Reflections on Christ's being the door of the sheep. before me are thieves sheep them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pas 83 cxxxii. derived from me that the people of God are to SECT. 8 All that ever came be taught and fed. All that ever came before and robbers; but the me, assuming the Messiah's character, or setting John did not hear up for a despotic authority in the church, and x. 8. teaching other methods of salvation than by me, are thieves and robbers, persons of very bad designs, who had no warrant from above for what they did; and, whatsoever their pretences were, their administration has a fatal tendency to make havock of the souls they should watch and feed; but the true sheep, or those who are sincere and well-disposed persons, have not heard them, so as to relish and regard their doctrine. I therefore repeat 9 it again, as a most important truth, That I myself am the door; and if any one enter in by me, and acknowledge my authority, he shall be, like a sheep in his fold, safe from the invasion of what might injure and destroy him; and shall go in and out under my care and guidance, and shall still find good pasture; that is, in consequence of his regard to me, and the enjoyment of communion with me, his soul shall be fed and nourished with true doctrine, and shall obtain substantial happiness. For where- 10 eh not but for to steal, as the thief only comes that he may steal, and kill, and to kill, and to de- and destroy; I am come for the benefit of all that they might have my sheep, that they may have true life, and that life, and that they at length they may have it yet more abundantly; might have it more a most plentiful provision being made for their abundantly. everlasting comfort and happiness, even far beyond what has ever been known before. ture. 10 The thief com stroy: I am Come IMPROVEMENT. LET US hear, with an holy awe on our spirits, that the Lord John Jesus Christ came into the world for purposes of judgment as well regard to Christ, in order to his being a true teacher in the church, and must pass (as it were) through him, or by his authority, into his office. It is by a simile very near resembling this that Christ elsewhere calls himself the way. John xiv. 6 sect. clxxiii. e All that ever came before me, &c.] If it could be shewn, by any proper authority, that we ever signifies in neglect of me, or of Tupac passing by a door, I should with Elsner (Observ. Vol. I. p. 327.) prefer that rendering to any other; but as this does not appear, it is evident that the words must be understood with the limitaon added in the paraphrase: for otherwise they would imply such a reflection on VOL. VII. as Moses and the prophets as we know our f That they may have it more abundantly.] L IX. 39. 84 cxxxii. Christ, as the good Shepherd, will die for the sheep. SECT. as of mercy; and make it our humble prayer that we may be enlightened by him, and not sealed up under aggravated darkness, as a punishment for our obstinacy and impenitence; for then all the means of knowledge which we have so basely perverted will rise up to condemn us. John X. 7. Let Christ be regarded by us as the door from whom all true teachers derive their authority, and to whom they direct their administrations and let it be our care that we enter by this door. Let inferior shepherds learn their duty, so plainly suggested here: Let them learn to know their sheep, and take as particular notice as they can of each single person committed to their care; and let them go before them in all the paths of duty for what could the greatest enemy to the flock do worse than to lead them by example into the paths of destruction? : 9 Happy souls, who are entered in by this gate! Their safety, their comfort, is secure; they enjoy a holy liberty and plenty, and going in and coming out they find pasture. If we are strangers to that entertainment and refreshment which arises from ordi nances (those green pastures which Christ hath provided for his sheep in the wilderness,) we have a great deal of reason to fear 10 that we belong not to his flock. He came that his sheep might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly; that greater provision might be made for their instruction and consolation now, till they are brought to those better pastures he intends for them above: May his grace prepare us for them! and his hand will certainly conduct us to them; nor need we fear the darkest passage in our way. SECT. cxxxiii. X. 11. SECT. CXXXIII. Christ describes himself as the good shepherd, who will lay down his life for the sheep. John X. 11—21. JOHN X. 11. OUR Lord, having thus represented himself I Јонн Х. 11. Am the good Shepherd: the good as the door of the sheep, and intimated the shepherd giveth his life regards to be maintained towards him, parti- for the sheep. John cularly by those that professed themselves teachers of others, now changed the similitude, and said, I may also very properly add, that I am myself, by way of eminence, the good Shepherd, the Person frequently forefold in a I am the good Shepherd.] Lamy (in his Harmony, p. 339) very justly supposes that there might be some allusion here to Isa. xl. 11. But nothing can be more precarious than the argument he seems to draw from hence for placing this discourse at the feast of tabernacles, even though it scripture should be allowed that the xlth of Isaiah was read in the synagogue at that time of the year: for it is certain our Lord does not confine himself to the lesson for the day in his quotations from scripture, or his allusions to it. He knows his sheep, and will gather them into the fold. