He knows his sheep, and will gather them into the fold. 12 But he that is an shepherd, whose own 85 SECT. cxxxiii. scripture under that character, (Isa. xl. 11. The hireling indeed, who is not the true shep-12 hire'ing, and not the herd, and whose own property the sheep are not the sheep are not, seeth as soon as he is apprehensive of approaching danthe wolf coming, and ger, and sees the wolf, for instance, or some leaveth the sheep, and other savage beast, coming, immediately regardcatcheth them, and ing nothing but his own safety, is only careful scattereth the sheep. to secure himself, and leaves the sheep and flees fleeth: and the wolf feth, because he is an hircling, and careth not for the sheep. away; and so the wolf, meeting with no resist- 13 The hireling rest of the sheep. Now the hireling flees on 13 14 I am the good Shepherd, and know my sherp, and known of mine. an But I am the good Shepherd, who have a true 14 affection for my sheep, and am above the influence of all such mean and selfish views: and such is the relation that there is between us, and such the love we have to one another, that I know and acknowledge my [sheep], and take the kindest and most tender care of them; and I am also known, acknowledged and confided in, by 15 As the Father mine: So that we mutually are dear unto each 15 knoweth me, even so know I the father: other; and even as the Father knoweth me, and and I lay down my owns his affection and regard to me, by the sure life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not tokens of his presence and approbation; and I And I would farther observe to you, as a point 16 of of great importance, that I have other sheep which 80 Jesus reproves the blindness of the Pharisees. SECT. will the Christian cause appear to all who will diligently search into its evidence. CXXXI. 28, 29 30 Who can forbear wondering at the obstinacy of these Pharisees; and, on the same principles, at that of the present Jews, who, while they acknowledge that God spake by Moses, because he wrought miracles, will not, on the evidence of yet more various and glorious miracles, and those attested beyond all contradiction, acknowledge the authority of the Son of God himself? But we see this poor illiterate creature (for such he undoubtedly was,) with the advantage of truth on this side, baffles all the sophistry of his most learned antagonists. Great is the truth, and it will prevail. Great is this truth, so fundamental to the gospel, that Jesus is the Son of God: and this also, which is so important to natural religion and revealed, that God heareth not sinners; but 31 if any man be a worshipper of God, and do his will, him he hears, and most favourably regards. May we be truly devout, and add to our devotion an obedient regard to the Divine will, and the eyes of the Lord will be upon us, and his ears be open to our cry! 34 (Psal. xxxiv. 15.) Then, being favourably owned of God, we shall have no reason to fear the censures of men. If they cast us 35--37 out Christ will receive us, and perhaps reveal himself to us with more freedom, in proportion to the injuries we sustain from them. SECT. exxxii. SECT. CXXXII. Christ admonishes the Pharisees of their danger; and represents himself as the door of the sheepfold through which men must necessarily enter, if they desire their own salvation, or that of others committed to their care. John IX. 39, to the end; Χ. 1-10. JOHN IX. 39. WHILE Jesus stood talking with the blind AND Jesus said, For and judgment I am man who had received his sight, several come into this world : John people, who were then entering into the tem- that they which see IX. 39. ple, knowing them both, and desirous to hear not, might see; that they which see, what passed, gathered together about them: and might be made blind. Jesus said, so that they all might hear him, You may see in this man, and in what has happened in relation to him, an illustration of the effects which my appearance is to produce: for I am come into this world for judgment as well as f More various and glorious miracles.] A beautiful parallel between the miracles of Moses and Christ is drawn by Orobio on the one hand, and Limborch on the other, mercy: Limb. Collat. cum Judro, Scrip. iii. Qurst. 4. No. 3. p. 131. & seq. and Resp. ad Scrip. iii. p. 151. & seq. If 1 Reflections on the care of Christ for his sheep. 87 vision therefore again pressions, there was a division therefore again SECT. among the Jews for among the Jews (as there had been before, chap. these sayings. vii. 43. sect. ci. and ix. 16. sect. cxxx.) espe- John 20 And many of cially on account of these last words. And many X.20. them said, 1 hath a hear ye hum? 21 Others These are not devil, and is n. ad; why of them said, He has certainly a demon dwelling blind? IMPROVEMENT. THERE is not, perhaps, any where to be found a greater in- Ver. stance of the force of prejudice than in these perverse Jews, who 20 censured Christ as a lunatic and a demoniac for one of the gravest and most excellent speeches that was ever delivered. Let us review it with all due attention and regard. Let us consider Christ as the good Shepherd, and humbly com-11 mit our souls to him, as ever we desire they should be safe and happy. We have known his kind regards to the flock in exposing and laying down his life for them. And he hath not laid it 15 down in vain. Delightful thought! Our compassionate Shepherd, even when the sword of the Lord was awakened to smite him, has not so fallen as to rise no more; but as in this great and good work he voluntarily laid down, so he has also re-assumed his life; 18 and still bears on his heart the same concern for his flock, and uses his renewed life and exalted dignity for their security and happiness. Let us humbly acknowledge him as acknowledged by the Father: 15 let us courageously and gratefully own him, and be ready to lay down our lives also for him. We are those other sheep, of whom he spake, who were not originally of the fold, but by his grace are 16 now brought in to the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Let us pray that the boundaries of his fold may be still more extended, and the whole number of his elect accomplished; that