of Thomas, which was occasioned by the joyful certainty of his Master's resurrection, we can hardly separate the two members of the sentence, and apply one to Christ, and the other to God. Had St. John so understood it, he would have taken care to record it in such a manner (supposing him to have entertained the same notions with the Unitarians) as not to give it the semblance of a direct acknowledgment of Christ's divine nature. He would have told us, that Thomas said, My Lord! and shortly afterwards, my God! or something to that effect. But a fatal objection to the Unitarian interpretation is this; St. John says expressly, that this exclamation was addressed to Jesus; Thomas answered and SAID UNTO HIM. Besides which, our Saviour commended it as a confession of faith ; which it would not have been, had it expressed only surprise. This passage is the more deserving of our attention, because it is the first time that Christ is called God by any of his disciples. After having related this incident, the Evangelist declares the object and intent of his Gospel; These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye might have life through his name. We have now considered the manner in which St. John has executed his purpose. He commences his work with a full, precise, and positive declaration of the eternal pre-existence and divine nature of the Word; of his agency in the work of creation; of his incarnation and residence amongst men. He then details, in succession, those discourses of our Saviour, in which, while there is a constant reference to his office of a divine legate, there are also frequent and striking allusions to his participation in the divine nature. Not one of these allusions is explained away by St. John; there is not a word, which can be construed into an assertion of our Saviour's simple humanity; but there are many passages, which plainly imply his divinity; and which cannot be otherwise explained, without doing violence to the natural propriety of language, and to the most unquestionable rules of interpretation. The intention of the Evangelist displays itself in every page of his Gospel. It was, to exhibit Jesus, as the true Messiah; the restorer of the human race, not by his doctrines only, but by his death; as the Son of God, existent from eternity, with the Father; having all things that the Father hath; and doing all things which the Father doeth; and to be honoured by all men, even as they honour the Father. All these points St. John in the first instance briefly, but pointedly asserts; and afterwards proves them at large, by the words of Jesus himself. And in conclusion he tells us that his object was, not to record all the wonderful things which Jesus did, but only such particulars as might convince mankind that he was the Son of God; not merely a prophet, (for that he was proved to be by his miracles, which the other Evangelists had related,) but the very Son of the Most High, which he repeatedly declared himself to be, in. the discourses preserved by St. John. I will conclude with a brief recapitulation of the principal doctrines which are taught in this remarkable Gospel. So God loved the world, that he gave (i.e. to death) his only-begotten Son, that men might be saved by their belief in him as such. Jesus Christ was this only-begotten Son; the Son of God, in a manner, and by a mode of generation, peculiar to himself. He had God for his own Father, and was equal to him;* existing with him before he appeared in the flesh; and sent by him upon earth. He had dwelt with his * John v. 18. + John iii. 13, 17. Father in glory, before the world was; he had come from that glory, and returned to it.* He was exactly equal, in attributes and powers, to the Father, and is to be worshipped as the Father. The Father and the Son have a perfect unity of counsel, will and operation. And there is the same unity subsisting between the Holy Spirit and the Father, and between the Holy Spirit and the Son.† 募 We are further taught, that Christ came upon earth to save mankind, by dying for them upon the cross: that he was the Messiah sent from God, who had been promised to the holy men of old; and spoken of by Moses and the prophets that he did nothing without the direction and consent of the Father; and taught nothing but what he had heard, not by divine inspiration, like the prophets, but by intimate communication with the Father in heaven that he laid down his life, by the command of his Father; and yet that he had power of himself to lay it down, and to take it again: that the same credence is to be given to the Son, as to the Father: that it is the Son * John vi. 38, 62; viii. 42; xvi. 28; xvii. 5. who has the power of conferring eternal life * upon believers, and that he is to be the judge of mankind. These are the leading points of that faith, which is described in the Gospel of St. John, as being necessary to salvation; to illustrate and establish it was the object of his writing. Some of the ancient heretics, at a very early period, finding it impossible to evade the force of that testimony, which this Gospel affords, to the divinity of Christ, rejected it altogether, as containing erroneous doctrines. This is a striking evidence of the impression which it is calculated to produce upon the mind; and the very fact, of its being calculated to produce such an impression, affords a strong argument in behalf of our interpretation; since it is highly improbable, that at a time, when the church had begun to be distracted by heresies concerning the nature of Christ, an Apostle should have employed expressions, which to all appearance assert the divinity of our Saviour, if he had known that doctrine to be unfounded. The great and sublime truths which this Evangelist proclaimed in his Gospel, he reiterated in his Epistles. He there describes Christ * John vi. 39; xvii. 2. |