of the Spirit with his word and ordinances, is to be faithful in their work. They are to fill up the water-pots of purification with water; that is all that they can do. They can in the use of the ordinances of God's house, and the appointed means of grace and purification, be instant in season and out of season; they can fill the water-pots up to the brim; they can be abundant in preaching the word, which as it comes only from them is but water, a dead letter, a sapless, tasteless, spirit less thing, but this is what Christ will bless for the supplying of his church with wine.

[47] John ii. 21. "But he spake of the temple of his body." And it seems to me here that he should speak of his body in two senses: in one sense of the church which is called his body, and is also called the temple of God, of which the temple of Jerusalem was a type. The temple of Jerusalem may signify the Jewish church Christ put an end to by his coming, and in three ages after erected his spiritual temple, the Christian church.

grace,

[26] John v. 45. viii. 15. xii. 47. "I judge him not, for I am not come to judge the world, but to save the world." Men are not properly judged and condemned by the covenant of but by the law, a covenant of works, that is the eternal rule of judgment. The covenant of grace is a deliverance from this judgment: those who are Christ's are delivered from the law and escape the condemnation of it; the law has its force upon Christ, and can go no further; but the law has its full force upon unbelievers.

[263] John vii. 38, 39. "Out of his belly shall flow rivers. of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit." The Spirit of God in the saints is called living water upon three accounts. 1. And chiefly it is meant that the water had life in it, common water is mere passive dead matter. But this water is alive, it is a living divine person. So Christ is called a living stone, 1 Peter. ii. 4. This water is not only something living, but it is life itself; it is that spirit that is the very life of God, and so is divine and infinitely perfect life, and act, and energy; for which cause partly the Spirit of God is called water of life, Rev. xxii. at the beginning. Because divine life is the very matter of this water.

2. He is living water, as he is life-giving water, as Christ is called the living bread, John vi. and as the Spirit of God is called living bread there in that chap. ver. 63, vid. No. 262. He is living bread, as he is life-giving bread; for so Christ explains

himself in that chap. iii. It is living water in those in whom it is, as it is like a spring that never fails; as it gives life, so it will infallibly maintain life for ever. So it seems to be explained by Christ, John iv. 10, 11, 13, and especially the 14th. So Christ is called bread of life, because they that eat of him shall never die, but live for ever, John vi. So the hope of Christians to which they are begotten by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, is said to be, 1 Peter i. 3, a living hope, i. e. a neverdying, never-failing hope; vid. Notes in loc... But yet it is not probable that this water would on account of its perpetuity be called living water, if there was no life in the water, and life was not the thing that was perpetual; for it does not appear that springs of water that were never dry were, on that account, called living springs then, as now, but it seems to be a metaphor invented since.

[234] John x. 34, 35, 36. "Jesus answered them, It is written in your law, I said ye are gods. If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him," &c. The rulers of God's people were called gods, because unto them the word of God came, i. e. his law was come to them, was committed to them, and trusted with them for them to enforce and execute: they were herein instead of God to the people. Because they held forth the law, or word of God, the law of God was in a sense their law. They were judges or executors of the law for God, for the judgment was God's, Deut. i. 17, 2 Chron. xix. 6. Herein they were types of Christ, to whom the Father hath committed all judg ment. Thus it was a ceremony in Israel, in inaugurating a king, to bring the law and commit it to him; as 2 Kings xi. 12, "And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony, and they made him king, and anointed him, and they clapt their hands, and said, God save the king." Thus the word of God came to him. This interpretation of this exposition of Christ is confirmed by what God says to Moses, Exod. iv. 16, "And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be, even he shall be unto thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God;" i. e. by speaking the word of God to him, he was instead of God, because the word of God came to him, and was committed to him to speak in God's name, and so in the vii. chap. verse 1. "And the Lord said unto Moses, See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet:" he represented God before Pharaoh, by the word of God in his mouth, as he spake in his name, and by his word wrought miracles before him.

These earthly rulers were called gods, because the external word of God came thus to them; whereby they were rendered types and images of the Son of God, the internal word of God; hence they are not only called gods, but the sons of God. Ps. lxxxii. 6. "I have said ye are gods, and all of you children of the Most High;" and if they were called gods, only for thus resembling God's Son, how much is Christ to be justified, who was himself the Son of God, when he called himself God!

[482] John x. 34, 35, 36. "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I have said ye are gods," &c. In the lxxxii. Psalm, to which this refers, we see, ver. 6, those who are called sons of the Highest by the word of God that came to them, are by that same word called gods. So that in that passage, Son of the Highest, is the same with God. Jesus takes notice that they are called gods, and he says the scripture cannot be broken, i. e. it must be verified; but verified it could not be in them who died like men, and fell thereby like other princes," (who were not called gods,) "from that eminent station wherein they were called gods." It is not every prince or potentate among men that is called god in this psalm. Those called gods, are plainly the princes of Israel, that judges in God's land, who stood and judged among them in that Theocracy; and they are manifestly distinguished from other princes on the very same account on which they are called gods. For in their office as rulers and judges of Israel, they prefigured Him who was to rule the house of Jacob for ever, and they stood in that office as his types, even as the priests prefigured Him in his priesthood; therefore they are called gods; and the scripture calling them so is not broken, because what is said of these types holds fully true in their Antitype; who is plainly enough pointed at in that same psalm, verse 8, "Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations." They shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes: but He arises from the dead to judge and inherit the church of all nations. His resurrection manifests Him to be truly God; the same God that stood in the congregation of these mighty, and judged among them, to whom the word of God came, "Ye are gods, and sons of the Highest." Vid. Glass' Notes on Scripture Texts, No. 1, pp. 11, 12.

