SERMON XVIII.

JOHN xiii. 23.

NOW THERE WAS LEANING ON JESUS' BOSOM ONE OF HIS DISCIPLES, WHOM JESUS LOVED.

THE perfon here defcribed, is St. John

TH

the Evangelift, the author of that Gospel which bears his name, and from which the text is taken. It was he who enjoyed the honourable distinction of being placed next to his divine master, and of leaning on his bofom at fupper. He was, moreover, always one of those whom our Lord admitted to his mot confidential conversations and most interesting tranfactions, especially in the laft awful and affecting scenes of his life; and he is scarce ever mentioned by any other name than that of

THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED*. Thefe circumstances plainly mark the favourite and the friend and, on the other hand, if we advert a little to the conduct of St. John towards our Lord during the course of his fufferings, the very time when true friendship would be most apt to fhow itself, we shall discover in it plain indications of a strong and tender affection. :

When our Saviour was betrayed by Judas, and apprehended by the Jews, though St. John had at first, with all the other difciples, forfaken him and fled; yet his affection foon got the better of his fears, and prompted him to follow his Lord, at the utmost hazard of his own life, into the palace of the high-prieft. St. Peter did the fame, but in a very short time afterwards, exhibited a melancholy instance of human infirmity, and, notwithstanding the most vehement and paffionate profeffions of inviolable attachment to Jefus, he denied him three times with execrations and oaths. St. John's way of manifefting his fincerity was not by words, but by

• John xiii. 23; xix. 26; xx. 2; xxi. 7, 20.

+ See Le Clerc, Doddridge, and other commentators on John xviii. 15, 16.

deeds.

deeds. He faithfully adhered to his divine master in the very midst of his enemies, and with fond anxiety pursued him through all the various events of this distressful period of his life. After Jefus was condemned and hung upon the cross, casting his eyes down from that dreadful eminence, he faw among the crowd" the difciple whom he loved

standing by *." It does not appear from the history that there were any other of the apoftles that attended him in this last melancholy fcene except St. John. They were terrified, it should seem, with the danger of openly efpousing him at fo critical a time. But, unawed by any fuch apprehenfions, which all gave way to the ardour of his friendship, and the extremity of his grief, our Evangelist placed himself as near as he could to the cross, to catch the dying looks, and to wait the last commands of his Lord and friend. Those commands were foon given him, in the most affecting terms; and the truft then reposed in him was of fuch a nature as plainly showed what unbounded confidence his dying master placed in his fidelity and affection. For our

Lord obferving several women, and among them his mother, ftanding near his crofs, fixed in grief, horror, and amazement, at that dreadful fpectacle, he faid to his mother, "Woman, behold thy fon;" then, turning towards St. John, "Behold thy mother *. Words few and fimple, but full of meaning, expreffive of a thousand tender fentiments, both towards the diftreffed parent whom he left behind him, and the friend to whofe care fo facred a pledge was committed. St. John inftantly faw the meaning, and felt the force of this moving bequeft. He confidered our Lord's mother as his own, and from that hour (as he himself with his ufual modesty and fimplicity tells us)" he took her to his "own home +.”

Nor did his affection for his departed friend terminate here. It was continued after his crucifixion, to his memory, his character, and his religion. After a long life spent in teaching and fuffering for that religion, he concluded it with a work of infinite utility, the revifal of the three Gofpels already written,

John xix. 26, 27.

t lb.

and