worship, were the height of absurdity, and impiety. The subject before us relates only to the union sub- sisting between Christ and his Father : to that there- fore we shall confine our attention. We begin with considering,
I. The truth of our Lord's assertion.
Here mark,
1. The assertion itself —
[Our Lord says, " I and my Father are one." Now it must be remembered, that the same expressions are used, as in human compositions, so also in the Holy Scriptures, some- times in a metaphorical and figurative sense, and sometimes in a plain and literal sense ; and their true import must always be judged of by the context. This is particularly the case with respect to the expression before us ; which is elsewhere used in reference to the saints, to mark the exalted state to which they are raised by their connexion with Christ, and the mutual interest which they should feel in each other's con- cerns: " I pray for them, that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them ; that they may be one, even as we are one : I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in onea." Here the sense is obvious : no one could conceive for a moment that the union here spoken of is personal, as though the saints could be one person with God, or one person in their collective capacity : it simply means, that the saints are to enjoy an union with God and with each other, as nearly resembling that which subsists between Christ and his Father, as their situation and circum- stances will admit of, namely, an union of sentiment, of affec- tion, of will, and of operation. But, in the passage under our consideration, more is evidently intended : in that is implied, not merely a figurative, but a real and personal union, an union of nature and of essence.
In proof of this, we must refer you to the whole scope of the passage. Our Lord is speaking of the security which his sheep enjoyed ; that " He gives unto them eternal life, and that they shall never perish, nor shall any one ever pluck them out of his hand." But, because he was speedily to be taken from them, and might therefore be supposed incapable of fulfilling this promise, he says, that "his Father was con- fessedly greater than all" created powers, yea, greater than
a
Johu wii. 20—123.