knocks, but He cannot enter in, unless man hears His voice, and opens the door. Verse 18. I will not leave you orphans; I come to you. lu the common version of the New Testament these words are rendered, I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you; but the original Greek term here rendered comfortless, is oppavés, which properly signifies those who are orphans, or deprived of parents; and the original term here rendered in the future tense, I will come, is pxopa, in the present tense. To the superficial reader it may possibly appear of little importance whether the term comfortless be adopted, or the term orphans, since each term implies want and distress; nor will it be thought of more ⚫importance whether Epxopas be rendered in the future, or in the present tense: But the attentive and intelligent reader will form a different judgment, because he will perceive clearly, that the BLESSED JESUS, when He says, I will not leave you orphans, meant to teach His disciples this most weighty and interesting lesson of wisdom, that He was their spiritual FATHER, OF REGENERATOR, thus that He was the GREAT and ONLY GOD, since none but God can impart to man the new birth of spiritual and eternal life. He will perceive yet further, that when this DIVINE REGENERATOR adds, I come to you, He meant to give His disciples this additional instruction, that He is ever present with them, to restore in them His own divine image and likeness, and consequently that His divine presence is not only future, but present; in other words, He not. only will be their FATHER and SAVIOUR, but He is their Father and Saviour, by the continual present influence and operation which He exercises in their minds. Verse 27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. The BLESSED JESUS here makes a distinction between the peace which He leaves with His disciples, and the peace which He gives them, because the peace which He leaves with them is comparatively an external peace, resulting from His external presence, whereas the peace which He gives them is an internal peace, resulting from His internal presence and operation. He therefore calls this latter emphatically My peace, and says of it 1 give, thus again asserting His SOLE and SUPREME Divinity, since no one but the MOST HIGH GOD can give internal peace, or peace of mind and conscience, inasmuch as all such peace implies the subjugation of evil and the powers of darkness, which subjugation cannot be effected but by the strength of a divine arm. Verse 27. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. In these words another instance occurs of that referdence to spiritual marriage which the BLESSED JESUS had con tinually in view in all His divine sayings; for to be troubled in heart, relates to a defect of heavenly love, and to be afraid, to a defect of heavenly truth, or faith; thus both expressions combined inculcate the edifying lesson, that man ought above all things to cherish in himself the conjunction, or marriage, of those two heavenly principles, by virtue of which alone he can hope to be preserved from the influence of trouble and of fear, or of the infernal marriage of what is evil and false. Verses 30, 31. The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath commanded me, so I do. It is well known, that in the common version of the New Testament, a period, or full stop, is inserted in this passage after the words, And hath nothing in me, thus breaking off all connection between verse 30 and verse 31, whereas by inserting a comma instead of a period, the connection is preserved, and the LORD is made to say, The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me, but [a desire] that the world may know that I love the Father, &c. This is one method of clearing away all difficulty as to the combined seuse of the two verses: But granting that a period ought to be inserted at the above words, then we must have recourse to another method of explanation, by removing the period at the words, so I do, in verse 31, and reading the whole verse thus, But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath commanded me, so I do, arise, let us go hence, as if the LORD had said, that to convince the world of His DIVINITY, or full union with the Fa ther as to His HUMANITY, it is necessary that there should be an elevation of the affections and thoughts, signified by the term arise, and a consequent separation from mere worldly and corporeal love, signified by the additional exhortation, Let us go hence. At all events, the punctuation in the common version ought to be corrected, and it must be left to the reader to make the correction according to one or other of the above views of the subject. JOHN. CHAPTER XV. THE INTERNAL SENSE. THAT the LORD is the all of spiritual truth, cherished and enlivened by divine good, by virtue of which good, all, who are principled in truth and not in good, are separated, or cast out, whilst all, who are principled in good united with truth, are purified, v. 1, 2. For all spiritual purification comes from the union of divine good and divine truth, and since this union is complete in the LORD, therefore all, who are principled in truth, ought to seek reciprocal conjunction with Him in the good of His love, otherwise they cannot attain good, v. 3, 4. But if they attain that conjunction, they then attain heavenly good, which they acknowledge to be derived from such conjunction, since without such conjunction they are deprived of all spiritual life, and associated with infernal societies, and become a prey to all the evil of concupiscence, and thus perish in eternal death, v. 5, 6. Whereas if they have reciprocal conjunction with the shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8. In this is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and become my disciples. 9. As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you; abide ye in my love. 10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept the commandments of my Father, and abide in His love. 11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be filled. 12. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, 13, Greater love hath no one than this, that one lay down his soul for his friends. 14. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever things I command you. 15. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends, because all things which I have heard from my Father, I have made known unto you. LORD, through obedience to His commandments, they ac quire omnipotence over all evil and false principles, and exalt the divine good in their wills, and the divine truth in their understandings, 7, 8. For as the divinity is united by love with the humanity which He assumed, so is the humanity united by love with all those, who obey the truth, and thus attain reciprocal conjunction with Him, which conjunction is effected by obedience to the truth, in like manner as the reciprocal union of the divinity and humanity was effected by the obedience of the latter to the divine good, v. 9, 10. That thus it is the end of the divine commandments, to introduce man to a participation of divine blessedness, by filling all his natural delights and gratifications with corresponding spiritual joys, which end is accomplished by mutual love and charity derived from the divine love, v. 11, 12. Which love and charity is perfected in proportion as a man renounces self-love, and prefers another's good to his own, since in so doing he attains to a state of spiritual freedom, whereas otherwise he is in a state of spiritual servi tude, through ignorance of the divine loving-kindness, inasmuch as all true freedom is derived from heavenly knowledge, v. 13, 14, 15. 16. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you, that ye may go, and bear fruit, and your fruit remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He may give it you. 17. These things I command you, that ye love one another. 18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before you. 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love it's own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, for this the world hateth you. 20. Remember the Word that I said unto you; the servant is not greater than his Lord; if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my Word, they will also keep your's. 21. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me. 22. If I had not come, and spoken to them, they had not had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23. He that hateth hateth my Father also. me, 24. If I had not done amongst Nevertheless, that the power which man possesses of conjoining himself with the LORD by love, is not of himself, but of the LORD, who alone instructs man in truth, to the intent that he may live accordingly, and thus attain unto heavenly good, and that this good may be operative in good works, and thereby put man in possession of all that he can desire, since all is comprebended in mutual love or charity, v. 16, 17. Yet that they, who have attained such love, through the acknowledgment of the divinity in the LORD's humanity, will be opposed and vilified, as the LORD himself was opposed and vilified, and for the same reason too, because their affections and thoughts are in contrariety to those of the worldlyminded, v. 18, 19. They are therefore to keep in mind, that if the divine love itself be opposed, and the divine truth itself rejected, they also will be opposed and rejected, who are only receivers of that love and truth, and for this reason, because the divinity in the LORD's humanity is not acknowledged, v. 20, 21. That this non-acknowledg ment of the divinity in the LORD's humanity is the source of all human disorder and condemnation, since whosoever opposeth the LORD's humanity, or divine truth, opposeth |