300

SECT.

Luke

Christ warns his disciples of approaching danger.

SECT. CLXXIII.

Christ, having warned his apostles of the danger to which they would be exposed, comforts them with the views of future happiness, and with the assurance of his own gracious presence, and that of his Father, in the way to it. Luke XXII. 35-38. John XIV.

1-14.

LUKE XXII. 35.

LUKE XXII. 35.

them, When I sent you out without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing?

And they said, Nothing.

THOUGH we mentioned Christ's going out AND he said unto clxxiii. to the mount of Olives, after he had instituted the eucharist, it is very material to obXXII.35 serve, that before he quitted the guest-chamber in which he had supped, he entertained his disciples with some large and affectionate discourses, and put up an excellent prayer with them, which we shall now relate. And, to introduce these discourses, he said to them, When I sent you, my apostles, out on your important embassy some time ago, without either purse to supply you with money, or scrip to take provisions with you, or shoes besides those on your feet, (Mat. x. 9, 10, Vol. VI. p. 391.) did you want any thing necessary for the support of life? And they said, No, Lord, we very well remember that the care of providence over us was such that we wanted nothing; but wherever we came we found the hearts of strangers opened even with surprising freedom to assist and relieve us. Then he said to them, This was indeed the case in your former mission; but now you must expect much harder usage than before, and will be exposed to greater sufferings and dangers in the prosecution of your ministry; and therefore let him that has a purse take [it], and also a scrip, if he has one; and let him that has no sword be ready even to sell his garment and buy one with the price of it: so long a journey, and so sharp a conflict, is before you, that you had need be well armed and furnished for it. 37 For I assure you, That my enemies are now about to apprehend me as a malefactor, and, after all the love that I have shewn to an un- accomplished in me. grateful word, this remarkable prophecy, among the transgres which is written concerning me, (Isa. liii. 12.) sors: for the things must yet be accomplished in me, "And he was concerning me have numbered with the transgressors :" for indeed all the things which are written concerning me

36

in

36 Then said he unto them, But now he that

hath a purse let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

37 For I say unto you, That this that is written must yet be

And he was reckoned

an end.

He was going to prepare a place for them.

38 And they said, Lord, behold, here are

two swords.

And he

said unto them, It is enough.

301

clxxiii.

Luke

in the scripture-prophecies must quickly have SECT.
an end, and receive their accomplishment in
my sufferings and death. Now you may easily
guess at the reception you are like to meet with XX11.37
when you come to preach in the name and au-
thority of one who has suffered as a malefactor,
and yet demands faith and obedience as an al-
mighty Saviour.

John

And they said, Lord, behold here are two swords 38 that we are furnished with already, which we are resolved, in case of any violent assault, to use in thy defence. And he said to them, it is enough for weapons of this sort my chief intent is to direct you to another kind of defence, even that which arises from piety and faith. JOHN XIV. 1. Let Let not your heart therefore be troubled, though not your heart be trou- I am going to leave you in a world where you XIV. 1. bled: ye believe in God; believe also in will seem likely to become an helpless prey to the rage and power of your enemies: believe in God, the almighty Guardian of his faithful servants, who has made such glorious promises to prosper and succeed the cause in which you are engaged; and believe also in me, as the promised Messiah, who, whether present or absent in body, shall always be mindful of your concerns, as well as ever able to help you .

те.

2 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, to establish your faith and comfort, ac- 2 custom yourselves often to look forward to the heavenly world, as those who are well assured that in my Father's house from whence I came, and whither I am going to take up my residence, there are many mansions; and it is really a spa

cious

a Here are two swords.] Probably (as them in all these very different senses. Mr. Cradork conjectures, in his Harmony, But it appears most natural to render part. ii. p. 209.) some of the apostles alike in both places; and it is brought these swords along with them, in their journey from Galilee and Peræa, to defend them against robbers. It afterwards appears that one of them was Peter's. See John xviii. 10. sect. clxxxiii.

b My chief intent is to direct you to another kind of defence, &c.] This is strongly intimated by his saying, Two scords were enough; for they could not be sufficient to arm eleven men.

e Believe in God, believe also in me.] Πιζευε εις τον Θεον, και εις εμε πιςευε. These words are so very ambiguous that (as Erasmus observes) they may be rendered as here; or as our English transla. tion; or Ve believe in God, and ye believe in me; or Believe in God; and ye believe in and different commentators have taken

The

certain an exhortation to faith in God, and
in Christ, would be very seasonable, con-
sidering how weak and defective their
faith was. (See ver. 9.)-The transition
from the passage in Luke to this in John
appears so easy, placing the paragraphs in
this order, that I wonder no harmonizers
should have observed it before.

d In my Father's house, are many man-
sions.] Mr. Le Moyne thinks Christ al-
ludes to the various apartments in the
temple, and the vast number of persons
lodged there. Moval signifies quiet and con-
tinued abodes, and therefore seems happily
expressed by our English word mansions;
the etymology and exact import of which
is just the same.

e And

302 The prospect of their future happiness should comfort them.

clxxiii.

