the whole creation; and this interpretation seems to be rendered probable by the words which immediately follow, FOR by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

St. John then proceeds to state, that the Divine Word created all things, as possessing in himself the power of giving life: In him was life. Our Saviour says of himself, in the fifth chapter; The Son quickeneth, or giveth life, to whom he will.--As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and he is there contrasting life with actual corporal death. The Evangelist then, who remembered our Lord's expressions, must have intended here the power of communicating life, properly so called; and not merely, as the Unitarians pretend, "the words of eternal life."

And the life, says St. John, was the light of men. This divine Being, who was the source and giver of life to the things of creation, was also the fountain of spiritual light to mankind: being sent by the Father to enlighten their understandings

with the knowledge of true religion.

Here

again the Apostle adopts the language of his divine Master, who said of himself, I am the light of the world;* and in a lower sense he declared to his Apostles, Ye are the light of the world. He himself was pre-eminently the light of men; for he was that Sun of righteousness that arose with healing in his wings; the great Light which was seen by the people that walked in darkness, and in the land of the shadow of death. Perhaps also the term "light" implies blessing a metaphor frequent in Jewish writers. The almighty Author of good is called by St. James, the Father of lights. Jesus Christ is indeed the light of men; not merely as the great instructor of mankind in the precepts of his Gospel, but as holding out the glories of his kingdom to all true believers, and illuminating with his Spirit the pious heart, and diffusing through the soul the light and warmth of his grace. He is a light to us in his word, his sacraments, his ordinances; a light, which none of the changes of life's uncertain day can extinguish or overcast; and which to the faithful Christian shines brighter and brighter, as the

*John viii. 12.
Is. ix. 2.

+ Mal. iv. 2.

& James i. 17.

shades of evening gather round his declining years.

The use of light is, to disperse the darkness: but the light which shone upon the darkness of men's sinful state, in too many instances shone in vain. Those who were blinded by sinful indulgence, or pride, would not take advantage of it: they did not even perceive that it was the light. Both Jews and Gentiles, with comparatively few exceptions, were in this condition: for how very small, when compared with the great mass of mankind, was the number of those who had professed a belief in Jesus Christ at the time when St. John wrote! Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness :* and so the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. I fear that even at the present day this description is too extensively verified. Of those, upon whom the light of the Gospel has shined, some reject it, and shut their eyes against it altogether; some profess to receive it, yet seem not to comprehend it, either as to the degree in which it was intended to illuminate them, or as to the proportion, which must always exist, between the clearness of our

* 1 Cor. i. 23.

knowledge and the strictness of our duty. Let us be careful not to be such as we should have been, had we been born in the darkness of heathen ignorance and idolatry: let us walk as children of light;* ever bearing in mind, that the light which shines upon us, deepens all the shades of our moral character; that the more we know, the more sinful are our defects of practice. Let us also beware of perverting the light, which God has vouchsafed to us in the revelation of his word, to sanction our own erroneous notions or principles; and take good heed, that the light which is in us be not darkness.†

Nothing can be more complete, and at the same time more concise, than the attestation, borne by the Evangelist in this preface, to the divine nature of the Messiah. He was in the beginning; existent from all eternity. He was with God, and so distinguished from him in person, and yet he was God. And he did not begin to be with God, as some have supposed, at a certain definite period of time, before which he was not; but he was in the beginning with God, as he declares of himself in the Revelations, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; the first and the last. Nor was he a created, + Luke xi. 35.

* Ephes. v. 8.

and consequently a finite being; but all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. He contained within himself the principle of universal life and existence; in him was life:-men and angels, as well as the humbler tribes of animated beings, received the breath of life from him; and He was the light of men, restoring them to the knowledge and favour of God.

After this brief, but sublime description of the Word, the Evangelist proceeds to tell his readers, that it was not John the Baptist, (as some perhaps might think,) of whom he was speaking; who was held in such high estimation by the Jews, that many supposed him to be one of the old prophets returned to life, and some even thought him to be the Messiah himself. And therefore St. John, having mentioned the Baptist, as a man sent from God, adds, that he was so sent, not to be himself the Messiah, the Word, the Light; but to bear witness of the light, and to prepare men's minds for its reception. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. During

* The original words may be rendered, that was the true light, which, coming into the world, enlighteneth every man. And this seems to have a natural coherence with the follow