John 10:1. Verily, verily, I say unto you,— Our Lord, having reproved the Pharisees in the foregoing chapter, for shutting their eyes against the evidence of his divine mission, continued the reproof by describing the characters of a true and false teacher; leaving them, who had so unjustly excommunicated the beggar, to judge to which of the classes they belonged. Jesus being now in the outer court of the temple, near the sheep which were there exposed to sale for sacrifice, he uses the language of the ancient prophets, who often compared the teachers of their own times to shepherds, and the people to sheep: accordingly, in describing the characters of the scribes and Pharisees, he made use of the same metaphor; shewing that there are two kinds of evil shepherds or teachers—One, who instead of entering in by the door, to lead the flock out and feed it, enter in some other way, with an intention to steal, kill, and destroy; another, who, though they may have entered in by the door, feed their flocks with the dispositions of hirelings. For when they see the wolf coming, or any danger approaching, they desert their flocks, because they love themselves only. The Pharisees plainly shewed themselves to be of the former character, by excommunicating the man that had been born blind, because he would not act contraryto the dictates of his reason and conscience to please them. But though they cast him out of their church, Christ received him into his; which is the true church, the spiritual inclosure, where the sheep go in and out, and find pasture. Some eminent commentators are of opinion, that the whole of this parabolical discourse was taken from the sheep which were inclosed in little folds within the outward court of the temple, whither they were brought by their shepherds to be sold; because our Lord speaks of such folds as the shepherd himself could not enter, till the porter opened to him the door, namely, of the temple. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door, &c. that is, "I assure you, whosoever in any age of the church assumed the office of a teacher without commission from me, and without a sincere regard to the edification and salvation of souls, was a thief and a robber; and in the present age he is no better, who assumes that office without my commission; particularly without believing onme, and without intending my honour, and the good of my church:" for, as our Lord calls himself the door, Joh 10:9 entering by the door must signify acting byhis commission; which could not be done without believing on him and regarding his interest. Others, however, object to this interpretation. "I cannot think," says one of them, "whatever occasion Christ might take from the sight of the sheep in the temple, to represent his people under that image, and himself as a shepherd, that he would describe them like sheep shut up in little folds to be sold, for sacrifice; nor does the shepherd's leading them out, &c. seem to agree with this circumstance. In countries where there were so many wild beasts, it might be necessary to have the folds better secured than among us; and the chief shepherd might often leave a servant to watch them while thus shut up, and come himself to lead them out to pasture in the morning." The reader must judge what force there is in this objection: it seems to me most reasonable to suppose, that our Lord, according to his usual manner, took his general idea from the sheep which were present in the temple; but by no means confined himself to the particular circumstances of those sheep; carrying on his discourse in a metaphorical manner, relative to the general and well known customs of shepherds in that country.

John 10:7. I am the door of the sheep.— As our Lord's parable was not understood, he graciously proceeds to explain it to his audience; and in the first place he informs them, that by the door he meant himself. I am the door of the sheep. Perhaps this is a metonymy for I am the door of the sheep-fold; or our Lord's meaning may have been, "I am not only the door, by which the shepherds must enter,—he whose right alone it is to admit men to the office and dignity of shepherds; but I am also the door of the sheep. It is by me that men enter into the spiritual inclosure of the church." It would be very impertinent to run a longparallel here between Christ and a door: the resemblance plainly centres in this one circumstance, that as a man must observe and pass through the door, in order to his making an unsuspected entrance into a sheep-fold: so he must maintain a proper regard to Christ, in order to his being a true teacher in the church; and must pass as it were through him, or by his authority, into that office. It is by a simile very nearly resembling this, that Christ elsewhere calls himself the way, Ch. John 14:6.