They are called gods, as the manna is called the bread from heaven, and angels' food, and as Cyrus is called God's Christ and his beloved, Isai. xlv. 1; xlviii. 14; and as Saul (whom the psalmist has a special respect to in Psalm lxxxii.) is called the Lord's Christ, (he fell like one of the other princes who were not called gods,) and as the rock in the wilderness is said to be Christ, and as many things are said of Solomon in the lxxii. Psalm, that are verified only in Christ. That passage, 1 Kings xviii. 31, may

serve to explain these words, To whom the word of God came ; "According to the number of the tribes of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel (i. e. the Prince of God) shall be thy name. The word of God came to Jacob in his prevailing with God, two ways.

1. God said to him, I have called you ISRAEL, Prince of God; as here, Ps. lxxxii. he says to the princes of Israel, "I have called you gods;" and that word of God came to them in Exod.

xxii. 28.

2. God, by a special designation, made Jacob in what he ordered concerning him, to be a Type. Now, types are a sort of words: they are a language, or signs of things which God would reveal, point forth, and teach, as well as vocal or written words, and they are called the word of the Lord, in Zech. iv. 6, and xi. 11. "And thus also the word of the Lord came to the princes of Israel," i. e. that state and those circumstances came to them, and were ordered to them that were typical of the Son of God, aud were as it were God's word, siguifying the dignity and office of the Messiah. Such divine significations, when persons were made the inherent subjects of thein, were generally of the Son of God, the Eternal Personal Word; and therefore when such a typification happened, or was ordered to a person, or any person became the inherent subject of such a divine signification, the word of God was said to come to him. It was the signification or typification (if I may so speak) of the word of God, both as it was God's signification, and also as the thing signified was the Personal Word of God.

[33] John xi. 51. "And this spake he not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation." By this it appears that things are ordered by God to be acted and spoken, after such a particular manner, with a design to indicate and represent heavenly things, without the least thought of the actors or speakers. See Note on Gen. xxii. 8.

[134] John xvi. 8, &c And when the Comforter is come he will convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judg ment He shall convince the world of sin as men must be convinced of their guilt, in order of their receiving of Christ. That is, the reason that sin and guilt lies upon them, is, because they believe not in Christ; and their rejecting Christ above all things enhances their guilt. Of his righteousness, that is, he will convince them of the sufficiency of Christ's righteousness, of the way of removing guilt by him. Christ finished his work as Priest, or what he did for the removal of guilt, by his ascending into hea ven, his entering into the holiest of all with his own blood to make

intercession for us, and thereby gave evidence to the world, that what he had done was enough. Verse 10. Of righteousness, because "I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;" that is, he shall convince the world of Christ's sufficiency and excellency as a king and head of influence and government, as the sanctifier and deliverer of his people from their enemies, and he that brings them to eternal life. He delivers from the influence and power of the devil, redeems his captives, and in spite of him sanctifies and glorifies. In thus redeeming men by power, Satan is judged. John xii. 31, 32. Verse 11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. The conviction here spoken of righteousness and judgment is to the same purpose with that, Isai. xlv. 24. "In the Lord Jehovah have I righteousness and strength," and in the next verse, "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory."

[498] John xvi. 8, 9, 10, 11. "And when he is come he will convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." In these words of our Saviour is a great manifestation of his divine knowledge and wis

dom.

The greatest SIN that is in the world, is sin against the gospel, contempt of, and opposition to, Jesus Christ; and the greatest evidence of the sin and wickedness of man, is the world's ill treatment of Christ, and the gospel, and the followers of Christ. In this does most clearly appear the malignant nature of sin, and the true nature of it is fully manifest; and particularly that violent opposition that appears on occasion of the pouring out of the Spirit of God. As the coming of the Spirit is the occasion of this; so his coming eventually holds forth matter of conviction to the world of its wickedness. And those that are savingly taught by the Spirit, are in the first place convinced of sin, especially as appearing in their sinning against Christ, or against God, as revealing himself in the gospel. Thus we find that immediately after the pouring out of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, the Jews that were awakened, were reproved for this sin, of rejecting and crucifying Christ, and for this they were pricked in their hearts, and said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do," Acts ii.; see also chap. iii. 13, 14, &c.; iv. 11, &c.; v. 30, &c.; vii. 51, &c.; And when Saul was converted, this especially was the sin which he was reproved for, and convinced of. Acts ix. 4, 5. In most places where the apostles preached, there first arose great opposition, and the gospel finally prevailed against their opposition, and opposers were converted, and in