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the words which he there adds, " for He was before LECT. me," shew that He was something more than man, a man and something more: and what that was we here may learn, "This is the Son of God;" or, as we heard on the threshold of the Gospel, "the Word was God."

So Christ is both God and Man; and some of His acts which we read of in Scripture are His acts as God, and some of them are His acts as a man, and some of them are His acts as both God and Man.

This is a most important article of our faith, that Christ is "very God and very Man;" for, as an old Father has said, "A mediator between God and man must partake of the nature of both God and man; otherwise he cannot be a mediator!" A mediator between two estranged parties, namely, on the one hand an offended God, and on the other offending man, must be such as has a relation and bears a proportion, on the one hand, to God, whose justice had to be satisfied, and on the other to man, who had offended. So God in His love provided Immanuel, the God-man, in whom both the natures met, who alone could satisfy the one, and by affinity redeem the other.

This great truth too, that Christ is both God and Man, is very full of comfort: for it persuades us both of His sympathy and of His power; teaches us that He both knows by experience our sorrows,

See on ver. 15. Lect. iii.

"Mediator autem inter Deum et homines oportebat ut haberet aliquid simile Deo, aliquid simile hominibus: ne in utroque hominibus similis longe esset a Deo, aut in utroque Deo similis longe esset ab hominibus; atque ita mediator non esset." August. Conf. lib. x. cap. 42.

LECT. and can help us out of them. By virtue of His

IV.

manhood He has felt our griefs, by virtue of His Godhead He will deliver us from the cause of our trouble. Let us believe this blessed and comfortable truth, that we may have joy and peace in believing!

LECTURE V.

THE CALLING OF ANDREW AND ANOTHER,

AND OF SIMON PETER.

JOHN i. 35-42.

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V.

We have here the record of a most interesting LECT. fact, the way in which the first two of our Lord's disciples became acquainted with Him. One of these, as we find from the fortieth verse of this chapter, was Andrew; the other, probably, our Evangelist himself. Well," therefore, it has been observed," may he mark all things so accurately-> the place, and the day, and the hour of the day : the gesture of his Lord, and His gracious words.... It will be perceived that this Evangelist, after his divine introduction, begins with the events which he personally witnessed"."

Before these became disciples of Christ, they were disciples of John the Baptist; and it was by John the Baptist that they were directed to Christ. The Baptist and these two of his disciples were together. Jesus appears in the distance. John

a A Plain Commentary.

"Porro hora nominata non solum ad fidem narrationis facit, verum etiam ad explicandam aviditatem Apostolorum, qui cum esset tempus vespertinum tamen ambiunt ut cum Christo privatim colloquantur; simulque miram Christi humanitatem, qui non jusserit eos postridie ad se redire, excusans noctem imminentem." Erasm.

So Lampe: "Temporis adeo accurata non solum quoad diem, sed etiam quoad horam commemoratio character est historia veræ cujus viva secundum omnes circumstantias Joanni hærebat memoria. Quod eo magis notandum duxit Evangelista, quia hæc erat salutaris illa hora, qua ipse Jesum de facie cognovit atque inter discipulos ejus assumptus est."

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LECT. repeats the same testimony he had given the day V. before, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The Lamb whom God had provided Himself; a Lamb not of earthly, but of heavenly mould; of whom those earthly lambs," without blemish and without spot," were the constant symbol; who was to be "led as a lamb to the slaughter," suffering for our sins.

The Baptist seems not to be addressing his remark directly to these two disciples, but to be soliloquising with himself. Looking upon Jesus as He walked, and musing about Him in his heart, he seems to be speaking aloud his meditation, and out of the fulness of his heart his mouth speaketh, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

His attentive disciples," Men," it has been remarked, "who from the very first shewed themselves ready to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth",""-these hear the memorable words, and follow Him of whom they are spoken. Christ turns to meet, waits to receive, those who seek Him. He inquires their business with Him. They in return inquire where He lives, where He is to be found; for they wish to know more of Him, to visit Him at His own abode, that they may become acquainted with Him, of whom their master speaks such wondrous things.

They address Him by the title "Rabbi," a term which the Jews were in the habit of applying to their teachers; and the use of which by these disciples shews that they sought instruction from Him. For the sake of those Gentiles into whose hands this Gospel should fall, the Evangelist adds the interpretation of this Jewish term.

b A Plain Commentary.

c Rev. xiv. 4.

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of

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S

S

e

S

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In reply to their question as to where He dwelt, LECT. our Lord invites these inquirers to come and seea. They accompany Him to His humble abode at Nazareth; and, as it was about the tenth hour, about two hours before sunset, they spend the evening with Him, stay with Him the remainder of that day. The interest and importance of this interview we may well imagine. Its immediate effect is apparent: for one of the two, Andrew, on his return home, full of what he had heard', hastens to tell his brother of it; tells him, known afterwards as the ardent Apostle Peter, "We have found the Messias."

Here again our Evangelist, for the sake of his 1 Gentile readers, interprets a Jewish expression, giving the Greek rendering of the Hebrew term, telling us that Messiah or Messias means Christ. Both these words in their several languages signify the same thing. "The Messias " or "the Christ" means "the Anointed One." For the Jews were in the habit of anointing their prophets, priests, and kings. When men were set apart to either of these offices, they were anointed: holy oil was poured upon their heads. So our Lord was anointed with that of which the sacred oil was a symbol; consecrated to the office which He undertook for our sakes. Jesus is called the Christ, that is, the Anointed One, because He is the Prophet, the

d So Philip afterwards to Nathanael takes up the same word. v. 46 inf. On the subject of the hours, and the two opposite views, see the two cases as stated respectively by Dean Alford and Dr. Wordsworth.

"Sensus est, Eo die inde non discesserunt, ac proinde ibidem pernoctarunt, quia jam serum erat. Vide Luc. xxiv. 29." Grotius. See also ch. xi. 9.

"Redux a Christo non legitur rediisse ad Joannem. In altiorem scholam jam transierat." Lampe.