearful tragedy. Satan hiraself, and all his hosts, were ready to do the utraost that infernal craft, malignity, and power, could do, to foil the God-raan in the mysterious con flict, by which he was to accomplish man's deliverance. What a scene must have been before the mind of our Lord when he uttered these words I The apostate angel, at the head, as it were, of all the powers of evil on earth and in hell, was seen approaching him ; and whatever created depraved intelligence and power could do, in opposition to the mighty cause of Jeho vah's glory and man's salvation, was now about to be done. Now was about to take place the decisive struggle, for which he — the man, God's fellow — had been raade strong. Once en gaged in this, there was to be no farther opportunity of talking with his disciples. He raust be separated from them — deprived even of the expression of their syrapathy, — and go forth alone to the conflict with the great adversary of God and man. He saw, as it were, the king of the bottomless pit assembling his legions ; he saw the spiritual wickednesses mustered and set in array for the onset, and their human instruments ready to perform their work, in the dreadful assault to be made on him. " The prince of this world cometh " — cometh against rae. But he does not fail, neither is he discouraged. He does not sink in despair. He does not even consider the struggle, how- 230 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [BXP. XXVIII. ever severe, as of doubtful issue. He " sets his face as a flint :" " HE has," he says, " nothing in me," The precise force of these words it is not very easy to apprehend ; but the general meaning is plain enough, ' There is nothing in my nature or character —nothing in rae or about rae — by means of which he can obtain the victory over me,'* There was no personal guilt — there was no inherent depravity — in him. This was not the first coraing of the prince of this world to our Lord. He had corae to hira in the wilderness, as the cunning old serpent ; but all his arts were met, and baffied, by a superior wisdom. He found he had nothing in hira. He retired, but it was but for a season. During the whole of our Lord's rainistry, Satan was on the prowl, lurking in secret places, and bearing, as he best raight, the dislodgraent, by his mysterious opponent, of his emissaries from the bodies and minds of their victims. But he now returns, like a roaring lion. His fury, however, wiU avail him as little as his fraud, against his invincible antagonist. He is again to find that he has nothing in him,^ The promise is sure to the First-born, " The enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness master him,"^ There was nothing in our Lord on which he could graft a single temptation. It had been found before that he could not be allured — it is now to be found that he cannot be terrified — into evil. He was " holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate frora sinners," * — in this respect altogether unlike Adam, or any of his children, against whom the adversary had so often and so long " practised and prospered." He was not only upright, but infallible. In him was no sin ; in him there was a moral irapossibility of sinning. In another sense, too, it may be said that the prince of this world had nothing in our Lord. There was nothing in him that could justly subject him to death, or to him who has the power 1 Brown Patterson. 2 " ovSir. Nullam partem juris aut potestatis."— Bengel. The older interpreters supplied ri rm lilm — " He has nothing kmdred to him in me." From this explana tion came the various reading of li^^ini. Others supply trm7y, and use Luke xii. 4, for illustration, where txn' n trcmt nn is used in the sense of having power to do some thing in reference to a person — ' He is powerless, so far as I am concerned ; he can not prevail against me.' This is the exegesis of Storr, Morus, and Tholuck, three excellent interpreters. " Adest per sues satellites hujus mundi princeps ille Satanas, summis viribus aggressurus me, ut prorsus dejiciat et extinguat. Sed nihil ab eo periculi est. Nam in me nihil habet juris, et dum se maxime viotorem esse confidet se victum prostratumque comperiet." — Erasmus. 5 Psal: Ixxxix. 22. Aben-Ezra. ' Heb. vii. 26. PART XVI.J ASSAULT BY THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. 231 of death. Men who have sinned have given themselves up to the power of the devil ; and, as the righteous punishment of this sin, God has delivered them over to the natural consequences of their foolish and wicked choice. But in him who was " made sin,"* there was no sin. His bitterest enemies could not convict him of sin. His betrayer declared the blood he had sold innocent blood ; and the judge who conderaned hira to the cross declared he could find no fault in hira. The accuser of the brethren, with aU his effrontery, could not demand liberty to put hira to death as a sinner. He was indeed " cut off," but it was " not for hiraself;" and the prince of this world, in atterapting to destroy him, drew down on himself destruction. Our Lord, because he who has the power of death had nothing in him, in dying, de stroyed both death and its king. On the cross " he spoiled the principalities and powers"^ who had attempted to spoil hira, and who seeraed for a season to have succeeded in their attempt. Had the prince of this world found anything of his own in his antagonist, he would have conquered. Could he have succeeded in raaking hira diverge, in the minutest degree — in act, in word, in thought, in feeling — from the execution of the benignant will of God — that by the sacrifice of himself he should accomplish the salvation of raen — the rederaption of man must have " ceased for ever," and the prince of the world have sat on a higher and securer throne than ever. But the God-raan knew this was impossible, and went onward to the conflict, saying, " I shall not be confounded ; I shall not be asharaed. He is near that justifieth me ; who will contend with rae ? let us stand together : who is mine adversary ? let him corae near to me."^ He subraits to enter the lists with the lawless one, not because he was rightfully subject to his attacks, but because his Father had appointed this confiict as the mys terious way of vindicating his own honour, and rescuing the prey frora the mighty, and the captives from the terrible one. This is, I apprehend, the sentiment contained in the conclud ing verse of the chapter : " But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence,'' This verse, in our translation, consists of two sentences. The first is obviously i2Cor. V. 21, 2 Col. ii. 16. ' Isa. 1. 7, 8. 232 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. elliptical, " But that the world may know that I love the Father ; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." Some would supply the ellipsis by such words as, ' This comes to pass —this attack of the prince of the world — " that the world may know that I love the Father ; and that as the Father gave me com mandment, even so I do." The cause of this attack is not that Satan has anything in me, but that I may have an opportunity of showing to all mankind how I love the Father, by submitting cheerfully to his will, in whatever suffering that submission may involve me.' Others would read the whole as one sentence : " But that the world may know that I love the Father ; and that, as the Father gave me comraandment, even so I do, — arise, let us go hence." ' The prince of the world, who is coming, hath nothing in me ; but it is the will of the Father that I should go forth to meet him in conflict, and that the world raay know, by my readily complying with the will of the Father, that I love Him, let us go forth and meet the approaching foe.' Were I to decide between these two modes of interpretation, I should prefer the latter ; for ellipses are to be admitted — supple ments are to be made — in Scripture, only in cases of obvious necessity. The concluding words, however, from their position, do seem most hkely to be a separate sentence ; and a shght change in the version — certainly permitted by the original text — makes the first clause of the verse a complete gramraatical sentence within itself. " But that the world raay know that I love the Father, even as the Father hath given rae corainand- ment, so I do," — i. e., ' I go forth to meet the prince of the world in combat, not because he has anything in me, but because the Father has given me a coraraand to do so, I love Him too well not to do what He coraraands me ; and it is desirable that it should be made manifest to all the world, that this combat is a voluntary one — not shrunk from, but readily engaged in : " Arise, then, let us go hence," ' To refer, again, to a prophetical view of the state of the Messiah's raind in the iraraediate prospect of his confiict — " The Lord God had opened his ear, and he was not rebellious, neither turned he away back. He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them who plucked off the hair : he hid not his face from shame and spitting." * 1 Isa. I, 5, 6. PART XVI,J ASSAULT BY THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD, 233 The Father had given the Son a commandment. That com mandment was to offer his body once for all, the just in the room of the unjust. This was the will of the Father which he came to do, and with regard to which he says, " Lo, I come to do thy will," The commandment was to lay down his life for the sheep and take it again. And with regard to this he says, " No raan taketh ray life from me, but I lay it down of myself, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again ; this commandment have I received of the Father," * This comraandraent could not be coraplied with, but in a cora- bat with the prince of this world ; for it was through the instru mentality of him and his agents, that that life was to be taken away, which by being laid down and taken up again, was to be the life of the world. The fulfilment of this commandment is the great proof of the Son's love to the Father; Surely greater love cannot be con ceived, than that which is displayed in obedience to such a com mand of such a Father, by such a Son, Surely the Son loves the Father, when, in obedience to his coraraand, he subraits to such degradation and suffering, — subraits to struggle with an eneray, at once so powerful and unworthy, and to lay down his life in the conflict. It was raeet that the world — i. e., mankind at large — should distinctly see that the compliance of the Son with the command ment of the Father was entirely voluntary ; not submission to an irresistible necessity, but the result and expression of perfect love, — entire complacent approbation of the comraandment of the Father, and supreme affection towards Hira who had given it. It was raeet that so illustrious an instance of love to God should be clearly seen to be what it was. This perfect free-will — this coraplacent satisfaction in doing the will of God — was at once that which, in connection with his divinity, rendered our Lord's obedience to the death a suitable and adequate atonement for sin ; and which made it the flt and perfect exaraple which all his people ought to endeavour to iraitate. Therefore he went forth to raeet the prince of the world, and all his alien arraies, not by constraint, but willingly — not with reluctance, but with a wiUing mind. He does not stay in the I John X. 17, 18. 234 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. guest-chamber till the emissaries of hell come for him ; stUl less does he do what he had done before, and could easily have done again — withdraw himself and escape out of their hands. He rises to go to the garden where he knew he was to be betrayed, and apprehended, and bound in chains, and led away to a double condemnation, and an accursed death ; " Arise," said he, " let us go hence,"* In the whole arrangements of our Lord, we see the same care to show that his sufferings were voluntary, and that he cheerfully did the will of the Father in laying down his life. Arrived at the garden, he does not remain in its recesses, to which he had retired for undisturbed devotion, to be sought out by Judas and his band. " The hour," says he, " is at hand that the Son of raan is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go : lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand." ^ " Jesus knowing all things that should come on hira, went forth and said unto thera. Whom seek ye ? " And on their answering, " Jesus of Nazareth, he said, I am He," and, when they were smitten without hand to the ground by his majestic, though mild, eye, instead of availing hiraself of their panic to make his escape, he re-assures them by meekly repeating the question, and surrendering himself, while he secures the safety of his followers, " I ara He, If ye seek me let these go their way,"^ Surely enough has been done, in his thus doing as the Father gave him comraandment, to raake the world know that he loves the Father, that in perfect love he sub mits tp the most fearful displays of the righteous indignation of Jehovah, against the sins of those whose sins he bore ; that by bearing their sins he might secure their salvation. It has been made very evident that the victim was not dragged to the altar — that he " gave himself" a sacrifice for sin — that he was obedi ent, not raerely subraissive, to death — cheerfully obedient, as well as unresistingly subraissive, in dying. On uttering the words, " Arise, let us go hence," the Saviour appears to have arisen from the table, and what is contained in the three following chapters, seems to have been spoken while I Mr Burgh, in his valuable little book, " New Marginal Readings and References of the Four Gospels," proposes to point the passage thus : — " The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me ; but" (repeat he cometh) "that the world may know that I love the Father, and (that) as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. — Arise, let us go hence." See oh. xv. 10. Heb. ii. 10 ; v. 8. - Matt. xxvi. 46, 46. > John xviii. 4-8. PART XVI.J ASSAULT BY THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. 235 tarrying for a short while in the guest-chamber, or during the walk between it and the garden of Gethsemane. Brethren, that which was the great display of love to the Father on the part of the Son, was also the great display of his love to us. The love that animated and strengthened him, and made hira go forth to raeet the prince of this world and all his armies, was a love that flowed not raerely upwards to the ever lasting Father, who well deserved it, but downward to us, who were altogether unworthy of it. " Hereby perceive we the love of Christ, in that he laid down his life for us." He loved Him, and gave up his life at his command. He loved us and gave hiraself for us. Oh, let not this demonstration, this " commend ing " of his love, be lost on us. Let us show that we do know that he loved the Father, that he loved us, by doing as the Father hath given hira coramandment to do his will, in the offer ing of his body once for aU. Let this love constrain us, and, under the resistless force of its influence, let us learn to make it our gi'eat object, doing and suffering, in life and death, to show our love to God in cheerfnl obedience to his commandment, in humble submission to his will, that at whatever expense of labour, or sacrifice, or endurance, we may, at hurable distance, like hira glorify " his Father and our Father, his God and our God," on the earth, and " finish the work which He has given us to do," XVII, THE TRUE VINE, John xv. 1-3 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not frnit He taketh away ; and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it, tbat it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." It is a question araong harraonists, where the discourse contained in this and the succeeding chapter, and the prayer contained in the seventeenth chapter, were uttered. It has been supposed by sorae that, on our Lord saying, " Arise, let us go hence," the disciples immediately prepared to leave the guest-chamber, where they had celebrated the passover, but that before they actually de parted, while they stood ready to move, our Lord recomraenced speaking, and uttered both the discourse and the prayer before leaving the upper roora. There is nothing unnatural or iraprob- able in this supposition. All that is recorded by the evangelist in the three following chapters, raight have been 'spoken in such an interval as raight naturally elapse between the rising to depart and the actual departure ; and this mode of viewing the matter seems best to accord with the words with which the eighteenth chapter comraences : " When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron." Others thinking it not probable, that the concluding words of the last chapter, " Arise, let us go hence," would have been in troduced at all, had it not been to intiraate that the Saviour and his attendants did arise and go thence, have supposed that the discourse and prayer were uttered during their walk to the Mount of Olives,* or, which is more probable, on their arrival at sorae retired spot on the hither side of the brook Cedron, which runs at the hill-foot ; for certainly, it could hardly be assumed with propriety that such a discourse, addressed to eleven individuals, and especially such a prayer, were uttered during a hurried walk I Matt. xxvi. 30. PART XVII.J THE TRUE VINE, 237 at midnight through the streets of a city. In this supposition, which we prefer, there is nothing incongruous with the statement in the beginning of the eighteenth chapter, that when our Lord uttered his prayer, he was on the side of Cedron next to Jeru salem, and that, when he had finished it, he went forth from the place where he was — wherever that may have been, whether a roora in Jerusalem, or sorae retired spot in the precincts of the city — and passed over to the side of the brook next to the Mount of Olives. The probable facts of the case seera to have been these : — Im mediately on our Lord's saying " Arise, let us go hence," he and his disciples rose from the couches which encircled the paschal board, girded themselves, left the chamber, and, probably in silence, proceeded along the streets of Jerusalem towards the valley of Cedron, which divided the holy hill of Mount Zion from the opposite Mount of Olives, Leaving the city behind them, they turned frora the path into some quiet retired spot and sat down on the banks of the brook, it raay be by the side of sorae rock, overhung with clustering grapes, while the fuU moon shed her soft lustre over the dark mountain and the silver stream, and the silence of the night was broken, but not disturbed, by the murmurings of its passing waters. Such were likely the circum stances in which the interesting discourse, on the illustration of which we are about to enter, and the still more interesting prayer that followed it, were originally uttered. The discourse is substantially a continuation of that which he had addressed to the disciples in the guest-chamber, and has, like it, obviously two great objects, — their consolation in the prospect of his leaving thera, and their instruction as to how they ought to conduct themselves after he had left them. The first part of the discourse is occupied in conveying into their minds, by means of an appropriate figure, just views of the nature and permanence of the divinely-constituted relation in which he and they mutually stood, — views equally fitted to comfort thera in their present, and to guide them in their future, circumstances. He intimates to them that, though he is about to leave them as to his bodily presence, he and they are one social body, consti tuted so by God's appointment, and watched, and protected, and guided by his providence, for the purpose of producing iraportant salutary results, — results glorifying to God, and advantageous to 238 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, mankind : that he is the centre of union to this society, all its members being united to him, and thus united with each other : that he is also the source of active influence in this society, all its members being capable of serving their coramon purpose, just in proportion to the intimacy and constancy of their adherence to hira, and, of course, that their great duty is, " abiding in him," clinging to hira, in faith in his doctrines, trust in his proraises, and obedience to his coraraandments. The society which, in its elementary form, was composed of Jesus and his apostles, was not to be dissolved by his death and departure from this world. Originating in Divine appointment, it was perraanently to exist ; and, watched over by Divine pro vidence, it was to accoraplish the great and salutary objects of its Divine founder. Of that society, Jesus, though bodily absent, though unseen, was to be the very soul. It was to be enlivened by his Spirit, He was to be its bond of connection — its animat ing, guiding, strengthening power. It was only as connected with hira, influenced by him — only in proportion to the intimacy of this union, the constancy and power of this influence — that individual members of it were to gain the object for which the society exists, * This is the substance of the first eight verses of the chapter, to the more particular illustration of which I now proceed. The figurative representation which our Lord eraploys as the vehicle of the iraportant consolations and instructions of which we have given a brief abstract, is that of a fruit-bearing vine : "I ara the true vine, and ray Father is the husbandman" — rather ' the cultivator,' It has been a question araong interpre ters, how our Lord carae to eraploy this particular image to sha dow forth these truths, Sorae have supposed that he had a reference to what probably he and his disciples had that day seen, — the golden vine, with bunches of pearls to represent the clusters of grapes, with which, as Josephus informs us, Herod had ornamented the doorways of the temple, " Under the crown work," — says the Jewish historian, " was spread out a golden vine, with its branches hanging down frora a great height, the largeness and fine workmanship of which was a surprising sight to the spectators to see what vast materials there were, and with ' Neander. PART XVII.J THE TRUE VINE. 239 what great skill the workmanship was done," * Others, with more probability, suppose that, wherever the discourse was de livered, a vine, with its branches, and leaves, and fruit, was in view by the moonlight. It is certain that they had been lately using the fruit of the vine, both in the paschal and eucharistic supper. But the question is a comparatively unimportant one ; for though our Lord often — perhaps, usually — borrowed his iraagery frora present sensible objects, we are not warranted to conclude that he always did so ; and it is enough for us to know,. that in selecting this iraage, he made choice of one very well fitted for conveying, with clearness and impression, the truth of which he meant it to be the embodiment, § 1, The vine and its branches. Let us proceed, then, to inquire into the only points that are of real importance here — What does our Lord mean when he says, " I ara the vine" ? ^ What does he mean when he says, " I ara the true vine " ? And, first. What does our Lord raean when he says, " I ara the vine"? To answer that question satisfactorily, it is neces sary to raoot sorae others. Does our Lord, in using the word /, use it exclusively of hiraself as a personal individual, or does he use it of himself as the head of his body, the church — use it as including them as well as hiraself? and is the vine here, as it obviously is at the 5th verse, the rooted stock, as distinguished frora the branches ; or, is it the vine, with all its branches, and leaves, and fruits ? ' Were we to take the first of these views, we should say, that whatever similarities an ingenious fancy raay find between our Lord and a vine — such as that it is the produce of the earth — that it is weak and slender — that it is full of sap — I Jos. Antiq. xv. 11, 3. Whiston. 2 " Hie ut in omnibus parabolis tenenda est regula : — ' Non excutiendas esse sin- gulas proprietates vitis sed tantum summatim spectandum esse, quern inflnem Christus simile istud accommodet.' " — Calvin. Athanasius overlooks this rule when he fanci- fiflly finds a resemblance to the cross in the stake to which the vine is attached : " xxvixvj^xy XUTOV (Xgiff-TOf), ois lir} x^i°^xi xf/jViXoy, It) tov trrxvqov." — Athan. Cont. Arr. Opp. i. 138. Cornelius a Lapide gives us twelve reasons from the fathers why Christ is compared to the vine rather than to any other tree, some of them fanciful enough. s If the vine here be the rooted stock, as distinguished from the branches, then the sense would be, ' I ara trtili/ the vine ; you are but the branches — you are entirely de pendent on me.' 240 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII, that it has a refreshing odour — that it is wide-spreading — that it is very fruitful, one vine having been known to produce thou sands of clusters of grapes — and that it produces delicious and useful fruit, — it is obvious, from the context, that the great truths which he means to shadow forth by this figurative representa tion are, that he is the centre of union, and the source of influ ence to his disciples — that he and they are mutually, intimately, related, — and that all their capacity of being or doing what they jare designed to be or do, is derived from him ; and this, we have no doubt, is the force of the 5th verse, " I ara the vine, ye are the branches," I cannot help thinking, however, that the second view I have raentioned, of the reference both of the word " I" and the word " the vine " here, is the true one. It is the annun ciation of the complete parable, opened up in the following con text ; and it is not in reference merely, nor, I apprehend, chiefly, to our Lord, individually considered, but in reference to his church, and to him as united to that church, that the Father is represented as the husbandman, or rather the cultivator ; for you will observe, that imraediately after announcing this truth, our Lord goes on to show, not what the Father, as the cultivator, does to him, the rooted stock, but to his disciples, the branches. " Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Viewed in this, which in my apprehension is the true light, the idea is, ' My church ' — i. e., I and my people — ' is like the vine, a living, wide-spreading, fruit-bearing thing; and all its life, all its capacity to diffuse itself, all its fruitfulness, is derived frora me.' The society Christ had formed seeraed as if it were about to be extinguished. He was going away, and how could they, who were connected with each other entirely in consequence of being connected with hira, continue as a society ? The bond which united thera was about to be loosed, and they would be corae what they were before they had attached theraselves to him — unconnected individuals. But, says our Lord, the con nection between rae and you is not dissolved — the connection between you and each other is not dissolved, — neither your com mon connection, nor your mutual connection, which grows out of it, shall be dissolved. ' The living, spreading, fruit-bearing vine, is the emblem of my church — of me, and my people.' Such, PART XVII.J THE TRUE VINE. 241 if I mistake not, is the import of these words in the 1st verse, " I am the vine." Let us now inquire what is the import of the words, " I am the true vine." * Those who consider the words as referring to our Lord personally, as an individual, have found sorae difficulty in giving a satisfactory account of the origin and raeaning of the epithet " true." Sorae have supposed that our Lord refers to the difference between the wild and poisonous vine, of which we read at 2 Kings iv. 39, and the cultivated and wholesome fruit-bearing vine, — q. d., ' My erablera is not the wild vine, which is a false vine. My erablera is the true vine — the vine which alone deserves the name. I bear fruit, and good fruit.' This, though ingenious, is plainly not satisfactory. It is, indeed, too ingenious. Others consider the word as employed in the same way — as when Christ is called " the true light," and " the true bread." ^ He has in hira that which really answers to the idea which these words figuratively represent. He has, in the highest degree, all the spiritual excellences, of which the natural qualities of these substances are figures :. in the one case, truly enlighten ing and beautifying ; in the other, truly sustaining and strength ening raan, in the highest aspect of his nature, as an intelligent moral iraraortal. He is the true vine. The natural vine is but a type or shadow of the reality which finds place in the spiritual life. He is, and does all, and more than all, that the vine, however full of life and sap — however expansive and fi'uitful it may be — can represent. Even this is not very distinct or satisfactory. It is an additional recommendation to the mode of exposition which I have followed above, in reference to the vine here being the type, not of Christ, personally considered, but of him and his church as one body, that it leads to a natural and satisfactory interpretation of the epithet true — " I ara the true vine.'' The Jewish church is not only often spoken of as a vineyard — as in I The LXX. render what our translators call " a noble vine," xt^nxos xXviSivri.—^ Jer. ii. 21. ^ " xXtiSiyiv. Grsecis saepe dicitur quod nomini suo respondet et vere tale est quale esse perhibetur. 'A^yiSiyn a-TsxTiiifix vocat Xenophon (Exped. Cyr. lib. i.), qui vere dici exercitus meretur, id est, praestantissimus." — Raphelios. " Vera, ratione effectus scilicet, quia longe nobilius et perfectius influit in suos palmites — homines suecum, vigorem, alimentum, vitam, quam vitis naturalis in sarmenta sua. Cujusmodi sensuvocatur ipse Jo. i. 9, vera lun et Jo. 6, paras vivus. Non quod vere sit corporalis ilia lux, vel panis, sed quia tarn vere, imo longe verius et perfectius, illuminat et nutrit, quam lux aut panis." — Jansenics. VOL. III. * Q ¦ 242 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, the beautiful allegories of Isaiah,* — but also as a vine. Thus, in the eightieth psalm, " Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt ; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst roora before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs into the sea, and her branches to the river," ^ Every thing under the Old Testaraent econoray was " a shadow," and " the body is of Christ." The law, which was a shadow of good things, came by Moses ; the truth, as well as the grace, came by — in — Christ Jesus,^ He is, personally, the true bread from heaven, in contradistinction to the manna. He is the true priest, the true sacrifice. He, as the head of the church — or, in other words, his church, with him as their head, — is the true mystical vine, of which the figurative vine of the Jewish church was but a type — just as they are the true " circumcision" — the true " chosen nation " — the true " peculiar people " — the true " royal priesthood " — the true " sons of God," The church of Christ, with hira at its head, fully realises, in vitality, in expansion, in fruitfulness, all that the Jewish church, as the vine of God's planting, figuratively represented. Such, then, is, I apprehend, the iraport of these words, spoken by our Lord, as the head of his body the church — " I am the true vine," ' My church, united to rae, and in consequence of being united to me, shall completely verify the ancient emblem under wdiich the Jewish church, itself an erablera, was represented.' § 2. Its cultivator, and his work. It is now time that we turn to the consideration of the second clause of this very remarkable verse — " My Father is the hus bandman " * — the cultivator, ' He stands in a relation to me and my church — to my church as united to me, — analogous to that in which the proprietor-cultivator ' — for that plainly is the idea — ' stands to the fruit-bearing vine-tree,' The whole system is divine ; all things in this economy are of God, It originates in the Divine will ; it is accomplished by the Divine power ; it is regulated by the Divine wisdom. It is entirely owing to the will of the Divine cultivator that there is such a vine at all, and that 1 Isa. V. and xxvii. ^ Psal. Ixxx. 8-11. ^ John i. 17. 4 " ym^yis pro It-iJ/xiUvgyh consueta Grsecis dicendi ratione."— Palaibet. PART XVII.J THE TRUE VINE. 243 it is planted, and grows, and spreads, and brings forth fruit as it does. Whether, by the planting of the vine, you refer to the eternal decree of mercy, in which the saved and the Saviour were equally appointed — in which that was done of wdiich all that has taken place — all that ever will take place, in reference to the true vine, is only the development, — or to the union of the two natures in the Son of God, fitting him to be the root and stock of the true vine, — it is equally the work of God, Under the influences of his Spirit, he grew up before Him ; and the Spirit, without raeasure conferred on him by the Father, fltted him to send forth fruit-bearing branches. The Father gave him to have or hold life in himself^ that he might quicken whora he would — give life to aU whora the Father had given him. It was by the appointment, and through the agency, of the Father, that the axe of Divine justice was laid to the root of the young vine ; but it was not to destroy it, but to give it new power to send forth strong and fruit-bearing branches. And still more com pletely to gain the end, He transplanted the vine, root and stock, to a richer soil and raore congenial cliraate ; and the ancient oracle respecting Joseph is verified in hira who stiU more re markably was " separated from his brethren," He is " a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall," ' Planted by the river of the water of life, in the heaven of heavens, he shoots forth his branches, even to earth ; and, nourished by vital influence from hira, they bring forth fruits in their season, and their leaves fail not. There is no branch in hira respecting which the Father does not take an interest ; no fruit-bearing branch, which does not owe its fruit fulness to his care. The iraport of the declaration, " My Father is the husband man," or cultivator, in reference to the branches, is unfolded in the 2d verse : " Every branch in me^ that beareth not fruit He taketh away ; and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it, that it may bring forth raore fruit." The vine is the property of the cultivator. His object in planting it was that it raight bring forth fruit to hira ; and all that he does in reference to it, is in order to the gaining, in the highest degree, this designed end. The design of God, in constituting such a body as the church, ' Gen. xlix. 22. - " tf^o! may be connected either with xXUfix, or with fiti John xiii. 10. '' iix, with the accusative. PART XVII.J THE TRUE VINE, 249 that ye may increase in bearing fruit — ye must " Abide in me ;" i. e., by the continued faith of my word, you raust become more completely identified with me, so as that it should not be so much you who think, and feel, and act, as I, by my Spirit dwelling in you ; for your fruitfulness, your capacity for holy, useful exertion, depends entirely, not only on the existence, but the realisation, the practically exemplifying this relation to their union with me,' The words we have been illustrating were addressed to the eleven apostles, and have a peculiar appropriateness, and point, and emphasis, as addressed to them. But they are replete with " doctrine, and reproof, and correction, and instruction in righte ousness," to Christians in every country, and in every age. The great majority of us, my brethren, are component parts of the mystic vine. We belong to the visible church ; and for this we have great cause to be grateful. But it is plain from the emblem used by our Lord, that every kind of connection with the church, and of course with the church's Head, does not secure final safety. There are two kinds of branches of the vine planted in the vineyard of the Lord — branches which bear no thing but leaves, or at best blossoms ; and branches that bear fruit. Branches of the former kind, unless they become fruitful, will assuredly be cut off and cast into the fire — ^burnt just as if they had been briers and thorns growing in the open field. The persons embleraatised by thera will be visibly separated frora Christ's church — visibly shown to have no vital connection with hira — and be cast into hell, destroyed, along with the openly wicked, who raade no profession of the faith of Christ, Let us, my brethren, seriously ask ourselves to which of these classes we belong. The test furnished by our text is a plain and easily ap plied one. By your fruits — or by your no fruits — may you be known. The fruit-bearing branches are all of thera rauch less fruitful than they might be,— than they ought to be. But no thing short of fruit can prove vital connection with the vine : being in the vine will not do it — leaves will not do it — blossoms will not do it — nothing will do it but fruit. What cause of thankfulness that there is so wise, so kind, a cultivator ! The Father is the husbandman. Oh, how does He bear with the unfruitful branches. He does not immediately cut thera off. It is not till full proof is given of their incurable barrenness, that He takes them away, and casts them into the fire to be burned ; 250 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII. and how wisely, how kindly, how faithfuUy, does He deal with the branches which bring forth fruit, but not enough of fruit ! How does He by his word, by his Spirit, by his providence, pro mote their fruitfulness! He does not unnecessarily cut and wound them : but his object is their fruitfulness, and He will not spare to use the knife, and to use it freely, when it is necessary to serve this purpose. He is determined that his people shaU be fruitful. Let us never forget that it is the word of Christ which, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ, is the grand means of spiritual fruitfulness, and of that spiritual cleansing which is necessary to fruitfulness, Christ gave himself for the church he loved, and he gives his Spirit to that church, that she may be cleansed " by the washing of water through the word." * That word is not only pure, but purifying. If we would be fruitful in every good word and work, let us see that " the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wis dom." Let us hide his law in our heart, that we may not sin against him. Let us bring our thoughts and feelings as mucL as possible into direct, habitual, permanent contact with the oracles of God, that we may " purify our hearts in obeying the truth through the Spirit." The reason why so raany Christians are comparatively unfruitful, is that they are so overgrown with the moss of worldliness ; and the reason of their worldliness is that they do not attend to and believe, as they ought, that word, the faith of which delivers men from the present evil world, by bringing them under the power of the world that is to come. Believing study of the word of Christ is radical in the Chris tian's life. Nothing can be its substitute. The excitement of ever-recurring public meetings, the restless activity of external service, however good in their own way, ought not to take its place, for they cannot serve its purpose. The neglect of it in our times, even by multitudes of professed Christians, and the casual, unfrequent, perfunctory, manner in which many real Christians attend to it, sufficiently account for that comparative want of fruit, amid abundance of leaves, and even of blossoms, which is, I am afraid, one of the characters of our age. If we continue in his word — in believing it — studying it — working it into our inmost minds and hearts — if we continue in his word, then shall we be his disciples indeed ; not otherwise. I Eph. V. 26. XVIII. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO ABIDE IN CHRIST, AND LET CHRIST ABIDE IN THEM, ENJOINED AND ENFORCED, John xv. 4-8 " Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye wUl, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples." No person who reads the Holy Scriptures with attention, can help observing how closely connected are the principles they • unfold, and the precepts they promulgate. These stand in re lation to each other as means and ends — as foundation and super structure — as soul and body. The truth is revealed that the duty raay be performed ; and the duty is performed, because the doctrine is believed. Truth animates duty, and duty embodies truth. The doctrines of the Bible are all practical, and its laws are all reasonable. Every doctrine has its practical therefore, and every law its doctrinal because. " The Scriptures not only say this is true, that is right — but they say, if this be true, that must be right, — they say, this is right, because that is true. The doctrines thus at once furnish the basis on which the pre cepts rest, and the motives which urge to compliance with them. These remarks, which admit of a very wide application, are illustrated in that portion of our Lord's farewell discourse, which now becoraes the subject ofour consideration. The whole of the first paragraph of this chapter, ending with the 8th verse, natu raUy ranges itself under the three following heads : — First, A doctrinal stateraent respecting the very peculiar, divinely-estab lished, relation subsisting between our Lord and his disciples. He is the rooted stock of the vine of which the Father is the husbandman, and they are the branches. He is to them, by Divine appointment, the bond of union, and the source of spiritual 252 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, life and active power. Secondly, A practical injunction, founded on this doctrinal stateraent, " Abide in rae, and I in you," Thirdly, An enforceraent of this practical injunction, by motives springing out of, or rather folded up in, the doctrinal stateraent on which it is founded. " Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in rae. I am the vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth in me, and I in hira, the same bringeth forth rauch fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in rae, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men gather thera, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples : "¦ — i. e., ' Ye must abide in me, and seek that I abide in you, for thus only can unfruitfulness and its fear ful consequences be avoided — thus only can fruitfulness and its blessed results be secured.' The greater part of the last division of our exposition was occupied with the iUustration of the doctrinal statement, ' Jesus Christ is the rooted stock, and his people are the branches, of that mystical vine, of which the Father is the cultivator :' in plain words, ' Jesus Christ is, by Divine appointment, the centre of union, and the source of holy influence to his people.' The practical injunction founded on that statement, and the motives by which it is enforced, come now to be considered. § 1. The duty enjoined. Let us first, then, turn our attention to the practical injunc tion which our Lord thus founds on his doctrinal statement, " I am the vine, ye are the branches : ray Father is the husband man;" therefore "abide in rae, and I in you." There is a slight difficulty in the construction of the words. There can be no doubt but that " abide in rae," whatever these words may raean, is an injunction — a command ; but what are we to raake of the words which follow — " and I in you "? Is it also an in junction — a command ? The construction is plainly elliptical ; something must be supplied to bring out the meaning in English. Most interpreters have supplied the word icill, thus — " Abide in me, and I wiU abide in you." In this case, while the first PART XVIII.] THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 253 clause is a command, the second is a promise, and raay be con sidered as the first motive urged for compliance with the com mand. In all such cases, however, as that before us (and they are coramon in all languages), where two clauses are so closely connected, if there be an ellipsis in the last clause, it must be supplied in conformity to the construction of the first and com plete clause, — e. g., ' Ye abide in rae, and I in you ' — i. e., ' I abide in you.' ' Ye did abide in rae, and I in you ' — i. e., ' I did abide in you.' ' Ye will abide in rae, and I in you ' — i. e., ' I wUl abide in you.' Following out this principle, there can be no doubt that the second clause of the expression before us, as well as the first, ought to be understood as having the nature of injunction — ' Do you abide in rae, and let rae abide in you.'* The words indicate that Christ's people have a duty to perforra, both in reference to their abiding in Jdm, and his abiding in them. In this light, I mean to consider the two clauses as two injunc tions very intimately connected — ' Do you abide in Christ — let Christ abide in you.' (1.) Abide in me. And, first, of the injunction, " Abide in me." The raeaning obviously is, ' Maintain permanently an intimate connection with rae. In a spiritual sense, make me the abode of your souls — identify yourselves with me.' It has been justly said, that the command is not — abide with me — abide near me — abide under me ; but, abide in rae. The fruit-bearing branch is not only in the same place with the vine — near it, under its shadow, — it is in it, and it abides in it. It is difficult — it is impossible — to bring all out that is in the expression. It is not the obscurity of the expression, but the magnitude of the thought, that perplexes us. The statement, though perfectly clear, is unfathomably deep. Let us endeavour to draw from a fountain we cannot exhaust. The ideas suggested by the word " abide " or " dwell," are, residence and continuance. When our Lord says, " Abide in me," it is as if he had said, ' Think as I think ; feel as I feel; will as I will ; choose as I choose ; and let my views of all objects and all events be yours, because they are mine ; let my feelings, my volitions, my choices, all be yours, and let thera be yours I " xxyi. Ex imperative manete prima persona supplebitur per periphrasin : facite, ut maneatis in me, et ut maneam in vobis." — Bengel. 254 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. because they are mine. Prosecute my ends — use my means — rely on me, entirely on me. Let my wisdora be your wisdom — ray righteousness your righteousness — ray strength your strength. Come out of yourselves, " Renounce yourselves," your own understandings, your own righteousness, your own will, your own strength, Corae out of the creature. Let no creature, no combination of creatures, be the lord of your faith — the chief subject of your thoughts — the chief object of your affections — the chief ground of your dependence. Come into me — unite your mind to my raind, your heart to my heart, and continue to do all this,' This can be done only by believing the truth respecting the Saviour, It is faith that thus unites us to the Saviour, and it is continued faith which keeps us thus united to the Saviour, It is by faith that we are in hira — it is by continued faith that we abide in hira. Life in Christ is " the life which we live in the flesh, by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave hiraself for us," * " If that which we have heard frora the be ginning remain in us," if we continue to believe the Gospel, " we also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father." ^ In mind, in will, in choice, in enjoyment, according to our faith, will be " our feUowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," " He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood," — that is, ' He that believeth the truth respecting my sufferings, and through that faith participates in their saving effects,' " He that eateth my flesh and drinketh ray blood, dwelleth" — the sarae word as here, " abideth" — "in rae, and I in hira,"* The general raeaning of the first clause of the injunction is now, I hope, clear, ' By the faith of the truth respecting my person and work, continue to credit my doctrines, to rely on my righte ousness, to depend on my strength, to submit to my authority, to follow ray guidance, to rejoice in ray joy,' All this, and oh, how rauch raore than aU this, is iraplied in these pregnant words, "Abide in rae I" (2,) Let me abide in you. Let us now shortly inquire into the meaning of the second part of the injunction, "And I in you;" — that is, as we have 1 Gal. ii. 20. = 1 John ii. 24. 3 John vi. 66. PART XVIII. J THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 255 endeavoured to show, " Let me abide in you." Here there are two things we must do : first, show what is meant by Christ's dweUing — abiding — in his people, and then unfold the import of the injunction, " Let me abide in you." With regard to the first of these questions, the best answer is to be found in our Lord's own language, at the 7th verse, where he says, " my words abide in you," as equivalent to " I abide in you ;" and in the words of the beloved disciple, " He that keepeth the comraandraents of Jesus Christ, dwelleth — or abideth — in Hira, and He in hira : and by this we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he has given us," * Christ abides in his people, by continuously raaking them, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, and the instruraentality of his word, understood and believed under his infiuence, think along with him — feel along with hira — choose along with hira — enjoy along with him, Christ is so " formed in thera" that, in so far as they become new crea tures in him, it is not so rauch they who live, as Christ who lives in them. He is, as it were, the soul of their soul. He dwells in thera — he walks in thera — he works all their works in thera — he writes on the fleshly tables of their hearts. They are his living epistles — he is the indwelling Divinity — they are his spiritual teraples. Such is the meaning of Christ's abiding in a raan ; by the influence of his Spirit making him, like himself, holy and happy ; instructing, and guiding, and sustaining, and comforting, and blessing hira. The second question here may seera one not so readily an swered : What is the import of the injunction, as addressed to Christians by Christ — "Let me dwell in you"? Christ never does come into any man, so as to dwell in him, against the raan's wiU, Indeed, the very idea is absurd. Were the thing possible, it would be to degrade man into a mere machine, and involve the incongruity, than which none can be greater, that He who of old inhabited his own eternity, and has heaven for his throne and earth for his footstool, should, as if in want of a house, force an entrance where He was not desired,^ In every case where Christ comes into a raan, he finds raan indisposed — so far as all mere human means are concerned, invincibly indisposed — to receive him ; but his language is, " Behold, I stand at the door • 1 John iii. 24. ^ Howe. 256 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII. and knock : if any man will open the door to rae, I will corae in and sup with him, and he with me."* And he shows his om nipotence, not by breaking open the door, but, by his victorious, invincible grace, breaking the hard heart of hira who kept it shut, persuading and enabling hira to open it, and gladly and gratefully, with all his heart, welcoraing the celestial guest. And it is in the same way that the renewed mind is made to desire larger and larger measures of sanctifying and comforting infiuence ; and, in answer to prayer, and by raeans of the word carefully studied, Christ coraes raore and more influentially into his people's hearts. In the language of the mystic song — the voice of the heavenly bridegroom to his chosen one is, " Open to me, my sister, my love." ^ The Christian lets his Lord come in, when, instead of grieving the Holy Spirit, or quenching him, he carefully uses the raeans for securing his influence, and cherishes with grateful delight every token of his presence ; and he lets him abide (and he is not disposed to go away — he is no way faring man, turned aside to tarry but for a night), by carefuUy avoiding what he knows will offend him, and by doing the things which are well-pleasing in his sight. ' Let me abide in you,' is equivalent to, ' oppose not the designs of my kindness. Let my word dwell in you richly — let ray Spirit be cherished as a most honoured guest — open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.' The two parts of the injunction are closely connected. Chris tians will abide in Christ just in the degree in which they let Christ abide in them. It is by yielding to the influence of his Spirit, working by his word, that that spiritual identification of character with Christ, which is termed abiding in hira, and which is the sum and substance of christian sanctification and corafort, is to be obtained, § 2, The duty enforced. Having thus endeavoured to throw sorae light on the injunc tion, " Abide in rae, and I in you," I proceed to consider the motives by which that injunction is enforced.' These are two The first is, — ' CompUance with this injunction can alone prevent unfruitfulness and its fearful consequences:' "As the branch ' Rev. iii. 20. 2 gong v. 2. s Theophylact's remark on this commandment is striking : " xSri, -h i»T»;ij; lo-n trunSv iyTC'/^Mv TlqiixTixr, xx) xl^xXxtovt yi eSof i]s to rvi^^ffxl Txs gvrflXas,*' PART XVIII.J THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 257 cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in rae ; for without me ye can do no thing." And this is not all — " If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather thera, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." The second mo tive is, — ' compliance with this injunction can alone secure fruit fulness, and all its blessed results.' " He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. If ye abide in rae, and ray words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is ray Father glorified, that ye bear rauch fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples." Let us attend to these two motives in their order. (1.) It is necessary to prevent unfruitfulness and its consequences. First, then, compliance with the injunction, " Abide in rae, and let me abide in you," is necessary to prevent unfruitfulness and its fearful consequences. " As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in the vine. I am the vine, ye are the branches ; without me ye can do nothing." * These words very strongly assert the impossibility of being fruitful, — i. e., characterised by holy, useful actions, apart from Christ, The branch cannot bring forth fruit of itself — a vine branch by itself can bring forth nothing, not even blossoms or leaves. Its fruitfulness depends entirely on its being in the stock, and continuing to be in the stock. To be in the vine is here more than to be attached to the tree. It means, to be so attached as that the fibres of the branches comraunicate with the vessels of the stock which contain the fructifying juice. A branch must be thus in the vine, and continue to be thus in the vine, otherwise it cannot, according to the laws of the na tural world, produce grapes. Apart from its stock, it can do 1 " ;cas(f hie non est simpliciter sine sed majus aliquid, quasi dioat Christus seorsim ci, me." — Cameko. " Qui a semet ipso se ferre fructum existimat,in vite non est ; qui in vite non est, in Christo non est ; qui in Christo non est, Christianus non est." — Augustin. It is impossible to conceive a grosser perversion of Scripture than the note on this passage in the " Rhemes " translation of the New Testament : " Whoso ever, by heresie or schisme, or for any other cause, is cut off from the church, he can do no meritorious works for salvation ; "— an undoubted truth, but so put as to imply a most deleterious error — ' that they who are not cut off from the church can do meritorious works.' This is converting the richest spiritual provision, not only into husks, but into poison. If Fulke and Cartwright sometimes lose their temper with such iTTji/SAa/Toii of God's word, there is little wonder. VOL. III. * R 258 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, nothing in the way of bringing forth fruit. Just so is it in the spiritual world. Union — continued union — with Christ, is the only way in which a man can become and continue really holy and useful. Men, all men, are naturally unholy and unprofitable. They are barren ; or rather, they bring forth fruit unto death. There is no way in which they can be raade fruitful, except by being cut off from their original stock, the first Adam, and being grafted into him who is the true vine. When men are awakened to a sense of the dangers of a state of spiritual barrenness, they often endeavour to become " fruitful of theraselves," They go about to make theraselves holy, " as it were, by the works of the law :" but the thing is irapossible. Law can as little sanctify as justify fallen man. It has become " weak through the flesh." ' Indeed, it cannot sanctify, just because it cannot justify. They must " becorae dead to the law by the body of Christ ; and be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that they may bring forth fruit unto God," ^ There is no good fruit but what is the product of divine influence ; and no channel for divine influence to flow into the human heart, but the mediation of Jesus Christ, He is the point of union between God and raan. It is in him men becorae acceptable to God, — conformed to God, The brightest displays of heroic character, and amiable feeling, which have no spring but the principles of unchanged human nature, — " that which is born of the flesh," — when tried by the standard of truth, which finds nothing genuinely good but what springs from a due regard to God, are indeed but what an ancient father of the church termed them, plausible, or splendid sins,' There is not only always rauch wanting, rauch wrong, but the very principle of true holiness is not there. And even after raen are, by the faith of the Gospel, united to Christ, their holiness and usefulness depend entirely on the divine influence which, in consequence of that union, flows into their hearts, " In thera (that is, in their flesh) dwell eth no good thing :" * and what the apostle says of himself and his brethren, as to their official duties, is equally true of all Chris tians, as to their duties of whatever kind. We are not " suffi cient of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves." ^ It is ' Rom. viii. 3. ^ Rom. vii. 4. ' " Splendida peccata." — Augustin. * Rom. vii. 18. « 2 Cor. iii. 5. P.4.RT XVIII,J THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST, 259 God, through the influence of his Spirit, through the raediation of his Son, that " worketh in Christians, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure," If they do anything really good, it is not they, but the grace of Christ that is in thera. The declaration, "without me" — separate frora rae — "ye can do nothing," is very eraphatic. It is difficult here, as in the simUar passage,' — "and all that he doth shall prosper," to say whether the language is figurative or literal. In the psalm it may either be, ' Whatsoever the tree planted by the running water does, whether it put forth leaves, or blossoms, or fruits, it does so prosperously:' or, 'The raan represented by this tree, prospers in all his ways,' So here it may either be, ' As branches separated from me, the vine, ye can produce nothing;' or, in plain terms, ' Separate from me ye can do nothing acceptable to God, — really good,' The meaning is the same in either case, and so is the emphasis. It is not ' Without you / can do no thing,' In gaining the great ends of his kingdora, he employs the instruraentality of his people, but that is not a raatter of necessity, but choice, with him ; he could do without them, as well as with them. It is, ' Without me ye can do nothing,' It it not simply, ' Ye can do nothing,' for, says one of his people speaking by his Spirit, ' I can do all things through Christ strengthening me ;' but it is, ' Without rae ye can do nothing,' It is not, ' Without me ye can do little;' it is, ' Without me ye can do nothing,' It is not, ' Without me ye will do nothing,' — that is true too, — but it is, ' Without me ye can do nothing,' It is not, 'Without me you can accomplish — finish — nothing;' it is, ' Without me ye can do nothing," ^ To men Uving in irreligion and sin, we say, ' You must be holy if you would go to heaven ; and if you would be holy, you must come to Christ,' To mere nominal Christians we say, ' It is not enough that you be externally connected with Christ's church ; you must be internally connected with Christ himself, otherwise you never can obtain that holiness without which you cannot see God,' And to the Christian we say, 'The degree of your holiness depends on the degree in which you abide in 1 Psal. i. 3. 2 " Non dicit, sine me pai um potestis facere ; nee dicit, ardui aliquid sine me non potestis facere, vel difficulter sine me potestis ; sed nihil sine me potestis. Nee dicit, sine me non potestis /)e»yfc«re, sed nihil potestis ^cere sine me." — Augustin. 260 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, Christ, and let Christ abide in you. Without him, — apart from hira, — you cannot bring forth fruit, — ^you can do nothing pleas ing to God, — nothing to promote the true, the spiritual, the ever lasting welfare either of yourselves, or others,' And we say further, to all professors of Christianity, " Take heed to yourselves ; let no man deceive you," and do not deceive yourselves. If you are not bringing forth fruit, you have reason to fear that you are apart frora Christ, — and continuing to be so, you must continue fruitless, — and continuing fruitless, you are undone for ever,' For, says our Lord, " If a man abide not in me," — and, as a matter of course, do not bring forth fruit, — he " is cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned," Such is the final destiny of the unfruitful branches. And surely this places in a still more striking light, the importance of that being in Christ, and hav ing Christ in us, — of our abiding in Christ, and Christ abiding in us, — which alone can prevent these tremendous and remediless calaraities. There are two classes of persons who do not bring forth fruit, - those who are not connected with Christ, as the vine, at all — the grossly ignorant, the professedly unbelieving, the openly pro- fiigate — and those who are visibly connected with Christ, by being professors of his Gospel, raerabers of his church, but who are not vitally connected with him by the faith of the truth. Both wUl perish ; but it is to the second class our Lord obviously refers in the passage before us. He cannot be cast out of the vine, who has in no way been connected with it. The person who, while making a christian profession, does not possess and exhibit that holy useful character, which it is the design of the Gospel to form, in consequence of his not believing the Gospel, and thus drawing spiritual transforming influence from Christ — that person is compared to those branches of a fruitful vine which, though they may have leaves and blossoms, have no fruit. These branches, when their barrenness has been proved, " are cut off and cast away, and become withered," fit for fuel, " and men gather them and they are burned," Not unfrequently the persons, of which these barren branches are the emblems, wither on the tree, as it were, and of themselves drop off, fiiUing on the ground — gradually lose all appearance of religion, give up with its pro fession, and return to the world lying under the wicked one. At PART XVIII,J THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST, 261 other times, their character becoming distinctly manifest, they are, in the righteous exercise of church discipline, cut off; and that not serving its purpose, they do not seek to be again restored to the church, but, losing all the serablance they once possessed of spiritual life and holy beauty, becorae plainly vessels of wrath fit for destruction. The history of many an apostate is strikingly given by Matthew Henry, " They flourish a while in a plausible, at least passable, profession ; but not abiding in Christ, they wither and come to nothing — their parts and gifts wither — their zeal and devotion wither — their credit and reputation wither — their hopes and comforts wither. They that bear no fruit, after a while bear no leaves." And even in cases where no such visible separation takes place during life, a complete separation takes place at death. Then they are cast out. And the period is coming when all these cast out ones shall be collected and consumed, " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed frora heaven with his raighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on thera that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with everlasting destruction frora the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," Then shall He " send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend," that stumble others — and there are no greater stumbling-blocks than barren professors — " and thera which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth,"* Who does not shrink from the slightest hazard of meeting this doora ? There is but one way — the being in Christ, and having Christ in us — the abiding in Christ, and. having Christ abiding in us. How powerfully then does the raotive, contained in the words we have illustrated, urge corapliance with: our Lord's injunction, " Abide in rae, and let rae abide in you ! " (2.) It is necessary to secure fruitfulness and its consequences. The second motive brought forward by our Lord is equally appropriate and powerful. Compliance with this injunction alone can, and certainly will, secure fruitfulness, with all its blessed results : " He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth rauch fruit." " If ye abide in me, and ray words ' 2 Thess. i. 7-9. Matt. xiii. 41, 42. 262 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. abide in you, ye shaU ask what yewUl, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit : so shall ye be ray disciples." Conformity of mind and heart to Christ, and constant supplies of divine influence, enabUng us to understand, believe, and practically apply, the declarations of his word, are at once absolutely necessary, and completely sufficient, to raake a Christian fruitful in every good word and work.* Without this, in some raeasure, there plainly can be no fruit ; wherever this is, in any measure, there will be fruit ; and the more a man abides in Christ, and has Christ abiding in him, the more holy, the more useful, will he be — the more will he abound in the fruits of righteousness. The truth of the statement, when its meaning is clearly apprehended, is self-evident. He who has the mind of Christ in his mind — the heart of Christ in his heart — will raanifest the life of Christ in his life ; and he who has most of the raind and heart of Christ within him, will manifest most of Christ's life in his external conduct. Just views, right feelings, will produce right conduct ; nothing else can, A christian life can flow only from a christian character ; and it must flow from it. No stream without a fountain ; no fountain, unless obstructed, without a stream. It is plain, then, that abiding in Christ, and having Christ abiding in us, is at once fhe necessary and the certain raeans of fruitfulness. But the importance of our compliance with our Lord's com mand appears not only in this, but also in its securing many im portant salutary results, the accompaniments and consequence of fruitfulness — abundant fruitfulness. There are three of these raentioned by our Lord : the answer of whatever prayers we present to God ; the glorification of God ; and the clearly prov ing to ourselves and others that we are really the disciples of Christ, The first of these is represented as flowing directly from our abiding in Christ, and Christ's abiding in us ; the other two from the same source, but through means of its making us bring forth much fruit. Let us look at these results as motives to " abide in Christ, and to let Christ abide in us," By doing so, we shall secure the answer of our prayers : " If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ' " It is impossible to be holy, not being in him ; and being truly in him, it is as impossible not to be holy." — Leiguton. PART XVIII.] THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 263 ye will,* and it shall be done unto you.^ This declaration, like that of the proraises of answers to the prayer of faith, has, under the influence of different principles, been represented as meaning that Christians may have anything — it matters not what it may be — for the asking, if they can but persuade theraselves that they shall have it. The declaration before us is a hypothetical one ; and the condition is something very different frora a baseless assurance of having whatever we may choose to ask. The pro mise is made to the Christian alone who abides in Christ, and in whom alone Christ abides ; and it is raade to him just so far as he abides in Christ, and Christ's words abide in him. So far as that is any man's character, he cannot will to ask of God anything but what God is disposed — what God has promised — to grant him. The words before us, indeed, are just equivalent to a declaration, that he who dwells in Christ, and in whom Christ dwells, so far as this is the truth, has no desire which God is not disposed to gratify. It has been justly and flnely said, " The will which is the ruling power of the universe, is expressed in Christ's word. For a man to have this word abiding in him, therefore, is to have, for the regulation of his desires, the same principle which is the regulator of all beings and of all events ; and surely there can be no more infallible security against the possibility of disappointment, than to have one's will in accord ance with that of the supreme proprietor and governor of all beings, and disposer of all events." ^ His will shall be done ; and, if his word is abiding in us, so shall ours. If we " deUght ourselves in the Lord," as we will do if we dwell in Christ, and his word dwell in us, then it is quite certain he " wUl give us the desires of our heart." * " Two things," as Matthew Henry says, " are implied in this proraise. First, That if we abide in Christ, and his word abide in us, we shall not ask anything but what is proper to be done for us. The proraises abiding in us lie ready to be turned into prayers ; and the prayers, so regulated, must succeed. Secondly, That if we abide in Christ, and his word abide in us, we shall ' BiXiiy does not designate unlimited discretion, but is to be viewed as applied to the state of the true child of God, in whom God himself produces the right will. Phil. ii. 13. 3 " He saith not it shall be all done here. We ask for perfection, and we shall have it, but not here." — Baxter. ' Brown Patterson. ' Psal. xxxvii. 4. 264 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. have such an interest in God's favour, and Christ's mediation, as that we shall have an answer of peace to all our prayers." " What is good He will give us ;" " No good thing will He withhold frora us ;"* and what can we wUl — what can we ask — more ? Surely it is desirable to be in such a state, as to de sire nothing but what God is disposed to give ; to ask for nothing but what God is sure to grant. Would we wish to be thus happy, let us comply with our Lord's injunction, " Abide in rae, and let me abide in you," ^ A farther motive to such compliance is to be found in the fact, that the Father is glorified, in that abundant fruit- bearing, which will spring from abiding in Christ, and letting Christ abide in us ; and can spring frora nothing else : " Herein is ray Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit,"' What do we mean by God being glorified ? God is glorified by hiraself when He manifests his excellences — when He shows hiraself to be glorious ; and He is glorified by others when they acknowledge and declare his manifested excellences, prove that they think Hira glorious, and proclaira Hira to be glorious. Now, in all these respects is God glorified when Christ's disciples bring forth rauch fruit — are holy and useful — are signally holy and useful. As to the first of these views of the subject, it is to the praise and credit of a vine-cultivator — it shows his knowledge, and wisdom, and diligence — when his vines yield abundance of fruit, of fine flavour and delicious taste, especially if there are great difficulties in the nature of the soil, or otherwise, to contend with. When God, the great vine-cultivator, takes branches of the wild, degenerate vine, which brings forth nothing but use less or poisonous fruits, and, by grafting thera into the true vine, I Psal. Ixxxiv. 11. 2 " Preces ipsae sunt fruotus, et fructum augent." — Bengel. " Ratio hujus singu- laris ominis est ilia : quia consilium et propositum vestrum hac ratione semper con- veniet cum consilio Dei ; itaque fiet id quod rogatis, quia rogatis id quod Deus fieri voluit. Sed homines difScillime hoc discunt, pntant per ipsos omnia humano suo more agenda et efficienda esse ; Deum, qui per alios multa facere instituit, sic quasi non admittunt in societatem rerum gerundarum." — Semleb. ' It deserves inquiry whether £» roora does not refer to " abiding in Christ, and having his words abiding in them." In this is the Father glorified, 'lyx, in order to their bringing forth much fruit, and being indeed Christ's disciples. In this case xx) has its proper signification — ' and,' not ' so.' God is glorified in Christians abiding in Christ; for thus, thus alone, can they "bring forth much fruit," and be indeed " disciples" worthy of the name. Olshausen seems to think that !» roorsi "tx fl^yin is ::;; (v rw i/jj.xf tpt^tiy. PART XVIII.] THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 265 and making thera partakers of the root and fructifying juice, secures their bringing forth abundance of the most wholesome and beautiful grapes, what a glorious raanifestation is there made of his power, and wisdom, and kindness 1 What a display of the Divine character is raade in the conversion of such a raan as Paul, and in its results on his character and conduct ! How was God glorified in Paul ! The more holy and useful Chris tians are, the more is the Divine character, in making them so, displayed. Then, as to the second view of the subject. Bearing fruit, being holy and useful, is just the appropriate practical acknow ledgment of the Divine excellences on the part of the Christian, It is the allowing them to produce their natural effect on the mind and heart. He who continues unfruitful, dishonours God — shows that he has no due impressions of the Divine excellence. He who brings forth little fruit, proves that he has but very weak impressions of the Divine excellence. He who brings forth much fruit, shows that he has deep impressions of the Divine excellence, and, in some measure, thinks and feels to wards God in the way he ought to do, " sanctifying Him in the heart." And then, as to the third view of the subject. A holy, useful life on the part of Christians, is a tacit, but still a very powerful, declaration to others that they do account God glorious. It is by being fruitful in every good word and work, abounding in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, in love, joy, peace, long- suffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance, in the things that are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, the things that are virtuous and praiseworthy, that Christians " show forth the praises of Him who hath called thera out of darkness, into his raarvellous light." * No hymn glorifies God like a holy, useful life. This leads other Christians to glorify God in them ; and even men generally, while they see such good works, are constrained to " glorify their Father in heaven." ^ Thus, what ever view we take of it, " the fruits of righteousness are to the praise and to the glory of God." This tendency of bringing forth much fruit to promote the glory of God, raust be felt by every true Christian, who is a rebel ' 1 Pet. il, 9. ! Matt, v, 16. 266 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP, XXVIII, reclaimed to allegiance, and zealous for the honour of his rightful sovereign, as a powerful motive to that course which is at once necessary and sufficient to secure this effect — the abiding in Christ, and letting Christ abide in them; no glorifying God without being fruitful — no being fruitful but by abiding in Christ, and Christ abiding in us. Surely this is a strong motive to fruitfulness, and to abiding in Christ in order to fruitfulness. It is he who abides in Christ, and in whom Christ abides, that alone will — that alone can — " add to his faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; and to godli ness, brotherly-kindness; and to brotherly-kindness, charity;" and who is thus " neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge ofour Lord Jesus Christ,"* A still farther motive to fruitfulness, and to abiding in Christ in order to fruitfulness, is, that thus — thus alone — can we satis factorily prove, either to ourselves or to others, that we are Christ's disciples, " So," — i. e., by bearing much fruit, and in order to this, abiding in Christ, and Christ in you, — " ye shall be my disciples," — i. e., ' Ye shall show that you are my disci ples,'^ These words receive light from our Lord's words else where, " If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed."' To be Christ's disciples, in both the passages, is equivalent to, ' to prove yourself to be,' — ' a man must be a disciple indeed, in order to be fruitful,' or ' to continue in Christ's word.' It is not fruitfulness that creates true discipleship. It is true discipleship that produces fruitfulness. If continuance in Christ's word were necessary to constitute true discipleship, there could be no true disciples, for it is plain a man must, as a true disciple, first receive Christ's word in order to his continuing in it. But fruitfulness as the result of continuance in Christ's word, is the proof, the only permanent satisfactory proof, of genuine discipleship. If I do not continue in Christ's word — if I am not fruitful — it is a proof I never was a true disciple, whatever pro fession I may have made. It is plainly a very iraportant matter for a man to be well 1 2 Pet, i. 6-8, 2 " i^oi— miViJ vel mei. Fundamentuin Christianismi, ^ert disL-ipulum Christi; fas- tigium, esse discipulum Christi." — Bekgel, 3 John viii, 31, PART XVIII.] THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 267 informed on this point, whether he is, or is not, a disciple of Christ, Ignorance or mistake, on such a subject, cannot but be hazardous. How dangerous to think ourselves Christ's disciples when we are not ! What a dreadful disappointment are we in that case laying up for ourselves ! How are we perilling the loss of an opportunity of becoming his disciples, which we must be or we must perish, by cherishing the idea that we are his disciples already, while indeed we are not ! How delightful to know that we are his disciples, and that we may safely count on all that he says of his disciples, as true in reference to our selves ! This can only be done by being fruitful ; and we cannot be fruitful, but in the degree that we abide in Christ, and Christ abides in us, fChe narae Christian, is the very highest style of man. High-born, noble, learned, wise, renowned, are empty sounds compared with Christian ; but no raan is entitled to this high distinction but the raan who, by his character and conduct — by being " transformed by the renewing of his mind," and "proving" — experimentally exemplifying — "what is the good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God," — shows that he really understands and believes the living oracles of Hira who is the hfe. How beautifully does this first paragraph, which to many seems made up of unconnected sentences, hang together ! There is first the great doctrinal principle laid down, ' Christ is the divinely-appointed centre of union — the source of vivifying active influence to his disciples,' Then there is the great prac tical injunction, " Abide in Christ, and let Christ abide in you ;" and then there are the powerful motives, ' Nothing else can pre vent unfruitfulness and its fearful consequences. Nothing else can secure fruitfulness and its blessed accompaniments and results,' The substance of this wonderful paragraph has never been so concisely, clearly, profoundly, impressively stated, as in the words of the great evangelical ecclesiastical historian of Ger many. " Christianity is not a power which springs up out of the hidden depths of man's nature, but one which has descended from above, because heaven opened itself for the rescue of re volted humanity ; a power which, as it is exalted above all that human nature can create out of its own resources, raust impart to that nature a new life, and change it from its inmost centre. 