one that believeth." "To know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent," is now declared to be "life eternal."

With a similar statement the Evangelist concludes his introduction. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." By him are fully announced to us the perfect and harmonious attributes of the Father; the relations in which we stand to him; and the way in which he will shew mercy, and can be "just, while he justifies those that believe in Jesus." The Evangelist particularly specifies that he who hath "shewed us plainly of the Father," was "the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father;" intending, by such a statement, more deeply to impress us with a conviction of the grace, and truth, and authority, of the incarnate Word. He declares to us thereby his antecedent personal dignity, "the glory that he had with the Father before the world was;" and that "between him and the Father was the counsel of peace," which in due time was testified by the preaching of the Gospel. The incarnation of the Son of God did indeed cause him to submit to a state of humiliation; and it was succeeded by his "glorification as the Son of man," as "the one Mediator between God and man," as "the head over all things to his Church." But his

being "crowned with glory and honour, because of the suffering of death," and his high exaltation to the throne of his mediatorial kingdom, did not confer upon him a new personal dignity, but only one of an official nature. It is true that as our Saviour, and as the Christ, he received "a name which is above every name; that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." But it was because he was "the only begotten Son of God, which is in the bosom of the Father," that he became our Saviour and intercessor. In him, while he tabernacled among men, "dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" for he, of whom these things are spoken, was "God manifest in the flesh." The whole Gospel of St. John teaches these great and essential doctrines; it opposes heresy, not by the refutation of error, but by the establishment of truth. And as, in the latter part of the introduction to his Gospel, the Evangelist notices the incarnation, glory, and success of the Son of God; so, in the former part of it, he instructs us in what sense we are to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He states, in the text, that it was the "Word who became flesh;" and in the preceding verses he manifestly speaks of the Word as a person, one also who "came from God, as

a Phil. i. 9-1].

B

he afterwards went to God." Which of us will venture to say, that he spoke not these things by the inspiration of that "Spirit, which searcheth all things, yea, even the deep things of God?" We might acquiesce, therefore, in this his testimony, even if the words and works of Jesus, and all the testimony of Scripture, did not teach us the same.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And having thus declared his pre-existence, his existence in the bosom of the Father even at the creation of all things, and his divinity; he adds the statement, that "the same was in the beginning with God;" lest while we do "not confound the persons," we should "divide the substance." And again; "All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that has been made." By him, by whose agency, as the Word of Jehovah, the heavens and the earth were made, and by whom Jehovah revealed himself to the Patriarchs, and to their chosen posterity, by the same has the world been redeemed. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." That "light ever shined in the darkness" of the heathen world, "but the darkness comprehended it not." One" came for a witness, to bear witness of the light," even of "the true light which, coming into the world, enlighteneth every man." He was

a man sent from God; His name John." It is not said of him that "he was with God, and was God;" for he was but a man, though sent of God. "He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light, that all men through him might believe." He "went before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people, by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us"." Yet as he, who "was in the world, and by whom the world was made, was not known" by the Gentile world; so also, when "he came to his own home, even his own household," the Jews, "received him not." For this their infidelity we can fully account; but let us not "fall after the same example of unbelief." We may safely confide in the truth of that record, which announces to us, "that God hath given to us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son." And great are the privileges, and consequent blessedness, which he is empowered to bestow. For, "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." Of the nature, and future consequences, of this adoption of Sons, which we receive through the Son of God, we

have already spoken. And "if the Son thus make us free, we shall be free indeed;" delivered here from the dominion of sin, and hereafter from "the bondage of corruption;" for he who is "the first begotten from the dead, will "change the body of our humiliation, that it may be made conformal to the body of his glory; according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself," and to "swallow up death in victory." We are thus begotten again unto a lively hope; "but not of blood," says the Evangelist; for it is not a blessing descending by natural inheritance; nor is it confined to any one favoured race, or family, or nation. Nor does it come "of the will of the flesh;" for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," but this is a spiritual generation to the inheritance of spiritual blessings. Nor is it "of the will of man;" his reason could not have discovered, his power could not have procured, his works of righteousness could not have deserved it. It is "of God;" "who according to his own mercy hath saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he hath shed upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

a Titus iii. 5-7.