his crucifixion. The expression refers to the lifting up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, which was a type and emblem of the death of Christ6. The Evangelist himself tells us, that our Lord intended to intimate the peculiar kind of death which he was to suffer : and the people themselves understood him as speaking of his removal from them by death f. Nor did his words convey the idea of uncertainty, which seems intimated in our translation : the event was fixed in the Divine counsels from all eternity; and he spoke of it as certainly to be accomplished g.
Here then are two things to be noted ;
1. The event predicted —
[Christ will " draw all men to himself:" He is that " Shiloh, to whom the gathering of the people should be ;" and we see on the day of Pentecost the commencement of this great and glorious work. Would we understand precisely the import of the expression, there we behold it exemplified in the
clearest view — ■ We must not indeed imagine that every
individual of mankind will be drawn to Christ ; for in every age many have rejected him : but some of all nations, profes- sions, and characters, shall be drawn to him ; and at last they shall be found a multitude that no man can number11 ]
2. The manner in which it shall be accomplished —
[Men are not drawn to him like stocks and stones, but in a way consistent with the perfect exercise of their own free will. The power indeed is Christ's; and it is exerted with effect: but it is made effectual,
First, by shewing men their need of him. The eyes of all the wounded Israelites were drawn to the brazen serpent in the wilderness : they felt that they were dying of their wounds ; they knew that no human efforts could heal them ; and they were assured that a sight of that brazen serpent would effect their cure. This attraction was sufficient : they looked and were healed. Thus the jailor saw his own perishing condition, and asked, "What shall I do to be saved?" and was glad to embrace the Saviour proposed to him1. This is universally the first operation of Christ's victorious grace.
Next, he draws men by the attractive influences of his grace. Because men know not how the Holy Spirit works upon the
e Compare Numb. xxi. 8, 9. with John iii. 14, 15. f ver. 33, 34. s lav should be "when," and not "if."
11 Pan. vii. 13, 14. i Acts xvi. 30, 31.
o O 2