John xx. 30, 31. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the 'presence of his disciples, ivhich are not written in this book : but these are ivritten, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
THOUGH the miracles which are recorded in the Gospel are very numerous, yet are they few in com- parison of those which were wrought by our blessed Lord. If all that he performed were distinctly related with all their attendant circumstances, St. John tells us, in the hyperbolical language of the east, that the whole world would scarcely be able to contain the books that would be written3. Some however are transmitted to posterity as a specimen of the rest, in order that we may be assured of Christ's divine mis- sion, and be led to believe in him to the salvation of our souls.
The evangelist, stating both the immediate and the ultimate end for which his Gospel was written, de- clares, that the assuring us of Christ's divine mission was,
I. The immediate end —
Our blessed Lord declared himself to be " the Christ, the Son of God "—
[It was not in the character of a common prophet that our Lord appeared ; he assumed to himself titles to which no human being had aspired, and declared himself to be the Son of God, the incarnate Deity, the Saviour of the world b ]
For the conviction of the people of that day he wrought unnumbered miracles —
[Miracles are works contrary to the common course of nature, works which God alone is able to perform. Hence,
a John xxi. 25.
b His enemies themselves accused him of affecting equality with God ; and finding, from the very defence that he made, that they were right in their conjecture, they again sought to put him to death as a blasphemer. John v. IS. and x. 33, 37 — 39.