was to die upon a cross ; they knew not how to reconcile these things with his former professions, or how to bear the shame which such a disappointment would unavoidably occa- sion ]
3. The persecutions they were to meet with from an ungodly world —
[Hitherto they had been screened from persecution, their Lord and Master having borne the brunt of it in his own person : but now they understood that they were to drink of his cup, and to endure all manner of sufferings, and death itself, after his example. This excited painful apprehen- sions in their minds, and caused them the most serious disquietude ]
What means he used to dissipate their fears, will be found in,
II. The remedy he proposed —
The verbs in our text may be taken either im- peratively or indicatively ; and many think it would be better to construe both of them alike : but the spirit of the passage seems best preserved in our translation ; which acknowledges, that they do believe in God the Father, and exhorts them to place the same confidence in him as in the Father. They now thought they should lose him entirely and for ever. To rectify this error, he enjoins them, notwithstand- ing his removal from them, to believe in him,
1. As present with them in their trials —
[Though he would not be present to the eye of sense, he would be really nigh to them on all occasions. Wherever they should be, there would be no bar to his admission to their souls : he would come and visit them, and dwell in them, and manifest himself to them, as he would not unto the world. This would be a far greater blessing to them than his bodily presence ; so that they had no reason to regret his apparent withdrawment from them.]
2. As interested in their welfare —
[They had never found him indifferent about any thing that related to them : nor would he forget them after he should have been taken from them into heaven : on the contrary, he was going thither to prepare mansions for them ; and he would still enter into all their concerns, sympathizing with them in their afllictions, and regarding every thing that should be done to them as done immediately to himself. If any should snvc