63 lines
3.9 KiB
XML
63 lines
3.9 KiB
XML
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<div2 id="John.i" n="i" next="John.ii" prev="John" progress="68.41%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="John.i-p0.1">John</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="John.i-Page_847" n="847"/>
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<div class="Center" id="John.i-p0.3">
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<p id="John.i-p1"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="John.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="John.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="John.i-p1.3">OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO</h5>
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<h2 id="John.i-p1.4">S T. J O H N.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="John.i-p2">It is not material to enquire when and
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where this gospel was written; we are sure that it was given by
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inspiration of God to John, the brother of James, one of the twelve
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apostles, distinguished by the honourable character of <i>that
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disciple whom Jesus loved,</i> one of the first three of the
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worthies of the Son of David, whom he took to be the witnesses of
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his retirements, particularly of his transfiguration and his agony.
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The ancients tell us that John lived longest of all the twelve
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apostles, and was the only one of them that died a natural death,
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all the rest suffering martyrdom; and some of them say that he
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wrote this gospel at Ephesus, at the request of the ministers of
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the several churches of Asia, in opposition to the heresy of
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Corinthus and the Ebionites, who held that our Lord was a <i>mere
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man.</i> It seems most probable that he wrote it before his
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banishment into the isle of Patmos, for there he wrote his
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<i>Apocalypse,</i> the close of which seems designed for the
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closing up of the canon of scripture; and, if so, this gospel was
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not written after. I cannot therefore give credit to those later
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fathers, who say that he wrote it in his banishment, or after his
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return from it, many years after the destruction of Jerusalem; when
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he was ninety years old, saith one of them; when he was a hundred,
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saith another of them. However, it is clear that he wrote last of
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the four evangelists, and, comparing his gospel with theirs, we may
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observe, 1. That he <i>relates</i> what they had <i>omitted;</i> he
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<i>brings up the rear,</i> and his gospel is as the <i>rearward</i>
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or <i>gathering host;</i> it gleans up what they has passed by.
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Thus there was a <i>later</i> collection of Solomon's wise sayings
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(<scripRef id="John.i-p2.1" osisRef="Bible:Prov.25.1" parsed="|Prov|25|1|0|0" passage="Pr 25:1">Prov. xxv. 1</scripRef>), and yet far
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short of what he delivered, <scripRef id="John.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:1Kgs.4.32" parsed="|1Kgs|4|32|0|0" passage="1Ki 4:32">1 Kings
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iv. 32</scripRef>. 2. That he gives us more of the <i>mystery</i>
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of that of which the other evangelists gave us only the
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<i>history.</i> It was necessary that the matters of fact should be
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first settled, which was done in their <i>declarations of those
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things which Jesus began both to do and teach,</i> <scripRef id="John.i-p2.3" osisRef="Bible:Luke.1.1 Bible:Acts.1.1" parsed="|Luke|1|1|0|0;|Acts|1|1|0|0" passage="Lu 1:1,Ac 1:1">Luke i. 1; Acts i. 1</scripRef>. But, this
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being done out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, <i>John goes
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on to perfection</i> (<scripRef id="John.i-p2.4" osisRef="Bible:Heb.6.1" parsed="|Heb|6|1|0|0" passage="Heb 6:1">Heb. vi.
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1</scripRef>), <i>not laying again the foundation,</i> but building
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upon it, leading us more within the veil. Some of the ancients
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observe that the other evangelists wrote more of the <b><i>ta
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somatika</i></b>—the <i>bodily</i> things of Christ; but John
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writes of the <b><i>ta pneumatika</i></b>—the <i>spiritual</i>
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things of the gospel, the life and soul of it; therefore some have
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called this gospel the <i>key of the evangelists.</i> Here is it
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that a <i>door</i> is <i>opened in heaven,</i> and the first voice
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we hear is, <i>Come up hither,</i> come up higher. Some of the
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ancients, that supposed the four living creatures in John's vision
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to represent the four evangelists, make John himself to be the
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<i>flying eagle,</i> so <i>high</i> does he <i>soar,</i> and <i>so
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clearly</i> does he <i>see</i> into divine and heavenly things.</p>
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</div2>
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