carefully guarded those disciples whom Thou hast given Me, that not one of them has perished, or is lost."
[But the son of perdition.'] This remarkable expression of course refers to Judas Iscariot, the traitor, the only one of the A])Ostles who was lost and cast away in hell. The name given to Judas is a strong Hebraism, and means " a person worthy of perdition, or only tit to be lost and cast away, by reason of his wickedness." David says to Saul's servants, " Ye are worthy to die : " or, as the margin says, " sons of death," (1 Sam. XX vi. 16.) Again, he says to Nathan, " The man that hath done this thing shall surely die," or, " is a son of death." (3 Sam. xxvi. 5 ; see also Ps. Ixxix. 11 ; Matt. xiii. 88 ; Luke xvi. 8.) It is a tremendously strong expression to come from the lips of our merciful and loving Saviour, It shows the despe- rate helplessness of any one who, living in great light and privileges like Judas, misuses his opportunities, and deliber- ately follows the bent of his own sinful inclinations. He be- comes the " child of hell," (Matt, xxiii, 15.)
A question of very grave importance arises out of the words before us. Did our Lord mean that Judas was originally one of those that the Father " gave to him," and was primarily a true believer? Did he therefore fall away from grace ? — Many maintain, as Hammond, Alford, Burgon^ and Wordsworth, that Judas was at one time a true believer, like Peter, James, and John, — that the text is an unanswerable proof that grace may be lost, — and that a man may be converted, and have the Holy Ghost, and yet finally fall away, and perish forever in hell. — This is not only a very uncomfortable doctrine, but one which it is hard to reconcile with many plain texts of Scripture, to say nothing of the seventeenth Article of our own Church. — But does the text before us clearly prove that Judas was one of those who were "given" to Christ by the Father? I be- lieve firmly that it does not, I maintain that the " but " in the text is not an " exceptive " word, but an " adversative " one. I hold the right meaning to be, " Those whom Thou gavest Me I have kept, and out of them not one is lost. But there is one man who is lost, even Judas, the son of perdition ; not one who was ever given to Me, but one whom I declared long ago to be a ' devil,' a man whose hardened heart fitted him for destruc- tion,"
It is easy of course to say that this view is a far-fetched and non-natural one. I ask those who say this to observe, that the same Greek words here rendered " but." are used in other places in the New Testament, where it is impossible to put an "exceptive" sense on them, and where the "adversative" meaning is the only one they can possibly bear, — I challenge any one to deny that " but," in such texts as Matt. xii. 4, " but only for the priests," — Mark xiii. 33, " but the Father," — Rev. ix. 4, " but only those men," — Rev. xxi. 27, " but they which are written," — must be interpreted as an " adversative," and
Jt't^N, CHAP. XVII. IQI
cannot possibly be an " exceptive " word. (See also Acts xxvii. 22 and 2 Kings v. 17.) And so it is here. Our Lord does not mean, " No one of those given to Me is lost except the son of perdition." — What He does mean is, " Not one of those given to Me is lost. On the other hand, and in contrast, Judas, a man not given to Me, a graceless man, is lost."
Let me add, in confirmation of the view I maintain, that in the very next chapter the expression here used is referred to by St. John, in his account of our Lord's capture. He says, " The saying was fulfilled which He spake : Of them which Thou gavest Me have I lost none " (John xviii. 9) ; and not one hint does he give of any exception having been made by our Lord, when he heard Him use the expression before.
The view I advocate is maintained by De Dieu, Gomarus, Lampe, Hutcheson, and Manton.
It is a curious fact that even in our own English language, Milton, writing in the seventeenth century, when the last re- vision of our Bible took jDlace, has used the word " except" in the same way. He says of Satan, in " Paradise Lost : " —
" God and His Son except, created thing Nought valued He or shunned."
" Except " there must clearly be " adversative." God and His Son are not created things ! Both Brown (on xvii. John) and Doddridge quote this sentence of Milton.
Bishop Beveridge, quoted by Ford, remarks, " Judas, here called the son of perdition, though he seemed to be given to Christ, and to come to Him, yet really did not. Therefore, though he was lost, as the Scripture had foretold, yet Christ's word is stil] true, that He never casts out, nor loseth any, that really come to Him."
[That Scripture.. .fulfilled^ Here, as in many places, it does not mean that Judas was lost in order to fulfill Scripture, but that the Scripture was fulfilled by the loss of Judas. The place referred to is Psalm cix. 8.
Let us not fail to note the high honor put on Scripture in this place. Even in a prayer of the utmost solemnity address- ed by the Son to the Father, we find reverent allusion to the written word of the Old Testament, and to that oft-quoted book, the Psalms.
13. — [And now 1 come to Thee, etc.'] This is a somewhat ellipti- cal verse. I take the meaning to be something of this kind : " I am now soon leaving the world, and coming to Thee. Be- fore leaving the world, I speak these things openly in prayer in the hearing of these my disciples, in order that they may be cheered and comforted, and feel the joy which I give to them filled up and abounding in their hearts."