268 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE [eXP. XXVIII. The great source of this power is the person, whose life its ap pearance exhibits to us, Jesus of Nazareth — the Redeemer of raankind, when alienated frora God by sin. In the subraission of faith to him, and the appropriation of the truth which he revealed, consists the essence of Christianity, Out of this springs the comraon consciousness which unites all true Chris tians in a holy fellowship, however separated frora each other by space or tirae." * The passage we have been considering throws a flood of light on two points of fundaraental iraportance. The true origin of real Christianity — vital religion ; and the true test of real Chris tianity — vital religion. The origin of vital religion is Christ in the heart, and the test of vital religion is Christ in the life ; or to phrase it differently. We in Christ — the origin of reUgion ; Christ in us — the proof of religion. However you phrase it, the sura and substance of the truth is, " Christ is all." Fellowship with Christ — so intiraate that we live in hira, he lives in us — this is — this only is — vital religion ; this is — this only is — true Christianity, Oh, what a different thing frora what many take for religion and Christianity, who think themselves deeply re ligious, genuine Christians ! So far from realising in any good measure this leading New Testament idea of religion and Chris tianity, the idea has never entered into their minds. The words that express it sound like nonsense ; and they would not scruple to call them so, had they not met with them in the Bible, which they profess to consider as a divine revelation. Men's natural state, is a state of distance from God — separation from Christ.^ Their life is a worldly life — a sensual Ufe — a devilish life — a Godless, Christless life. Their whole views and volitions are unconnected with — different from — opposed to — God's, It is only God in Christ, to whom estranged raan can come near. By the faith of the truth as it is in Jesus, a man enters into the raind and will of God, — not only apprehends what they are, but has thera raade his own in the measure of his faith. — Christ, who is God raanifested, becomes, as it were, the dwelling-place of his mind and heart ; and then this state leads to, or rather is necessarily connected with, God in Christ, dwelling in the be- ' Neander. ' xSui, xii()i Xj/iTToD— I'ji the world — in the wicked one, who is the god of this world ; not in God, not in Christ— without God, without Christ. PART XVIII.J THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 269 liever. By His Spirit, through His word, he makes the man follow out His designs — live not to himself, but to the Lord. God in Christ lives in him — acts in him — acts by him — not destroying his individual powers of will and action, but giving thera a new direction, and guiding and sustaining thera in following out that new direction. Do we know anything of this kind of religion ? If we do not, the sooner we do the better ; for it is the only religion that will carry us to heaven. Let us come to Christ : by faith let us enter into him, as the dwelling-place of our minds and hearts ; and let us seek " that he raay dwell in our minds and hearts by faith, that, being rooted and grounded in him, we may grow up in all things to Hira who is the head." If we do know anything of this kind of religion, let us seek to know raore of it. Let us abide in him, and let hira abide in us. Let us seek to have his mind more and more in us, that raore and raore we raay walk as he also walked. There is no other way of being truly holy, truly happy, truly useful, than by seeking to come out of ourselves into Christ, and by seeking that, emptied of ourselves, we may be filled with his fulness. Let us beware of saying, ' We abide in him, and he abides in us,' when it is not so. "If we say we have fellowship with hira who is light, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth : but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another"* — he with us, we with him; we abide in hira, and he abides in us ; " and his blood cleanseth us frora all sins." " He that saith he abideth in hira, ought hiraself also to walk even as he walked." And now, " little children, abide in him," for thus only when he appears, can you have confldence at his coraing, "He that keepeth his coraraandments, abideth in him, and he in him ; and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by his Spirit which he hath given us." ^ In this case Christ is ours and we are Christ's — Christ is God's, and we are God's, and God is ours ; and the universe — all things — so far as they can do us good, are ours. But " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ " — does not abide in Christ and let Christ abide in him — " he is none of his ;" and if we are not his, his salvation cannot be our salvation, 1 1 John i. 6, 7. ' 1 John ii, 28 ; iii, 24. 270 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. his Father cannot be our Father, his God cannot be our God. Without him, apart from him, we perish — hopelessly perish — perish for ever, " In him," only in him, is there " redemption, the forgiveness of sins ; " only in him can we be justified, sancti fied, redeemed ; only in hira is there salvation with eternal glory. There is no salvation in any other — no, " none other narae under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,"* To win hira, to be found in him, that is the raatter of supreme import ance, , Secure this, and you secure everything ; lose this, and all is lost. We began this section of the Exposition with calling your attention to the close connection between doctrine and law ; we conclude it, with calling your attention to the equally close con nection between duty and privilege. To abide in Christ, and to have Christ abiding in us, is at once the great duty and the great happiness of man. The mind, the heart, the conscience, aU find rest, complete rest, in Christ, They can find it nowhere else ; and Christ dwelling within us is not only the hope of glory, but also the source of present peace, and strength, and joy. Can the world, his great rival, in any of its forms, give us what he gives us ? Our immortal souls are abiding things. They need an abiding dweUing-place, They may find it in Christ. He is " Jesus — the sarae yesterday, to-day, and for ever," Where else can they find it ? Not assuredly where they are seeking it, in the world — " for the world passeth away and the lust thereof," Our hearts cannot be erapty ; if they be not filled by Christ abiding in them, diffusing life and light, peace and purity — they will be " the habitation of devils " — the hold of every foul spirit — " the cage of every unclean and hateful bird," He only can expel these — he only can keep them out when they are expelled ; and for this purpose he must abide in us. This, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter : If we wish to be happy — truly happy — permanently happy — happy in all the variety of ways in which we are susceptible of happiness — happy up to our largest capacity of happiness — happy during the whole eternity of our being — we raust abide in Christ, and have Christ abiding in us, "He that thus hath the Son," — in one point of view, as the I Acts iv. 12. PART XVIII.J THE DUTY OF ABIDING IN CHRIST. 271 dwelling-place of his soul, in another, as the dweller in his soul — " he that thus hath the Son, hath life ; he who hath not the Son thus, shall never see life, but the wrath of God abideth on hira,"* I 1 John V. 12. XIX, THE DUTY OP CONTINUING IN CHRISt's LOVE. John xv. 9-11. — " As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you : continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Fathers commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." An attentive observer of raankind raust have remarked, that the mode of stating or illustrating a sentiment often betokens the origin, education, character, circumstances, profession, or pur suits, of hira who eraploys it. The sarae subject, the same principle, is very differently stated and illustrated by different men. The man of noble, and the man of plebeian, descent — the educated, and the uneducated man — the mathematician, and the metaphysician — the practitioner in law, and the practitioner in medicine — the agriculturist, and the merchant — the soldier, and the sailor — the schoolmaster, and the minister of religion, — will generally, when speaking unrestrainedly on any subject, furnish, to a sagacious listener, the means of at least a shrewd conjecture, as to their respective origin, training, professions, and pursuits. Men belonging to each of these classes naturaUy avail themselves of the objects and events with which they are most familiar; and illustrations spontaneously suggest themselves to one raan, which could never by possibility have occurred to another. This general principle, now and formerly* referred to, is ap plicable to our Lord, We find him employing illustrations, which naturally grew out of his altogether peculiar character and circumstances, and which never would have arisen in any other mind. In his mode of stating, and explaining, and en forcing principles and duties, he not unfrequently makes it plain that "his soul was like a star, and dwelt apart ;" ^ that he was ' Vol. ii., Exp. XIII., p. 119. 2 Wordsworth. PART XIX. J DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE, 273 " not of this world ;" that he was from above. He borrows his illustrations from the heavenly world — frora the celestial temple — from its very adytum, the holy of holies — the holiest of all. Who but he, whose habitual dwelling-place had been heaven, would have enforced a command to beware of offending, or making stumble, his little children, by stating that, in heaven, " their angels always stand before the face of his Father " ? Who but he, who was familiar with celestial life, would have sought, in the ineffable intimacies of the Father and his Only- begotten, an illustration of the mutual intimate knowledge and complacential intercourse of hiraself and his chosen ones on earth — " I know my sheep, and ara known of mine ; even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father " ? Who but he could have said, " As ray Father hath appointed to rae a king dom, so do I appoint to you a kingdom " ? And who but he who had been in the bosom of the Father, would have eraployed such an image as that contained in the words with which our subject of discourse comraences, " As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you " ? Such illustrations, which corae so naturally from our Lord, could scarcely have entered into any mere huraan imagination ; and, with regard to the two last, we may safely say, that if by any means they had, he must have been a bold, if not an irapious man, who should have dared to utter them. The three verses which follow are closely connected, and fur nish one great theme of discourse — ' The duty of the apostles, and of Christians generally, to continue in Christ's love,' They call our attention to the principle on which this duty is based — "As the Father hath loved rae, so have I loved you:" to the duty itself — "Continue ye in ray love :" to the manner of per- forraing this duty — "If ye keep ray coramandments, ye shall continue in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's com mandment, and continue in his love :" and, finally, to the motives to this duty, brought forward in our Lord's statement of the object he had in view in announcing the principle, enforcing the duty, and pointing out the manner in which it should be performed : " These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full," It is my design to turn your attention to these four iraportant topics in their order, VOL. III. *s 274 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. § ] . The principle on which the precept is based. Let us first, then, consider the principle stated by our Lord as the basis on which he rests the precept, " Continue ye in my love." That principle is, that he had loved them as the Father had loved hira : " As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you,'' It is obvious — so obvious, as scarcely to require to be taken notice of — that the particle AS does not here indicate equality, but similitude ; and that even the similitude indicated is not absolute. Frora the very nature of the objects — the one, the Son — infinite — the other. Christians — finite, — the love borne by the Father to the Son must, both in nature and degree, exceed the love which the Son bears to his people ; and, as will soon appear, there is at least one point, and that, one of high importance, in which the love of the Father to the Son has no likeness to that of the Son to his people — in which there is not resemblance, but strong contrast. By many interpreters, the words before us have been con sidered as stating, in a general forra, the principle, that there is a very striking and iraportant reserablance between the love which the Father bears to the Son, and the love which the Son bears to his people, as elect ones — persons whom he is determined to make happy for ever. This view of the matter opens up a wide field of very delight ful contemplation ; and though, for reasons which I shall by and by assign, I have been led to the conclusion, that our Lord's statement here was not intended to be understood with so exten sive a range of meaning, but must be limited by the context, I shaU hastily sketch what, but for this conviction, should have formed the great theme of discourse on this department of the subject. Like the love of the Father to the Son, the love of the Son to his elect ones is unbeginning, ardent, active, unvarying, unending. There never was a period when the Father began to love his Son, " The Word was in the beginning with God," The only begotten Son was, from eternity, in the Father's bosom : " The Lord possessed him in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old. He was set up from everlasting, in the beginning, ere ever the earth was." " Then was he with his Father, as one brought up with Him : and he was daily his delight, rejoicing PART XIX.] DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 275 always before Hira."* In this respect, as the Father loved the Son, so the Son loved his chosen people, predestinated, as they were, in him before the foundation of the world. There was a tirae when they did not love him — a time when they could not love hira — for they did not exist; a tirae when, though they might have loved him, so far as physical capacity was concerned, they did not — they would not — love him ; but there never was a time when he did not love them. In the recesses of the past eternity, if we may use the phrase, when the delight of the Father was in him, " his delights were in the sons of men," * who, in a distant futurity, were to be the objects of his redeem ing power — the subjects of his transforming grace. The Saviour loves them that love him ; but in every case in which a human being has been turned fi'om estrangement from — from positive dis like to — the Saviour, to love to him, the conversion has been, not the cause, but the consequence of the Saviour's love. He loved that man with an unbeginning love : and therefore, with loving- kindness has he drawn hira to himself, by the cords of love — the bands of a man. When they love him, they love one who first loved them. The love of the Father to the Son is, in the strictest sense of the terra, infinite. The excellences of the Son, which are the ground of the Father's love, are infinite ; and so is — so raust be — the Father's love. It is the love of the infinite for the infi nite. The object and the subject of the affection are both infi nite. The love of the Son to his people is not — cannot be, in this sense — infinite ; but it is an affection which is like the infi nite affection of the Father to the Son — it is liker tluzi than any other kind of affection in the universe ; we can set no bounds to it. They are " his brethren^ — his sisters — his mother," They are " his little children ;" and " though a woman may forget her sucking child, and cease to have compassion on the son of her womb," yet he never can forget — never can cease to have cora- passion on — them. They are his bride — his wife — whom he loves as himself They are his body ; and what raan ever hated his own body ? Nay, more than this, they are one Spirit with him. The infinite love of the Father to the Son is an active love. It is not " a spring shut up, a fountain sealed," How it mani- ' Prov. viii. 22, 23, 30. ' Prov. viii. 31. 276 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII. fested itself when there was nothing but Deity in the universe, we cannot tell. But the whole of the wonderful part which the Son has taken in the divine economies of nature, and providence, and grace, is to be traced to the love of " the Father, of whom are all things." The declaration in reference to one of these economies is true of thera all. " The Father loveth the Son, and" — i. e., therefore — " He hath put all things into his hand." * The boundless love of the Son to his people is like the love of the Father to him, an active love. It has produced much exer tion — much sacrifice ; it has manifested itself in the coraraunica tion of blessings infinite in number, inestimable in value. It has proved itself stronger than death. Floods could not quench it. Whether we fix our minds on the value of the innumerable blessings it bestows, or on the cost of these blessings to him, though freely bestowed on us, surely we must say, this love to us, like his Father's love to hira, has " a height and a depth, a length and a breadth, that pass knowledge" — not only our know ledge, but the knowledge of the most powerful created intellect in the universe. The love of the Father to the Son is unchanged and unchange able, and so is the love of Christ to his people. Immutability is equally the attribute of the Father and the Son ; and therefore it is irapossible that there should be any change in the affection with which the One regards the other. There was, indeed, a brief period when the Father, in external dispensation, treated his Son as if He did not love him — " It pleased the Lord to bruise hira ; He put hira to grief." ^ But it was love to the Son, as well as to those who were to be saved by him, that placed him in those circumstances in which he could become an accomplished Saviour, only through suffering ; and never did the Father regard his Son with more complacency than when he did his will, in the offering of his body once for all — than when, as the good Shepherd, he gave his life for the sheep : — " Therefore," says he, " doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." ^ In like raanner, as the Father loves the Son with an unchanging love, so does the Son love his people. He " rests in his love" — "Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," * The invariableness of his love to them ' John iii. 35. ' Isa. liii. 10. ' John x. 17. * Heb. xiii. 8. PART XIX.J DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 277 wants one of the foundations on which the invariable love of the Father to him rests. He never changes ; but they often do. And these changes necessitate changes in his dispensations to thera, which sometimes are of a kind which seem to indicate dislike rather than love. He afflicts thera, often severely ; but this is not because he loves them not, but because he loves them. His love is wise love, and he will not spare the rod when it is neces sary to save the chUd, But though his dispensations vary, his love never changes ; and it is the invariableness of his love that produces the change of his dispensations. The cause of his love to them as his elect ones — his determination to save them — is not in them, but in hiraself; and if he reraains unchanged, it must continue unaltered. The mountains may shake — the ever lasting hills raay be removed — but his love continues amid all vicissitudes unchanged — unchangeable. The love of the Father to the Son, as it never had a beginning, shall never have an end. WhUe the Father and the Son con tinue to exist, they must continue to regard each other with infi nite love ; and as a token of his everlasting love, the Father has given the Son an everlasting kingdom. The love of the Son to his people is also everlasting, and proves itself in the bestowal of eternal blessings. Hira whom he loves, he loves to the end of life — to the end of time — throughout eternity. " They shall never perish — they shall have everlasting life. Who shall separ ate them from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? Nay, in all these things they are more than conquerors, through him who loves them." * And they have good reason to rest persuaded, that " neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate them frora the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, their Lord." ^ Thus, as the Father regards the Son with .an unbeginning, im measurable, active, unchanging, unending, love — even so does the Son regard his people. But the analogy between the love of the Father to the Son, and the love of the Son to his people, though thus holding in so many points, is not universal and complete. There is one point 1 Rom. viii. 36, 37. : Rom. viii. 38, 39. 278 the valedictory discourse, [exp. xxviii. in which the contrast is as strong and striking, as the resem blance in the many points now illustrated. The love of the Father to the Son was richly merited. Infinite excellence de serves infinite esteem and complacency. The Son is the glori ous effulgence, the substantial image, of the Father. " In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodUy."* His human nature, untainted by sin, was adorned by every excellence. His obedience was perfect. He was all fair ; there was no spot in hira — " the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely,"^ But what were the objects of the love of the Son ? Did they deserve his love ? As creatures standing at an infinite distance frora Him who is God over all, blessed for ever, it would have been wonderful if the Son had loved man, in his best estate, as the Father loved Hira : " What is man, that He should be thus mindful of him ; or the Son of man, that He should thus visit him :"^ but how rauch more does the contrast come out, when we remeraber what they are — violaters of the Divine law — ^rebels against the Divine authority — guilty, depraved, meriting de struction, incapable of ever meriting anything else. Such were those whom the Son loved. Oh, what a contrast to him, the object of his Father's love ! The Father's love to the Son was love to dignity, to moral beauty, to innocence, to excellence, to perfection ; but the Son's love to raen, fallen men, is love to the degraded — the morally deformed and disgusting — the righteously condemned — the (but for his love) hopelessly lost in a bottomless gulf of ever-increasing depravity and wretchedness. " He cora- mendeth his love to them, in that, while they were sinners," * he loved them — so loved them, as to take his place beside them on earth, that he might raise them to take a place beside him in heaven. Such is the train of thought — a very delightful and profitable one — to which the strange assertion in the text, viewed in the widest sense it is capable of, naturally gives rise, I hope our meditation on it has been sweet, and will be profitable, A sweeter, a more profitable, subject of meditation, cannot well be conceived, I am persuaded, however, that if we would exactly apprehend the meaning and design of our Lord in these words, we raust, in a good degree, restrict their reference. We must 1 Col. ii. 9. 2 Song v. 16. ' Psal. viii. 4. « Rom. v. 8. part XIX.J DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRISt'S LOVE, 2^9 look on them in their connection with what follows, and under stand them as bearing on the object which they, as thus related, are intended to serve. The love to his disciples, which the Saviour here compares to the Father's love to him, is obviously the same love in which he exhorts them to continue. To continue in the love with which the Son regards all his elect ones — that is, his unchangeable de termination to save them, — is secured to every one of them as completely as the perfections, and covenant, and oath of God can secure it ; but it cannot with propriety be made the subject of exhortation. The love in which the apostles were to continue, was the complacential regard of the Son towards them, as a portion of his called ones, — like himself, not of the world, because selected out of it. They became the objects of this love when they were made new creatures by his Spirit, and as his sheep were brought into his fold ; and they were to continue in it, by conduct ing theraselves as his called ones — his sheep, — so as to obtain his approbation and complacent smile. It is this love to them, that he compares to the Father's love to hira ; and, by carefully con sidering the preceding context, I do not think that we shall find it very difficult clearly to perceive what is the point of analogy which he represents as existing between this love to thera, and his Father's love to him, and how it lays a foundation for the precept which is plainly grounded on it — " Continue ye in my love," In the preceding context our Lord had represented the Father as the husbandraan — constituting Hira the true vine, — and him self as the true vine, producing them as the branches of the true vine. The Father so loves the Son, that He rnakes him his great agent in that restorative economy, by which He is to secure fruits of righteousness — bestow innumerable blessings on innumerable beings, to the praise of his own glory. The Father so loved the Son, as to give all things connected with this econoray into his hands. He chose hira — not the highest angel — to this work, so replete with honour, and said of hira, " Be hold ray servant whora I uphold, mine elect one, in whom I ara well pleased," " This is my beloved Son ; hear ye hira."* In doing this. He gave an ineffable proof of his love to him^ ' I»,i, xlii, 1, Matt. xvii. 6. 280 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, " He made his First-born higher than the kings of the earth." ' He said, " By him wiU I be glorified," He constituted him the only redeemer of men — the great benefactor of the intelligent and moral universe. Thus the Father loved the Son ; and the Son, in an analogous manner, loved them to whom he was addressing himself. The Father had constituted him the true vine ; he had constituted thera the fruit-bearing branches of this vine. As the Father had sent hira, so had he sent them. He was the Father's apostle, and they were his apostles. The Father had chosen him and ordained him to be the root and stock of the true vine ; and he had " chosen them and ordained them " to be fruit-bearing branches of the true vine, " that they might go and bring forth fruit, and that their fruit raight remain," What a proof of his love, his peculiar regard, in calling them to a situation of such honour and usefulness ; and how analogous to the proof given to him of the Father's love, in appointing him to the principal management of that mighty work of holy benevolence, in which he had graciously allotted thera a subordinate, yet still important, part ! How much higher the honour done these men, in seating them like princes on twelve thrones, to judge the twelve tribes of the spiritual Israel, throughout all the regions of the earth, and throughout all ages of time, than if he had partitioned the earth araong them ! What a far more distinct manifestation of his love to them, in constituting them heralds of salvation — the leaders of his " sacramental host," — than if he had sent them forth, at the head of conquering armies, to subdue the world ! God's love to his Son was more remarkably displayed in consti tuting hira " the repairer of the breach," the redeemer of men, than had He made him, in the ordinary sense of the word, the eraperor of the world. As the Father had loved hira, and showed his love to him, in making him his representative in the great work of mercy, so had he loved them, and shown his love to them, in making them his representatives, so that he who re ceived or rejected them, received or rejected him, just as he that received or rejected him, received or rejected Him who sent him. It may seera to some an objection to this mode of exposition, 1 Psal. Ixxxix. 27. PART XIX.J DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 281 that it gives the words so special a reference to the apostles as to exclude aU others. I have always felt it to be a recommenda tion to an exposition, that it gave the passage a peculiar force and meaning with regard to those to whora it was priraarily addressed. But though there is a special and peculiar extent of meaning here, so far as the apostles are concerned, there is no exclusion of all others. In their own measure, every christian minister, ay, every christian man, is a branch in the true vine. It is peculiarly true of the apostles, but it is true of all christian ministers, all christian raen, that they are " the light of the world," " the salt of the earth," It is true of all christian rainisters, of all christian raen, as weU as of the apostles, that " As the Father has loved the Son, so as to raake hira the grand agent of his raighty scherae of mercy, so has the Son loved them, so as to make them subordinate agents in this glorious enterprise," The apostles considered their being chosen to their office, as they well raight, a high honour, a striking proof of the love of their Master, Hear how one of thera, in terms of grateful triumph, speaks of an office which entailed on hira such a load of labour, and sacrifice, and suffering, as perhaps no other human being ever sustained, " I was made a minister " of the mystery which frora the beginning of the world had been hid in God — the Gospel — " according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ," " Thanks be to God, who always causeth me to triumph in Christ." " Let no man trouble rae, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." * Oh, how highly should Christians — whether ministers or private Christians — estimate the mark of the love which Christ bestows on them, in making them fruit-bearing branches in him as the true vine, in employing them in a subordinate station as fellow-labourers in the great work, the foundation of which he alone laid on the cross, — the superstructure of which he, now seated on the throne, is building up by the instrumentality of his followers ! It is a token of his love, a token of love analogous to that given him by his Father, when He sent him forth to be " a 1 Eph, iii, 7-9. 2 Cor. ii. 14. Gal. vi. 17. 282 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [^EXP. XXVIII. light to lighten the Gentiles, to be the glory of his people Israel, and to be his salvation to the end of the earth."* Such, then, is the principle stated by our Lord — in reference, primarily, to the apostles to whom it was directly addressed ; secondarily, to all christian ministers, and indeed all christian men, " As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you," § 2, The duty enjoined. We proceed now to the consideration of the duty which our Lord enjoins, as naturally resulting from, or based on, the principle which he had stated, " Continue in my love," There are here plainly two questions which must be answered, — What is raeant by Christ's love ? and. What is meant by continuance in Christ's love ? (1,) What is meant by Christs love. As to the first of these questions, the expression " my love," may either refer to the love which the disciples cherished to him, or to the love which he cherished towards them,^ Some very good interpreters and divines have preferred the first mode of exposition. Thinking apparently that the love of Christ could mean only that unbeginning, unchanging, unending, kind regard which the Son cherishes towards all who have been " chosen in him before the foundation of the world, predestinated in hira according to the good pleasure of the Divine will ; " and seeing clearly that it involves an absurdity to exhort Christians to con tinue in what is, from its very nature, something of which they cannot be deprived, they consider the expression, " continue in my love," as equivalent to ' persevere in loving me,' There can be no doubt that this is the duty of all Christians. It is their duty to love Christ, and to persevere in loving him. It would have been their duty to love him, though he had never loved them ; for he is the most amiable and excellent of beings, and therefore, the proper object of the love of all beings capable of affection ; and their obligations to love him are greatly in creased by the consideration of what he has done, and suffered, and procured for them. They ought carefully to guard against I Luke ii. 32. ^ " Hie dicitur % kyx^y, v, \fji.v,, non dicitur xyxTv, Ifioil." — Semler. The Vulgate renders the phrase, not " dilectione mei," but " dilectione mea." PART XIX.J DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 283 everything that has a tendency to abate the fervour of their love to hira. As his excellences never lose any of their beauty, and his benefits never lose any of their value. Christians should take care that their love never lose any of its ardour ; but, in propor tion as they know more of his excellences, and experience more of his benefits, their love should " abound raore and more in all knowledge and in all judgraent." They ought to manifest their love to the Saviour, by abounding in exercises of kindness to wards him — by often thinking of him — often speaking to him — often speaking of hira to their fellow-saints, and to their fellow- sinners — and by habitually walking in his footsteps, promoting his cause, and obeying his comraandraents. No doubt this is the Christian's duty ; and knowing these things, we shall be happy if we do thera. But I cannot doubt that those interpreters have raore justly apprehended our Lord's meaning, who consider the expression " ray love," as raeaning the love which Christ had cherished and manifested towards thera. The love of Christ never, so far as I have remarked, in the New Testament means anything but Christ's love to his people ; and certainly, in the passage before us, Christ has been speaking of his love to his people — not their love to him ; and the cognate expression " my joy," in the im mediate context, does not signify ' a joy experienced by you in reference to me^ but ' the joy which I have in you.' (2.) What is meant by continuing in Christs love ? The meaning of the injunction " continue in my love," is not difficult to fix, after we have settled, as we have endeavoured to do, the sense and reference of the phrase "my love." It is equivalent to, ' Habitually cherish those tempers, and follow that course of conduct, which, being accordant to my will respecting your behaviour in the situation in which you are placed, wUl secure the continuance of that complacent regard which I showed to you in placing you in that situation, and which will also secure for you continued manifestations of that complacent re gard.'* It is, indeed, very nearly synonymous with that precept of the apostle Jude, " Keep yourselves in the love of God,"^ Sbme very good divines have discovered a reluctance to this ' " Keep your place in my afTeetion."— Campbkll. • Jude 21. 284 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. mode of interpretation, which the rules of a sound exposition seem to me to require, lest some shadow of doubt should be cast on the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints in a state of grace. But every foundation of such a fear, is removed by reflecting that, while there is a special favour — equivalent to a determination to save — with regard to all the elect, which nothing can change, either in the way of diminution or increase, there is a love of complacent approbation, arising but of what Christ, by his Spirit, has made them, which, though it never will be entirely withdrawn — for the permanence of the influence of the Spirit, on which it rests, is secured by the tenor of the new covenant, " I will put my law in their heart, and they shall not depart from me," * — may be diminished, wUl be diminished, when they wax weary in well-doing, and fall into sin ; may be increased, will be increased, when they " grow up in all things to Hira who is the head." To continue in Christ's love is to continue in cherishing those affections, and doing those actions, which are well-pleasing in his sight ; and to continue in the enjoyment of an humble assurance, that he continues to regard us with complacential satisfaction — which two things are neces sarily connected, for he never withdraws the light of his coun tenance but when declining holy affection, and sinful feeling and conduct, raise a cloud between him and us. The subject we have been considering teaches us, if we are real Christians, how we should regard official station or personal standing in the church of Christ. We should regard it as the being made branches of the true vine ; we should consider it as a token of the love of Christ — a token of love to us, similar to that which the Father gave to hira when He constituted him the true vine. To be a good minister, a living meraber of the church of Christ, is a far higher honour than to be a member - or office-bearer in the most distinguished literary or political societies in the world ; to be a christian raember of a christian church, is a greater thing than to be a knight of the garter ; to be a minister of Christ, is a greater thing than to be a minister of state — ay, than to be the raaster of such ministers. It teaches us, however, also, what is the duty of those who, through the love of Christ, have been placed in such circumstances. It is to ' Jer, xxxii. 10. PART XIX.J DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 285 continue in his love. The branch is put forth by the vine, or grafted into it, not for its own honour, but that it may grow, and blossom, and bring forth fruit, to the glory of the vine, and the vine-dresser. Let every minister — every church member — see that he act such a part, as shall please the Son and the Father, and draw down on him tokens of their approbation. Let him see that he "bring forth much fruit" — "bring forth fruit with patience,"* — that is, persevere in bringing forth rauch fruit. In doing so, he may assure himself of tokens of the continued love of his Lord, Larger and larger measures of fructifying influence will be given forth to him. He will become more holy, useful, and happy, till at last he be placed for ever beyond the reach of the possibUity of, in any degree, not continuing in ther Saviour's love. A morning without clouds shall break on hira ; and, dur ing the long day of eternity, he shall bask for ever in that light of the Divine countenance which, even when transiently lifted up on him here below, makes the light of worldly enjoyment lose its radiance, and is felt to be " life — better than life." So much for instruction and encouragement to those who are in the love of Christ, and whose duty is to continue in his love. But what shall we say to those who are not in his love — who are the objects of his judicial disapprobation — his raoral dis pleasure? and such are all who are living in worldliness and sin ; in other words, who have not been " bom again," What a fearful thought, ' I am not in the love of Christ ! He does not esteem me — he does not approve of me ! ' Though all created beings esteemed and loved you, if he did not, what would that avail you ? Could it give you hope in death — confidence in the judgment — happiness for ever? Ah, no. Seek, then, to be corae objects of the approbation of Christ ; seek to be in his love. Though he does not — cannot — love you, in the sense of cora placency, in your present state, he pities you in it, and has raade provision for delivering you out of it. There is an all-efficacious atoneraent — an all-prevalent intercession — an all-powerful Spirit, There is a plain well-accredited account of the way — the only way — in which you can ever becorae objects of the coraplacent approbation of Jesus Christ — through the faith of the truth as it is in him — submitting yourselves to the Divine method of justi- ' Luke viii. 16. 286 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII, fication and sanctification. Believe the Gospel — Jesus will approve of that ; that is the first thing you can do that wilt please hira, and that will lead to a transforraation, by the renew ing of the mind, which will raanifest itself in a practically proving what is the good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God in Christ Jesus, You will be in the love of Christ ; and it wUl become your high privilege, and your delightful duty, to "con tinue in his love," That the meaning of the injunction, "continue ye in my love," which we have endeavoured to illustrate, is the true one, is greatly confirmed by that statement made by our Lord — in reference to the manner in which corapliance with the injunction was to be yielded. This forms the third great topic of discus sion furnished by the text, to the Ulustration of which we now proceed, § 3, The manner in which compliance with the precept is to be yielded, " If ye keep my coraraandraents, ye shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's comraandraents, and abide in his love," It is by keeping our Lord's commandments, as he kept his Father's comraandraents, that we are to continue in his love, as he continues in his Father's love. When our Lord calls men by his grace, and constitutes thera his representatives and agents in the world, he gives them coraraandraents by which they are to regulate themselves ; and it is only by regulating themselves according to these commandments, that they can habitually enjoy his complacent approbation, — that, in other words, they can " continue in his love," It is obviously irapos sible, in a discourse of this kind, that I should lay before you all the commandments of our Lord, by keeping which we are to continue in his love, — for the commandments of Christ include the whole preceptive part of the inspired volume, with the ex ception of those ritual and political statutes which refer to the introductory dispensations which have passed away. It will suffice to advert to a few of our Lord's leading comraandraents, and to show how indissolubly connected is the keeping of these with continuing in his love. The following may be considered as among the most compre hensive and important of our Lord's comraandraents to his PART XIX.] DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 287 disciples : — " If any man will be my disciple, let hira deny hiraself, take up his cross, and foUow me." " Seek first the Idngdora of God and his righteousness," " Freely ye have received, freely give," " Lay not up treasures for yourselves on earth, where raoth and rust corrupt, and thieves break through and steal ; but lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal," " Take heed and beware of covetousness." " A new commandment I give to you. That ye love one another ; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." * Now, when a disciple, from regard to his Lord's authority, and from love to his person, yields a cheerful habitual obedience to these commandments, — when he renounces his own wisdom, and righteousness, and wiU, and strength, and, regardless of all con sequences, follows HIM wherever he leads hira, as his teacher — his exeraplar — his Lord, — making it the great business of life to seek the advancement of his kingdom, — " the kingdom which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," ^ — in his own heart, and among his brethren of mankind, showing that " for him to live is Christ," — readily comraunicating, to the utraost extent in his power, the blessings which have been gra ciously vouchsafed to hiraself, not setting his affections on the things that are on the earth, but placing thera on the things which are above, where Christ is at God's right hand, and endeavouring "to do good to all men, as he has opportunity, especially to them who are of the household of faith ;" * — when a disciple thus keeps these comraandraents of his Lord, he can not but continue in his love. The eye of the Saviour cannot but rest coraplacently on him. He approves of hira, he loves hira, and he gives him tokens of his love. In his own words, " he loves hira, and raanifests hiraself to hira, coming to him, and making his abode in him," * filling hira with inward peace, and holy joy, and humble confident hope. And this is the only way in which a disciple can continue in his Master's complacential love. If he be unduly self-indulgent or self-reUant, — if he do not follow his Lord fully, — if he become weary in well-doing, — ^if his love to the brethren and to all raen 1 Matt. xvi. 24 ; vi. 33 ; x. 8 ; vi. 19, 20. Luke xii. 16. John xiii. 34. 2 Rom. xiv. 17. ' Gal. vi. 10. • John xiv. 23. 288 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. wax cold, — if he allow the world to occupy a place in his attention and affection to which it is not entitled, — ^in a word, if he neglect or violate any of his Lord's commandments, he, just in that raeasure, does not — cannot — continue in hisMaster's love. His conduct can not be regarded with approbation or coraplacency ; and tokens of the displeasure of his Master will not be wanting in the reproaches of conscience, and in the want of the delights of conscious fellow ship with the Father and the Son. Every disciple of Christ wiU find that in keeping his coraraandments is the great reward of enjoying, and knowing that we enjoy, his complacent approba tion ; and that this cannot continue to be enjoyed, if any of these commandments are knowingly neglected or violated. It is a most unreasonable expectation on the part of the indolent, or the worldly-minded disciple, the disciple who is habitually living in the neglect or violation of any of his Lord's commandments, that he should be the object of his approbation ; or should have the inward satisfaction that is connected with knowing on good grounds that he is so. It is not raore certain, that if disciples keep the Master's commandments, they shall " continue in his love," than it is, that if they do not keep his commandments, they shall not — they cannot — continue in his love of complacent regard. If they are really his, that love of special benevolence of which ,they are the objects, and of which they cannot be de prived, will induce him to show that he is displeased at thera, and will make the very raanifestations of his displeasure the raeans of bringing them back, through renewed faith and penitence, to that state of mind and course of conduct with which only he can be well pleased. The distinguishing character of thus keeping the command ments of Christ, which is the necessary means of continuing in his love, is indicated by our Lord when he says, " If ye keep my comraandraents, ye shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's coraraandments, and abide in his love," ' If ye keep ray commandments, as I have kept my Father's comraand raents, ye shall continue in my love, as I have continued in my Father's love,' When the Father raanifested his love to his Son, by consti tuting him his great agent in the restorative econoray. He gave him a commandment. He sent him to do a particular work, in a particular way. " Behold," said he, coming into the world, " I PART XIX.J DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 289 come to do thy will ; thy law is within ray heart." * The making this inward writing visible — in word, and deed, and suffering — was the business of his life on earth. He fully conformed him self to this law, under which he was made, in |11 its requirements, preceptive and sanctionary. And in doing so, he continued in his Father's love. He was the object of his entire approbation — " His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased." It was the Father's command that he should lay down his life for the sheep, and he did so — most cheerfully did so ; and " the Father loved the Son because he laid down his life for the sheep." He kept his Father's commandments till he could say, "It is finished;" and the Father showed that He loved him, for thus keeping his commandments to the end, by raising him from the dust of death, and setting him at his own right hand, and making him most blessed for ever. " Even in the days of his flesh," while he was keeping his Father's commandments, amid difficulties and dan gers, such as never put human love and obedience to the trial, the Father's complacency was manifested by many practical tokens and special declarations, so that he was " declared to be a man approved of God, with signs, and wonders, and miracles,'' and voices, from the most excellent Glory ; and when he had done all his Father's will, that complacency was gloriously displayed in the name above every name — in the throne above all thrones but the Supreme — in the fulness of joy, in the rivers of pleasure, that are at the Father's right hand for evermore. Thus did he keep the Father's commandments, and thus did he continue in his love. Our obedience must have the same leading characters as our Lord's had — " If ye keep my coraraandraents as I have kept ray Father's coraraandraents," The particle as here, as in the pre ceding verse, indicates not equality, but sirailitude. If we could not retain the coraplacential love of our Lord, but by keeping his commandments in every respect as he kept his Father's com mandments, the continuing in it would be an absolute impossi bility. It would soon be lost never to be found again. He always did the will of the Father — always did it perfectly. He was all fair — there was no spot in him. It is, and ever will be, so long as we remain on earth, far otherwise with us. There will always be much wanting — always something wrong ; but 1 Psal. xl. 7, 8. VOL. HI. * T 290 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII, stUl our obedience must have the characteristic marks of our Lord's obedience, in order to its answering the purpose here re ferred to. If we would continue in his love, we must keep his coramandments, as^ he kept the Father's comraandraents. His obedience was the obedience of love, and so raust ours be. He obeyed the Father, for he loved the Father, His obedience was but the expression of his love. External obedience to Christ's coraraandments, if not the expression of love, is, in his estiraation, of less than no value, for he sees it to be what it is — vUe hypocrisy, or mean selflshness. No man will continue in his love by such obedience. His obedience to his Father was, in consequence of its being the result of love, cheerful obedience. He delighted to do the wUl of his Father, It was his meat to finish his work ; and so must be our obedience to him. We must run in the way of his commandments with enlarged hearts. We are to keep them, not so rauch because we must keep them as because we choose to keep them ; or, if a necessity is felt to be laid on us, it should be the sweet necessity resulting from perfect approbation of the law, and supreme love to the Law giver, His obedience to the Father was universal — it extended to every requisition of the , law. There was no omission — no violation ; and in our obedience to our Saviour, there must be no reserves — there must be no allowed omissions or violations — we must count his commandments to be in all things, what they are — right — and we must abhor every wicked way. His obedi ence to the Father was persevering. He was faithful to death; and so raust we be. It is he who endures to the end, that so continues in the Saviour's love as to be saved. This is his promise : " To hira that overcometh will I give to sit with me on my throne, even as I have overcome, and am set down with my Father on his throne," * It is thus, then — thus only — by keep ing the coraraandraents of our Lord, as he kept the command ments of his Father, that we shaU continue in his love, as he con tinued in his Father's love, § 4, Motives to comply with the injunction. The fourth great topic of consideration still reraains for dis cussion : — The motives which ought to urge Christians to con- 1 Rev. iii. 21. PART XIX.J DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 291 tinue in the love of Christ, by keeping his commandments, even as he kept the commandments of the Father, The motives suggested by the words of our Lord are these : — Continue in the love of Christ, by keeping his commandments; for thus "will you resemble your Lord and Master " — thus will you minister to his enjoyraent — thus will you obtain solid permanent happiness to yourselves. Let us attend to these motives in their order, (1,) Thus will they resemble their Lord. By continuing in Christ's love, by keeping his commandments, you will be conformed to him, your Lord and Master, Ought not the " disciple to be as his teacher, and the servant as his lord?"* It is the great design of the Father of the whole family in heaven and in earth, that the younger members, the many brethren, should all be conformed to their elder brother, the first-born. He obeyed and suffered for us, " leaving us an exaraple that we should follow in his steps," He was faithful to his Father, — " Hira who appointed hira " to be his agent ; and it is meet that we should be faithful to hira who has appointed us to be his agents. He obtained continued love from his Father as the reward of persevering obedience ; and it is meet and becom ing that we should obtain an analogous reward by an analogous service. Surely if he, the Son, obtained continuance in his Father's love, by a constant continuance in weU-doing, we should find in this an additional reason why we, in irapUcit, universal, cheerful, persevering obedience to his law, should seek to obtain his continued complacency ; and the encouraging token of this in a well-grounded assurance of his unaltered, unalterable, love. This is one of the marks that we belong to Christ — that we are seeking, in keeping his comraandraents, to continue in his love, even as he, by keeping his Father's comraandraents, obtained continuance in his love. He succeeded in his great object ; and through his grace, which is sufficient for assisting us, so shall we, (2,) Thus will they minister to their Lords enjoyment. A second motive suggested by our Lord for our keeping his commandments, so as to continue in his love, is, that thus we shall minister to his enjoyment. His joy in us will remain, if, 1 Matt. x. 24, 25, 292 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. keeping his commandments, we continue In his love. " These things have I spoken unto you that ray joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." " These things " plainly refer to the statements which immediately go before. It does not materially affect the sense if they are viewed as referring also to the preceding statement about the true vine and its branches, followed up by the injunction " Abide in rae, and I in you," en forced by the appropriate and powerful raotives — ' this is equally necessary to prevent unfruitfulness and its dreadful conse quences, and to secure fruitfulness and its glorious results.' The meaning plainly is, 'I have made these stateraents, that through your continuing in ray love, by keeping my commandments, my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.' The benevolent object of our Lord in saying these things, obviously involves in it a double powerful motive why they should com ply with his injunction. It would continue his happiness ; it would secure and perpetuate theirs. The reference and mean ing of the expression "my joy," have been differently appre hended by interpreters. Some have supposed that, in both clauses, our Lord refers to the joy of the disciples. They con sider him as calling the joy they had his joy, either because he was the author of it, or he had given it them, or because it was a joy of the sarae kind, and resting on the same basis, as that which he himself possessed, just as, in the close of the last chapter, he calls the peace he bestowed on them his peace, and as the good and faithful servant is said to enter into the joy of his Lord. The whole passage is thus viewed as equivalent to, ' that the joy which ye have in me may continue and be increased.' But as the original words equally admit of the rendering, " that my joy in you might remain," as " that niy joy raay remain in you," and frora the very forra of expression, " my joy," and " your joy," there seems no reasonable doubt, that our Lord announces two separate objects as the ends contemplated by him in his preced ing statements and exhortations — that his joy in them might remain, and that their joy in him raight abound ; and that there are thus two closely-connected, but still distinct, raotives sug gested by hira, to wit, that by complying with his command they would minister to his enjoyment, and that by complying with his command they would advance their own happiness. They would thus minister to his happiness. His joy in them PART XIX.] DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE. 293 would remain. The disciple whom Jesus loved breathed the spirit of him on whose bosom he had been accustomed to lean, when he said, " I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth."* And Paul proved that he had indeed " the mind of Christ," when stirring upPhilemon to keep the commandments of Christ, he says, " Yea, brother, let me have joy of you in the Lord : refresh my bowels in the Lord." ^ Our Lord had joy in his disciples. When the seventy returned, having obeyed his commandment, we are told, that, " in that hour Jesus rejoiced in Spirit, and said, I thank thee Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes.'" His joy in thera was proportioned to the degree in which they were made holy, useful, and happy, through the influence of his word and Spirit. His joy in them was interrupted and diminished, when they showed themselves slow in heart to believe. He was grieved at their unbelief, when they all forsook him and fled ; when, with oaths and execrations, Peter denied him, his joy was turned into sorrow ; when, after the communication of the Holy Spirit, they in keeping his commandment to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, continued in his love, his joy continued in them and abounded. In their devoted labour, and in the glorious results of their labours, he saw " of the travail of his soul," and was satisfied. To bring such a prospect before the minds of the apostles, was well fitted to operate as a motive to their keeping his command ments, so as to continue in his love. What could exercise a more sweetly constraining influence over their minds to a par ticular course of conduct, than the reflection, ' by doing so, I shall continue to be a source of satisfaction to my best friend — by acting a different part, I shall not continue in his love, and his joy will not continue in me?' It was not a peculiarity of the apostles and primitive disciples, that Christ had joy in them. He has joy in all his genuine disciples in every age — ;joy in them just in proportion as they act , the part of genuine disciples. He rejoices over every one of them in the day of conversion, as the shepherd does over the lost sheep which he has found ; and over them all, walking in the 1 3 John 4. 2 Phil. 20. 3 Matt. xi. 26. 294 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII, paths of righteousness, " resting in his love, he joys over them with singing."* It is easy to trace this holy exultation to its source in the holiness and benignity of the Saviour, in his desire for the Creator's honour, and the creature's happiness. Both are promoted, just in the degree in which Christians, by keeping his commandments, continue in his love. There is something very touching to a christian heart in the motive here presented. It has been well said, " Can there be a more persuasive argu ment for inducing Christians to labour, with ever-increasing intensity of desire and diligence of endeavour, after a constant continuance in well-doing — a stedfast, immoveable, attachment to his cause — a uniform, cheerful, persevering, obedience to his law, than the consideration, that thus we may, that we certainly shall, minister to his enjoyment, send a thriU of gladness through that heart which for us was -sorrowftil, very sorrowful, sorrowful even to death ? And from what ought we to shrink with more instinctive horror than frora a course which wiil make us cease to be a source of satisfaction to hira — which will make it impos sible that his joy in us should remain, which, on the contrary, will vex and grieve his holy Spirit?"^ So much for the illus tration of the second motive to continue in Christ's love, by keeping his commandments. We shall thus minister to his enjoyment — we shall be — I speak it with reverence, but with no doubt of the truth of the wondrous statement — ^we shall, accord ing to our measure, be workers together with Jehovah, in one of the highest and hoUest of his works — the rewarding his Son, making him raost blessed for ever, for his disinterested sacrifices and labours in the cause of God's glory and man's salvation, (3,) Thus will they promote their own happiness. The third raotive to continuing in Christ's love, by keeping his comraandraents, suggested by our Lord's words, is, that thus we shaU obtain true, perraanent, complete happiness to ourselves. While Christ's joy in us remains, our joy in him wUl be fuU.^ It is by continuing in Christ's love, by keeping his command ments, that we are to have solid perraanent joy. The grounds ' Zeph. iii. 17. ' Brown Patterson. ' "Gaudium vestrum ex meo aceensum." — Bengel. " !rX»i;«»Sji, nunquam minuatur, emper crescat, et summum quasi gradum attingat."— Semleb. PART XIX,] DUTY OF CONTINUING IN CHRIST'S LOVE, 295 of the Christian's joy are not in himself, but in Christ — in God in Christ, But we cannot have this joy, unless through that faith which is not " dead, being alone," but which works by love, purifying the heart, influencing the conduct. The measure of our faith is the measure of our joy ; but it is just as true, that the measure of our faith is the measure of our holiness. It is the same truth which fills the heart with joy, and makes the feet run in the way of Christ's commandments. Whenever his people wander from that way, they, as a matter of course, lose their comfort, A declining Christian is not, cannot be, a joyful Christian, " Great peace have they who love his law," In keeping his coraraandraents there is great reward. Holy obedi ence is a raeans of joy, as it is the appropriate proof of the genuineness of faith, and consequently of the reality of the indi vidual's interest in the blessings of the christian salvation. But, besides this, " there is a joy in the act itself of obedience, as that in which the powers of the regenerate nature find their proper employraent, and the tastes of the regenerate nature their proper satisfaction," And not only is holy obedience the means of in creasing holy joy here, but it is the appointed way to perfect holy joy in heaven. It is " in a patient continuance in well-doing " that we seek, and that we shall obtain, " glory, honour, and iraraortality." It is by " adding to our faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to tem perance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly -kindness ; and to brotherly- kindness, charity" — it is by thus making " our calling and election sure" — it is by doing these things, and abounding in doing them, that " an entrance is to be ministered to us into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,"* Then we will enter into his joy, and our joy will be full. He will rejoice over us, and we shall rejoice in him for ever and ever. Christians, these illustrations have not served their proper purpose with you, if they have not induced the determination and the prayer, — " I will keep the commandments of my God," " O that my ways were directed to keep his statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy com- 1 2 Pet. i. 6, 6, 10, 11. 296 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. mandments. I will keep thy statutes : O forsake me not utterly." — " I will keep his law continually, for ever and ever ; and I will walk at liberty, and delight myself in his coraraand ments, which I love." * If they have had this effect, your own experience will soon furnish you with a better commentary than any human exposition on these words — ' If ye keep his com mandments, ye shall continue in his love, even as he kept his Father's coraraandments, and continued in his love. His joy shall remain in you, and your joy shall be full.' Then wUl you have the evidence in yourselves, of that of which the world is not easily persuaded, that " the christian life is the path of genuine happiness, and that the greater the progress is in the graces and excellences of the spiritual character, the greater is the experi ence of that consolation and joy which the world cannot give, and cannot take away." ' Psal. cxix. 5-8, 44, 45, 47. XX. CHRISTIANS ARE BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS CHRIST HAS LOVED THEM ALL. John xt. 12-17. — " This is my commandment. That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have called you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain ; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another." This was the favourite text of the apostle John. He often re fers to it in his epistles ; and Jerorae, in his comraentary on the Galatians, inforras us that, when " the disciple whom Jesus loved was a very old raan residing at Ephesus, he was ac- custoraed — now unable to walk — to be carried by the brethren to the place of the christian asserably ;" and, incapable of con tinued discourse, used to stand up, and, with faltering voice, utter these words, " Little children, love one another." This was his address at aU their raeetings ; and, on some one asking him why he always said the same thing, the venerable apostle replied, ' It is our Lord's commandment, and, if it is obeyed, all is well.' What a beautiful picture — what a wise reply ! Yes, " the end of the commandment is love " — " love is the fulfilling of the law." The two topics for consideration presented by this paragraph, are — The duty here enjoined by our Lord on his disciples ; and. The motives by which this duty is enforced. The duty is, loving one another as he has loved them all. The motives are two : — First, His command ; secondly. His exaraple. His coraraand : " This is my command, that ye love one another, as 1 have loved you." " These things I command you, that ye love one another." His exaraple : He had chosen thera for his friends ; he had made the most confidential disclosures to them ; he had employed them 298 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. in conducting the raost important enterprise, and secured for them what was necessary and sufficient for success in that enterprise ; and he was just about to lay down his life for them. Could he more clearly prove that he loved them, and could there be a stronger reason why they should love one another ? Such are the outUnes, which I wiU endeavour to fiU up in the succeeding illustrations. § 1. The duty enjoined. Let us attend, then, in the first place, to the duty which our Lord here enjoins on his disciples, — love — mutual love — such love to each other as he had cherished and manifested towards them all. " This is ray comraandraent, that ye love one another, as I have loved you," (1,) Mutual love. Love is benignant affection, and the appropriate display of it. In this raost general raeaning of the terra, " love is the fulfilling of the whole law," The existence of this principle in supreraacy, in a well-informed intelligent being, secures the performance of all duty. It cannot co-exist with selfishness and malignity, the great causes of sin. In the degree it prevails, they are destroyed, "Love does" — love can do — " no evil:"* love does — love must do — all practicable good. If evil is done — if good is not done — it is just because love Is not there in sufficient force. The peculiar character of love, and the appropriate mode of manifesting it in any particular case, depend on the qualities and circumstances of its objects. When God is its object, as He is supremely excellent, and infinitely kind, love is esteem, confidence, coraplacency, gratitude, admiration, in the highest degree of which its subject is capable, manifesting theraselves in habitually making God's will the rule, and God's glory the end, of one's being. When raan is its object, it is obvious that, while retaining in every case its essential characteristic benevolent affection, the love exercised, in particular cases, must vary very much in the elements of which it is composed, and in the manner in which it displays itself. Love to the miserable and to the happy, to the good and to the bad, is equally benignant affec- ' Rom. xiii. 10. PART XX.] CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 299 tion ; but it leads to weep with those who weep, and to rejoice with those who rejoice : it leads us to esteera and iraitate the good, and to pity and to atterapt to reclaim the bad. There is a love which all men owe to all men. As the first and great comraandraent is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and soul, and strength, and mind ;" so the second is like to it, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour " — that is, as our Lord explains it, thy fellow-man, thy brother, though he should be thy enemy, — " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:"* i. e., ' Thou shalt as really, as steadily, seek to pro mote his happiness as thine own. Though you may be obUged to condemn him, you must not hate him, you must pity him ; though you find it irapossible to esteem him, you raust love him ; you raust not injure him, though you have the power ; you must, if you have the power, do him good,' The love which is the subject of our Lord's precept, is obvi ously an affection at once much more comprehensive in its ele ments, and rauch less extensive in its range, than this. It is the love which a disciple of Christ should cherish and display towards a fellow-disciple ; the love of which none but a disciple can be either the object or the subject. The command is ad dressed to the disciples, and in it they are not enjoined to love all men — though that, too, was their duty, and their Master had very clearly pointed it out to them, when he bade thera love their eneraies, and in their benignant regards be as unrestricted and expansive as their Father in heaven, who raakes his sun to shine, and his rain to fall, on the evil as well as the good,^ The command here is, " to love one another,"* It has been a question among expositors, whether the precept here given was intended exclusively for the apostles, to whom it was originally addressed — designed for the regulation of their official work, — or whether it was given to them, not merely as apostles, but as Christians, and so intended for the disciples of Christ, in all countries and ages. There are, no doubt, in these discourses, many things which have a peculiar — some things, perhaps, which have an exclusive — reference to the apostles; but this certainly does not seera to be one of them. To this < Luke X. 27-37. 2 Matt. v. 36. ' See Glas's Testimony of the King of Martyrs, ch. v., § iii. 2. 300 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. commandment may be applied our Lord's saying on another occasion, " What I say to you, I say to all." * It was addressed to the apostles as " his friends, who did whatsoever he com manded thera," and, by parity of reason, to all who bear this character. The apostle John, speaking to the Christians of Asia-Minor, towards the end of the first century, says, in refer ence to this precept, " This is bis coramandment " — the com mandment we have had frora the beginning — the message which ye have heard from the beginning, — " that we " — not we apostles merely, but we Christians — " love one another." ^ In every succeeding age, raen were to know the disciples of Christ by this mark, that they had love — a peculiar love — one to another. This was his distinctive comraandment, and obedience to it was to be their distinctive badge. This is " the law of Christ," which Paul calls on the Galatian disciples to fulfil, by bearing one another's burdens.' The commandment plainly must reach as far as the prayer that refers to it. " I pray for these," says our Lord — that is, for the apostles ; but he adds, " I pray not only for thera, but for all who shall believe through their word, that they all may be one " — one heart, one soul, one mind, one spirit — " as we " (that is, " I and the Father ") are, " that the world may believe, that the world may know, that thou hast sent me." * The duty here enjoined is precisely the same, and is enjoined on precisely the same persons, a^s " the brotherly kindness" of the apostolic epistles. The following coraraands of the holy apostles of our Lord Jesus, are just repetitions and expansions of the precept before us. "Be ye kindly affectioned to one an other in brotherly love." " Forbear one another in love." " En deavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." " Be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another." " If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so do ye." " See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." " Love the brother hood." "Above aU, have fervent charity araong yourselves." " Be of one raind and of one heart ; love as brethren." " Walk in love, even as Christ hath loved us." " My little chUdren, let us not love In word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in 1 Mark xiii. 37. ^ i John iii. 11, 23. ' Gal. vi. 2. * John xvii. 20, 21. PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 301 truth." " Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God." * To come within the range of the law contained in the words before us, we must be the " friends" of Christ — that is, persons whom he regards with a love of approbation and complacency, — persons " who do whatsoever he commands them,"- — that is, who honestly make his will, so far as they know it, the rule and rea son of their faith and conduct. Unless we keep this steadily in view, we can neither understand what are the constituent ele ments, the appropriate manifestations, of this affection, nor what are the peculiar motives which urge to its cultivation and dis play. It is as common objects of the love of Christ, that Chris tians are at once the objects and subjects of that mutual affection which he here enjoins. They are such as are " clean through the word which he has spoken to them," such as are " in him," " abide in hira," and " bring forth fruit." There is a foundation laid for their rautual affection in that coramon character which, formed in them by his Spirit, through his word, makes thera all the objects of his complacential regard. The love they are called on to cherish for each other is love, as between persons connected with Christ, and in consequence of being connected with hira connected with each other. Its cora- ponent elements are esteera, complacency, benevolence, and its appropriate manifestations, — highly valuing each others' chris tian gifts and graces — their knowledge, and faith, and hope, and fortitude, and self-denial, and temperance, and patience, and public spirit, and heavenly-mindedness, and godliness, and bro therly-kindness, and charity, — regarding these with quite a dif ferent kind and degree of esteem, from that with which they regard natural accomplishments, or even such moral quaUties as can be cultivated apart from christian principle, — delighting in such association with each other as naturally calls forth into exercise, all that is peculiarly christian in the character, — defend ing each other's christian reputation when attacked, — sym pathising with each other's christian joys and sorrows, — promoting each other's personal christian holiness and corafort, — and cor dially co-operating with each other in enterprises calculated to ' Rom. xii. 10. Eph. iv. 2, 3, 32. 1 Pet. i 22 ; ii. 17 ; Iv. 8 ; iii. 8. 1 John iii. 18 ; iv 7. 