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own fleeth and the wolf scattereth the sheep. SECT. 85 scripture under that character, (Isa. xl. 11. The hireling indeed, who is not the true shep- 12 13 The hireling Aeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and known of mine. knoweth me, oven so But I am the good Shepherd, who have a true 14 affection for my sheep, and am above the influence of all such mean and selfish views: and such is the relation that there is between us, and such the love we have to one another, that I know and acknowledge my [sheep], and take the kindest and most tender care of them; and I am also known, acknowledged and confided in, by 15 As the Father mine: So that we mutually are dear unto each 15 know I the father: other; and even as the Father knoweth me, and and I lay down my owns his affection and regard to me, by the sure tokens of his presence and approbation; and I also know, or acknowledge and honour, the Father, in the delight with which I do his will; so the affection is reciprocal between me and my sheep: and as it is in love to them, as well as with an ultimate view to his appointment and his glory, that I lay down my life for the sheep he has given me, so also do my sheep acknowledge and confide in me, and so do I protect and patronize them. life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep And I would farther observe to you, as a point 16 I have, which are not of great importance, that I have other sheep which $6 SECT. cxxxiii. John The Jews are again divided in their sentiments about him. are not of this fold (meaning thereby the elect of God among the Gentiles); them also must I at length bring in; and I know that they will X. 16. hear and obey my voice, notwithstanding that ignorance, vice, and misery, in which they are now involved; and so, all being incorporated into one society, of which I am the Head, the Governor and Guardian, there shall be one sheepfold, [and] one Shepherd. 17 I of this fold: them also must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd. 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take again. 18 No man taketh 'it down of myself: And for this reason more especially does the Father love me, and approves it as an act of eminent duty and love to him, because I am come with this design into the world, to lay down my it life for the redemption of my sheep, who are dear to him as well as to me, that I may take it again, and possess it for ever, to be employed for his glory and for the happiness of my people. 18 For though I am shortly to die by the hands of the most cruel enemies, yet no one deprives me it from me, but I lay of my life, or takes it from me against my will; have power to lay it for I have every moment a power to rescue down, and I have pow myself at pleasure, and could even with mine er to take it again. This commandment expiring breath command immediate deliver- have I received of my ance; but I will manifestly shew that I lay it Father. down of myself, and voluntarily relinquish my body, sooner than my soul would in a course of nature have been dislodged from it: and this in me will be a very regular, though wonderful act ; for, as I have life in myself (John v. 26.) I have full power and authority thus to lay it down when I shall think fit; and I have also power to resume it at pleasure, by entering into and quickening my body again. And indeed this commandment I have received of my Father, and shall ere long fulfil the charge in both its branches. 19 When our Lord uttered these remarkable ex b I have other sheep, which are not of this fold.] There seems no reason, with Wolfius, to understand this of Jews living out of the land of Canaan, who could not with such propriety be said not to beJong to the fold of Israel. The incorporating the Gentiles into one church with the Jews was indeed a grand event, worthy such particular notice: and it deserves our remark, that they are here called the sheep of Christ, even while they were yet in ignorance and idolatry, as he intended at length to bring them home. c Voluntarily relinquish my body, &c.] That our Lord did so evidently appeared pressions, 19 There was a division from the strong cry he sent forth just before his death, with which the centurion was reasonably so much impressed. See Luke xxii. 46, 47. and Mark xv. 39. sect. exci. d Full power and authority to lay it down, &c.] This the word asian expresses, and the manner of Christ's death abundantly proved it: and as no reasonable objection can be made to the equity and wisdom of the Divine Being in giving Christ such a power, so the use he made of it (as we may farther shew clsewhere) is truly admirable. See notel on Luke xxiii. 46. sect. exci. Reflections on the care of Christ for his sheep. 20 And many of them said. He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? 21 87 SECT. cxxxiii. vision therefore again pressions, there was a division therefore again among the Jews for among the Jews (as there had been before, chap. these sayings. vil. 43. sect. ci. and ix. 16. sect. cxxx.) espe- John cially on account of these last words. And many X.20. of them said, He has certainly a demon dwelling in him, and, by the operation of that evil spirit, is apparently distracted with one of the most malignant kinds of lunacy; why then do you give yourselves the trouble to hear him while he Others said, goes on in such extravagant absurdities? But 21 others much more rationally said, These are not a devil: can a devil by any means the words of a demoniac, or a luopen the eyes of the natic; for there is the greatest consistence and energy in them: and besides, could a demon that made a man mad open the eyes of the blind, as it is plain this man has often and very lately done? It is rather madness to imagine that an evil spirit has such power, or that he would employ it to such benevolent purposes. These are not the words of him that hath blind? IMPROVEMENT. THERE is not, perhaps, any where to be found a greater in- Ver. stance of the force of prejudice than in these perverse Jews, who 20 censured Christ as a lunatic and a demoniac for one of the gravest and most excellent speeches that was ever delivered. Let us review it with all due attention and regard. Let us consider Christ as the good Shepherd, and humbly com- 11 mit our souls to him, as ever we desire they should be safe and happy. We have known his kind regards to the flock in exposing and laying down his life for them. And he hath not laid it 15 down in vain. Delightful thought! Our compassionate Shepherd, even when the sword of the Lord was awakened to smite him, has not so fallen as to rise no more; but as in this great and good work he voluntarily laid down, so he has also re-assumed his life; 18 and still bears on his heart the same concern for his flock, and uses his renewed life and exalted dignity for their security and happiness. 15 Let us humbly acknowledge him as acknowledged by the Father: let us courageously and gratefully own him, and be ready to lay down our lives also for him. We are those other sheep, of whom he spake, who were not originally of the fold, but by his grace are 16 now brought in to the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Let us pray that the boundaries of his fold may be still more extended, and the whole number of his elect accomplished; that all the flock may at length appear together, and may be conducted by him to the regions of that immortal life which he determines to give it. |