Conqueror; in His glorification, to sit at the right hand of God, as Mediator.-Bp. Hacket.

V. 35. Beloved, as a man may come to such an estate of grace here, that he may be most sure he shall not fall, as S. Paul in likelihood was, when he resolved that nothing should "separate him"; so may a man be engaged so far in sin, that there is no rescuing from the devil. There is an irreversible estate in evil, as well as good; and perhaps I may have arrived to that before my hour of death; for I believe Pharaoh was come to it (Ex. ix. 34); after the seventh plague hardening his heart and then, I say, it is possible, that thou, that hitherto hast gone on in habituate, stupid, customary rebellions, mayest be now at this minute arrived to this pitch, that, if thou run on one pace farther, thou art engaged for ever, past recovery. And therefore at this minute, in the strength of your age and lusts, this speech may be as seasonable, as if death were seizing on you. "Why will you Die?" At what time soever thou repentest, God will have mercy; but this may be the last instant, wherein thou canst repent; the next sin may benumb or sear thy heart, that even the pangs of death shall come on thee insensibly; that the rest of thy life shall be a sleep, or lethargy, and thou lie stupid in it, till thou findest thyself awake in flames. Oh, if thou shouldst pass away in such a sleep! Prov. i. 24-33.-Dr. Hammond.

The prayers of health are most likely to be acceptable. Sickness may choke our devotions; and we are acceptable rather by our life, than by our death. We have a rule

how to lead the one; the other is uncertain, and may come in a moment. Eccl. xii. 1–7.—Sir T. Browne.

A great deal of time is contracted in opportunity; which is the flower the cream of time.-Dr. Whichcote.

V. 37. The prophecies alone did not point out our Lord with the utmost certainty, during His life; so that, during this space, if His miracles had not been decisive proofs, a man would have been excusable in disbelieving Him. It is clear, then, that miracles performed are a sufficient evidence, when we have no contrary argument from doctrines delivered, and that they ought, in this case, to be relied upon with assurance and satisfaction. Deut. xiii. 1-3.—Pascal.

V. 38.-Men's mistaking the true object of their happiness shows indeed their nature is corrupted, and their understandings vitiated; but it is no argument that there is no true standard of solid happiness; no more than a blind man's missing of the mark proves there is none to shoot at. Rom. iii. 4; 2 Tim. ii. 18, 19.—Dr. Horneck.

V. 40.-When a man is cursed with a blind and besotted mind, it is a sure, and therefore a sad, sign that God is leading such an one to his final doom; it is both the cause and forerunner of his destruction. For, when the malefactor comes to have his eyes covered, it shows that he is not far from his execution. Eph. iv. 18.— Dr. South.

V. 41.-Whose Glory? The Father's? How then doth S. John here apply it to the Son, and S. Paul (Acts

xxviii. 25) to the Spirit? Not, as "confounding the Persons;" but declaring the Glory to be but One. 1 S. John v. 7.-S. Chrysostom.

It is an ancient opinion of many of the Fathers, and not a few of the worthiest late Divines approve it, that all apparitions of God in the Old Testament were of the Second Person. This apparition the Fathers call the rehearsal of the Incarnation. It was a fair intimation of that, which in time He should ever be, after He had once taken upon Him the nature of man, which death itself could never sever from Him. (Refer to S. Mark i. 41. Dr. Owen).—Bp. Lake.

V. 43. The Scripture hath observed very justly, that as the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so is a man in his praise" (Prov. xxvii. 21). This tries him thoroughly, and soon discovers, whether his virtue be true standard, or of a base alloy. For, as metal, if it be good, is not hurt, but purified, by the fire; but, if bad, turns into dross and fume; so is a good or bad man affected with commendations. How many do we see puffed up and even transported beyond all sober sense by a general applause; and as dejected and despicably melancholy again by contempt and a common cry going against them. What more extravagant, more absurd, than to neglect the service of God, for anything the world will say, or think of us? What will it signify to us in the next life how people censure or commend us here? Allow this but one serious and impartial thought, and then I will venture to appeal to thine own conscience, whether the world and the love of it, in this respect, be not the very abstract of

vanity itself. S. Matt. x. 28; Acts iv. 19, 20; 1 Cor. iv. 3.-Parsons.

A Christian runs greater hazard from commendation, than from calumny. Prov. xvii. 3.-Bp. Wilson.

V. 48.-The day, thus designated, signifies a portion of duration, set apart for this purpose (the Judgment); for which one might suppose an Eternity would scarcely be too great, when we consider the immensity of the subject, and the multitude of the persons concerned. But we must recollect that God can in a moment let in such light, as would equal what, according to our present ideas, it would require Eternity to disclose; just as our Saviour could in a few moments impress on the woman of Samaria such a sense of His omniscience, that she went away declaring, "He had told her all that ever she did," and demanded, "Is not this the Christ ?" Ps. 1. 19-22; xc. 8.-R. Hall.

V. 50.-Enter daily upon these reflections; that "the world passes away and the lust thereof;" that the evils of life are many; that the best things of it are empty, uncertain, short; that death and judgment come on apace; that yet a little while, and it will signify little, whether we have been Princes or peasants, healthy or crazy, prosperous or calamitous; but only, whether we have been virtuous or vicious; whether we have made a good or a bad use of our trials and talents. These things you must seriously ponder, these things you must often revolve; we perish for want of thinking; we are lost for want of consideration. The truths of the Gospel are

mighty and powerful; but 'tis consideration must set them home without serious, without frequent consideration, no truth can make either deep or lasting impression upon us. We are earthly, worldly, carnal, and therefore not easily affected or moved. We are silly, inconstant, vain, and therefore apt to forget what is wise, and good, and apt to entertain in the room of it whatever offers itself next, how slight and trifling soever so that the things of the body and world do easily please, amuse, employ, and possess us, if we be not careful often to refresh and renew the memory of Divine truths. Ps. xxxix. 5; xc. 12; S. Luke xv. 17.-Dr. Lucas.