3

Death He would atone for the sin of the World, and reconcile God to man, and man to God. This is the groundwork of our hope, the binding link between God and His redeemed creatures: for therein 66 we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all."1 Full of consolation to the flock are those words, "I know My sheep, and am known of Mine." His Love and His Omniscience are as boundless as the "thousand hills," over which His flocks range: not one sheep is lost to His view. He knoweth each, and calleth him by name. He feeds His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs with His arm, and carries them in His bosom, and gently leads those that are with young. Then He adds, " And other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold [one flock] and ONE SHEPHERD." His promises were not made only to the Israelites; but reach to the farthest Gentiles, wandering in the waste places of the Earth. His foreknowledge penetrates futurity: He calls them by anticipation.* "And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful, and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them." 5 The everlasting arms of the Good Shepherd are a sure refuge for many flocks.

Once more, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My Life, that I may take it again." Five times 6 in this chapter He repeats that great truth, which is the consolation of all who are conscious that they have need of a Saviour," I lay down My Life." And He adds, "therefore doth the Father love Me." The mutual love of the Father and of the Son, from all eternity One God, was incapable of change. But the claim of Jesus Christ, as Man, to the fulness of the Father's Love was perfected in His willing atonement for the sins of the World. Most precious in the sight of God is the safety of His universal flock. He would not that one of His

1 Heb. x. 10.

2 Psalm 1. 10.

Lucas Brugensis, John, x. 16.

6 Wordsworth's Greek Test., John, x. 11.

Isaiah, xl. 11.

5 Jeremiah, xxiii. 3, 4.

sheep should perish; and for their sakes He sent His Wellbeloved Son to suffer death for them, as their Good Shepherd. Such was the Love of the Father and of the Son towards all the race of Adam that their salvation was more precious to Them than the Life of Christ in the Flesh. Let then the flock, thus purchased by the Blood of the Good Shepherd, listen to His voice; and follow after Him; and feed in the pastures which He has appointed to them; and keep themselves as lambs undefiled. This is the best return they can make for the Sacrifice by which they are redeemed: moreover, it is the express condition on which they are admitted within the true fold: for, as "through the Eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God," so the flock must keep themselves without blemish, growing up in all things like unto HIM, Who is the Head Shepherd.3

Then He concluded, "No man taketh My life from Me; but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to LAY IT DOWN, and I have power to TAKE IT AGAIN. This commandment have I received of My Father." No power of man or devil, Roman tyrant, or Jewish persecutor, nor any law, nor any necessity beyond His own free Will, could put Him to death. "And I have power to take it again:" this is another Prophecy of His Resurrection: by the power of His Godhead He

3 "Oves ergo ejus pascua invenient; quia quisquis illum corde simplici sequitur, æternæ viriditatis pabulo nutritur. Attendamus ergo animum: inardescant ad superna nostra desideria. Ab æternæ solennitatis gaudio nulla nos adversitas revocet: quia si quis ad bonum propositum ire desiderat, ejus desiderium quælibet viæ asperitas non immutat. Nulla nos prosperitas blandiens seducat: quia stultus viator est, qui in itinere amona prata conspiciens, obliviscitur quò tendebat. Ut si cœlestis pastoris veraciter oves sumus, quia in via delectationis non figimur, æternis pascuis in perventione satiemur." Ludolphus, Vita Christi, quoting Gregory, pars. i. cap. 84, p. 366.

"Summa totius Christianismi, et salutis omnium anchora, Christus volens mortuus est, et suapte natura Seipsum a mortuis exsuscitavit. Commendatur itaque potentia Christi, in cujus manu et vita et mors est. Quasi diceret, Quantacumque fuerit in me inimicorum sævitia et grassantium crudelitas, nihil mihi molestiæ inferent, si voluero, qui habeo ponendi animam meam, et iterum sumendi potestatem. Magnam hæc afferunt piis consolationem, quum audiunt se habere tam potentem Pastorem, Defensorem, et Protectorem, in cujus manu sit mors et vita." Guilliaudus, in Evang. Joan., pp. 310, 311.

Lucas Brugensis, John, x. 18. Wordsworth's Greek Test., Ibid.

would take back to Himself His human Life even as He would lay it down on Calvary. And in this, as in everything else, He conforms Himself to His Father's command,1 settled in the eternal counsels of the sacred Trinity.

The people were variously affected by this Parable, so forcible in its images, so fraught with love and compassion to all mankind, so mysterious in its depth of meaning. Some contemptuously turned away;-" He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye Him?" Others hesitated;-" These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" To the proud and perverse His words were a stumbling block: but to the tractable and meek this representation of Himself, under the character of the Good Shepherd, imparted some new impressions, if not convictions, that He was truly the Messiah, "the Shepherd of Israel," spoken of by David. In His New Kingdom He is to be regarded as "that Great Shepherd of the sheep;3 the centre of all hopes to the universal fold;—the only universal Bishop of His Church.