SECT. cious and glorious abode, where there will be ample room to receive you, and every thing to John accommodate you in the most delightful manner: XIV. 2. and indeed if it were not so, as I know you have still acted with regard to the happiness of a future world, though too much mingled with inferior views, I would before this time have told you so expressly, and not have permitted you to impose upon yourselves by an airy dream ; much less would I have said so much as I have done to confirm that expectation: but as it is in itself a glorious reality, so I am now going, not only to receive my own reward, but to prepare a place for you there f; or to make room for your coming thither, and to dispose every thing for your most honourable and comfortable 3 reception. And if I thus go and prepare a place for you, you may depend upon it that this preparation shall not be in vain, but that I will certainly act so consistent a part as to come again, and receive you to myself, that,

e And if not, I would have told you.]
Heinsius's version of these words seems
much less natural: he would connect and
render them [ de un
είπον αν υμιν,
woperomial &c. as if our Lord had said,
"Had it not been so, I would have spoken
in another manner, and have told you, I
am going to prepare a place for you; but
now I have no reason to say that, the
place being already prepared." But it
is hard to say what sense can be made of
ver. 3. on this interpretation.-That the
pious Jews considered all the glories of
the Messiah's kingdom as introductory to
the happiness of a future state of eternal
glory, appears from a variety of scriptures;
and indeed it is difficult to say how they
could think otherwise, considering how
much this had been insisted on; or how
they could have been good and pious, had
not this been their chief aim. Compare
Mat. iii. 12. v. 8. 12. vi. 20. vii. 21. xiii.
43. xix. 16. xxii. 30. Luke xiv. 14. xvi.
9. John iii. 15, 36. vi. 54, 68. xi. 24-27.

I am going to prepare a place for you.]
When the glory of heaven is spoken of as
prepared before the foundation of the world
(Mat. xxv. 34.) this only refers to the
Divine purpose; but as that was founded
in Christ's mediatorial undertaking, (Eph.
i. 4-6.) it might properly be said that,
when Christ went into heaven as our High-
priest, to present (as it were) his own
blood before the Father on our account,
and as our Forerunner to take possession
of it, he did thereby prepare a place for us;
which the apostle expresses, (Heb. ix. 23,

as

24.) by his purifying or consecrating the
heavenly places in which we are to dwell,
which would have been considered as
polluted by the entrance of such sinful
creatures into them; as the tabernacle
when new made was, by having passed
through the hands of sinners, on which
account an atonement for the altar itself,
which was considered as most holy, was the
first act performed in it when it was
opened. (Exod. xxix. 36, 37.) And ar
atonement for the whole tabernacle, as
polluted by the access of sinners to it, was
to be repeated annually, Lev. xvi. 16.—It
may not however be improper to ob-
serve, that the word is often trans-
lated room, (Luke ii. 7. xiv. 10, 22. 1 Cor.
xiv. 16.) and thus the signification here
may be, that Christ went to heaven to make
room for them, or to remove those things out
of the way which obstructed their en-
trance. This must at least be included;
though the word
may perhaps
express still more.

I will come again, &c.] This coming
ultimately refers to Christ's solemn appear-
ance at the last day to receive all his ser-
vants to glory; yet (as was hinted before
in note f, on Luke xii. 40. Vol. VI. p. 582.)
it is a beautiful circumstance that the
death of every particular believer, consis
dering the universal power and providence
of Christ, (Rev. i. 18.) may be regarded
as Christ's coming to fetch him home;
whereas Satan is spoken of as having natu-
rally the power of death, Heb. ii. 14.
h We

Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

303

clxxiii.

as we are now united in so dear a friendship, SECT. you also after a short separation, may be where 4 And whither I go I am and may dwell for ever with me. ye know, and the way surely I may say in the general, after all the XIV. 4.

ye know.

5 Thomas saith un

to him, Lord, we know and how can we know the way?

not whither thou goest

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by

and the Truth, and the

me.

And

instructions I have given you, that you know
whither I am going; and you know the way
that leads thither, and by which you may safe-
ly follow me; which I exhort you therefore
that you would resolutely keep.

