perform, and all the best instructions he can give. Only think, my beloved brethren, what the Jews lost on this occasion ; and how different their condition now is, in the eternal world, from what it might have been if they had obeyed the counsels of our Lord ; and you will see, that the advice I now give you is worthy of your deepest attention ]
2. To exercise a simple faith in Christ —
[In the days of his flesh, he inquired of persons who solicited his help, whether they believed him able to confer on them the desired boon : and so he now says to every one amongst you, " According to your faith be it unto you." O what would he not do for us, if only we would call upon him? Verily, if every one of us could flock around him, importuning mercy for our souls, " virtue at this very instant should go forth from him, to heal us all." Think you, brethren, that he is less able or less willing now to hear us, than he was in the days of his flesh ? No, indeed : even " a touch of the hem of his garment" should be sufficient for the effecting all that our necessities require.]
Christ's vindication of his own divine character.
John v. 21 — 23. As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quick- eneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son : that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honour eth not the Son honour eth not the Father which hath sent him.
AMONGST the various beauties by which the Holy Scriptures are distinguished, we cannot but notice the artless simplicity with which the most sub- lime doctrines are delivered : they are not introduced with studied care, as they would be in human com- positions ; but arise incidentally, as it were, out of things which have but a remote connexion with them. Our blessed Lord had healed an impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, and had bidden him to take up his bed whereon he had lain, and walk away with it. The Jews, instead of glorifying God on the occasion, accused Jesus of violating the Sabbath, and sought to kill him for having wrought this miracle on the
1026. J Christ's vindication of his divinity. SZi)
Sabbath-day. Our Lord, in vindication of himself, said, that he did no more than what his heavenly Father did ; for his Father carried on his works both of providence and grace on the Sabbath, as well as on other days; and that he himself did the same. At this answer the Jews took still greater offence. They saw that Jesus arrogated to himself a peculiar rela- tion to God, even such a relation as was in effect an assumption of equality with Goda. Hence " they sought the more to kill him," on account of what they conceived to be the summit of impiety and blasphemy. Jesus was now compelled to answer for himself on these grounds : and he told the Jews, that though they were correct in supposing him to claim an equality with God, they were mistaken in ima- gining that he therefore set up himself against God : on the contrary, there was a perfect union of senti- ment and affection, of will and operation, between them ; and neither did his Father, nor he, do any thing, without the most perfect concurrence and co-operation of the other : and so far was this from interfering with God's honour, that it was purposely arranged in the eternal counsels, in order that God might be honoured in the person of his Son : nor would God consider himself as honoured by any one, who would not honour him in the precise way which he himself had appointed.
Thus, out of this perverse conduct of the Jews arose an assertion and vindication of the divinity of Christ : they forced him to vindicate his apparent violation of the Sabbath, and then to maintain the ground he had assumed in his vindication of it : and thus we are indebted to their perverseness for one of the clearest and most important statements in all the sacred volume.