And Marloratus, "Aperit

1 Steir, vol. v. p. 483. Toletus in Joan, p. 881. fontem hujus potestatis; mandatum scilicet Patris; per mandatum autem intelligit voluntatem illam Dei et æternum concilium quo Filium suum in hunc mundum mittere, inque mortem pro redemptione generis humani dare, constituerat. Ad quod Patris consilium ideo nos revocat ut sciamus tantam Illi fuisse curam salutis nostræ ut Filium suum unigenitum, tantus quantus est, nobis dicaverit et Christus Ipse qui in mundum venit ut Patri Se obedientem præberet, confirmat Se non alium habere in omnibus scopum quàm ut nobis consulat. Ergo Christus Se per omnia Patri morigerum præbuit." Marloratus, Expositio in Joan., p. 405.

2 Ps. lxxx. 1.

3 Heb. xiii. 20.

"Domine Jesu Christe, pastor bone, qui pro ovibus tuis posuisti animam tuam in precium, carnem in cibum, et sanguinem in potum, qui factus es nobis ostium in Ecclesiam militantem et triumphantem, ut per Te ad salvandum introeamus ad Te: cognosce me inter oves tuas, et misericorditer nos respice in viam salutis dirigendo, ut cognoscamus Te, et Tibi conformemur Te imitando: non audiamus vocem alienorum, silicet mundi, carnis, et diaboli: sed tantùm tuam, obediendo tuis præceptis et consiliis, ut vitam habeamus gratiæ, et abundantius habeamus gloriæ, et apud Te pascua inveniamus refectionis æternæ. Amen." Ludolphus, Vita Christi, pars i. cap. 86, p. 369.

CHAPTER XLIII.

AFTER THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES THE MESSIAH RETURNS FROM JERUSALEM TO CAPERNAUM-FROM THENCE HE SENDS FORTH SEVENTY DISCIPLES TO PREPARE HIS WAY IN THE CITIES OF GALILEE, WHICH HE INTENDED AFTERWARDS TO VISIT HIS INSTRUCTIONS FOR THEIR JOURNEY, AND THEIR RETURN TO HIM-HIS PROMISE OF FUTURE BLESSINGS.

Luke, x. 1-24.

THE Feast of Tabernacles being ended, Jesus departed from Jerusalem; not intending to return for two months, when He would be present at the winter feast of Dedication. There is good ground for the opinion that He now went straight back to Capernaum in Galilee, which He had only left to attend the Festival. It was about the middle of October: and this was probably the time when, on His return to Capernaum, He sent out Seventy Disciples, to prepare the way for His Fourth and Last Circuit. St. Luke says, "after these things the Lord appointed other Seventy also, and sent them two and two, before His face, into every city and place whither He Himself would come." On a former occasion, when the Twelve went forth to preach the Kingdom of God, and heal the sick, He commanded them not to go into the way of the Gentiles, nor to any city of the Samaritans; but rather "to the lost sheep of the House of Israel:" so now we may infer that this mission of the Seventy was also restricted to the limits of Galilee. As He had said to the Twelve, so here again He

1 Greswell's Dissertations, vol. ii. p. 508.

2 This expression clearly implies that they were to go in different directions, to prepare for a future Circuit. A mere three days' journey from Capernaum to Jerusalem would not have required seventy messengers.

3 See Chapter xxvii. of the Narrative, p. 229.

repeats to the Seventy, "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest."1

His instructions to the Seventy were short; but deep their meaning it reached beyond their present to their future labours and trials,-after He should have ascended up to Heaven. They were not entrusted with the power, before given to the Twelve, to "raise the dead;" but sent rather as messengers, who were not to tarry :-" Salute no man by the way" "behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes." When they entered into any city they were to go to some one house, and say, "Peace be to this house;" and there partake of whatsoever hospitality was offered to them; for He said, “the labourer is worthy of his hire." "Go not from house to house." The royal message everywhere was, 66 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS COME NIGH UNTO YOU:" the Christ is approaching; prepare to receive Him worthily. "But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, 'Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that THE KINGDOM OF GOD is COME NIGH UNTO YOU;"" we are heralds of the Messias; lo! He is at hand: beware lest He come as a Judge, and not as a Deliverer. For, He added, "I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for That city." Then, as foreseeing the obstinate unbelief of those towns which had already witnessed His great miracles, He once more2 proclaimed their punishment; "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe

"As the Apostles are succeeded by Bishops in the Church, so the Seventy by Presbyters." "We very well know," says Bp. Andrewes to Peter Moulin, “that the Apostles and the Seventy-two disciples were two Orders, and these distinct. And this likewise we know, that everywhere among the Fathers, Bishops and Presbyters are taken to be after their example; that Bishops succeeded the Apostles, and Presbyters the Seventy-two." Wordsworth's Greek Test., Luke, ix. 1. See a valuable note in Whitby's Commentary on Luke x. 1, on the questions, whether the number of messengers now sent out was seventy or seventy-two; and what was the respective authority of Bishops, as represented by the Twelve Apostles, and of Presbyters, as represented by the Seventy Disciples. Also Tostatus Abulensis, in Matt. Evang., x., Quæst. 26; and Jansenius Gandavensis, cap. lxxx. pp. 619, 620, to the same effect as Bishop Andrewes. 2 See Matt. xi. 20-24.