There is a marriage whereunto we are invited; yea, wherein we are already interested, not as the guests only, but as the bride, in which there shall be no want of the wine of gladness. It is marvel if in these earthly banquets there be not some lack. "In thy presence, O Saviour, there is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

How liberal are the provisions of Christ! if he had turned but one of these vessels, it had been a just proof of his power, and perhaps that quantity had served the present necessity now he furnisheth them with so much wine as would have served a hundred and fifty guests for an entire feast. Even the measure magnifies at once both his power and mercy. The munificent hand of God regards not our need only, but our honest affluence. It is our sin and our shame if we turn his favour into wantonness. There must be first a filling, ere there be a drawing out. Thus, in our vessels, the first care must be of our receipt; the next of our expense. God would have us cisterns, not channels. Our Saviour would not be his own taster, but he sends the first draught to the governor of the feast. He knew his own power, they did not: neither would he bear witness of himself, but fetch it out of others mouths. They that knew not the original of that wine yet praised the taste, "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men

have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now." The same bounty that expressed itself in the quantity of the wine, shows itself no less in the excellence. Nothing can fall from that Divine hand not exquisite: that liberality hated to provide crab-wine for his guests. It was fit that the miraculous effects of Christ, which came from his immediate hand, should be more perfect than the natural. O blessed Saviour, how delicate is that new wine which we shall one day drink with thee in thy Father's kingdom! Thou shalt turn this water of our earthly affliction into that wine of gladness, wherewith our souls shall be satiated for ever. "Make haste, O my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young bart upon the mountains of spices."-Br. Hall.

HYMN.

Where two or three together meet,

To seek the Lord by pray'r, The Lord is in the midst of these, And he will surely hear.

Shine, Lord, on every soul that comes
By pray'r to seek thy face;
Thou know'st our hope, our only hope,
Is grounded on thy grace.

Help us, O Lord! to ask in faith;
Take unbelief away,
And for the blessings that we need
Give us a heart to pray.

§ CCXXXVII.

CHAP. II. 13-25.

Christ departeth into Capernaum, and to Jerusalem, where he purgeth the temple of buyers and sellers. He foretelleth his

death and resurrection. Many believed

because of his miracles, but he would not trust himself with them.

13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

14 * And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:

15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;

16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not 'my Father's house an house of merchandise.

17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, " The zeal of thine house hath eaten

me up.

18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, "What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

19 Jesus answered and said unto them, 'Destroy this temple,

and in three days I will raise it up.

20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

P

21 But he spake o of the temple of his body.

22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,

25 And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

i Ex. xii. 14. Deut. xvi. 1, 16. ver. 23. ch. v. 1; & vi. 4: & xi. 55.- Mat. xxi. 12. Mark xi. 15 Lake

xix. 45.- Luke ii. 49.-m Ps. Ixix. 9.-n Mat. xii. 38.

ch. vi. 30.-o Mat. xxvi. 61 ; & xxvii. 40. Mark xiv. 58; & xv. 29.-p Col. ii. 9. Heb viii. 2. So 1 Cor. iii, 16;

vi. 19. 2 Cor. vi. 16.-9 Luke xxiv. 8.- 1 Sam. xvi.

7. 1 Chr. xxviii. 9. Mat. ix. 4. Mark ii. 8. ch. vi, 64 ; & xvi. 20. Acts i. 24. Rev. ii. 23.

READER.-Jesus found in the temple those that sold oxen, &c. See Commentary on Matthew XXI. 12, 13, in § LXVII.

days I will raise it up.-Christ conDestroy this temple, and in three quered all his sufferings by his own power. As in his passion, when he suffered, he bowed down his head, and gave up the ghost with a loud

voice, to note that his sufferings were voluntary, John xix. 30; so in his resurrection, he is said to lift up his head himself, to note that he had life in himself, that he was the Prince of life, and that it was impossible for him to be held under by death, as we were by the law, Rom. vii. 6. And that his exaltation was voluntary likewise, and from his own power, for he was not to have any assistance in the work of our redemption, but do all alone, John ii. 19; v. 26; x. 17. If it be objected, that Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of his Father, and that he raised him up, Rom. vi. 4; to this I answer, that this was not by way of supplement and succour, to make up any defect of power in Christ; but only by way of consent to Christ's own power and action, that so men might jointly honour the Son and the Father, John v. 19, 23. Or, by the glory of the Father we may understand that glorious power which the Father gave unto his Son in the flesh, to have life in himself, John v. 26; annexing thereunto a command to exercise the same power, John x. 18. Or, he is said to be raised by himself and his Father both, because the Holy Spirit which immediately quickened him, was both his and his Father's; Rom. i. 4; 1 Tim. iii. 16. It was not any personal thing wherein the Son differed from the Father, which raised Jesus from the dead, but that Spirit which was common to them both.-BP. REYNOLDS.

Many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

-And these certainly are, in all reason, sufficient to convince any man; for none could do so many and such miracles as these, but the eternal Son of God himself, of the same essence and power with the Father, the Creator and governor of all things. As for the number, they were more than any one, or all the prophets had done before. Moses, Elijah, and Elisha, are recorded to have done most, but all theirs put together were not so many as he did in three years and a little more; much less were they like to his, or any way comparable to them. Many of theirs were works of judgment, his were all works of mercy and goodness all for the good and benefit of mankind, not so much as one to the prejudice of any. We do not read of any distemper, except Naaman's leprosy, cured by the prophets; but there was no sort of distemper but what he cured. None of the prophets ever cast out devils, but no devil could stand before Christ; not a whole legion of them together, Mark v. 9; whereby he showed his power over hell itself, which none ever had but God. The like power he showed also over the water, by turning it into wine, by walking upon it, and disposing of the fishes in it, as he pleased: over the air, by laying the winds and storms : over the fruit of the earth, by making five barley loaves satisfy above five thousand people over the plants and trees, by causing the fig tree to wither: over men's bodies, by healing all diseases they were subject to: over men's wills by in

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clining the apostles to come at his call, and the owner of the ass to send her to him, upon his sending for her to which we may also add, the people's going out of the temple, upon his driving, without any civil authority, Matt. xxi. 12. And he showed his power over death itself, by raising the dead to life. Indeed, he plainly showed, that he had both perfect knowledge of, and absolute power over, all things that are: nothing came amiss to him, nothing was too hard for him; nor one thing harder than another; all things were alike easy to him; he cured the man that was born blind, as easily as if he had been but newly made so. But as the man himself said, "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind;" John ix, 32. No mere man ever did, or could do it; none but Almighty God himself: but Christ did it, and by that and all his other works demonstrated himself to be Almighty; that he could do whatsoever he would; which is the great prerogative of God, incommunicable to any creature. Wherefore, as the Samaritans believed in him, because he had told the woman all that she ever did, John iv. 39; and the disciples, because he knew all things, John xvi. 30; how much more cause have we to believe him to be the Almighty God, the great Creator and governor of the world, seeing he did not only know all things, but could do all things, and alter the course of nature whensoever he pleased!-BP. BEVERIDGE.