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CHAPTER X.

VERSE 1.-The tenth of S. John is the place, which both Fathers and more modern writers, have chiefly made use of, to show the difference between good and bad pastors. The good shepherds enter by the door; and Christ is this door, by whom they must enter; that is, from whom they must have their Vocation and Mission: but the thief and robber, who comes to kill, steal, and destroy, climbeth up some other way: whatever he may do, in the ritual way, for form's sake, he has in his heart no regard to Jesus Christ, to the honour of His Person, the edification of His Church, or the salvation of souls; he intends only to raise and enrich himself; and, so he compasses that, he cares not how many souls perish by his means, or through his neglect. When our Saviour confirmed S. Peter in his Apostleship, He pursues still the figure of a shepherd: so the question, that He asked, preparatory to it, was: Simon, lovest thou Me more than these?" from which they justly gather, that the love of God, a zeal for His honour, and a preferring of that to all other things whatsoever, is a necessary and indispensable qualification for that holy employment, which distinguishes the true shepherd from the hireling, and by which only he can be both animated and fortified to go through with the labours and difficulties, as well as the dangers and sufferings, which may accompany it. xxi. 15; Acts xx. 28.-Bp. Burnet.

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In reading the first eighteen verses of this Chapter, I was struck with the thought, which occurred, that this portion contained almost the only parable, which S. John records; and that, of all parables, which are recorded, this is the fullest of gentleness, amiability, and consolation. It gives a compendious view of spiritual Christianity; the deepest, the solidest, the sweetest, the serenest, the surest, the most comprehensive, that could be conveyed in words. There is a beautiful idea, in the beginning of Leighton's fifteenth Lecture, of natures being fitted beforehand for the elucidation of Divine truth. This semblance of a shepherd and his sheep is strongly in favour of such a supposition. It ought to be felt, that our Redeemer Himself was the best explainer of His own dispensation. What our Lord says elsewhere applies infinitely here, "The words, which I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Nothing could be more simple, yet nothing more sublime. According to this infallible standard, Christianity is, essentially, the discipleship of the heart, met by a Presence and communication, as Divinely suited to this inward connection, as the visible Presence and external communications of our Blessed Lord were proportioned to the outward discipleship of His followers during His Ministry on earth.-A. Knox.

V. 3.-There seems to be a secret allusion to the blind man, in the last chapter. He called him out of the midst of the Jews; and he heard His voice.-S. Chrysostom.

As God's children do not content themselves with a confused knowledge of a Deity, but rest not, till they

have attained a distinct apprehension of their God, as He hath revealed Himself to man, so doth God again to them (v. 14). It is not enough that He knows them in a general view, as in the throng, wherein we see many faces, none distinctly; but He singles them out in a familiar kind of severality, both of knowledge and respect. As then He hath names for the several stars of Heaven, Cimah, Cesil, Mazzaroth (Job ix. 9); and for the several Angels, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael (Job xxxviii. 31); and calls them by the proper names, which He hath given them, so He doth to every of His faithful ones. Of one He saith; "Thou shalt call his name John:" of another; "Thou art Simon; thou shalt be called Cephas: to one He says, Zaccheus, come down:" to another; Cornelius, thy prayers and thine alms are come up." In short, there is no one of His, whom He doth not both know and call by his name. What a comfort is this to a poor wretched man to think-Here I walk obscure and contemptible upon earth, in a condition mean and despised of men; but the great God of Heaven is pleased to take such notice of me, as even from Heaven to call me by my name ; and to single me out for grace and salvation, and not only to mention my name from above, in the gracious offer of His ordinances, but to write it in the Eternal register of Heaven. What care I to be inglorious, yea, causelessly infamous with men, whilst I am thus honoured by the King of Glory? S. Luke x. 20.-Bp. Hall.

V. 4.-How think you is Christ to be followed, except by the law which He gave, and the example, which He set before us ?-Paulinus.

Yes, there is another way; they follow Him in a mystical, but most true and saving, sense. They follow Him in His Nativity, by being "regenerate and made God's children by adoption and grace;" in His Circumcision, by having granted unto them "the true circumcision of the Spirit;" in His Life, by their conformity to the Blessed steps of His example; in His Death, by their crucifixion with Him unto sin; in His Resurrection, by their "setting their affection on things above;" in his Ascension, by the upward tendency of their hopes and desires; in His promotion to the right hand of the Father and His Intercession there, by their being made "kings and priests," and by the supplications in His Name, which they offer for the Church, and for "all sorts and conditions of men." In all these blessed instances, the sheep follow the good Shepherd, as one with Him, members of His Body, partakers of His Grace, and heirs of His Glory. Rom. viii. 29, 30.-J. Ford.

V. 8. They came; they were not sent. These therefore entered not "by the door," because they did not faithfully interpret the Scriptures, the end of which is Christ. To them "the porter opened not ;" that is, the Holy Spirit approved them not; nor did "the sheep hear them;" for they, who heard them, were not sheep. Acts xix. 15.-Isid. Clarius.

V. 10. It was the infinite dignity of Christ's Person, which derived that infinite merit on His Sacrifice, whereby it became an equivalent to the infinite demerit of our sins. Nay, of such an infinite value and worth was His Sacrifice, that it not only countervailed for the punishment

due to our sins, but did abundantly preponderate it; upon which account God engaged Himself, not only to remit that punishment, in consideration of it, but also to bestow His Spirit and Eternal life on us; both which are as well the purchase of Christ's Blood, as is the remission of our sins. For God might have remitted our punishment, without superadding the gift of His Spirit and Eternal life to it and therefore, since in consideration of Christ's Blood, He hath superadded these gifts to the remission of our punishment, it is evident that His Blood was equivalent to both; that is, that it was not only a valuable consideration for the pardon of our sins, but also for the assistance of His Spirit, and our Eternal happiness. Heb. ix. 13, 14; Rom. v. 15-21.-Dr. J. Scott.

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V. 11. Instead of killing and destroying the sheep, I die for them; "For their sake I am killed all the day long." ii. 19.-J. Ford.

V. 12. The Ark of Noah contained both the raven and the dove; and, if the Ark was a figure of the Church, you therefore see, that, during the deluge of this present world, the Church must needs contain both kinds. Who are the ravens? They, who "seek their own." Who are the doves? They, who seek "the things which are Christ's." vi. 70.-S. Augustine.

V. 13. These are they, who, as S. Peter speaks, “make merchandize of men" (2 S. Pet. ii. 3), numularii sacerdotes, as S. Cyprian calls them, Doctors of the mint, who love the image of Cæsar more than of God, and had rather see the one in a piece of gold, than the other, renewed and