302 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. promote the coramon christian cause, the cause of God's glory, and man's improveraent and happiness. Thus, spiritual christian excellence, possessed and apprehended, is the foundation of the affection ; and the rautual proraotion of this spiritual excellence, and the working out of the blessed results which fiow frora its possession and manifestation, are the great designs which it leads all under its influence to prosecute. This rautual love is plainly an affection which can be cher ished, and ought to be raanifested, just in proportion as its objects prove themselves to be — what in sorae raeasure they must be, to be its proper objects at aU, — what they are always understood to be, when they becorae its objects, — "the friends of Christ," manifesting theraselves to be so, by keeping his commandments. If I am a Christian, I am bound to cherish and raanifest this peculiar kind of love to every other Christian, — to every one who appears to rae to be a friend of Christ. It is only in this char acter that he has any claim on me for brotherly affection ; and the degree, if not of my good will, for that should in every case be boundless, yet of ray esteem of, and coraplacency in, a chris tian brother, should be proportioned to the manifestation he makes of the various excellences of the christian character. The better he is, and shows himself to be, I should love him the better. My love should be regulated on the sarae principle as Christs, whose benevolence knows no lirait in reference to any of his people, but whose esteera and complacency are always pro portioned to holy principle and conduct on the part of his people; who regards men as " his friends," — objects of his coraplacential regard, — just in the degree in which they keep his command ments. I am to love every Christian, as a Christian — because he is a Christian. It is at my peril if I exclude frora ray love, any one who gives evidence that Christ has included him in his love ; but still I am to love most, and give raost manifestation of my love to those who most clearly prove that they love him, and that he loves them. These remarks may suffice to illustrate the general nature, and the peculiar characteristics, of the affection which our Lord here requires all Christians to cherish and manifest towards all Christians, A flood of additional light is, however, poured, both on the nature of this love, and the proper mode of manifesting it, by the descriptive clause with which our Lord closes the injunc- PART XX,J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER, 303 tion : " This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you," (2.) Love like that of our Lord. " As I have loved you," These words give great deflniteness to the injunction. They are in the room of an extended com mentary. When a Christian wishes to know how he should love his christian brother, he has but to ask and answer the question. How has Christ loved us both ? The love of God to the Savi our, is the pattern of the love of the Saviour to his people : "As the Father hath loved me, .so have I loved you." The love of the Saviour to us, is the pattern of our love to each other : " Love one another, as I have loved you." In both cases, the " as " indicates only similitude, not equality. Yet, even taking this into consideration, who is not disposed to say, ' What a model is this we are required to copy I It would be worse than folly to dream of equalling it ; but, can we even resemble it ? Can we ever, in any just sense of the term, love each other, as he has loved us all ? ' He who gave us the pattern will enable us to imitate it, so far as it is imitable, if we but sincerely wish to iraitate it. But even he can do this only by dwelling in us by his Spirit. We raust know what that means in our own experience, " It is no raore I that live ; Christ lives in me," * ' I have his mind ; and thus, thus only, am enabled to think as he thought — to feel as he felt — to walk as he walked — to be in the world as he was in the world. Thus, thus only, shall I be enabled, by his grace being made sufficient for rae, to love my christian brethren, as he loved both thera and rae,' How far his love to us is to be the model of our love to one another, is a topic which well deserves our raost serious considera tion. The love of our Lord to his disciples, which he here holds forth as the exeraplar and model of their mutual love, is not that love with which he regarded thera as elect sinners — that portion of the self-ruined race of man, which was to be rescued from self-incurred destruction by sovereign grace — " vessels before ordained to mercy ;" but that love with which he regarded them as his " friends '' — persons possessed of a holy character, produced in them by his Spirit, through the faith of the truth. His love 1 Gal. ii. 20. 304 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, to them, as elect sinners, lay at the foundation of all the benefits bestowed on them ; among the chief of which, is that holy char acter which raakes them the objects of his coraplacential affection. But that love is so very peculiar in its nature, as to be exem plary only within very narrow limits ; and, indeed, in some very iraportant points, bears a contrast, rather than a resemblance, to the love which Christians should cherish and display towards each other. That love, which is just an immutable determina tion to save them, is precisely the same towards all its objects, and it never varies. With regard to it, you cannot say Christ loves any of his people raore than another, or more at one tirae than another ; whereas the love of Christians to each other, like the coraplacential love of Christ towards thera as his friends, ought to be proportioned to the qualities which call it forth in its different objects, and in the same object at different tiraes. The words, " As I have loved you," look back to the whole course of our Lord's conduct to the disciples since he had raade them his friends ; and, as is very plain frora the 13th verse, forward too to the most remarkable display of love of all, which he was soon to make, by laying down his life for thera. The points in which the love of Christians to each other should reserable that of Christ to thera all, are nuraerous. I wiU shortly notice a few of them. Their love should, like his, be discriminating ; it should, like his, be sincere ; it should, like his, be spontaneous ; it should, Uke his, be fervent ; it should, like his, be disinterested ; it should, like his, be active ; it should, like his, be self-denying and self-sacrificing ; it should, like his, be con siderate and wise ; it should, like his, be generously confiding and kindly forbearing ; it should, like his, be constant ; it should, like his, be enduring ; it should, like his, be holy and spiritual ; and, finally, it should, like his, be universal — it should embrace aU the brotherhood. When we have briefly iUustrated these parti culars, we shall have a clearer — stiU a very inadequate — view of the depth and extent of practical instruction in these few short words, " As I have loved you," as a directory for mutual chris tian love. Let us take them up in their order, 1, Discriminative. The mutual love of Christians should be, like Christ's to 'them — discriminative. Our Lord loved all his countryraen — all his PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 305 fellow-men, — but he did not love them all in the same way, nor in the sarae degree. He made a difference. He pitied them all. He had no pleasure in the death of any of them. He would that they all should turti and live. How would he " have gathered them, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings," if they would but have been gathered ! But his delight, ac cording to the ancient oracle, was in the saints, " the excellent ones of the earth." * And it is stUl so. His friends are only they who do whatsoever he commands thera. He sets apart the godly ones for himself He takes for himself a people from araong the Geiitiles, and forms them for himself. There is a pecuUar favour with which he regards this people, leading to the communication of peculiar blessings — " the good of his people" — " the gladness of his nation." ^ In like manner, while Christians are to love all raen, their brotherly love is to be a discriminating affection. The Christian should acknowledge, as a christian brother, only him who appears to be a christian brother. The important ad vantage resulting from the cultivation and display of christian brotherly love, can be realised, on either side, only when the object, as weU as the subject of it, is a Christian. Christian affection can be reciprocated only by Christians. The mani festation of it is lost, and worse than lost, on a man of the world. The hand of a corpse cannot return the pressure of the friendly grasp of the living raan. Discrimination of Christians, from those who are not Christians, in the degree in which this is competent to a man " whose senses are exercised to discern good and evil," lies, as we have seen, at the very foundation of the duty of rautual christian love ; and, in the exercise of this affection, there must not only be discrimi nation as to the class to which the individual belongs who is the object of it, but as to the degree in which individuals belonging to the sarae class possess the qualities which make them proper objects of christian love. Our Lord loved all his genuine dis ciples ; but he had a special love to the eleven apostles, and even among them he made a distinction — he peculiarly loved Peter, and James, and John ; and of these favoured three, it was John who was, by way of eminence, " the disciple whom Jesus loved."* In like raanner, we are to love our christian friends with an 1 Psal. xvi. 3. ^ Psal. iv. 3. Acts xv. 14. Psal. cvi. 4, 5. ' John xiii. 23. VOL. III. * U 306 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP, XXVIII, affection proportioned to the degree in which they appear to us to possess and display those holy dispositions which make them the fit objects of our christian regard — we are bound to love best the Christian who is likest Christ, 2, Sincere. The mutual love of Christians should be, like Christ's to thera — sincere. There was no guUe, no untruth, in hira — he was " full of truth," as weU as of grace — and his grace, his kindness, was true kindness. He professed to regard none as his friends but those whora he really regarded as his friends. He never said or did anything that could raake the Pharisees or the Sad- ducees suppose they were his friends ; and his expression of love to those who were his friends never exceeded the feeling of affec tion. He never led them to think that he approved in thera what he did not approve of. His love was just what it appeared to be, both as to objects and degree. In like manner, Christians are to love one another in sincerity. " Simplicity, godly sin cerity," must be the character of their affection. There must be no use of flattering words. There must be no profession where there is no love — there must be no more profession than there is love. The love of the brethren raust be " unfeigned," Their fellowship raust be " the fellowship of the spirit," " Love one another as I have loved you," certainly means, whatever more, " Let love be without dissimulation," " Speak the truth in love," * " Love one another with a pure heart — a heart purified from all guiles and hypocrisies," ^ 3, Spontaneous. The mutual love of Christians should be, like Christ's to them — spontaneous. Our Lord's affection was not bestowed on his friends in consequence of their solicitation. Wherever he found men of good and honest hearts — hearts purified by the Spirit, through means of the Old Testaraent revelation — his heart went out towards them, as in the case of Nathanael — "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whora there is no guile!'" And whenever the character of true holiness was irapressed on the hearts of his hearers by the faith of the truth spoken by hira, his complacency ' xXriBlioyns £» ry ij/eiij, 2 1 Pet. i. 22. Rom. xii. 9. Eph. iv. 16. s John i. 47. PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 307 rested on them. He was full of holy love, and his affection gushed forth so soon as a fitting receptacle was prepared for it. No sooner did the appropriate object present itself, than the emotion was ready to manifest itself in suitable displays of kind ness. The kind word was always ready to be spoken — the kind deed to be performed. Thus did Christ love his friends, and thus should they love one another. The affection belonging to our new nature should be like that which we ordinarily call " natural affection "—the love which a brother bears to a brother, a chUd to a parent. It should not be as if drawn, by artificial means, from a stagnant pool, but flow as from a living spring. It should, without an effort, come forth in appropriate feeling and action, when the fitting object and circumstances present themselves. What the apostle says to the Thessalonians should be applicable to all Christians, — in truth, it is applicable to thera in the measure in which they are Chris tians indeed — " created anew in Christ Jesus," — " As touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you ; for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another, and indeed ye do it to all the brethren." * 4. Fervent and copious. The mutual love of Christians should be, like Christ's to them — fervent and copious. In our Lord's love to his friends, sincerity was combined with ardour, and the spontaneous effusion of kindness was a copious one. His love was not only genuine but strong — its flow was not only natural, but abundant. He compares it to the strongest natural affections, "Who is my raother, and who are my brethren ? " (said he, on a certain occa sion, when some came and told him that his raother and his brethren stood without, wishing to speak with him), " Who is my mother, and who are my brethren ? " and, stretching out his hands to his chosen disciples, " Behold," said he, " my mother and my brethren ! for every one that will do the wUl of my Father in heaven, the same is ray brother, and sister, and mother,"^ And thus, too, should Christians love one another — as Christ loves thera all; not as common acquaintances — not as distant relatives — but as a brother loves a brother — as a bro- ' 1 Thess. iv. 9, 10. ' Mark iv. 33-36. 308 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII. ther loves a sister — as a chUd loves a mother. They are to love one another, not only with a pure heart, but "fervently," " Above all things, they are to have fervent love among them selves," 5, Disinterested. The mutual love of Christians should be, Uke that of Christ to them — disinterested. Our Lord's love to his friends was dis interested love. He stood in no need of them. He did not raake gain of thera. He sought not theirs, but them. His object was their happiness. Christians do stand in need of each other. They are not independent of each other, as their Lord is of them all. Their own real happiness can be secured only in Peking the happiness of their fellow-disciples. Yet still their love to each other raust be disinterested. It raust not be dis guised self-love. It must be purified from all selfish taint, all interested aim, all secular regards. They must seek their neigh bour's wealth. They raust " look, not every raan to his own things, but every man also to the things of others." They raust " in love serve each other ;" and thus they must " let the mind be in them, that also was in Christ Jesus." * " Charity," — i. e., love — in thera must not seek its own ; for in him it did not. 6, Active. The mutual love of Christians should be, like Christ's to them — active. When on the earth, he went about continually doing good — doing good to all — especially doing good to his friends — bestowing on them the blessings which he perceived them to need ; and now that he is in heaven, he is constantly blessing his people with " all heavenly and spiritual blessings," Having received gifts, he is constantly bestowing them. Not a day, not an hour, not a moment passes, without their receiving proof of the activity of his love. And so ought it to be with Christians as to the activity of their mutual affection. It should prove its sincerity and fervour, by the number and value of the benefits it produces, and by the active exertion it gives birth to, to secure these benefits. Christians must love, not " in word and in tongue only, but in deed and in truth ;"^ there must be "distri- ' Phil. ii. 4, 6. 2 1 John iii. 18. PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 309 buting to necessities," and " bearing of burdens" — there must be active doing, liberal giving. True christian love is laborious love. That is the distinguishing character of christian love, just as operativeness is that of christian faith, and perseverance of christian hope. The apostle speaks of " the work of faith, the labour of love, and the patience,"* or perseverance, " of hope." Christians should imitate the ancient Hebrew Christians, in " showing their work and labour of love towards God's narae, in rainistering to the saints." " If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food," their brother or sister, who has this world's goods, does not love as Christ loves, if he content himself with saying, " Depart in peace, be ye warmed, be ye fed :" he must give them the " things which are needful for the body." ^ It is not necessary that christian love should talk much, but it is necessary that it should act much. 7. Self-denying and self-sacrificing. The mutual love of Christians should be, like Christ's to them — self-denying and self-sacrificing. We " know his grace " — his kindness — " in that though he was rich he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich." " Though in the forra of God, he counted it not robbery to be equal with God, but raade hiraself of no reputation — emptied himself — took on him the forra of a servant, and was raade in the likeness of men — and humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," to obtain our salvation. It is in refer ence to this that the apostle says, "Let the mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus." ^ Have the sarae love — be " of one accord, of one mind." It is to this display of his love that our Lord obviously refers here — " Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," " Hereby," says the beloved disciple, who had so rauch of his Master's mind — " hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren,"* And if we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, when the sacrifice is required, what other sacrifice but that of truth and duty I i-rtu-m ¦ James ii. 15, 16, ' Phil. ii. 6-8. ' 1 John iii, 16. 310 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII. should we hesitate to make for them ? We ought to " walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself fw us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. 8. Considerate and wise. The mutual love of Christians should be, like Christ's to them — considerate and wise. His affection is not a blind partiality. He thoroughly understands the character of his friends — he per fectly knows their real interests. He never trifles with their feeUngs, but he consults their welfare more than their wishes. His conduct towards them may not always please ; but it is al ways fitted, always intended, to profit. And thus, too, should it be with his people in their mutual regard. They must " walk in wisdora " towards each other, as well as towards " them who are without," They raust " consider one another, to provoke to love and to good works," ^ They must seek to " please every one his neighbour, to his edification," They must suit them selves to the various terapers and circumstances of those whose best interests they would advance. They must " become all things to all," that they may the better promote their improve ment and happiness, 9, Generously confiding and kindly forbearing. The mutual love of Christians should be, like the love of Christ to thera — generously confiding and kindly forbearing. He was very much on his guard araong his unbelieving countrymen. He " committed not himself to them." * But he unbent hiraself in the society of his chosen friends — he unbosomed himself to them, so far as they could comprehend his thoughts and feelings. He made the most of what was good in them — put the best con struction on their words and actions which they would bear — made kind allowances for their failings — readily forgave them their faults — taught thera, as they were able to receive instruc tion — and though he faithfully reproved thera for their slowness of heart to understand and believe all that the prophets had written of hira, and his own declarations respecting his person ' Eph, V, 2. 2 Heb, ,\, 24. 3 John ii. 24. PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER, 311 and kingdom, yet, as a teacher, he was always meek and gentle, and, as a friend, forbearing and kind — ever " drawing the bond of Union closer — imparting successive streams of effulgence, till he incorporated his spirit with theirs, and elevated them into a nearer resemblance to himself," * Thus did he love his friends, and thus should they love one another. Laying aside all envy and suspicion, they should be ever ready to give credit to each other for all that seenrS to be amiable and estimable in character, all that seems to be right in conduct, and in a friendly spirit to receive explanations of what may appear to be dotibtful — " for bearing one another in love, and forgiving one another, as Christ forbears and forgives them all," Our love should " suffer long, and be kind" — it should " bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things," His does : what would become of us if it did not ? 10, Constant. The mutual love of Christians should be, like the love of Christ to them — constant. He was the friend who " loves at all tiraes," There is nothing fantastic in his character ; all is real, and therefore constant. He is not affectionate by fits and starts ; he " rests in his love," Change of circumstances does not affect it in any other way, than in calling forth the appropriate raani festation of kindness. His love is " wilihout variableness or shadow of turning," Nothing can separate from his love ; not " tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword:" "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature," ^ And constancy, too, should be the character of the love of his people to each other. The relation, and the character on which the affection is founded, are permanent — immoveable ; and the affection should therefore be constant. They should be " rooted and grounded in love" towards each other, 'Their friendship should be a con trast to the friendship of the world — ever varying with shifting humour or altered interest. " The charity of every one of thera," to use the apostle's emphatic language, should "increase and abound towards each other." ' 1 Hall. 2 Rom. viii. 35, 38, 39. 3 2 Thess. i. 3. 312 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIH. 11. Enduring. The rautual love of Christians should be, like the love, of Christ to \hem.— enduring. With regard to his friends on earth, " whora he loved, he loved to the end ;" and in reference to all his friends in all ages, " his raercy endureth for ever." He l,ov' ov yx^ 'upvrtutrx ifjiMS fjioyov {ipvitr)) xXXx xx) Tx f*iyftrTX tvi^yiTYiirx rrxyTKXojJ 'Tiis eixouf/.tyyis ixTl'iym \iij.m tx xX^jfAxrx." PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 327 customary avocations, one sitting at the receipt of custom, another raending his nets in his boat, another reclining under the fig- tree, when the voice of Jesus and his messengers prevented them, with the command, 'Follow rae;' and, irabued with a raight all its own, that command constrained them to obedience, and brought them to his feet a willing people in the day of his power — ' choosing hira who had chosen thera,' " * Some interpreters would render these words, ' I have placed you in the true vine,' or, ' I have planted you, that ye may bring forth fruit,' The words wiU bear this rendering ; but it appears to me more natural to understand the word rendered " ordain," UteraUy as equivalent to " appoint." Others consider the word " go," as merely qualifying the expression, " bring forth fruit," — ' that you should continuaUy bring forth fruit,' Were the words spoken directly of all Christians, this would likely be the true interpretation ; but regarding them as spoken directly to the apostles, we think it more natural to seek their interpretation in our Lord's coraraission, — " Go into all the world " — " Go teach all nations," He appointed them to " go everywhere, preaching the word," and exhibiting in their own character and conduct the religion they sought to propagate. The bringing forth fruit, seeras to refer to the effects of their rainistry, in the conversion of men to the faith of Christ, and the worship of the true God, and in the edification of those who should believe through grace. This is soraetiraes represented as the fruit of the apostles, sometimes as the fruit of the Gospel which they preached. We have the first representation in the Epistle to the Romans,^ where the apostle says that he had oftentimes " proposed to come to the Eomans, that he raight have fruit among them even as among other Gentiles ;" and the second in the Epistle to the Colossians,* where he says "the word of the truth of the Gospel is corae unto you, as it is In all the world ; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth." What the fruit was, is strikingly described by Paul when he says, " Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance :" " and ye became followers of us, and of the Lord." * Our Lord ap- 1 Brown Patterson. ¦ Rom. i. 13. ' Col, i, 6. * 1 Thess. i. 6, 6. 328 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. pointed not only that the apostles should " go and bring forth fruit" in this way, but also " that their fruit should remain," — that the religion which they should plant, should not wither and die, but take root, and grow, and multiply, producing seed which should be sown over all the earth, and till the end of time pro duce those " fruits of righteousness " in the character, and of happiness in the experience of raen, " which are to the praise and to the glory of God." , They were ordained, as Matthew Henry says, not to sit still, but to go about* — not to beat the air, but to be fruitful — not to produce fruit which should come up in a night, and perish in a night, but be " as the days of heaven," The church was the fruit of the apostles — the building of which they were the foun dation ; and that church, as lawyers say of bodies-corporate, does not die, but lives in succession — and the fruit of the apostles remains to this day, and shall do while the world remains, " I have appointed you to bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should reraain," is just equivalent to, ' I have appointed you to be the foundation of an everlasting building,' There are considerable grararaatical difficulties as to the con nection of the concluding clause of the verse ; " that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father, in my narae. He raay give it you," ^ The connection of thought, however, does not seem difficult to discover. Our Lord is obviously speaking of his choice of his apostles, as a token of his love to them as his friends, ' I have called you to perform a great work, to effect an important, salu tary, permanent change among mankind,' but this would be but an equivocal proof of love, if that work was one to which they were entirely unequal ; therefore he adds, ' and I have secured for you what will make your success certain, for whatsoever you ask of the Father in ray narae — for my sake — to promote my cause — He will assuredly give it you;' q.d,, 'by my choosing you, and ordaining you, I have brought you into such a relation with the Father, that whatever ye ask of Him, in my name, you are sure to obtain it,' Surely herein is love. It is not necessary I *¦ uT^yyiTi scilicet ad alias gentes. Nam ille xUfAos, isti Judsei non admissuri erant hos doctores. Videtur inesse aliquod indicium relinquendas esse Judaieas opiniones, et ipsam hano terram, quae illas maxime alebat. Ipsa urbs, templum, circumcisio, etc., impediebat liberalem de religione vera doctrinam." — Semler. '' iS may either he in the first or the third person, — either ' I may give,' or • he maj give.' PART XX, J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER, 329 that I should now dwell on the iUustration of these words, hav ing had an opportunity of fiiUy explaining them, and of guarding against false interpretations of thera, when^expounding the 13th verse of the preceding chapter. While this seeras the plain meaning of the words, as addressed to the apostles, it is true that Christ shows his love to all his people, in choosing them from araong their fellow-raen — a choice which originates with him, not with them, — and in appointing them actively to exert themselves in doing permanent good, by promoting the conversion of sinners, and the edification of saints; and has secured for them all necessary help for and in their work, as the answer of beheving prayer. To be made the instru ments of establishing, sustaining, and extending the kingdora of God araong raen, and to be secured divine help for this pur pose, in answer to believing prayer, are striking raanifestations of our Lord's special favour, Paul thought so ; and he no doubt expressed the coramon feeling of all his apostoUcal brethren when he said, " To me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which frora the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord," * And all Christians should reckon it a high honour and a high privilege — a remark able manifestation of love on the part of the Saviour — that he makes use of them as instruments in carrying forward that work, in which the interests of the glory of God, and the happiness of raankind, are so deeply involved. Such, then, are the four raanifestations of special love to his people which our Lord specifies ; and it only reraains that we very briefly show how his exaraple in these has the force of a powerful motive to mutual Christian love — how these statements are fitted to serve the pui-pose for which he says they were made — ' to secure that Christians should love one another,' On this subject I shall confine myself to a few hints, which, 1 Eph, iii. 8-11. 330 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, however, will admit of indefinite expansion in your retired medi tations. Surely it is right and reasonable that we should love those whom Christ loves — whom he has so clearly proved that he loves ; and that we should love them, so far as the thing is prac ticable, as he has loved thera. That he loves a person, should be found the strongest of all raotives why we should love him. They are surely worthy of our love who are the objects of his. We have reason to fear we do not love him, if we do not love his friends. Is there not something absolutely monstrous in one who loves Christ, not loving every one whom he has reason to think Christ loves ? Where can we find words suffi ciently expressive of incongruity, to describe the conduct of a lover of Christ hating any one whom Christ loves ? Then if Christ gave his life for his friends, should not we, to proraote their happiness, willingly sacrifice everything but truth and duty, by the sacrifice of which, indeed, Christ's friends can never be benefited. How touchingly does Paul represent the force of this raotive — " Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet-smelUng savour to God;" and John — " Hereby perceive we the love of God, that he laid down his life for us : and we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren." And how does Paul exemplify the force of this raotive when he says, in reference to the Philippian brethren, " Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith ;" if ray life be poured out as a libation over your conversion to Christ, "I joy and rejoice with you all." * ' It could not be better sacrificed than in the cause of his glory and your salvation.' If his complacent regard rests on all who do whatsoever he commands them, and if the measure of that regard is regulated by the degree in which they discover this implicit deference to his authority, should not the friendships of Christians be formed and managed on the same principle ? If he shows his love for his people, by making them sharers of the coraraunications of saving truth, which he has been com missioned by the Father to make to raen, should not we ever be ready to make our fellow-Christians sharers of those views of ' Eph. V. 2. 1 John iii. 16. Phil. ii. 17. PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 331 divine truth, which we find to be peculiarly advantageous and delightful to ourselves ? Does he treat aU his people, not as servants, but as friends ? — how ill does it becorae any of them to usurp dominion over a brother's faith — to encroach on a brother's spiritual liberty — to treat a brother rather as a servant than as a friend ? Has he chosen thera all to take part in one great enterprise ? has he, as a proof of his love to thera all, chosen thera, and ap pointed thera to go and bring forth fruit that may remain ? — ought they not all cordially to co-operate in this great enterprise ? How unbecoming would quarrels among the apostles have been, while doing their coramon work ! How should Christians seek to show their mutual love, in helping each other to do the great work which the coramon love of their Lord has devolved on thera all ! How unseemly to make the prosecution of that very work, which he in love coraraitted to thera all that it might be a bond of brotherhood, the occasion of bitter quarrels and unkindly sus picions ! Such is the law of Christ, and such is his example, by which he at once illustrates and enforces this law. His " friends," to whom the Saviour gave this law of love, " went and did even as he commanded them." And they found that " his commandment was not grievous ;" " his yoke was easy, his burden light ;" " in keeping this comraandment they had great reward." When their Master had left them, and " gone into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God," the apostles and their fellow-believers " continued together with one accord, in prayer and supplication." The spirit of all grace, all love, as weU as of all light, all knowledge, was poured out on them abundantly. Under the infiuence of this spirit they gladly ful filled the law of Christ, in loving one another as he had loved them. They " were of one heart and one soul, and none of them said that ought of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things comraon, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them as every raan had need, so that no raan araong them lacked,"* They were like a large affectionate family, exposed to rauch reproach and persecution from without, but happy in them- ' Acts ii. 41-46. 332 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII, selves in the possession of the coraraon salvation, in the assurance of the love of their Lord, and in the conscious satisfaction of that mutual love by which " they knew that they were passed from death to life," and by the manifestations of which the world " took knowledge of thera, that they had been with Jesus," This delightful state of holy union and communion among the followers of Christ continued for a considerable period. We have a beautiful picture of it, drawn by the graphic pencil of the first (I raean in raerit) of ecclesiastical historians, " The naraes," says the great and good Neander, "the names 'brother and sister,' which the Christians gave to each other, were not names without meaning. The fraternal kiss, with which every one, after being baptised, was received into the community, by the Christians into whose immediate fellowship he entered, which the members bestowed on each other just before the celebration of the coraraunion, and with which every Christian saluted his brother, though he had never seen hira before, was not an empty forra, but the expression of christian feelings, a token of the relation in which Christians considered themselves as stand ing to each other,"* The care of providing for the support and maintenance of strangers, the poor, the sick, the aged, widows and orphans, and those in prison on account of their faith, devolved on the whole church. This was one of the main purposes for which the col lection of voluntary contributions in the assemblies for public worship was instituted, and the charity of individuals, moreover, led them to emulate each other in the same good work. In par ticular, it was considered as belonging to the christian matron to provide for the poor, and for the brethren languishing in prison, and to show hospitality to strangers. Nor did the active brotherly love of each community confine itself to what transpired in its own iraraediate circle, but ex tended itself to the wants of christian communities in distant lands. When Cyprian of Carthage transmitted to the suffering Christians in Numldia, many of whora had been led captive by sorae of the neighbouring barbarous tribes, a contribution raised by his congregation, araounting to raore than L.800 of our money, he uses the following language : — " In afflictions of this ' Neander's General History, vol. i,, p. 317. PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER, 333 sort, who ought not to feel pained ? Who ought not to look on the distress of his brother as his own ? It becomes us to regard the captivity of our brethren as if it were our own, since we are all united by one bond of love. And not love alone, but religion, ought to stimulate us to redeem the brethren, who are not only raerabers of our body, but teraples of our God, God hath suf fered this to try our faith, whether each of us is ready to do for the other what, in Uke circurastances, he would wish to have done to hiraself. It is our earnest hope that you raay never be visited again with a like affiiction ; but should a sirailar calaraity befall you, to try the faith and love of our hearts, delay not to in form us of it, for be assured that it is the prayer of all the brethren here, that nothing of the kind raay again happen ; but if it should, they are ready cheerfully and abundantly to assist you," 1 In the times of public calamity, the self-sacrificing love of the primitive Christians was peculiarly conspicuous. Dionysius of Alexandria thus places in contrast the conduct of the Christians and the Pagans, in a season of pestilential, contagious, disease in that city : — " The brethren, in the fulness of their brotherly love, spared not themselves. Their only anxiety was a rautual one for each other; they waited on the sick without thinking of them selves, readily ministering to their wants, and for Christ's sake cheerfully giving up their lives ; for many died, after others, by their care, had been recovered from the sickness. With the heathens it was quite otherwise. Those who showed the first symptoms of the disease, they drove frora thera. They fled from their dearest friends, and left the dead unburied, making it their chief care to secure theraselves from the contagion,"^ It is lamentable to observe, as we proceed down the stream of ecclesiastical history, how "iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold," The world, unchanged in its character, forces its way into the church, and the benignant and pure character of visible Christianity is in proportion obscured and tarnished. Had our Lord's coraraand, " Corae out and be separate" ^ from " the world lying under the wicked one," been but honestly obeyed by his followers, there would have been less difficulty in ' Cyprian, Epist. Ix. 2 Euseb. H. E. vii. 22. ' 2 Cor. vi. 17. 334 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. keeping that coraraandraent which has been the subject of these remarks. Irapurity and sectarianisra, which, like most antago nist principles, act and re-act on each other, have together gone far to destroy the visible display of that mutual love among genuine disciples, — that love to one another, like Christ's love to them all, of which he says so emphaticaUy, " This is my com raandment." In the neglect, in the violation, of this commandment, to an enormous, and, yet because all but universal, unobserved extent, we find but too satisfactory an account of the comparatively little good that for so many centuries has been done in the church and by the church.* Oh, how far in mind, how much farther in heart, are the professed followers of Christ frora that being " one — perfect in one, as the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father," which is necessary to the convincement of the world, " that the Father hath sent his Son ! " ^ " The love of God," and of Christ, need to be more abundantly " shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us," through the medium of a full and free " Gospel, preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," in order to the love of the brotherhood, and the love of the kind, having their due influence. This is the radical part of the cure. When this takes place, dowm will go, like the walls of Jericho before the divine influence attending the blowing of the rams' horns, all those middle walls of partition which, with so rauch raisdirected zeal and misem ployed labour. Christians have reared up to divide brethren frora brethren. Christians, when they becorae more thoroughly chris tian, wUl more easily recognise each other, — the distinguishing characters becoming more distinct, and the spiritual sense more acute ; they wiU then be more ready to embrace and sustain, than to beat and brand, bite and devour, each other ; and be less in danger of lavishing the external raanifestations of brotherly love on those who are not brethren. What a society would the church of Christ be, were but the law before us generally and faithfully observed ! AU true Chris tians loving all true Christians, even as Christ has loved them I " Division among the evangelical labourers is one of the devil's artifices which is most successful against the work of God. In proportion as we love the work, we ought likewise to love the union which Christ recommends to his disciples." — Quesnel. - John xvii. 23. PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 335 aU ! How delightful to be a raember of such an association ! How sweetly Inviting a retreat would it afford frora the carking cares and boisterous contentions of secular life ! " A peaceful haven, safe frora the tosslngs and perils of that unquiet ocean, — a sacred enclosure, a sequestered spot, which its storms and tempests were not pennitted to invade." * How different from the scene now exhibited by the christian world ! Alas, that the appellation should be so painfully signifi cant, from the display of worldly principles, and aims, and plans, and practices, and passions, in nominal, and too often even in real Christians ! How true the complaint, that " our unhallowed ecclesiastical strifes even embitter the enjoyments, damp the charities, and impede the duties, of private life. The spirit of party has been allowed to supplant the spirit of Christianity, and that love which should fiow" uncontroUed to aU the departments, and to all the raerabers of the catholic church, has been confined within the boundaries of a sraall and inconsiderable faction." ^ So far as feeling Is concerned, how has mere partisanship usurped the place of christian brotherhood, when, as is often the case, an undoubted christian brother is disowned because not a partisan, and a partisan acknowledged though obviously not a christian brother. Alas ! alas ! how have the waters of the fountain of love been thus not merely embittered, but empoisoned ! Let us all take care that, in the recesses of our own hearts, we cherish love to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, even though we should feel ourselves shut out, by conscientious convictions, from taking a part in any human scheme for manifesting the unity of the faithful ; and let us be grateful for everything, in our own times, which seems to promise a return to the whole some cathoUcity of primitive christian love. In this point of view, I cannot but regard the Evangelical Alliance (and there fore I cannot but bless God for its origin and progress) — an in stitution whose specific object is, without compromise of indi vidual belief, and without interfering with ecclesiastical organisa tions, to give distincter visibility to the existing union of true Christians, and, by doing so, to increase the love which should flow from this union ; thus adding to the holiness and the hap piness of Christians individually, and diminishing, if not annihi- ' Robert Hall. 2 Baimer. 336 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. lating, the great stumbling-block of the world ; and I would earnestly entreat all my christian brethren, of all denominations, to make theraselves acquainted with its clairas ; to beware of de spising it as a weak thing, or opposing it as a bad thing, and to yield it the support of their countenance, example, and influ ence, to the utraost extent that conscience will permit. It is essential to the success of the Evangelical AUIance, that aU who connect themselves with it should be " fully persuaded in their own rainds " of the soundness of the principles on which it is based, and the lawfulness, desirableness, and iraportance of the objects which it seeks to gain. No true friend of the Evan gelical Alliance would wish any one to become a member of it who is not thus qualified. Solicitation is altogether out of place here. Yet every friend of the Evangelical Alliance raust wish it joined by every genuine Christian who is not withheld from taking such a step by conscientious scruples, and would be glad if he could reraove such scruples where they exist. It seeras to be felt as an objection in some quarters, that the objects of the Alliance are not of a sufficiently practical kind. The question is often put — What has it done ? What does it propose to do? Where are the palpable effects which it has produced, or what palpable effects is it calculated to produce ? I am afraid, at the bottom of this objection lies that which gives so utilitarian and material a character to our age. We must have visible, tangible effects, producing what may be called profit, in some sense or other. Now, the Evangelical Alliance is not fitted to carry on any work, or set of operations, of this kind, and the less it attempts it the better. But is it nothing to abate prejudice among Christians ? Is it nothing to enlarge the circle, and to increase the intensity, of christian regards ? Is it nothing to make Christians feel, and the world see, that the points of difference araong Christians are few and uniraportant in comparison of the points of agreement ? In the present un natural state of things, when Christians cannot together do their common Master's work, is it not soraething that the various parties engaged separately, all in partial darkness, and none so near the centre of light and heat as they should be — in hazard of becoming cold and languid, and in danger, too, of supposing that there are none engaged in their Master's cause but them selves, — should at certain times raeet around a blazing fire. PART XX.J CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER, 337 kindled, we trust, from above, and warm themselves, and look one another in the face, and receive satisfactory assurances that, though we cannot all work together yet, we are serving the same Master ? And is there not reason to hope that the end will be, that the fellow-workers of the same Master will at length begin to wonder why they cannot work together habitually, as well as meet together occasionally ? The blazing fire, though it should do nothing but collect the labourers and warm them, and allow them to see each other, will not be useless. It has seemed to some that the Evangelical Alliance is a pre sumptuous institution, assuming what is the proper function of the christian church. In truth, there is something in this ob jection ; for if the christian church — if christian churches — were what they should be, there would be no need of any other ex hibition of the union of mind and heart that exists among Chris tians, But, if the christian church have become impure, and schismatic, and sectarian, and if it do not at present exhibit what it surely was raeant to exhibit — the unity of the body of Christ, — is that a reason why all attempts — necessarily imperfect ones — to make the church and the world aware, in some measure, of the extent of union which exists among true Christians, should be conderaned ? Had the church done her duty, we should not have needed either Bible or missionary societies. Missionary societies, formed of members of various churches, have been blessed of God for the purpose of stimulating churches to do their duty as churches, in attempting the christianisation of the world ; and 'the Evangelical Alliance may, in the hand of God, be the means of making the churches raore catholic, both in their constitution and administration. The limited extent of the platform on which the Evangelical Alliance stands, is also felt as an objection by many truly chris tian men ; and, if it were to be held that all who cannot assent to all the articles In its doctrinal basis, were to be considered as no Christians, I, at least, should not be a raeraber of the Evan gelical Alliance. But the object of that statement is not to show what a raan must believe in order to be a Christian. It is a state ment of those principles, the holding of which in common wUl, in the existing state of things, bring together the largest number of apparent Evangelical Christians, so as that they can appear visibly to be agreed. You may so broaden your platform, as VOL. HI. * Y 338 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, that many good, though, as you may T;hink, not sufficiently en lightened, men, will not take their places on it. The object is to get such a doctrinal declaration as will bring together the greatest number of the right class, I may regret that on the platform there is not room for my good friends " the Friends;" but what if, by making room for them, I induce others, whom I at least equally esteem, to leave the platform, and, after aU, per haps, do not succeed in getting "the Friends" to come up? It would be a very poor consolation that I had got a very broad and altogether unobjectionable platform, if I could get nobody to fiU it, I have heard it objected to the Evangelical Alliance, that its effects seera very evanescent. Christians of various denoraina- tions raeet, and salute one another, and seem one ; but the as serably breaks up, and they scarcely recognise one another out of the Alliance meeting. There is a kind and degree of habitual intercourse, which some men may expect frora being fellow- merabers of the Alliance, inconsistent with ecclesiastical relations or civil distinctions ; but where raerabers of the Evangelical Alliance treat one another like aliens, there is undoubtedly sorae thing wrong. It has assuredly not served its purpose there. But are we to give up observing the Lord's Supper, in which all who sit down together acknowledge one another as members of the sarae body — portions of the sarae loaf, — because some church members, when they have left the table, seem to have forgotten who were seated by them, and what the service meant ? It has always been a satisfaction to rae to reflect that the Evangelical Alliance has served its purpose much beyond the limit in which it has succeeded in gaining members ; for, in every case in which a man, whom we could have wished to have had among us, has given his reasons against our institution, he has prefaced thera by stating that he is of one mind and heart with us, and only differs from us as to the proper method of manifesting that union. We thank him for the declaration ; we believe it ; and we trust we may yet raeet hira on the Alliance platforra on earth. At any rate, we trust we shall meet him where the raode of recognising union, acknowledged to exist, can no raore be a matter of controversy. The heavenly platform is an ample one, and none wUl object to occupy it. To quote the words of a raost sincere lover of christian union, PART XX.] CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 339 gone to the regions of perfect holiness and love,* — " Our Lord's so frequent repetition of his desire, that the spirit of holy love and unity raight pervade the members of his body, the church, in the command to love one another, demonstrates the extrerae iraportance which he attached to this blessed grace in the char acter of his disciples, a grace which his inspired apostle has not hesitated to prefer to both the others of the sacred sisterhood. ' Now abideth faith, hope, charity ; but the greatest of these is charity,' — Love, Most obvious it is, but most deplorable, that a vastly lower estimate has been adopted in the practice of too many whom we would be most unwilling to exclude frora the class christian, in the true raeaning of that term, than that of Jesus Christ, and of his like-minded follower, Paul, Alas, for that fierce and feverish contest of mutually confiicting intolerant opinions, in the fiery atmosphere of which all the soft graces and tender blossoras of christian love have been scorched and shrivel led into dust ! When shall we realise, in the one fact that an individual bears with us a common relation to God our Father, and to Jesus Christ our blessed Redeemer, a principle of union so deep and so extensive, as to render a thousand principles of separation comparatively feeble and inoperative ? When shall we be persuaded to spend our Uves in the exercise of rautual charity to those with whora, we are wiUing to hope, we shall spend eternity, in the enjoyraent of a comraon felicity ; and to present to the world soraething like a specimen of that harmony and love which are the elements of everlasting joy ; remember ing that when faith Is vision, and hope enjoyraent, charity shall never fail, but with her golden bond of perfectness shall bind to gether, into one rejoicing and indissoluble brotherhood, the heirs of life eternal, gathered frora raany a sect and party of the uni versal church, as from raany a tribe and kindred, tongue and nation, of the habitable earth ? " Then wUl the friends of Jesus love one another, even as he has loved them. Blessed society ! Who but longs to be joined to it ? " Oh that I had the wings of a dove, that I raight fly away and be at rest," "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious dew of Herraon, the dew that descends on the moun- ' Brown Patterson. 340 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII. tains of Zion, There God commands his blessing, even life for evermore," How raanifold and deep are our obligations to our Lord Jesus ! They raay be aU expressed in one word. He has given us HIMSELF — he has given himself /or us — he has given himself to us. But how much is folded up in that word, " He has given himseff!" He has given himself /or us in his atoning sacrifice, as a pro pitiation for sin, a ransom from bondage, — for what is that propitiation, what is that ransom, but just himself being, doing, suffering, in our room, all that was necessary and sufficient to make our pardon and salvation consistent with, illustrative of, the perfections of the Divine character, and the rights and interests of the Divine governraent ? He has given hiraself to us in his doctrine, — for what is that doctrine, so sublirae, so pure, so clear, so benignant, but just his mind, — what he thinks about God and man, and sin and hoU ness, and time and eternity ? He has given himself to us in his law, — for what is that law, so holy, just, and good, but just his will — what he would have us to be and to do ? He has given himself to us in his example, — for what is that example, so faultless, so perfect, but just himself acting and suf fering ? How thankful should we be for his giving hiraself for us and to us in all these ways ! How intiraately are they all connected together ! How useless his giving hiraself to us in his doctrine, law, and exaraple, had he not given himself /or us — to us — in his sacrifice ! How necessary his doctrine to give motive to his law, and his example to give direction for obeying that law ! How im perfectly could we have understood his law, but for his exaraple ! Would we ever have found out that the law, " Love one an other," contains so rauch, if he had not added, " as I have loved you " ? More than all the advantages of the completest enumera tion of the qualities implied in christian love, and of the duties to which it raight afford occasion, are gained by his placing be fore us his own love as the model of our love to one another. It has often been said that the shortest and most effectual method of teaching what is practical, is by example. Assuredly PART XX.] CHRISTIANS BOUND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 341 it is SO here. " He that foUoweth him shall not walk in dark ness, but shaU have the light of Ufe." The life of Christ is the best coramentary on the law of Christ. The shortest and the surest way of our settling the question. What is the right course which we, in any particular case, should take, in obeying a general comraandraent of Christ ? is to reflect. How did Christ act, or how would Christ have acted, in simUar circumstances? How would HE have apphed his own law? With regard to rautual christian love, and, indeed, with regard to every duty, our desire and endeavour should be " to be in the world as he was in the world " — " to walk as he also walked." Nothing short of this should be our allowed object. He who takes a high aira, though he reach it not, shoots higher than he who rests contented with a lower aim ; and he is likely to love the brethren best who is continually seeking to love thera, even as Christ has loved both thera and him. This is Christianity ;— nothing short of this is Christianity. Brethren, suffer the parting word of exhortation : — " We call Jesus Master and Lord, and we say well, for so he is." He is our " one Master in heaven." He is " our Lord," " Lord of all." If he is, then, our Master and Lord, surely we should do what he has so explicitly, so repeatedly, said to us. We should " love one another ; love one another as he has loved us ; love one another as he has given us coramandment." If he, our Master, has so abounded in offices of kindness to us all, we should surely abound in offices of kindness to each other. Since he has loved us all, we should love one another, for in loving us, he hath " given us an example that we should do as he has done to us." Surely, " the servant is not greater than his Lord, nor he that is sent greater than He that sent hira. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do thera." XXI. THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED AGAINST THE HATRED AND OPPOSITION OF THE WORLD, John xv. 18-27 ; xvi. 1-15.—" If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own : but be cause ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto yon. The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you ; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin : but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me : and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put yon out of the synagogues : yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto yon at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to Him that sent me ; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou ? But because I have said these things unto yon, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for yon that 1 go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judg ment : of sin, because they believe not on me : of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more : of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall not speak of himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak : and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto yon." If Jesus be an irapostor, he is an altogether singular one. If Christianity be a fable, it is certainly not " cunningly devised," On these hypotheses no huraan ingenuity can account for the ad mitted facts of the case. The conduct of Jesus, and that of those who embraced his doctrines, are equally unaccountable, except PART XXI.j THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 343 on the supposition that he was a divine messenger, and that satisfactory evidence was exhibited to thera of his raission. The founders of false religions have always endeavoured to make it appear to be the present interest of those whora they addressed to acquiesce in their pretensions, and submit to their guidance. To his countryraen, the Arabian impostor held out the lure of present sensual indulgence ; and when he, at their head, raade war in support of his iraposture, the terms proposed to the conquered were proselytism, with a full share in the advan tages of their victors, or continued unbelief, with slavery or death. It has indeed been the policy of all deceivers, of what ever kind, to conceal from the dupes of their artiflce, whatever might prejudice them against their scheraes, and skUfuUy to work on their hopes and fears, by placing in a prorainent point of view all the advantages which raight result frora their erabrac- ing these scheraes, and all the disadvantages which might result from their rejecting them. An exaggerated view is given both of the probabilities of success, and of the value of the benefits to be secured by it, while great care is taken to throw into the shade the privations that must be submitted to, the labour that raust be sustained, the sacrifices that must be raade, the sufferings that must be endured, and the ruin that may be incurred, by joining in the proposed enterprise. How different the conduct of Jesus Christ ! He no doubt promised his followers a happiness, ample and varied as their capacities of enjoyment, and as "enduring as their iraraortal souls ; but he distinctly intimated that this happiness was spiritual in its nature, and to be fully enjoyed only in a future world. He assured them that, following him, they should all becorae inheri tors of a kingdom ; but he with equal plainness stated that that kingdora was not to be of this world — it was to be " the king dora of heaven" — " the kingdora of God," — and that he who would enter into it raust " forsake all," and " take up his cross." Himself poor and despised, " a raan of sorrows and acquainted with grief," he plainly intiraated that his followers raust be " in the world, as he was in the world." He told thera of the great things they were to obtain In the world to come, but he showed thera also "the great things they must suffer for his name's sake" in this world. He made no dishonest use of their Jewish prejudices, which could so easily have been turned to account; 344 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. but on the contrary, when one, under their influence, professed his willingness to become his disciple, his reply was, " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of raan hath not where to lay his head," * Was this a course which any irapostor would have followed ? Can it be accounted for on any other principle, than that he was conscious of possessing, and that he in fact did put forth, rairaculous powers, which warranted hira to raake such promises to his followers with regard to the future world, and to exact such sacrifices from them in regard to the present world ? As our Lord's conduct cannot be accounted for on the suppo sition of his being an irapostor, so neither can the conduct of those who becarae his disciples. What was naturally to be ex pected, what would have certainly resulted, frora an offer of a glorious resurrection, and eternal life, made by a poor man, on condition of forsaking all and following hira, if the offer had not been accorapanied by the exhibition of the' raost satisfactory evi dence, that for raaking so strange a proposal he had Divine authority, and that he was possessed of powers to implement such exceeding great and precious promises? Amazeraent at the raan's presumption, scorn at his folly, abhorrence of his im piety, — these were the consequences naturally to have been ex pected — these were the consequences which certainly would have followed. But notwithstanding the strange course which he adopted, Jesus Christ succeeded in mafeing disciples — raany disciples. His terms of discipleship, hard as they seemed, looking merely to this world, were accepted of. Multitudes, in the face of all the plain information, given by hiraself and his priraitive followers, of the sacrifices that must be raade, and the hazards that raust be incurred, by becoming Christians, without any countervailing promise of worldly advantage — information confirmed by what they every day saw around thera — embraced his religion, and lived patiently amid conterapt and suffering ; and died joyfully amid ignominy and torture, for his cause. Can the ingenuity of infidelity find for the conduct of such raultitudes of raen, em bracing Christianity in these circumstances, any satisfactory account, except what necessarily implies in it the admission that 1 Matt. viii. 20. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED, 345 Jesus Christ was a divine raessenger, and had brought satisfac tory credentials with hira — that he was indeed a teacher sent frora God, and that he had proved this by doing such works as no raan can do except God be with hira ? Into this train of reflection I have been led by noticing the very explicit stateraents made by our Lord, in his valedictory discourse to his disciples, of the great things they raust suffer for his sake, and of the considerations adduced by hira, why they should endure thera with patience, fortitude, and hope ; state raents which, in the circumstances, could not have been made by him, but in the consciousness of having given them the most abundant evidence of his divine mission ; considerations which could have had no power or even tendency, to sustain and com fort them, except on the principle that that evidence ha(J made its appropriate impression on their rainds. One of the raany causes why, when our Saviour told his disciples he was about to leave them, sorrow filled their hearts, was, that he was about to leave them among enemies. Their attachment to him had converted many into eneraies to thera, who were forraerly friends. His friendship was to thera raore than a corapensation for the loss of all the human friendships which it had broken up ; and, with hira present with thera, they were not afraid of their enemies, however numerous or powerful. But what are they to do when he leaves thera ? how are they to bear up against a hostile world? The long paragraph which now claims our attention, is occupied with the instructions and consolations which this view of his disciples' circumstances pecu liarly required. The contents of this section raay naturally enough be arranged under the following heads : — First, Our Lord states the truth to his disciples respecting the treatment they might expect, and would certainly receive, frora the world : " The world would hate thera — it would persecute them — it would not keep their saying — it would cast them out of the synagogues — nay, the time would come, when whosoever kUled thera should think that he did God service," Secondly, He traces the world's hatred of them to its cause. It hated them because it hated him — because they were not of the world, but chosen out of the world by Christ — because it knew not, and hated. Him who sent him. On this foundation he proceeds to show that they had no reason to 346 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. be astonished — no reason to be stumbled — no reason to be ashamed — no reason to be discouraged — at the hatred and op position of the world. Such are the consolations and admoni tions given by our Lord to the disciples, in reference to the hatred and persecution which they had to expect from the world, and so closely connected are the various parts of this paragraph, which at first sight is apt to appear somewhat loose and disjointed. Let us attend to the various interesting topics which it brings before the mind, in their order, § 1, Tlie facts stated. And, first, let us consider the statement made by our Lord in reference to the hostile sentiraents which the world was to enter tain towards the disciples, and the hostile treatraent to which these sentiraents were to give origin. The world was to hate them — indeed already hated them, — the world was to persecute them, — the world was not to keep their saying, — the world was to cast thera out of the synagogues, — and whosoever killed thera, was to think that, in doing so, he did God service. We may notice the wisdora and delicacy with which our Lord intro duces a subject, so full of painful alarra, to the minds of the disciples. He does not broadly say, ' The world hates you, and will give you very decided proof of its hatred,' but " if the world hate you,"* — not so much intimating that the thing was doubt ful, which indeed it was not, as conveying the idea of its being a much less evil than they might apprehend it to be, — q, d., ' What if the world hate you, which undoubtedly it does ? What then ? you are no worse off than your Master ; it is but another proof how closely you and I are connected.' In the same way we are to understand the phrases, " If they have persecuted me " — " If they have kept my sayings," ^ The first question here is, ' Whom are we to understand by " the world ? " who are spoken of as cherishing hostile sentiments towards, and as about to manifest these in hostile treatment of, the disciples of Christ?' It is coramon to say, that by "the world " we are to understand the unbeUeving Jews, No doubt these are directly referred to ; but it would be incorrect interpre- 1 John XV, 18, 2 John xv. 20, PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 347 tatlon to say that the phrase, " the world," means the unbelieving Jews. " The world " * properly signifies this earth, and all that it contains, as a regular, beautiful system of things. In this sense, it is said that the world was made by the Word which was in the beginning, and that he is said to have been in the world which he had made. It is often used as a general narae for the rational inhabitants of the earth. When the Word came into the world, " the world" — i. e., mankind " knew him not." You have the two senses in the declaration, " God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." ^ As all mankind are naturally in a guilty, depraved, and lost condition, and as by far the greater part of mankind, at any particular tirae, in all ages, have been in this condition, it is not unfrequently used to signify those of our race who are in these circurastances, as contradistinguished frora those whora Christ has chosen out of the world — placed in a new state — forraed to a new character — raade new creatures, and placed in a new world. This is the sense in which it is very coramonly eraployed in the New Testament ; and in this sense Satan, the wicked one, is " the prince of this world," " the god of this world." The men of this world, with whom our Lord's apostles were, in the first instance, to be brought into close contact, were the unbelieving rulers and people of the Jews; but they came in contact with Gentile as well as Jewish worldly men, and were hated by the one as well as by the other. The declaration is just equivalent to — ' UnbeUeving, worldly men — raen who have been born only of the flesh — raen who raind earthly things, and love the world, and the things that are in the world — will hate you.' It includes the idea of the persons referred to forming the great majority of mankind. * The great body of men, being under the power of sin, will dislike you ; and, as power is in their hands, they wiU be at no loss to find means to raanifest their dislike. They will cherish maUgnant feelings towards you and your enterprise ; they wiU calumniate you as malefactors ; they will " speak all manner of evil against you," "casting out your names as evil;" they will " persecute you;" they wiU hunt you like wUd beasts; they wUl put you ' xUft-oi. 2 John i, 10 ; iii, 17. 348 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. beyond the pale of civiUsed society, and treat you as if deprived of the comraon rights of huraan beings.' The raeaning of the expression rendered "keep my," and " your saying," is somewhat doubtful. Sorae consider it as equivalent to, ' Watch the sayings of an individual with malig nant intent.' A cognate word is used with this sense in Mark iU. 2 ; Luke xiv. 1.* In this case, the assertion is equivalent to, ' As the Scribes and Pharisees watched my sayings, in order to have an opportunity of misrepresenting rae, so as either to awaken the jealousies of the governraent, or exasperate the resentraent of the raultitude, so will they, or men like thera, wait for your halting.' Others, with whora I ara raore disposed to agree, consider " keeping a saying" as equivalent to, attending to and practically observing a doctrine or precept — as our Lord, in the iraraediate context, speaks of men having his coraraand ments and "keeping them.'' In that case, the statement is equivalent to, ' They will not beUeve the doctrine you teach ; they will not yield obedience to the precept you promulgate. They will treat your teaching as they have treated mine — with neglect, contempt, unbelief, disobedience.' Still farther, they were to " cast thera out of the synagogues, — i. e., ' to excomraunicate thera.' In books on Jewish antiqui ties, we read of three kinds or degrees of excomraunication. The first, which lasted but a month, obliged a man to keep four ells distance even from the members of his own household ; the second forbade all intercourse in eating and drinking, and all approach, on the part of the excomraunicated person, to the synagogue ; the third was devotement to utter destruction. There can be little doubt that it is to the highest and severest of these forras that there is a reference here. The excommunicated person, stripped of all the imraunities of an Israelite, with fearful execrations pronounced on hira, was excluded frora the enjoy ment of ecclesiastical privileges, and, to a considerable extent, of civil rights — treated as a heathen raan and a publican — " an alien frora the commonwealth of Israel, and a stranger to the covenant of promise." The following are some of the curses denounced on those visited with this severest forra of excomraunication : " By the ' ''Hxrvfuy. 2 John xvi. 2. »2 '5 PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 349 authority of the Lord of lords, let this person be an anathema ; let plagues great and real, diseases great and horrible, be upon him ; let him be an object of wrath, indignation, and anger ; let his corpse be given to wild beasts and serpents ! May the rebuke of Jehovah slay him ; may he be strangled, like Ahito- phel, by his own counsel ; raay his leprosy be like that of Gehazi ; and let him be swallowed up like Korah and his company I" * It was but a foUowing up of these execrations, when they accounted it an acceptable piece of service to God, to put the person thus excoraraunicated and accursed to death : " The tirae cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God ser vice." ^ These words intimate, that the putting the followers of Christ to death was to become a common thing, and that they who did so should think not only that they did no harm, but that they actually perforraed a raeritorious deed — not only an act of justice to society, but an act of acceptable worship to God. ^ Such was the testimony of our Lord respecting the hatred of the world, which his followers might count on, and of some of the forras in which that hatred would be raanifested. And the faithful Witness did not lie. Every person who is raoderately acquainted with the history of primitive Christianity — every one who has even read with attention the Acts of the Apostles, and the apostolical Epistles, knows that, in many instances, these predictions were fulfilled to the letter. The apostles and primi tive disciples were called on to encounter the hatred and opposi tion of " the world," of the great body of mankind with whom they came into contact, whether Jews or Gentiles. Many of them " had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment : they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword : they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented : they wandered in deserts, and in raountains, and in dens and caves of the . earth." ^ Multitudes of the primitive Christians were put to death. Of those whora our Lord was now addressing, there is reason to suppose that John was the 1 Buxtorfii Lex. Chald. Rabb. coll. 2463-2470. 2 John xvi. 2. 3 " Omnis effundens sanguinem improborum eequalis est illi qui sacrificium ofFert. Bammidbar R. xxi. ad Num. xxv. 13 Thanchuma." Nee satis sestimari potest, quantum Bomanis debeat, qui sustulerunt monstra, in quibus hominem occidere religiosissimum erat." Plin. H. N. xxx. 4., ap. Wetstein. ' Heb. xi. 36-38. 350 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. only one who did not die a violent death " for the name's sake " of their Master ; and even in John's case, nothing was wanting to martyrdora but the act of slaughter. And their eneraies who slew them thought that, in doing so, they offered to God an ac ceptable sacrifice. Their Jewish adversaries were aniraated by a zeal of God, though not according to knowledge. The predic tion of Isaiah was accomplished : — " Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word ; your brethren that hated you, and cast you out, said, Let the Lord be glorified,"* Paul was by no means singular when " he verily thought with himself that he ought to do raany things against the narae of Jesus of Nazareth," The forty Jews who banded theraselves in a league, and confirraed it with a religious vow, to assassinate him, acted on the same principle. Indeed, it is a Talmudical maxim, that he who sheds the blood of the ungodly is equal to him who brings an offering to God, The gentile murderers of the priraitive Christians represented the taking their Uves as an important re ligious duty — an acceptable sacrifice to their gods, " If," to use the language of one of the earliest apologists for Christianity, " the Tiber overflowed the city, or the Nile did not overflow the fields ; if the earth shook, or the heavens became immoveable ; if famine or disease depopulated the land, the enormity of Chris tianity was the cause, and of course the blood of Christians must flow as the expiatory victims," The prediction respecting the general rejection of their testi mony was as exactly fulfilled as that in regard to their personal sufferings. The world did not keep their sayings. The great body, both of the Jews and the Gentiles, treated their ministry in the sarae way as they had done their Lord's. No doubt, after the effusion of the Spirit, multitudes, both of Jews and Gentiles, believed ; but how few were the believers in comparison of the unbelievers ! The most successful preachers of the Gospel had reason, as well as their Master, to take up the prophet's cora- plaint : — " Who hath believed our report ? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" " The heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and should be converted I Isa. Ixvi. 5. