life by communication. John. v. 26. "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." In God the supreme Father, life exists essentially, and he imparts life to every other being, however exalted. From Him, as the fountain of life, we have derived our existence; to Him we are indebted for our rational nature, and moral constitution, and our capacity for being subject to the pure, holy and spiritual influences of our religious faith; and these high prerogatives of our nature will endure for ever, and will be for ever progressive in the developement of their tendencies, according to "the dispensation of the grace of God," in the gospel of Jesus Christ. James i. 17, 18. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth."

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"And the life was the light of men."-According to the Hebrew idiom, one thing is frequently said to be another, of which innumerable instances might be given.* There is no uniform mode of interpreting this phraseology; but in every particular instance, the meaning is discovered without much difficulty from the nature of the subject treated, and from the manifest scope of the writer: and it may often be elucidated by a comparison with similar phraseology.† The expression here used, imports that the additional know

* This mode of speaking is not wholly peculiar to the Hebrew. For instance: the phraseology in the foregoing verse, di' aurou Tavra eyevero, all things were through him, may be elucidated by comparing it with 1 Cor. i. 30. 'Ος εγενήθη ήμιν σοφια απο θεου, who [i. e. Christ] was wisdom to us from God.”

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ledge communicated to men in the gospel, is the circumstance which mainly contributes to the attainment of everlasting life. Through the great Mediator of the new covenant was communicated "the light of life,” (John viii. 12,) which is the same thing as "the word of life," (1 John i. 1.) Light is the emblematical expression for knowledge, and darkness for ignorance and error. John xvii. 3. "This is light eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Colos. i. 13. "Who delivered us from the power [or, influence] of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love." See also 2 Pet. i. 2. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." Acts xxvi. 17, 18. "Unto whom I now send thee, [Paul] to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, &c." Ephes. v. 8. "For ye [heathen] were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." See also John iii. 19. The same salutary effects are ascribed to the knowledge of the truths of the gospel. John xv. 15. "I have made known to you all the things which I heard from my Father," compared with xvii. 6, 8, "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world..................For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, &c." 2 Tim. iii. 15. "And that thou from a child hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." It is, however, of practical importance to remark, that the knowledge, which makes men wise unto salvation, is not merely speculative; but it must be so deeply rooted in the mind, as effectually

to influence the conduct. 1 John ii. 4. "He that saith, I have known him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

VERSE THE FIFTH.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.k

The truths of the gospel lately proclaimed are offered to the ignorant world.

The unenlightened world was always slow in receiving the supernatural revelation of divine truth.

COMMENTARY.

"And the light is shining in darkness."-It is observable that there is a change of the tense in the two clauses of this verse. This is probably not accidental; and I have endeavoured to mark in the explication the difference intended. In the first, I think, by the present tense, the evangelist referred to the gospel, whose light was then actually extending itself over the benighted world. In the second, he intended to signify, by the use of a past tense, the indisposition of men from the first, and in all periods, to receive and to be guided by the divine communications. If the use of different terses was made without any particular design, we must confine the application of the language to the promulgation of Christianity. The peculiar and distinguishing truths of Christianity, the doctrine of one supreme and essential God, the sacred obligation of truth and righteousness, a future life of retribution, and the spiritual nature of the worship and service of God, burst forth, in the promulgation of Christianity, upon the na

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tions of the world, which were then, and had long been, involved in almost entire ignorance of them. "The world by its wisdom knew not God";-this is a wellascertained historical fact-but Jesus Christ, unaided by human learning and philosophy, "was made to us," (who believe in him) "wisdom from God, and righteousness and holiness and redemption." 1 Cor. i. 30.* "And the darkness comprehended it not."-The meaning of the English word comprehended, as here used, is not very clear; but by comparing it with subsequent expressions-(e. g. v. 8, "that all men through him might believe": v. 10, "and the world knew him not": v. 11, "and his own received him not")—we infer that it was evidently the evangelist's intention to state, that the light was generally rejected, and but very partially received in any country of the world. The import of the original word xaraλaulava is thus given by Schleusner: "Sed homines in tenebris versantes non admiserunt, potius respuerunt illum doctorem"; that is, "But men, involved in darkness, did not acknowledge, or more properly rejected, that teacher." So far as this applies to the word zaraλaulava, it appears to explain the meaning correctly; but it is difficult to perceive how the word it [auro,] the substitute for light [ows] can be expounded by doctor, teacher. The probability is, that the writer, who held the Arian notion of the real personality of the λoyos, unconsciously referred auro to hoyos instead of pws, the former of which he has elsewhere (see in voc. λoyos) incorrectly explained by doctor.

* The exact translation of the original has been here given.

In the age of the apostles, and for a considerable period after, both the Jewish and the Gentile nations, speaking of them as communities, did not receive the Christian faith. In one sense, believers might be said to be numerous; but the number of them was very small in comparison with the mass of unbelievers. The depraved moral habits, the inveterate prejudices, the interest of many powerful bodies in the state, and the selfish worldly policy generally prevalent, had raised an almost impassable barrier against the progress of the spiritual system of truth and righteousness. Causes, which it would be difficult to investigate comprehensively, had so perverted the understandings of men, and so corrupted and deadened their moral principles, that they resisted the clearest evidences of truth, and violated the most obvious dictates of conscience and moral obligation. The operation of these causes is assigned by our Saviour himself as the great obstacle to the progress of the illumination of divine truth. John iii. 19. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world; and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” John xvii. 25. "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee." The Jews of our Saviour's time were in almost as great a degree of moral degradation as the Pagans themselves; and they were proportionably incapacitated for embracing a rational and pure system of faith and morality. Consequently the gospel of Jesus Christ proved "to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness."