thus. For another thing, it would introduce doctrinal con- fusion. Our Lord's invitation was not made to him " that be- lieveth," but to him that is " athirst."
(2) Some, as Chrysostom, Theophylact, Pellican, Heinsius, Gualter, De Dieu, Lightfoot, Trapp, and Henry, would connect " lie that believeth on me" with the following words, — " As the Scripture hath said." It would then mean, " He that believeth on me after the manner that the Scripture bids him believe." I cannot think that this interpretation is correct. The expres- sion, " Believeth as the Scripture hath said," is a very strange and vague one, and unlike anything else in the Bible.
(3) Most commentators think that the words, "As the Scrip- ture hath said," must be taken in connection with those that follow, "out of his belly," etc. They think that our Lord did not mean to quote precisely any one text of Scripture, but only to give in His own words the general sense of several wrell- kuown texts. This, in spite of difficulties, I believe is the only satisfactory view.
One difficulty, of a grammatical kind, arises from the expres- sion, " He that believeth on me," having no verb with which it is connected in the verse. This cannot be got over. It must be taken as a nominative absolute, and the sentence must bd regarded as an elliptical sentence, which we must fill up.
Another difficulty arises from the fact, that there is no text in the Old Testament Scriptures which at all answers to the quotation apparently given here. This difficulty is undeuiable, but not insuperable. As I have already said, our Lord did not intend to give an exact quotation, but only the general sub- stance of several Old Testament promises. Wordsworth thinks Matt. ii. 23 a similar case. Jerome also maintains that fre- quently the inspired writers contented themselves with giving the sense and not the precise words of a quotation. (See also Ephes. v. 14.)
Another difficulty arises as to the application of the words, " Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Some, as Rupertus, Bengel, and Stier, would apply this to our Lord Him- self, and say that it meaus, " Out of Christ's belly shall flow rivers of living water." But it is a grave objection to this view that it totally disconnects the beginning of the verse from the end, — makes the expression " He that believeth on me "even more elliptical than it needs be,— and throws the latter part of the verse into the form of a precise quotation of Scripture.
I venture to think that the true interpretation of the verse is as follows : — " He that believeth on me, or comes to me by faith as his Saviour, is the man out of whose belly shall flow rivers of living water, as the Scripture hath said it should be." It is a strong argument in favour of this view that our Lord said to the Samaritan woman, that the water He could give would be