happy consequences which flow from it are more than sufficient to wipe away the disgrace which may seem to accompany it; for it illustrates, in a more striking manner than any other fact, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

S. The exhortation which Christ here gives to the Jews is very applicable to many of us. Yet a little while the light is with you: walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for with many the day is far advanced, and the night is at hand. The spring and summer of life are past, and autumn already shows its yellow leaf, a sure presage of the winter of old age. Let us make use of the light, while it lasts, by attending to the instructions of the gospel, and by building our faith and hope upon those objects which never grow old and never change. Thus shall we best prove our claim to the title of the children of light and the sons of God.

John xii. 37. to the end.

37. But though he had done są many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him.

In the last section we left Jesus exhorting the Jews to believe in him without delay, and threatening them with the speedy approach of darkness, if they did not comply with his exhortation. In conformity to this threatening he retires into private, and never makes his public appearance again till the time of his apprehension and trial. His having used this language induces the evangelist, contrary to his custom, to stop the course of his narrative, to show upon what our Lord's words were founded, which was no other than the general unbelief of the Jews. This was permitted,

38. That the saying of Esaias the

prophet might be fulfilled: Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?

This is the complaint of the prophet Isaiah in the fifty-third chapter, in which the sufferings and rejec tion of the Messiah are foretold with great exactness. The arm of the Lord is the power of God, because the arm in man is considered as the seat of strength; when this is spoken of as revealed or made manifest, there is an allusion to the Eastern dress, which consisted of a robe without sleeves; so that whenever the strength was exerted, the arm was uncovered; and the meaning of the question is, Who has so observed the manifestations of divine power in the miracles of Christ, as to be convinced of his being the Messiah? The evangelist does not mean to say that the prophecy of Isaiah was the cause of the unbelief of the Jews; but only that they were permitted to behave in this manner, in order that the prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled. The same construction is to be given to the words which follow.

39. Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,

40. He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, rather, "they have blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts*" that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

This is another quotation from the same prophet, vi. 9, 10. but with his language a little abridged.

Dodson's Translation of Isaiah, chap. vi. 9, Note. Dr. Randolph on the Prophecies cited in the New Testament, No 42. Note.

Our translation attributes the blindness and hardness of heart to God as the author; but the other passages of scripture where this prophecy is quoted, as well as the Greek translators, from whom it is taken, ascribe them to the Jews themselves *.

41. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory and spake of him.

Some copies read in this place, "When he saw the glory of God and spake of him." In this case the verse relates solely to the Supreme Being, and the evangelist must be understood to assert that when the prophet foretold the preceding circumstances, he saw the glory of God; a sense which suits extremely well with the chapter from which the prophecy is taken, in which Jehovah is described as appearing with great magnificence and splendour. If the common reading be retained, John intended to declare that these things were said by Isaiah when he saw in prophetic vision the glory of Christ, and spake of him, and then it will correspond with another passage in this gospel, in which it is said that Abraham saw Christ's day, and when he saw it was glad. Some persons, observing that the glory of Jehovah is described in the chapter of Isaiah above referred to, have strangely inferred from this verse that Christ and Jehovah must be the same persons: that is, that a mortal man, just about to die upon a cross, was the same with the creator and governor of the universe. Jesus was generally rejected by his countrymen, and where he was successful in making proselytes, it was principally among the common people; yet he had some in the higher classes of society, and even among the members of the Sanhedrim, as appears from what the evangelist next observes.

42.

Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but

• Matt. xiii. 14, 15. Acts xxviii. 26, 27. Pearce on these passages. Lowth on Isaiah, vi.

because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, rather, "it," lest they should be put out of the synagogue, "be forbidden the synagogue."

We have already had occasion to notice, chapter ix. 22. that the Sanhedrim, alarmed at the progress of the opinion that Jesus was the Messiah, had passed such a decree and although that opinion had been adopted by a considerable number of the members, yet, being the smaller number, and there being a great majority of Pharisees, who were inveterate enemies of Jesus, they were afraid publicly to avow their sentiments, lest the decree should be put in force against themselves. To be prohibited the synagogue, was a severe punishment, because it included in it not only exclusion from the place of public assembly, but likewise a prohibition of all familiar intercourse, which was attended with many inconveniences, as well as highly disgraceful. Such evils these senators were not prepared to encounter.

43. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

They preferred being held in estimation by men to being esteemed by God. When the words that follow were spoken the evangelist does not inform us ; but he seems to have inserted them here, because they were peculiarly well suited to the circumstances of those who rejected Christ.

44. Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on him that sent me.

That is, not so much on me as on him that sent me: he gives credit to the testimony which God has borne respecting his son, and hereby doth honour to him rather than to me. By thus aggrandizing the value of faith, he intended to give encouragement to those that

believed, and to show the guilt of those who rejected him.

45. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.

He that seeth the miracles which I perform, seeth the power of God, by whom they are in fact wrought, and from whom I have received my commission for assuming the office of a public teacher. These words were intended to increase the estimation of his miracles, and to show the guilt of those who remained unconvinced by clear proofs of the power of God. They correspond very well with his language upon another occasion, where he tells Philip, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, John xiv. 9. and with what the writer to the Hebrews says, who calls him "the express image of his person;" Heb. i. 3. An ambassador is universally allowed to be the representative of the person whose agent he professes to be; but the relation which Christ bore to God was something nearer than this for the miraculous powers which he exercised did not so properly belong to himself as to God.

To show the advantages of believing in him and the folly of rejecting his message, he compares himself, as he had often done before, to light.

46. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

47. And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not, “I punish him not:" for I came not to punish the world, but to save the world.

That is, my commission did not authorize me to inflict judgment upon those who rejected my doctrine, by taking away their lives; but I was authorized to enlighten and to reclaim them, and, by using these. gentle methods, to rescue them from destruction.