all the flock may at length appear together, and may be conducted by him to the regions of that immortal life which he determines to give it. 82 IHe is the door by which we are to enter in. SECT. appointed way. To him, as soon as he ap- 3 To him the porter proaches, the door-keeper opens the fold ; and speethea cxxxii, John and the sheep hear his voice; the sheep themselves hear his voice with regard; and he calleth his own X. 3. and he is well acquainted with each of them, sheep by name, and insomuch that he calls each of his own sheep by leadeth them out. be fore them, and the 4 name, and leads them out to pasture. And 4 And when he 6 strangers. not This short parable Jesus spake unto them; but Jesus unto them: but 7 Then Jesus, to clear up what was most obscure 7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. b The door-keeper opens the fold.] Grotius does not attempt the accommodation of this circumstance: Mr. Cradock interprets it of the Holy Ghost; and Dr. Whitby of God the Father, as giving free admission to those teachers who maintained a due regard to Christ: an interpretation which seems much more reasonable than to refer it (as some do) to ministers. It is suggested by Sir Isaac Newton, that, as these words were spoken near the temple, where sheep were kept in folds to be sold for sacrifices, Christ here alludes to what was peculiar in those folds; that, as they were kept locked, they not only excluded the thief, but the shepherd, till the door-keeper opened them. (See Newton on Proph. p. 148.) But I cannot think, whatever occasion Christ might take from the sight of sheep to represent his people under that image, and himself as a Shepherd, he would describe them like sheep shut up in a pen to be sold for sacrifice: nor does the shep herd's leading them out, &c. agree with this circumstance. In countries where there were so many savage beasts it might be ordinarily necessary to have the foids_better secured than among us; and the chief shepherd might often leave a servant towatch them while thus shut up, and come himself to lead them out to pasture in a morning c Calls his own sheep by name.] Dr. Hammond justly infers from hence, that the eastern shepherds, at least those of Judea, gave particular names to their sheep, as most men do to their dogs and horses.Their custom also was to lead the sheep, playing on some musical instrument. d I am the door, &c.] It would be very impertinent to run a long parallel here between Christ and a door. The resemblance plainly centres in this one circumstance; that as a man must observe and pass through the door, in order to his making a regular and unsuspected entrance into a sheepfold; so he must maintain a proper regard 89 He asserts that He and the Father are one. How long dost thou anxious and uneasy suspense? If thou art indeed SECT. make us to doubt? If the Messiah, tellusso plainly and expressly: which exxxiv. thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered ye believed not: the John Χ. 24. they said with a malicious design to insnare and accuse him. And Jesus answered them, I have in effect 25 them, I to'd you, and told you over and over, yet you believe me not; works that I do in my and, had I offered nothing more, the works which Father's name, they I do in my Father's name sufficiently declare it, bear witness of me. as it is clearly to be seen that they bear witness of me in a language which you would easily understand if you were to judge impartially. said unto you. 26 But ye believe But you do not believe, because you are not persons 26 not; because ye are of such simplicity and sincerity as I described not of my sheep, as I under the character of my sheep. For, as I 27 My sheep hear said unto you but just now (ver. 4, 14, 16), My 27 my voice, and I know sheep hear my voice, and I know and take care of them, and they follow them; and they, like sheep accustomed to their 28 And I give unto shepherd, acknowledge and follow me. them eternal life, and the consequence of that will be such as would they shall never perish, make it well worth your while to lay aside all them out of my hand, me. neither shall any pluck And 28 these prejudices, and to join with them: for I out of my handd, or injure them while they re 29 My Father, main in it. Nor indeed is it possible that any 29 which gave them me, should; for my Father, who gave [them] to me and none is able to on purpose that I might redeein and save them, pluck them out of my is confessedly greater than all; and therefore they must needs be safe, as none is able to pluck 30 I and my Father [them] out of my Father's hand. Now it is a 30 most certain truth that I and the Father are one: and the union between us is so strict and is greater than all: Father's hand. are one. c I have in effect told you over and over.] What he had just been saying of himself, in the preceding verses, as the great Shepherd, was in sense equivalent to a declaration of his being the Messiah.-I mention that discourse as what had just been delivered, because I think it most natural to explain the 22d verse as referring to what was said before, and not merely to what follows: for clse the evangelist would probably have said, After these things was tre feest of dedication. Compare John v. 1. vi. 4. and vii. 1, 2. d Neither shall any enemy pluck them, &c.] This is the plain import and energy of the original (εκ αρπασει τες αύα), which is greatly euervated by adding the word mar in the translation, as the authors of intimate, our English version have frequently done. (Compare Mat. xi. 27. Mark xiii. 5. and Jam. i. 13.) The sheep of Christ are exposed to so great danger from the infernat lion (1 Pet. v. 8.) that I doubt not but this text most eminently refers to the care of their Shepherd to guard them from his assaults. e I and the Father are one.] If we attend, not only to the obvious meaning of these words in comparison with other passages of Scripture, but to the connection of this celebrated text, it so plainly demonstrates the Drity of our blessed Redeemer, that I think it may be left to speak for itself, without any laboured comment.How widely different that sense is in which Christians are said to be one with God(John |