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 351 and healed." The preaching of the cross was " to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." * " The elec tion," indeed " obtained," but " the rest," the great majority, " were blinded " — " The god of this world blinding their eyes, so that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, the iraage of God, could not shine unto them,"^ While the words have, doubtless, a primary and principal reference to the apostles and primitive Christians, and were in a very reraarkable manner fulfilled in their experience, there can be no doubt that, in substance, they are applicable to the faith ful teachers of Christianity, to the genuine followers of Christ, in all countries and in all ages. The world hates them — it does not receive their sayings — it persecutes them, though the form of persecution varies with the circurastances of tiraes and places. It is a raistake to suppose that the opposition to Christianity, in its priraitive age, is entirely, or principally, to be traced to local and temporary causes. The true cause is the essential opposi tion of the spirit of the world, which is the spirit of the devil, to the spirit of Christianity, which is the spirit of God. The apostles and priraitive Christians were persecuted with peculiar keenness and cruelty, because the spirit of Christianity was strongly expressed, fully brought out, in their character, and conduct, and teaching, — in opposition to the spirit of the world, strongly expressed in degenerated Judaism, and in Pagan phUosophy and superstition, and in the characters of raen forraed under their influence. And though, in countries and ages like our own, the progress of civilisation, and the indirect influence of Christianity on civil laws and institutions, forbid the spoUing the goods, and torturing, and raangling, and burning the bodies of Christians, the malignant spirit of the world does not want means of proving both its existence and its power. The wild beast is not tamed — it is only confined. A consistently christian man is, and must be, the object of dislike to men who love what he hates — who hate what he loves — who endeavour to destroy what he builds — to buUd what he destroys. Christians raust stUl, if they would walk worthy of their high vocation, lay their account with " the world's dread laugh," its withering frown, its busy opposi tion, its bitter scorn, its keen reproach. StiU " all who wiU " — 'Isa. vi. 9, 10; liii. 1. 1 Cor. i. 23. 2 Rom. xi. 7. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 352 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. who are determined to " live godly" — christianly — may expect in sorae form to suffer persecution ; and to every Christian " it is given, on Christ's behalf, not only to believe in him, but to suf fer for his sake." It has been very justly said,* " A life of vital, serious, evan gelical religion — the only religion that is worth the name — can scarcely " — I would say, cannot at all — " be steadily pursued in a world like this, without being somewhere met by such an hostiUty as shall require painful sacrifices, and inflict severe suf fering, ' Cain was of the wicked one, and slew his brother — and wherefore slew he him ? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's works were righteous,' ' He that is upright in his ways,' says Solomon, ' is an abomination to the wicked,' ' They,' — i. e., the same persons whom our Lord terms ' the world,' — ' they hate him,' says the prophet Amos, ' that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him who speaketh uprightly.' " ^ The cause of the hatred which the world entertains against those who are not of it, is deeply rooted in the universal principles of human nature, — in the unchangeable relations and oppositions of things ; and however it raay seem to slumber, it never dies, " In proportion to the degeneracy of society at large, and to the faithfulness and holiness of Christians in the midst of that society, will the hatred of the world to Christianity be mani fested, in all countries and ages," In what a striking light does the subject we have been con sidering place the depravity of human nature ! Men, unchanged by divine influence, hate Christians, and hate thera because they are Christians, God loves them, and loves them for the very rea son that raen hate thera. He has " set them apart for himself "¦ — they are His peculiar people — He "looks to" them — He "dwells with" thera, Christ loves them, and blesses them with aU hea venly and spiritual blessings. The Holy Ghost loves thera, and takes up his perraanent abode in them. Angels love them, and gladly act the part of ministering spirits to them as heirs of sal vation. But raen, unchanged men, do not love them — they hate them. It has been said, " If virtue Were to become incarnate, all raankind would fall down and worship her," The author of this adraired stateraent neither knew huraan nature, nor virtue, 1 Brown Patterson. ^ 1 John iii. 12. Prov. xxix. 27. Amos v. 10. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 353 well. Virtue did becorae incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ ; and was he universally worshipped ? " He was despised and rejected of men ;" and instead of raising him to the throne, they nailed him to the cross. And his foUowers, who have been likest him, have been " made as the filth of the world, and the off- scouring of all things." And, dark as the depravity of men appears in their hatred of Christianity and Christians, it appears stUl darker when, with our Lord, we trace it to its cause. They hate it and them, because they hate hira ; and they hate hira, because they hate his Father. If this be human nature — and that it is. Scripture, experience, and observation unite in pro claiming—need we wonder at our Lord's saying, " Ye must be born again" ? " Verily, verily I say unto you, except a raan be born again, he cannot see," he cannot enter into, " the kingdom of God." ^ How cautious should Christians be in their intercourse with the world ! Christians should have no unnecessary intercourse with the world. They should come out frora the world, and be separate ; as a people, they should dwell alone. All unnecessary intercourse is hazardous — hazardous in two ways. " Evil com munications corrupt good manners;" and the more closely we come to worldly men, the greater opportunity have they of show ing with effect their dislike of us and of our religion. But while we are in the world, we raust, we ought to have, intercourse with the raen of the world. It is cowardly to go out of the world — we have a testimony to bear for Christ, which can be given only in the world. One of our great duties in this world is to endea vour to win the raen of the world to the cause of Christ ; and there is no doing this without having intercourse with thera. But let us take care that all our intercourse with them be of such a kind as is fitted, not to hinder, but to further this great object. Let us " see that we walk circumspectly with regard to those that are without." Let us do nothing fitted to exasperate their dislike of Christianity and Christians, which duty does not abso lutely require. Let us beware lest, by our moroseness, little- raindedness, bigotry, imprudence, and unnecessary scnipulosity, we increase their prejudices against both ; but let us take care, on the other hand, in our attempts to conciliate them, and to dirainish ' John iii. 3, 6, 7. VOL. III. 354 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII, their prejudices, that we make no sacrifice, either of christian truth or christian duty. It is extrerae folly in a Christian to seek his bosom-friends among the men of the world — men who cannot love him as a Christian, who, if they love him at all, must love him, not for, but notwithstanding, his Christianity — men who cannot estimate his real worth, who cannot sympathise with his strongest convictions and deepest feelings. If he do so, he wiU not live long, if he do not Uve to repent it, I conclude with two or three sententious remarks of that wise and good raan John Newton, " When a Christian goes into the world, because he sees it is his call, while he feels also that it is his cross, he is in little danger," " A Christian in the world is like a raan who has had a long intiraacy with one whom he finds at last to have been the murderer of his father ; the intimacy after this will surely be broken," " A Christian in the world is like a man trans acting business in the rain. He will not suddenly leave his cUent because it rains, but the moment the business is done he is gone ; as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, ' Being let go, they went to their own company,'" § 2, The facts accounted for. We proceed now to consider the account which our Lord gives of the causes of this unraerited hatred and opposition of the world to his disciples. The account is given in the following terms : " The world hated me before it hated you," or as the words may be rendered, " The world hated rae, your chief," " If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. All these things will they do to you for my name's sake. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. They have hated both me and my Father, and these things will they do unto you, because they have not known my Father nor rae," * This is our Lord's account of the origin of the world's hatred and persecution of his disciples, " They hated hira, they persecuted hira, they received not his saying," and the proximate reason of this was to be found in the difference and opposition of his character, and aims, and plans, ' John XV. 18, 19, 21, 23, 24 ; xvi. 3. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 355 and operations, from theirs. Now he was " the chief," " the leader," "the Master," of his disciples. Whatever was peculiar in their character and aims, grew out of their relation to hira. They were once a portion of the world, and were then regarded with no hostile disposition by the rest of it ; but they had been chosen, selected, called, out of the world — chosen, selected, called, out of it by him ; they had thus ceased to be " of the world" — they no longer " walked in its course ; " they had obtained a new rule for their opinions and conduct, even his wiU as made known to them — they had become identified in sentiment, feeling, and object, with him who was the great object of the world's dislike ; and "therefore the world hated thera," There was a tirae that the world had no quarrel with them. They were a part of itself, and even now its quarrel with them was not as raen but as Christians, It was not for their own sake, but for his name's sake, that they hated thera. They hated him, and they hated them, because they were his. As the world's hatred of them is to be traced to its hatred of him, so its hatred of him is to be traced to its hatred of his Father — of whom he was " the express image " — whom he " de clared " — revealed, manifested — not only in his doctrine, but in his person and work ; and the hatred of the world, both of him and of his Father, is to be traced to its ignorance of both. Let us shortly take up in succession the various clauses of this account of the cause of the world's hostiUty to the disciples of Christ, an account reflecting no discredit either on him or on them, but placing in a very striking and humbling light, the spiritual state of unchanged raan : the world, without God, with out Christ — haters of God, enemies of Christ — alienated, through the ignorance that is in them, from the life and the love of God and his Son — and hating and persecuting such of their feUow- men as bear their iraage, just because they b^r that iraage. The world " hated " our Lord, " persecuted " him, " did not receive his saying." " The world," says he, " hated me before it hated you." The sentiment contained in these words is a true one. The world — i. e., unbelieving, ungodly raen — hated our Lord before it hated his disciples. It hated him before he had any disciples. It hated him as soon as he carae into contact — and, what in his case was the same thing, coUision — with it. But though the sentiment be a true one, there is an apparent 356 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII, want of appropriateness and force in it. The fact of the mere priority of the world's hatred of hira to its hatred of them, seeras to have no direct bearing on our Lord's object, which is to account for the world's hatred of thera, and to raake them cease to wonder at it. Sorae interpreters who have seen this, have proposed to render the words, " The world hated rae more than it has hated you," That is a truth, and has a more direct bear ing on our Lord's object ; but I do not think that this sense can be brought out of the words, fairly interpreted. There is another mode of interpretation which the words certainly admit, if they do not require, and which brings out exactly the meaning which the connection seems to demand, " Ye know that it has hated me, your chief," The word which occurs here, when used in the plural, is eraployed to denote "the chief raen of Galilee,"* It is the word which is used when it is said, " Whosoever will be chief among you ;"^ and it is used for " the chief man,"^ in the island of Malta, It seeras also to occur in this sense in a passage somewhat obscure in our version, " This is he of whom I spake, he that cometh after me Is preferred before rae, for he was before me,"* " He that was coming after me has got before rae, for he was ray chief," ^ To understand the word thus in the passage before us, gives syrametry and union to the whole passage, ' If the world hate you, ye know' — or 'know ye' — ' that it has hated me, your chief.' How naturally does this introduce what foUows : — ' " Remember the word that I said unto you. The ser vant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you ; if they have kept ray saying," which you well know they have not, then may you expect that " they will keep yours also,"^ not otherwise.' The force of the argument is this, not that the world hated him before it hated ' Mark vi. 21. « Matt. xx. 27. ' Acts xxviii. 7. * John i. 16. '"Quum se t^Ztm vocat, tam ad tempus" (quasi itjotsjiw) " quam ad dignitatem referri hoc potest : prior expositio magis recepta est, verum secunda mihi magis probatur, cap. i. 27, 30." — Calvin. There is an elaborate defence of this interpreta tion in Lardner's " Credibility of the Gospel History," part i., book ii. ; Works, vol. i., pp. 167, 168— 4to, Loud. 1816. Campbell supposes Lardner to have been the first who gave this interpretation. Not only, however, is it hinted at, as he says, by Beza, while he prefers the ordinary exegesis — {TfSm ifi,Sy—priusquam vos, vel me qui primus sum vestrum: sed meo quidem judicio praestat accipere 3-{5to» adverbialiter) — but his master, we see, distinctly gives the preference to this other interpretation. Came- rarius hesitates between the two. ' John XV. 20. PART XXI.l THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 357 them ; but this, ' the world has hated me, your Master — your Chief — your Teacher — your Lord — and therefore they will hate you, the disciples, holding ray obnoxious views —you the servants, doing my obnoxious work.' Having thus ascertained the meaning of the only words that are at all doubtful in our Lord's statement of the cause of the world's hatred to his disciples, let us attend to the facts stated in these words, " They hated me, they persecuted rae, they did not keep my sayings.'' An ancient prophet had described the Mes siah as " Him whom raan despiseth — hira whora the nation abhorreth," — as " despised and rejected of men" — as one from whom raen " should hide their faces," — as if unworthy even of being looked on, as " all day long spreading out his hands to a rebellious people." ' Assuredly these predictions were accom plished to the letter in Jesus of Nazareth. He did not want those raarks of the Messiah. When he came into the world, the place of his birth and his parentage, connected him with the Jewish people, who were just a specimen, probably rather a favourable specimen, of mankind at that period of the world's history. " He came to his own land, and his own people received hira not." ' Instead of receiving him, they rejected him with contumely and cruelty. We cannot doubt that even during the thirty years of his retirement in Nazareth, he excited dislike in the minds of worldly ungodly raen, with whora he was brought into connection ; but the hatred of the world became peculiarly bitter, and was very distinctly manifested after " his showing to Israel," after his ap pearing as a teacher sent from God, vlndicatiug his claims by doing works which no man could have done had not God been with hira. He became an object of suspicion and jealousy, and abhorrence, to the Jewish rulers ; and, working on the prejudices of the great body of the people, they succeeded but too easily in making them the wlUIng instruments of executing their deep- laid sanguinary designs against him. How bitter the malignity raanifested in the caluranious iraputations cast upon him ! Every name fltted to excite contempt and detestation was given hira, " a glutton and wine biber, a friend of publicans and sinners, a sower of sedition, and disturber of the public peace, a blasphemer, I Isa, xlix, 7 ; liii, 3 ; Ixv, 2. 2 John i, 11, 358 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII, and one in compact with evil spirits, a demoniac, and a mad- raan," 1 And their hatred raanifested itself in actions, as well as in words. How did the insidious rulers again and again lay plots, and how did the infuriated rabble again and again take up stones, to put him to death ! How did his fellow-citizens of Nazareth hurry him to the brink of a precipice for the purpose of hurling him headlong ; and the inhabitants of Gadara beseech him to leave their coasts ! And the world in the persons of the Jews were just about, ere another sun set, to give still more palp able proofs of their hating hira, by stiU more cruelly persecuting him. Verily, they proved that they hated him, when they per secuted him by coraing out against hira as against a thief with swords and staves; when, in order to secure his ignorainious cruel death, they dragged hira frora Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to PUate, staunch murderers as they were, steady to their purpose ; when the rulers with unshrinking maUgnant determi nation, and the populace maddened with malignity, in sanguin ary shouts forced the unwilling Roman judge to sentence him to the cross, the most shameful and painful of all modes of putting criminals to death ; when, by the hands of the Roraan soldiers, they nailed him to the accursed tree, and by their blaspheraous taunts, sought to erabitter the agonies of crucifixion. Truly the world hated and persecuted him. And as it hated and persecuted hira, so it kept not his sayings;'' i. e., it rejected them, it treated thera with conteraptuous disbe- Uef, and determined disobedience. Though " he spake as never man spake," and " though he did such rairacles," so many, so great, before them, " they believed not on hira," When he spoke of the necessity of regeneration, they said, " How can these things be ? " When he unfolded a righteousness, far above the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, they said, "These are hard sayings, who can hear them?" When he said, " I am the light of the world," they said, " Thy record is not true." When in proof of it he cast out devils, they said, " He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devUs." When he offered them true freedom, they told hira they never were slaves ; and when he ' Matt. xi. 19 ; ix. 34. ' Gataker interprets n^iu here as equivalent to rxfXT^fiay, in the signification of watching malignantly; but the ordinary exegesis is the more natural one. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED, 359 proved their enslavement, they called him a Samaritan, and said he had a devil,* This was the manner in which they treated his sayings. Thus did the world hate and persecute Jesus — thus did they reject with contumely and disbelief his doctrines. But it may be said, this was not the world, this was but the Jews ; a very perverse, stiff-necked race. We are not about to become the apologists of the Jews, but we do insist that they were a fair, rather a favourable, specimen of the race at that period of the world. The great frmdamental principles of the priraeval religion and moraUty were known in Judea, to a much greater extent than in any other region of the world, and not only known, but their authority recognised. Whatever real religion and true morality were in the world at that time, were to be found among the Jews and proselytes. Do you think Jesus would have been better treated by the Pagan philosophers than by the Jewish chief priests, or by the Pagan populace than by the Jewish people — the former being as raad on their infam ous idols as the latter were intoxicated with their dream of a temporal Messiah? Do you think that he would have fared better at Athens, or at Rome, than at Jerusalera ? The hatred, and persecution, and rejection of Jesus Christ, were by no raeans matters dependent on geography or chronology. The Jews acted on principles common to depraved man in every country and age. Let such an incarnation of Deity appear among men in any country and age, if the dominant principles of fallen humanity are permitted fully to develop theraselves, the sarae general result would be produced, with, no doubt, an endless diversity in the details. Would the majority, think you, in any country on the earth, even the most highly christianised, give a kind and respectful reception to Jesus Christ, appearing among them, in a form as little accordant with their preconceived ideas as that in which he appeared was to those of the Jews ? Would he not be hated — would he not be persecuted — would they keep his sayings? Were he appearing just now in Petersburgh, or in Vienna, or in Rome, or in Paris, or in London, or even in Edinburgh, do you think he would not be hated ? Do you think his sayings would be received by the great majority? The question is easily answered — Do they love him as it is ? — do they 1 John viii. 12, 13, 33, 48. 360 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII. keep his sayings ? It were well that each of us were asking him self, how would I receive him, how would I treat his sayings ? We would not receive him more kindly in his person than in his word. We would not receive sayings frora hira in his per son, which we reject in his Gospel. The world — i. e., mankind unchanged by divine influence — have no injustice done them when the Jews are taken as a fair sample of them. We cannot doubt, then, that the world represented by the Jews, hated Jesus, persecuted hira, did not keep his sayings ; but it is very natural to ask. Why did they thus hate hira and persecute hira ? why did they not keep his sayings ? what evil had he done ? were not his sayings true and good ? was not his conduct harmless and beneficent ? The most satisfactory answer to these questions is to be found in the account of this matter by our Lord hiraself, and his apostles — an account which surely none of us will call in question — an account, the justness of , which, if called in question, it were easy to maintain against all the cavils of sinful men : " The world," said our Lord to his brethren, who did not then believe on him — " The world cannot hate you ; but rae it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil." The " light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For every one that doeth evil, hateth the Ught, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." " Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." " Ye judge after the fiesh." " Ye are from beneath ; I am frora above : ye are ot this world ; I am not of this world." " Ye do not understand ray speech, because ye cannot hear ray word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye wUl do," " Be cause I tell you the truth, ye believe rae not," " Ye hear not God's words, because ye are not of God, How can ye believe, who receive honour one from another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?"* Such is our Lord's account of the cause of men's hatred of him, and their rejection of his doc trines. And the stateraents of his apostles are quite in harmony with their Master's. " The carnal raind is enraity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." " The natural raan receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : 1 John vii. 7 ; iii. 10, 20 ; v. 40, 44 ; viii. 16, 23, 43-45. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 361 for they are foolishness unto hira ; neither can he know thera, because they are spiritually discerned." * These declarations are based on principles deeply laid in human nature, and manifesting themselves in all countries and ages. Likeness is the raother of love ; unlikeness of dislike. There was no congeniality in the character and alras of Jesus Christ, and those of his unbelieving brethren. They were supreraely occupied with things seen and temporal ; he with things unseen and eternal, God was not in all their thoughts ; with him God was all in all. They were infiuenced and modelled by the powers of the present world ; he by the powers of the world to come. Though he had been merely a private indi vidual, they could not have cordially loved hira. There is deep truth in the sentiment expressed by a living writer ^ — " The ungodly man cannot rend hiraself loose from his connection with God, nor even from all inward sense of this connection ; and, when he sees before him a human being exhibiting that kind of connection with God, which he cannot but feel he is capable of — ought to raanifest — is intended for, — he is affected with painful feelings of inferiority and self-condemnation, and he dislikes that which i* the cause or occasion of them," But there was soraething beyond this in the case of Jesus, He was a teacher of truth and duty. He carae proclaiming the absolute necessity of repentance — a change of mind in reference to God, and a corresponding transformation of conduct, — and denouncing the raost tremendous evils on such as remained in irapeni- tence. The hatred of the Jews towards our Lord — so gentle, amiable, benevolent, beneficent — cannot be accounted for but on these grounds — the punitive, humiliating, embittering influence of the manifestation of the Holy One araong those who felt they should be holy, but felt as strongly they were indisposed to be so ; and the rising up of the heart against one — an obscure poor man — authoritatively proclairaing unwelcome truth, and en joining disliked duty under the most awful sanctions. Such was the hatred, and persecution, and rejection which Jesus had met with from " the world," his unbelieving countrymen. Now he was " the Chief," the Master, the Teacher, the Lord, of those whom he had stated the world would hate, and perse- ' Rom. viii. 7. 1 Cor. ii. U, 2 Xholuck. 362 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII. cute, and reject. They were his disciples — they were his ser vants. They had imbibed his views ; they had been, to a certain degree, conformed to his character ; they had been committed to his cause ; they were to be employed in working out his plans. They were originally " of the world," They " minded earthly things," like the great body of their countryraen — and then their countrymen had no quarrel with thera ; nor would they now, had they continued to be " of the world," with substantially the sarae opinions, and tastes, and pursuits as their neighbours. But they had been transformed by a renewing of their rainds. Jesus had chosen, selected, called them out of the world. They had been led to believe his divine mission, and his divine mes sage too, so far as they understood it ; and the consequence was, they were no longer " of the world," Being in Christ, they were new creatures in a new world. They had, in believing in him, got a different character from the rest of their countrymen. They no longer walked according to the course of this world ; they followed Jesus, Their creed was no longer the national creed ; they believed whatever he said. In religion they no longer followed the multitude ; they did whatever he comraanded them. They had found out that each of tham had a conscience ; they could no longer be guided by the public conscience ; they raust be guided each by his own conscience ; and that conscience must be guided by hira whom they recognised as the sent and sealed of God, They no longer sought, as their great object, what they should eat, what they should drink, wherewithal they should be clothed. They sought the kingdom, " setting their affections on things above, and not on things on the earth," Moreover, they forraed a separate society. Though raingling, in the ordinary offices of life, with their feUow-raen, their inti mate association was with their Chief, and with one another. " They were not of the world, even as " — not in the same degree, but in the same way — " he was not of the world ;" and therefore it was that the world hated, and persecuted, and rejected them. For in them, it hated, and persecuted, and rejected him. The reraark formerly made respecting the cause of the world's hatred of our Lord, is true, too, in reference to his disciples. They authoritatively taught the unpalatable truth, and enjoined the disagreeable duty, under the highest sanctions. They did not sit down satisfied that they themselves had the truth, and PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED, 363 were performing their duty. They did not let the world alone. They gave no countenance to the idea, that there were various right roads — different ways of being saved. They cried aloud, " He that believeth shall be saved ; he that believeth not shall be damned." * This unqualified requisition of entire submission of mind, and heart, and conduct, to the doctrine and law of Christ, is that which makes " the witnesses " tormentors of thera who dwell on the earth, and which raakes these " dwellers on the earth" — "the world" — hate them and persecute them, Israel of old was hated of all nations, for Jehovah's sake. They were counted an unsocial people, actuated by a hatred of the huraan race,^ in refusing to mingle with thera. They would not worship their gods, nor follow their custoras. And so it is with the spiritual Israel, Men spurn at the idea, that they should claim to be God's peculiar people ; and that peculiarity of char acter and aira, that raakes it impossible for thera to syrapathise with many of the pleasures, or take an interest in many of the enterprises, of an ungodly world, produces bitter hatred, rooted enraity. Thus aU the things which an ungodly world, whether Jewish or Pagan, did to them, were done to thera for his name's sake — because they belonged to Christ — professed his narae — bore his image — taught his doctrines — followed his standard — promoted his cause. The words under consideration have a direct and primary refer ence to the apostles, and priraitive followers of our Lord ; but they contain the true account of the dislike which unregenerate raen in all ages have to genuine Christians — a dislike proportioned to the degree in which Christians are — what they should be — living images of their Chief, They were once of the world, and then the world had no quarrel with them ; but, by the grace of Christ, they have been chosen out of the world, and formed to a new character — led to abandon their old associations, and to join themselves to the disciples, having becorae subjects of the king dom which is not of this world. No longer conforraed to the world, but " transforraed by the renewing of their rainds," they " raind the things which are above ;" they become " pilgrims and sojourners " in their temper, — " they declare plainly they ' Mark xvi, 16. 2 « Odium generis humani." 364 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. are seeking a country;"* and they cannot help saying, ' " Come with us, and we will do you good," If you remain in the world, you must perish with the world,' And thus " condemning " the world, they are hated by the world. And, while Christianity and the world — Christ and Belial — God and Satan — continue what they are, it cannot be otherwise. Not but that worldly men, as individuals, may love true Christians — though, even then, they love thera not for their Christianity, but notwithstand ing it ; and not but that christian men, by their follies and faults, may often provoke a dislike, which they have no right to say is hatred for Christ's name's sake. It were hazardous logic, — ' My religious views are generally rejected, therefore they are christian truth. My conduct is very generally condemned, therefore it is certainly right. Men generally dislike rae, there fore God loves rae.' It may not be christian truth and duty that bring discredit on me, but my rashness and folly that bring discredit on christian truth and duty, as well as suffering on myself. Yet still the fact is undoubted, and the reasons for it are palpable, that the worid of unregenerate men do not love — must dislike — true Christians ; and, when circurastances permit, this dislike will take the forra of persecution ; and the true reason why they dislike Christianity and Christians is, they dislike Christ. As our Lord traces the hatred of his disciples by the world, to the world's hatred of him, so he traces their hatred of him to their hatred of his Father, " He that hateth me, hateth Hira that sent me. They have hated both rae and my Father," Jesus Christ was the great revealer of God, Having been from eternity in the bosora of the Father, when he became flesh and dwelt araong men, he revealed Him, He was the express iraage of His person. In him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He that saw hira, saw the Father,^ And he who, after having seen hira, hated hira, showed that he really hated Him of whom he was the only adequate representation, of whora all things else are but as a shadow. His doctrine was the truth of God — the mind of God ; his life was the revealed holiness and benignity, wisdom, and power of God ; his laws were nothing else than the holy, just, and good will of God ; and dislike to hiin plainly could originate in nothing but dislike of God, It is a fearful truth, ' Rom, xii, 2, Col, iii, 2. Heb. xi. 13, 14. 2 John i. 18. Heb. i. 3. Col. ii. 9. John xiv. 9. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 365 but it is an indubitable one, that raen in their unregenerate state, while they belong to the world, are " haters of God ;" " the carnal mind," — the mind of the flesh, — "is enraity against God:"* and that it is this hatred of God which makes them reject Christ and dislike Christians, This may seera to raany a hard saying, but it is a true one. It has been well reraarked, that " the Jews professed to honour and love the Father, and many of them we need not doubt, did really cherish such feelings towards an alraighty and eternal Being whom they conceived of as the Father and the King of Israel, pledged by covenant to save thera, and exalt thera as the seed of Abraham, his friend, and that irrespective of all other circumstances, or at least in full consistency with their rejection of the claims of Jesus, as the Father's only Son and anointed Messenger, But in loving such a being they were not loving God. No such being existed in the real universe, or except in their own imaginations ; and so there are innumerable cases still, in which raen, moved by the im pulses of a mere poetical or sentimental piety towards a Being, whora they picture to themselves as indulgent to their frailties, and pledged by his own benevolence to their salvation, adore and love this fiction of fancy, this creature of a dream, and think they are adoring and loving God,"^ Ay, and find in the char acteristics of this idol of the raind, reasons why they should reject Christ and dislike Christians, There is no God in the universe, but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and he is the image of the invisible God ; and if men hate him, it raust be because they dislike Hira of whom he is the representative and the revealer. Thus has our Lord in accounting for the world's hatred of his disciples, traced its hatred of them to its hatred of him, and its hatred of him to its hatred of Him who sent hira, — the Father. But he carries raatters higher still. He traces its hatred of hira and of his Father, to its ignorance of both. " These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor rae." This statement completes our Lord's account of the cause of the world's hatred of his disciples. They who hated, perse cuted, and rejected Christ, and were to hate, persecute, and reject his followers, did not know him. They did not know and ' Rom. viii. 7. - Brown Patterson. 366 THE VALEDICTORT DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII, believe the truth respecting his person, character, and mission. That they had occasional glimpses as it were of who and what he •was — secret misgivings — fears that, in fighting against him and his followers, they might be found at last to have been fighting against God, — there is good reason to believe ; but that the per secutors of our Lord and of his priraitive disciples, really knew his true character, and prosecuted what they knew to be opposition to the cause of the Son and Messenger of God, we have no reason to believe. The nature of the case, and the plain declarations of Scripture, equaUy forbid us to believe this, " Father, forgive thera," (said our Lord in reference to those who had brought him to the cross), " Father, forgive thera, for they know not what they do," The apostle Peter, after saying, " ye kiUed the Prince of life," adds, " And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers," " None of the princes of this world" (obviously none of the rulers of the Jews), says the apostle Paul, "knew the wisdora of God in a mystery," — the mystery of the Father and of Christ, — " for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory,"* A true knowledge of Christ is necessarily accorapanied with love to him and to all his people. None who know hira, can hate hira or persecute them. Still farther, they who hated, persecuted, and rejected Christ and his people, did not know the Father, They did not know and believe the truth respecting the Divine character, as holy love — benignant righteousness — ^infinite power, regulated by in finite wisdora and justice, and infiuenced by infinite kindness. If they had, they would have loved and feared Him. Whatever views they had of God, were partial and incorrect, extenuated or exaggerated. Stern relentless severity, or unprincipled good nature, are the leading features in the idols men set up in their hearts in the room of God, Had the persecutors of Christ and Christians really known God, they would have regarded Him with love and reverence ; they would have recognised the glory of God, in fiiU-orbed revelation, in the person, and doctrine, and law, and work, of Jesus Christ — and, in dimraer reflection, in the character and conduct of his true followers ; and they would have loved him up to their highest capacity of affectionate re- ' Luke xxiii. 34. Acts iii. 17. 1 Cor. ii. 8. PART XXI,J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 367 gard ; and they would have loved them with a pure heart fer vently, in proportion to their resemblance to him. Hatred, per secution, rejection of either, would have been a moral impossi bility. In this way the hatred of Christ and of God, which are in Scripture ascribed to unchanged raen, cease to be, what at first sight they seera to be, unnatural states of raind — physical monstrosities ; but they do not cease to be most immoral, criminal states of mind. It is wilful ignorance : they know not, for they do not wish to know. They do " not like to retain God in their knowledge," There are manifestations of God — there is a faculty for apprehending these manifestations ; but there is an indispo sition to use, a deterraination not to use, the faculty for its proper purpose. There is an object — there is light — there are eyes ; but raen obstinately keep their eyes shut, and abide in darkness. This subject, so iraportant, so UI understood, will corae before us again ere we finish our illustrations of this paragraph. There are two reflections which so naturally rise out of what has been said, that I think it likely many of you have anticipated me in them ; and that the thoughts I am about to announce are already in your minds. How dreadful a thing is hatred and persecution of true Christians, whatever form it may wear ! It is hatred and persecution of Christ. It is hatred of, and opposition to, God. It is the raanifestation of a temper which, if the Son of God should return to earth, would secure his re-crucifixion — which, if the power of those who cherish it were equal to their will, would lead to the overturn of the throne — to the extinction of the existence — of God, He who maltreats the children, proves that he hates the Father, And what must be the character of that principle out of which this horrible thing proceeds — ignor ance of God and of his Son ? God is the source of all that is good — all that is holy — all that is happy. To intelligent beings He is so, as the result of being known by thera. It is only as known, that He can be loved, or feared, or trusted in, or obeyed, or submitted to, or enjoyed. He cannot be known but in Christ Jesus, No man has seen Hira — no man can see Him, The Only-begotten, who is in his bosom, has revealed Him,* If we are ignorant of Christ, we must be ignorant of God, Ignorance makes love an impossibUity, Ignorance about God is always I John i. 18. 368 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII, connected with misconception about God ; for man, except, per haps, in the very lowest stages of savagism, must have some notion of God ; and wrong notions of God will lead to hatred of Him, and hatred of Him to hatred of all that is like Him, Such is the true cause of persecution in all its forms ; and what is its radical, effectual cure ? Bringing the persecutors to the knowledge of God in Christ, reconcUing the world to him self. Wherever the Gospel comes in its purity to a nation, in the degree in which it prevails, persecution disappears. When ever the Gospel comes with power into the heart of an individual, hatred of Christ and Christians gives way to love. We love him, for he is so kind, and so lovely ; and we love them, for they are identified with him. He loves them ; they love him ; how can we but love thera ? " They shall not hurt nor destroy in all ray holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of the know ledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."* Meantime, while they who are not of the world, though in it, find that this world, and this world's laws, are not their friends, let thera not be discouraged, but fight their way onward and upward, singing as they go : — " We are a family on earth, Whose Father fills a throne ; But though a seed of heavenly birth, To men we're little known. " Whene'er we meet the public eye, We feel the public scorn ; For men our fairest claims deny. And count us basely born. " But 'tis the King who reigns above. That claims us for his own ; The favour'd objects of his love, And destin'd to a throne. " The honours which belong to us. By men are set at nought ; Whatever shines not, they contemn Unworthy of a thought. " Were honour evident to sense, Our portion here below, The world would do us reverence, And all our claims allow. ' Isa. xi. 9. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. - 369 " But when the King himself was here, His claims were set at nought — Would we another lot prefer ? Rejected be the thought. " No ! we will tread, while here below, The path our Master trod : Content all honour to forego. But that which comes from God. " And when the King himself appears. He'll vindicate his claim ; Eternal honour shall be ours. Our foes be filled with shame." ' " Halleluiah ! We are on our way to God." § 3. Reasons why the disciples should not be troubled by the hatred and persecution of the world, felt or feared. Let us now consider the manner in which our Lord prepares his disciples for, and fortifies thera against, that raalignant oppo sition from the world, the certainty of which he had so clearly declared, and the grounds of which he had so plainly unfolded. He shows thera, first, that there was no reason why they should be astonished at the malignant opposition of the world. They and the world were distinguished from each other by different and opposite principles, dispositions, aims, and pursuits. This distinction did not originally exist. It arose out of the being chosen by him out of the world. He, their Teacher and Master, from connection with whom all that peculiarity in their charac ter, and conduct, which was obnoxious to the world proceeded — HE had been hated and persecuted by the world, and the world's hatred and persecution of him, and of them too, had been the subject of ancient prediction. Why, then, should they be astonished at it ? It was not wonderful that it was so. It would have been wonderful if it had been otherwise. He shows thera, secondly, that there was no reason why they should be stumbled at the malignant opposition of the world. It in no degree proved the falsehood of the principles they had adopted, or the impropriety of the course they were prosecuting. Indeed, as the fulfilment of the predictions, both of the Old Testament prophets and of their Master, it was calculated not to stumble 1 Kelly. VOL. Ill * A a 370 . THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. but confirm thera. He shows thera, in the third place, that there was no reason why they should be ashamed of the malig nant opposition of the world. It was all " for his name's sake." It originated in hatred of hira, and of his Father, and this hatred originated in ignorance : and this ignorance was wilful, not ex cusing but aggravating their sin, for in his teaching and working rairacles, they had had abundant raeans of knowledge and con viction. In suffering infilcted for such a reason, and originating in such principles on the part of those who inflicted them, there was nothing to be asharaed of, there was rauch to glory in. He shows thera, in the fourth place, that there was no reason why they should be discouraged by the malignant opposition of the world. He does this in two ways. He flrst intiraates to them, that they were to have powerful assistance in their struggle with the opposition of the world, and ultimate triumph over it. They would have the constant presence and powerful aid of the Holy Ghost as their paraclete — their instructor, raonitor, guide, helper, and comforter. He was to testify with thera, and his testiraony with and by thera was to issue in the conviction of the world. The controversy was thus to be decided in their favour against the world. And he further intimates to them, that the very event which they anticipated with so rauch aversion and terror — his leaving thera — was at once the necessary and the sufficient raeans of securing for them that presence and aid of the Holy Spirit, without which they never could successfully struggle against the malignant opposition of the world, — with which they were abso lutely sure of ultiraate triumph. How admirably fitted were these considerations to allay the fears of the disciples, in refer ence to the hatred and persecution of the world which they must soon encounter — how well suited to prepare them for it — to for tify thera against it? Let us consider thera a little raore closely; — they will bear examination. (1.) The disciples had no cause to be astonished at the hatred and opposition of the world. We observe, then, in the first place, that our Lord shows that there was no good reason why his disciples should be astonished at the malignant opposition of the world. On a cursory and partial view of the subject, the malignant opposition of the world to Christians raay seera strange on raore accounts than one. It PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 371 may seera strange that the world should hate and persecute such harmless, useful persons as Christians always are when they act in character. If the public peace were never disturbed but by them, there would be no war. If private rights were never in vaded till they invaded thera, the courts of law would have but little to do. They render to all their due. They do good to all as they have opportunity. Burn the Bible ; annihilate Chris tianity ; destroy all the Christians on the face of the earth. Would " the world " — unbelieving raen, be the better for It ? Would they not be iraraeasurably the worse for it ? And if In this light it seems strange, as well it raay, that the world should hate Christians, so in another light it seeras strange that God should allow the world to persecute them. Does He not love them, and is He not wise and powerful enough to protect them from the cunning and violence of their foes ? But though, in a partial view, the malignant opposition of the world may seem strange ; yet, looked at in all its aspects, we shall find that it is not a thing to be wondered at. It is just what in the circum stances of the case raight be expected. Some of these aspects are presented to our consideration by our Lord's words. Christians are " not of the world." To be of the world is to hold the principles, to cherish the dispositions, to seek the aims, to follow the course, which characterises raankind as fallen, and unrenewed rational beings. They " mind earthly things ;" they " set their affections on the things that are beneath ;" they look at things that are seen and temporal;" the "love of God is not in them ;" " the fear of God is not before their eyes ;" " God Is not in all their thoughts ;" they are " without God in the world ;" they "forget God;" they "despise God;" they "hate God;" they " fashion themselves according to their lusts in ignorance ;" they " look at their own things," being " lovers of their own selves ;" they willingly " do the lusts of their father the devil ;" and their general characteristics are " earthly, sensual, deviUsh," ' This is to be " of the world," Now, Christians are not thus " of the world," In all these respects, they are different frora — opposite to — the raen of the world. They " mind the things that are above ;" they " set their 1 Phil. iii. 19. Col. iii. 2. 2 Cor. iv. 18. 1 John iii. 17. Eph. ii. 12. 1 Pet. i. 14. John viii. 44. 372 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP, XXVIII. affections on them;" they "look at things unseen and eternal," They believe and feel that it is " with God they have to do." They look on everything in its reference to Him, — He is the great subject of their thoughts, and the great object of their affections. They supremely love, and fear, and trust Him. They " live not according to the lusts of men, but according to the will of God." They " look not only at their own things, but at the things of others ;" and, above all, " at the things of Jesus Christ." They " seek the kingdom." * They resist the devil, and follow their Master in destroying his works. The distin guishing characters of their principles, and tastes, and aims, are not earthly, but heavenly — not sensual, but spiritual — not devil ish, but godly. Is it in the nature of things that men thus not of the world should be loved by the world ? Is it not plain that, with such opposite principles, and dispositions, and aims, and pursuits, the two classes raust corae into collision, and that the consequence on the part of the world, continuing to be the world, must be persecution ? There are things the world would have the Chris tian to do, which his principles as a Christian forbid him to do ; and the world naturally has resort to its own weapon — compul sion, 'You shall do it, or you shall suffer for it!' There are things which the world dislikes,' which the Christian must do, for his Lord has coraraanded thera ; and here, too, persecution is the natural result, ^ An individual Christian, acting like hiraself, would be an object of the world's dislike, but might, in sorae good measure, frora his insignificance, escape its persecution; but Christians are a society — sraall in coraparison with the world — but still suf ficiently prominent to fix the world's notice, and sufficiently active and influential to draw forth its opposition. And the humblest individual belonging to the hostile society is an object of hatred and persecution. He dare not but profess the name, ' 1 Pet. iv. 2. Phil. ii. 4. Matt. vi. 33. 2 " The words of the apostle (Acts xiv. 22) hold good in reference to Christians of all times. For in the Gospel itself, and in the spirit which it inspires, there is some thing opposed to the world, and tending to excite its opposition. The world feels that in this power lies its death, and therefore it makes resistance against it, and seeks to kill the life. It is only the forms of the 6\i-^us, therefore, that change ; they themselves, more or less, touch every believer, but in the hand of God they form a process of training for eternal life. 2 Tim. iii. 12." — Olshausen. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 373 as well as believe the Gospel, of Christ. He cannot but join himself to the disciples ; he cannot but take a part in upholding the cause the world would pull down, — in puUing down the cause the world would hold up. The malignant opposition of the world to Christians is exasper ated by the circumstance that they originally were "of the world." They feel towards thera as deserters. From being fellow-soldiers under the prince of this world, they have become active partizans with his great eneray. Their withdrawing from their fellowship, and going forth to Jesus without the camp, bearing his reproach, is felt as an affront, as well as an injury. They thus " condemn the world," — they cannot help it ; and the world is not slack in resenting the supposed indignity. Their occupying such a position, however they carae to be placed in it — their possessing such a character, however they carae to acquire it — was enough in itself to make it unreason able, on the part of Christians, to think it a strange thing when they were hated and persecuted by the world. But there will appear to be even less reason to wonder at this, when we consider who it was that placed thera in that position — how they carae to be possessed of this character. It was Jesus Christ who had " chosen them out of the world." It was by his mind becoming theirs, that their mind came to be different frora — opposed to — that of the world. If they are not of the world while in it, it is because they are in the world as he was In the world ; they are not of the world, as he was not of the world. Their whole exist ence as Christians is owing to hira. The new creation is " in Christ Jesus.'' They believe his word ; they are animated and guided by his Spirit ; his law is the rule of their conduct ; his glory their great object in life and in death. The manner, then, in which the world has felt and acted towards hira, raust have a powerful influence in determining the way in which it will feel and act towards them. It were unrea sonable to expect. If they are consistent Christians, to be regarded and treated by the world in a manner substantially different from that in which he had been regarded and treated by it. This reason why his disciples should not be astonished at the hatred and persecution of the world, is very strikingly brought out by our Lord : " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated rae," your Chief. " / chose you out of the world. Remember the 374 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. word that I said unto you. The servant is not greater than his lord" — the master. "If* they have persecuted me, they wUl also persecute you ; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." Our Lord had repeatedly used these words In addressing his disciples. The saying is proverbial, and may be used with different references, and therefore with different significations. It had indeed been so by our Lord, In Luke vi, 39, we read — " And he spake a parable unto thera. Can the blind lead the blind ? shall they not both faU into the ditch ? The disciple is not above his master : but every one that is perfect shall be as his master," The meaniilg here plainly is, ' You cannot expect the scholar to be wiser than his teacher. Ignorant, unwise teachers, cannot be expected to make well-informed, wise scholars. The raost you can expect is, that the scholar should equal his teacher,' At the thirteenth chapter of this gospel, 12th verse, we read that, " After he had washed the disciples' feet, and had taken his garraents, and was sat down, he said unto thera. Know ye what I have done to you ? Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am. If I then, your .Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an exaraple, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you. The servant is not greater than his lord ; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent hira. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them," Here the meaning obviously is, ' The servant refusing to do to his fellow-servant an office of kindness, which requires condescension and self-sacrifice — which the master has perforraed to thera both — acts a raost incongruous part. What is not be neath the master, surely ought not to be reckoned beneath any of the servants.' At Matthew x. 17, we find him saying, " Beware of men," — i. e., ' the world,' — " for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they shall scourge you in their synagogues," "And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child : and the chUdren shall rise up against their parents, and cause thera to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all 1 " !/• non est mera conditio, sed aflirmandi vim habet,"— Bengel. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 375 men for my name's sake." " The disciple is not above his mas ter, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his raaster, and the servant as his lord," It seeras to be to this saying, which very likely our Lord often repeated, that the reference is in the passage before us, " Remember the word that I said unto you ;" q. d., ' If you are not worse treated than your Master, you have no cause to wonder — no cause to coraplain. If you avow his doctrines, if you breathe his spirit, if you obey his laws, if you prosecute his objects, how can you ex pect to be loved by those who hated hira — protected and courted by those who persecuted him ? If you are his living pictures, they who hated him will hate you, they who persecuted him will persecute you. If your doctrines are his doctrines, think you they who rejected thera, when he taught thera, will receive thera when you teach thera ?' A Christian acting out his Christianity, could reasonably expect to be otherwise, to be better, treated than his Lord, only on one or other of the two following sup positions, neither of which can be admitted for a moment. If you could avoid, more than he did, unnecessary collision with the world — if you could be more harraless and blameless than he was — or if you were wiser than he was, and could find out a better way of reconciling faithfulness to God with living on good terms with the world — then might you, doing your duty as a Christian, expect to escape the hatred and persecution which was his portion. Professing Christians take but too frequently another way of it. They endeavour to purchase peace with the world at the expense of concealed truth and neglected duty. In that way the servant may not share in his Lord's fortunes, but it is by becoraing an unfaithfiil servant. But a consistent Chris tian counts it as a raost reasonable thing that he should be as his Master in the estimation of the world ; and doing his duty, his expectation is not Ukely to fail of being realised. Our Lord passingly alludes to another reason why Christians should not be astonished at the hatred and persecution of the world. Its persecution and hatred, both of him and them, had been the subject of Old Testament prophecy. And should we wonder at finding the declarations of the God of truth verified ? " They have hated rae," says he, " but this cometh to pass, that the word might be ftilfiUed that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause," These words occur in three of the 376 . THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII. Psalms,* two of which are so quoted in the New Testaraent as to show that they have a reference to the Messiah. This is only a specimen of what Old Testament prophecy says in reference to the Messiah. In other parts of the Old Testaraent revelation, he is spoken of as " He whora man despised, he whom the nation abhorred;" as one, " men were astonished at," because his " visage was more marred than any man, and his form more than the sons of raen," as having " no form or comeliness, no beauty why men should desire him ;" " despised and rejected of men," from whom men " hid their faces ; despised and not esteemed." ^ If ancient prophecy thus spoke of the Messiah, had his followers any reason to be disappointed if they also were hated and persecuted ? The servants of " the King of sufferings, whose sceptre was a reed of scorn, whose imperial robe was the purple of mockery, whose throne was the cross of agony and shame," ' need surely not wonder, though they too should have " trials of cruel mockings," and carry about " in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus." Indeed their sufferings, as well as his, are the subject of Old Testaraent prophecy. It is predicted that their brethren should "hate thera, and cast thera out for his name's sake." ^ Surely, then, when all these things are taken into consideration, there was no good reason why the disciples should be astonished at the malignant opposition of the world ; and even although it should be, as in many cases it actually was, a fiery trial, had they any cause to " think it strange, as though sorae strange thing had happened to thera "?' (2.) Tlie disciples had no reason to he stumbled at the hatred and opposition of the world. We observe, in the second place, that our Lord shows that there was no good reason why the disciples should be sturabled at the raalignant opposition of the world. " Stumbled " is the literal meaning of the word rendered, in chapter xvi. verse 1, and in so many other places of the New Testament, " offended," A stumbling-block is, in the language of Scripture, anything which raay lead a raan into unbelief or sin. One object of our Lord, in raaking these reraarks respecting the raalignant oppo- ' Psal. XXXV. 19 ; Ixix. 4 ; cix. 3. ' Isa. xlix. 7 ; Iii. 14 ; liii. 3. ' Jeremy Taylor. * Isa. Ixvi. 6. '1 Pet. iv. 12. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 377 sltion of the world, with which his disciples would have to con tend, was " that they raight not be offended " — that they might not be stumbled — led to doubt, or deny the faith which they had professed. The sufferings to which the disciples of Christ were exposed had this tendency. Difficulties and sufferings in a cause, especially if unlocked for, are naturally calculated to raake us dissatisfied, and this dissatisfaction leads to doubts as to whether we have acted wisely or properly in entering on It, and we are thus terapted to abandon it. Is a deraand made on our property ? Avarice clings to its beloved lucre. Does danger threaten ? Cowardice shrinks frora peril. Pride revolts at subraitting to contempt and obloquy. Natural affection cannot part with the tokens of the love of those who are dear to us as our own souls ; and if the gibbet, the stake, or the cross, appear in the distance, the love of life is very willing to find a reason why they should be avoided. All this tendency, in sufferings for the cause of Christ, to stumble his disciples, was greatly increased by the consideration that the Jews generally looked for anything but such sufferings in the service of Messiah the Prince. They looked for victory, and the results of victory ; and, if some raust part with Ufe, they expected that it would be in the glorious field of successful con flict. Our Lord's disciples, " clean through the word which the Saviour had spoken to them," certainly looked for some other and some better thing frora their Master than secular wealth, or honour, or pleasure. Yet still they were but partially cured of their Jewish notions, and needed farther repentance or change of mind. They were not counting on what was coming, and, had it come on them unwarned, it must have sturabled thera. Such sufferings did sturable many, and made thera fall. The prophecy of our Lord was fulfilled, " When they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you : and ye shall be hated of all nations for ray name's sake. Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another."* The cross of Christ, in the sense of the ignominious sufferings both of hiraself and his followers, was a stumbling-block to more than the Jews. When persecution for the word's sake arose, " many 1 Matt. xxiv. 9, 10. 378 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII, who had no root in themselves were offended and withered away," * But, notwithstanding all this, there was no good reason why the disciples should be sturabled, as our Lord expresses it ; or, as the apostle has it, " shaken in raind or troubled " by the hatred and persecution of the world. They had embraced Jesus as the Messiah, on evidence the most satisfactory. They had seen him do raany works which no man could have done except God had been with him. In the correspondence of ancient pre diction with his character and history, they had come to the conclusion that they had found him of whora Moses in the law, and the prophets did write ; and their intiraate intercourse with hira had lodged a deeper conviction, than either miracle or pro phecy could have done, that he was the Messiah. He had dwelt in the midst of thera, full of grace and truth ; and thoy had seen his glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father ; so that they all could say with Peter, " We believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."^ Now, these sufferings, whether his or theirs, could not neutralise any of this evidence. They did not disprove one of our Lord's doc trines ; they did not falsify one of his stateraents. The reasons for their holding fast their confidence in hira were as strong as ever. Nay, raore than this, these sufferings, as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, were fitted, when rightly viewed, to confirm, not to sturable — to strengthen, not to weaken — their faith. If the inhabitants of Jerusalem had not " pierced " him, and if their " brethren had not hated them, and cast thera out," he could not have been the Messiah, nor could they have been the Messiah's followers. Considered as the fulfilment of his own predictions, they were fitted to serve the same purpose ; they were foretold by him for this very reason. " These things " — about the hatred and per secution of the world, — " These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues : yea, the tirae coraeth, that whosoever kiUeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor ' Matt. xiii. 21. 2 jolm vi, 69, PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 379 me. But these things have I told you, that, when the time shall come, ye raay reraeraber that I told you of them." ' His object in predicting these sufferings was substantially the same as that which he had in foretelling the treason of Judas. " I speak not of you all ; I know whora I have chosen : but, that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against rae. Now I tell you before it corae, that, when it is corae to pass, ye may believe," more firraly than ever, " that I ara he." ^ How kind was the Saviour in thus providing against the hazards to which the faith of the disciples would be exposed I How wise, by predicting events, in their own nature fitted to shake their faith, to convert them into the means of confirming it I It was an ancient proverb, " The arrow falls less perilous, of which we have observed the flight ;" and it is an adage among ourselves, " Forewarned is forearmed." Such a declaration, in the circumstances in which it was made, was fitted to deepen their confidence in the thorough integrity, the absolute truthful ness, of their Master. Would any impostor, in similar circura stances, have raade such a declaration, though he had had reason to believe that it was likely to prove true ? And thus confidence would become still stronger, when they found the prediction verified to the letter. The fact, too, that all the tribulations they met with in the world were the fulfilraent of predictions uttered by their Master, was fitted to deepen the conviction that all that occurred to thera was the result of the benignant counsel of his Father and their Father, his God and their God. It was a new proof of his being a true prophet ; and it naturally suggested the thought, ' His declarations about the Father giving us the kingdom will in due time be as faithfully perforraed as his declarations about the tribulations through which we are to enter into it. The future is dark to us, but it is obviously clear to Hira, whose we are, whom we serve. Nothing can befall him unawares, nor take hira unprepared. No affliction can befall us but what he is aware of, and has made due arrangements in reference to. It comes not without his knowledge, nor without his wUl. He can — he will — sustain us under it ; he can — he will — deliver us frora it ; he can — he will — make it subservient to our welfare 1 John xvi, 1-4. 2 John xiii. 18, 19. 380 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. and his glory.' Surely, then, there was no good reason why the disciples should be sturabled at the hatred and persecution of the world. If the disciples had no reason to be astonished at the dislike of the world, and the persecutions to which it gave origin, as being just what, in the circurastances of the case, was to be expected, have not those professors of Christianity some reason for serious inquiry, who never have drawn on themselves any token of the dislike of the worldly or the wicked ? Have they not cause to put such questions as the following to theraselves — ' Do I really possess the quaUties of mind and teraper — ara I really prosecut ing the course, and seeking the objects, which are so unpalatable to unregenerate raen ? If so, how have I escaped the natural result of possessing or displaying such a character ? how have I contrived to neutralise its repulsive power ? have I so cunningly concealed it, as to pass with the world for one of theraselves ? if so, how can I serve the ends of ray profession in reference to ray Lord, ray brethren, or even in reference to the world? Have I ever thought of what the Master says of the disciple who is asharaed of him and his words in the presence of the men of this generation, or what one of his apostles says of the ultimate doom of " the fearful," their permanent dwelling, and the companions with whom they raust herd there ? '* Do such men never begin to doubt whether they be. the children of the free woman, when they find those who, without doubt, are the children of the bond woman, discover no disposition to persecute them ? I have had occasion to reraark elsewhere, ' The world and Christianity are substantially the same things now, that they were in the primi tive age ; and though the world may take other ways of showing its hatred and contempt of Christianity and of Christians than it did then, that hatred and contempt still exist unmitigated, and will find a way to manifest theraselves, when they raeet with their appropriate objects.' But it is not everything that is called Christianity that the world hates : it is the Christianity of the New Testament. It is not the name; it is the thing. There is much that is caUed Christianity which the world likes very well, for it is its own work. There are many who are called Christians who are of the ' Mark viii. 38. Rev. xxi. 8. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 381 world, and the world loves them. A woe is denounced on the christian man, of whom all raen speak well ; and if we have in no way incurred the hatred of an ungodly world, we have reason to fear that, though we raay have the name Christian, we want what that name properly denotes — we are not fair representa tions of hira whom we call our Chief, and whom the world hated with a perfect hatred. It is a faithful saying, " Every one who will live godly shall suffer persecution."* We are not to court persecution. If we are consistent Christians, we shall not need to do so. It will corae of its own accord. The world will be consistent in Its hatred, if Christians are but consistent in their profession and conduct. Let us take care that we do not sinfully shun it. To be of the world, and to be a Christian, in the true sense of the word, is irapossible. " No raan can serve two raasters : either he must love the one, and hate the other ; or cleave to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." He who loves the world is certainly the enemy of God ; and he whom the world loves, if he professes to be the friend of God, should seriously inquire on what the love of the world to him is founded. Assuredly it is not on his friendship with God. I should naturally not only be surprised, but alarmed, to find myself courted by the sworn eneray of ray best friend. I should be more alarmed if I felt a disposition to be gratified by his advances. Our second refiection is. How adorable is the benignant wisdom of God, which educes good from the greatest evils ! The hatred of the world against Christ, and Christianity, and Christians, and- the persecutions which have sprung frora it, are enormous evils. They are moral evils of the worst kind ; and no human skill can estimate the amount of physical evil — suffering — which they have produced. But, by the controlling power of God's providence, and the effectual infiuence of his Spirit, they have been made conducive to much good. They have kept, in raany instances, the unworthy out of the church, or have induced them to leave a fellowship they could only disgrace. They have not only thus been of advantage to the church as a body, but they have ex ercised the graces, and improved the characters, of its genuine members ; while, as the fulfilraent of prophecy, they have in- 1 2 Tim. iii. 12. 382 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. creased the evidence of Christianity, and added a new bulwark to the faith, by the very attempt to destroy it. Surely " the wrath of raan praises hira, and the remainder thereof he re strains." If Christianity were in danger at all, which it is not, it would be, not frora the hatred and persecutions of its avowed enemies, but from the half-heartedness, indolence, and inconsis tencies of its professed friends. But though not endangered, it may be injured — its progress impeded — its glory tarnished — its influence counteracted and diminished. Let us, my brethren, take good heed that we, professing to be the friends of Chris tianity, have no share in producing evils, which all the raalice and power of the world have been incapable of effecting — casting a shade of doubt on its divine origin, or giving a pretext to worldly men to say that their hatred of Christianity is not misplaced, if we be fair speclraens of the characters it is calculated to form. Let us seek that our whole character and conduct shall be such that. If the world will quarrel with us, they shall find no occasion against us, except it be concerning the law of our God ; and that, if they hate us, they shall hate us only for his name's sake ; so that it raay be said of us, as of him, " They hated us without a cause." Let us never provoke their hatred by our rash and intemperate conduct, and let their hatred never provoke us to meet them on their own ground, and fight them with their own weapons. Following this course, Christians need never be afraid of the hatred and persecu tion of the world. These will not essentially or perraanently in jure either them or their cause. They will turn out to the im proveraent of their character, and to the furtherance of the Gospel. It has always been so ; it will always be so. " This coraeth forth frora the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. To Hira be all the glory." The conduct of the priraitive church, after the apostles had been exposed to the hatred and persecution of the Jewish raagistrate, is the model for all Christians, in similar circumstances, in all ages. " They lifted up the voice to God with one accord, and said. Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that In thera is ; who by the raouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people iraagine vain things ? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 383 anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."* " The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought ; he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever ; the thoughts of his heart to all genera tions." Halleluiah. (3.) The disciples had no reason to he ashamed of the hatred and opposition of the world. Let us now turn our attention to the reasons contained in the paragraph before us — why the disciples should not be asharaed of the hatred and the persecution of the world. It results frora the very constitution of human nature, — and in this, as in all its other parts, we see the impress of the wisdom and the goodness of its author, — that raen are agreeably or disagreeably affected by the raanifestations of the opinion of their fellow-men, in re ference to their character and conduct, according as that opinion is favourable or unfavourable. A man is naturally raore con fident in the truth of his own opinions, and the propriety of his own conduct, when he finds that they are generally approved by his fellows, and obtains proof of this approbation in the kind and respectful treatraent he receives from them ; and a raan raust have a great deal of self-conceit, or he raust have a very firm conviction of the truth of his sentiraents, and the rectitude of his conduct, who does not, in sorae degree, experience the painful feeling of sharae, when he perceives that his views and behaviour, on any subject, raeet with general disapprobation, from the neglect, conterapt, or direct punishment which they bring on him, from his fellow-men. If the generality of mankind were what they should be, the operation of this part of our constitution would be productive of unmixed good. Even as it is, it produces much good, and pre vents much evil. What kind of a world would we have, if men were totally regardless of each other's opinions ? Yet still, frora raen's judgments often not being according to truth, the desire of the world's esteem and admiration, and the fear of its disap probation, and even its "dread laugh," frequently operate as I Acts iv. 24-28. 384 the valedictory discourse, [exp. xxviii. incentives to folly and sin, and obstructions to the profession of truth, and the performance of duty. Sufferings from the hand of our fellow-men are indications of their disapprobation of our sentiments, or character, and conduct ; and when these sufferings proceed from correct views of truth and justice, they, as the deserved chastisement of folly, or punishment of crime, are really shameful ; and it is a proof of having sunk into the deepest moral debasement, when their infliction does not produce the feeUng of sharae. The raan who is incapable of being raade ashamed of foUy and sin, is likely to be an incorrigible sinner and fool. There is very little probability of bis ever becoraing wise and good. He who, on being reproved for obvious and well-proved delinquency, is " not asharaed, neither can blush," is aU but hopelessly depraved. To sufferings of this kind, pro fessors of Christianity, ay, genuine Christians, raay render them selves liable ; and when they do so, they should be asharaed of such sufferings, and still more of their cause. The best men, when, frora the prevalence of the reraaining sinful propensities of their fallen nature, they incur such sufferings, wiU be most asharaed — they will raost readily and deeply blush. But these are not the sufferings of which our Lord is speaking in the paragraph under consideration. The hatred which he speaks of is a hatred of them as Christians, on account of their Christianity ; and the sufferings he speaks of are just the result of that hatred. To yield in these circumstances to the instinctive impulse of the huraan constitution, — to be asharaed of what is generally disliked, condemned, punished, — would have been un reasonable and wrong, however natural ; and, therefore, our Lord raakes it very evident to his disciples, that however the hatred of the world might be manifested in contumelious and cruel treatraent of thera as Christians, instead of having cause to be ashamed, they had cause to glory. It was not they, the poor, hated, contemned, persecuted ones, that should be ashamed, but the powerful ones who hated, contemned, and persecuted thera. Our Lord, by turning the attention of his disciples to what it was in them, that provoked the world's hatred and persecution, and what it was in the world, that led it to hate and persecute thera, fortifies thera against that feeling of shame, which is the natural effect of their being hated and persecuted by the great PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 385 body of mankind, especially by those who were wealthy and powerful, and were accounted wise. The world hated and per secuted them on account of their connection with Christ. If that was a shameful thing, then might they be ashamed of its proof and consequences. " All these things will they do unto you for my name's sake." " I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And then, as what in them was the occasion of the world's hatred and persecution was no cause for shame, so the principle of the world's persecution — its true cause — was so discreditable, that it could bring merited dis grace on none but itself. It was hatred of Christ and of his Father, growing out of ignorance of them. The world had cause to be ashamed, both of the evil principle, and its evil effects. They who suffered from these effects had no reason to be ashamed. Hatred of God and his Son, originating in ignorance — wilful ignorance — of them, what could be raore shameful? The ap probation, patronage, and friendship of such raen, would have been shameful to their objects; their hatred and persecution were creditable to their objects. Such are the topics, bearing on the principle, brought forward by our Lord, namely, ' Christians should not be ashamed of the hatred and persecutions of the world.' Let us briefiy consider them. Christians should be kept from being ashamed of their suffer ings as Christians, while they reflect what it is in thera that calls forth the hatred, and provokes the persecution, of the world. " All these things will they do unto you for ray name's sake." " Ye shall be hated," says he elsewhere, " of all nations for my name's sake." * "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." " The world," says he afterwards, in his prayer to his Father, " The world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I ara not of the world." ^ That in thera which provoked the hatred and persecution of the world, was their relation to Christ, and what naturally resulted from that relation. The reasons of the world's hatred of this kind are thus stated by our Lord : ' They will hate you and persecute you for ray name's sake. The world will hate and persecute you because ye are not of the world, even as I ara not of the world,- in conse- • Matt. xxiv. 9. 2 John xvii. 14. VOL. HI. - *B b 386 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. quence of my having chosen you out of the world.' In the most literal sense of the word, the primitive disciples were hated and persecuted for bearing Christ's name. The being called the fol lowers of Jesus the Nazarene — the bearing the name Christian, — was accounted a sufficient reason for hatred and punishment. We have a striking proof of this in the still existing letter of the younger Pliny, when proprsetor of Bithynia, to the Eraperor Trajan, in which he inquires whether Christians were to be punished for the narae itself, or for the criraes which Christians were considered guilty of; and intimating, that his plan of pro cedure with Christians who were brought before him for judg ment was, to ask thera if they were Christians : if they con fessed, he repeated the question again and again, threatening them with punishment if they continued to own the hated and proscribed name : if they still persevered, he ordered thera to be conducted to punishment. And, in his imperial master's rescript, still extant also, in which he approves of the propraetor's conduct, his humanity leads him to say, ' They are not to be sought after ; but if they are brought to the tribunal, they are to be punished. A person denying himself to be a Christian, and proving this by worshipping the gods, though suspected of having been a Chris tian, is to be set free ; but otherwise, he is to be punished, just for being a Christian;' though in every case, he says, there ought to be formal accusation and proof. When two of the most accomplished and humane men of their age spoke and acted in this way, what must have been the conduct of the great body of the ignorant, bigotted, rude opposers of Christianity ? We find one of the earliest apologists for Christianity — Athena- goras — imploring of the heathen raagistrates, as a piece of equity, that he and his co-religionists should not be punished for a name, but for a crime ; and another of thera — Tertullian — saying, " Even the narae is hated in men perfectly innocent." Such hatred, such persecution, was infamous, not to the hated and persecuted, but to the hater and persecutor. To hate and persecute a man for bearing a narae, whatever it be, reflects dis honour on those who act so, even when the name is not one which deserves respect. But surely Christians had no cause to be asharaed at hatred, reproach, and suffering, inflicted on thera because they bore that name which connects thera with the Saviour of raen, and the sent and sealed of God — a narae which, PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED, 387 if in their case it meant what it expressed, secured the benignant regard of Jehovah as their Father, and the wiUing ministry of the highest and holiest order of created beings. But the expression, " for my name's sake," implies raore than ' because ye are called by my name,' The tirae carae, when the appellations, disciples of Jesus, Christians, became creditable enough in the estimation of a large portion of the world — no causes of persecution, — nay, the assuraption of such naraes was necessary to avoid persecution, pagan and Jew becoraing the proscribed and hated names ; but in all ages the true followers of Christ have been hated " for his name's sake," The narae of Christ often raeans the authority of Christ ; and it Is the con sistently owning this authority as universal, supreme, sole, in matters of religion, and insisting that this authority should be acknowledged by all, and employing the appropriate means for securing this, by proclaiming his doctrines and laws, and the evidence by which the forraer is supported, and the sanctions by which the latter are enforced ; it is this that excites the hatred — it is this that provokes the persecution — of the world. And, when they hated and persecuted raen for bearing the name, it was with the understanding that the narae and the thing went together. This was generally the case in the prirai tive age. When they were separated, as they have very often been in succeeding ages, the world becarae very tolerant to the narae Christian ; nay, a large portion of the world, still con tinuing in the world, found it their interest to assurae the name, and becarae Christendora — the Christian world, — but unregener ate men did not, on that account, the less hate and persecute those who not only bear the narae, but kept the testimony, of Jesus Christ, It is this owning and asserting the supreme and sole authority of Jesus Christ, as the Lord of the conscience — the King of souls, — that excites the jealousy, galls the pride, exasperates the passions, of an ungodly world, and thus brings on the consistent disciples hatred, contempt, and persecution; so that, through varied trials — much tribulation frora the world — they enter into the kingdom,* But, was there any reason for being ashamed of such hatred, contempt, and persecution ? Ought loyal subjects to be ashamed 1 Acts xiv. 22. 388 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII, because their acknowledgraent and assertion of the rights of their lawful sovereign expose thera to the hatred and persecution of those who, though their fellow-subjects, are in rebellion against hira, and seeking to overturn his throne, — especially if they know that that throne cannot be overturned — that aU the at- terapts of his eneraies, however apparently successful for a season, shall ultimately be abortive, and confusion and shame be their merited portion ? Can it ever be disgraceful to suffer in raain taining what is true — in upholding what is right — in owning and asserting an authority which shall — raust — ultimately put down all opposing " rule, and authority, and power," * and secure perfect and unending happiness to those who have yielded to it unquaUfied submission, both in doing and suffering? Our Lord's stateraents were plainly fitted to make his disciples, in stead of being asharaed of, " most gladly glory in, their afflic tions " — " take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in perse cutions, in distresses, for Christs sake."^ I cannot doubt that our Lord's words, now before us, were in Peter's mind when he thus addressed his suffering brethren, " If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; but let hira glorify God on this behalf. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit of God and of glory resteth on you," " Rejoice, inasrauch as ye are partakers of Christ's suffering ; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye raay be glad also with exceeding joy," * It is interesting to notice the illustration which the history of the priraitive-age gives of the truth of our Lord's declaration, that his disciples should be hated and persecuted for his namis sake, and the effect that the consideration of this had in steeling thera against the feeUng of shame under this hatred and persecu tion, and exciting the opposite feeling of glorying ajid exultation, Peter, when, along with John, brought before the Sanhedrira, proclaimed the narae of Jesus : " Be it known unto you aU, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised frora the dead, even by hira doth this raan stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in ' 1 Cor. XV. 24. 2 2 Cor. xii. 10. ' 1 Pet. iv. 16, 14, 13. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 389 any other : for there is none other narae under heaven given araong raen whereby we must be saved." They hated that name; and therefore they " straitly threatened them," "and comraanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the narae of Jesus," Were they ashamed ? did they blush ? They declared that they " could not but speak the things which they had seen and heard" of the name of Jesus ; and, going to their own com pany, they sang a hymn of praise to God for " stretching forth his hand to heal, and for the signs and wonders done by the name of his holy child Jesus." * And when the whole apostles were brought before these rulers, and accused of violating the com mand that they should not teach in this hated and feared name, and of having fiUed Jerusalem with the doctrine of this name, they proclaimed his narae and honours in the presence of his enemies : " A Prince and a Saviour, exalted to God's right hand, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins," And when they were beaten, and again comraanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, they departed from the council " rejoicing," glorying, " that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name," ^ And how often has the heaviest burden become light — the bitterest cup sweet? — how has the pUlory become a stage of triumph, and the burning pile been transforraed, as it were, into a bed of roses,* to the christian martyr and confessor, by the thought that all he endured was for "the worthy name whereby he had been called" ? But our Lord tells thera not only that the sufferings they were to be exposed to were to be sufferings for his narae's sake, but that they were to be sufferings in consequence of their possess ing a peculiar character, substantially the same as his — " the world hated them, because they were not of the world, even as he was not of the world" — and of their forming a separate society into which they had been formed by him — " I have chosen you out of the world." In both of these considerations were involved good substantial reasons why they should not be ashamed of their sufferings. The world hated the followers of Christ, be cause they were " not of the world, even as he was not of the ' Acts iv. 10-31. . 2 Acts v. 28-32, 40-42. 3 " In this fire I feele no more paine than if I were in a bed of downe, but it is to me as a bed of roses." — Dying Words of Bainham— Soils, vol. ii. p. 301. 390 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII. worid," * The followers of Christ " would not walk according to the course of this world," but " according to the wUl of God," They would not join with the world in seeking its objects by its means. They sought other ends by other raeans. There were many things the world would have them do, that they would not do ; raany things that the world would have thera not do, that they would do. To be singular is no proof of being right. He is a fool who is proud of singularity for its own sake. The man who, frora mere humour or some worse principle, will not accord with his fellow-men, but must have a way of his own, if he suffer for his pertinacity, may well be asharaed. But if a minority is treated with contumely or cruelty by a majority, because the minority maintain truth and do justice, whUe the majority support error and act iniquitously, where does the disgrace Ught ? The dis similarity, the opposition, of the opinions and conduct of Chris tians to those of the world, is not the result of caprice or a fond ness for singularity. If they are " not of the world," it is " even as their Master was not of the world." The singularity of their character and manners is of the sarae general description as his. He was in the world, not following its course, but doing the wiU of his.Father in heaven. They are in the world, not following its course, but doing the will of their Master in heaven. The world being what it is, is naturally dissatisfied with them, and manifests its dissatisfaction according to its nature. It cannot love thera, it raust hate thera. The fact, which the words state, that the world hated them for the very same cause that it hated him, contains in it, what was well fitted to preserve them frora being ashamed of the con tumelious and cruel conduct in which the world expressed its hatred of thera. It was a token of their being " in the world as he was in the world," and of their walking as he also walked ; and though the world had raade that path a rugged and a thorny one, was it not far more honourable for them, though few in num ber, and with bleeding feet, to walk in his steps, than to walk in the path, however soft and flowery, crowded by the great, wealthy, and wise of the world, which he had avoided, and which he had enjoined them to avoid, as they would avoid destruction ? ' John XV. 19 ; xvii. 16. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 391 Then, stUl farther, the world hated the followers of Christ, because they not only had a pecuUar character, that character substantially his, but because they formed a separate society, that society formed by him. " I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." * This was another considera tion calculated to prevent Christians from being asharaed of the hatred and persecution of the world. In reference to religion, moral principle, and conduct, they had separated themselves frora the world, and formed theraselves into a distinct society, having principles, and objects, and laws, altogether different frora those of the world ; and in leaving the world, coming out frora it, and being separate, they had raade no secret of it, that they had abandoned it because it was the enemy of God, lying under his curse, and under the power of the wicked one, his great eneray, its prince ; and though very willing to receive into their society all the world if it would cease to be the world, — yet proclaiming, that as no man can enter the spiritual internal king dora of heaven without being born again, no one can be allowed to enter that which is its visible representation without seeraing to be born again ; and obstinately refusing to raingle with the world in any course inconsistent with the law of their own society. " Therefore the world hated thera." This exclusiveness, on the part of true Christians, is one of the things which excites the world's dislike, and draws down on them tokens of its indignation. This exclusiveness, however, is not a matter of caprice, nor does it originate with theraselves. He " has chosen thera out of the world" — he has raade thera to believe his doctrine and subrait to his authority — and it Is his will that they should be " a peculiar people," " dwelling alone" — apart — among the nations.^ They are thus " a people scat tered abroad and dispersed araong the people, with laws diverse from all people, and who must not comply with the customs of the world," ° nor obey the coraraands of its kings, when they run counter to the revealed will of their Lord and King — Jesus. They distinctly, too, avow, what their Lord has assured them of, that they are expecting invaluable blessings which can be enjoyed only by those who acknowledge his authority ; and are constantly proclaiming, " Come thou with us, and we will do ' John XV. 19. ^ Numb, xxiii. 9. » Esth. iii. 8. 392 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. thee good ; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." For this they are hated and persecuted, but surely they ha,ve no cause to be asharaed. Should an association of all the wise and benevolent men in London, called together by our gracious Queen to consult on raatters connected with the general good of society, shutting its doors against all the ignorant and profli gate, be assailed with conturaely and outrage by the tens of thousands of the unprincipled in that city, would they have any cause to be ashamed ? Far less has the society, chosen frora the world by God and his Son, " taken out frora among the nations to be a people to his name," any reason to be ashamed of any reproach which may be cast on them, or injury which may be done to them, by ignorant and unreasonable men. We have thus seen that the consideration of what it was in the disciples of Christ that occasioned the hatred and persecution of the world — their bearing his name — their owning and asserting his authority — their being formed to a peculiar character similar to his, and their being constituted a distinct and peculiar society by his call — was well fitted to show thera that they had no cause to be asharaed of this hatred and persecution. It reraains that we show that a consideration of the principles in the world, frora which this hatred and persecution proceed, leads to the sarae conclusion. The world was to hate and perse cute thera, because "it hated him and his Father;" and this hatred was to be traced to ignorance of hira and his Father, which ignorance, being not necessary but wilful, aggravated instead of extenuating their hatred of God and of Christ, and their hatred and persecution of his people. " If they hate you, ye know that they hated rae, your Chief — they persecuted me. He that hateth rae, hateth my Father also. They have hated both me and ray Father.^ They know not Hira that sent me, they have not known the Father nor me." ' But they might ' Numb. X. 29. 2 "The expression 'to hate God,' and still more 'to hate Him without a cause,' raises horror in every mind. Yet we certainly hate Him when we do not love his word — his government — the dispensations of his providence. We have no such direct thought, nor formal purpose ; but the state of our mind, and our conduct, imply all this. What cause can there possibly be to hate a God who is goodness itself, and who never did us anything but good ? But in sin there is neither reason nor justice ; — it is the most irrational and the most unjust thing in the universe." — Quesnel. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 393 have known us, they ought to have known us.' " If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak for their sin. If I had not done among thera the works which none other man did, they had not had sin : but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father,"* Malignity, unfounded malignity, in reference to Jesus Christ and his Father, arising out of ignorance, wilful ignorance, and therefore inexcusable ignorance, is the origin of the hatred and persecution of Christians by the world. It hates Christians because it hates Christ. Christians are living images of Christ — imperfect, yet stUl true likenesses of him. The qualities the world dislikes in Christians, exist in still higher degree in Christ, and hated as they are in his people, they would be more hated in him, just because they exist in a higher degree in him. They were so by the world to which he came, and in the midst of which he lived and died. No hatred can be conceived of more bitter than that discovered by the unbeUeving Jews towards our Lord, and the same hatred is felt by unregenerate men towards the real Christ as manifested in his doctrines and laws, in his word, and in his Uving images — his people. There is an imagi nary Christ, or rather many imaginary Christs, whora worldly men respect ^nd even love ; but while the world is what it is, it cannot but hate the true Christ — Christ as he really is — not of the world — unsecular — uncomproraising — perfectly holy — into lerant of error and of sin. And it is their hatred of him that accounts for their hatred of his genuine foUowers, This hatred was " without a cause," that is, ' without a good reason,' There was nothing in him to provoke hatred in any but morally disordered, depraved minds. Nothing in his char acter, it was faultless — nothing in his doctrines, they were all true — nothing in his laws, they were holy, just, and good. He never had done the world any harm — he had spent his life in bestowing favours on raen — and he was just about to lay down his life for thera, to "give his flesh for the life of the world," ^ Why, then, did they hate hira — why did they persecute him — why did they put him to death ? You must proceed a step far ther ; and, assuredly, that will not lessen the impression of the dis- I John XV. 21-24. "- John vi. 61. 394 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. graceful character of the principle, in which the hatred and per secution of Christians by the world originates. They hated hira because they hated his Father — God. He was "the image of the invisible God" — "the express iraage of his Father's person." The glory of the Father was reflected, as frora a rairror, in the character and work of the Son. " He that saw him saw the Father;"* and he that hated hira hated the Father ; for there was nothing in hira but what Is in the Father. His doctrines were the mind of God ; his precepts the wiU of God. It was because he was the embodied representation of that love of righteousness, and hatred of iniquity, which have had their everlasting dwelling-place in the bosora of God, that men hated hira. The true account of the hatred and rejection of Jesus Christ, and the hatred and persecution of his true foUowers, is, " The carnal raind is enraity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," ^ This hatred of Christ and of God originates in ignorance of their true character : " All these things will they do unto you for my narae's sake, because they know not Hira that sent me," " These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me."^ They did not know the Father ; they did not know his true character. The Jews thought of God as full of anger against the gentile nations,*but so fondly attached to their nation, as to make their flnal happiness secure, without much regard to their moral qualities ; and as to the heathen world, their supreme deity was just, as it were, the ideal embodiraent of the leading qualities they had in theraselves, indefinitely enlarged. Neither the one nor the other of these departments of the ancient world knew God, It is equally true, the world — that is, unregenerate raen — however wise and civilised, never, by their wisdora, corae to the knowledge of the true God. They always misconceive his char acter — that character, which is pure light, holy love. " The darkness comprehends not the light," nor the malignity the love. Just views of the Divine character, as manifested in the work of redemption, are, in human beings, incompatible with hatred of Hira, And, as the world did not know the Father, they did not 1 Col. i. 16. Heb. i. 3. John xiv. 9. ' Rom. viii. 7. ' John xv. 21 ; xvi. 3. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 395 know the Son, How could they ? The Father and the Son cannot be known separately. He who knows the one must know the other; he who does not know the one cannot know the other. An unbelieving world does not know the truth respect ing the Son as " the sent," " the sealed," " the anointed " of the Father, the destroyer of sin, the Saviour of the sinner. If they did, they could not but love him, and Hira, too, who sent hira. But, does not this ignorance of the Father and the Son in some raeasure extenuate and apologise for their hatred of the Father and the Son, and for that hatred and persecution of true Christians, which are their results ? It would have done so, had it been involuntary and invincible. But it was not so. They might have known the Father, for the Son had declared Hira ; they might have known the Son, for he had raanifested forth his glory — " the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth," — both in his doctrines and in his rairacles. This renders all the world, to whom his words and works come, directly or indirectly, inexcusable in their hatred of the Father and of the Son, and of the true worshippers of the Father — the true believers in the Son : " If I had not come and spoken unto thera, they had not had sin : but now they have no cloak for their sin," " If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin : but now have they both seen and hated both me and ray Father,"* The meaning of these words is not that raankind generally, or the Jews in particular, would have had no sin — would have been innocent — had not Christ corae and made a revelation of himself and his Father, and confirmed that revelation by miracles ; for, without reference to these circumstances, " the whole world is brought in guilty before God,"^ — the law of nature convicting the Gentile, and the law of Moses convicting the Jew, of wilful violation of what they respectively knew to be the will of God, Nor is it that the Jews, in hating God and his Son, would have been guiltless without such a revelation, and such confirmation of it by miracles ; for the Old Testament revelation, and the evi dence accompanying it, and the preaching of the baptist and the apostles, and their rairacles, though Christ had not personally 1 John XV. 22, 24. ' Rom. iii. 19. 396 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, made such statements or wrought such miracles, would have conderaned them as guilty of a sin of imraeasurable heinousness, in hating God and his Son, The raeaning is, ' Had they not possessed such privileges, they could not have contracted such guilt: In their case, there is " no cloak," no palliation, no ex tenuation, of guilt. Had the revelation been less clear and distinct — had the miracles been less numerous and reraarkable — had the revealer of the truth and the worker of miracles, been less digni fied in his nature and office, and less accoraplished as to his qualifications, inteUectual and moral, their sin would, in com parison, have been as nothing. But not only had the heavens and the earth declared God's glory — not only had the ancient prophets declared his character and wUl — but he, the Only- begotten of God — the sent, the sealed, the anointed of th& Father — had corae and spoken to them, revealing the Father and hira self, — spoken in the words of clear stateraent, kind encourage ment, and solemn warning, and giving evidence, corresponding in clearness and weight to the iraportance of the revelation. He " did araong thera the works which none other man did ;" his miracles exceeded in multitude and variety all the rairacles that ever were perforraed. No man ever spoke as he spoke ; no raan ever wrought as he wrought. Yet after aU, the world, in the person of the Jews, both saw, — i. e., saw these works, — and yet they "hated both Christ and his Father;" and what they did, any other portion of the world — unregenerate men — would have done likewise. Now, if such be the lineage of the hatred and persecution of Christians by the world — if it be the result of hatred of God and his Son, originating in wilful ignorance of them — is there any reason why Christians should be ashamed of their sufferings for Christ ? Could they be flattered with tokens of regard from a world which hates their Lord, and his Father, and theirs? Surely, to every Christian who understands and considers these things, " the offence of the cross," in a sense somewhat different from that in which the apostle uses the term, " will cease ;"* and he will learn to glory in what is a raanifest token that he does not belong to those who know not, and who love not, God nor his Son. 1 Gal. V. 11. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 397 To Christians of the present age I would say, " Be not asharaed of the testiraony " of the Lord Jesus, nor of the sufferings in which.its maintenance may involve you. You cannot be ashamed of them without being ashamed of it. Beware of seeking to avoid suffering frora the scoff of the profane, or any other quarter, by concealing your faith. That is to be ashamed, not only of suffering for Christ, but asharaed of Christ hiraself; and so will he show that he reckons it, when he is ashamed of such, refusing to confess thera in the presence of his Father and the holy angels, as they refused to confess hira araid a faithless and disobedient generation. Be not asharaed of thera who are suffering for Christ — really suffering for Christ — in whatever way. It is re corded of Onesiphorus, that he was not asharaed of Paul's chain.* Seek to be " companions of such as are thus used." Own them but the more readily, because false brethren are apt to disown them in such circumstances : Christ will consider it as done to hiraself. And should you ever personally be exposed to suffer ing for Christ, drink in the spirit of the apostle of the Gentiles — " I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds ; nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have coraraitted unto hira against that day."^ See that your sufferings be suf ferings for Christ — not sufferings for your own humour, or your own sin. Never shrink from sufferings for him, however much fitted in themselves to excite sharae. He is well worth suffering for. When he suffered for you, he not only " endured the cross," but " despised the sharae." Be not ashamed of hira now, and ye shall not be asharaed — he will not be asharaed of you — at his coraing. It will be very sharaeful if you fall before the temptation, in the very weak forra it is presented in our country, especially when so many, who had trials of cruel raockings, not only were not ashamed of them, but gloried in thera. This was their song in the hour of trial, and it should be ours : — " Ashamed of Christ ! my soul disdains The mean, ungenerous thought ; Shall I disown that friend whose blood. To man salvation brought? 1 2 Tim. i. 10. ^ 2 Tim. i. 12 ; ii. 9. 398 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII. " With the glad news of love and peace. From heaven to earth he came : For us endured the painful cross, For us despised the shame. " At his command we must take up Our cross without delay : Our lives, j'ea, thousand lives of ours, His love can ne'er repay. " Each faithful sufPerer Jesus views With infinite delight ; Their lives to him are dear, their deaths Are precious in his sight. " To bear his name, his cross to bear. Our highest honour this ; Who firmly suffers with him now. Shall reign with him in bhss. " But should we, in the evil day. From our profession fly — Jesus, the Judge, before the world, The traitors will deny." To the world — that is to unbelieving unregenerate raen — who dislike and despise genuine Christianity, and genuine Christians, of whom it is quite possible some may be now hearing me, I have to say. Behold your character, and reflect on your danger. You have a heart-dislike of truly good men ; and if it does not break out in reproach and injury, it is the effect of the restraining in fluences of the circumstances in which you are placed. If you dislike genuine Christianity and genuine Christians, it is because you dislike Christ ; and if you dislike Christ, it is because you dislike God, being " eneraies by evil works ;" and if you dislike God and Christ, it is because you do not know them aright, being " alienated from thera through the ignorance that is in you ; " and if you do not know thera aright, it is because you will not receive the knowledge of God and Christ, " not liking " to receive nor " to retain the knowledge of God," though clearly stated and abundantly confirraed. Your ill-will and its conse quences are no proper cause of shame to Christians, but they are a very proper cause of shame to yourselves. How do good raen, how do angels, wonder at you ? — how does the devU, whom you serve, despise you ? What must the end be, if you remain in your present state — if you persist in your present course ? When PART XXI,] THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 399 the true followers of Jesus Christ — whora you would fain cover with sharae — shall " shine forth like the sun in the kingdora of their Father," and with hira who is their life shall appear in glory — shame and everlasting contempt will be your portion. When those whora you raade, or would fain have raade, sufferers, will have all tears wiped away frora their eyes by the hand of God, you shall sink under the infliction of those sufferings which are the due reward of your raalignlty, and its practical results in reference to God, to Christ, and to genuine Christians, and weep, and wail, and gnash your teeth for ever. And the con deranation will be as just as It is awful — of you, as " of thera, who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of his Son;" for " this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and ye have loved darkness rather than the Ught, because your deeds are evil." * He comes and speaks to you, as really as he did to the Jews ; and though you do not see the works which he did, such as no other raan did, you have abundant evidence that he did thera; and their power as evidence consists, not in their being seen done, but in their being done, and our knowing that they were done. There has been no want of clear stateraent, no want of satisfactory evidence. Your ignorance and unbelief are wilful. Inexcusable in themselves, they never can forra an excuse for anything else. No, " when he punishes you, you will have nothing to answer him." But Jesus is yet " the Saviour of the world," able and willing to save you — not in the world, but by delivering you frora this evil world — by taking you out frora among the world lying under the wicked one. And I cannot conclude without once raore pro clairaing to you the glad news of great joy, which are to all people : " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so has the Son of man been lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life," Look to him and be saved, " for God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in hira should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to conderan the world ; but that the world through him might be saved," ^ " Hear " these words — attend to, under stand, and believe them — " and your souls shall live," Shut 1 John iii. 19. ^ John iii. 14-17. 400 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, your ear — shut your heart — to them, and you must die— die the second death, from which there is no resurrection. Remain of the world, and you raust perish with the world. " Come out frora among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive you, and wUl be a Father unto you, and ye shall be ray sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."* And " He is not a man that He should repent;" "He is not slack" concerning either his promises or his threatenings. " Hath He said it, and shall He not do it ? hath He declared it, and shaU He not bring it to pass ? " § 4. The disciples had no reason to he discouraged by the hatred and opposition of the world. It only reraains now that we consider our Lord's statements, which show that the disciples had no reason to be discouraged in the prospect of meeting with the maUgnant opposition of the world.. There were two things calculated to discourage them, when they looked forward to what our Lord had assured thera was awaiting thera — " hatred and persecution from the world :" the first, that there seeraed little probability that they should succeed in their object in opposition to a hostile world ; and the second, that they must encounter this hostile world uncheered by the presence of him, their best friend. Our Lord meets both these causes of discouragement — the first, by assuring thera that provision was raade for their success, and showing thera what that provision was ; the second, by inforraing them that his going away from thera, was the suitable and the appointed raeans of having the provision made for their success actually realised. These two heads will be found to embrace all the topics which in this para graph reraain yet to be considered. (L) The Holy Spirit will so testify to them and by them, as that the world shall be convinced. With regard to the first, the provision raade for their ultiraate success, our Lord makes the following statements : " But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you frora the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth frora the Father, he 1 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 401 shall testify of rae. And ye also shall bear witness,* because ye have been with rae from the beginning." ^ "I have yet raany things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear thera now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is corae, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall not speakof himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak : and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify rae ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine : there fore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it to you." ' " When he is come, he wUl reprove," or, rather, as it is in the margin, ' he will convince,' " the world of sin, and of righteous ness, and of judgment : of sin, because they believe not on me : of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more : of judgraent, because the prince of this world Is judged." ¦* With regard to the second head of encouragement, the neces sity of his going away, an event in itself extremely discouraging to the disciples, being the necessary, suitable, appointed raeans of having the provision made for success actually realised, he makes the following statement. " Now I go ray way to Hira that sent rae ; and none of you asketh rae. Whither goest thou ? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not corae unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." ® The first head of encouragement is, ' The Holy Spirit is coming :' and the second is, ' My departure is necessary to secure his coming — I will send hira unto you.' Let us consider, then, these two heads of encourageraent in their order. And first, let us attend to our Lord's stateraent as to the pro vision which had been made for the success of their great enter prise, notwithstanding the malignant, virulent, powerful oppo sition of the world. That statement, on close exaraination, will be found to be this : ' The Holy Spirit is coming, and his cora ing will secure your success.' He, every way qualified for the office, is to be ray witness — ray witness to you — my witness ' " There are two inseparable witnesses of the Son of God — his Spirit, and his word : or, his Spirit working both inwardly and outwardly in the church, and his Spirit speaking by the mouths of his apostles and ministers. This is the settled and established way of God, with which He very rarely dispenses. Let us keep to the channel, if we desire to reach the fountain." — Quesnel. 2 John XV. 26, 27. ' John xvi. 12-16. ' John xvi. 811. ' John xvi. 5-7. VOL. III. * C C 402 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, through you to the world — and his testimony shall be effectual in convincing the world, notwithstanding all the opposition it raay raake,' The disciples might well have said, had they had raore distinct views than they had at the time these words were addressed to thera: 'How shall we ever disciple all nations? How shall we convert the world, a prejudiced, unbelieving, hostile world ? How shall we ever accomplish the work entrusted to us? Who is sufficient for these things?' The answer to aU these questions is, "Your sufficiency is of God," The Holy Ghost is coming, and he, testifying of Christ to you, and in you and by you to the world, will convince them of the truth, and thus gain for you the victory. Let us very shortly inquire. Who this witness is ? What is meant by his coraing, his being sent frora the Father by the Son, and proceeding frora the Father ? How he discharges the office of a witness of Christ, to the disciples, and to the world ? and finally. How he in the discharge of this office secures the success of the great enterprise in which the disciples were about to engage ? This witness of Christ, who was soon to corae, is here termed the " Comforter," — " the Spirit of truth" — the two appellations given to him, when first spoken of by our Lord, at the 16th verse of the fourteenth chapter; and at the 26th verse of that chapter, he is terraed " the Holy Ghost," That it is of a person, and not merely of an attribute or influence that our Lord speaks, has already been abundantly established.* His proper name is the Holy Ghost — his character is the Spirit of truth — his office, in reference to Christians, the Coraforter. As to his narae, he is the Holy Ghost or Spirit, the third per son of the Godhead, and he is called " the Spirit " to indicate, probably, not only the iramateriality of that divine nature of which he, in comraon with the Father and the Son, is possessed ; but also the peculiar, but inexplicable, ineffable, relation in which he stands to the other divine persons, being as it were their breath, as the second person is Son of the first ; and he is called the Holy Spirit to indicate that absolute perfection, especially that absolute raoral perfection, by which he is immeasurably separated or removed from the iraperfections of created spirits, ' This is strongly marked here. The " Spirit" a neuter word — He— not it— shall testify — ixuyoi, John xvi. 13. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 403 dwelling apart with the Father and the Son in " the light which is inaccessible.' As to his character, he is " the Spirit of truth," not the Spirit of falsehood, but of truth, — not the Spirit of error, but of truth — who knows the truth— who loves the truth — who reveals the truth — who cannot be deceived — who cannot deceive — equally incapable of ignorance and deception. The appellation is here given with a pecuUar reference to the work which our Lord states he Is about to engage in, as his witness. It intiraates that he is in every way a qualified witness^competent, from his per fect knowledge of truth — credible, from his infinite love of truth, and absolute incapacity of falsehood. As to his office, in reference to the christian church, he is " the Comforter," The original word " paraclete" cannot be trans lated, as I showed you formerly, by any one English word. It includes all that is most important in raeaning, expressed by the terras — instructor — monitor — helper — guide — comforter. Such is the nature, name, character, and office of him whom our Lord promises to his apostles as his witness. Let us now inquire what is meant by the " coming" of this glorious person — his " being sent" from the Father by the Son — and his " proceeding" from the Father. " Coraing" plainly, here, does not — cannot — mean local raovement, — an idea obvi ously altogether inapplicable to the purely spiritual, omnipresent Deity. It designates the manifestation of his presence, by the ex ertion of remarkable inward influence, and the production of re markable outward events. The Spirit came, when he began to produce those remarkable effects on the rainds of men, and the frame of nature, by which the comraenceraent of the new econoray was so reraarkably distinguished. Thus he came to the world ; and he comes to the individual, when he raakes hira the subject of his influence. He is represented as not only coraing, but as " sent." In the 16th verse of the fourteenth chapter, he is said to be " given" by the Father ; and, at the 26th verse of that chapter, to be " sent " by the Father in answer to the prayer of the Son ; and here he is said to be " sent " by the Son from the Father. In the econoray of salvation, the Father sustains the raajesty of the Divinity. The Son and the Holy Spirit act subordinate parts : all things are of the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. 404 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP. XXVIII. The will of God is the origin of all ; the power of God the effi cient cause of aU. The Father gives the Spirit, — i. e., it is by gracious Divine appointment that the Holy Ghost does all his pecuUar work in the plan of restoration. The Father sends him, just as He sends his Son, The raission of both is the result of Divine will — the manifestation of Divine grace and power. When, as in the passage before us, the Spirit is said to be sent by the Son from the Father, the idea is, that a foundation being laid for the gracious mission of the Spirit, in the finished work of the Son, as the great expiator, he — the glorified God-raan — has coraraitted to hira, as the reward of his raediatorial labours, the coraraunication of the influences of the Divine Spirit ; so that he has but to intercede, pray, express his will to the Father, and the Spirit's effecting rairaculous or saving changes among men is the immediate result. The expression, " which proceedeth frora the Father," has been the subject of rauch discussion among interpreters and theologians. The Council of Constantinople, which was held fourteen hundred years ago, to determine what was the true scriptural doctrine of the Holy Ghost, laid it down that the per sonal property of this divine person is, that he proceedeth — as the personal property of the Father is, that He begets, and of the Son, that he is begotten ; and, from the manner in which the passage before us is quoted in the " Westminster Confession," it is plain that its compilers considered it as the statement of an essential relation, not an economical arrangement. While there can be no doubt at all that the Spirit, equally with the Father and the Son, has a personal property which distinguishes him from the other persons of the Trinity, and that this property has a scriptural designation, it raay be doubted, without any ap proach to heresy, whether that designation is not that which is folded up in the very word Spirit — ' breathed,' This mode of interpretation would have prevented the senseless controversy* 1 How completely, in their speculations on this subject, the school divines darkened counsel by words without knowledge, is strikingly proved by the following statement of one of the acutest of them : — " Non accipienda est processio, secundum quod est in corporahbus, vel per motum localem, vel per actionem alicujus causae in exteriorem effectum, ut calor a calefaciente in oalefactum : sed secundum emanationem intelli- gibilem, ut pote verbi intelligibilis a dicente, quod manet in ipso. Et hie fides catholica processionem ponit in divinis." — Aquinas. Sum. Theol., Pan. i. 2, xxvii., art. 1. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 405 which has for so many ages divided the eastern and western churches ; and it does seera raost natural to interpret the expres sion, ' the Spirit's proceeding frora the Father,' In the same way as the completely parallel expression used by our Lord of him self at the 28th verse of the following chapter, — " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world ;" and there can be no doubt that, when the river of water of life — the emblem of the Holy Spirit — is said to " proceed out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,"* the reference is to economical arrangement. While, then, we hold that the Holy Spirit stands in a peculiar essential relation to the Father and to the Son, and that there is nothing wrong in giving to that relation the name of proces sion — as the spirit or breath proceedeth out of the mouth of him whose breath it is, — yet we are disposed to view the words before us as expressive of the fact, that the communication of the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit is the result of the benignant will of the Father, " of whora are all things," in the new as well as in the old creation. It is now time that we proceed to our third question. How the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of truth — the Comforter, — whom the Son sends from the Father, and who, sent by the Son, proceed eth from the Father, — discharges the office of a witness of Christ to the disciples, and in and by them to the world : " He shall testify of me."^ To " testify" is to tell the truth, and to prove that it is the truth. When, then, it is said of the Spirit that he should testify of Christ, the raeaning is, that he should reveal the truth about him, and prove it to be the truth. This was the great work which the disciples had been appointed to do : " As the Father had sent hira, so he had sent them." The Father sent him to declare the truth, and to show that it was the truth ; and he had sent them to do the same thing. But this was a work which, in theraselves, they were incapable of accorapUsh- ing ; therefore is the Holy Spirit sent to work along with thera, in them, by thera. His witnessing is not to supersede, but to render effectual, their witnessing : " He shall testify of rae : and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from ' Rev. xxii. 1. - " ixiiyis shows that ntufix is a person, not an attribute ; and the construction is like that which the grammarians call xxrx to n/^xiyifcuay." — Jobtin. 406 the VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, the beginning," * They were to be ," his witnesses," giving a tes tiraony of what they had " heard, seen, and looked on, and handled, of the word of life," " both in Jerusalera, and in all Judea, and In Saraaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth," ^ But, though they had been with him from the begin ning, they had very imperfectly comprehended much that they had seen — more that they had heard, — and they were utterly unqualified in themselves for giving satisfactory, conclusive evi dence of the strange things they were to bring to the ears of the world. Therefore the Spirit was to be a witness to thera, " I have," says our Lord, " many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear thera now,"^ ' To fit you for your work as my witnesses, you have yet much to learn. It would be a very im perfect, a v§ry confused, testimony you could give just now, I have all the information you need, I am ready to communicate it, but you are not capable of receiving it. It would be lost labour were I to give you it just now. " But when the Spirit of truth " — he who is to testify of rae, — when he comes, " he will guide you into all truth ; " * " He will," as our Lord had formerly said — " He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remerabrance, whatsoever I have said unto you," '* — q. d., ' I have spoken the truth to you, but you have very iraperfectly apprehended it. But the Holy Spirit wiU raake you see the full meaning of what I have said to you, calling to your recollection what you, but indistinctly reraember, or have alto gether forgotten.' The great truths which Christ had uttered to them, contained the sum and substance of the christian revelation ; but they saw them but as through a haze. To be guided into all truth, or all the truth, or the full truth — to be taught all things, — does not mean to be raade to know and understand everything — that is corapetent only to the oraniscient, all-wise God, — nor does it raean to be raade to know everything ' John XV. 26, 27. 2 Acts i. 8. ^ jghn xvi. 12. « John xvi. 13. ' John xiv. 26. " Our Lord's words," as has been justly remarked, " bore concealed in them the germ of an infinite development, reserved for future ages to unfold." This distinguishes Christ from all other teachers. Advance as they may, they never can get before, they never can reach him. They may go deep, but they never eome to the bottom ; they may get much out of the treasury, but there is more, much more, behind. The careful student is ever finding in his sayings to him new revelations, accompanied with the consciousness that he is not bringing the new truth into the words, but drawing it out of them — it was there from the beginning. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 407 in history, in science, or in art, which man is capable of know ing : it raeans to be led into " that acquaintance with the whole range and compass of the christian system — that enlarged and infallible perception of evangeUcal doctrine — that knowledge of the mystery of Christ, which, as the apostle Paul observes, ' In other ages was not raade known to the sons of men, as it was afterwards revealed unto his holy prophets and apostles by the Spirit,' ' which was requisite to enable them to deliver the Gospel to the world, in its complete revelation — to make known to man kind ' the whole counsel of God' — the perfected record of sal vation." ^ It was thus that the Holy Spirit was to testify of Christ to them. And the promise was fulfilled, in consequence of the Spirit being given thera on the day of Pentecost, they had the mind of Christ in them ; God revealed to thera, by his Spirit — that Spirit which " searcheth all things, even the deep things of God" — what "eye had not seen, what ear had not heard, and what it had not entered into the heart of man to conceive :" all of which had been substantially spoken to thera by their Master, though they understood it not ; and they spoke those things which, through the Spirit, had been freely .given thera of God — " not in the words which raan's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth" — expressing inspired thoughts in inspired words,* Nor did the Holy Spirit testify of Christ to them only by teaching them, and leading them into the knowledge of all the truth, and calling to their remerabrance what they had for gotten — he brought not only truth but evidence to thera. By the rairacles he wrought in them and by them, he confirmed their faith, and persuaded thera that he was no lying Spirit, but the Spirit of that God who, by the wonders of his omnipotent power, confirms the revelations of his truth and grace. To impress thera with a sense of the raagnitude and value of the privilege they were to enjoy in having the Holy Ghost — the Spirit of truth — the Coraforter — as a witness of Christ — to them — our Lord adds, " He will guide you into all truth : * for he I Eph. iii. 6. ^ Brown Patterson. ' 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10, 13. * oSyjyviiru ufAxs iU Txtrxy 7y)y xXvfiitxy, — Hc shall lead you iuto all the truth. "Jt is not omniscience that is promised, but all necessary religious knowledge."^ — Campbell. There is a tacit reference here to Psal. cxlii. 10 ; (Sept.) cxliii. (in our reckoning),— to ^ytufAx ffov TO oiyaffov oiviyvttrit fjLi \v t^ tldiix. How Striking an illustration of "thy law in my heart!" — Vide Camebonis Mykothecium, in loc. 408 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. shall not speak of hiraself; but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak : and he will shew you things to come," * — q. d., ' You need not be afraid of being led by hin. into anything but truth, for, like rayself, he proceeded forth and comes from tie God of truth. He is, like me, a messenger, and he brings his credentials with him.' "I can," said our Lord, referring to himself as a divine messenger — " I can of mine own self do nothing : as I hear, I judge : as ray Father hath taught me, I speak these things. I am not come of myself : but He that sent me is true ; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him."^ These declarations respecting both the Son and the Spirit, must appear inconsistent with their supreme divinity, to every one who does not know the doctrine of the economical subordination of the Son and Spirit, in the great plan of human redemption. Essentially the Spirit and the Son are equal to, for they are one with, the Father. EconomicaUy, the Father is greater than the Son and the Spirit, for He sends them ; the Son is greater than the Spirit, for he sends him. This is no scholastic nicety, no matter of doubtful disputation. Without apprehending this distinction, we cannot interpret the sacred Scriptures, nor form any clear notion of the way of salva tion. The Spirit, like the Son, would be faithful to Him who appointed him. In speaking to the apostles — in conveying inforraation into their rainds — he would coramunicate just what he was sent to communicate, without excess, without defect, without deviation. The Spirit, in testifying to the apostles and fitting them to be his organs for testifying to the world, was not only to make them recollect forgotten, and comprehend not understood or misunder stood, discourses, " he was to show them things to corae," By this, as well as by the rairacles he should enable thera to perforra, he would prove that he was not "the spirit of the world" — " the spirit of error," but " the Spirit of truth " — " the Spirit of God." He bestowed on the apostles and many others the gift of prophecy. In the Acts of the Apostles we have numerous proofs that he showed thera things to corae. And what a magnificent testimony of this kind did he give to the church, when he gave to John the divine, by the hand of his angel, the Apocalypse, — I John xvi. 13. 2 John v. 30, PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 409 a testiraony to Jesus, the fuU force and iraport of which wUl not be known tiU the raystery of God is finished. This testiraony to Christ was not only in itself raost cogent, but it was the fulfil ment of former prophetic oracles, in which it had been predicted that, " in the last days, the Lord would pour out his Spirit on all 'flesh ; and their sons and their daughters should prophesy."* The testiraony of the Spirit, in whatever forra it was given, would fit the apostles for testifying of Christ, for, adds our Lord, " He shall glorify rae, for he shall receive of mine,^ and shall show it unto you." ' Whatever he raakes known to you, he will make known to you as my doctrine. It will not appear to you a new and different doctrine frora raine ; you will be raade to see I had in effect told you that already ; and he will give you raore exalted ideas of my person and work than you even now possess.' " It pleased the Father, that in Christ all fulness " of truth, all fulness of blessing, " should dwell," " In him are hid all the treasures of wisdora and knowledge ; and out of this ful ness, not only do we receive grace for grace," but the Holy Ghost, who coramunicates truth and blessing, is represented here as drawing forth, as it were, aU the revelations which he raakes to man, from the same exhaustless treasury. These sublimely mysterious words, " He shall receive of mine, and show it unto you," do not signify that the Spirit of truth, who " knoweth the things of God," even as the spirit of man " knoweth the things of a man that are in him," who " searcheth all things, even the deep things of God,"^ can receive frora any quarter fresh infor raation, new knowledge. The language merely intimates that the comraunications which the apostles were to receive from the inspiring Spirit, were to be made under the sanction and autho rity of the exalted Mediator, in express conformity with the knowledge he possesses, and the views he takes, of all the sub jects to which the revelations refer. In being put under the tuition of the Holy Ghost, in having him testifying instead of Christ, they were not to suppose themselves brought into a new school, and subjected to the teaching of a new raaster. The 1 Joel ii. 28. 2 John xvi. 14. It would be diflaeult to find a good reason why xiS+sTai should be translated " receive " here, and in the following verse "take." The force of our Lord's " therefore" is lost in consequence of the needless change. 3 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. 410 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, testimony of the Spirit, whether in doctrines or in prophecy, was the witness of Jesus, Nor, when he calls the things of which the Spirit was to testify " his," were they to suppose that they were so his, as not to be the Father's who sent hira. The doctrine of the Spirit was the doctrine of Christ, but that doctrine was not theirs exclusively. It was the doctrine of the Father who sent thera, " All things," adds he, " that the Father hath are raine ;"* 'it was, therefore, not as clairaing the doctrine as my own exclusively, that I said the Spirit shall receive of raine. These truths are of the Father also and primarily ; for " I have received them of Hira, and show thera unto you," ' The words, " All things that the Father hath are raine," are true in the fullest extent of meaning in which they can be under stood. ' All the perfections of his nature — all his prerogatives — all his possessions — are mine. " I and my Father are one," " Whatsoever things the Father hath, the same things hath the Son likewise." ' ^ While this is true, there can be but little doubt that the re ference here is to the doctrines and revelations raade by the Spirit to the apostles. ' Every part of " the mystery which was kept secret frora former ages and generations," "hid in God since the foundation of the world," has been unfolded to me ; and I am, as Mediator, authorised through the Spirit to make it known to you, that ye raay raake it known to your fellow-raen.' The parallel passage is not so rauch — "I and ray Father are one" — as "In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things frora the wise and prudent, and hast revealed thera to babes. Even so. Father, for so it seeraeth good in thy sight. All things are delivered to rae of ray Father, and no raan knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal him."^ Thus, as It has been beautifully remarked, " the apostles were taught to consider every iota of the revelations made to thera as Christ's arabassadors after his departure frora the world, as doubly, so to speak, and trebly divine — not only given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, but given under the authority and John xvi. 15. 2 John x. 30; v. 19. 3 Matt. xi. 26-27. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 411 sanction of the Father and the Son ; a stream of truth fiowing, Uke the river of life, from the throne, the common throne of God and the Lamb, and bearing to all ages and kindreds of mankind the testimony of the one God, — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,"* — in whose name all Christians are baptised, whose authority is owned, and whose blessing is constantly implored in all the con gregations of the faithful. Testifying thus of Christ to the apostles, he testified in thera and by thera to the world. What they freely received they freely gave. They proclairaed the truth he taught thera, and they confirraed it by the miracles he wrought in them and by thera, WhUe they declared the truth respecting the way of salvation, first spoken by the Lord, after wards unfolded and confirraed to them by the Holy Spirit, not only did he testify in them, inasmuch as they spoke his thoughts in his words, but while he spoke by them, he bare witness by " signs, and wonders, and various spiritual gifts," There is obviously much in the words of our Lord, which we have been considering, primarily and Indeed exclusively, appli cable to those to whora they were originally addressed, and to the very reraarkable age in which they lived. The Holy Ghost does not now testify of Christ in men as he did in the apostles. The revelation of Jesus Christ is long since finally closed. The Spirit does not testify of Christ by inspiring raen or enabling thera to work miracles. But the Holy Spirit having come has never departed. The proraise was that he should abide with the church for ever, and he has been faithful who proraised. He is still giving testiraony to Christ in the writings of the apostles, and by those miracles of which, in these writings, we have an authentic record. And though his miraculous operations have long since ceased, he is stUl working in the hearts of raen, and by raaking the gospel record effectual in producing true holiness and true happiness — good hope and holy joy — he is " giving testimony to the word of his grace," The dispensation under which we live, is eminently the dis pensation of the Spirit, How high a privilege do we enjoy in living under such a dispensation, how deep a responsibiUty does that privilege bring along with it ! Let us reraeraber that it is 1 Brown Patterson. 412 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, wild enthusiasm to expect his miraculous influence, daring pre sumption to expect even his saving influence, apart frora his re corded word ; but let us equally recollect that his recorded word wUl not be " spirit and life " to us, unless through his " mighty working in all that beUeve." Let us all In the faith of the truth yield ourselves up to his influence, that he may teach us aU things necessary to holiness, comfort, and salvation ; that he may lead us into the fuU truth, and enable us to " keep in raemory " that Gospel by which alone we can be saved, and which we are so ready to let slip out of our minds. Let us rest assured that that spirit is not, and cannot be, the Spirit of God, which does not lead us to glorify the Saviour, forming exalted views of the dignity of his person and the perfection of his work, the preva lence of his intercession, and the fulness and the freeness of his salvation. Let us take heed that we discredit not the testimony of the Holy Spirit. " If we receive the testimony of raan, the testi raony of God is greater." He who believes not this testimony makes the Spirit of truth a liar, — that is, treats hira as if he were one. He who thus does despite to hira — " the free," generous, gracious, benignant " Spirit " — incurs deep guilt, and exposes himself to tremendous peril. God is pouring out his Spirit, making known his word to us. When he thus calls, let us take care how we refuse, lest he say in his wrath " My Spirit shall no longer strive. They are joined to their idols, let them alone." Let, especially, those who profess to have received the testimony of the Spirit, take heed that they do not put man's testimony in its room ; let thera beware of being led aside by the evil heart of unbelief; let them beware of turning back towards what to them must be a double perdition. There is deep meaning, as well as treraendous power, in these words : — " It is irapossible for those who were enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were raade partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance ; seeing they crucify to theraselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open sharae. For the earth, which drinketh in the rain that coraeth oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs raeet for them by whora it is dressed, receiveth blessing frora God : but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing ; PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 41 3 whose end is to be burned. But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accorapany salvation, though we thus speak."* " Consider what has been said, and the Lord give you understanding in all things." Let us proceed now to consider the fourth of the questions suggested by our Lord's words. How was the Holy Spirit, as Christ's witness, and the disciples' paraclete, to secure the success of their struggle with the world ? The answer to this question is contained in these words : — " When he is come, he will re prove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment : of sin, because they believe not on rae ; of righteousness, be cause I go to ray Father, and ye see rae no raore ; of judgraent because the prince of this world is judged."^ When this is generally done, the great work committed to the disciples is ac complished ; — they have triumphed, and the world is overcome. The passage now before us is soraewhat obscure,' and has, as a raatter of course, been variously interpreted. The causes of this obscurity, and consequent variety of interpretation, are to be found chiefly in three things : 1st, The arabiguous raeaning of the word rendered reprove; 2d, the very general nature of the terras — sin, righteousness, and judgment ; and, 3d, the uncertainty whether the particle rendered by our translators because, and which raight with equal propriety be rendered that, is intended to denote that what follows it in the three different clauses is a reason for, or the evidence of, what goes before, — or whether it is intended to denote that it is raerely an illustrative statement. . To enter largely into an account of the different views which ' Heb. vi. 4-9. ^ John xvi. 8-11. The reader will do well to peruse an elaborate note on this passage by President Edwards, — Works, ix. 331-334. Wetstein's comment, though, as will be seen, I do not entirely agree with him, deserves the epithets Kocher has bestowed on it — " Subtilis et non vulgaris." " Spiritus Sanctus, advocatus a Christo missus, discipulos docebit, postquam Jesus majorem judicem appellasset, (1 Pet. ii. 23), causam ejus denuo ab ipso Deo fuisse coguitam, qui et accusatores et reum et judicem judicaverit. Accusatores reos peraget, quod doctorem ccelestem ejusque doctrinam non accepissent. — Supra viii. 1. Id Spiritus Sanctus demonstravit tum resuscitatione Christi, Rom. i. 4, Acta xvii. 31, tum done linguarum die Pentecostes dato Acta ii. 37, 38. Reum h. e. Christum innocentem justumque fuisse demon- strabit, quod coelo receptus est, ut ibi ad dextram patris sederet et aeternum regnaret. — Acta ii. 23, 24, 33. Judicem etiam injustum judicabit. Pilatus conscientia criminis admissi torquebitur, atque ab of&cio removebitur: diabolus vero, a quo omne peccatum ortum est, regno exuetur, tenebris ignorantiae et idololatrise per lucem evangelii ubique terrarum dispulsis. — 1 Jo. v. 4,6; Apoc. xi. 15; xii. 10-12; xx. ; Supra xii. 31." ^ " Locus admodum perplexus."- Jansunius. 414 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII. have been entertained on these points, and to weigh the evidence by which it has been atterapted to support them, would be very rauch out of tirae and place now and here. With the utraost practicable brevity, I will state what appears to rae to be the mean ing of the passage, and show its bearing on our Lord's obvious purpose — to encourage his disciples by the assurance of ultimate success. The word rendered reprove sometiraes signifies to rebuke ; but its proper signification is either to convict a person of having done soraething which is wrong, or to convince a person of hold ing soraething that is false. There can scarcely be a reasonable doubt that the last is its meaning here. The Holy Spirit is here represented as acting the part of a witness of Christ — bringing for ward truth, and its evidence, before the world, who are labouring under false views, and thus convincing thera. Convince is the only word that answers equally well to all the three clauses. Reprove, or convict, suits sin well enough, but does not suit righteousness and judgment ; — convince agrees with all. The sin they needed to be convinced of, was their own sin ; the righteousness they needed to be convinced of, was the righteousness of him whom they regarded and treated as an impostor and deceiver ; and the judgraent they needed to be convinced of, was his government — his rightful authority and dominion over thera. ' He shall con vince them that they are sinners, that I am righteous, and that all judgraent belongs to rae.' This seems to be the meaning of our Lord's general declaration. The precise raeaning of the three raore particular stateraents which follow, depends on the question I have already hinted at — whether the word rendered because, and which equaUy raight have been rendered that, is to be considered as indicating that what follows it is stated as a reason for, or as an evidence of, what goes before it, — or whether it merely introduces an ex planatory or illustratory stateraent. According to the first of these modes of viewing it, the raeaning Would be, ' The Spirit will convince the world that they are sinners ; and the evidence will be, " they did not believe in rae." Had they not been de praved, they could not have rejected such a person, bringing such a message, and offering such evidence. He will convince thera that they are sinners, because they have rejected me. The Spirit will convince the world of righteousness— of my righte- PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 415 ousness — that my doctrine was true, that my clairas were just, that ray conduct was unblaraeable and right ; and the evidence will be, " I have gone to the Father, and ye see me no more." He will convince thera, by the rairacles which he will enable the apostles to perforra, that what they say of their Master's resur rection, and ascension, and perraanent abode in heaven, is true ; and that, therefore, he was righteous — he was in the right, and his opposers in the wrong. The Spirit will convince the world of judgment — of Christ's being the universal judge or ruler, the Father having given all judgraent to him ; and the evidence will be, " the prince of this world is judged " — judged by hira, cast out, deprived of his dominion.' Such is the raeaning of the passage, if you consider the connecting particle rendered because, as indicative of the evidence by which the Spirit confirras his testiraony that men are sinners, that Christ is righteous, and that judgment belongs to him — and convinces the world of the , truth of that testimony. If you consider the connecting particle as equivalent to that, introducing an explanatory or illustrative statement, the mean ing will be, ' The Spirit will convince the world of sin — of their own sin — that they are sinners, — especially that they are sinners in not believing in Christ. The Spirit will convince the world of righteousness — of Christ's righteousness,- — especially in his going to the Father, and being no more seen by his disciples. The Spirit will convince the world of judgment — of the judg ment or rule which belongs to Christ, — especially of that judg ment as exercised over the prince of this world.' Either mode of interpretation brings out an iraportant and suitable sense. Each has its recommendations, and each its drawbacks. If I were addressing a class of students of theology, I should think it right to go into a particular statement, and weighing of these, to ascertain which ought to be preferred. I think it enough here to state that, upon the whole, I consider the last as the preferable mode of interpretation — freest from difficulties, and bearing most directly on our Lord's object ; and, considering it in that light, I shall proceed to say a few words in its iUustration. " The Spirit," says our Lord, " shall convince the world of sin, that they believe not in me," — i. e., ' He will convince men that they are sinners — especially that they are sinners in not 416 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. believing in me.' The doctrine and the law of Christ cannot be received, except by those who are persuaded that they are sinners — guilty and depraved creatures — exposed to God's righte ous displeasure — unfit for God's holy feUowship. The Gospel is throughout a restorative econoray, and, therefore, can be understood, valued, accepted, only by those who are aware that the lost condition, for which such an econoray is required and intended, is theirs. It is because men are, to so limited an ex tent, convinced of sin, of what sin is — how heinous in its nature, how fearful in its consequences, — and that they are sinners, that Christianity cannot obtain even a fair hearing. Convince a raan that he is a sinner, and then, and not till then, will he have rauch curiosity to listen to what is said about a Saviour — rauch disposition to inquire into the truth of what is said about him — to ponder at once the raeaning and the evidence of the testiraony. This is the radical part of the Spirit's convincing process ; but he not only convinces of sin generally, but he convinces of sin in not believing in Christ. He fixes the raind so on the raean ing and evidence of the truth respecting Christ, as to produce faith ; and, in producing it, to lodge in the mind the conviction that, in not believing that truth, frora the moment it was pre sented to it, there was sin, great sin ; not mere intellectual mis take, but sin —deep, aggravated sin — the greatest sin man is capable of coraraitting, — indeed, a sin which, if persisted in, must end in hopeless perdition. The Spirit-convinced raan of the world is persuaded that he is a sinner, and would becorae an unpardonable sinner, if he should persist In not believing in the name of the only begotten . Son of God. It was thus that, by his inward influence, through the instrumentaUty of the rairacles of Pentecost, and the preaching of Peter, the Holy Spirit pro duced the result so strikingly described in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles : " Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles. Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" It was the sarae divine influence, accompanying what Paul and Silas had said, and the rairaculous earthquake, and loosing of the prisoners, that extorted frora the jailor's lips that agonising cry, " Sirs, what raust I do to be saved ?"* ' Acts xvi. 30. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 417 The second great head of testiraony by the Holy Spirit is " righteousness." This is a word often eraployed by the apostle Paul to signify justification — the method of justification. There is no evidence, however, that the term is ever eraployed in this sense by the evangelist John, The righteousness here spoken of is obviously our Lord's righteousness. The world — raen — were sinners, and showed theraselves to be sinners, especially in not believing in Christ. He was righteous — always and alto gether in the right ; his doctrines all true ; his requisitions all just ; all he thought, felt, spoke, and did, right, both in the matter and in the manner. The world thought, the world thinks, otherwise ; and, while it does so, it cannot embrace Christianity. But the Spirit is promised to convince the world — raankind — of Christ's righteousness. When a raan is convinced of his own sin — his sin in not believing in Christ, — he is far advanced to wards being convinced of his righteousness. Just in proportion as he is convinced that he himself is wrong, utterly wrong — especially wrong in not believing in Christ, — is he disposed to think Christ is right — entirely right — in all his doctrines, claims, laws, and appointraents. And, while the Spirit convinces generally that Christ Is righte ous, he particularly convinces that he is righteous " in that he went to the Father, and was seen no more." The disciples were perplexed about this departure, and the unbelieving world thought that Jesus had acted an unrighteous part to his poor deluded disciples, when, after making such promises to thera, he had left thera, and gone whence he would not return. But the Spirit was to convince the world that what they, in their ignorance, thought unjust, was indeed the raost perfect righteous ness. When he opened their understandings to the true nature of Christ's departure, when he made them perceive that that death, which formed a necessary step in Christ's going to the Father, was the requisite and the sufficient atonement for human guilt ; and that both it and his resurrection and ascension, by which his return to the Father was completed, were necessary to obtain that coraraunication of divine infiuence, which is at once indispensably requisite and abundantly sufficient to raake raen holy and happy ; and that his bodily residence, invisible to thera, in the heavens which received him, corresponded with the spiritual nature of the kingdom he was to establish by his apostles VOL. III. * D d 418 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII. among men — when the Spirit raade it evident that these were the only means of securing that very end which they seemed fitted to frustrate, then did he convince the world, that here, as every where else— that here more gloriously than anywhere else- Christ was righteous, and " did all things weU." This was the very consummation of the "everlasting righteousness,"* which he, as the promised Messiah, was to bring in;^ Of this the Spirit convinced the world, in the primitive age, by accompanying with his saving influence the doctrines on this subject taught by the apostles, enlightened by his inspiring influence, and confirmed by the mighty miracles which he enabled them to perform. Of this he convinces men stUl by the same influence, through the instrumentality of the same doctrines and the same miracles, authentically recorded in the inspired apostolical writings. And his righteousness being thus made a subject of firm belief on the part of men, " Jesus is justified by the Spirit." ' The third great head of the Spirit's promised testimony is " judgment." Judgraent is a word of very various meaning. It signifies sometiraes judicial investigation — sometiraes judicial decision — soraetiraes condemnation — sometimes punishment. You may recollect that, when I expounded to you these words of our Lord, " Now is the judgraent of this world ; now is the prince of this world cast out,"* I endeavoured to show you that " judgment " there refers to the rule and government of the world, to be conferred on the Son b}' the Father, as the merited reward of his labours and sufferings in the cause of righteousness, and as the raeans of his carrying out, to entire accomplishraent, his plans for promoting the glory of God and the happiness of raankind, — a sense in which the term Is very often used in the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, and in which our Lord uses it in reference to himself when, un folding the character of the new economy, he says, " The Father judgeth no raan, but hath committed all judgment to the Son ;" and in which the apostle Paul also eraploys it, when he says that Jesus Christ is appointed to judge the world,* If we suc ceeded in our atterapt to show that that was the raeaning of the word "judgment" there, there scarcely can be a reasonable doubt that that is its meaning here, ' Dan. ix. 24. 2 Werenfels Opusc. i. 325. « 1 Tim. iii. 16. ' John xii. 31. ' John v. 22. Acts xvii. 31. PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 419 The Holy Spirit will convince the world of judgment. He will convince thera that, according to the ancient oracle, " The judgraent is set." The Son of man by that very death and its consequences which they in their unbelief thought impeached his righteousness, " has come to the Ancient of days, and been brought near before Him, and there has been given to hira dominion, and glory, and a kingdora, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him : his dominion Is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed :" and " he judges among the na tions, — araong raany people," The Spirit convinced, on the day of Pentecost, many who previously were of the world, that " God had indeed made that sarae Jesus whom the Jews had crucified both Lord and Christ" * — the judge, the lawgiver, the king ; and wherever he acts as a witness to Christ, there does he con vince of this truth, • While he convinces the world — that is, mankind — that there is judgment, and that Jesus is the judge, he convinces thera par ticularly that this judgment or rule is exercised over the prince of this world : — " He will convince of judgraent, — that the prince of this world is judged," In a forraer discourse, we showed at some length that this is the distinctive title of that evil spirit who finds in the prevalence of moral evil in the universe his depraved pleasure, and who, from the extent of his influence among raen, has but too good a claim to the appellations — " prince of this world," "god of this world," "ruler of the darkness of this world," " spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience." ^ By the preaching of the Gospel, attended by miracles, and accompanied by inward divine influence, the Holy Spirit practi cally testified that Satan was falling like Ughtning from heaven — that he was judged — that the house of the strong one had been entered by one stronger than he, who was spoiling him of his goods. Such was our Lord's promise ; and in its fulfilment the otherwise hopeless labours of the apostles were crowned with success. They witnessed, and the Spirit witnessed along with them ; and the result was, the world — unbelieving raen — many unbelieving men — were convinced of their own sin, especially in not believing in Christ, of his righteousness, — especially in his 1 Dan. vii. 1.3, 14. Isa. ii. 4. Acts ii. 36. ^ Eph. ii. 2. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 420 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. - going to the Father, and being no raore seen araong raortals, — and of his possessing and exercising judgment, especially over that wicked one who had usurped the throne of the world. This is the process by which men are made Christians, and "the world" converted Into disciples. The conviction of sin — of the righteousness of Christ — of the impotency of evil, in opposition to the kingdora of God, — and, as Neander says, " to be conscious of sin, to know Christ as the holy Kedeemer, and the kingdom of God as the conqueror of evU, — this is the whole essence of Christianity." The world is not yet fully convinced, but the process is going on ; and the apostles, by their recorded doctrine -and rairacles, through the power of the Holy Ghost, shaU yet becorae the con querors of the world. Yet a little while, and the jubilant voices shall be heard in heaven, — " Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ : for the accuser of our brethren is cast down." " The kingdoms of this world are becorae the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." * This was surely well fitted to prevent the disciples frora being discouraged — the promise of such a witness to confirm their testimony, who had such power to convince, and was disposed to use it. (2.) The departure of Christ is necessary and sufficient to secure the coming of the Holy Spirit, But still there was another source of discouragement — he was about to leave them, and what could make up for that ? Why must he go away ? They would be glad of the other paraclete, but they knew not how to part with that paraclete they already possessed. This suggestion is met by our Lord in the following words: — "But now I go my way to Him that sent me; and none of you asketh me. Whither goest thou ? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you that I go away,*" for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." ^ ' Rev, xii. 10 ; xi. 16. b gee Note B. " John xvi. 7. — " izlxeo,, tro^tvSS. Dififerunt verba : illud terminum a quo, hoc ter- minum ad quem magis spectat."— Bengel. Kuinoel connects the first clause of verse 6th with what goes before, puts a full stop after ts>+«»t« ^i, and considers our Lord PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 421 The disciples, so long as they could persuade themselves that when their Lord spoke of leaving thera, he meant going to some other place on earth, were ready enough with their questions as to whither he was going, and with their asseverations that they were prepared to accompany him. Peter says, " Lord, Whither goest thou ?" " Why cannot I follow thee ? I am ready to go to prison and death with thee." And Thomas says, " Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way ? " * But from the tirae they clearly understood that he was about to die, sorrow filled their hearts — they were afraid to ask questions. That was a subject they wished to hear no raore about. Our Lord's words are equivalent to — 'I wish you would but turn your thoughts to whither I am going, and to the purpose for which I am going thither, and for the necessity of ray going there. If the truth on these subjects were but fully before your minds, you could not be so sad as you are. My going is abso lutely necessary to that ment — the coraing of the Holy Spirit — which alone can secure your success in your contests with the world. That event, rightly apprehended, would be seen by you to be one by no means to be deprecated.' ^ " It is expedient for you that I go away." ' Your best In terests absolutely demand it.' " If I go not away, the Coraforter will not come." The influence of the Holy Ghost was equally necessary to their own personal possession of the heavenly and spiritual blessings of the new covenant, to be ratified in his blood, and to their being successful as the great channels through which these blessings were to be coraraunicated to mankind at large. And as the Comforter could not come if Jesus did not go, so, if he went away, he would send hira. The language here is figura tive, but by no means obscure. The atoning death of Christ was necessary to make it consistent with the perfections of the Divine character, and the principles of the Divine government, to bestow on men those spiritual blessings which are necessarily connected with the saving influence of the Holy Spirit, AU such blessings from the beginning had been bestowed with a reference to that as, after a pause, saying, "And does no one of you ask whither I go, but because I have thus spoken to you, is your heart quite filled with sorrow ? " This seems a very beautiful and natural connection. • John xiii. 36 ; xiv. 5. ' " Sensus est — ' Audito meo discessu expavescitis, neque repntatis, quo discedam nee IN QUUM FINEM."" 422 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII. atoneraent ; and it was fitting that these blessings, in their rich est abundance, should not be bestowed tiU that atonement was raade. Besides, It is the record of the corapleted atoneraent, as the raost wonderful display of the Divine character, which, in the hand of the Holy Spirit, is the principal instrument for com municating these blessings ; and the history could not be well written tiU the events had taken place. As there was a pro priety in the Spirit not being sent, in all the fulness of his gifts and graces, till Jesus was glorified, and as he could not be glo rified till he had finished the work given hira to do, so there was such a congruity between his going to the Father, and the send ing the Spirit, that the one tnay be said to have secured the other.* " The right of bestowing on his chosen the promise of the Holy Ghost was a part — a primary one — of that iUustrious reward which Jesus should purchase by his death ; of that joy set before hira, for which he endured«the cross, despising the sharae ; and the actual coraraunication of that glorious gift was wisely affixed to the period of his exaltation iraraediately succeed ing his death — partly that the presence of the Paraclete might serve as a compensation, and raore than a simple compensation, to the church for the departure of the Mediator, and partly that ' The expediency of our Lord's going away may be illustrated without aMireet reference to its necessary connection with the coming of the Holy Spirit as the paraclete. Bishop Andrewes compares the case of the disciples to that of little children, become so foolishly fond of their mother, that it is necessary that she should leave them occasionally. " So strangely fond they grew of Christ's flesh; and his fleshly presence, that they could not endure that he should go out of their sight. Nothing but his carnal presence could quiet them. We know who said, ' If thou hadst been here. Lord ; ' as, if absent, he had not been as able to do it by his Spirit, as present by his body. And a tabernacle they would needs build him to keep him on earth still ; and ever and anon they were still dreaming of an earthly kingdom, and of the chief seats there, as if their consummation should have been in the flesh." — " The corporeal, therefore, is to be removed, tbat the spiritual might take place." This was " expedient for them." Luther's illustration is characteristic : — " ' Unless I go away,' that is, ' unless I die,' ' nothing will be done — you will continue as you are, and everything will remain in its old state : the Jews under the law of Moses — the heathen in their blindness — all under sin and death. No Scripture would then be fulfilled, and I should have come in vain.' " The pious, though certainly not judicious, prelate just referred to, is very unhappy in a figurative argument for the necessity of the coming of the Spirit :— " Christ is the word, the Holy Spirit is the seal. A word is of no force till the seal be added. Christ is the testator of the New Testament — the administrator is the Spirit. The testament is to small purpose, if it be not ad ministered." This is in a great measure to substitute a play of words for argument. Coleridge was right when he said, " Metaphors are sorry logic." PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED. 423 the communication of the Spirit, by the power and according to the proraise of Jesus, might serve on earth, both to friends and foes, as an unambiguous proof that he was indeed exalted, at the right hand of power, ' a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and the remission of sins.' " * The Spirit cannot corae, if Christ stay. He is sure to come, if Christ go. He " has all power in heaven and earth." He cannot want the power, then, to send his disciples whatever they need ; and they surely knew him too well to think he could want the wUl. When he descended into the grave, it was that he might ascend into the heavens ; and when he ascended to the heavens, it was to receive gifts — the Holy Spirit first among these gifts — and, when he received gifts, it was that he might bestow them. Surely, then, there was no reason to be discour aged. Arrangements had been raade for the coraing of the Holy Spirit, who would supply all their need, and secure victory for thera and their cause ; and if their Lord must leave them, it is only that he raay send this Holy Spirit, who otherwise could not, in consistency with Divine arrangeraeuts, equally connected with God's honour and their happiness, corae to them. Thus have we finished our illustrations of our Lord's wise and benignant instructions and consolations to his disciples, in the prospect of the malignant, powerful opposition of a hostile world. Having stated fairly and fully the facts of the case, and traced them satisfactorily to their causes, how clearly has he shown the disciples that they had no reason to be astonished — no reason to be stumbled — no reason to be ashamed — no reason to be dis couraged I ' The contest between the world, and Christianity and Chris tians, though continued for raore than eighteen hundred years, has not yet come to a close. The Holy Spirit has, in innumer able instances, by convincing men of sin, and righteousness, and judgraent, induced thera to come out of the world — the kingdom of darkness — into the true church — the kingdora of God's dear Son, — and converted them from being the inveterate enemies, to be the devoted friends, of Christianity, of Christians, and of Christ. But the overwhelming majority continue stUl uncon vinced, and therefore still enemies. ' Brown Patterson. 424 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP, XXVIII. The fearful odds as to nuraber, and secular power and influ ence, of the eneraies of Christianity, is apt even stUl to have a dispiriting effect on the rainds of Christians. But what sus tained the rainds of the apostles should sustain ours, Jesus is glorified; the Spirit has been given. The Spirit is in the church, in the Bible, and in the hearts of his true members ; and, through the church, the Spirit is still operating on the world— convincing it of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment— and thus converting it to God, That is HIS work — his work exclusively. But he works through means. The church must give the world the Scriptures ; the church raust foUow up the apostolic coraraission, by going and teaching all nations — preach ing the Gospel to every creature. It would have been presump tion in the apostles to expect that the Holy Spirit should convince the world, if they sat still, and did not bear their testimony as witnesses. But they would have had but poor encouragement to do this, had it not been for the promise of the Spirit to enable them to witness, and to witness along with them. Just so is it now. We have no cause t6 be discouraged at the wide-extended wastes of Paganisra, and Moharaniedanism, and false Christian ity. He who convinced the world in the primitive age, and made so many pagans Christians, — he who convinced the world in the age of the Eeformation, and made so many anti-Christians Christians, — he who all along has been making gradual inroads on the world by individual conversions — effectual conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment — is as full of power and grace as ever. Let the church manifest the same believing, affec tionate, laborious, persevering exertion, as in the primitive age, and it will soon be made apparent that neither the intercession of the Son nor the influence of the Spirit has lost any of its efficacy. The world will never be converted to Christianity, but by being convinced, by the Spirit, of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Let the truth, then, with regard to the sin of man, especially in not believing in Christ — with regard to the perfect righteousness of the person and work of the Redeemer, especially in that atoning death by which he went to the Father — and with regard to that unlimited righteous rule which he exercises over the world which he has purchased,— let this truth be spread abroad over all the earth, that in this truth the Holy Spirit may PART XXI.J THE DISCIPLES FORTIFIED, 425 find the appropriate instruraent for carrying horae his convictions to the hearts of raen ; and let prayers, fervent and believing, con tinually ascend frora the church to the Father, frora whora the Spirit proceedeth, that He would pour out his Spirit ,on all fiesh, as a Spirit of deep convincement, and thus accomplish the con version of the world, which is not to be " by power and might," but " by his Spirit," The world — the great mass of men — are yet to be converted to God ; and the atonement and intercession of Christ, and the work of the Spirit, in the word and by the word, on the hearts of men, are obviously adequate causes for the production of this glorious effect, " The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this," May He " hasten it in his time," The world is a valley full of dry bones. It is the duty of the church to prophesy to these dry bones, and to say, " Hear the word of the Lord," It is not less her duty to pray and to say, " Corae frora the four winds, O breath, and breathe on the slain, and they shall live ;" and the church will not be long engaged in this prophesying and praying, till the breath will corae into the dry bones — the lifeless skeletons — and " they shall Uve, and stand up on their feet, an exceeding great array," * Let this, then, be the burden of our prayers, ' Lord, give us the Holy Spirit, Give the church the Holy Spirit, as the spirit of light and love, purity and peace, zeal and activity. Give the world the Holy Spirit, as the spirit of conviction and conversion. " Deny us not this grace." Jesus is glorified ; let the Spirit be given — shed forth abundantly his influence ; let it be poured out like water on our churches, which are as the thirsty field ; like floods on the world, which is as the dry ground. " Then will the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgraent shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever," ' ^ ' Ezek. xxxvii. 1-11. ' Isa. xxxii. 13-18. XXII. CONCLUSION OP THE DISCOURSE. John xvi. 16-33 " A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again a little while, and ye shall see me ; because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves. What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again a little while, and ye shall see me : and. Because I go to the Father ? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while ? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them. Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again a little while, and ye shall see me ? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice ; and ye shall be sor rowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she_is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come : but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow ; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me no thing. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name. He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs : but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name : and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you : for the Father himself lov eth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world : again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee : by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe ? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." These verses, which now lie before us, are closely connected together, and forra the concluding section of our Lord's valedic tory discourse. The whole of the fifteenth chapter, and the pre ceding part of the sixteenth, are occupied with exhortations and consolations addressed to the disciples, viewed as standing to him, as their Master, in the relation of confidential servants — subordinate agents — to be employed by him In a great work — the establishraent of his kingdom, the empire of truth, among men ; and standing in need of instructions how to perform this work. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 427 They refer chiefly to the part they were to perform, in going and bringing forth fruit — the necessity of their abiding in him, and his abiding in them, in order to its right performance — the im portance of the most entire affection and confidence prevaUing among theraselves — and the encouragements which, in the assur ance of the permanent and powerful aid of the Holy Spirit, they had for expecting coraplete and ultimate success in their enter prise, notwithstanding — what they were sure to encounter — the hatred and oppositiop of a hostile world. In the passage that now coraes before us, our Lord, as in the beginning of the discourse, administers consolation to thera, viewed as his sincerely and ardently attached friends, sunk in sorrow at the apprehension of having soon to part with hira, in circurastances full of mystery and perplexity : and he does this by assuring them that, though he must soon — very soon — leave them, the period of separation, and the distress It raust produce, would be but of short duration ; that the joy of their meeting again would be not only great but perraanent ; and that, con nected with his going to the Father, such arrangements were made as would secure for them, though deprived of his bodily presence, all necessary instruction and consolation — indeed, the supply of everything of which they might stand in need whUe in this world. The topics which this concluding section of our Lord's dis course brings before the mind, are the five following : — First, An enigmatic declaration raade by hira :* Secondly, The perplexity of the disciples on hearing that enigraatic declaration :^ Thirdly, His explanatory reraarks on it :' Fourthly, Their expression of satisfaction with these, and firra faith in his divine raission :* and Fifthly, His concluding warning and consolation,* We shall briefly turn your attention to these topics in their order, § 1, Enigmatical declaration of our Lord. And flrst, of our Lord's enigraatic declaration, — "A Uttle while, and ye shall not see rae : and again a little while, and ye shall see rae ; because I go to the Father," Rightly to under stand these words, there are various questions which raust be proposed and answered. 1st, Does the expression, "a little ' John xvi. 16. ' John xvi. 17, 18. 3 John xvi. 19-28. * John xvi. 29, 30. ' John xvi. 31-83. 428 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. while," refer to the period after which, or to the period during which, the event or events spoken of were to take place ? 2d, Are there two " little whiles," two short periods, raentioned here, or Is it the sarae little while, the sarae short period, that is twice mentioned? 3d, and finally. What are the events here referred to as "the not seeing the Lord," and "the seeing hira;" and what are the periods in which they are to occur ? When these questions are satisfactorily answered, we shall then perceive what is the sentiment our Lord raeant to convey ; and having done so, we will shortly illustrate it, and show how it was fitted to serve the purpose for which it was made, — to soothe the minds of the disciples under present suffering, and to prepare them for the severer sufferings in which they were just about to be involved, and by which their faith was to be so severely tried. With regard to the first of these questions. Does the expression " a little while," refer to the period after which, or to the period during which, the event or events referred to were to take place? or in other words. Is the meaning, ' After a short time, ye shall not see me ; and then after a short time, ye shall see rae : ' or is it, ' For a short tirae ye shall not see me ; and then for a short time ye shall see me ? ' A good enough sense comes out of the words in either way, and a sense quite consistent with the facts of the case ; for, after a short time, the disciples did not see their Lord for a short tirae ; and, again, after a short tirae they did see hira for a short time : after a few hours, they did not see him for a few days ; and after these few days, they again saw him for a few weeks. Though the words may be rendered so as that the " little while " shall refer to the period during which the event or events referred to shall take place, and though, could no satisfactory raeaning be brought out of thera otherwise, they ought to be so rendered, yet the rendering given by our translators, which refers it not to the period during, but to the period after, which the event or events referred to were to take place, is the natural raeaning of the ex pression, as is plain from the following parallel passages : — "Yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu," * i. e., not ' I will take a short time in avenging the blood of Jezreel,' but ' I wUl do it soon.' "Yet once more, it is 1 Hos. i. 4. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 429 a Uttle whUe, and I will shake the heavens and the earth,"* i. e., not, ' I will take a short time to shake the heaven and the earth,' but, ' I will soon set about it.' " For yet a little while, and he that shall corae will corae, and will not tarry." ^ " Yet a little whUe, and the world shall see me no more."^ And as our Lord's object was to prevent his disciples, from being driven from their faith in him by what was coming, it was raost natural both to warn thera that separation from hira was just at hand — after a little while — that they raight be in some degree prepared for what was so different from all they had expected, and to assure thera that this separation would soon be followed — after a little while — by their re-union. To tell them that when they saw hira again, it was only to be for a little while, though in one sense true, was in no wise fitted to gain what we know was our Lord's object. It seems quite clear, then, that we are to consider the phrase, " a little while," as descriptive, not of the period during, but of the period after, which the event or events referred to were to take place. The second question which must be asked and answered to enable us satisfactorily to expound this passage is, ' Are there two " little whiles," two short periods, mentioned here, or is it the same " little while," the same short period, that is twice men tioned ? ' In other words, ' Is our Lord's meaning. One short period shall pass, and then ye shall not see rae ; and then another short period shall pass, and then ye shall see rae ;' or is it, ' In a very short time, at the close of a short period, ye shall not see rae ; and at the close of the sarae period ye shall see rae, not see me in one sense — see me in another.' So far as the words are concerned, either interpretation raay be adraitted. Taking the last view, the words are a true enigma, or riddle, ' In a little while, you shall lose sight of me ;— the heavens shall receive me, and ye shall see me no more till the heavens are no more ; and yet you shall see me better than you ever saw rae, when you saw me with your bodily eyes ; for I go to the Father, and that going to the Father wUl, by the removal of ray body to heaven, place rae out of your sight ; but it will at the same tirae secure to you the Holy Spirit, who will so open the eyes of your mind that you will see rae as you never saw me ; you will know 1 Hag. ii. 0. ' Heb. a. 37. 3 John xiv. 19. 430 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [EXP, XXVIII. far raore of me than you ever knew ; you will get clear of those clouds of prejudice, those worldly views, which prevented you frora distinctly apprehending my true character, and will see the glory of God in ray face, in a way you never saw it while I tabernacled among you — though, even then, ye "beheld my glory, as the glory of the Only-begotten of the Father." ' A good deal may be said in favour of this view. It is quite plain our Lord raeant to utter an enigma— he meant to speak at this time " in parables," and not plainly. Both the not seeing, and the seeing, are attributed to his going to the Father ; and there fore it seeras natural that they both should be subsequent to his going to the Father, Besides, two different words are employed to denote see in the two clauses. The following gives a juster idea of the original, — ' A little while,- and ye shall not se«* me ; again a little while, and ye shall behold^ me ;' and it might be supposed that the change of word was made for the express pur pose of intimating that there was a difference in the thought, and that the one word referred to bodily, and the other to spiritual vision. In that case the meaning is, ' In a short time, in the course of a few weeks, I return to my Father in heaven ; and the consequence of that will be, that while you will lose sight of me in one sense, that of which you are raost apt to think, you will in another, and far higher and raore important sense, see rae far better than you ever have seen rae.' This is a view which, without much hesitation, I should have accounted the true one, had there been nothing in the shape of interpretation. But, on looking at our Lord's explicatory re marks, we shall see that this is not the meaning, and that the repetition of the expression, " a little while," is intended to mark two different periods, not twice to point to the same period. It seeras quite plain that the period of not seeing our Lord corresponds to the period in which the disciples should raoum, and weep, and laraent, and be sorrowful, while the world should rejoice, and to the period of the woman's travail ; and that the period of seeing hira corresponds to the period of their sorrow being turned into joy, and the period of rejoicing on the birth of a raan-child ; and it is quite plain, also, that these are not coincident but successive periods. Whatever difficulty, then, of PART XXII.J CONCLUS^N OF THE DISCOURSE. 431 interpretation this may occasion, we must meet as we best can ; for there can be no doubt that the two little whiles are two dif ferent periods, not a double mention of the same period. We have thus got two of the questions satisfactorily answered. We may consider it as certain that the phrase, " a little while," sig nifies, not the time during, but the time after, which the event or events referred to were to take place ; and that the repetition of the term, " a little while," denotes not that the disciples should, after a little time, in one sense not see their Lord, and in another see him ; but that, after one short period, they should, for some short time, not see hira ; and that, after another short period, they should again see hira. It reraains now to inquire. What are the two little whiles — the two short periods — our Lord speaks of; and what are the not seeing him after the one, and the seeing him after the other ; and how this not seeing him after a little while, and then seeing him after another little whUe, is so connected with his going to the Father, as that it may be assigned as the reason of both? Some, following in the tract of the greatest of the Latin fathers — Augustine, — consider these words as referring to the apostles in coraraon with all Christians, in all countries and in all ages, and explain them thus : ' After a little while — the short period that was to intervene, from the time at which he was speaking to the period of the ascension — you shall not see me, I shall then be finally withdrawn from the view of men on earth ; but, after the term of your lives, which is but a little while — a hand-breadth, a span, a raoment — you shall see me as spirits see ; or, after the term for the duration of the present system of things — which, in the estimation of Him with whom one day is as a thousand years, is but a little while, — ^ye shall again, with the eyes of your glorified bodies, behold me.' This interpretation, though agreeing well enough with the words that follow, " because I go to the Father," seems very unnatural. Though the age of man may well, at its utmost length, be termed " a little whUe " — and though it is said, as some think, in reference to the second ad vent, " Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry,"* — yet it does appear strange to contrast a few- weeks with either of these periods, and, thus contrasted, to call 1 Heb. X. 37. 432 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. them little whiles ; for, if the first be a short while, the second is a long while, and the third a very long while ; and, besides, it does not at all correspond with our Lord's explicatory remarks, nor is It at all well fitted to serve our Lord's object,— to comfort his disciples' hearts, and confirm their faith, in their present cir curastances, and with their present views and feelings. It appears to rae, that the just raode of interpretation is that which, I believe, suggests itself first to every mind on reading the passage. ' After a very short time ' — i. e., in the course of a few hours either frora the tirae of his apprehension by Judas' band, or frora the tirae of his burial, — " ye shaU not see rae ;" ' I shall for a season be reraoved out of your sight.' ' Again, after a very short time ' — the period between his apprehension or burial and his resurrection, — " ye shall see me," The only ob jection of importance to this mode of interpretation, which arises from its not apparently comporting well with the words that follow, " because I go to the Father," wiU be found to have little _ weight in it when we come, as we shall iraraediately, to explain these words. There is still another question as to interpretation that raust be attended to, before we proceed to the illustration of our Lord's words. Are we to understand the expression, " see me," ex clusively of bodily vision, or are we to view it as intended also to indicate spiritual apprehension ? I do not think the two words equally rendered see by our translators, are intended to signify raaterially different ideas. They are very nearly, if not exactly, synonyraous. As, in fact, in the period after the first little tirae, the apostles, both bodily and raentally, lost sight of the Saviour — and, in the period after the second little tirae, they regained both the raental and bodily vision of hira, — and, as our Lord plainly intimates, that in these words he speaks not " plainly,'' but " in proverbs " — mystically, — so as that there was more meant than raet the ear, the principles of sound interpre tation seera not only to permit, but to require, us to consider both these modes of vision as referred to. We are now prepared to illustrate our Lord's words. It was but a very short while — an hour or two — that elapsed from the time these words were spoken, until our Lord was apprehended in the garden ; and while all the disciples " forsook him and fled," he was conveyed, first to the house of the high priest, and PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 433 then to the tribunal of the Roraan governor, where the great body of thera durst not follow hira. There, in the garden of Gethsemane, they lost sight of hira, — even Peter and John saw him but for a very little longer. It is possible that John may have witnessed his sepulture ; but even the time of his burial was but a little while frora the tirae our Lord spoke, — soraewhat less than a day. And when laid in the tomb in Joseph's garden, he was removed frora the sight of all living. The disciples did not — could not — see him there. And he not only thus disappeared from their bodily vision, but spiritually they lost sight of him. He was lost amid the clouds of doubt, and fear, and soitow. They no longer could steadily look at him, as they had been wont to do, as the pro- raised " Son of David," — " the Christ, the Son of the living God : " or even as " a teacher sent from God," They did not know what to think of him. Their confused apprehensions are strikingly expressed in the words of the two disciples to hiraself, on their way to Eramaus, " We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel," * ' But he is gone, and gone in such a strange way ; and Israel is not redeemed. Can he have deceived us ? It is impossible ! But how raust he have deceived hiraself? But, no ! for whence carae these mighty works?' All was the darkness of doubt. They could not see their Saviour with the eye of the mind any more than they could see the raan Jesus in the darkness of the sealed sepulchre. But this state, in which, neither with the eye of the body nor the eye of the raind, they could see the Lord, was but of short continuance. Its period formed the second " little while." He disappeared from thera araid the darkness of that night, a dark ness which was but a faint figure of that deep horror of spiritual darkness which settled down on their minds. That was Thursday night. On the morning of the third day after — the first day of the week — he rose frora the dead ; early in the raorning he raade himself known to sorae of the feraale disciples ; and before the close of that day, all the disciples, with the exception of Thoraas, had seen the Lord, And they saw him not only with the bodily eye, but also with the eye of the raind. They saw him to be indeed " hira who was ' Luke xxiv. 21. VOL. III. * E e 434 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP, XXVIII, to redeem" — who had redeeraed — "Israel;" though how, they even then very iraperfectly apprehended. They worshipped hira ; and Thoraas spoke the sentiments of thera all, when he exclaimed, " My Lord and ray God ! " * And though he was to disappear frora their bodily eye in another " little while," from the field of mental vision he was never to vanish. Never, never ! no, not to all eternity, were they any raore to lose sight of their Lord and Saviour. This is aU plain enough ; but how are we to understand what follows, " Because I go to the Father" ? Our Lord's going to the Father is assigned as the reason why, after a short season, they were not to see hira, and as the reason too, why, after an other short season, they were to see hira. To perceive the force of this reason, it will be necessary to recall to your rainds what I have repeatedly had occasion to remark as to the meaning of the phrase, " going to the Father," in reference to our Lord. There can be no doubt that going to the Father means going to heaven, for the Father is in heaven ; but it raeans, in the case of our Lord, going to heaven in a peculiar way. The Father had, with the Son's own raost entire consent, sent hira frora Himself into this world to do a great work, and he could return to Hira only by doing this work. He carae to redeem men from the curse, by becoming a curse in their roora. He came to do the will of God in offering his body once for all, the just in the roora of the unjust. In going to God, then, he must die, and die the death of a sacrificial victim ; and he must not only die, but he raust also be buried ; and as he must return to God in the character and nature in which he did his work, that he raay receive his reward, he raust rise frora the dead, and for the sarae reason, he must bodUy ascend to heaven. All this is included in our Lord's going to the Father, When this is taken into consideration, we readily see how valid a reason his going to the Father was for his not being seen by them after a " Uttle while," and also for his being seen by them after another " little whUe," He was going to the Father through death, burial, and resurrection, and ascension. And therefore, after a short season, they would not see hira, for he would be in the grave ; and after another short season they would see him, I John XX. 28. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 435 for he would then have risen frora the grave. To his final leav ing them as to his bodily presence, when they would see hira no raore on earth, which would be after a third little whUe, he does not in so many words refer, having spoken of it at the 10th verse ; though a good deal of what he says in the foUowing con text goes on the supposition of his having gone to the Father, and refers to a state of things rising out of his departure, and in tended to raake corapensation for his personal reraoval. There was, however, no need to comfort thera about that second de parture ; for, before it carae, they would be in possession of such inforraation and faith on the subject, as would make it anything rather than a cause of sorrow. It deserves to be noticed, in passing, how the time of suffering with the disciples is identified with the season of not seeing their Lord, and their time of enjoyraent with the season of their seeing him. It is finely said by an old Scottish expositor,—" The sight of Christ is so precious to his people, that it raoves all the wheels of their affections, and makes fair weather or foul, according as they want or enjoy it : it being still winter when he is absent ; and whenever he returns, he brings spring with him." ' Our Lord had already, repeatedly, in the course of these ad dresses to his disciples, stated in substance all that is contained in this enigma. He had told thera the Son of raan was just about to be glorified, in consequence of his having " glorified God ;" that he was to be with them but for " a little while," and that he was going " whither they could not foUow him now, but should follow him afterwards ;" that he was going to his " Father's house of many mansions," to " prepare a place for them, and that he would corae again ;" that " he would not leave them com fortless," but that "he would corae to thera;" that in "a little whUe the world should see hira no more, but they should see him ;" that he was " going away to come again to them ;" that he was "going to the Father, who was greater than he;" that he was " going away to Him that sent him," and that it was " expe dient for them that he should go away ;" that he was " going to the Father, and they should see him no more :"^ but he saw how imperfectly his statements had been understood, and he presents them anew in a forra which, frora its enigraatic character, was > Hutoheson. ' John xiii. 32, 33, 36 ; xiv. 2-4, 18, 19, 28 ; xvi. 6, 7, 10. 436 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII, fitted both to imprint itself on their memory, and in sorae raea sure rouse them from that stupor of sorrow into which their fears of what raight be the raeaning of these ill-understood stateraents about his departure had thrown thera ; and to compel thera to make the intellectual effort which was necessary so to fix these sayings in their minds, as that they might serve their purpose in keeping their faith from altogether failing in the season of severe trial on which they were just about to enter. When, after a little while, they found that, according to his word, they saw him not, it afforded sorae ground of hope that, according to his word, they would after another little while see hira. Even on the weakest in faith araong them, its tendency was to induce this deterraination — ' The fulfilraent of the one declaration raakes it right we should wait to see whether the second be fulfilled before we abandon our fondly cherished hopes ; and we shall not need to wait long. His little while has 1?een a little while indeed. He has spoken the truth as to the first " little while," and we will not give up our confidence in hira, till we see that he has not spoken the truth concerning the second "little while."' How wonderful the wisdora and kindness of our Lord, in thus predicting it, making the severest trial of his disciples' faith con ducive to its establishment. ' The evil we thought so improb able when he predicted it, has come ; the good he predicted may be expected to come in its time also, and that is but " a little while.'" The enigraatic declaration, to a certain extent served the purpose of rousing and stirring the minds of the apostles. It set them a thinking and inquiring. It filled them with per plexity, and in low whispers they interchanged their sentiraents, § 2, The perplexity of the disciples. The account of this is the second topic presented to our con sideration in this section of our subject of exposition, " Then said some * of his disciples among theraselves. What is this that he saith unto us? A little while, and ye shall not see rae ; and again a Uttle while and ye shall see rae ; and. Because I go to the Father, They said, therefore. What is this that he saith, a Uttle while ? We cannot tell what he saith," ^ The words in the 18th verse seera to be a reply by sorae of the • ix rSy ^«e.iTi;»,— supply Ttyi!. Matt, xxvii. 9 ; xxiii. 34. Acts xxi. 16. 2 John xvi. 17, 18. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 437 disciples to what was whispered by others. In the first instance, there was an expression of incapacity to understand what our Lord had said ; and in the second, a statement that " the little while," was that which especiaUy perplexed them. But every thing in the declaration was full of difficulty to their prejudiced minds and sorrowful hearts. ' What could be the meaning of " a little " ?'* for that is all that is in the original. " While," is a supplement, though obviously a proper one. ' What was meant by not being seen by thera, and being seen by thera ? Did he mean that they were both not to see hira, and see hira at the same tirae ? What was meant by his going to the Father ? And how could this, whatever it meant, be the cause of their not see ing him, and of their seeing hira ? ' An eloquent father of the church, Chrysostora, has thus expressed their perplexities, — " If we shall see him, how can ,he be going away ? and if he go away, how can we see hira ? If he is speaking of his death as his going away, we will never see hira raore. In this case, what can be the little while we are to see hira ? If it is some other kind of going away to the Father, we have no distinct conception of what he means." The perplexity of the disciples is to be traced to the state of their minds and hearts. Their minds were overrun with Jewish prejudice as to the temporal nature of the JSlessiah's kingdom, and their hearts were overwhelmed with disappointment, and sorrow, and fear. They did not think he was to go, but stay — abide for ever ; they did not expect him to fall before his ene mies — they expected his eneraies to fall before hira. They thought they were sure he was the Messiah ; and they had no doubt that their general views as to what Messiah was to be and do were correct ; that he was to be, whatever else, a temporal deliverer, an Illustrious worldly prince. And they could bring no meaning out of his words, that would at all correspond with these views. It is plain that they did not audibly express these sentiraents. They were afraid to ask their Master, lest his answer should extinguish any faint ray of hope which yet remained. Every thing in his manner, as weU as in his words, seeraed to threaten coraplete deraolition to the whole fabric of their hopes of his 438 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, restoring the kingdom to Israel ; and we find that, afterwards, they considered his knowing what was in their hearts, and what, in low whispers, they had stealthily been comraunicating to each other, as a token of his oraniscience. Our Lord, though no doubt grieved at the darkness of their mind, raanifested in these rautual expressions of perplexity — ^yet pleased that they were, in ' some degree, recovered frora the stupor of grief, and were giving indications of a desire to know something more distinctly about his going to the Father — proceeds to give some farther informa tion respecting the events which he had just predicted in enig matic language, introducing it with his accustomed double asseveration, expressive at once of the truth and the iraportance of the stateraents he was about to raake. What an adrairable pattern does our Lord Jesus, " that great Shepherd " of the sheep, give here to all the under-shepherds ! How meek and lowly in heart ! how well does he know how to have " compassion on the ignoi;ant and those out of the way !" how does he suit instruction and consolation to the circumstances of those who require it ! how does he vary its form, that attention may be awakened and recollection secured ! how does he give " precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little ! " how well does he know to speak " a word in season to them who are weary !" how does " he comfort the feeble-minded, and support the weak !" His words are " as goads, and as nails fastened," How desirous is he that their faith may not fail — that their afflictions raay not be fruitless — that their joy may be full ! The christian minister cannot too deeply study his Mas ter's character and conduct — cannot too carefully tread in his footsteps. And if christian rainisters may and ought to derive instruction from the conduct of Christ, as exhibited in the subject of dis course. Christians in general may learn useful lessons from the conduct of the disciples. Let them learn that mistaken views and inordinate emotions stand greatly in the way of our deriving all the sanctification and comfort we otherwise might from divine declarations. " When," as Matthew Henry says, " we think the Scripture must be made to agree with certain false views we have received, no wonder we complain of its difficulty ; but when our reasonings are captivated by revelation, the matter becomes easy." Excessive grief or fear, incapacitates a person for seeing PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 439 what is duty or receiving consolation. The darkness of ignor ance, and the darkness of melancholy, which met in the case of the apostles, commonly deepen each other. Mistakes cause griefs, and these griefs confirm mistakes. But the disciples appear here, not only as beacons to warn, but as examples to instruct. If they are in some things to be blamed, in others they are to be commended. If we are to avoid their secular views and their excessive sorrow, we are to iraitate their desire for a raore thorough knowledge of the raind of their Lord, and their attempts to obtain this. If we feel that we do not under stand any portion of the doctrine and law of our Lord, we are not to remain satisfied in a state of ignorance, nor are we to despair of attaining to wider, juster, more satisfactory views. We are to use the appropriate means of obtaining a clearer apprehension of their meaning and design ; and, among the means to be eraployed for this purpose, is interchange of thought with those who are like-rainded with us. The disciples should often converse with one another as to what seems dark or diffi cult in any point of christian doctrine, or duty, or experience. Collision of minds may produce light. When the disciples were at a loss about the meaning of our Lord's words, they conferred together on it, and asked help of one another. By rautual con verse about divine things, we may both get and give inforraation. Mistakes on both sides may be corrected. We should not be ashamed to confess our ignorance, nor to unfold our difficulties. He pays a severe tax to his pride who continues in ignorance, merely because he will not acknowledge it. " The obscurity which attends certain raatters in religion does not dishearten nor discourage true disciples, but, on the contrary, excites them to seek after light and understanding, under a humble consciousness of their own ignorance. It is the proud who take occasion from that obscurity either to ridicule the things of God, or to neglect the study of thera, or to raurmur against them, and to blaspheme Him on that account."* But while we iraitate thera in their disposition to inquire, and in their use of rautual converse as a raeans of gaining satisfaction, let us never, like thera, allow fear so to get the better of desire, as to prevent us from going to Him, whose narae is the Coun- ' Quesnel. 440 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. seller, for the solution of all our doubts — the reraoval of all our difficulties. While we value converse with Christians, let us still more value converse with Christ. Let us study his word ; let us compare spiritual things with spiritual ; let us, in his name, seek that Holy Spirit who can lead us into all the truth. Those portions of christian doctrine, and passages of Scripture, frora which we could derive nothing but perplexing thoughts, will becorae fruitful to us of holy infiuence and satisfying joy. Let us rejoice in the thought that he knows all our perplexities, and that he Is both able and willing to relieve thera. Let us lay open our rainds to hira, that he may fill them with his light and truth ; and our hearts, that he raay fill them with his peace and his joy. Let us, like the apostles, lodge the words of Christ in our memories, even when we but imperfectly apprehend their raeaning and purpose. They are words full of truth, and grace, and holy power. It is good to have the seed in the mind, which the genial power of divine influence raay quicken, and cause to germinate, and bud, and blossom, and bring forth fruit. When I meet with a passage of Scripture which I do not understand, that, instead of being a reason why I should dismiss it frora my thoughts, is a strong reason why I should carefuUy commit it to memory, that I may meditate on it — that I raay converse about it with those who are likely to be able to give me information — and that I may make it the subject of prayer to Him who has said, " My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my coraraandments with thee ; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding ; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for under standing ; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." " If any man lack wis dora, let hira ask of God, who giveth to all raen liberally, and upbraideth not."' If Christians would take this advice, they would have a better understood Bible than they have. They would be saved rauch perplexity, and sin, and sorrow. They would grow in grace, by growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They would know the Lord, by following on to know him. ^ Prov. ii. 1-6. James i. 6. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 441 They would be wise, through understanding what the mind and will of the Lord are. It would be with thera as with the dis ciples — they would find the great Teacher readier to instruct them than they were to seek his instructions ; for even the un expressed desire of clearer views of his words drew frora hira the communication of additional inforraation ; and " He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." § 3. Our Lord's explicatory remarks. The evangelist introduces these explicatory remarks, which form the third great topic in the section, by stating that " Jesus knew that they " — the disciples — " were desirous to ask hira, and said unto them. Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again a little while, and ye shall see me?"* The disciples had shown both their perplexity, and their desire to get rid of it, by whisperings among themselves. Their attempt thus to obtain satisfaction had been entirely fruitless. They seemed all equally at a loss to attach anything like a distinct meaning to their Master's words. Their failure naturally induced a wish to obtain information from him who certainly could give it. " They desired to ask " their Master. They knew that he never made unmeaning or unim portant stateraents. He was not a teacher who dealt in " vain words." He always " understood what he said, and whereof he affirmed." It may seem strange that the desire did not at once find expression in direct inquiry ; for surely they had been long enough with hira, and had known him sufficiently well, to induce the conviction that he was " meek and lowly in heart," and always more ready to give, than they were to receive. Instruction. The truth seeras to be, that on this occasion they were both ashamed and afraid to seek the information which they were anxious to obtain, — ashamed to acknowledge their ignorance on a subject on which their Master had so often addressed them — especially in the course of that evening, in what seeras to us very plain terras — and afraid, it may be, equaUy that they should draw down on themselves a faithful, though kind rebuke, and obtain a reply which might make them still raore uncomfortable than their present state of ignorance did. What is said of a former de- I John xvi. 19. 442 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP, XXVIII, claration, seeras to have been true of that which now so much perplexed them, " They understood not the saying, and they were afraid to ask him,"* It has been supposed by some interpreters, that our Lord knew the desire of tbe disciples to ask him, by inferring it from their looks, and gestures, and mutual whisperings. But if, as we are inclined to believe, this concluding part of the valedictory dis course was spoken under the cloud of night, in the open air, on the shady banks of the Cedron, there was Uttle roora for such observation, and it is obvious the whispers were not raeant by the disciples to reach the ear of their Master, Besides, it seems quite plain that their Master's detection of their unexpressed desire had, in the estimation of the disciples, the force of a de monstration of his omniscience, " Now are we sure," said they, plainly referring to this, " that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee : by this we believe that thou camest forth frora God :" — i. e., ' The proof now given us of the knowledge of our unexpressed wish, makes it plain that thou canst at any time give the needed inforraation without its being asked, and corroborates our belief in thy divine raission,' We have here, then, one of the many instances in which our Lord speaks in reply, not to uttered questions, but unexpressed thoughts — showing that " he needed not that any should testffy to hira of raan, for he knew what was in raan," — that he was in deed he "who searches the hearts and tries the reins of the children of men," And as we have thus a manifestation of his divine glory, we have also a display of his gracious condescension. He does not say, after his fruitless endeavours to enlighten them, " If any man be ignorant, let hira be ignorant," Though asharaed or afraid to express their desire, he does not allow that desire to reraain unsatisfied ; he eagerly avails himself of the opening into their minds which this desire indicated, and shows that "he will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the sraok- ing flax," " He wUl satisfy the desire of thera who fear him," He wiU hear the cry of their want, even when shame or fear keeps their lips shut, and will deliver thera. We need never be afraid to go to him to have the desire of information, rising out of his own declarations, satisfied. " If any raan lack wisdom, let ' Mark ix. 32. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 443 him ask it of Him, whose name is the CounseUor. He will give it liberally, and He wiU not upbraid"* for forraer inattention, or misapprehen sion , The manner in which our Lord prepares the way for giving his illustrations, deserves attention, "He saith to them," the disciples, " Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said : a little while, and ye shall not see me ; and again a little while and ye shall see me ? " Pie repeats the words which had occasioned their perplexity, to show them, that he was thoroughly acquainted with what had been passing in their minds, and expressed in their inaudible whispers ; and, that the words which puzzled them had been carefully selected by hira, and fully and ac curately embodied his thought ; and also with the intention, that the bearing of the explicatory remarks he was about to make on the various parts of the enigmatic sentence raight be apparent. He does not repeat the last clause of the sentence, though, as we shall see, a nuraber of his explicatory reraarks have a reference to it, I am not sure that we can give a satisfactory reason for this. The apostles were as rauch in the dark about it, as about any part of the perplexing declaration. It may be because the expression " a little while," which refers only to the two first clauses, was that which was chiefly felt by the apostles as hard to be understood. Our Lord often gives raore instruction to his people than they ask for. He knows better than they do what they need, and he gives them often not what they wish — not what they ask — but soraething which in their circumstances Is better for them. Our Lord does not directly tell thera what he means by the two little whUes, nor what he means by being not seen by them, and again seen by them, nor does he give them any more information as to his going to the Father ; but he does give them much interesting inforraation respecting the events which were to occur to them during the three periods he refers to in his enigraatic declaration — the period of his not being seen by them — the period of his being seen by thera — the period after he had gone to the Father : inforraation fitted to be useful to thera even at the time, stUl raore useful to thera when the events referred to actually took place. The sura of what he says to them is this, that the period of not 1 James i. 6. 444 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII, seeing hira, which was just at hand, was to be a period to them of suffering and sorrow, and to their enemies of triumph and ex ultation ; that the period of seeing hira was to be to thera a period of high enjoyraent, enjoyment which was to be of a solid and enduring kind ; and that the period after his going to the Father was to be a period in which they should enjoy a far raore extensive and accurate knowledge of all the subjects on which he had spoken to them, than they now possessed, in which they should have no need to make inquiries at him, and in which whatever was really needed by them, should readily and certainly be obtained by praying in his narae to the Father who loved them. It was of the last importance that the apostles should, if pos sible, be raade to understand that a period of peculiarly severe trial to their faith was very near at hand ; that that period was to be but of short duration, and that it was to be followed — im mediately followed — by a period as remarkable for joy as the previous one had been for sorrow. Thus raight they be enabled to weather the fearful storra, without making absolute shipwreck of faith ; the very greatness of their predicted trials, becoming evidence to thera that in a short tirae they should obtain deliver ance frora them. The words that follow were eminently fitted to serve such a purpose. Let us examine them somewhat more particularly, " Verily, verily, I say unto you. That ye shall weep and laraent, but the world shall rejoice ; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy," The double affirma tion, " Verily, verily," marks the absolute certainty and the great importance of the statement which it introduces. It is equivalent to, ' This which I am about to declare, is deserving equally of credit and consideration. These events, which are just at hand, will assuredly take place ; and it much concerns you to be aware of them. During ray absence, which takes place in a little while, ye shall weep, and lament, and be sor rowful, while the world will rejoice ; and, on ray return to you, which will be in a little while after this season of suffering, your sorrow shall be turned Into joy.' The contrast is between their state and that of the world — that portion of worldly, i. e., not spiritual, but carnal — unre generate men, with whom they, as his followers, were brought PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE, 445 in collision. They would be sorrowful, and the world would rejoice, during the season that they did not see their Master— a season just at hand. They would be " sorrowful " — that is, they would experience, in a high degree, all the painful feeUngs of disappointment, and fear, and grief. These feelings would be expressed by thera in " weeping and lamenting." They would shed many and bitter tears. The word rendered " lament,"* is the appropriate descriptive term for lamentation for the dead, and seeras used to impress on the minds of his disciples that he, their best and dearest friend, must very soon die ; and that his death would be the great cause of their tears and lamenta tions. How strikingly was this prediction fulfilled — how soon did it begin to be fulfilled ! Who can conceive the amount of disap pointment, and fear, and sorrow that was crowded into the two days and a-half that followed ? There were others besides Peter that " wept bitterly," though none so bitterly, as his tears were tears of remorse as well as of sorrow. Oh, who can tell what the mother of our Lord and bis chosen friend felt as they stood by the cross — then, indeed, as Simeon had predicted, a sword pierced through her heart ; or what emotions filled the hearts of those disciples who conveyed his dishonoured reraains to the sepulchre in Joseph's garden ! Caii we wonder that, when Mary Magdalene found " them that had been with him," they were " mourning and weeping"?^ Was it surprising that the two disciples going to Emmaus should, in their demeanour, give occasion to the question, " What manner of communications are these which ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?" And what a depth of regretful anguish is expressed in the words of this reply, " Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days," — " concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people : and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered hira to be con demned to death, and have crucified him ? But we trusted that it had been he who should have redeeraed Israel,"^ How often, during these days, would these words come into their raind — " Ye shall weep, and lament, and be sorrowful "? 1 Bfmio-iTi. ' Mark xvi. 10. ' Luke xxiv. 17-24. 446 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP, XXVIII. While the apostles were thus to be sunk in sorrow during the period of their not seeing their Lord, the world — his enemy and theirs — was to rejoice. The Jews were a specimen — the repre sentatives, as it were — of unchanged, worldly, ungodly men. They had hated, and feared, and persecuted Jesus, And now, that they had brought him to the death of a felonious slave, and laid him in the grave, they rejoiced — triumphed — exulted ; and expressed these sentiments in a manner corresponding with their mean and raalignant character. Ancient prophetic oracles de clared that it should be so, " They opened their mouth wide against me," says the psalmist, in the person of Messiah — " They opened their mouth wide against rae, and said, Aha, aha ! our eye hath seen it ;" " They that are raine eneraies wrongfully rejoice over rae," * And the evangelical history testifies that it was so. What horrid joy was expressed in the loud cries, " Crucify him, crucify him ! " What hellish exultation in these words of the chief priests and scribes, with the elders, mocking the helpless victim of their malignity, " He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let hira now corae down frora the cross, and we will believe hira. He trusted in God ; let Him deliver hira now, if He will have him : for he said, I ara the Son of God" ! ^ Such was to be the character of the period during which the disciples should not see their Lord, — a dark and dreary one. But that period should be but a short one. It should soon pass away : " Again, a little whUe, and ye shaU see rae." And this is the character of the period which is to succeed, — " Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." These words may signify either, — ' After a Uttle while, your sorrow shall give place to joy ; instead of mourning, you shall rejoice.' Or, ' The cause of your sorrow wUl become productive of joy ; not only will your sorrow give place to joy, but it shall become joy as water is changed into wine. The very event which filled you with sorrow, will fiU you with joy.' It fre quently happens, that when adversity has been followed by prosperity, men forget their former grief, and give themselves up unreservedly to joy ; and yet the grief which came before it, is not the cause of the joy. But Christ means, that their sorrow should not only precede — not only occasion — but be the cause » Psal. XXXV. 19, 21. 2 Matt, xxvii. 41-43. PART XXn.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 447 of, their joy. In both views, which are not inconsistent, and may be expressed by the same terra, was the prediction fulfiUed with regard to the apostles. The feraale disciples who saw our Lord as they returned frora the sepulchre, " with fear and great joy," ran to bring the dis ciples word. When he appeared to all the apostles but Thoraas, and ate with thera, and showed thera his hands and his feet, " then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." When he, with infinite condescension, offered Thomas all the evidence he had rashly pronounced indispensable for his conviction, the incredulous apostle, with adoring joy, cried out, " My Lord and my God !" Well raight they exclaira, " It is as he said." " The morning cometh as well as the night," — " Weeping endured for a night, but joy has come in the morning." " This is the day God made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it." " The stone which the builders rejected is become the head stone of the cor ner. This is the Lord's doing ; and it is raarvellous in our eyes." * But this was not all. Not only did sorrow give way to joy, but sorrow became joy. The event which caused all their sorrow — the death of their Lord^— understood in its origin, and nature, and design, and consequences — viewed as the central event in the great restorative econoray — the great manifestation of God, His power and wisdom. His holiness, and righteousness, and grace — the all-perfect atonement of human guilt — the chan nel for the communication of the Spirit of holiness, and truth, and peace, and joy to men — the grand exemplar of all excellence — the exhaustless store-house of motive and consolation — the death of Christ, which had occasioned them such deep sorrow, became the principal ground of their exultation and joy ; and instead of finding the cross a stumbling-block, they learned to glory in it, and to declare that they would glory in nothing else ; — " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world," ^ Not content with stating these truths as to the short but severe suffering to which the apostles were to be exposed — to be fol lowed by pure and permanent joy — in plain literal language our > John XX. 20, 28. Psal. xxx. 5 ; cxviii. 22, 23. ' Gal. vi. 14. 448 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. Lord Illustrates it by a figure of singular force and expressiveness : — " A woman, when she is in travail, hath pain because her hour is come ; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remem bereth no raore the anguish, for joy that a man * (a huraan being) is born into the world." ^ According to one of the latest and most learned and pious interpreters of this gospel, the figure before us is to be thus interpreted : — " The death of Jesus Christ was, as It were, a painful act of giving birth on the part of all human ity, in which act the perfect man was born to the world, this birth of the new raan, forming the source of eternal joy for all, since by him and by his power the renovation of the whole is made pos sible."^ What this raeans, I really cannot tell. It seems to rae liker divination than interpretation. I apprehend that " a little while, and ye shall not see rae," — and " ye shall weep and lament, and be sorrowful, while the world rejoices," — and "a woraan when she is in travail hath sorrow when her hour is come," — are three parallel descriptions of the state of the dis ciples from the time of their parting with their Master in the garden till they saw him again on the third day ; and that " again a little while and ye shall see rae," — and " your sorrow shall be turned into joy," — and " the travaUing woman, when she is delivered of the child, reraerabereth no raore the anguish, for joy that a man (a huraan being) is born into the world," — are three parallel descriptions of the state of the disciples after they saw our Lord risen from the dead. It would discover a strange want of good sense to attempt a minute exposition of this figura tive representation. It is enough to say, that perhaps the full store -house of metaphor furnishes no other such striking picture of the leading features, both of the sorrow and of the joy of the apostles — their sorrow at the death of their Lord and its accom panying events, and their joy at the resurrection and Its glorious results. It raarks the necessity — the suddenness and unexpected ness, notwithstanding frequent warnings — the extreme severity, and the comparatively short duration, of the sufferings ; — and it intimates the greatness and the permanence of the joys, — and the 1 "xydfiairos, homo, filius aut filia." — Bengel. ' How beautiful the words of Ekasmds ! — "Mater gaudet longam laetitiam emptam sibi dolore brevi.— Vobis luotus erit brevis sed gaudium erit perenne. Mors enim transit, manet immortalitas." ' Olshausen. