"

And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true: and we are in him that is true; even in his Son Jesus Christ. THIS is the true God and eternal life. In which passage it is evident that the epithet TRUE, means true God:' we are in him that is the true God, even in his Son Jesus Christ. THIS is the true God, &c.

The words in the text may therefore be understood as follows: "And this is life eternal; to know the true God, as he has revealed himself in and by Christ; and to know Christ, as he has declared himself united with and sent by the Father." It is not life eternal, to know and recognize God as the creator and governor of the universe; for such a knowledge was possessed by the Jews before the Gospel dispensation; nay, by the evil angels themselves: but to know him, as planning and accomplishing the scheme of man's redemption, by the ministry and death of his Son; and to recognize the Son as the author and finisher of salvation, that indeed is life eternal.

The same tenour of language is observable throughout the whole of our Saviour's most solemn and affecting prayer. He declares, with

a tone of conscious satisfaction, which would ill accord with the deficiencies of a sinful man, I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Our Lord himself had said to his disciples; when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants.* But what is his own language? And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I AM GLORIFIED in them.†

The intimate connexion and conjunction of the Son with the Father is strongly expressed in our Saviour's prayer for the Apostles: Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, AS WE ARE§ which expression implies, at least, such a community of counsel and will with God, as no being, merely human, could have asserted. Again, our Lord prays, that the Father will sanctify the Apostles through his truth;|| but

* Luke xvii. 10.

↑ John xvii. 4, 5, 10.

Rather In thine own name; i. e. in the profession of

the true religion.

§ John xvii. 11.

|| John xvii. 17.

of himself he says, For their sakes I sanctify MYSELF; that they also might be sanctified through the truth.*

Again; 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. The intimate love and union, subsisting between the Father and the Son, is the model of that love which ought to subsist between Christians, as far as the difference of their natures will permit. But surely no man could pretend to the same reciprocity of feeling and will, between God and himself, which connects man with man : no human prophet, nor inspired teacher, would presume to couple his own name with that of the Deity in such a phrase as this; Let my disciples be in us!

Our Saviour prays that this union between his disciples may be perfected, in order that the world might see the love of God towards them, in its effects, as clearly as they had seen it displayed towards the Redeemer himself, in the communication of miraculous power; that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me†, i. e. that * John xvii. 19. ↑ John xvii. 23.

mankind at large may be assured, from the blessed effects of that unanimity with which they shall be inspired, that the author of that religion which produces those effects, has indeed been sent by thee; and that thou lovest these my disciples, not indeed in the same degree, but as evidently as thou hast loved me.

What follows in the 24th verse is still more remarkable: Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me, where I am: that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. How noble and striking an assertion of his own pre-existence and exalted nature! Our Saviour desires that his disciples may in due time be with him, in the place whither he was then going; that they might behold, not only his Father's glory, but his own; his own glory as the divine Word.

Here again St. John's Epistle illustrates his Gospel; Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when HE shall appear, we shall be like him;

FOR WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS.

I am not called upon, by the nature of my subject, to consider at length the concluding scenes of our Saviour's ministry. "After his

resurrection, when he appeared to Mary Magdalene, he used these remarkable words,-Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and unto my God and your God.* Although I would not lay any great stress upon this mode of expression, in this particular instance; yet when we take into consideration the manner in which our Saviour usually spoke of God as his Father, and as the Father of his disciples, but not under the common term of our Father, this disjunctive description appears to be deserving of remark.† The Evangelist has recorded a more striking testimony to the divinity of our Lord, in the confession of a doubting apostle: Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God. This appears to be a direct and unequivocal confession of our Saviour's divine nature. The Unitarians say that it is only an exclamation of surprise; My Lord and my God, how great is thy power!' It is quite certain that the words 'my Lord' refer to our Saviour; and in an exclamation, like that

* John xx. 17. † See Lect. IV. p. 301. John xx. 27.