But such was still the expectation that his 5
disciples had of his erecting a temporal king-
dom, that Thomas, upon hearing this, says to him,
Lord, thou hast never yet informed us of the
place, and we know not so much as whither thou
art going, and how then can we possibly know
the way thither? Jesus says to him, I have al-6
ready intimated to you I am going to the Fa-
ther; and did you but consider this, you would
soon see that I am myself the Way, and the
Truth, and the Life; that I am to guide, in-
struct, and animate my followers in their passage
to eternal glory, and that their progress will be
sure and vigorous in proportion to the steadi-
ness of their faith in me, and the constancy of
their regards to me: and this indeed is the true
and only way you can take; for no man cometh
to the knowledge or enjoyment of the Father, to
whom I am returning, but by means of me,
whose proper office it is to introduce sinful crea-
If ye had known tures to his presence and favour. If, therefore, 7
known my Father al- you had known me aright, you would surely have
so: and from hence. known my Father also, in whose glory my mi-
forth ye know him, and nistrations so evidently centre; and such indeed

me, ye should have

have seen him.

8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us

are the discoveries that I have made of him,
and such the manifestations of the Divine per-
fections which you have seen in me, that in ef-
fect it may be said that from henceforth you know
him, and have as it were already seen him.

Then Philip, one of the apostles, hearing these 8 the Father, and it suf- words, says to him, with a pious ardour becoming his character, Lord, do but shew us the Fa

ficeth us.

h We know not whither thou art going.] It is probable Thomas might think that Christ intended to remove to some splen. did palace on earth, to set up his court there for a while, before he received his people to the celestial glory.

I am the way, &c.] Our Lord had so lately delivered the same sentiment in Language much like this (John x. 9, p.

ther

83), that it might well have been ex-
pected they should have understood him

now.

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.] This is a most important truth; but it does not determine to what degree he must be explicitly known, in order to receive saving benefits by him.

John

304

He is in the Father, and the Father in him.

lxxii.

John

He that hath seen me,

SCECT. ther, and bring us to the sight and enjoyment of him', and it is happiness enough for us; we desire no more, and resign every other hope in XIV. 9. comparison of this. Jesus says to him, Have I 9 Jesus saith unto been with you then so long a time, and conversed him, Have I been so long time with you, among you in so familiar a manner for succes- and yet hast thou not sive years, and hast thou not yet known me, Phi- known me, Philip? lip? if thou hadst well considered who I am; hath seen the Father thou mightest have better understood what I and how sayest thou have now been saying; for he that has seen me, then, Shew us the Fahas in effect seen the Father, as I am the bright- ther? ness of his glory, and the express image of his person (Heb. 1. 3): And how [then] dost thou say, after all that has passed between us, Shew us the Father?

10 Believest thou not

ther, and the Father in

me, he doth the works,

10 Dost thou not then believe, though I have before affirmed it so expressly (John x. 38, p. 91), that I am in the Fathat I [am] in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I me, by so intimate an union as to warrant such speak unto you, I speak language as this? The words which I speak to not of myself: but the you from time to time, in which I discover and Father that dwelleth in inculcate this important truth, I speak not merely of myself; but it is really the Father who dwells in me that gives me my instructions thus to speak; and it is he that operates together with me, and performs the miraculous works that you have so often seen, which are sufficient to demonstrate the truth of this assertion, mysterious as it is, and incredible as it might other11 wise seem. Believe me therefore in what I have said, that I [am] thus in the Father, and the Fa- I am in the Father, ther is in me; or if what you have so long known and the Father in me of my general character and veracity will not the very works' sake. engage you to take it merely on my single testimony, at least believe me on account of those works in which you have so frequently beheld the Father acting with me, and which indeed afford so obvious an argument of it, that one might imagine the sight of a few of them might convince one that was before a stranger to me. And yet verily, verily, I say unto you, That

12

1 Lord, shew us the Father.] The explication given in the paraphrase seems to me a more probable sense than that in which Mr. Fleming understands it; as if Philip had said, "Let us have a vision of the Father in a corporeal form, to testify the necessity of thy removal from us." (See Fleming's Christology, Vol. II. p. 202.) I cannot apprehend that the apostles thought the Father visible.

you

11 Believe me that

or else believe me for

12 Verily, verily, I say

m I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.] It is remarkable that Philo, speaking of the Logos, has this expression, that he is wal; oix EV w diallala, the Father's house in which he dwells; which is nearly parallel to what the apostle says of Christ, Col. ii. 9, that in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. See Dr. Scott's Christian Life, Vol. III. p. 559, note 2.

n He