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 449 fact, that they are not only consequent to, but produced by, the previous sorrow. But for the sorrows, the joys could never have been. Nothing could be better fitted to impress the truth on the minds of the apostles, and secure its occurring to them at the time when its influence was required. It taught thera that their suf ferings, though severe, were necessary, healthful, life-giving suffer ings. There can be no doubt that the woman in travail, is the emblem of the disciples when they did not see their Lord ; and the woman exulting in her living child, the emblem of thera when they again saw him ; and perhaps we do not strain the figure when we say, that these sufferings— that internal travail — in con nection with the events which occasioned them — were the means of giving birth in their minds to the great idea of a thoroughly spiritual Messiah,^the expiator of guilt,— the ruler of the world by truth, — which was to them a permanent source of joy. Their travail issued in the production of a new great operative thought, — that of a " Christ, not after the fiesh," but after the spirit, — "Christ in them, the hope of glory'' and the spring of joy. Our Lord adds a third statement of the sarae great truth. " And ye now therefore have sorrow ; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." It has been comraon with certain interpreters to refer the words, "And ye now therefore have sorrow," to the state of the apostles at the time our Lord spoke these words, and no doubt at that tirae they had sorrow ; but the whole train of thought is more favourable to the view of those who consider it as just an other parallel statement of the truth he was so desirous of im printing on their minds — that there was imraediately before them a season of very sharp sorrow, but that season would be but a very short one, to be followed by a season of great and perraa nent joy. " And now ye have sorrow," is equivalent to, ' The season of suffering to you is just at hand. " The hour coraeth, and now Is.'" It is just such a mode of expression as, " And now I am no more in the world,"* i.e., ''I am just about to leave the world.' " Now I corae to thee,"^ i. e., ' I am just about to come to thee.' The word translated "therefore," does not indicate that this is an inference from anything else, or that any reason ' John xvii. 11. '' John xvii. 13. VOL. III. ^ f 450 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. is here assigned for their approaching sufferings. It is equiva lent to, 'Now, then — now indeed — ye shall have sorrow, deep sorrow, during the short period of your not seeing me,' " But I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, * and your joy no man taketh from you," The words " I will see you again," no doubt refer to our Lord's seeing his disciples after the resurrection, — an event which, as we have seen, was productive of rauch joy ; but I see nothing that should confine it to this kind and tirae of vision of the Lord, I would consider the de claration as equally coraprehensive in its raeaning, as that raade in the passages, " Yet a little whUe, and the world seeth rae no raore, but ye see rae ;" ^ and " He that hath my coraraandments, and keepeth thera, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth rae shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and wUl raanifest rayself to hira." ^ Our Lord carae to the apostles after the resurrection and saw thera — visited thera, in bodily forra, — and by doing so put great joy into their heart, joy which the world could not take from them ; i. e., joy which all the sufferings which the world could infiict on them could scarcely disturb — far less deprive thera of. The world often tried to take it away, but in vain. When Peter and John were threatened by the Sanhedrim with their vengeance if they prosecuted the labours of their office as christian apostles, " being let go, they went to their own company," and their joy in the risen and seen Saviour burst forth in a lofty song of praise. When the apostles were "beaten" in the Jewish councU, and "com manded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus," they " departed fr6m their presence, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer sharae for his narae." When Paul and Silas had "had raany stripes laid on them," and were " thrust into the inner prison," and had their feet " made fast in the stocks," they not only " prayed, but sang praises unto God." " I take plea sure in infirmities," says Paul, " in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake ; for when I am weak, then am I strong." ^ -Even the departure of our Lord, as to his bodily presence, would not take away the joy of heart with which the having seen him as the risen Saviour had inspired thera. That is a very striking statement in the close of the 1 The same words occur Isa. Ixvi. 14, LXX., x'^r'i"'^'" "/«¦*'' 'i xxfilx. 2 John xiv. 29. 3 John xiv. 21. 4 Acts iv. 23 ; v. 40, 41 ; xvi. 25. 2 Cor. xii. 10. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 451 gospel by Luke : " And he led them out as far as to Bethany ; and he Ufted up his hands and blessed thera. And it came to pass, whUe he blessed thera, he was parted frora them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped hira, and returned to Jeru salem with great joy ; and were continually in the temple, prais ing and blessing God," ' This is the going away in its last stage, the parting, the very mention of which had filled their hearts with such sorrow. Now it fills them with joy, in conse quence of their having seen their risen Lord, their ascendifig Lord, Here, UteraUy, sorrow was turned into joy, Christ's seeing his disciples, in every age, by manifesting to them the glories of his person and work, by enabling them, by his Holy Spirit, to believe the statements made in his word, has the same effect. It produces joy — a joy which is independent of circumstances. It is easy to perceive how Christ's manifesting himself to a person as his risen Saviour raust produce that effect. If we really believe that " Jesus Christ was given for our offences, and raised again for our justification," " being justified by faith, we shall have peace with God," and free access to him, — we shall rejoice in the hope of his glory — his final and com plete approbation, — nay, glory even in the tribulations by which the world endeavours to rob us of our joy, since they tend to the increase of our hope, which makes us not ashamed ; and joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation.^ How striking is the defiance, by the apostle, of aU the powers of earth and heU to deprive him of his interest In the favour of God through the resurrection of Christ, and the joy in the Holy Ghost, which is one of its fruits ! " What shaU we then say to these things ? If God be for us, who can be against us ? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us aU, how shall He not with him also freely give us aU things ? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth ; who is he that condemn eth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us frora the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or faraine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" "Nay, in all these things we are raore ' Luke xxiv. 60-53. * Rom. v. 1-12. 452 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOuilSE. [EXP. XXVIII. than conquerors, through hira that loved us. For I am per suaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us frora the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." * Moreover, the risen Saviour is seen by the believer as the con queror of death — " the first-fruits of thera that sleep " — possessed of all power in heaven, and so able to subdue all his enemies, and saVe his people to the uttermost. How could their hearts but rejoice in seeing him in whom they saw all this ? and how should the world be able to take that joy from its possessors ? It can in no way completely or permanently spoil them of it. These joys are often increased by the world's attempt to destroy them. It cannot wrest them away by violence. But its smiles are raore dangerous than its frowns ; and in the degree in which the un due love of the world prevails in him, will the disciple find his seeing the Saviour interrupted, and the joy springing frora that overclouded with doubt and despondency. We have had abundant evidence, in what has just passed under review, of the soundness of the principles laid down at the comraenceraent of our illustration of these valedictory instruc tions and consolations, — that their primary reference being to the apostles, in very peculiar circumstances, we are always first to ask. What were these things to thera ? before we ask. What are these things to us ? In raany cases the answer is, ' They are to us just what they were to thera ; for they speak not of what was peculiar to the apostles' office, or the priraitive age, but of truths and duties, motives and consolations, common to Christians in all countries and in all ages ;' and even when the answer is, ' They were something to thera which they are not to us, having a re spect to what was peculiar in their circurastances,' still we find that they are much to us as well as to them. The words we have been considering cannot be viewed as directly addressed to all Christians — they refer to states of things which could occur only once in the world's history — but still they are full of practical instruction to all Christians in all ages. They teach us that Christians ought to count on suffering while in the present world. Their Lord suffered ; his apostles ' Rom. viii. 31-35, 37-39. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 453 and priraitive followers suffered — suffered frora the world. As the world is substantially what it ever was, if they reserable their Lord and his primitive followers, surely it were unreasonable to expect exemption frora suffering. They need not reckon it strange though they " have sorrow," and be constrained to " weep and lament." But if, like the apostles, they have sufferings to undergo In consequence of their connection with Clirist, like them, too, they have their countervailing joys. " Their sorrow shaU be turned into joy." It is often so, even in the present state ; and oh, how completely will it be so in the future state, when all th'e affiic- tions of the present time " shall be found to praise and honour," having, through the power of the atoneraent, and the infiuence of the Spirit, wrought out for those who endured thera " a far more exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory !" The principal source of the comfort and joy of true Christians, in all countries and ages, is the same as that of the apostles — the realising the glorious fact, in its true significance, that Jesus is indeed risen from the dead — the seeing with the eye of the mind, as they did with the eye of the body, the risen Saviour. It Is this which turns sorrow into joy ; it is this which makes their heart rejoice with a joy which, as man could not give it thera, man cannot deprive them of. What a relief to the sorrows of conscious guilt — " It was Christ who died, the just for the un just!" "it was Christ who rose again for their justification ! " he "died for our sins according to the Scriptures!" he "rose again the third day according to the Scriptures !" What a sup port under our alarms about the cause of truth and righteous ness, of God and of man — " Jesus Christ has revived, and risen again, that he may be the Lord of the dead and the living!" Whoever dies, then, the church is secure under her Head — the " First-begotten from the dead," What corafort amid the trials and confiicts of life, that Jesus, our ever-living friend, guides and controls all events, so that they conduce to the welfare of all who love him ! What abundant consolation, while we look back to the graves of our friends, and forward to our own — " Christ Is risen frora the dead, and become the first fruits of thera who sleep !" If Christians would be really happy amid all their suf ferings, let thera look to Jesus — to Jesus dying — to Jesus rising — to Jesus reigning. The eye of faith can traverse the distance 454 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. of the past — penetrate the veil of the future. Gethsemane — Calvary — the upper room — the mountain in Galilee — the mount of Olivet — and the heaven of heavens, are all accessible to it. Christians often turn the eye of faith towards them all. They are seeking one object in all these places : they would see Jesus ; and, when they find him, the disciples are glad ; seeing the Lord, their hearts rejoice, and " their joy no man taketh from thera," Oh, raay these joys be ours, while, in a patient continuance in doing and suffering his will, we, amid weakness and temptation, anxieties and sorrows, hasten onward towards that blessed hope, the day of his glorious appearing, when we shall see his face, and be like him in holiness and blessedness, and when no cloud shall ever corae between us and the light of his countenance — the sun of that better world — for ever and ever. We proceed now to our Lord's observations with regard to the third period. These are contained in the paragraph : — " And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in ray narae. He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in ray name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs : but the tirae coraeth, when I shall no raore speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in ray name : and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you : for the Father hiraself loveth you, because ye have loved rae, and have beUeved that I came out from God. I carae forth from the Father, and ara corae into the world : again, I leave the world, and go to the Father," * In the free unconstrained flow of con versation, the illustrations of the two kindred subjects — of an increased knowledge of divine truth, and of the security of obtain ing every necessary blessing from the Father, if asked in the name of the Son — are interwoven ; so that the first is briefly referred to in these words, " In that day ye shall ask rae no thing ;" and then the second is taken up and shortly stated in the words that immediately follow — " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in ray name. He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." Then follows a further ' John xvi. 23-28. PABT XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE, 455 illustration of the first subject, in these words — " These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs : but the tirae cometh, when I shall no raore speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father ;" and then there is a return to the Ulustration of the second subject, — " At that day ye shall ask in my name ; and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you : for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God," And the whole is closed with a statement of the two great truths of our Lord's having corae frora the Father into the world to do a great work, and of his being about to go frora the world to the Father, having finished the work given hira to do. This going backward and forward in discussing a subject conversa tionally is quite natural. But in our formal consideration of them, we shall, for obvious reasons, find It advantageous to keep them distinct. Let us turn our attention then for a little, in the first place, to our Lord's stateraent, respecting that raore clear, intimate, and extensive knowledge of divine truth, which the disciples were to enjoy " in that day," when, after having been seen by them, to their great joy, their Lord was to go to the Father. The full stateraent is as follows : — " And in that day, ye shall ask me nothing. These things have I spoken to you in proverbs : the time cometh when I shall no more speak to you in proverbs, but I shaU show you plainly of the Father." This blessing had been already repeatedly proraised by our Lord to the disciples. In the progress of the discourse, he had said " At that day," or in that day, " when the world shall see rae no more, but ye shall see, ye shall know that I ara in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." " The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father wUl send in ray name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." * It was very natural in our Lord, here to repeat once more the consoling assurance. The apostles had a painful sense of the indistinctness of their knowledge, which had led to their communing among theraselves in whispers, and had excited their desire to ask their Master, and the feeling was probably 1 John xiv. 20, 20 ; xvi. 13. 456 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. deepened by the haze which seemed to hang even on our Lord's illustrations. They raust, for exaraple, have very indistinctly apprehended the force of the raost expressive figure he had era ployed. Nothing was better fitted to meet such a state of mind than such a declaration, especially when it is considered that the joy which was promised thera, was a joy which nothing but clearer views of divine truth could give. The terras in which the proraise is made, naturaUy grows out of the circumstances in which it is raade. The first thing our Lord says in reference to this high privi lege is, " In that day ye shaU ask me nothing," * With regard to the expression " in that day," I have only to repeat in sub stance what I said as to the meaning of that phrase, when it occurs in a similar connection at the 20th verse of the fourteenth chapter. The expression " that day," does not seera to refer, as some have supposed, to one literal day, or even a comparatively short, fixed period, as the day of the resurrection, or the day of Pente cost, or the day of the second advent. Like the promises " I will come to you," " I live, ye shall live also," it seems to rae to refer to the whole period of the new economy, the great day, which dawned on the church at the resurrection, — and shone forth brightly, when the Holy Ghost with his sevenfold gifts was so abundantly communicated to the apostles. The phrase is borrowed from the Old Testament prophets, and is very often employed by thera to describe the whole period of the new dis pensation, as " In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee."^ "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,"' and " In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one, throughout all the earth."* It is here equivalent to, ' When ye shall have seen me, and when I have gone to the Father,' then, ' in that day, during the period that I ara to be with the Father, " ye shall ask me nothing." ' Our Lord's meaning, in these words, cannot be understood by an English reader, without his being made aware that the term rendered ask,^ in the first clause of the 23d verse, is a different word from that translated in the same way in the second clause ' " Non habebitis quod me rogetis : liquido cognoseetis omnia." — Benoel. ^ Isa. xii. 1. 3 Zech. xiii. 1. ' Zech. xiv. 9. * t{. 2 " j^gn rogabitis, i. e., non interrogabitis me amplius."— Jansenius. 3 John xxi. 21, 22. Acts i. 6, 7. 458 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII, full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." " Moreover, the light of the moon shaU be as the hght of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days." " All thy chUdren shall be taught of the Lord." " I will put ray law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; and I wUl be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall no raore teach every raan his neighbour, and every raan his brother, saying. Know the Lord : for they shall all know Him, from the least of them even to the greatest of them,"* How it was that, in that day — the day of the new dispensation — they should not need to ask questions of their Master, is ex plained by hira in the 25th verse : " These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs ; ^ but the tirae coraeth, when I shall speak no raore unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father," The words " these things," directly refer to what our Lord had just said in his enigmatical declaration, and in his illustrations, some of which were to thera as enigmatical as the declaration they were intended to illustrate. More remotely, they refer to the whole subjects of the valedictory discourse. But as our Lord's valedictory discourse is just, in substance and raanner, a speciraen of his teaching, the declaration here raay be, and we apprehend ought to be extended to the whole of what he had said to the disciples with respect to the kingdom of God which he had corae to establish among men. He had spoken to them in parables. This was true in refer ence to him — true, still more extensively, in reference to them, " To speak in parables," is to speak so as not to be fully under stood. When the Jews raeant to say that Ezekiel's teaching was so obscure that they could not understand it, they said of hira, "Doth he not speak parables?"' We have often had occasion to reraark, that our Lord intentionally veiled many of his statements. They were necessary to be made at the time, but they could not have been fully understood at the time, with- I Isa. xi. 9 ; xxx. 26 ; liv. 13. Jer. xxxi. 33. 2 " iTxfctij.lx — ^vi'a — proverbium interdum significat ; quia autem proverbia ut pluri- mum figuras et tropos continent, inde flt ut Hebra;i tiiVsjtt appellant senigmata vel insignes senteutias, quse Grsecis lnofSiy/txTx vocantur, quae aliquid ambiguum vel obscurum fere habent."— Calvin. 3 Ezek. XX. 49. P-4.RT XXII.J CONCLUSION OP THE DISCOURSE. 459 out danger and injury of various kinds. Future events alone could satisfactorily and safely make thera plain. Hence he often used what are called "proverbs" — pregnant sayings — where more was meant than met the ear; general maxiras, without indicating clearly their reference ; figurative representations — dim types — without very definite explications. And if he spake sometiraes in proverbs, with the intention of rousing rather than gratifying curiosity — of having his saying attended to and re membered now — understood afterwards — so the deep-rooted pre judices of the disciples respecting the nature and design of the Messiah's reign, made many declarations to them parables and paradoxes, though expressed in the plainest words which language could furnish, and so as to be transparently clear to us. It is quite plain that the whole of this valedictory discourse — though in its spirit it must have breathed comfort and encouragement into their hearts — was to ^hera covered with darkness. There seems scarcely a single declaration in it that they fully compre hended. The death, the resurrection, and ascension, were all to thera diraly shadowed forth under a going to the Father. They were especially perplexed about the Father and his house, and their Master going thither, and returning to take thera to be there also. They knew not where he was going, and how could they know the way ? They were especially anxious that he would show thera the Father. They were not blind, but they only " saw raen as trees walking." But in that day it was to be otherwise : " The tirae cometh, when I shall no more speak to you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father." This proraise began to be accora- pUshed, even before the day of Pentecost — the first unclouded day of the new dispensation. On the very day of the resurrec tion, " beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded" to the two disciples, on the way to Emmaus, " the things in all the Scriptures concerning hiraself." Till the day he was taken up, " during the forty days he was seen of thera, he spoke of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God;" and, on one very memorable occasion, " he said unto them. These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfiUed which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scrip- 460 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. tures." ^ But the prediction received its complete fulfilment when, according to his promise, on the day of Pentecost he sent the Spirit to " teach them all things" — to raake thera understand all that he had said — " and to bring all things to their remem brance." The veil was then completely taken off their hearts, and " with open face" they contemplated " the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus," and were converted, by what was so glorious, into reflectors of this glory. They were made to under stand " the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ." "The raystery kept secret from former generations" — "hid in God" — and. In consequence of their incapacity of apprehending it, but partially revealed to them, even by the great Revealer who was in His bosora — now becarae " raanifest." They received an " anointing, which enabled them to know all things." Things which the " eye had not seen, the ear not heard," which it had not " entered into the heart of man tq^conceive," were " revealed to them by the Spirit." They " knew the things which were freely given thera of God :" they knew the Father, " God in Christ reconciling the world to himself;" "the Saviour-God, who would have all men to be saved ;" " the God of the Jews — the God of the Gentiles also." " The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, gave unto thera the Spirit of wisdora and revelation." " The treasures of wisdora and knowledge hid in Christ" were disclosed to them ; they were filled with his ex cellent knowledge ; and they themselves saw, and were enabled to make other men see, " the mysterious fellowship which, frora the beginning of the world, had been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ : to the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, raight be known by the church the raanifold wisdora of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." ^ But it raay be said, ' This raay be a substantial fulfilment of our Lord's declaration, as, without question, the apostles did thus, through the Holy Ghost, obtain much clearer, and more accurate and extensive views of divine truth ; but how can this be said to be our Lord, " speaking to them not in proverbs," and " showing thera plainly of the Father" ? The answer is not difficult. The word of Christ abode in the disciples ; they kept I Luke xxiv. 27, 44, 45. Acts i. 2, 3. = 2 Cor. iii. 16-18; iv. 4; v. 18, 19. 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. Eph. iii. 9-11. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 461 his words ; his word dwelt in them richly ; the Spirit was his Spirit— sent by him — and he took of his things, and showed them to the apostles. He made thera remember and understand all that their Master had said to them, so that they had his mind in them ; and, as to additional revelations, it was as really Christ who, by his Spirit, spoke from heaven to the ear of their under standings, as it was Christ on earth who spoke with the mouth of a man to the ear of their bodies ; and thus all parables became plain — all mysteries were made manifest. There was no raore need to say, " Show us the Father," than to say, " Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way ? " They saw the Father in the Son, and it sufficed thera ; they knew where he was gone, and they knew the way by which they were to follow hira. And this blessedness, of having Christ to speak to them of the Father plainly, and without proverbs, is not confined to the apostles. No man who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, understands and believes the revelation made to and by the apostles, has need to ask questions of men, or to regret that his Lord Is not bodily present, to be resorted to as an oracle ; for in his corapleted word, opened by his Spirit to all who really desire it, are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They are thus " complete in hira," " who of God is raade to/ thera wisdom ;" and " they know what is the hope of the Divine calling — what the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints — what is the exceeding greatness of his power to them-ward who be lieve," — and " comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." * " Come, then, O house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." Let us listen to the plain lessons of the one Master in heaven, and habitually con template the venerable beauties of our heavenly Father's coun tenance, which he has unveiled to us. The second high privUege which the disciples were to enjoy in that day which followed his going to the Father, was the assur ance of their certainly obtaining whatever, in the name of Christ, they should ask of the Father, Our Lord's statement on this subject is in these words: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, J Eph. i. 18, 19 ; iii. 16-18. 462 THE valedictory discourse, [exp. xxviii. Whatsoever '¦ ye shall ask the Father in my narae. He wUl give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in ray name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." " At that day ye shall ask in my name : and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you : for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I carae out from God. I carae forth frora the Father, and am corae into the world : again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." ^ This, like the statement with which it is connected, is not here brought forward for the first tirae. Our Lord had already said, " Whatsoever ye shall ask in ray name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I wiU do it." " If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." " I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain ; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He raay give it you." * Our Lord repeats the proraise with some variety and addition, not merely because he was aw^are that it had been very imperfectly apprehended by thera, in consequence of their being stupified with sorrow, but because he obviously wishes to con dense, in a few closing sentences, what it was of especial iraport ance that they should have before their rainds in that short season of extrerae trial, to which their faith was about to be exposed. The right understanding of the whole passage depends on the proper apprehension of the raeaning of the phrase, " in ray narae." It is, as I have had occasion repeatedly to show you, a phrase of wide signification. The name of God Is just God as revealed ; the name of Christ — Christ as revealed. To do anything in the narae of God, is to do it with a reference to his revealed charac ter ; to do anything in the name of Christ, is to do it with a reference to his revealed character — under the influence of the knowledge and faith of the truth with respect to that character. To pray in the name of Christ, is to pray for the things which he has taught us to pray for, and in the way he, as the great Teacher, has taught us to pray ; to pray, expecting the acceptance and answer of our prayers, through his raediation, on the ground of his atonement, and by means of his intercession, as the great ' " oirx xy, Prsesto est nobis charta blanca, ut Spenerus loquitur." — Bengel. - John xvi. 23, 24, 26, 27. ' John xiv. 13, 14 ; xv. 7, 16. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 463 High Priest of our profession ; to pray as his subjects, and his appointed instruraents for displaying his glory, and establishing his kingdora, for what is fitted for proraoting these great objects. To pray in the narae of Christ, is to pray with the truth about Christ before the mind, guiding the subjects of prayer, and the manner of prayer. Prayer in the name of Christ, is prayer by a person who knows and feels that he is in Christ — identified, so to speak, with hira, — where He is, as it were, present in the heart of the raan praying, — prayer through his mediation, as the one Mediator — "the way, the truth, and the life," — prayer raade under the influence of his Spirit, — prayer in the exercise of filial dispositions rising out of the fiUal relation in which the petitioner has been placed to God by union to Christ, — prayer in reference to the kingdora of Christ. Now, says our Lord, ' In the day which is to succeed ray going to the Father, you are not only to have your knowledge so increased, as that you shall not need to have me bodily present with you to ask questions of ; but you are to be secured of hav ing every blessing you need, if you ask it in my name from the Father ; so that you will not need rae to be bodily present with you to supply your wants. You have but to " ask and ye shall receive ;" but to " seek and you shall find ;" but to " knock and it shall be opened to you."* Our Lord obviously wishes to irapress on their minds the ne cessity of their prayer being prayer in his name, in order to the securing its uniforra success as the raeans of obtaining blessings, " Hitherto," says he, " ye have asked nothing in my narae : ask, and ye shall receive." Some have understood these words as a kind reproof of the disciples for not having asked enough in his name. They had not, because they had not asked, or asked amiss, — not in his name. The words may very justly be em ployed in this sense as to many Christians ; but this does not seem to be their primary meaning. Our Lord states that a change was about to take place in the manner of their prayers. Hitherto they had asked nothing in his name. Henceforth they were to ask everything in his name. The prayers of the people of God, under the Old Testament dispensation, were impUcitly, but no* expUcitly, in the name of 1 Matt. vii. 7. 464 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. Christ. Their prayers were addressed to Jehovah as their God in covenant — a covenant, the blessings of which came to them through a mediation of which the propitiatory sacrifices and vicarious intercessions of the law were figures. Their common plea in prayer was " for thine own name sake," — " for thy great narae." It has been supposed that there is a reference to the Messiah in the words of the psalmist, "Behold, O God our shield, and look on the face of thine anointed," — and that when Daniel prays that Jehovah would " cause his face to shine on his sanctuary for the Lord's sake," as well as " for his own sake," * he also refers to the Lord Messiah. Whatever there may be in this, it is quite plain that the name of Jesus the Christ, though dimly adumbrated, was not revealed under the old econoray, and that prayers could not be offered explicitly in his name. " The way Into the holiest was not yet made manifest."^ The disciples were just like the other Old Testament believers. They, indeed, held Jesus to be the Messiah, and they expected to be saved by him. But the nature of his raediation, and the use to be made of it in prayer, they at this tirae did not understand. Jesus had taught thera to pray, what to pray for, how to pray ; but he had not fully revealed to thera — what, indeed, they were in their present state incapable of apprehending — the truth respecting his raediation, and the influence which this was to have on the way in which they were to conduct their intercourse with God in prayer. Hitherto they had not asked blessings from God as cora ing through the channel of the Saviour's perfect atonement and prevalent intercession. They very iraperfectly understood the words, "I ara the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me." ^ In prayer they had not explicitly exercised dependence on the Holy Spirit, whose influ ences were shed forth on them in Christ's name, for Christ's sake, because they belonged to him. They had not come to God as persons identified with Christ's cause, and seeking ' Psal. Ixxxiv. 9. Dan. ix. 17. 2 How beautifully does Calvin say — " Adhuc extensum erat templi velum ; Dei majestas sub umbra cherubim abscoudita erat ; nondum cceli sanctuarium ingressus erat verus sacerdos, ut pro suis intercederet ; nondum sanguine suo viam dedicaverat. Non igitur mirum si Mediator non fuit agnitus sicuti nunc, ex quo in ocelo pro nobis apud Patrem apparet, sacrificio suo cum nobis reconcilians, ut audeamus nos miseri homunciones illue cum fiducia prodire." 3 John xiv. 6. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 465 everything with a reference to its success in themselves and their fellow- men. But though, hitherto, they had asked nothing in his name, henceforth they were to ask everything in his name. In that day, they were to know his name to an extent of which they had now no distinct conception ; and in that name they were to teach and work miracles, and labour, and suffer, and pray. " Ask," says the Saviour — that is, clearly, ask in my name — " and ye shall receive." ' Pray for what I have taught you to pray — pray as I have taught you — pray depending on my raediation — pray under the influence of my Spirit — pray, as identified with me, for the promotion of my cause. Thus pray, and ye shall assuredly re ceive whatever ye pray for. And I enjoin you thus to pray, " that your joy raay be full," ' * — that not only you may be de livered from all despondency and heart-trouble, but that in the enjoyment of all heavenly and spiritual blessings, and in the possession of all that is necessary and sufficient to secure the success of the great enterprise on which you are about to enter, you may be filled with holy happiness, heavenly joy — joy in the Holy Ghost. There is a close connection between the two ad vices given by an apostle under the influence of the Spirit of his Master, "Rejoice everraore. Pray without ceasing."^ The second is the means of securing the first. If we cease to pray, we are Ukely to cease to rejoice — we must " pray without ceasing " that we raay " rejoice everraore ;" and were we, instead of being anxious, careful,. and troubled about raany things, to " be anxious about nothing, and in everything, with prayer and supplication, to make our requests known to God," asking what we need in the name of Christ, assuredly the " peace of God would keep our hearts and rainds through Christ Jesus ;" and, araid all external troubles, our joy would be full. " In that day," says the Saviour farther, " Ye shall ask in my name." ' All your prayers shall have a reference to the truth about me, understood and believed by you. You wiU find it im possible to go to the Father, but in my name ; and you wiU find 1 " Commentatur optime in hsec verba illud. Act. iv. 29, 30. Taha petite, cum opus fuerit, in nomine meo, et quodcunque petietis, accipietis, ut gaudium vestrum sit plenum, cum videatis me etiam a vobis absentem, tamen a vobis non abesse."— L'lGHTFOOT. 2 1 Thess. V. 16, 17. ^ VOL. III. Ctg 466 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVII it impossible not to go to the Father in my name.' They wei to worship God as " God in Christ reconciling the world to bin self, not iraputing to men their trespasses" — " the God and Fathf of our Lord Jesus Christ," and their God-Father in him — " th God of peace, who brought again frora the dead their Lord Jesui that great Shepherd of the sheep " ; and they were to worship Hii through Christ, as " the one Mediator between God and man, wh gave himself a ransom for all," the blood of whose sacrifice cleans eth frora all sin, and who, ever living to make intercession o the foundation of that all-perfect sacrifice, was able to save thei to the uttermost. Through him as the Great High Priest an all-efficacious sacrifice, and through his Spirit given them on th ground of that sacrifice, they were to have access to the Fathei and corae boldly to the throne of grace. They were thus, i prayer, " to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus," asking th blessings,, he has procured, and proraised, and encouraged an coraraanded them to ask ; and asking them as he requires them t be asked — with intense desire, firm faith, hurable confidence, ur tiring perseverance. The words that follow are slightly obscure. " And I say nc unto you, that I will pray the Father for you." * Whatever thes words raay raean, they certainly do not deny either the realit or the necessity of our Lord's intercession for his people. The are by no raeans equivalent to, ' I say to you that I will nc pray the Father for you.' He had already said to thera, raos explicitly, that he would pray the Father for thera, and he wouli send them another paraclete in the Holy Spirit, in whora the; should have all spiritual blessings ; for, to give the Holy Spirit and to give good things, are, with the Saviour, expressions c synonyraous raeaning. And, lest we should think that Christ' interposition ends with the prayer for the Spirit, we find thai after the Spirit has been given, it is declared that " we have a: advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous ; " and tha his being able to save us to the uttermost is the result of his eve living to make intercession for us.^ Our Lord's words, in connection with what follows — " for th Father himself^ loveth you," — seera plainly intended to conve 1 John xvi. 26. a 1 John ii. 1. Heb. vii. 26. ¦' " xIto! pro xiTiiJoxTO!, spont^, ultroneus." — Palaibet. Nonnus interprets it l XVTOXlXlVffTOi . PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 467 this raeaning : ' Not to mention or dwell on ray intercession with the Father — which will assuredly be put forth, and will as assuredly be successful, for the Father always hears the Son, — the love of the Father, both to you and rae, secures that He will give you whatsoever you ask in ray name, for He does love you, and loves you because you love me.' We are not to think of the intercession, any raore than of the atonement, as that which raakes God love his people. Both are the raediums through which benignity, guided by wisdom, manifests itself to men in consistency with — to the glorious Ulustration of — the clairas of righteousness. The Father does not love thera because Christ intercedes for thera. Christ intercedes for them because they are the Father's, the objects of his peculiar love.* It is plainly most becoming in God thus to dispense his bless ings to the objects of his love. To use the well-considered words of the profound M'Laurin, — " What more just, than that He, who showed such incomparable friendship for sinners, as to give himself a sacrifice for their sins, should have the dispensing of grace to them for the performance of duty, and be entrusted with the whole manageraent of their souls, which, surely, cannot be in more friendly hands ? His receiving gifts for men, as the Scripture expresseth it, and having all fulness and treasures of wisdom and knowledge to comraunicate to thera by his Spirit, serveth as an additional raeans of cementing that incomparable friendship betwixt him and them. To be perpetually employed In giving spiritual light, life, strength, and joy to his people, we very easily conceive is an office very agreeable to his kind and bountiful nature. And they raust have Uttle faith or gratitude who do not think spiritual blessings have the better relish for coming to sinners frora such a kindly source, and through such kindly hands. Certainly, every man that sincerely believes in Christ, finds additional consolation in spiritual blessings by re- fiecting on the way they are derived to hira — that they carry along with thera not only the savour of his merits, but the reUsh of his friendship." But that whatever they ask in Christ's name shaU be given them, is secured by the love of God, no less than by the inter cession of Christ, — nay, even raore so, inasmuch as the only 1 John xvii. 9. 468 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. fountain is raore than the only channel, though both are equally necessary in their own places. " The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved rae, and have believed that I came out from God."* The Father loves all the saved with an eternal sovereign love, of which we can find no cause out of himself. And because He thus loves them. He chose them before the foundation of the world, predestinated them to the adoption of children, gave them to his Son to be his sheep ; at the appointed season selects them from araong mankind, calls thera by his grace, unites them to the Saviour, and blesses them in hira with all spiritual blessings. This love of special benevolence is not that spoken of here by our Lord ; for its cause is not beUevers loving Christ, or even raen's becoming believers. But for this love, there would neither be believers in, nor lovers of Christ. It stands to faith and love in the relation, not of effect, but of cause. But there is a love — the love of complacency — with which God regards his people ; and the ground of that love is their being and doing what is well-pleasing in his sight, — their being and doing this, because He, in the exercise of his sovereign special love, has worked in them both the willing and the doing, God does love his people, because they love his Son, How could it be otherwise ? He loves the Son — loves hira as He knows him— I. e., perfectly, infinitely ; and how can He but approve and love those who love him ? God does love his people because they believe that his Son came forth frora Hira, not merely as a divine messenger, but a messenger who is a divine person, coraing forth frora the bosora of the Father. How could it be otherwise? He sent him that he might be believed in. This is his great commandment, under the new economy, that men believe on the narae of his Son whora He has sent. The repeated proclaraation from the raost excellent Glory is, " Hear him, hear him "— " My Beloved "— " My Only-begotten," — " in whom I ara well pleased."^ Without faith in Christ, it is irapossible to please God ; with faith, it is certain that we shall please Hira. With them who believe not. He cannot be well pleased ; with them who do, He cannot but be well pleased. How absolutely certain, then, is it, that God, who ' John xvi. 27. = Matt. xvii. 6. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 469 loves his Son, and who loves those who love his Son, and believe in hira, will give thera whatever they ask in the name of that Son? Having been led to mention his coming forth from God, our Lord concludes these explicatory remarks by stating, in the fewest words, the truths which, above all others, it was of im portance that the disciples should hold fast in the hour of temp tation, which was just coming on thera to try them. " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world ; again I leave the world, and go to the Father."* In believing that Christ had come forth frop God, they believed the very truth raost sure. The raeaning of these words raay be very shortly given. ' I, a divine person and a divine raessenger, have come forth frora the excellent glory, where the Divinity dwelleth in light inaccessible, — from the presence of the Father, with whom I was frora the beginning, — from the bosom of the Father, in which, from the unbeginning eternity, I reposed. I have corae into this world in the form of a mortal raan, as a matter of course, to do a great work ; and, when that work is completed, as it is just about to be, I leave this world, as to my bodily presence, and return to the glory which I had with the Father before the world was. The Son of God, who is in heaven, came down from heaven, and is now about to return to heaven. He is to descend even to the lower parts of the earth, and then he is to ascend up far above all heavens to fill all things.' It is irapossible to consider the enigmatical declaration of our Lord and his explicatory reraarks on it, without astonishment at the depth of his wisdom, and the tenderness of his love. Oh, what benignant wisdora ! what wise benignity ! How adrairably fitted were those stateraents to fix in the minds of his disciples, what could alone preserve thera, in the dreadful trial before thera, frora making shipwreck of faith ! He rouses them from their stupor by the enigmatic saying ; and then in explaining it, in compliance with their earnest though unexpressed wishes, he imprints on their minds these truths, — ' In a very short while you are to be suddenly plunged into a state of the severest trial, suffering, and sorrow ; you are, in every sense of the word, to loose sight of me, but it will be but for a very short while. The ' John xvi. 28. 470 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. trial, though sharp, will be soon over. I will come to you again. You shall see rae, and your joy shall be intense and lasting, and it wUl rise out of the very events which caused your sorrow ; and then, though I am, as to bodily presence, soon to leave you to go to the Father, yet you will not be losers but gainers by it. You will have such clear, and extensive, and accurate views of divine truth, that you will not need me to put questions to, that you may obtain information ; and such security that ye shall receive whatever you ask the Father in my name, that you will not need me to prefer requests to, that you may obtain benefits. There is no truth which you shall not know, no benefit you shall not obtain, that is necessary to be known and obtained to your answering all the high, and holy, and benignant purposes, you are to serve in the establishment of my kingdom. In the hour of trial, only hold fast, that I did come from God, and that I am about to return to God,' Truly, the words of him who hath wisdora are as " goads — fastened nails," They could not be for gotten by the disciples ; and, if reraerabered, they were fitted to save, and we have no doubt did save, from absolute despair and apostasy, in the dreadful days and nights which were before them. This second advantage which the apostles were to receive in consequence of Christ's going to the Father, is not, any more than the first, confined to thera. It is the high privilege of all Christians, now that the Saviour is gone to the Father, that whatsoever they ask in the name of the Saviour, in the sense of these words, already explained, they shall certainly obtain. " This is the confidence,'" says the apostle John, speaking in the name, not of his fellow-apostles merely, but of all Christians, " this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us : and if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."* Their interest in the intercession of Christ and the love of the Father, is as real as that of the apostles. Christ makes intercession for them, " He who is with the Father is their advocate ; and the Father hiraself loves thera, because they have loved his Son, and have beUeved that he carae forth from God." Should not Christians, then, ' 1 John. ». 14, 16. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 471 love to pray, when they raay have so rauch— everything really good for them— for the asking ? Have we, brethren, little holi ness — ^little comfort — little usefulness — in comparison of what we might have, and ought to have ? The cause is not far to seek. It is in ourselves. There is no indisposition in the Father to give it; there is no deficiency, either in atonement or inter cession, on the part of the Son ; no want of readiness to enlighten, and purify, and strengthen, and console on the part of the Spirit, He is faithful who hath proraised. He is ready to perforra up to the full raeaning of his engageraent. The fountain cannot be exhausted — the channel cannot be obstructed. The cause is in ourselves. We have not, because we ask not, or because we ask amiss. It is because we do not open our mouths wide and take deep draughts of truth, and grace, and consolation, that we re main ignorant, and carnal, and unhappy. Ask in the name of Christ, and you shall assuredly obtain " exceeding abundantly, above all that you can ask or even think." Well may we say to Christians, in a sense somewhat different frora that in which our Lord used the words to the apostles, " Hitherto ye have, in his narae, asked nothing of the Father ; " nothing in coraparison of what you need — nothing in coraparison of what He has pro- raised — nothing In coraparison of what He is ready to bestow — nothing in coraparison of what others, who have been more instant in prayer and strong in faith, have obtained. " Hitherto ye have asked nothing." " Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full ;" that you raay " bring forth much fruit," and that the true vine, as well as Its heavenly Cultivator, raay " be glorified." " Ask and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : for every one thai asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to hira that knocketh it shaU be opened." " For if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children ; how much raore shall your Father in heaven give you good things, give you the Holy Spirit, if you ask Him?"* " But ask in faith," and that you may do so, ask in the name of Christ " nothing wavering : for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.' »2 1 Matt. vii. 7-11. ' James i. 6, : 472 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. § 4. The disciples' declaration of satisfaction with their Lords explicatory remarks, and of confirmed faith in his divine mission. Let us now turn our attention to the disciples' expression of satisfaction with our Lord's explanatory reraarks on the enig matical declaration, which had so much perplexed thera, and of their confirraed faith in his divine mission. The raeans, so indicative at once of wisdom and of kindness, employed by our Lord to rouse his disciples from the stupor of sorrow, in which his intimation that he was about to leave them had plunged thera, and which had hindered all the consoling statements he had made frora producing irapression on, or even finding their way into, their minds, had in some measure served their purpose. They had excited in thera such a degree of raental activity as enabled hira to lodge in their rainds some idea of the real state of the circurastances in which they were placed ; and in their memories such statements as, when coming events gave thera significance, might save them frora entirely abandoning their confidence in him in that hour of extrerae trial which was so near at hand. The enigma, " A little while, and ye shall not see rae ; and again a little while, and ye shall see rae ; because I go to the Father," by its utter unintelligibility had stirred their minds, awakened their curiosity, and excited an eager desire for information, though they were either too rauch ashamed, or too much afraid, to express this desire to their Master, " He," who " needed not that any should testify to him of raan, for he knew what was in raan," was better acquainted with what was going on within thera, than they themselves were ; and availed himself of this state of mind, which was just what he had intended to produce, for the purpose of strengthening their fainting faith in him, by showing thera how thorough and intimate was his know ledge of thera ; and to irapress on their rainds certain facts which it was supremely important that, in their present circumstances, they should be aware of, and awake to. He told them that events of a very painful kind, which would try their faith to the uttermost, were just about to take place ; that the trial, though a sharp one, was not to be of long continuance, and was to be followed by a state of solid perraanent enjoyment, — a state, the leading characteristics of which should be clear, extended, satis- PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 473 factory views of Divine truth, and the ready and certain attain ment of every needful blessing frora the Father, who loved them, in answer to prayer made to Him in the name of the Son. These stateraents, though not plainer than a great deal of what he had said in the previous part of the discourse, when viewed alongside of the enigraa, seeraed perspicuous. A ray of light, as it were, beamed athwart the darkness of their bewildered minds and sorrowful hearts. They had a perception, though an indis tinct one, of the meaning of the Saviour's words, and they strongly felt the force of the evidence he was giving them of his divine raission. In the manifestation of his supernatual knowledge of the inmost and most carefully concealed workings of their minds. It is beautiful to observe the power of saving truth, even when but dimly discerned, to tranquillise the mind. As Calvin finely says, " the disciples did not understand fully the meaning of Christ's discourse ; but though they were not capable of this, the raere odour of it refreshed thera." All was not now dark and corafortless to thera, their knowledge was somewhat increased, their faith was greatly confirraed. They understood something, they thought they understood more than they did, and they felt that their failing faith was re-estabUshed. This state of thought and feeling found utterance in the words recorded in the 29th and 30th verses, "Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee : by this we believe that thou camest forth frora God." The right interpretation of the words, " Lo, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb," depends on the reference of the word "now." Sorae suppose that "now" is to be under stood with a reference to our Lord's words, " the tirae coraeth;" and that the words of the apostles are a denial of what their Lord had said, " These things have I spoken to you in pro verbs:" as if they had said, 'Even now, thou speakest plainly, thou speakest no proverb : thou under-ratest equally the perspi cuity of thy teaching, and our perspicacity in apprehending its meaning. We do understand your declarations — they are not proverbs to us — we want no other teacher.' This, however, com ports very ill with the reverence with which, amid all their weak ness, they were accustomed to treat the declarations of their Lord, and with their felt and often-expressed difficulty of com- 474 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII. prehending his sayings. It is far more natural to suppose that "now" is contrasted with the iraraediate past, when he had uttered his enigmatical declaration. It is as if they had said, ' It is raost true that, very lately, thou didst speak to us in proverbs. We did not know what thou saidst. We could attach no dis tinct ideas to thy declarations. But now the riddle is solved ; these are plain words, and understanding thera, we understand it. We did not understand that ; we do understand this. We did not understand thee then ; we do understand thee now,' The disciples were quite sincere in this declaration — it was perfectly true In their consciousness ; but it Avas only within cer tain and not very wide liraits, a declaration of the actual truth. They understood something of what he had said, but there was very much in his words which they did not understand. They had been in utter darkness, so that they saw nothing ; they were now sensible that there was light, — they saw soraething, and they concluded, soraewhat rashly, that they saw everything plainly. They could scarcely fail to understand this rauch, that they were just on the eve of a period of very severe suffering, during which their Master and they were to be separated ; but that this period was to be a short one, and was to be followed by his being restored to them, and by a state of things which, as to knowledge and enjoyment, was to be superior to anything they had yet experienced ; that they were the objects of a peculiar regard to the Father, for their faith in, and love to, the Son ; and that he, the Son, had indeed come frora God, and was to return to God, But while they attached ideas to our Lord's words, and ideas not incorrect so far as they went, they attached very inadequate ideas to thera ; and so far as they apprehended them, they saw nothing In them inconsistent with, nay, probably, saw something in thera corroborative of, their false notions of a temporal Messiah, and an earthly kingdom. They likely thought that he should go to the Father, but only for a short season, and then return and " restore the kingdom to Israel," The declaration, " Lo, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb," was made in good faith. They thought they understood their Lord fully, when they diraly apprehended a small portion of his meaning. In this, I imagine, they are by no means singular. Oh, how often do we think we fully comprehend Divine declarations, respecting which, afterwards, vve have most satlsfac- PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 475 tory evidence, that if not utterly misapprehended by us, they were very iraperfectly understood ! We thought we had touched the bottom with our lead, when it was only our line that had run out. We have got a longer line, and we are raore doubtful than we were at first whether we have yet fathomed the depths of the Divine stateraent ; we only know that it is much deeper than we thought. The disciples' expression of confirmed faith, wliich imraedi ately follows, was a rauch raore correct representation of the true state of their rainds, than the declaration of clear apprehension and enlarged inforraation which precedes it. " Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man ask thee : by this we believe that thou camest forth from God." * In these words there are two things which call for consideration, the apostles' profession of faith, and their statement of the evi dence on which this professed faith was founded. The truth in which they declared their belief was that .fesus had "corae forth from God," — words which, whatever obscurity rested on their views with regard to his person, could not, as used by them, mean less than that he was not only a messenger sent by God, Uke Moses and the prophets, but that he, pre-existing with God in heaven, had been sent by hira into the world, to be the pro mised Messiah ; that he was, as Peter in the name of his brethren declared, when our Lord asked thera whora they thought hira to be,— "The Christ, the Son of the Uving God."^ This was not with thera a new conviction, but thefr faith had been, especially within a few hours, exposed to trial ; it had been shaken, and they felt it now confirmed. " We believe," said they, " our faith is confirmed;" "we are sure," we have a conviction like that of intuition, "that thou camest forth from God ;" "we be lieve in God ;" " we believe in thee." ^ Now, what had produced this effect of confirmed conviction ? Had our Lord performed some miracle more extraordinary than any he had yet performed ? or had the coincidences between the declarations of Old Testament prophecy and his character and history been by any means more extensively and clearly brought out than they had been heretofore ? Neither the one nor the other of these was the cause of the confirmation of their faith. But our Lord had, by what he had now said, and which must ' John xvi. 30. "^ Matt. xvi. 16. ' John xiv* 1. 476 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXP. XXVIII, have called up to their recollection many sirailar occurrences during their intercourse with him, carried home to their heart the conviction that he knew them as none but God could know thera — that he was acquainted with their inmost thoughts and wishes. They recognised in him one who " knew all things," " who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins," who " needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man," * " We are sure that thou knowest all things, and need est not that any man should ask thee : by this we believe that thou camest forth frora God," We would naturally expect that, after the declaration, " thou knowest all things," some such statement as, " thou needest not to ask any one," should have followed, ' Inquiry with thee is unnecessary, who art already in possession of all knowledge,' But the disciples' formula of expression was, in the circumstances, by far the most appro"J)riate and significant that could have been employed. Other teachers, however well qualified, raust, in order to give inforraation suited to the circumstances of indi viduals, learn from thera what are the subjects on which they wish to be instructed. Many learn little from their teachers in coraparison of what they raight, by not letting them know what they need, and wish to be informed about. But it was otherwise with their Master. He could anticipate requests. He could gratify unexpressed desires. They had " desired to ask hira," but had been asharaed to acknowledge their ignorance, or afraid to seek an explanation which might confirra their worst fears. But he, knowing that they had such a desire, though they had studiously concealed it from him, gratifies the desire, and gives the wished-for Information, The disciples' argument is this, and it is a perfectly sound one, — ' He knows our hearts ; he who knows our hearts, knows all things ; he who knows all things, is a supernatural being — has come forth from God,' Our Lord had said to thera, " In that day ye shall ask me nothing," — i. e., ' Ye shall not obtain inforraation frora rae by asking questions of me, for I will not be bodily present with you ; and you will not need such a raode of obtaining inforraation, for you will be taught all the truth,' The disciples, in reference to these words, seera to say, ' Even now we need not ask thee anything, for, without our * ' John ii. 25. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 477 expressing our desires for information, thou, knowing our hearts, art ready to give, unasked, the Information we need and desire.' It deserves notice, that this species of evidence — the manifes tation to the individual that bis inmost thoughts and feeUngs were known to our Lord— -appears to have produced, in a higher degree, faith in hira, than the raere working of external miracles. We find this strikingly illustrated in the case of Nathanael, the woraan of Samaria, and Thoraas. " Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto hira, We have found hira of whora Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him. Can there any good thing corae out of Nazareth ? Philip saith unto him. Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to hira, and saith of hira, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whora there Is no guile ! Nathanael saith unto him. Whence knowest thou me ? Jesus answered and said unto him. Before that Philip ca'lled thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee." How much did these words bring before his mind ? how did the conviction flash on hira ? This is He, " of quick understanding, in the fear of the Lord, who does not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears." " Nathanael answered and said. Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel."* When our Lord showed the Saraaritan woman that he was ac quainted with all the particulars of her past history, though he had never seen her before, " I perceive,'' said she, " that thou art a prophet ;" and she readily believed in him, who, to her saying, " When the Messias coraeth, he will tell us all things," replied, " I that speak unto thee ara he ;" and she went to her townsraen, caUing to thera, " Come, see a man who told me aU that ever I did : is not this the Christ?"^ The intimate know ledge which our Lord showed of what Thomas had done and said when the Saviour was not present, gave a peculiar forra and force to his confession of faith, corapressed into these raost sig nificant words, " My Lord, and ray God." ^ Indeed, I believe it wUl be found that aU the faith which ends in sound conversion and ultiraate salvation, rests, to a good de gree, on this species of evidence. " He makes all the churches,'' and every true member of thera, to know that he " searcheth 1 John i. 46-49. * John iv. 19, 25, 29. ^ John xx. 28. 478 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE, [eXF. XXVIII. the reins and the heart." * The word of God proves itself to the raind to be the word of the Omniscient One, by its " discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart ;" by showing a knowledge of, and a suitableness to, and a power or influence over, the in most moveraents of thought and feeling, which can be the result of nothing short of divine knowledge and divine power. The truth on this important subject has never been better expressed than by two theologians of our own nation ; the one long ago gone to his rest and reward, the other still in the midst of us. In the words of the former : — " This light, whereby the word of God evidences itself to those who have spiritual ears to hear, is nothing else save the Impress of the majesty, truth, oraniscience, wisdom, holiness, justice, grace, mercy, and authority of God, stamped on it by the Holy Ghost, and beaming into the rainds of such persons, affecting them with a sense of these perfections both in what is spoken and in the majestic and God-becoraing way of speaking, so that they are made to cry out, ' It is the voice of God, and not of man.' It enters into the conscience, a territory exempt from the authority of creatures, and subject only to the dominion of God. It challenges, convinces, threatens, awakens. It sets it a-raging, and the creation cannot quiet it again. It commands a calm, and the sea, that was troubled before, is smooth, and devils and raen are not able to disturb its repose. It enters into the mind, opens its eyes, fills it with a glorious, clear, pure, and purifying Ught, and sets before it wonders, before unknown, concerning God, ourselves, our sin, our duty, our danger, and our relief; the works and ways, the counsels and purposes, of God. It speaks to the will, and con verts it. It disengages it from what it was most engaged to ; makes it hastily quit its embraces ; turns Its bent another way — the quite opposite way, — and raakes it erabrace what nothing before could raake it look to. It enters the affections, makes them rise from the ground, and gives them such a divine touch, as that, though they may, through their fickle nature, be carried at a time by force another way, yet they never rest but in point ing heavenward. Now, when the case is thus stated, how can the soul that feels this powerful word that comes from the Lord Most High, do otherwise than " fall down and own that God is 1 Rev. ii. 23. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 479 in It of a truth "?* How can they but believe that it has come forth frora God ? In the words of the living author, the written word " unravels to the Christian the mystery of his own heart ; his former resistance to the clearest convictions of truth ; his obstinate neglect of his own highest interest; his defiance of Supreme authority ; his insensibility to the raost amazing kind ness. It is this which accounts for all his previous inconsist encies ; his weakness and irresoluteness under the raost urgent raotives ; his remaining aversion to what he yet loves and values ; his rebellion against a law in which he delights ; his ingratitude towards a benefactor whom he yet supremely loves ; his coldness towards objects from which he seeks his chief happiness ; his difficulty and heaviness in duties which he aims constantly to fulfil ; his continual falling off frora a course, which he regards it his glory and happiness to pursue. In a word, his whole in ward conflict, unaccountable on the supposition of a nature such as it came from the hand of God, is all interpreted by the Divine word, and his faith in it is confirmed by this exact coincidence. In reading the declaration of God in his word, he cannot but say, ' O Lord, thou hast searched and known me ;' ' thou under- standest my thoughts afar off; thou art acquainted with all my ways,' The revealing power of divine truth is, indeed, wonder ful to hira ; and, as he feels ' the secrets of his heart raade raani fest,' and ' is convinced of aU and judged of all,' he cannot but confess the presence and voice of the Omnipotent Spirit in this his written word," ^ He cannot but believe that that word " hath come forth frora God." § 5, Concluding Cautions and Consolations. It now only reraains that we consider the last topic brought before our minds in this last section of our Lord's valedictory discourse, — his concluding warnings and consolations. They are contained in the last three verses of the chapter. " Jesus answered them. Do ye now believe ? Behold, the hour coraeth, yea, is now come, that ye shaU be scattered, eveiy raan to his own, and shaU leave me alone : and yet I am not alone, because 1 Haliburton. 2 Gilbert Wardlaw. " Experimental Evidence, a ground for assurance that Chris tianity is true." Pp. 160, 161- A valuable addition to the body of christian evidence —an important desideratum well supplied. 480 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP, XXVIII. the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in rae ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." * The interpretation of the words rendered, " Do ye now be lieve," depends on whether the clause is imperative, affirmative, or interrogative ; and whether the particle rendered now, has a backward or a forward reference. It may have either ; and in either case, it hints a tacit reproof or counsel, " Do ye now be lieve? — if so, why not sooner? — why not ever?" ^ I have had occasion already to notice that peculiarity of the Greek language by which the same word may, according to its connection, signify a command, or an assertion, or an inquiry. The very word be fore us in the first verse of the fourteenth chapter is rendered both " ye believe " and " believe ye," The words may signify, ' Now believe. Statements sufficiently plain have been raade, — evidence abundantly satisfactory has been adduced, — now believe.' Our Lord began his address to thera by saying, "believe," and he concludes by saying, "be lieve." In Christianity faith is all in all. This, however, does not seera to be the meaning. Our Lord had said that the dis ciples had believed,* and the disciples had just said that they did believe. In these circurastances, it would have been natural enough to have said, ' Continue to believe — beUeve in the future as ye have believed in the past — as ye believe in the present ; ' but it would have been unnatural to say, ' Now believe,' as if they had not believed, as if they did not, believe. The words raay signify, ' Ye do now believe,' i. e., either, look ing backward, ' Your faith was shaking, but now it is confirraed — ye do now beUeve ; ' or, looking forward, ' Your faith is now firm — ye do now believe at this present raoraent ; but will ye continue to believe ? your faith will soon 'be severely tried,' This gives a good and suitable meaning. Finally, the words may signify, as our translators supposed them to signify, " De ye now believe ?" In that case it is either, looking back, ' Do you now at length believe ? Have you at last risen above your doubts ? I believe It is so, but take care they do not return ;' — or, looking forward, 'Do you at this raoraent believe ? I know it is so. You have made a good profession — ' John xvi. 31-33. 2 Henry. = John xvi. 27. PART XXII.J ^ CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 481 you have stated your faith, and given a good reason for it ; and you have done this "in all good conscience." But you need to put the question to yourselves— Do we now believe ?— you need to ponder on the matter and ground of your faith ; for though it IS genuine, it is not so strong nor so unmoveable as you suppose It to be,* You need not answer the question to me— I know all about it ; but in seeking an answer to it for yourselves, you raay prepare yourselves for the trial that is before you,' Upon the whole, we prefer the interpretation which considers the clause as interrogative, and the reference of now as prospective.^ The words that foUow are deeply affecting :— " Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now corae, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone : and yet I ara not alone, because the Father is with rae," ' The time is just at hand when, notwithstanding this profession of your faith, the sincerity of which I do not doubt, you wiU all leave rae, and seek to provide for your own safety as you best may— separated from each other as well as from rae — every one betaking himself to his own place of hiding,' The disciples separating from each other, was not improbably owing, among other and more power ful causes, to the treachery of Judas, who had the bag, making' it necessary for each to look after the means of subsistence for himself The event referred to is thus described by the evan gelical historians. On the guard appointed to seize our Lord approaching, he went out to raeet thera, and "said to them. Whom seek ye ? they answered, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus said to them, I ara he," " As soon as he had said unto thera, I ara he, they went backwards, and fell to the ground. Then asked he thera again. Whom seek ye ? And they said, Jesus of Naza reth. Jesus answered thera, I have told you that I ara he. If, therefore, ye seek me, let these," pointing to his disciples, " go their way." " Then carae they and laid hands on Jesus, and took him." " When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And Simon Peter having a sword, drew it and struck a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Then said Jesus unto Peter, 1 " A man sometimes really thinks himself proof against every temptation when he is very near falling before one." — Quesnel. 2 " Non male Beza : 'Siccine vosjam fidem mihi habere jactatis?' Verbanonsunt proprie interrogantis sed securitatem (levitatem certe) reprehendentis." — Semlek. VOL. Ill, * H h 482 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. QEXP. XXVIII. Put up thy sword into the sheath, for all they that take the sword, shall perish by the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels ?" " Then the band and the cap tain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled,"* These were the events to which our Lord referred, and which were to prove a trial of their faith, an occasion of stumbling. They were just at hand. The bargain was corapleted. The arrangements were made. The band was assembled. Their leader was ready. In an hour or two at the utmost, all this was to be fulfilled. Well might our Lord say, " The hour cometh, yea, now is come." The conduct of the disciples on this occasion, has been almost universally condemned in the strongest terms. They have been considered as all but raaking shipwreck of faith, and as having been guilty of the basest cowardice and ingratitude. I confess that, after looking at all the facts in the case as attentively as I can, I am not able to syrapathise with these feelings, in reference to the disciples. There can be no doubt of the sincerity of their profession of faith. Not only had their Master just said to them, " Ye have loved me, and have believed that I carae out from God;" but in the most soleran raanner, in his address to the Father, he in a little, said, " I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world : thine they were, and thou gavest them rae ; and they have kept thy word." * " For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me ; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out frora thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." And as there can be no doubt of the genuineness of their faith, so our Lord had prayed for thera, that their faith might not fail. Under the influence of their raistaken views of the nature of the Messiah's kingdom, they had declared themselves willing to endure imprisonment and death, if that was necessary, for its estabUshment ; and there is no doubt of their sincerity in that declaration. Their Lord had commanded them never to deny him ; but he had never comraanded them to follow him through all the course of suffering which lay before him. There ' Matt. xxvi. 51-66. 2 John xvii. 6-8. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 483 were cases in which he forbade them to foUow him. He left the great body of them behind him, both when he went to be glorified on Tabor and to agonise in Gethsemane. Nay, he had said, referring to those sufferings, " Whither I go, ye cannot come ;" and, on being asked whither he was going, he answered, " Whither I go, thou canst not foUow me now ; but thou shalt follow me afterward." And on being pressed by the forward disciple to say why he could not follow hira now, he plainly intimated that he had better not make the atterapt ; and that if he did, he should have cause to regret it. " I will lay down ray life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, WUt thou lay down thy life for my sake ? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, tiU thou hast denied me thrice."* He had just inti mated that he was to be alone in the scene of suffering on which he was to enter, and there is nothing in the words in which his being left alone is predicted, that looks like decided condemnation of the conduct of those who were to be scattered — like the sheep when the shepherd is smitten — driven away frora him. They are the words of pity, rather than of blame. He had cautioned them against entering into temptation. They had been ready to defend him against fearful odds, but he very plainly intiraated to them that such raarks of their regard did not meet with his approbation. He had made use of the influence his manifesta tion at once of power and forbearance had given him with the armed band, to secure their not apprehending his disciples and allowing them to go away. In doing so the saying was fulflUed, " Of them which thou hast given rae, I have lost none."