John 10:8. All that ever came before me— "All those who in former times assumed the characters of teachers of religion, without commission from me, are thieves and robbers." Here, as in many other instances, our Lord's words are very elliptical, and must be filled up from what goes before. The gloss that we have ventured to give, is taken from Joh 10:1 and seems altogether necessary, because it does not clearly appear from history, that any one among the Jews assumed the title of Messiah before our Lord came. It is true that Theudas and Judas of Galilee are mentioned by Gamaliel as having given themselves out for persons of note; Acts 5:37. But with respect to Judas, it is evident from Josephus that he did not assume the title of Messiah: he only gave rise to a political faction, whose distinction was, that they would pay no taxes to the Romans, or any foreign power. And from the character which the Jewish doctors give of Theudas, it does not appear that he called himself the Messiah. Like Judas of Galilee, he only pretended to be some extraordinary person, who had eminent skill in the law, and taught opinions contrary to those which were commonly received. Perhaps he called himself a prophet, to give his doctrines the greater weight.

John 10:9. By me if any man enter in,— "If any man believeth on me, he shall become a true member of God's church on earth, and, if faithful, shall from time to time receive such instructions as shall nourish his soul unto eternal life." Our Lord here seems to allude to the common pastures, and to the method of grazing sheep in the East. They were confined in the folds by night, to secure them from wolves and other wild beasts; but were let out to graze in the day time, when the danger from those animals was not so great. See 1 Samuel 18:16.

John 10:10. The thief cometh not but for to steal, &c.— "I am no thief or robber, as you may easily know, by considering that the intention of such is only to steal, and kill, and destroy the flock. They assumed the character of teachers divinely commissioned, for no other reason but to promote their own interest, at the expence of their souls: whereas I am not come merely to give you life, but to give it more abundantly than it is given by Mosesin the dispensation of the law." The phrase more abundantly may at the same time refer ultimately, to the provision which Christ has made for the future and eternal happiness of his faithful people. "I am come that they might have life now by their entrance into my church and fold, through me, the door of the sheep; and that, persevering unto death, they might have a more abundant life of glory, when they go out and depart from the present life of grace: and for this life of grace they shall find sufficient pasture and support in the appointed means; but for the life of glory, the Lamb himself in the midst of the throne, shall feed them." See Psalms 23.

John 10:13. The hireling— It is not barely receiving of hire which denominates a man a hireling,—(for the labourer is worthy of his hire, Jesus Christ himself being the judge; yea, and the Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the gospel, should live of the gospel;) but it is the loving of hire; the loving of hire more than the work;—working for the sake of hire. He is a hireling, who would not work were it not for the hire; to whom this is the great, if not the only motive of working. O merciful God! if a man who works only for hire be such a wretch, a mere thief and robber—what is he who continually takes the hire, and yet does not work at al

John 10:16. And other sheep I have,— "To convince you that I know my sheep, and am known of them, I tell you that I have other sheep besides the Jews; I have sheep among the Gentiles: for I know those in every country, whose honesty of disposition will induce them, through my grace, to accept of the gospel in the love of it. (See John 6:37; John 6:39.) These I will bring into my church, and they shall know me, and shall distinguish my voice from that of a stranger; they will cheerfully submit to my laws, and there shall be one flock, (ποιμνη, ) and one Shepherd; there shall be but one visible church, when the Gentiles are converted, consisting of them and the Jews: as there is but one Shepherd to feed and govern them, there shall be no more any middle wall of partition."

John 10:24. Then came the Jews round about him, &c.— As our Lord was walking in Solomon's porch, the Jews came and required him to put them out of doubt, whether or no he was the Messiah. He well knew that they came not for real information: as it was not lawful for them to put any man to death, all they wanted was sufficient matter to accuse him before the ruling power: for this they watched, of this they were so anxiously desirous, and this made them so earnest for a declaration in express words from his own mouth, that he was the Messiah. It was not that they would have believed in him any more for such a declaration of himself, than they did for his miracles, or other ways of making himself known, which it appears they understood very sufficiently. But they wanted plain direct words, such as might support an accusation, and be of weight before a heathen judge. If thou be the Messiah, tell us plainly; that is, in direct words, such as express the thing without a figure, and without any reserve; for, that St. John used the word rendered plainly in that sense, we learn from chap. John 11:11-14.

