" glory " in liis countenance when coming down from the mount (2 Cor. iii. 7.) This same power and influence Christ gave to the Apostles. (See Acts iv. 38.)
(c) Some, as Zwingle, Brentius, Gualter, and Pearce, think that " o-lory " means tlie power of working miracles, which was the special and peculiar glory of our Lord while He was on. earth. Thus, we read, " Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father." (Rom. vi. 4.)
(d) Some, as Augustine, Ecolampadius, Bullinger, and Man- ton, think that " glory " means the heavenly glory and immor- tality which our Lord promised to His disciples, — a glory which they should have after faithfully serving Him on earth. (Horn, viii. 18.)
(e) Toletus makes the strange suggestion, that the " glory " means that which is communicated to us in the Lord's Supper 1 Burgon seems to take the same view.
(/) Stier and Hengstenberg hold that the " glory " means unity of mind and heart.
(g) Some, as Gregory Nyssen, Ammonius, Theophylact, and Bucer, think that " glory " means the Holy Ghost, who is else where called " the Spirit of glory." (1 Pet. iv. 14.)
The question will probably never be settled. If I must give an opinion, I prefer the last view to any other. It suits the end of the verse better than any other. Nothing was so likely to make the disciples " one " as the gift of the Holy Ghost.
23. — [1 in them and Thou in Me, etc.] In this verse our Lord sim- plifies His declarations about unity, and expands them more fully, in order to show emphatically how great importance He attached to unity. I take the meaning to be something of this kind : " I pray that my disciples may be so closely united — I dwelling in them, and Thou dwelling in Me, — that they may be compacted and perfected into one body, — having one mind, one will, one heart, and one judgment, though having many mem- bers,— and that then the world, seeing this unity, may be obliged to confess that Thou didst send Me to be the Messiah, and that Thou lovest my people even as Thou lovest Me."
In leaving this deep and difficult passage about unity, it is well to remember that the Church, whose unity the Lord de- sires and prays for, is not any particular or visible Church, but the Church which is His Body, the Church of the elect, the Church which is made up of true believers and saints alone.
Moreover, the unity which our Lord prays for is not unity of forms, discipline, government, and the like ; but unity of heart, and will, and doctrine, and practice. Those who make uni- formity the chief subject of this part of Christ's prayer, entire ly miss the mark. There may be uniformity without unity, as in many visible Churches on earth now. There may be unity