LECT. Him to be, than of the winds and waves. It is XXII. more terrible to wrestle with the rulers of the darkness of this world than with a tempestuous sea.... Our real distresses are often much increased by our imaginary ones.... Even the approaches of comfort and deliverance are often so misconstrued as to become the occasions of fear and perplexity "."

The whole subject, like so many other passages of this Gospel, is full of instruction and encouragement, both to pastor and to people.

☐ Henry.

LECTURE XXIII.

THE BREAD OF LIFE.

JOHN vi. 22-33.

ON the morrow after the miracle of the loaves, LECT. some of the people who had been partakers of His XXIII. bounty, and yet lingered in that neighbourhood, returned to the scene of the miracle, hoping to find Jesus. For they had seen no other vessel on the shore by which He could have crossed over to the opposite side, save that one in which the disciples had re-embarked; and they knew that He did not embark with them in that, but that they had gone away alone. They expect therefore to find Him near. But when they find that He is not there any more than His disciples; when they find that He also is gone, (though they knew not when nor how,) as well as the disciples, whom they had seen embark ;-they conclude that He must by some means have followed His dis

....

The rendering in v. 22." when the people .saw," of the E. V. infuses an air of obscurity into the whole narration. The time is, so to say, plusquam perfectum. It will be clearer, therefore, if we render it," the people. having been aware, &c." It is of course different in v. 24, the terms of which however seem in the E. V. to have been transferred to that former verse. In the latter the use of the present eσr is very graphic. We can almost see the people coming and looking and going disappointed away. In v. 22. Beza strangely puts a comma after avroû, boldly asserting that the nominative to ἀπῆλθον is not οἱ μαθηταὶ, but ὁ ὄχλος. In which however he has the support of Casaubon.

XXIII.

LECT. ciples in the night to Capernaum; and they determine to cross the lake, and go thither after Him.

c

And this they were enabled at once to do. For though the evening before there was no vessel there, save that one which conveyed the disciples away; yet since then several small craft had crossed over from Tiberias, on the opposite or western shore of the lake, towards Bethsaida on the east, and had arrived nigh unto where they then were, the scene of the recent miracle, when they were so wondrously supplied with food after that, as the Evangelist emphatically notices a second time, the Lord had given thanks. These vessels, having probably landed their wares and passengers, were about to return, and numbers of the people, who had been miraculously fed by Christ the day before, take this opportunity to return in them to the opposite side of the lake; and on landing they immediately make their way to Capernaum, where, if any where, they conjecture that Jesus must be. And there they find Him in the synagogue'. And they manifest much eagerness at finding Him. And their first question is one of curiosity: they are curious to know how He got there; so com

Cλoiάpia. "Hoc ideo ut intelligatur quomodo ipsi transierint." Grotius. d See v. 11. and comment.

The parenthetical and express mention of these "other ships" would seem to be both in order to account for the way in which the multitude might cross the lake; (for how, some one might ask, could they cross, when the only boat there had departed overnight? and how could a multitude cross at all without many boats?) and also perhaps as suggesting to them a possible means whereby Jesus might have accomplished the voyage; taking, they might thus imagine, one of the first of these return boats, and so anticipating them.

f ver. 59.

XXIII.

paratively long a distance in so short a time". LECT. They had perhaps been canvassing the matter on the way; and when they find Him, they ask Himh.

Our Lord, who knew what was in man, who knew their motives in seeking Him, instead of gratifying their curiosity, reproves their carnalmindedness. He takes no notice of their irrelevant question, but proceeds at once to convict them of the carnal spirit which prompted their present eagerness, and exhorts them to a better

В "Tam brevi tempore, tam longa via? Quæstio de tempore includit quæstionem de modo." Bengel.

66

"Пóre, as Stier remarks, includes ŵs in its meaning." Alford. See also Ps. lxxvii. 19.

The following brief specimens of Hooker's noble words on this question are subjoined. "The disciples, when Christ appeared to them in far more strange and miraculous manner, (John xx.) moved no question, but rejoiced greatly in that they saw. For why? The one sort beheld only that in Christ which they knew was more than natural; but yet their affection was not rapt therewith through any great extraordinary gladness. The other, when they looked on Christ, were not ignorant that they saw the well spring of their own everlasting felicity. The one, because they enjoyed not, disputed; the other disputed not, because they enjoyed.

"If then the presence of Christ with them did so much move, judge what their thoughts and affections were at the time of this new presentation of Christ not before their eyes but within their souls."

Then as to the gradual dawning of Divine light and perception of the meaning of their Master's words, "Was it possible they should hear that voice, 'Take, eat, this is My Body; Drink ye all of this, this is My Blood;' possible, that doing what was required, and believing what was promised, the same should have present effect in them, and not fill them with a kind of fearful admiration at the heaven which they saw in themselves? They had at that time a sea of comfort and joy to wade in; and we by that which they did are taught that this heavenly food is given for the satisfying of our empty souls, and not for the exercising of our curious and subtile wits.

master.

"If we doubt what those admirable words may import, let him be our teacher for the meaning of Christ to whom Christ was Himself a SchoolLet our Lord's Apostle be His interpreter, content we ourselves with his explication, (1 Cor. x. 16.) My Body, the communion of My Body; My Blood, the communion of My Blood." Eccl. Pol. V. lxvii. 3—5.

LECT. and a spiritual mind'. He reads to them their XXIII. own hearts, and tells them why they seek Him;

tells them, what their own conscience admitted, that they sought Him not because they saw the miracles, not from any admiration of His power, not from any impression of His Divinity, not from any regard to His teaching, not from any desire to know and do His will, not from any love to that doctrine to accredit which He wrought His miracles,--but only because of present advantage, only because He had given them bodily food without any trouble on their part to obtain it, and they thought He might do it yet again. They did not care for His doctrine, they did not intend to become His disciples; but they cared for the good things of this life which they had received, and hoped for more. As if He had said, The true end for which I work miracles is to prove to you that I am sent from God, that you may attend to my words, and believe in me, and become my faithful and true-hearted followers but you consider not the end of my miracles, but only the present advantage you may derive from them. You care not for my doctrine, but only for the loaves. You have no concern for my glory, but only for your own ease and appetite. You consult not your souls, but only your bodies. So He reproves them. And then He affectionately bids them seek what is higher

"At Christus. .... corda eorum introspiciens, quæ caduco quam cœlestis vitæ pabulo magis afficiebantur, ad id quod interrogatur non respondet, ea vero docet de quibus non interrogabatur." Grotius.

"Propter carnem me quæritis, non propter spiritum. .... Impletur quotidie talibus Ecclesia. Vix quæritur Jesus propter Jesum..... Quæritis me propter aliud, quærite me propter me." Aug. in Jo. Tr. xxv. 10.