IX.

Our Saviour washing his disciples' feet.

JOHN xiii. 4, 5, &c.

Jesus riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

AFTER our Lord had made a convert of Zacchæus, as we have heard, and by a parable of a nobleman that went to take possession of a kingdom, and committing money to his servants to improve for his use in his absence a, shewing that he expects our growing in grace under the means of it that we enjoy, and making the best use we can of the gifts or talents that in any kind we receive from him; and by his severity at his return to those that would not submit to his government, declaring the sad state of such as should obstinately reject the gracious offers of the gospel; we find him in a kind of royal pomp ascending to Jerusalem, riding upon an ass, which he had ordered his disciples to fetch him upon that occasion, thereby to signify his high office, judges and magistrates of the highest rank using in those countries so to ride in ancient times, before Solomon fetched so many horses out of Egypt, and likewise to fulfil the prophecy of Zechariah, ch.ix. 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O c Judges v. 10. x. 4.

a Luke xix. 12. xii. 14. 1 Kings x. 28.

b Ver. 27.

daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass; that is, with a mixture both of majesty and meekness.

And accordingly the people, as was usual when kings were proclaimed and appeared publicly, spread their garments in the way, and branches of palmtrees, in token of extraordinary rejoicing, crying aloud, as he went, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is the king that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest: much like the hymn the angels sung when they gave notice to the shepherds of the wondrous birthf.

But as soon as he came near, and beheld that obstinate, ungrateful city, and which would soon be as miserable as it was wicked, his triumph was overcast with a melancholy cloud; and in the midst of the acclamations of the people, his heart was full of trouble for the sad, forlorn condition of that wretched place, and it soon broke out in a shower of tears and kind bemoanings of their then hopeless state: he wept over it, with great tenderness and pity, and said, If thou hadst known, even thou, which once wert God's favourite city, and blessed above all others, at least in this thy day, when thy long lookedfor Messias is come to thee, to make thee truly glorious and happy; O that thou hadst known the things that belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

The barbarous murder of him their Saviour, which then they were resolved on, and in a few days after he foresaw they would commit, he knew would fill d Matt. xxi. 8, 9. e Luke xix. 38. f Luke ii. 14.

up the measure of their iniquities, and seal them up to destruction: and this touched his compassionate soul to the quick. And from that time to his apprehension in the garden, (so short was his triumph, and so soon did his sorrows return with double force upon him,) most of his discourse was upon the melancholy theme of his own approaching sufferings and death, and the dreadful judgments that would soon overtake that city and nation for their inhuman treatment of him and hardened infidelity, and bring them to utter ruin.

Now about two days before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And as he all along shewed the tenderest regard for the happiness, not of his apostles only, and chosen disciples, but of every sinner that would believe in him, and observe his doctrine, and submit to his discipline, and imitate the example of his holy life; so, when the time of his death drew nigh, he gave still greater demonstrations of his affection to them by acts of extraordinary charity and condescension, and expressions of the most winning endearment. The latter we may read with great satisfaction in the 15th and 16th chapters of this Gospel; and the former is evident from the passage we are now to consider.

For being, as we are told Matt. xxvi. 6, at this time at supper in the house of Simon the leper at Bethany, whom our Lord probably had cured of that loathsome disease, and thereby made a convert of him, and a fast friend, supper being ended, the Devil having put it into the heart of Judas to be

tray him; that is, he having now taken up that wicked resolution, through some personal pique perhaps, but certainly through covetousness, improved by the instigation of Satan, (who little thought he was by that means bringing entire conquest upon himself, and ruin upon his kingdom, so perfectly out was that old serpent in his politics, and taken in his own craftiness, as many others of his progeny have been since, in their designs upon religion and the church, and may they still be so!) Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; that is, though conscious to himself of his high authority and the vast extent of his power, the divinity of his original, and his dearness to God, from whom as he at first came to perform the greatest and most glorious blessed work that ever the power and wisdom and goodness of God was engaged in, so to him he was ready to return, and be reinstated in that exceeding glory which he had at his right hand from all eternity: though conscious of all this, yet with wondrous humility and condescension and charity, exemplary to all succeeding ages of the church, and every member of it, from the highest to the lowest, he rose from supper towards the close of it, before the table was removed, and laid aside his loose upper garments, as waiters used to do, that they might be more ready for their service; and took a towel, and girded himself: and then poured water into a bason out of some larger vessel that was filled with it, and always ready at their meals for divers uses, and began to wash his disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

Now this action of Jesus must needs upon all ac

counts be very surprising to them. For though water was always called for as a mark of respect to every honoured guest, and to cleanse and refresh their feet after the dust and heat of travelling in those hot countries, where they did not wear close shoes, as we do, but sandals, which left the upper part of the foot naked and uncovered; yet this was done before eating, soon after the person came in, and some servant employed to wash and dry the feet with limen provided for that purpose: but supper was almost ended when Jesus took that mean, servile office upon him, and that in a place where himself was a stranger, which made them wonder the more at it, and to his inferiors, his own disciples, whom he chose to minister to him and attend upon him, which made it seem most strange of all; insomuch that when he came to Simon Peter, and offered to wash his feet, stooping down in a posture fit for a work of that nature, Peter, being filled with great amazement, and in an awful sense of the vast distance between him and Jesus, between the eternal Son of God, as he had before confessed him to be, and a wretched sinful creature, the great Messias and a poor fisherman, his unworthy servant, cried out with admiration, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? To which the humble Jesus mildly answered, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

"Thou mayest well be at a loss for the reason of "this behaviour of mine at present, so seemingly "unsuitable to the character I bear; but believe "there is good reason for it, or else I should not do "it; only first let the thing be done, and then thou "shalt know the reason." And it would be our