who deny the Scripture to be perfect. Ps. xciii. 5; Eccl. vii. 8; 1 Kings xix. 10.-G. Herbert.

If he were at any time too zealous in his sermons, it was reproving the indecencies of the people's behaviour, in the time of Divine Service, and of those Ministers, that huddled up the Church Prayers without a visible reverence and affection. Isa. i. 12-15.-Life of G. Herbert, by Walton.

V. 18.-When the Jews here demand a sign, it was upon the doing of that, which, if they had attended to, had been a sufficient sign to them for His driving the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, being a thing permitted by the Sanhedrim and the priests, how could they think so mean a person in appearance, as our Saviour was, could ever have effected it, had it not been for a Divine Majesty and power, which appeared in Him? It was not then the expectation of miracles, which our Saviour rebuked in the Jews, but their being unsatisfied with the kind and nature of His miracles. vi. 30; S. Matt. xii. 38, 39.-Bp. Stillingfleet.

V. 21. The Jewish Temple was perishable; the Divine glory and Presence might recede from it. But Christ implies in these words such an union between the Godhead and the manhood, that there could be no real separation nor dissolution.-J. H. Newman.

His death, it is a dissolution of the Temple; it reached no further than to His humanity; there is the extension of it. Death did part His soul from His body, and that was all. But there was a close union,

which no violence of death could dissolve, the union of His Godhead with His manhood. That was an union incapable of dissolution or destruction. His Incarnation admits of no dissolution; His Deity was united to His soul and body, when by death they were parted from themselves. His soul departed; that was the soul of the Son of God: His body interred in the grave; it was the body of the Son of God. What once for all He assumed, He hath never laid aside. His Godhead supported His soul during His three days' death, and embalmed His body, when it lay in the grave: as a man drawing a sword out of the scabbard, holds the sword in one hand, and the scabbard in the other, they are asunder in themselves, but both are held and supported by the same man. 2 Cor. v. 1; Phil. i. 23.—Bp. Brownrig.

V. 22.-It is not to no purpose to speak things, that are not presently understood. Seed, though it lies in the ground awhile unseen, is not lost, or thrown away, but will bring forth fruit. If you confine your teacher, you hinder your learning. If you limit his discourses to your present apprehensions, how shall he raise your understanding? If he accommodate all things to your present weakness, you will never be wiser than you are; you will be always in swaddling-clothes. xiv. 26.-Dr. Whichcote.

V. 23. In this chapter we have commended to us the Sanctification of holy places (v. 16), and of holy times (v. 13, 23). The Temple was sanctified by His Holy Presence; the Passover Feast by His miraculous power. In the Church, and in her ordinances, He is present still,

and "mighty to save," when with S. Peter and S. John we go up together into the temple at the hour of prayer. Acts iii. 1.-J. Ford.

V. 25. He knew, &c. Man is a great deep, whose very hairs are numbered before Thee, O Lord; and yet his hairs are capable of being more easily counted than the motions and affections of his heart.-S. Augustine.

The close of the last chapter records His Omnipresence (v. 50), and here we trace His Omniscience, that penetration of the human heart, which belongs only to God, and is so claimed by Himself, as being His exclusive prerogative (Jer. xvii. 10). These things we may suppose to be recorded by S. John, in proof of his main design, the declaration of Christ's Divinity.-J. Ford.

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CHAPTER III

VERSE 1.—This Gospel (chosen for Trinity Sunday) expresseth all the Three Sacred Persons, as also their appropriate attributes. It showeth the Person of the Father (v. 2). We know that Thou art a Teacher come from God: the Person of the Son, speaking throughout the whole dialogue; the Person of the Holy Ghost (v. 5). Unto the Father, it ascribeth power, No Man can do, &c. Unto the Son, wisdom, We speak that we do know. To the Holy Ghost, goodness and love; The wind bloweth where it listeth. Rom. xi. 36.—Dean Boys.

V. 2. The poor Galilean, or vulgar Jew, had liberty to follow Christ every hour, not ashamed to be seen at mid-day in His company; but the conspicuous eminence of Nicodemus's place compels him to repair unto the Lord, like a thief, by night; an ill abodance that those Heavenly mysteries, wherewith he sought to enlighten his mind, should seem obscure. This man was grown so great in Israel, that he could hardly be taken down to the pitch of childhood, or infancy, into which mould he must of necessity be cast, ere he can be born anew, or receive the kingdom of God aright. Men in our times of far greater place, than Nicodemus, may safely profess themselves Christ's disciples; for not to be such in profession, or not to show themselves openly in the assembly of His Saints,

is their greatest shame and ignominy: but so to strip themselves of the flesh, of the world, of all the prerogatives of birth, or secular eminency, as they must, ere they can be regenerated by the Spirit, or become new men in Christ Jesus, would utterly spoil their goodly fashion in the world's eye. Confess Christ in speech they may; but how is it possible they should truly believe in Him, when they "love the praise of men," more than rebuke for His sake, and "receive honour one of another," not seeking that "honour, which cometh of God only?" Isa. xl. 5; S. Luke vi. 22, 23.-Dr. Jackson.

It is most reasonable we should own the God we serve, even in the face of the world, and not, like Nicodemus, carry our religion in a dark lanthorn. ix. 9; 1 Kings xviii. 21; 2 Kings v. 18; S. Matt. x. 32.-Gurnall.

V. 4. He does not seem to have questioned the truth of our Lord's solemn asseveration; but only the manner of its taking effect. (S. Luke i. 34.) His at once putting the case of an old man shows a readiness in applying the Word of God to himself, and bears witness to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Might he not even now, in hearing the Word, be qualifying for that very regeneration, the mysterious nature of which so staggered his weak and early faith? S. Matt. xxvi. 22; S. Luke i. 18; S. James i. 18.-J. Ford.

V. 5. Of all the ancients, there is not one to be named, that ever did otherwise either expound, or allege, this place (S. John iii. 5) than as implying external Baptism. Shall that, which hath always received this,