13" And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. a ver. 27. ch. xvi 33.-b ch. xiii. 33, 36.-c ver. 18, 28. Acts i. 11.-d ch. xii. 26; & xvii. 24. 1 Thes. iv. 17.e Heb. ix. 8.-f ch. i. 17; & viii. 32.-g ch. i. 4; & xi. 25.- ch. x. 9.-i ch. viii. 9.-k ch. xii. 45. Col. i. 15. Heb. i. 3.- ver. 20. ch. x. 38; & xvii. 21, 23.-m ch. v. 19; & vii. 16; & viii. 28; & xii. 49.-n ch. v. 36; & x. 38.- Mat. xxi. 21. Mark xvi. 17. Luke x. 17.-p Mat. vii. 7 ; & xxi. 22. Mark xi. 24. Luke xi. 9. ch. xv. 7. 16; & xvi. 23, 24. James i. 5. 1 John iii. 22; & v. 14. READER.-Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me.-It cannot be spoken how injurious those men are to themselves, that will be managing their own cares; and plotting the prevention of their fears; and projecting their own, both indemnity and advantages: for, as they lay an unnecessary load upon their own shoulders, so they draw upon themselves the miseries of an irremediable disappointment. Alas, how can their weakness make good those events, which they vainly promise to themselves; or avert those judgments they would escape; or uphold them in those evils they must undergo? Whereas, if we put all this upon a gracious God, he contrives it with ease, looking for nothing from us, but our trust and thankfulness.-HALL. We are naturally apt, in our necessities, to have recourse to greater powers than our own; even where we have no engagement of their help how much more should we cast ourselves upon the Almighty, when he not only allows, but solicits our reliance upon him! : It was a question, that might have befitted the mouth of the best Christian, which fell from Socrates: "Since God himself is careful for thee, why art thou solicitous for thyself?" If evils were let loose upon us, so as it were possible for us to suffer any thing that God were not aware of, we might have just cause to sink under adversities; but now that we know every drachm of our affliction is weighed out to us, by that all-wise and all-merciful Providence, Oh, our infidelity, if we do make scruple of taking in the most bitter dose !-HALL. In my Father's house are many mansions, &c.-The man after God's own heart had one boon to ask of his Maker: it must be, sure, some great suit, wherein a favourite will set up his rest: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I will require: even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life; to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his holy temple," Psalm xxvii. 4. Was it so contenting a happiness to thee, O David, to behold, for a moment of time, the fair beauty of the Lord in his earthly temple, where he meant not to reveal the height of his glory? How blessed art thou now, when thy soul lives for ever in the continual prospect of the Infinite Beauty and Majesty of God, in the most glorious and eternal sanctuary of heaven! It was but in a cloud and smoke, wherein God shewed himself in his material house; above, thou seest him clothed in a heavenly and incomprehensible light: and, if a little glimpse of celestial glory, in a momentary transfiguration, so transported the prime Apostle, that he wished to dwell still in Tabor; how shall we be ravished with the full view of that all-glorious Deity, whose very sight gives blessedness! What a life doth the presence of the sun put into all creatures here below! Yet the body of it is afar off; the power of it created and finite. Oh, then, how perfect and happy a life must we needs receive from the Maker of it, when the beams of his heavenly glory shall shine in our face! Here below, our weak senses are marred with too excellent objects: our pure spirits above cannot complain of excess; but, by how much more of that divine light they take in, are so much the more blessed.-LEIGHTON. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.-There is not so much need of learning as of grace, to apprehend those things which concern our everlasting peace. Neither is it our brain, that must be set on work here; but our heart; for true happiness doth not consist in a mere speculation, but a fruition of good. However therefore, there is excellent use of scholarship in all the sacred employments of divinity, yet in the main act, which imports salvation, skill must give place to affection. Happy is the soul, that is possessed of Christ, how poor soever in all inferior endowments. Ye are wide, O ye great wits, while you spend yourselves in curious questions, and learned extravagancies. Ye shall find one touch of Christ more worth to your souls than all your deep and laborious disquisitions: one drachm of faith more precious than a pound of knowledge. In vain shall ye seek for this in your books, if ye miss it in your bosoms. If you know all things, and cannot truly say, "I know whom I have believed," 2 Tim. i. 12, you have but knowledge enough to know yourselves truly miserable. Wouldst thou, therefore, my son, find true and solid comfort in the hour of temptation, in the agony of death? make sure work for thy soul, in the days of thy peace. Find Christ thine, and, in the despite of hell, thou art both safe and blessed. Look not so much to an absolute Deity, infinitely and incomprehensibly glorious; alas, that majesty, because perfectly and essentially good, is, out of Christ, no other than an enemy to thee! Thy sin hath offended his justice, which is himself; what hast thou to do with that dreadful power, which thou hast provoked? Look to that merciful and allsufficient "Mediator between God and man," who is both God and man, "Jesus Christ the righteous;" 1 Tim. ii. 5, 1 John ii. 1. It is his charge, and our duty. "Ye believe in God, believe also in me;" John xiv. 1.