John 20

It is true we may look to our graces as evidences of salvation, but Christ's blood only as the cause. In the time of Noah's flood, all that trusted to the high hills and trees, and not to the Ark, were drowned (Hebrews 12:2): "Looking to Jesus;" and so look to him as to believe…

Rachel was more fair, but Leah was more fruitful. Assurance is more fair and lovely to look upon, but a fruitful faith God sees is better for us (John 20:28). Blessed are they that believe and feel not.

He who loves God, weeps bitterly for his absence. Mary comes weeping, they have taken away my Lord (John 20:2). One cries, my health is gone, another my estate is gone; but he who is a lover of God, cries out, my God is gone, I cannot enjoy him whom I love.

To be content with God, is not enough, but to be cheerful; what greater cordial can you have, than union with Deity? When Jesus Christ was ready to ascend, he could not leave a richer consolation with his disciples than this, Tell them, I go to my God and their God (John 20:17).…

Question. What is the main scope and end of Scripture? Answer. To chalk out a way to salvation: it makes a clear discovery of Christ (John 20:31). These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you might have life through his name.

How glad are children when they are going home? This was Christ's comfort at death, he was going to his Father; (John 16:28) I leave the world and go to the Father; and (John 20:17) I ascend to my Father. If God be our Father we may with comfort at the day of death resign our so…

As it is called the Lord's Supper, because of the Lord's instituting the bread and wine, and setting it apart from a common use to a more special and sacred use: so it is called the Lord's Day, because of the Lord's instituting it, and setting it apart from common days to his sp…

(2.) Get up early on the Sabbath morning. Christ rose early on this day before the sun was up (John 20:1). Did Christ rise early to save us, and shall not we rise early to worship and glorify him?

Philo calls it, Fides Occulata, faith is the eagle eye that discerns the Lord's Body: faith causes a virtual contact, it touches Christ. Christ said to Mary, Touch me not, etc. (John 20:17). She was not to touch him with the hands of her body.

Epicurus denied that there was a providence, saying, that all things fell out by chance, Diagoras. He that says there is no God, is the wickedest creature that is, he is worse than a thief, who does but take away our goods from us, but the atheist would take away our God from us…

Man may remit a trespass against himself, but not a transgression against God. Object. 2. But the Scripture speaks of the power committed to ministers to forgive sin (John 20:23): "Whoever's sins you remit, they are remitted to them." Answ. Ministers cannot remit sin authoritati…

He may not admit him to see his face; he may shut a son out of doors when yet he does not cast him off. He may retain their sins (as Christ's expression is, John 20:23; Matthew 18:18) — that is, call in the patent of his pardon which he had passed under his hand and seal in eart…

Now if this be true, as very likely it is, that these dumb creatures gave place to Christ, and became pliable to his commandment, then much more ought we to carry our hearts conformable and pliant to the will of our Lord Jesus in all his commandments. The second point is, that w…

And in the first article, I believe in God, are three things contained: the first, to believe that there is a God, the second to believe the same God is my God, the third to put my confidence in him for my salvation: and so much contain the other articles, which are concerning G…

Testimony 3. John 20:31: These things were written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and in believing might have everlasting life. Here is set down the full end of the Gospel and of the whole written word, which is to bring men to faith and consequently to salvati…

And this alone, if we will take the Scriptures' verdict, will carry it, and lo, as he is styled the Father of spirits in common, and yet withal a father of their spirits, out of special love: so in like manner, he is styled both the God of the spirits of all flesh, (that is, of…

A fourth place is John 11:27, and it is Martha's confession: Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who should come into the world. The fifth place is that of John 20:28, where, when Christ bids Thomas reach his hand and put it into his side, his glory shin…

And God having thus said and sworn concerning this external covenant, for this very end, that the hearers of the Gospel may know, that they who receive Christ offered in it shall have life, it is warrant sufficient to believe on Him for life: it's also for this end that He has p…

3. An act, wherein mainly the exercise of faith is held forth, and it's the act of the soul under that danger and distress, betaking itself to Christ's fullness for help: it's a fleeing from the curse of the law, to Him, as to the City of Refuge; so every name that faith gets, s…

You may then know how easy it is for many to stand on the shore and censure David in the sea; and what an oven, and how hot a fire must cause the moisture of his body to turn to the drought of summer. The angels (John 20) have but a theory and the hearsay of a bystander, when th…

The Seventy use for [in non-Latin alphabet] (Song of Solomon 2:9), where Christ is said to stand behind the wall, and look out at the casements, with great attention of mind; it is to look down over a window, bending the head (Exodus 25:18-20). John 20:5. They stooped down and s…

1. Because the Evangelists use to expound what may appear ambiguous to the hearers, as (John 7:8, 39). "But this he spoke of the Spirit" (John 20:23). "Then went this saying abroad among the Brethren, that that disciple (John) should not die: yet Jesus said not to him, he shall…

And our spirits should rise as the Apostle herein rises: faith upon these wings may not only fly above the range of all accusations and condemners but even clean out of their sight, and so far above all such thoughts and fears as it may reach to a security that sins are forgotte…

And that his words might afford the more full matter of confidence, and be the more comprehensive, and take in all, he expresses not this relation of God limitedly, as confined to his fatherhood, either to Christ only, or us alone: He says not only [An advocate with his Father,]…

Doctrine. It is a holy end of the holy scriptures that believers may believe. John, when he writes the Gospel, he speaks as well to believers, as to others, but chiefly to believers (John 20:31). These things are written that you may believe.

