and resurrection and ascension: and John Matt. 17. 1. especially at His transfiguration on the mount. "The only begotten :" No other like Him in nature; none so glorious and none so beloved. "Full of grace and truth;" these words belong to the beginning of the verse: "The Word," the Lord Jesus, was full of grace and truth.

Let us now consider again what Christ has done for us. He is our Light: the light of every man; without Him we should have been in total darkness; whatever true knowledge we have of God and spiritual things, whatever hope or comfort from Him, whatever promise or prospect of another world, we owe it all to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one great source of wisdom and happiness to man. And we have beheld His glory; we see Him now by faith in the exercise of His goodness and power; we hear the gracious words proceeding out of His mouth; and trace His footseps in His dealings with us. We are, as His people, born of God; we have the high and precious privilege of being made the children of God: "old things are passed away, all things are become new;" (2 Cor. v. 7.) as members of Christ, we are inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. O let us dwell upon, let us prize, let us treasure up in our hearts, this glorious privilege, this inestimable love. Christ the Lord is come unto us, and we are His own; God forbid that we should reject Him either in word or deed! In

word we shall not; we shall not declare that we disbelieve Him; let it be seen then, by our hearts and lives, that we have received Him and do receive Him sincerely let it be daily shewn, that "we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture;" let us not be living as if we had heard nothing, and nothing had been done for us, like the people who are walking in darkness: since we are "light in the Lord," let us "walk as children of light." (Eph. v. 8.) "Let us walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;" (Col. i. 10.) let us be living, devotedly and continually, "for the prize of our high calling;" let us value, let us improve, let us keep in full exercise, the power and privilege so graciously bestowed upon us; that thus, having been born of God, having been redeemed from sin and death, and brought into the way of life and salvation, we may be "made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." (Col. i. 12.) And let us pray to the Lord of light to open our eyes, more and more, that we may behold its full glory; that it may

"shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. iv. 6.)

LECTURE III.

We have now a further account of John and of his testimony to Jesus.

Luke 16.

CHAP. I. 15.

15. John bare witness of him, of Jesus, Matt.3.5. and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

He was in being before me, in His divine nature here is another testimony, that Christ was not a mere man; that He had a being before he came into this world.

16. And of his fulness have all we received Eph. 1.6,7,8. and grace for grace.

Exodus 20.
Deut. 5.

The words " grace for grace" have been variously explained, 1. some think it means, the grace of God in the new Covenant, instead of, and answering to, His grace in the Old. 2. Others have it, Grace after the likeness of, and according to, the grace of Christ; His people being blessed in Him and made righteous by His grace. 3. Or it may probably mean, grace upon grace, one measure of grace after another; a continually increasing abundance. But some may choose to include all these senses.

17. For the law was given by Moses, but Rom. 3. 34. grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

We are not to suppose, that there was no grace, or no truth, under the law: But the law was only 66 a shadow of good things to come," and Jesus Christ was the substance: He was the true end of the law, and His coming shewed its real purpose: The law pronounced a curse for sin, and He shewed how it is removed, and changed into a blessing.

18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, near and dear to Him, He hath declared him, hath explained His nature and revealed His will.

1 Tim. 6. 16

Ex. 3. 1-6.

No man has seen, or can see, the real nature and essence of God, though He was pleased to represent Himself, "at sundry times and in divers manners" to the people of old and in Jos. 5.13-15, these representations, it was the Son of God who appeared, before He was made manifest in the flesh He alone fully knew the will and perfections of the Father, and He alone has revealed them to man. Now we return to John;

19. And this is the record, the witness, of John, when the Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? 20. And he confessed and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. 21. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith I am not. Art

C

De. 18. 15,18-thou that prophet? And he answered, No.

Elias was the same as Elijah, the famous prophet of old; to whom John the Baptist was so like in character, that he was spoken of by Malachi under the name of Elias; and now appeared and preached according to Malachi's Mal. 4. 5. word. The Jews mistook this word, and thought Malachi meant that Elijah would actually come again upon earth: and this is the reason why John says he was not Elias: He was the Elias foretold by Malachi, but not really Elias, as expected by them. He came Luke 1. 17. in the spirit and power of Elias." Many were also looking for Jeremiah, or some other of the prophets, to appear again before Christ

came.

22. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us what sayest thou of thyself? 23. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. As he said in his 40th chapter, when speaking of John the Baptist, as the forerunner of our Lord, as preparing men's hearts and minds to receive Him; just as a preparation was made for the travelling of a prince or other great man, by making straight the crooked roads. and levelling the uneven ground. 24. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.