-Hall. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake.-See Commentary on Chap. X. 30, in § CCLIV. 15 ¶If ye love me, keep we will come unto him, and my commandments. make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. 25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: " for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. y ver. 21, 23. ch. xv. 10, 14. 1 John v. 3.-r ch. xv. 26; & xvi. 7. Rom. viii. 15, 26.-8 ch. xv. 26; & xvi. 13. 1 John iv. 6.- 1 Cor. ii. 14.- 1 John ii. 27.- Mat. xxviii. 20. Or, orphans.-y ver. 3, 28.-≈ ch. xvi. 16.-a I Cor. xv. 20.-6 ver. 10. ch. x. 38; & xvii. 21, 23, 26.e ver. 15, 23. I John ii. 5 ; & v. iii. d Luke vi. 16.-e ver. 15.-1 John ii. 24. Rev. iii. 20.-g ver. x. ch. v. 19, 38; & vii. 16; & viii. 28; & xii. 49.- ver. 16. Luke xxiv. 49. ch. xv. 26; & xvi. 7.-i ch. ii. 22; & xii. 16; & xvi. 13. 1 John ii. 20, 27.-k Phil. iv. 7. Cel. iii. 15. 1 ver. 1.-m ver. 3, 18.-n ver. 12. ch. xvi. 16; & xx. 17. -o See ch. v. 18; & x. 30. Phil. ii. 6.-p ch. xiii. 19; & xvi. 4.-g ch. xii. 31; & xvi. 11.-r ch. x. 18. Phil. ii. 8. Heb. v. 8. READER.-If ye love me, keep my commandments.-Love will not willingly do anything that may offend and grieve the object loved. Love is an assimilating affection: it is the very cement that joins God and the soul together in the same spirit, and makes them to be of one heart and of one mind: it is the loadstone of the soul, that toucheth all other affections, and makes them stand heavenward. When once God hath wrought the love of himself in our hearts, this will constrain us to love what he loves, and to hate what he hates. Sin is the only thing that God hates; and those that love him, will not, cannot, but hate sin: their love to God will constrain them to do it. Ps. xcvii. 10: "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." And certainly, the hatred of evil is the best security against the committing of it; will any one take a toad or a there? Truly, as utterly impossible serpent into his bosom, to lodge it it is, while the exciting grace of God stirs up and quickens our love to him, that we should ever embrace a vile lust and lodge it in our hearts; since our sight of the beauty of holiness hath made it ugly, and our love to God hath made it hateful.-HOP KINS. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth.—The Spirit is a Comforter, because an advocate to his people; for so much the word signifies, and is elsewhere rendered, 1 John ii. 1. Now He is called "Another Comforter," or Advocate, to denote the difference between Christ and the Spirit in this particu lar. Christ, by the office of his mediation and intercession, is an Advocate for his Church; and doth, in his own person in heaven, apply his merits, and further the cause of our salvation with his Father. The Spirit doth not intercede nor appear before God in person for us, as Christ doth, but maketh intercession for men in and by themselves, giving them an access unto the Father, emboldening them in their fears, and helping them in their infirmities, when they know not what to pray. The Spirit is a Comforter, by applying and representing Christ absent unto the soul again. For the Spirit carrieth a Christian's heart up to Christ in heavenly affections and conversation. As a piece of earth, when it is out of its place, doth ever move to the whole earth, so a spark of Christ's Spirit will naturally move upward unto him who hath the fulness in him. Likewise the Spirit bringeth Christ down to a Christian, formeth him in his heart, evidenceth him, and the virtue of his passion and resurrection, to the conscience, in the powerful dispensation of his holy ordinances. The Spirit is a Comforter by a work of sweet and fruitful illumination, not only giving the knowledge but the love and comfort of the truth unto a Christian, making him with open face behold as in a glass the glory of God, and thereby transforming him into the same image from glory to glory. The light of other sciences is like the light of a candle, nothing but light; but the knowledge of Christ by the Spirit is like the light of the Sun, which hath influences and virtue in it. And this is that which the Apostle calls the "Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of God;" for, though there be no prophetical nor extraordinary revelations by dreams, visions, ecstacies, or enthusiasms; yet, according to the measure of spiritual light and diligent observation of Holy Scriptures, there are still manifold revelations or manifestations of Christ unto the soul. The secret and intimate acquaintance of the soul with God; the heavings, aspirings, and harmony of the heart with Christ; the sweet illapses and flashes of heavenly light upon the soul; the knowledge of the depths of God and of Satan, of the whole armour of God and the strong man, of conflicts of spirit, protection of angels, experiences of mercy, issues of temptation, and the like, are heavenly and constant revelations out of the word manifested to the souls of the faithful by the Spirit. The Spirit is a Comforter in those effects of joy and peace which he worketh in the heart. For joy is ever the fruit and companion of the Spirit, Gal. v. 22; Acts xiii. 52; and the joy of the Spirit is like the intercession of the Spirit, "unspeakable and full of glory," 1 Pet. i. 8. Not like the joy of the world, which is empty, false, and deceitful, full of vanity, vexation, insufficiency, unsuitableness to the soul; mingled with fears of disappointment and miscarriage, with tremblings and guilt of conscience, with certainty of period and expiration; but clear, holy, constant, unmixed, satisfactory, and proportionable to the compass |