The Spirit helps us to cry, Abba Father. Act 2. Secondly, it is the nature and work of faith in every prayer, it does guide the heart of a man to look to God with some kind of child-like confidence, repairing to him as a Father; such as by faith believe on the name of the Son of…

Matthew 10:5, 6, and on which they were to be sent after his Resurrection, when he said to them, Go you into all the World, and preach the Gospel to every Creature. The same Errand that Christ has respect to John 20:21. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you.

Partly because he would consecrate and hallow spiritual friendship, and commend it to us by his own example, and therefore though he loved all his disciples, yet he chose out some for intimacy and special converse, these were [illegible], the flower of the Apostles, either becau…

Satan and his instruments will be satisfied with no proofs of principles of faith, but such as he and they will prescribe, and which cannot be given without intrenching upon our obedience to God, and those counsels which he has wisely laid for his own glory. And if God's childre…

The request was not of distrust and malice, but of infirmity and from a weak faith; not out of unbelief to tempt God, but out of humility, being sensible of his own weakness, he desired this help, for the further confirmation of his faith concerning his calling to this work, as…

He that cleaves to this profession, carries himself accordingly, whatever temptations he has to the contrary: we believe and are sure that you are that Christ the Son of the living God. 4. For this end the Scriptures were written: These things are written that you might believe…

As he is the object of our faith, so of Prayer: For he alone can help, therefore he is to be sought, none else sees our state, or can satisfy souls (Isaiah 63:16): Doubtless you are our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us. 9. In all our addresses to God we must own God as o…

Then is Christ's father and our father all one. So in John 20 Christ says to Mary Magdalen: Go to my brethren and say to them: I ascend to my father and your father, to my God and to your God. Therefore God is our father and our God, but through Christ.

Before I gather any doctrine hence, this ground is to be laid down, that Paul preached all the counsel of God (Acts 20:27). And that which he preached, being necessary to salvation, he wrote, or some other of the Apostles (John 20:31). This being granted (which is a certain trut…

Thus to believe Christ to be the son of God, in the places before named, is to believe that he is God, and withal to fix our trust on him: otherwise the devils believe thus much. When Thomas had put his finger in the side of Christ, he said, My Lord, and my God (John 20:28). And…

For it seems, that we first of ourselves believe, and then receive the spirit? Answer: Men are said to receive the spirit, when they receive some new gift of the spirit, or the increase of some old gift (John 20:22). Again, to speak properly, faith and the receiving of the spiri…

Blessed he God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2. Cor 1:3. and Ioh. 20. 17. And he is called God, not because he partakes more of the godhead then the sonne, or the h.

Real marks of Christ, are either in his natural, or in his mystical body. In his natural body, the wounds which were given him in his hands, feet, and sides; which he showed to his Disciples after his resurrection (John 20:27). Which whether they be now to be seen in his glorifi…

I grant, that faith begins at humility, which captives all our reason under God's instruction: but because we embrace not the doctrine that is offered with such an assurance as we ought, therefore God confirms it to us by various testimonies, and by our own experience, the bette…

This furnishes a reply to an objection that might be drawn from another saying of Christ, that blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed, (John 20:29;) for there he describes that kind of seeing which Thomas desired in consequence of his gross apprehension.

That they may not advance to teach before the proper time, Christ enjoins on them silence and repose, until, sending them out according to his pleasure, he may make a seasonable use of their labors. And this was a useful trial of their obedience, that, after having been endowed…

By saying that he is actually risen, they acknowledge that the matter is beyond all doubt. First, I reply, that the general phrase contains a synecdoche; for some were harder or less ready to believe, and Thomas was more obstinate than all the rest, (John 20:25.) Secondly, We ma…

The opinion entertained by some — that these words were fulfilled, when Christ ate with his disciples after his resurrection is foreign to his meaning; for, since that was an intermediate condition between the course of a mortal life and the end of a heavenly life, the kingdom o…

There is but one Spirit to the whole mystical Body, Head and Members, 1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 4:4. Christ breathes his own Spirit on his Disciples, John 20:22. As Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost, descending on him like a Dove, so Christians also 'have an Anointing…

Of the manner of this proceeding and emanation of the Spirit from the Father and the Son so far as it is revealed, and as we are capable of an useful Apprehension of it, I have treated elsewhere. And from hence, or the Subsistence of the Holy Spirit in an eternal Emanation from…

While the saints are in this world, there are great remains of sin and darkness to separate or disunite them from Christ, which shall then all be removed. This is not a time for that full acquaintance and those glorious manifestations of love which Christ designs for his people…

There is no such return, as Nicodemus said, Shall a man that is old go into his mother's womb and be born again? Some answer it thus: the adverb 'there' does not necessarily refer to the literal antecedent; but in Scripture sometimes relatives refer to something in the mind or i…

We must know, that by the Holy Spirit here is meant; not the beginning of grace, but the increase thereof, and a greater measure of gifts, with a more sensible feeling of them: for this promise is made to Gods children that aske, which no[]e can be, but by the Holy Spirit. See t…

This shows, 1. That love to Christ where it is sincere, is a most sensible thing. 2. That the more disappointments it meets with, in seeking after sensible manifestations of Christ, it grows the more vehement. 3. That continued absence to a tender soul, will be exceeding heavy a…

Indeed this office is by our Saviour himself called the Holy Ghost; and ordination (how harsh soever the phrase may seem to be) is a giving of the Holy Ghost, not indeed either in the gifts or graces of it (which were afterwards plentifully bestowed upon them on the day of Pente…