John 10:25. Jesus answered them, I told you, &c.— "I have in effect told you over and over;"—for what our Lord had just been saying of himself in the preceding verses, as the good Shepherd, was in sense equivalent to a declaration of his being the Messiah: further, he had already performed those miracles which were to characterize and distinguish the Messiah, such as cleansing the lepers, curing the blind, &c. and if they had but judged by the characteristics of the Messiah given by many of their own rabbies, or by the dictates of unprejudiced reason, they must have acknowledged that he had sufficiently established his claim to the title of the Messiah.

John 10:30. I and my Father are one.— The Arians affirm that the sense of this passage is, "My Father and I are the same, in power and in will; so that if you oppose my will, you oppose his; and if you take my sheep out of my hand, you must at the same time overcome him, and take them out of his hand likewise." But if we attend, not only to the obvious meaning of these plain and strong words compared with other passages of scripture, but to their connection also, and the sense in which the Jews evidently took them, they utterly subvert the whole Arian scheme, and so fully demonstrate the Divinityof our blessed Redeemer, that they may be fairly left to speak for themselves, without any laboured comment. How widely different that sense is in which Christians are said to be one with God, Ch. Joh 17:21 will sufficiently appear by considering how flagrantlyabsurd and blasphemous it would be to draw that inference from their union with God, which Christ does from his. St. Augustin has well observed, that this is a very strong text to prove the divinity of Christ. "Mark in it, says he, both are, and one;—and you will be safe as well from Scylla as Charybdis. 'One' delivers you from Arius, who denies the eternal divinity of Christ: 'Are' delivers you from Sabellius, who denies a distinction of persons in the godhead." See for a proof of this same point, Isaiah 9:6. Jeremiah 23:6. Micah 5:2.

John 10:34. Is it not written, &c.— The Jews divided the Old Testament in various manners; sometimes, as we have before observed, into the writings of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets; and at other times only into the law and the prophets; comprehending by the prophets, only the writings of those who were properly so called; but under the law, not only the five books of Moses, but likewise the Psalms, Proverbs, and historical books. Our Lord alludes to this latter division; for the words are found in Psalms 82:6. I have said, Ye are gods. The Jewish magistrates were God's deputies in an especial manner, because the people whom they governed were his peculiar people, and because in many instances they were expressly called by him to undertake the fatigues of government, and had an afflatus, or inspiration of the Spirit, for that end. Thus the high-priests derived their dignity from God, and were possessed of the Urim and Thummim, by which they inquired of the Lord; and for any of the people to rebel against the sentence of the high-priest or judge, pronounced by Urim, was justlyreckoned rebellion against God, and punished with death, Deuteronomy 17:8-13. When Moses chose the seventy elders to assisthim in the distribution of justice, God put his Spirit upon them, and they prophesied, Numbers 17:13. Joshua, who succeeded Moses by divine appointment, is said to have been a man in whom the Spirit was, Numbers 27:18. Many of the judges were raised up by God, and had his Spirit; and when Saul was anointed king, the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied, 1 Samuel 6:10. See on Psalms 82:6.

John 10:38. That ye may know, and believe— "That ye may know that I neither do, nor say any thing, but by my Father's authority; for the Father and I are so intimately and entirely united, that every thing I say and do, is in reality said and done by him, and he approves of it accordingly." See John 10:30.

John 10:40. And went—into the place where John, &c.— To Beth-arbara, Ch. John 1:28. See also the latter part of the note on Luke 3:3. Our Lord seems to have remained in the country of Peroea till he came into Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead; that being the next particular mentioned by our evangelist; and if so, the time of Christ's abode in the country beyond Jordan must have been considerable. There is a peculiar beautyin this supposition; for allowing it to be just, the people dwelling on the other side of Jordan, enjoyed the doctrine and miracles of our blessed Saviour, as well as the inhabitants of Judea, Samaria, the Galilees, the countries on the east side of the lake, and those lying far north, about Tyre and Sidon, and Caesarea Philippi; whereas, according to the common opinion, Jesus did not exercise his ministry in Peroea for any length of time at all.