for pleasing Him as for pleasing man. In this state of mind they were never Hkely to have faith, or to come to the know- ledge of the truth. " How can ye believe, receiving and seek- ing honour from one another as ye do now?" It is not possible that you can believe, until you cease from your pre- sent earthly-mindedness, and honestly desire God's praise more than man's.
The great principle contained in the verse is the close connec- tion between the state of a man's heart and his possessing the gift of faith. Believing or not believing, to have faith or not to have faith, is not a thing that depends only on a man's head being satisfied, and his intellect convinced. It depends far more on the state of a man's heart. If a man is not tlioroughly honest in his professed desire to find out the truth in religion, — if he secretly cherishes any idol which he is resolved not to give up, — if he privately cares for anything more than God's praise, : — he wiU go on to the end of his days doubting, perplexed, dis- satisfied, and restless, and will never find the way to peace. His insincerity of heart is an insuperable barrier in the way of his believing. There is a mine of wisdom in the expression, "An honest and good heart." (Luke viii. 15.) For want of it many a one complains that he cannot get comfort in religion, and cannot see his way towards heaven, when the truth is that his own dishonesty of heart is the cause. There is something he loves more than God. The consequence is that he never feels an honest will to believe.
The ''can" in this verse should be compared with the "will" in the fortieth verse. " Ye cannot because ye will not."
[From God only.] This expression would be more literally rendered, " from the only God," — the one true God, whom the Jews boasted that they alone knew and worshipped.
Doddridge remarks that the whole verse " has much more spirit in it, if we consider it as applied to the members of the Sanhedrim, who had such distinguished titles of honour, than if we only take it as spoken to a mixed multitude." If, as many suppose, our Lord was making a formal defence of Himself and His divine mission before the great Ecclesiastical Assembly of the Jews, His words in this verse would come home to His hearers with stinging power.
ib. — [Bo not think that J will accuse, etc.] We must not suppose that our Lord literally meant that there was any real likelihood of Moses or Himself standing up to make a formal accusation ngainst the Jews. What He did mean was, that not to believe Him was not to believe Moses. There was no need for Him to accuse them of unbelief Moses himself, for whom they professed such respect, might be thoir accuser, and prove them guilty.
321
"Even now," He says, "Moses accuseth you. His writing's, daily read in your synagogue, are a constant witness of your unbelief." There may also, it is highly probable, be a reference here to the Song of Moses, where he predicts the unbelief of the people, and deshes the book of the law to be " put in the side of the ark, that it may be there for a witness against thee.' (Deut. xxxii. 26.)
Chemnitius remarks, ''What the Lord says to the Jews, la exactly as if I were to say to the Papists, It is not I, but the very Fathers whose authority ye allege in favour of your super- stition, who will accuse you of impiety. Or as if we were to say to the Pope, It is not we who accuse and condemn tliee, but C.irist himself, whose vicar thou callest thyself; and Petir whose successor thou wilt have thyself: and Paul whose sw( rd thou pretendest to bear: they it is who will accuse thee." Btza makes much the same remark, and observes, that none will be more opposed to the Roman Catholics in the judgment-day than the Virgin Mary and the saints in whom they profess to trust!
The notion of some Romanists that the expression "Moses in whom ye trust," justifies the invocation of saints, and putting confidence in them as mediators, is, as Chemnitius observes, too weak and groundless to need refutation.
46. — [For had ye helieved Moses me.] These words are simply
an amplification of the idea in the preceding verse. If the Jews had really believed Moses, they could not have helped believing Christ. The witness of Moses to Christ, was so distinct, express, and unmistakeable, that true belief in his writings must mevi- tably have led them to belief in Christ.
[He wrote of me.] These words are very remarkable. In what sense our Lord used them, we cannot exactly know. At the very least we may conclude He meant that throughout the five books of Mo^es, by direct prophecy, by typical peisons, by typical ceremonies, in many ways, and in divers manner-, Mo.-ehi had written of Him, There is probably a depth of meaning in the Pentateuch that has never yet been fully fathomed. We shall probably find at the last day that Christ was in many a chapter and many a verse, and yet we knew it not. There is a fulness in all Scripture far beyond our conception.
Let us note carefully that our Lord distinctly speaks of Moses as a real person who, as a matter of history, lived and wrote books, and of his writings as true genuine writings deserving of all credit, and of undeniable authority. In the face of such an expression as this, it is a mournful fact that nny man called a Christian can throw doubt on the existence of Moses, or on the authority of the books attributed to him.
To say, as son e have done, that our Lord was only acconurio* 14*