^ It was intended to save their lives. That it would have been better that Peter should not have gone along with his Master, appears but too plainly from the result ; and he was not the worst pre pared to meet the trial before which he feU. The wiU of our Lord, that they should not accompany hira, was intimated about as plainly as it could have been done without an absolute pro hibition. I am not prepared to say that the conduct of the disciples was in every point of view defensible. Probably, had their faith and love been as strong as they ought to have been, it would have required a command on the part of their Lord not to accompany him to prevent them from doing so— a command, 1 John xiii. 36-38. ' J°hn xviii. 4-10, 484 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. which, in all the circurastances of the case, I cannot doubfwould have been given. They were driven away frora hira, and though they " forsook hira and fled," it was not with the feeling, — ' He has deceived us, and we raust shift for ourselves;' but 'We cannot help hira — he does not need our help — he seeras to wish us to go away — and our lives obviously are in danger.' Their flight was not the heartless, unprincipled thing, that it has often been represented. Such seeras to me the truth respecting our Lord's being left by his disciples. The loneliness in which the Saviour was now to prosecute his journey to the cross, was, in sorae points of view, an aggravation of his sufferings. In another point of view it was an alleviation. The abuse and raurder of his honest fi'iends — raen who had periUed all for his sake — or their all acting the part of Peter, one or other of which was to be anticipated frora their going along with him, would assuredly have added to his sufferings.* To comfort them, as well as to establish his own heart, he adds, " And yet I ara not alone, for the Father is with rae." The Father was with hira, so that he was not alone. The Father and he were united- in the one Godhead, He and the Father were one — one in essence, perfection, glory, and blessed ness. He " was in the Father, and the Father in him," so as that they could not be separated. As the coramissioned messen ger of the Father, doing His work, in His way, the Father was with him. His words were his Father's words ; his works his Father's works. It is in this sense he says, " As I hear, I judge : and my judgraent is just ; because I seek not raine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent rae." ^ " He that hath sent me is with me : the Father hath not left me alone." The raeaning here plainly is, ' The Father is with rae — on ray side — to support me under all my sufferings, to raake rae victorious over all ray enemies,' He was sure the Father had not forgotten the promise, " Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, in an acceptable tirae have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee : and I will preserve thee," It is the same sentiment as that which, by Isaiah, under the influence of his Spirit, he expresses, 1 « Non prohibet Christus, potius adjuvat ipse."— Semler. 2 John v. 30. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 485 — " The Lord God wUl help rae ; therefore shall I not be con founded : therefore have I set ray face Uke a filnt, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me ; who will contend with rae ?" " Behold, the Lord' God wiU help me; who is he that shall condemn me?" * And it was even so. He was not alone. The man Christ Jesus was upheld, and strengthened, and raade raore than con queror, by Divine power. In the darkest hour of his suffering, he indeed uttered that bitterest of all his cries of agony, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" but it was only from the conscious feeling of the sufferer that the comforts of the Divine presence were withdrawn. His Father was still there ; and, while sense complained of desertion, faith said, " My God, my God !" — ' My own present strength and deliverer,' — and he leant on the unseen arm, and found that it was there. Surely it is impossible not to adraire the magnanimity and self- possession, the wisdom and the kindness, displayed in the means adopted by our Lord for impressing these sentiments on the minds of his disciples, just before the hour of trial. In their present state of mind, re-assured and comforted by his explicatory remarks, which they only partially understood, and thought they understood much better than they really did, nothing could seera less likely than that anything could induce them to abandon their Lord, When this took place, as It did in a few hours at the very most, surely they raust have said within theraselves, * He does know all things ; he knows us better than we do our selves. One of his predictions — to us a very iraprobable one — has been accoraplished. Should we not trust hira, that his other predictions wiU be accomplished too ? We are scattered, as he said we should be ; but he also said that, though left alone by us, he was not to be alone. The Father was to be with hira,' The fulfilraent, to the very letter, of a very alarraing, and to them an all but incredible, prediction, laid a foundation for the hope that the comfortable declaration conjoined to it would be found true also. The valedictory discourse is shut up in these most impressive ¦words — " These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shaU have tribulation : but ' Isa, xlix. 7, 8 ; 1. 7-9. 486 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." Luther, in a letter to Melancthon, quotes these words, and says, in his own hearty way, " Such a saying as this is worthy to be carried from Rome to Jerusalem on one's knees," The words, " these things," have been by some interpreters restricted in their reference to the statement which iraraediately precedes them. As if our Lord had said, ' I have informed you that, when you leave me, God wUl not leave me; but that, when carried away bound, alone in the midst of my enemies. He wUl be present with me to sustain and deliver me, that you may not be overwhelmed with terror or sorrow " in reference to me," but that you may have ground of solid peace amid these events, so fitted to distract and alarra you — an assurance that I and my cause, notwith standing all contrary appearances, are safe,' It is far more natural to consider the words as referring to the whole valedictory discourse, and as pointing out its great design and tendency. Everything in this discourse, from the begin ning to the end of it, is calculated to give peace and tranquillity. Peace — peace was the fruit of his lips ; and all that peace and tranquiUity could be enjoyed only in him. Persons in Christ — interested in his mediation — ^justified through the redemption that is in him — sanctified by his Spirit — understanding and believing the truths contained in that discourse — must have peace, and must have it just " according to the proportion of their faith." " In the world," says our Lord, " ye shall have tribulation," " Tribulation " is opposed to " peace," It is a general narae for trouble, affiiction, distress, of whatever kind. The " world" is sometimes spoken of as a place ; and it is true that, while the disciples of Christ are " in this world " as a place, they shall have tribulation. It is in heaven only that there is perfect peace. It is plain, however, that the phrase is not to be understood in that way here, " In the world " is not opposed to " in heaven," but to '* in me ;" and the state of peace and tribulation are not consecutive but contemporaneous. While they have peace in Christ, they have tribulation in the world, ' In me — in con nection with me — ye shall have peace ; but, in connection with the world, ye shall have tribulation.' " The world " here, as in our Lord's discourses generally, and very often in the writings of his apostles, is this system of present, sensible things, as dis- PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 487 ordered by sin, including raen, objects, and events, — " the pre sent evil," distempered, " world," at the head of which is the evil one, the great enemy of God and man, through whose agency the good world became an evil world. Our Lord's declaration, then, is, ' While, in connection with rae, ye raay, and must, in the belief of these truths, enjoy peace, in connection with the world ye shall have trouble.' This was true of the disciples, in reference to the events which were just about to befall thera. Could they but have believed the statements contained in this discourse, even in the dark, dark night which followed, when their Master was taken from them, they would have had peace ; while, from the world, they suf fered, in the person of their Master, and in their own persons, severe tribulation. It was remarkably true of thera, after they had entered on their great work in the world, that they had tribulation. The god of the world, and the men of the world, did all they could to trouble them, " I think," says one of them, " God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were ap pointed to death : for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to raen. We are fools for Christ's sake ; we are weak, we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place ; and labour, and are revUed, and persecuted, and defamed : we are made as the filth of the world, and are as the off-scouring of all things,"* But, un derstanding and beheving " these things," they had peace in Christ, " Justified by faith, they had peace with God," and rejoiced in hope of his glory,— glorying in tribulation, joying in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whora they had received the reconciliationr " Thanks be to God," said one — than whom never was any raan more troubled " in the world," " Thanks be to God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ," ^ The declaration is true of all genuine Christians in aU countries and in all ages. From their connection with this evil world, as men and as Christians, they have trouble. Vicissitude, disease, death, all the agitations of this turbulent scene, affect them, just as they affect other men. And then, in their peculiar character I 1 Cor. iv. 9-14. 2 Rom. V. 11. 2 Cor. ii. 14, 488 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [EXP. XXVIII. as Christians, the world, as a source both of temptation and of persecution, is fertile in trouble to them. But in Christ they have peace — peace amidst trouble. In the faith of the truth as it is in him, they have sweet peace ; never sweeter — never so sweet — as when in the world they have tribula tion. And then, by and by, they shall have perfect peace " in Christ " — " with Christ " — when the troubles of the world shall be over for ever — the world, and the fashion thereof, having passed away : but the ever-enduring word of the Lord — the word of the truth of the Gospel — continuing to bring forth, in thera who have believed it, its certain fruits of " peace and assurance for ever." To his disciples, struggling with the troubles of the world, our Lord addresses a concluding word, rich with abundant encourage ment : " Be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world," ' Do not be despondent — do not be afraid, "I have overcome the world." I am the world's conqueror ; I have overcome it — I am overcoming it — I will overcome it. I have corae forth against it as God's eneray, and yours, and mine. I have conquered, and I will go on " conquering and to conquer." ' The world is the Christian's enemy chiefly in two ways, — as it is a source of temptation and of suffering, as it seduces or terrifles from the path of duty, and as it inflicts pain in an endless variety pf ways. Our Lord in his own person vanquished the world, as a source of temptation, when he trampled on its seductions when presented to him in the wilderness, in their most enticing forras, by its god and prince ; and he triumphed over its terrors when, in their most alarming shapes, " he endured the cross, and despised the sharae," in doing the will of God ; and he has not only thus showed his people, by his example, how to overcome the world, but he has, by his atonement and intercession, secured to them that divine infiuence which, enabling them rightly to improve the word of the truth of the Gospel, gives thera the victory over the world by faith. Our Lord, by raising himself, through his perfectly doing the will of God, into a state where there is— -there can be — no more suffering for ever, overcame the world, as capable of producing suffering ; and having obtained, as the reward of his perfect obedience, his complete satisfaction, " all power in heaven and earth "¦ — " power over all flesh," — he controls and over-rules nil worldly power, so as to serve his benignant purjioses with re- PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 489 gard to his people as individuals, and to his church as a body ; and he will finally " put down all rule, and all authority and power," — " the kingdoms of this world becoraing the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,"— and deUver his people from all suffering, either from the god of this worid, or the men of this world, and make thera perfectly holy and happy for ever, plac ing them eternally beyond the reach of tribulation, in any of its forms. Life in Christ, and Iffe in the world, co-exist so long as Christians continue in the present state : the one the source of peace, the other the source of tribulation. The raore a Christian, in his thoughts and desires, lives in Christ, the more peace will he have ; the more he lives " in the world," the more trouble has he — the raore teraptation — the more suffering. " Thus," as Tholuck says, " the Christian ever is, as it were, in two kingdoms — the inner and the outer world — and just in proportion as he is more in the one or the other, has he peace or tribulation." The design of the Redeemer is, even while here, to give his people the victory over the world by faith — to give them peace amid trouble ; and then to realise to them the whole of the peace that is folded up in being in him, by reraoving his people out of the world, — by taking thera to be with hira where he is, in the heavenly world, where tribulation, and sin — the cause of tribulation — shall be equally unknown for ever.* He shall thus prove hiraself the conqueror of the world for, in, and by his people. Brethren, the time has come when Jesus, the great revealer of God, has, according to his gracious promise, "showed us plainly of the Father." The eyes of the apostles' minds, unsealed at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance, contemplated the unveiled glory of the Father in the person and work of the Son ; 1 Chrysostom, in the following passage, exhibits a beautiful example of one who, though in the world he had tribulation, had peace in Christ :— " Multi quidem fluctus et unda3 immanes sed submergi non vereor ; quia supra petram sto. Insaniat licet mare, petram non potest evertere. Sed quid putant ? Ne mortem verear, cui vivere Christus est et mori lucrum. Ne exilium pertimescam, qui noverim Domini esse terram et plenitudinem ejus. Sed bonorum proscriptionem metuam qui sciam quod nihil intulerim in hunc mundum, sed neque aufejre quid possim ? Quidquid terroris habet mundus, contemno; quidquid delectabile habet rideo. Divitias non cupio, paupertatem non horresco, mortem non timeo." 490 THE VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE. [eXP. XXVIII, and the clear revelation raade to them, they have cleaidy raade known to us. Has the veil been removed from our hearts? Has the glorious light shined into them ? Have we this witness — this testimony — not only without, but within us, — ^not only in our Bibles, but in ourselves — in our minds and hearts ? Has it carried its self-evidence to our understandings, and consciences, and hearts ? and do we indeed believe that Jesus Christ came forth frora God, — the Teacher, the Redeemer, the Lord of men, — our Teacher, our Redeemer, our Lord ? Our professed faith, like that of the disciples, will be tested, severely tested. Think you it will bear the trial ? Only if sus tained by power frora on high, to be sought in prayer, conjoined with habitual contemplation of the saving truth and its evidence. You think you know, and are sure. Hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of your faith. Beware of deserting your Lord or his cause in any circurastances. Whatever we may think of the apostles in their absolutely singular circumstances, you can never be so placed as to warrant your abandoning him. Be strong in faith, that you raay be bold in profession and consistent in con duct. By cleaving to your Lord, you raay be deserted by your fellow-raen — ay, by your fellow-professors — ay, by your fellow- Christians, But what then ? If you do not desert him, he will never desert you. He and the Father will be with you — all the more sensibly with you, that because you cleave to them, men have abandoned you, and cast out your naraes as evil. What happened to Paul will happen to all christian sufferers in similar circumstances : — " At ray first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook rae : 1 pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." * In his words — the things he has spoken to you, understood and believed — there is that which will give you peace in him, in whatever circumstances of external trouble you may be placed. But you must be in him, and he must be in you, in order to your having peace in hira. " Abide in hira, and he in you," and ye shall have peace, — not otherwise. Count on tribulation — while in the world ; count on tribula tion — from the world. Expect teraptation, and manfully resist it ; expect suffering, and patiently endure it ; expect persecution, 1 2 Tim. iv. 16, 17. PART XXII.J CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE. 491 and rise above it, — overcome it by " the unresistible might of weakness." Never seek peace in the world. Even the men of the worid do not find it there,— far less will you. Seek it in Christ: there you are sure to find it; and when the world troubles you, say to your heart, " Return to thy rest." In the world you raust be, and therefore troubled ; but take care that ye be not of the world, for then you cannot be in Christ, and, therefore, cannot have peace. Fight the good fight of faith. Struggle it out with the world and its prince. "This is the victory that overcomes them, even your faith." The voice, which was once heard in the solitude of Geth- seraane, now proclaims to you, from the throne of the universe, " Be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." " Be faith ful " — faithful " to death ; I will give you the crown of life." Overcome by the blood of the Lamb — by the word of your tes tiraony, — and love not your lives to the death. There raust be no giving way, no surrender, no corapromise, no peace, with the world, if we would have peace in hira now — perfect peace with him hereafter. This is our Leader's war-cry, " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with rae in ray throne, even as I also overcarae, and am set down with my Father in his throne." * And this is our war-song, while we wrestle with flesh and blood, and principaUties, and powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world, " Rejoice not against us, O our eneraies. Greater is He that is with us than he that is in the world." " What shall we then say to these things ? If God be for us, who can be against us ? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things ? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth ; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" " Nay, in all these things we are raore than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principaUties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 1 Rev. iii. 21. 492 NOTES. [exp. XXVIII. shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." * Ere long the conflict wUl cease by the victory being gained. The Finisher of our faith — the presiding witness and awarder — the great Agonothete — will place the garland of amaranth on our heads. And, oh, the delight of casting these crowns at his feet, and ascribing, for ever and ever, glory, and honour, and dominion, and blessing to the great overcoraer — to him who conquered for us, who conquered in us, who made us more than conquerors ! It is sweet to anticipate this glorious result of all our tribulations and struggles ; and, in the enjoyraent of peace in him, amidst these struggles and tribulations, to raise, though in broken accents, and with a treraulous voice, the song which, like the sound of great waters, shall unceasingly, everlastingly, echo through heaven, — " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." " Unto hira that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own -blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father ; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. , Amen." ^ Note A, p. 4. John xiv. 1. The fact and the philosophy of the intentional applicability of this discourse, to Christians -through all time, though it was originally ad dressed to the apostles, has never been so clearly and beautifully stated as by Dr Heugh, in his first expository lecture on the fourteenth chapter of John : ' — " Perceiving, by his own prescience, the end from the beginning, and loving his whole church as he loved the few, but distinguished, members of it who were then before him, our Lord has so arranged his discourse, and has so formed his intercessory prayer, as to embrace the interests of his people in every age, and 1 Rom. viii. 31-39. 2 Rev. i. 6, 6, 12. 3 " Life of Hugh Heugh, D.D., with a Selection from his Discourses," by his son- in-law, H. M. Macgill— vol. ii., p. 3, 4. These are precious volumes. The value of the discourses may be judged of by this specimen. The memoir is invaluable for the stimulus, direction, and encouragement it is fltted to give to all, especially to ministers. EXP. XXVIII.J NOTES. * 493 place, and variety of circumstance, as to flt these enduring eff'usions of his grace and truth to instruct, to solace, to animate aU his foUow ers, as efiectually as the apostles themselves. Nor is it known to any, save that omniscient Lord by whom these words were spoken, and who has been watching over— and, indeed, producing by the agency of his Spirit — the gracious effects which they were designed to accom plish, what these effects have already been, or shall yet be. Like some living fountain, which has never ceased to flow, this record of our Redeemer's words has been sending forth its influence unimpaired, refreshing the thirsty, reviving the fainting, and invigorating the weak. Like the sun in the heavens, unchanged by years, it has been ' en lightening the eyes' and ' rejoicing the hearts' of men ; — it has been diff'using through the world the warmth of spiritual consolation, and the joy and vigour of spiritual activity from age to age. Short as it is, it has done what imposing volumes of human composition have been insufficient to accomplish. It has been a vehicle of the richest communications of the Divine benevolence to the souls of men. What a mass of satisfactory, of infallible, information, on the highest subjects to which the human mind can be turned, and connected with the chief interests and duties of all men, does it contain ! What moral effects of the greatest value, of the purest and noblest character, has it already accomplished ! What has it not done for the faithful fol lowers of Christ, when it has been his will to subject them to the flery trial of persecution ! How have the afflicted of every class, in this world of sorrow — the poor man and the indigent — the solitary and the friendless — the widow and the orphan — the sick and the tempted — found a peace here, which they would not part with for the wealth of worlds, — have found in these sayings of their Saviour, received from his lips with faith and love, their burdened and wounded hearts re lieved and healed ! And how often have even short sentences taken from them sustained the spirit, when heart and flesh were failing, dis pelled all terror and gloom fi-om the death-bed, and turned ' the shadow of death into the morning !'" Note B, p. 420. Luther's illustration of this passage, to which my attention has been drawn by Archdeacon Haee, in his valuable work on " the Mission of the Comforter,"* is very effective : — " ' If I remain with Vol. ii. p. 401-2. 494 ¦" NOTES. [exp. xxviii, you, you will have nothing in me but a bodily, natural comfort, and will be unable to attain to the high spiritual authority and everlasting life ordained for you ; therefore my departure, which troubles you now so greatly, should be your chief joy. Let me go away, and be afflicted to the utmost, and put to a shameful death, — and be ye with out anxiety ; for know that all this is for your good. It is declared in the Scriptures, and foretold in all the prophets, that Christ shall suffer, and die, and be buried, and rise again, and shall thus begin a new and everlasting kingdom in which men shall have eternal life, being re deemed from sin, and death, and hell. This must be fulfiUed, and the hour is at hand when it must come to pass. Therefore your joy and salvation are now beginning — only you must learn a little to forget my bodily presence, and to wait for the Comforter ; for my kingdom cannot begin, nor the Holy Ghost be given, until I have died and left this life. My death and rising again wiU make everything new in heaven and on earth, and establish a state of things in which the Holy Ghost shall reign everywhere, through the Gospel and through your office ; so that ye shaU sit, as I have before told you, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and have rule and power over sin and death, unto righteousness and eternal life, and that all who wish to be saved must hear and follow you. This is the treasure and the glory that I shall obtain for you ; but it cannot be yours until I have done that which is to gain it for you, and purchased and won it by my death.' " This is the meaning of these words, — ' Unless I go away ' — that is, ' unless I die ' — ' nothing will be done : you will continue as you are ; and everything will continue in its old state, as it was before, and is now — the Jews under the law of Moses, the heathens in their blindness, all under sin and death ; and no man can be redeemed from them or saved. No Scripture would then be fulflUed, and I should have come in vain, and all would be vain that the holy fathers before you, and you, have believed and hoped. But if I go and die, and do that which God in his counsels has decreed to accomplish by me, the Holy Ghost will come to you, and work in you and give you such courage, that you shaU be my ambassadors, and convert the whole world, and set aside the law of the Jews, and destroy the idolatry of the Gentiles, and shall reprove and convert the whole world ; and your doctrine shall stand fast for ever, and shall spread on every side, although the devil and the world shall be offended thereby. This is the blessing and the glory which my departure brings you ; therefore you must not trouble yourselves about my going away from you, but should think whither I go, and what I am to accomplish. Think not about my going away, but about this, that I am going to the Father. Thus, instead of the pain and grief which you now feel at EXP. XXVIII.J NOTES. 495 my going away, you wiU find pure comfort, joy, and life ; because I am going where I shaU receive power fi:om the Father, and be Lord over all things, and shall send you the Holy Ghost, who wiU glorify me in the world ; and thus you shall establish and spread my king dom, which shall never come to an end ; and shall work such miracles, that the devil and the world shall be confounded, and be subject to you, and you shall help many, and make many blessed. All which would remain undone if I did not go away and die.' " — Exposition of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Chapters of St John. ADDENDA. Note, Vol. I., p. 41, 1. 12. On no question brought up in these Expositions have I found it more difficult to form a deflnite judgment, than whether the state ments contained in the paragraph, John v. 21-29, are to be under stood literally or figuratively, or partly literally, partly figuratively. The interpretation which makes the whole statements refer to a spiritual resurrection is plainly untenable. In the text I have given the preference to the exegesis which considers the whole as referring to a Uteral resurrection. At the same time, the interpretation which refers, verses 24 and 25, to a spiritual moral resurrection, and, verses 28 and 29, to a literal physical resurrection, has much to recommend it ; and I think it right to insert here the exposition of Neander, who takes this view of it. " The idea of an outward moral judgment, as weU as the idea of the continued spiritual awakening of mankind by the publication of the Gospel, by no means excludes a flnal judgment and a universal resurrection ; but the former appears as a symbol and preparative for the latter. At flrst Christ speaks of the power conferred on him, as the Messiah, to awaken the spiritually dead, and, at the same time, to judge them according to their respective conduct towards the divine fife that was offered for their acceptance. ' As the Father awakens and calls to life the dead, so also the Son awakens to a true divine life whom he wiU ; for the Father hath committed to him all power of judgment, that all may show their reverence for the Father by the manner in which they reverence the Son. By participation in a divine life, the believer is already re- 496 NOTES. [exp. XXVIII. moved beyond the stroke of judgment. A time is coming, and already is, when the spiritually dead will hear the voice of the Son of .God, by the publication of the Gospel, and those who hear shall live.' Then he passes on from the present to the future, from the process of development among mankind, to the last decisive result, and says, — ' Marvel not at this ; for the hour is coming, in which all who are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.' " I am not convinced that this is the riyht interpretation, but it may be so ; and it cannot be ex hibited to greater advantage than in the words of one who was almost equaUy distinguished as a Scripture interpreter and an ecclesiastical historian. — Vide Neander's Planting of Christianity, Book vi. chap. iv. Note, Vol, I., p. 430, 1. 9 from the foot—" Miracles." ^Tjiie'ia. It would have been better that the word had been ren dered without the definite article the, as it is anarthrous in the original ; and that the word " signs " had been employed instead of miracles. Our Lord's ripara and Sui/d^«s had not been a-rniua to them. They had not seen that they were indications of his Messiahship. It was the less excusable to render the word " miracles " here, as it is ren dered " sign " in verse 30. Our Lord said that they sought him, not because they had recognised in his works tokens of his mission ; and they in effect say, ' If we have not, let us see a arjiiclov, and we will attend to it.' — Vide Trench's Notes on the Parables, p. 3. INDEX. I.— PRINCIPAL MATTERS. " Abide in me, and I in you," what the ex piression means, iii., 252. Abiding in Christ, in what it consists, iii., 254; necessary to prevent unfruitful ness and its consequences, 267 ; neces sary to secure fruitfulness and its con sequences, 261. Abraham's spiritual children, the Jews were not, ii., 52. Accomplishment of his great work by Christ, ii., 143. " Agree with thine adversary," what the expression means, i., 191. AU men shall become the subjects of Christ's mediatorial government, ii., 270 ; are the objects of the gospel invi tation, 271. All whom the Father has given Christ shall be put in possession of the bless ings of his salvation, ii., 273. Alms, the manner in which they should be given, i., 224, " Angry without a cause," what the ex pression means, i., 183. Anxiety, the unreasonableness of, i., 279. Apostates, their awful condition, i., 169. Application of the arguments for working miracles on the Sabbath-day, i., 101 ; of the Sermon on the Mount, 314. Appointment of Christ to his work by his Father, ii., 134; of his disciples to a great and beneficent work, a proof of Christ's love to them, iii., 324. Approbation of our Lord's exercise under his sufferings, by his Father, ii., 219. " Arise, let us go hence," what the expres sion refers to, iii., 232. " As I have loved you," what the expres sion means, ii., 499. Asking in the name of Christ, the import of, iii., 74. VOL. III. " Baptism to be baptised with," what it means, i., 418. " Beam in the eye," what the meaning of, i., 291. " Believe in God and in Christ," import of the expression, iii., 10. Believing in Christ, what it is, i., 23 ; and coming to him, the distinction between, 443; the work of God, in what sense, 435. Benignity, divine, glorified in Christ's suf ferings, ii., 467. Birth of Christ, an event most important in its results, ii., 238. Blessedness of believing and coming to Christ, i., 445. " Born again," what the expression means, i.,4. Bread of life, Christ, 1., 438, 466. Brotherly love, want of, a source of great evil, iii., 382. " Building the sepulchres of the prophets," what is meant by, i., 376. Casting out of the prince of this world, what is it ? ii., 258 ; and how the result of Christ's death, 262. Casting pearls before swine, what the ex pression imports, i., 294. Character and privilege of true Chris tians, and the connection between them, iii., 166, 182 ; the measure of each other, 163. Children of the devil,- the Jews were, ii., 57. " Children of the light," what the expres sion means, ii., 296. Christ, in accomplishing the work com mitted to him, the object of the Father's delight, ii., 126; "the light," in what sense, 290; the way, and the truth, and *I i 498 INDEX. the life, iii., 35, 45 ; in the Father, — his disciples in him, and he in them, 140 ; in the Father, — in what respects, 145 ; in his people, and how, 160. Christ and his Father coming to his dis ciples and makhig their abode with them, what the language means, iii., 179. Clirist's power to lay down his life and take it again, ii., 141; exaltation to glory, 479; going away, results of, to himself, iii., 21 ; results of to his dis ciples, 25 ; saying about his going away and his disciples knowing the way, mis apprehended, 39 ; people in him, in what sense, 149; departure, cause for joy, 207 ; Father greater than he, in what sense, 212 ; love what is meant by it, 282. Christians, their position and duties in reference to the world, i., 151 ; their pe culiar character, iii., 159 ; bound to love one another as Christ has loved them all, 297. Christianity, the relation of, to the ancient revelation, i., 166. Church and its ofiioe -bearers, true and false, ii., 90. " Clean through the word I have spoken," what the expression means, iii., 248. Closet, what the entering into, means, i., 233. " Come " and " believe," the distinction between, ii., 8. Coming to Christ, our natural inability for, i., 460. Comfort, the formation of the character for the administration of, iii., 207. Commandments of Christ, what are they? iii., 86; having them characteristic of true Christians, 161 ; keeping them characteristic of true Christians, 163 ; a motive why Christians should love one another, 315. Conclusion of Valedictory Discourse, iii , 426. Confidence to be exercised in the finished work of Christ, ii., 486. Confidential communication of Christ's mind, a proof of love to his disciples, iii., 324. Connection between the church on earth and the church in heaven, ii., 75; be tween the character and privileges of Christians, iii., 181. Consecration of religious edifices, ii., 153. " Continue ye in my love," what the ex pression means, iii., 279. Continuing in Christ's love, duty of, iii., 272; principle of, 274; what it means, 282 ; how the duty of, to be performed, 286 ; will make us resemble Christ, 291 ; will minister to Christ's enjoyment, 291 ; wiU promote our own happiness, 294. Conversational discourse to the Jews, i., 430. " Convinceth me of my sin," what the phrase means, ii., 63. " Corban," what the term signifies, i., 496. " Corn of wheat dying," what this means, ii., 201. Cross, the death of, ii., 232. Cutting off a right hand, what this is, i., 196. " Daily bread," the meaning of the phrase, i., 244. Danger of false principles in religion, ii., 182. " Death, never see," what the import of, ii., 68. Death of Christ, and the increase of his followers connected, ii., 202 ; the fact of it, 229 ; the manner of it, 231 ; the na ture of it, 234 ; penal, 235 ; the results of it in the judgment of this world, 241 ; the casting out of the prince of this world, 258 ; in the drawing of all men to Christ, 267 ; did not purchase the Spirit, 278 ; a proof of his love to his disciples, iii., 321. Dedication, the feast of, ii., 152. Delight of the Father in the Son, in and for the accomplishment of his work, ii., 144. Departure of Christ necessary and sufii- cient, to secure the coming of the Spirit, iii., 420. Design of the Messiah's mission, i., 16 ; of our Lord in predicting coming events, iii., 220. Devil, who and what he is, ii., 67 ; a mur derer and a liar, in what sense, 87. " Disciples indeed," meaning of the nhrase, i., 489. Disciples of Christ fortified against the world's hatred and opposition, iii., 342; have no cause to be astonished at the world's hatred of them, 370 ; no reason to be stumbled at the world's hatred, 376; no reason to be ashamed at the world's hatred, 383 ; no reason to be discouraged at the world's hatred, 400 ; perplexed at our Lord's enigmatic say ing, 436 ; declaration of satisfaction with our Lord's explanation of his saying, 472. Discipleship, terms of, ii., 206. Distinguishing character and jJrivileges of the disciples of Christ, i., 116. Divinity ofour Lord, ii., 393. " Do ye now believe," what the import of, iii., 480. Doctrine and law connected, iii., 251 ; doc trines taught by our Lord, ii., 305 ; di vine authority of, 307. " Doing to others as we would that they should do unto us," the meaning and application of, i., 308. , Door of the fold, Christ, ii., 94. Doxology ui the Lord's prayer, its genu ineness examined, i., 354. Drawing of all men to Christ, what is it ? ii., 269. " Drawn by the Father," what it denotes, i., 457. INDEX. 499 Duty of Christians to abide in Christ, and to let Christ abide in them, iii., 261. Duty and privileges connected, iii., 270. Earnestness a quality of Christ's teachinsr, 11., 313. ^' Eating Christ's flesh, and drinking his blood, raeaning of, i., 472. Enigmatic declaration of our Lord, iii., 427 ; explanation of, by our Lord him self, 441. Eternal life, as the opposite of not perish ing, i., 17; what it is, and how bestowed, li., 168. Evangelical Alliance, its objects stated and vindicated, iii., 335. " Every branch in me that beareth not fruit," what the expression means, iii., 244. ' Evidence on which our Lord claims be lief, i., 92 ; of John, 94 ; of miracles, 97 ; of the voice from heaven, 98; of Old Testament Scripture, 99 ; ii., 317. " Evil, deliver us from," meaning of, i., 262. Example of Christ a reason why Chris tians should love one another, iii., 319. Exclusiveness of true Christians, one cause of the world's hatred, iii., 391. Excommunication, Jewish, nature of, iii., 348. Exercise of our Lord under his sufferings, ii., 216. Exposure of hypocrites and formalists at the day of judgment, i., 330. Faith in God and Christ, the antidote to heart-trouble, iii., 6 ; how fitted to re lieve the heart-trouble of the disciples, 11 ; how, of Christians in every age, 14. " Faithful," import of the term, i., 397. Faithful denunciations against the phari- sees and lawyers, i., 369. Faithfulness, divine, glorified in Christ's sufferings, ii., 467. False teachers, caution against, i., 319 ; prophets known by their fruits, 320; shepherds who do not enter in by the door, ii., 100 ; shepherds, characteristic of, 101. Fasting, the duty and manner of, i., 254. Fearlessness a quality of Christ's teaching, ii., 314. Feast of Tabernacles, ii., 4. Feelings of our Lord in reference to his mission, i., 416. " Fellow of the Lord of Hosts," the refer ence of, ii., 611. Fellowship in Christ's life, iii., 126. " Few there be that find the strait gate," meaning of, i., 318. "Fire on earth," what the "coming to send " means, i., 413. Flesh, the meaning of the term, i., 6 ; " of Christ given for the life of the world," meaning of, 468. "Folded sheep, the," ii., 93. Foreknowledge and prediction of events. do not affect men's moral character, ii., 424. ' Forgive us our debts," meaning of, i., 247. Friends, Christ's regarding his disciples as, a proof of his love to them, iii., 323. " Fulfil the law and the prophets," what the expression means, i., 169. Gathering of the other sheep to the Shep herd, ii., 123. " Gehenna of fire," import of the phrase, i., 186. " Gift of God," what it means, i., 57. Giving by the Father to Christ, what it means, i., 448 ; of the sheep to Christ by his Father, ii., 131. Glorification of the Sou of man in and by his sufferings, ii., 436; as the perfect man, 438; as the representative-man, 441 ; as the God -man, 446; as the pre dicted man, 446 ; of God in the Son of man suffering, 450 ; in the sufferings of Christ viewed in themselves, 454 ; of the Divine power, 455 ; of the Divine wis dom, 467 ; in the results of the suffer ings of Christ, 470 ; of the Son of man, the result and reward of God being glo rified in and by the Son of man's suffer ings, 485. God glorified in creation, providence, and grace, ii., 451 ; glorified the Son of man under his sufferings, 476 ; after his sufferings, 477 ; " in himself," 483 ; " straightway," 484. God's spiritual children, the Jews were not, ii., 64. God's thoughts not as our thoughts, ii. , 225. " Good works," what the phrase as ap plied to Christ's works means, ii., 179. Gospel of the kingdom, i., 1. Gospels not inferior to the epistles, iii., 191. " Greater things than these shall the apos tles do," what is meant by the language, iii., 70. Greeks desiring to see Jesus, who they were, ii., 193. Guilt and danger of those who do not avail themselves of the gospel salvation, i., 37. Happiness, and how to attain it, i., 262 ; the way of securing it, 462 ; why not obtained, ii., 2. Hardening, judicial — what it is, ii., 335. " Having Christ's commandments," what the expression means, iii., 161. Heaven, why called God's house, iii., 22 ; a house of many mansions, what so called in allusion to, 24. " Henceforth ye know him and have seen him," meaning of the expression, iii., 56. Holy Ghost, or Spirit, necessary to yield ing obedience, i., 297 ; the giving of, 500 INDEX. connected with the glorification of Christ, ii., 17 ; permanent residence of, with the disciples, how secured, iii., 106 ; as the Paraclete promised, 94 ; the Great Teacher and Remembrancer, 191 ; what the appellation signifies, 196; " sent by the Father in the name of the Son," what the expression imports, 195 ; "will teach all things, and bring all things to remembrance," what signified by, 196 ; Christ's witness, 402 ; what meant by his being sent by, and pro ceeding from, the Father, 403 ; how he discharges the duties of a witness, 406. House built on the rock, what signified by, i., 335 ; on the sand, what signified by, 337. Human authority in religion condemned, - i., 492. Humanity of our Lord, the reality of, ii., 389 ; perfection of, 391. Hunger and thirst after righteousness, they that, their character and privilege, i., 126. " Hypocrites," the meaning and reference of the term, i., 225. " I am in the Father, and the Father in me," import of, iii., 61. "I am the true vine," meaning of the ex pression, iii., 239. " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me," meaning of the expression, ii., 362. " If it had not been so, I would have told you," meaning of, iii., 33. Ignorance, a main cause of the non- removal of evil, iii., 62. " I go to prepare a place for you," import of, iii., 26. "I judge no man," meaning of the ex pression, ii., 31. " I know whom I have chosen," what the expression means, ii., 370. Imitation of Christ in glorifying God, ii., 487. " In himself," what the phrase means, ii., 483. " In my name," what the signification of, iii., 462. Instruction and reproof, manner of, i., 294. Interview of our Lord with the Greeks, ii., 198. Invitation of the Gospel, ii., 5; accepted, secures the becoming happy, and mak ing others happy, ii., 16. " I will not leave you comfortless," mean ing of, iii., 112. Jacob's well, i., 68. Jews' guilt in murdering the prophets, i., 383. " Jot or tittle," what the meaning of, i., 172. Joy, christian, the source of the same in all ages and countries, iii., 463. Judas Iscariot, character of, described, | ii., 356; chosen to be an apostle, and continued to be an apostle so long, why ? 372 ; his treachery predicted, 378 ; has followers in every age, 381 ; got rid of, before the institution of the Supper, 419; his utter insensibility to aU our Lord's warnings, 421 ; his inconceivable impudence, 429. Judging others prohibited, i., 287. Judgment of the world, what it is, and how the result of the death of Christ, ii., 241-250. Judgment, our, never to be set in opposi tion to the revealed wiU of Christ, ii., 363. Justice of God glorified in the sufferings of Christ, ii., 460. " Keep my saying," meaning of, iii., 348. Keeping Christ's commandments a true manifestation of love to him, iii., 79 ; how to be done, 88 ; what comprehended in, 163. Key of knowledge, what it is, i., 384. Knowledge of Christ necessary to know ledge of the Father, iii., 66 ; of Christ's being in his Father and in his people — what ? 161 ; and when to be enjoyed, 152. Knowledge of God connected with the knowledge of Christ, iii., 51. Knowledge of the disciples to be greatly increased after the departure of Christ, iii., 467. "Law, the," equivalent often to Old Testament Scripture, ii., 287. " Law and the prophets, not come to de stroy," meaning of, i., 167. Lawyers described and condemned, i., 373. " Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth," what meant by it, i., 263. "Least commandments," meaning of, i., 172. Lex talionis, i., 206. Liberty, true spiritual, ii., 42. Life, the, Christ, iii., 43 ; of Christ, what it is, 127 ; of Christ's people, what it is, 130 ; of Christ and of his people, con nection between, 134. " Life, and more abundantly," meaning of the phrase, ii., 112. "Life in himself, given to have," what meant by, i., 86. "Lifted up, as Moses lifted up the ser pent in the wilderness," the force of the parallel, i., 18. " Lifted up," what the expression means, ii., 39. Lifting up of Christ, and drawing all men to him, connected, ii., 275. Light of the world. Christians, i., 161; Christ, ii., 27. " Light, let your, shine before men," what the import of, i., 163. " Lily of the field," i., 282, INDEX. 501 Literal acquaintance with the Scriptures << T -t I ^°"8**' ''»' "Ot rested in, ii., 283. ^Little while," meaning of, iii., 427. Lord, Lord," what the meaning of, i., 325 Love of Christians enjoined by Christ, ii., 499 ; should be mutual, iii., 298 ; should be like that of Christ, 303 ; discrimina tive, 304; sincere, spontaneous, 306; fervent and copious, 307 ; disinterested, 308 ; active, 308 ; self-denying and self- sacrificing, 309; considerate and wise, 310; generously confiding and kindly forbearing, 310, constant, 311; endur ing, holy, and spiritual, 312 ; universal. Love of God to the world the primary source of salvation, i., 28-34 ; and mani festation of God as the proof of love, connected, iii., 176 ; of the Father to the Son, what its qualities, 276 ; and of Christ to his people, analogy between, 277. Love, to Christians, the badge of disciple ship, ii., 601 ; to Christ, characteristic of true Christians, in., 169. Loved of the Father and the Son, the privilege of Christians, iii., 169. " Loving enemies, and doing good to them that hate us," import of, i., 216. " Lusts," meaning of the term, ii., 59. Mammon, the serving of, what it imports, i., 270. Manifestation of Christ to his disciples, not as to the world, question regarding answered, iii., 158; to the- soul — what? 177. Manna, not certainly a type of Christ, i., 439. Manner of obtaining the blessings pro cured by Christ, i., 22. " Meat which perisheth," meaning of the phrase, i., 432. Meek, the, their character and privilege, i., 120. Merciful, the, their character and privi lege, i., 127. Messianic character of forty-first psalm, ii., 374. Ministers, christian, claims on the prayers of their people, i., 409. Ministry, christian, i., 387 ; characters of its occupants, 391; worthy, 392; un worthy, 398 ; destiny of its occupants, 401 ; worthy, 402 ; unworthy, 406 ; cau tion with which it should be entered on, 407 ; encouragement to fidelity, 408. Ministry of our Lord, ii., 299 ; details of, 304 ; results of, 330. Miracle of the loaves and fishes illustrated, i., 427. Miracles, nature and extent of the evi dence of doctrine furnished by them, ii., 318. Miracles of our Lord, their greatness, ii., 322 ; number, 322 ; variety, 324 ; bene ficent character, 325 ; unostentatious character, 326; recognised as miracles when performed, 325 ; accordance with ancient predictions, 325. Miracles, continuing to be wrought by the apostles after our Lord's departure, iii., 67 ; and prophecy, their nature and connection, 220. Misery of those not " believing the Ught," u., 297. Mission of our Lord, means by which the design of, is to be accomplished, i., 18; figurative views of, 411 ; Divine origin of, ii., 306 ; design of, 309. Missions to heathen and infidel nations, their necessity, i., 155. Missionaries, and missionary agents, must be Christians, i., 157. " Morrow shall take thought for the things of itself," what the meaning of, i., 285. Mourn, they that, their character and privilege, i., 118. "My Father is the husbandman," what the import of, iii., 242. "My name's sake," meaning of, in., 387. Necessity of Christ leaving his disciples, and of their knowing it, ii., 494. New commandments — what? ii., 493; im port of the phrase, 500. Nicodemus, his station and character, i., 2 ; his conversation with our Lord, 3-12. Obedience must proceed from a regard to God's will, i., 221 ; must have the same leading character as Christ's, iii., 289. Object of supreme desire to Christians, what should be ? i., 262. " Offend," what the word means, i., 194, 485. " Old time, them of," what meant by, i., 182. Oneness of Christ and his Father, in what it consists, ii., 174. Orphans, the disciples not to be left, iii., 109. " Our Father," what the meaning of,i., 239. " Outside of the cup and platter," what its meaning, i., 365. Paraclete, meaning of the term, iii., 97 ; who he is, 101 ; a person — a divine per son — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, 102, 103; farther de scription of, 196 ; the work of, 196. Parting warning of our Lord, ii., 283. " Peace I leave with you," what the import of, in., 196. Peace, Christ's legacy to his people, iii., 200 ; Christ's, in what it consists, 201 ; how Christ's, 201 ; how a legacy, 202 ; how given, 203 ; in Christ, 486. Peace-makers, their character and privi lege, i., 139. Pectus Christi, ii., 433. Peculiarity of our Lord's teaching, ii., 83. Peroration of the sermon on the mount, i., 331. 502 INDEX. Persecuted for righteousness' sake, the blessedness of those who are so, i., 143. Perseverance in grace secured, ii., 169 ; not inconsistent with warnings and ex hortations, 173. Person of Christ, divinity of, ii., 307. Peter warned, ii., 605 ; his impetuosity and pertinacity, 352 ; his unbelief, pride, and rashness, 609 ; Peter and John, a peculiarly strong affection between, 424. Petitions in the Lord's prayer, their num ber, classification, and import, i., 241. Pharisees condemned, i., 364. Poor in spirit, their character and privi lege, L, 116. Prayer, the manner of, i., 228 ; the use of, 237 ; the pattern of, 237 ; the means of obtaining blessings, 296 ; to the Father, in Christ's name, the means by which the apostles' privileges were to be ob tained, iii., 74 ; to be presented always in Christ's name, 463. Predictions respecting our Lord, ii., 393. Pre-existence and divinity of Christ, ii., 70. Prince of this world — his assault on our Lord, and his readiness for it, iii., 228 ; found nothing in Christ, 230 ; who he is, ii., 262. Privileges to be enjoyed by the apostles after their Lord's departure, iii., 67 ; peculiar to Christians, 169; of Chris tians, enjoyed only by those who possess the character, 181. Professed disciple, what it imports, ii. 369. Prophets, the meaning of the term, i., 319. Prudence to be exercised in introducing persons into the church, ii., 197. Pubhcity a quality of Christ's teaching, ii., 313. Pure in heart, their character and privi lege, i., 136. " Purgeth the branch that beareth fruit," what the meaning of, iii., 243. QuaUfication of Christ for his great work, ii., 137. ^ Rabbins, a saying of, i., 172. " Raca," what the meaning of, i., 184. Raising tbe dead, whether our Lord's words regarding, to be understood literally or figuratively, i., 81. Rapid diffusion of the Gospel, i., 414. Reasons why men remain unbelievers, ii.. 163. " Reconciled to thy brother," what it means, i., 189. Rejection of Christ by his countryraen accounted for, ii., 300, 330 ; a proof of his Messiahship, 301. Repentance, necessity of, i., 178. Representative character of our Lord, ii., 392. " Reprove tbe world of siii," what the ex pression means, iii., 414 ; " of righte- cnsness," 417 ; " of judgment," 418. Reserve, on the part of our Lord, in pre ferring his claims to the Messiahship, u., 158. " Resist not evil," what the meaning of, i., 207. " Reward," meaning of the term, i., 232. Righteousness of the Scribes and Phari sees, what it is, i., 177 ; of the subjects of the Messiah, what it is, 179; both compared in reference to the life and happiness of others, 182 ; in reference to chastity, 192 ; in reference to divorce, 197 ; in reference to oaths, 200 ; in re ference to retaliation, 206 ; in reference to the regard and treatment of enemies, 211 ; in reference to beneficence and piety, 219. Salt of the earth. Christians, i., 161. Salvation, the great work in which Christ is engaged, ii., 129 ; mode of obtaining an interest in, ii., 310. Samaria, conversation with woman of, i., 53. Samaritans' creed, i., 70 ; who they were, ii., 65. Satan, a person, and not a persomfication, ii., 252 ; his entering into Judas, 426. Scribes and Pharisees, Uke graves that appear not, i., 372. " Sealed," as applied to Christ, what it means, i., 433. Sects not instituted by Christ, i., 506. " See the Son," and beUeve on him," what meaning of, i., 464. " Seeing the Father," what the expression means, iii., 58. " Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," the meaning of, i., 284. Self-deception, caution against, i., 323. Self- examination proper before sitting down at the Lord's table, ii., 431. Sent by the Father, a description of the Messiah, i., 14. Sermon on the Mount, i., 112. " Servant of sin," what it means, ii., 46. Serving Christ, the import of, ii., 206. Sheep, the, who are meant by ? ii., 129 ; and elect, distinction between, 164. Shepherd, import of the term as applied to Christ, ii., 110 ; the good, 107 ; as contrasted with the thief, 112 ; as con trasted with the hireling, 114 ; secures for his people all necessary blessings, 112 ; secures these at the greatest con ceivable expense to himself, 114 ; is con nected with his people by the most in timate and endearing mutual acquaint ance and intercourse, 117 ; cares for aU his sheep, 121. Slavery, real, n., 46. " Son, the, abideth ever," what the phrase means, ii., 47. Son of God, i., 13 ; differently applied to Christ and magistrates, ii., 186. Son of man, i., 15 ; a pi-ophetic appellation of the Messiah, ii., 285 ; reference of INDEX. 503 the appellation, ii., 386 ; origin of, 387 ; meaning of, 388 ; going of the Son of man, 396; to the grave, 397 ; to heaven, 409 ; predicted, 411. " Soul troubled," what the expression raeans, ii., 203. Spiritual paternity of the unbelieving Jews, ii., 62. Stilling of the tempest, i., 428. Strait gate and narrow way, the meaning of, i., 316. ^ " Straitened till it be accomplished," meaning of, i., 420. Submission of our Lord to his Father, u., 217. Sufferings of Christ, their origin, nature, and severity, i., 418 ; the means of gain ing the Ads of his mission, 423 ; in ternal, and their causes, ii., 208-216 ; their results, 472. Swearing, not entirely forbidden by our Lord, i., 202. Sychar, i., 66. Synagogue, what the meaning of, i., 225. " Take no thought," meaning of, i., 277. Teaching of our Lord, manner of, ii., 312. " Temptation, lead us not into," what the import of, i., 250. Test of love to Christ stated, iu., 85 ; ap plied, 90. " That day," meaning of the phrase, in., 144. " That the Scripture might be fulfilled," meaning of the expression, ii., 378. " These things have I spoken, being yet present with you," the meaning of, in., 194. Thirsty invited to drink, ii., 5. Times of prayer among Jews and Moham medans, i., 230. Tithes scrupulously paid by the Pharisees, i., 369. Traditions, the evil of, i., 494. Traitor detected and dismissed, ii., 381. Treason of Judas predicted, ii., 366. Tribulation in the world, in., 486. Triple glorification, the, ii., 633. True shepherds who enter in by the door, ii., 95 ; characteristics of, 98. " True," as applied to a vine, what it means, in., 241. Trouble of heart, causes of, iii., 6 ; means of relief from, 8. Truth, Christ is the, iii., 43. Unbelievers, doom of, ii., 310. Uncertainty of worldly treasures, i., 265. Union to Christ, i., 476. Unity of the Father and the Son, i., 76. Unlimited extent of the gospel invitation, u. 9. Uppermost seats in the synagogue loved by the Pharisees, i., 370. " Vain repetitions," meaning and illustra tion of, 1., 234. Valedictory discourse, iii., 1. Vindication of our Lord from the charge of blasphemy, ii., 183. Vine, the true, iii., 236. " Walk while ye have the light," what the phrase means, ii., 393. Washing of hands before eating, i., 493 ; of the disciples' feet, 349 ; design of our Lord explained, 367 ; whether intended to be a permanent religious rite, 358. Way, Christ the, iii., 41. " Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know," meaning of the saying, iii., 38. " Wisdom of God," what it means, i., 380. " Without me ye can do nothing," import of, iii., 259. Witness to Christ after his departure — who ? iii. 402. Working miracles on the Sabbath-day, defence of, i., 71. World's hatred, rejection, and persecution of Christ's disciples stated, in., 346; explained, 354 ; prior hatred of Christ stated, 366 ; explained, 364. Worship in spirit and truth, what meant by, i., 65. " Ye beUeve in God, believe also in me," the meaning of, in., 9. " Zacharias, who perished between the altar and the temple " — who? i., 382. II.— GREEK WORDS AND PHRASES REMARKED ON. "AyiCV, TO, i., 296. "Afl60i, iii., 268. AtT-yitrtTB, iii., 457. 'AxoCiiVj ii., 98. 'Akridsioc, iii., 43. 'AxvfBtyvi, iii., 241, ' AvOqoj^os, iii., 448. 'Av6^&>seoicT6yo(^ ii., I 'AvTi, ii., 7. "Avcoeiv, i., 4, 48. 'AtK^Ti, iii., 57. ' Atix^iBy,, ii., 512. 'ATiXBu, iii., 420. •AT.iTTOis, i., -106. 504 INDEX, 'Aj-Aoue, i., 267. ¦Ajx^v, ii., 38, 85. Ali>.n, ii., 94. AuTof, iii., 466. 3xxTia'/>oos, i., 493. Bxg-t?.6tx TOv &UV, i., 341. SxTTOkoyiiy, i., 234. Tioifyos, iii., 242. r?, i., 151. TKanroxo/ioy, i., 493 ; ii., 427. T^x/i/iXTthi, i., 372, 380. AxtfAoyiXf i., 329. Attjryou yiyOfAiyov, ii,, 349. Ali^okof, i. 329. A;ii TOV 5r«T£g», i., 479. Alio TovTB, ii., i26, 149. iilim/ju, iii., 200. AixxuffCyvt^ i., 284, Aoxo;, i., 291. Aoe», ii., 339, 447 ; in., 172. Aoix(ri/,ls, ii., 447. ACyxrxi, i., 76. Ai, iii., 328. •Sioy, ii., 32, 228 ; pro"OTxy, iii., 30. 'Eyfll SS XEyai ^/*7v, i., 183. 'Ej-i si'yit), ii., 79. e;, in., 374. '£v fl6$Jx/axaeT£;^0VTa;i', ii., 303. "El^vivoxoio), i., 139. El's TX 'liix, ii., 302. ''Exiiyos pro ixiiya, iii., 196, 405. "E>.\mis 'E.T.k'nimx), U., 193. "Eyx jTflSTEgiK, ii., 64. ^Eywyxxyiiy, iii., 98. 'Eg*jT»)' xt^uy, ii., 157. '*'i'j:<*«), li., 37. ' 125, i., 249. m.-AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. Aben-Ezra, vol. iii., page 230. Ammonius, i., 81 ; ii., 164, Amyraut, i., 246, 358. Andrewes, Bishop, in., 422. Anhalt, George, Prince of, ii., 344. Aquinas, Thomas, i., 154 ; ui., 404. Asconius Pedianus, in., 98. Athanasius, iii., 239. Augustine, i., 75, 118, 146, 148, 161, 162, 218, 220, 232, 234, 293, 302, 304, 330,353, 460, 473 ; ii., 31, 336, 427 ; iii., 41, 161, 196, 257, 258, 269. _ Iter, i., 427. Bainham, iii., 389. Balmer, iii., 335. Barbauld, 1., 229. Baxter, ii., 20, 204 ; iii., 263. Belsham, ii., 81. Bengel, i., 6, 7, 66, 76, 136, 158, 164, 170, 203, 206, 217, 218, 227, 235, 238, 284, 290, 304, 306, 316, 329, 403, 413, 416, 417, 430, 437, 439, 452, 464, 489, 490 ; u., 8, 25, 30, 36, 38, 39, 66, 91, 168, 176, 216, 306, 333, 486, 498 ; in., 5, 24, 26, 30, 31, 33, 43, 74, 103, 194, 204, 210, 222, 230, 246, 253, 266, 294, 325, 374, 420, 448, 456, 462. Bennet, i., 161, 385, 460; ii., 195, 422, 424. Ben Sirach, i., 393. Bernard, iu., 41, 217. Beza, i., 244, 270, 339, 406, 436 ; u., 25 ; in., 216. Blackstone, i., 206. Blair, i,, 112 ; u., 36. Bogue, ii., 321. Bonnet, i., 406. Bos, i., 477. Brewster, i., 178, 192, 197, 198, 199, 200, 206, 208, 210, 211, 213, 216, 221, 222, 223, 230, 234, 237, 246, 259, 260, 261, 279, 282, 285, 292, 310, 320, 325, 340. Brunning, i., 353. Bunyan, ii., 10, 223. Burgh, iii., 234. Burk, i., 403. Burns, i., 192. Buxtorff, iu., 349. Calmet, ii., 25. Calvin, i., 4, 7, 21, 22, 28, 39, 81, 124, 244, 306, 443, 461; ii., 25, 56, 141, 246; iii., 126, 161, 216, 239, 323, 356, 458, 464. Camero, i., 168, 374 ; iii., 203, 257, 407. CampbeU, Dr, i., 3, 7, 10, 43, 58, 89, 92, 109, 173, 185, 199, 205, 304, 329, 493 ; ii., 37,95, 103,141,321,347; in., 97, 366, 407. Campbell, T., iii., 283. Capellus, u., 25. CarUle, in., 11. Cartwright, iii., 257. Cebes, i., 316. Chalmers, ii., 322. Chemnitius, i., 243, 363 ; u., 361. Chrysostom, i., 81, 169, 267, 277, 296, 350, 473; ii., 49, 187,333; iii., 489. Clem., Alex. Strom., i., 125. Cocceius, i., 2, 3. CorneUus a Lapide, iii., 239. Cowper, i., 215; ii., 60, 238, 284, 518; in., 73, 84, 181, 219. Cyprian, iii., 333. Dathe, i., 449. De Wette, u., 26. Dick, U., 321. Dionysius, iii., 333. Doddridge, i., 112, 490. Douglas, ii., 322, 348 ; iii., 11. Drusius, i., 368; ii., 344, 346. Duncan, D., i., 353. Eckermann, i., 81. Edwards, Jon., u., 169 ; iii., 206, 413. Eichorn, i., 81, 367. Eisner, i., 226, 230, 367. Epictetus, i., 206. Episcopius, i., 203. Erasmus, i., 226, 270, 281, 368 ; ii., 26, 95, 346 ; in., 38, 41, 61, 230, 448. Ernesti, u., 433 ; in., 98. Erskine, Dr John, 1., 407 ; in., 11. Erskine, Ralph, iii., 121. Eusebius, iii., 333. Eustathius, iii., 246. Evans, Dr John, i., 308. Farmer, ii., 321. .506 INDEX. Ferf, i., 112. Foxe, iu., 389. Fritzsche, i., 117, 143, 270, 303. Fulke, in., 257. Fuller, i., 228, 231, 236, 240, 246, 262, 259, 263, 284, 305, 307, 322, 461. Gataker, iii., 368. Gesenius, i., 367. Gibbon, i., 310. Gill, iii., 39. Glas, u., 223 ; iii., 299. Glassius, iii., 60, 196. Gray, n., 106. Gresswell, i., 112. Griesbach, i., 464 ; ii., 26. Grotius, i., 184, 226; ii., 26, 61, 306; iii., 80. Hackspan, i., 473. Hale, Hi., 10. Haliburton, iii., 479. HaU, B., i., 405 ; iu., 311, 335. Hammond, i., 281. Hare, Archdeacon, i., 112 ; iii., 112, 493. Harmer, i., 226. Hasseus, ii., 106. Henderson, ii., 109. Hengstenberg, i., 61, 449 ; U., 375. Henry, Matthew, i., 222, 371, 375, 397, 398; ii., 163, 188, 189, 190, 424, 431, 507 ; iii., 261, 263, 328, 480. Herbert, ii., 133. Hervey, iu., 11. Hess, i., 112, 115. Hesychius, i., 68, 233 ; ii., 366. Heugh, Dr, iii., 492. Heuman, iii., 10, 67. HUary, i., 279. Hoffman, i., 374. Hogg, i., 36. Homer, ii., 110. Hooker, u., 174. Horace, i., 283, 296. Horton, iii., 32. Howe, i., 285; u., 247 ; iu., 255, Hug, n., 25. Hume, u., 321, 346. Hutcheson, in., 435. Ikenius, i., 225 ; ii. 106. James, J. A., ii., 278. Jansenius, i., 7 ; iii., 241, 413, 457. Jay, i., 274, 275. Jehne, ii., 202. Jerome, i., 210, 283 ; in., 297. Jortin, ui., 405. Josephus, i., 56, 114,183; ii., 36, 163, 156: in., 239. .luvenal, i., 57 ; ii., 194. Kelly, iii., 369. Kitto, i.,369; n., 253. Knappius, i., 52 ; iii., 97. Knox, Alex., i., 347, 385; U., 86, 106. Kocher, iii., 413. Korte, i., 114. Kriiiisp i 477 Kuinffil', i!, 109, 226, 366, 382 ; ii., 26, 75, 228, 306, 333 ; iii., 420. Kypkd, i., 58, 367. Laokemacher, ii., 4. Lamp^, i., 57, 81 ; ii., 26, 75. Lange, i,, 112. Lardner, iii., 356. Lawson, Dr, u., 175, 187, 361, 381, 508 ; iii., 50. Le Bas, ii., 322. Le Clerc, u., 25. Leighton, i., 232, 234, 241 ; in., 262. Le Moyne, iii., 24. Leo. Mag., iu., 41. Lightfooty i., 57, 225, 353, 368 ; ii., 34, 153 ; in., 6, 326, 466. Locke, ii., 327. Logan ii., 216. , Longus, ii., 98. Lowth, i., 449. Lucian, ii., 503. Liicke, i., 81 ; n., 25, 75, 99. Luther, i., 39, 169, 226, 296, 306, 460, 473, 505 ; u., 13, 20, 38, 345 ; iu., 422, 493. Lynor, ii., 40. Lyra, i., 225. Macknight, i., 112. Maclaurin, n., 221, 460, 468, 471 ; in., 467. Maldonatus, i., 249, 295, 473 ; u., 75. Marshall, iii., 11. Martin, iii., 11. Maundrell, i., 68, 114, 158. Maurice, j., 115, 212, 348. M'Crie, in., 11. Melancthon, ii., 56. Michaelis, i., 367 ; ii., 26. Middleton, u., 61 ; iii., 69. Mill, ii., 25. Milton, i., 406 ; in., 89. M'Lean, iii., 11. Moldenbauer, i.. Ill, MoUer, i., 353. More, iu., 3. Morus, i., 66 ; ii., 25, 306 ; iii., 230, Mosheim, in,, 216. Neander, i., 6, 18, 66, 81, 163, 198, 265, 296, 304, 308, 412, 474; iii., 238, 268, 332, 496. Newton, ii., 519. Nonnus, iii., 466. Nosselt, i., 353, 477. Olshausen, i., 161, 176, 201, 210, 219, 237, 329, 339, 353, 366, 380, 381, 438, 452, 493, 606; u., 19, 26, 27, 37, 48, 66, 69, 90,94, 99, 103, 433, 619; iu., 200, 264, 372, 448. Origen, i., 284. Orton, iii., 191. Osiander, ii., 25. Ovid, i., 295. Owen, Dr Henry, i., 347. INDEX. 507 Palairet, iii., 242, 466. Paley, ii., 150, 321, .331, 347. Patrick, i., 449. Patterson, J. Brown, iii., 3, 4, 34, 50, 63 81, 106, 111, 116, 117, 133, 155, 203, 230 247, 263, 294, 323, 327, 339, 352, 366, 407, 411, 423. Paulus, i., 186. Pearce, Bishop, i., 347. Pearson, u., 211. Penrose, ii., 319, 322, 324, 327. Petitus, i., 186. Phavorinus, i., 233. Philostratus, i., 247. Pike, iii., 11. Pococke, i., 497. Pollok, i., 426. Porphyry, ii., 61. Pricseus, i., 183. Prideaux, i., 231. Priestley, i., 229. Quesnel, i., 267 ; ii., 428 ; in., 334, 392, 401, 439, 481. Raphelius, in., 241. Reland, i., 66, 56 ; ii., 34. Robinson, i., 66, 58, 270, 382. Ryland, Dr, i., 469. Sandys, i., 507. Schleiermacher, i., 368. Schmid, Erasm., iii., 24, 161, 203. Schoettgen, i., 7, 57, 354. Scholten, i., 89. Scholz, ii., 25. Schott, i., 81. Schuiz, i., 363. Scott, i., 146, 228, 233, 238, 269, 317, 322, 328 ; ii., 173. Segaar, i., 365, 367. Selden, i., 369 ; ii., 26. Semler, iii., 10, 33, 39, 67, 144, 162, 179, 216, 264, 282, 294, 328, 481, 484. Seneca, i., 146 ; ii., 194. Shakspere, ii., 337. Slichtingius, i., 487 ; iii., 114. Smallev, Dr, i., 459. Smith,"Dr Pye, i., 52, 79, 468, 482; u., 80, 81. Stapfer, i., 363. Stark, Dr, ui., 179, 184. Staulein, ii., 25. Stewart, i,, 24 ; iii., 11. Storr, i., 81, 376 ; ii., 25 ; iii., 230. Suetonius, i., 406. Suicer, i., 406; iii., 97. Sykes, i., 347. Tacitus, i., 215. Talmud, i., 67 ; u., 65 ; iii., 350. Taylor, Jeremy, i., 68, 60; n., 280, 362. Terence, i., 235. Tertullian, i., 81 ; n., 176. Theod. Mops., in., 326. Theophylact, i., 267 ; iii., 256. Tholuck, i., 10, 49, 81, 94, 99, 105, 113, 133, 143, 145, 148, 150, 152, 203, 207, 208, 210, 220, 226, 230, 234, 245, 254, 271, 277, 281, 284, 315, 346, 350, 3.52, 357, 437, 447, 462 ; ii., 25, 33, 38, 67, 72, 75, 86, 89, 149, 176, 185, 188, 194, 199, 204, 217, 303, 306, 361, 436, 515; iii., 230, 361. TiUotson, ii., 347. Tischendorf, i., 464 ; ii., 28. Tittmann, i., 51, 81 ; ii., 175, 306. Townson, Archdeacon, ii., 83. Trench, i., 136, 164, 203, 226, 234, 310, 358 ; u., 7, 337 ; iii., 496. Triglandius, i., 177, 374. "Trinius, i.. 111. Ulmann, ii., 441. Venema, i., 112. Vernede, i., 238, 255, 354. Vinet, ii., 339. Vitringa, i., 354. Voetius, i., 236. Vulgate, i., 277, 449. Wahl i. 225. Wakefield, l, 229, 347 ; ii., 61 ; iii., 97. Wardlaw, Dr, i., 40, 128 ; ui., 11, 314. Wardlaw, Gilbert, ui., 479. Watts, iii., 218. Werenfels, iii., 418. Wetstein, i., 354, 382, 464; ii., 4, 25; iii., 326, 349, 413. Whately, i., 486. Whitby, i., 112 ; ii., 25, Wiclif, ii., 346 ; iii., 97. Wilson, Rae, i., 115, 332. Witsius, i., 89, 363. Wolfius, i., 226. Wordsworth, iii., 272. Xenophon, i., 406. Young, Dr, i., 232; ii., 300. TEXTS OP SCRIPTURE REMARKED ON. Genesis xxii. 17, 18, Exodus iii. 13, 14, xxix. 43-45, xxxiii. 1.3, Sept. vol. ii. page 74 Numbers xii. 7, 8, vol. ii. page 48 ... ii. ... 79 xxi. 4-9, ... i. ... 20 ... ni. ... 179 Deuteronomy vi. 4, ... iii. ... 146 ... iii. . . 176 2 Kings ii. 19, 22, ... i. ... 156 508 INDEX. 2 Kmga xvii. 24-41, vol. i. page 65 Matthew v. 26, 27, vol. i. page 192 xviu. 29, Sept. ... ii. .. 157 V, 29, 30, ... i. ... 194 2 Chron. xx. 20, ... iu. ... 11 V. 31, 32, ... i. „. 198 Psalm i. 6, ... i. ... 330 V, 33-37, ... i. ... 200 ... u. 6, . ... i. ... 390 V, 39-42, ... i. ... 207 ... xvi. 10, 11, ... u. ,„ 146 V. 43-48, ... i. ... 212 ... xxn. 7, 8, 16, ... ii. ,.. 447 V, 44, 45, ... i. ... 217 ... xxxiv. 12, ... i. 4 ... V. 46,47, ... i. ... 218 ... xxxvu. 11, 18, 29, ... i. ... 123 ... vi. 1, ... i. ... 220 ... xl. 6-10, ... ii. ... 466 vi. 2-4, i. ... 224 ... xii. 9, ... ii. ... 446 vi. 5, ... i. ... 229 ... xii. 9, ... ii. ... 373 ... vi. 6, ... 232 ... li. 11-13, ... ii. ... 19 vi, 7, ... 234 ... Ixxx. 17, ... i. ... 14 vi, 9, 10, 241, 242 ... Ixxx. 17, ... u. .. 388 vi, 12, ... 247 ... Ixxxii. 6, ... ii. ... 184 vi, 13, ... 260 ... cxUu. 10, ... ui. ... 407 vi. 13, 14, ... 136 Proverbs viii. 17, ... iu. ... 172 vi, 19, 20, ... 262 Isaiah vi. 9, 10, ... ii. ... 334 vi, 22, 23, ... 267 ... xxix. 13, ... ii. 4. vi, 26-34, ... 276 ... xxix. 22, ... u. ... 76 vi, 28-31, ... 282 ... xl. 9-11, ... ii. ... 109 ... vii. 6, ... 294 ... Ui. 13, 14, ... ii. ... 447 vii. 1, 2, ... 287 ... liii. 1, ... ii. ... 332 vii. 20, ... 288 ... liii. 5, ... ii. ... 447 vii. 7-11, ... 297 ... liii. 5, 6, ... ii. ... 116 vn. 13, 14, '.'.'. i. ... 315 ... liii. 6,7, ... u. ... 442 vii. 21, ... i. ... 323 ... Uii. 10-12, ... ii. ... 146 vii. 22, 23, ... i. ... 329 ... liii. 10, ... ii. ... 288 vii. 24-27, ... i. ... 332 ... liii. 11, i. 4 xi 16, i. ... 333 ... liii. 12, i. ... 449 xiii. 62, „. i. „. 393 ... Iviu. 11, ... u. ,., 12 XV. 3-9, ... i. ... 493 ... lx.l. ... n. ... 16 XV. 10, i. ... 601 Jeremiah xvii. 16, ... ii. ,„ 103 XV. 11, ... i. ... 601 xxv. 27, ,„ ii. ,„ 428 XV. 12, 13, ... i. ... 503 xxxi. 31-33, ... i. 8 XV. 14, i. ... 504 Ezek. xvui. 20, ... ii. ... 35 xvU. 5, i. ... 333 ... xxxiii, 8, 9, 13, 18, ... ii. ... 36 xix. 4, 5, .., i. ... 199 ... xxxiv. 11-24, ... ii. ... 110 xxiii. 8, ... i. ... 389 ... xxxvi, 26-27, ... i. 8 xxiu, 27, 28, ... i. ... 373 Daniel u, 44, ... i. 4 xxiii, 32, ... ii. ... 428 ,„ V, 9, 14, ... i. ... 14 xxiv, 37, ... ii. ... 73 ,„ vii. 13, 14, ... i. ... 89 xxvi. 22-24, ... ii. ,„ 423 ... vii. 14, ... u. ... 288 xxvi. 26, ... ii. ... 429 Hosea i, 4, ... iii. ... 428 xxvi. 31, ... ii. ... 510 Amos in, 2, i. ... 330 xxvi. 34, ... ii. ... 615 Micah u, 12, 13, ,.. ii. ... 110 xxvi. 36-42, ... n. ... 439 ... v. 7, ... i. ... 164 xxvin. 16, ... u. ... 612 Haggai li. 6, ... ui. ... 429 Mark vu. 5-13, ... 1. ... 493 Zechariah xii. 10, ... ii. ,„ 447 ... vii, 7, i. ... 495 xiu. 7, ... ii. ... 611 ... vu. 10, 13, i. ... 496 Malachi iv. 2, ... ii. .„ 29 ,„ vii. 14, ... i. ... 601 Matthew v. 4, ... i. ... 118 ... vii. 16, ... i. ... 501 ... V. 6, ... i. .. 120 .„ vii, 16, ... i. ... 603 ... V. 6, ... i. ... 125 ... X. 38, ... i. ... 418 ... V.7, ... i. „. 127 ... xiv. 18, ... ii. ... 420 ... V. 8, ... i. ... 136 ... xiv. 19-21, ... ii. ... 423 ... V. 9, ... i. ... 139 ... xiv. 30, ... ii. ... 515 V. 10-12, ... i. ... 143 ... xvi. 16, i. ... 39 ... V. 12, ... ii. „. 15 Luke xi. 39, ... i. ... 366 V. 13, ... i. ... 151 ... xi. 41, ... i. ... 367 ... V. 17, ... i. ,„ 167 ... xi. 42, 43, ,,. i. ... 369 .„ V. 19, ... i. ... 173 ... xi. 45, 46, i. ... 373 V. 20, ... 174 ... xi. 47, 48, ... i. ... 376 „. V. 21, ... 182 ... xi. 49-61, i ... 380 V. 23, 24, ... 188 ... xi. 52, i ... 384 V. 25, 26, 191, 192 ... xi. 63, 64, i „. 384 INDEX. 509 Luke xii. 49, 50, • . . xui. 26, ... xvi. 29, ... xix. 42, ... xxii. 21, ... xxn. 22, 23, ... xxii. 28-30, ... xxii. 31, John i. 11, ... i. 13, ... i. 16, ... i. 29, ... ii. 11, ... iii. 2, ... iii. 4, ... iii. 5, 6, ... iii. 9, 10, ... iu. 11, 12, ... in. 13, ... in. 14,16, ... in. 15, 17, ... in. 16, 16, 18, ... in. 16, ... in. 16, ... iii. 17, ... iii. 17, ... iii. 18-21, ... iv. 1-4, ... iv. 7,8, ... iv. 13, 14, ... iv. 15-20, ... iv. 22-24, ,., iv. 25, 26, ... iv. 27-42, ,.. V. 17, ... V. 19, ... V. 20, 21, ... V. 22, 23, ... V, 24-29, ... V. 26, ... V. 28, 29, ... V. 20, ... V. 30, 31, ... V. 32, 33, ... V. 36, 36, ... V. 41, 42, ... V. 43, 44, ... V. 45-47, ... vi. 1-25, ... vi. 9, .., vi, 26, .., vi, 27, ... vi. 28, ,„ vi. 31, ... vi, 34, 35, ... vi, 37, ... vi. 38-41, ... vi. 40, ... vi. 43-60, ... vi. 46, ... vi. 47-60, ... vi. 52, .., vi, 56, ... vi. 66,67, ... vi. 57, 68, ... vi. 60-71, ... vi. 62, vol. 1. i. page 387 i. ... 319 i. ... 333 i. ... 417 ii. ... 420 u. .., 421 ii. ... 380 ii. ... 613 iii. ... 857 i. 6 iii. ... 366 n. ... 442 iii. ,„ 226 i. 3 i. 4 i. 6 i. 7 i. ... 8,9 i. 9 i. ... 18 ... 15 ... 22 i. ... 12 ... 333 ... 14 ... 414 ... 37 ,„ 64 i ... 56 ... 59 i. 60,61,62 64,65 ... 67 68,69 ... 72 ... 76 i! ,„ 76 ... 78 '... 81 ... 86 .„ 89 ,„ 13 i.' 91,92 ... 93 96-97 102, 103 104, 105 106, 107 ... 426 ,„ 427 ,„ 430 ... 431 ... 434 i. ... 438 ... 441 i.' ,„ 448 453-455 ,., 84 ... 467 ,„ 463 ... 466 ... 470 iu'. ... 254 ... 476 ... 478 ... 483 John vii. 37, 38, vol. n. page 1 ... vii. 38, ... ii. ... 11 ... vu. 39, ... n. ... 17 .., viii. 1-11, ... ii. ... 26 ... viu. 12, ,,. ii. ... 27 ... viu 13,14-18, ... ii. ... 30 ... viii. 19, 20, ... u. ... 33 ... viii. 21, .,, ii. ... 34 ... viii. 23, 24, ,., ii. ... 37 ... viii. 26, 27, ... ii. ... 39 ... viu. 28, ... ii. ... 40 ... vin. 29, ... ii. ... 40 ... viii. 30, ... ii. ... 41 ... viii. 31, 32, ... ii. ... 42 ... viii. 33, ... ii. ... 44 ... viu. 37-53, ... ii. ... 52 ... viu. 42, ... u. ... 55 ... viii. 43, ... ii. ... 66 ... viii. 44, ... ii. ... 57 ... viii. 46, ... ii. ... 62 ... vui. 46, ... u. ... 63 ... viu. 47, ... U. ... 64 ... viii. 48, ... ii. ... 66 ... viii. 49, 50, ... ii. ... 66 ... viii. 51, ... ii. ... 67 ... viii. 54, 66, ... n. ... 70 ... vin. 56, ... ii. ... 72 ... viu. 67, 58, ... ii. 77,78 ... vin. 59, ... ii. ... 81 ... X. 1-9, ... u. ... 90 ... X. 9, ... ii. ... 99 ... X. 11, ... u. ... 107 ... X. 14, 15, i. .„ 330 ... X. 17, 18, ... ii. ... 126 ,„ X, 20-22, ... ii. ... 192 ... X. 22, ... u. ... 160 ... X. 23, 24, ... ii. ... 156 ... X. 26, ... ii. ... 160 ... X. 26, ... ii. ... 164 ... X. 27, 28, ... ii. ... 168 ... X. 29, .,. ii. ... 170 ... X. 30, ... ii. ... 175 ... X. 31, ... ii. ... 177 ... X. 32, ,,, ii. ... 178 ... X. 33, ... u. ... 181 ... X. 34-38, ... ii. ... 183 ... X. 39, ... ii. ... 187 ... X. 41, 42, ... ii. ... 188 ... xi. 26,26, i. ... 84 ... xii. 23, 24, ,,, ii. ... 199 ... xii. 26,26, ,,, ii. ,.. 204 ... xii. 31-33, .„ U. ... 226 ... xii. 31-34, ... in. ... 101 .„ xii, 32, 33, ... i. ... 19 . . xii. 35, 36, ... ii. ... 290 ,„ xii, 47, i. ,„ 414 ... xiu. 1, ... n. ... 360 ... xiii. 2-6, ... ii. ... 351 ... xiii. 6-8, ... ii. ... 352 ... xiu, 9, „, ii. ... 353 ,,, xiii, 10, ... ii. ... 354 ,., xin. 11, ... ii.' ... 356 ... xiu. 12-16, •.. n. ... 367 ... xin. 17, ... ii. .„ 361 ... xiii. 18, 19, .., ii. ,„ 369 ... xiu. 19, ... u. ,., 378 ... xiu. 20, ... u. „. 379 510 INDEX. John xiii. 21, ... xin. 22, ... xiii. 25, ... xiii. 25-27, ... xiii. 28, 29, ... xiii, 31, .,. xiu, 32, ... xiii. 33, ,,, xin, 33, ... xiii, 34, 36, . . . xui. 35, ... xiii. 36, ... xui. 37, ... xui. 36, 37, ... xui. 37, 38, ... xiv. 1, ... xiv. 2, 3, ... xiv. 4-6, „, xiv, 9, ,.. xiv, 7-11, ... xiv. 12, 14i ... xiv. 15, ... xiv. 16, 17, ... xiv. 18, 19, ... xiv. 19, ... xiv. 20, ... xiv. 21-24, .„ xiv. 25, 26, ... xiv. 27, ,„ xiv. 27, 28, ... xiv. 29. ... xiv. 30, 31, ... XV. 1-3, ,„ XV. 4-8, ... XV. 6, ... XV. 9-11, ... XV. 12-17, ... XV. 16, ... XV. 18, 20, ... XV. 18-24, ... XV. 19, ... XV. 21-24, ... XV. 22-24, ... XV, 26, 27, ... xvi. 1-4, ... xvi. 2, ... xvi, 3, ,„ xvi, 7, ,„ xvi, 8-11, ,,. xvi, 11, .,, xvi, 13, ... xvi. 14, ... xvi. 15, ... xvi. 16, ... xvi. 19, ... xvi. 20, ... xvi. 21, ... xvi. 22, ... xvi. 23-28, ... xvi. 23-27, ... xvi. 26, ... xvi.-27, ... xvi. 28, ... xvi. 29, 30, ... xvi. 31-33, vol. n. page 420 John xvii. 5, vol. u. page 484 ... ii. ... 421 ... XVU. 11, 13, ... iu. ... 449 ... ii. ... 426 ,., xvii. 20, 21, ... iii. ... 300 ... ii. ... 426 Acts xvn. 30, 31, ... u. ... 248 ... ii. ,„ 427 ... xix. 2, ... ii. ... 20 ... ii. 436, 450 ... XX. 28, ... i. ... 390 ... ii. ... 475 Romans iu. 23, ... i. .,. 43 ... iii. ... 112 iu. 26, 26, ... u. ... 463 ... ii. ... 493 iv. 13, ... ii. ... 271 ... u. ... 498 iv. 25, ... ii. ... 236 ... u. ... 601 V. 2, ... ii. ... 169 ... ii. ... 606 vui. 3,4, ... ii. ... 136 ... u. ... 509 xii. 17, ... i. ... 277 ... iii. ... 39 XV. 19, ... i. ... 170 ... ii. ... 513 1 Cor. ii. 14, ... ii. ... 37 ... iu. 5 ... iii. 16, ... iu, ... 180 ... iii. ... 20 ... V.5, ... ii. ... 256 ... iii. ... 35 vu, 32, ,.. iii, ... 16 ... i. ... 81 ... X. 27-33, ... i. ... 363 ... iii. ... 51 ... X. 33, ... i, ... 391 ... iii. ... 66 ... XV. 6, ... ii. ... 512 ... iii. ... 79 ... XV. 36, ... u. ... 201 ... iii. ... 94 2 Cor. ui. 18, ... u. ... 15 ... ui. ... 109 ... iv. 5, .., 1, ,., 389 ... iii. ,„ 125 ... V. 18-21, ... i, ... 189 ... ui. ... 140 ... xii, 2-4, ... ui. ... 119 ... iii. ... 156 Galatians iii, 13, ... i. ... 300 ... ui. .... 191 ,„ iii. 13, 14, ... ui. ... 28 ... in. ... 200 ... iii. 16, ... li. ... 74 ... iii. ... 207 ... iv. 22, ... ii. ... 47 ... iii. ... 220 Ephesians u. 14, ... iii. ... 205 ... iii. ... 228 V. 18, ... iii. ... 200 ... iii. ... 236 Philippians ii. 17, ... iii. ... 330 ... iu. ... 251 ui. 8-14, ... iii. ... 93 ... iii. .„ 82 iii. 12, ... i. ... 53 ... Hi. ... 272 1 Tim. ni. 16, ... ii. ... 230 ... iii. ... 297 2 Tim. in. 16, ... i. ... 393 ... i. ... 63 Titus iu. 4, .„ i, ... 35 ... iii. ... 346 Hebrews u. 9, ... ii. ... 486 ... iii. ... 364 u. 14, ... ii. ... 60 ... iii. ... 390 in. 6, 6, ... ii. ... 48 ,„ iii. ... 393 iii. 6, ... i. ... 390 ... iu. ... 395 ... v.l, ... ii. ... 442 ... iii. ... 406 V.7, ... ii. ... 73 ... iu. ... 379 vu. 25, ... iii. ... 98 ... iii. ... 348 ix. 15, ... u. ... 143 ... iii. ... 394 ix. 23, ... iu. ... 43 ... ii. ... 21 ix. 24, ... iii. ... 29 ... in. ... 401 X.37, ... ui. ... 431 ... ii. ,„ 246 xi. 13-16, ... ii. ... 75 ,., iii. ... 408 ... _xii. 2, ... ii, ... 486 ,,, iii. ,„ 409 James iii, 1, ... i. ... 407' ... iu. ... 410 1 Peter i, 12, ... ii, ... 76 ... in. ... 427 ... i.22. ... ui. ... 306 ... iii. ... 441 2 Peter i. 2, ... iii. ... 162 ... iii. ... 444 1 John ii. 1, ... iii. ... 97 ... iii. ... 448 ... iii, 1, ... i, ,„ 33 ... in. ... 449 ... iii. 2, ... iii. ,„ 133 ... iii. ... 464 ... iv. 1-6, ... i, . . 322 ... iu. ... 534 ... iv. 10, .„ i. .. 33 ... iii. ... 466 ... 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