John 14

John 14:1

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

Ye have great conflicts to undergo: see therefore that your souls be furnished with a strong and lively faith: and, let it not suffice you, that ye do believe in one infinite and invisible God, that eternal and incomprehensible Spirit, who hath made you and all the world; but repose the whole affiance of your hearts upon me, the true and only Son of God, whom ye see clothed with flesh: and the rather now fasten your souls upon me by a stedfast belief, for that ye shall see this Humanity of mine subjected to many and great miseries, much contempt, pain, insultation; yea to an ignominious death; but let not your hearts be troubled with those heavy things, which ye shall see to befall me, the issue whereof ye shall find to be glorious.

John 14:2

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

In heaven, which is the house of my Father above, there is infinite provision, and store of glorious mansions, for all my faithful ones: were there only room for me alone, I would not have borne you in hope of that, which were not to be enjoyed; but now, I know, there are such great store, that I go, beforehand, to prepare places for you.

John 14:3

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

And, though I do now go from you and ascend into heaven, to make provision for you and my whole Church, yet I will, at the day of my Last Judgment and restoring of all things, come again into the world, and gather all mine Elect to myself; that, in a full consummation of bliss, where I am, there may ye be also.

John 14:5

Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

Master, thou hast, in some general terms, told us of thy going to thy Father, and taking possession of thy kingdom; but thou hast not clearly explicated unto us the means and manner, how thou wilt do it: since therefore thou hast not fully expressed thyself in those particularities of thy kingdom and glory, how much less should we be able to know, which way thou wilt take for thy compassing and attaining of it?

John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

If thou wouldest know the way to heavenly glory, know, that there is no way thither, but in and by me: there is nothing tending to happiness, that thou canst desire, but it is found in me: in me is to be found the beginning, the proceeding, the end of all perfection: whosoever would come to the glory of my Father, in me he must enter, for I am the Way; in me he must go forward, for I am the saving Light of divine truth; in me he must shut up, for I am eternal Life.

John 14:7

If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

If ye had so thoroughly observed, and informed yourselves of me, and noted my words and actions, as ye might have done, ye might have seen in me the lively image of my Father, and have acknowledged the fulness of his Godhead dwelling bodily in me; but herein you have hitherto been defective: now, from henceforth, see your own error, and amend it; and know, that in knowing, and believing in me, ye do know my Father, and do so believe in him, as if your eyes beheld him. So also verse 9.

John 14:8

Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

Lord, we have seen thee, and we have seen great proofs of thy Divine Power, so as thy Father hath shewed forth himself in thee: but we wish that thou wouldest shew us thy Father in himself: if we could see him with our bodily eyes, we should be fully satisfied; and should not trouble thee with any more questions of this kind.

John 14:10

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?

Believest thou not that I am, in my eternal essence, one God with the Father, and that the Godhead of the Father dwelleth and exhibiteth itself in me? So verse 11.

John 14:12

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

I would have you know, that the manifestation of the power of my Godhead is not so tied to my personal presence, as that, when I am gone, there shall be no further proof nor use of it; but, contrarily, even after my departure out of the world, I will give such power to those that believe in me, that they shall do the very same miracles that I have done: yea, I will do more

John 14:18

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

It cannot be, but ye must be afflicted with my departure; but I will not leave you comfortless, though I must leave you for the time: there is another presence of mine, which I must and will make good unto you, even the presence of my Spirit.

John 14:19

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

Ere long, indeed, I shall be taken away from the sight of the world; but yet I shall be still and ever present with you, and ye, by the eye of your faith, shall see and acknowledge me: for, both I shall live, and ye, by the virtue of my life, shall live also this life of faith before me; and, in that state of your spiritual life, shall see and enjoy me.

John 14:20

At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

And, at that time of my effectual illumination, ye shall know and understand that holy and mystical union, which is betwixt my Father and Me, and my Church; and how that divine virtue is communicated from the Father to Me, and by Me to you Believers.

John 14:21

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

VOL. IV. He, that is rightly instructed in my commandments, and apprehended them aright, and conscionably endeavours to keep and observe them, he it is, that loves me really and truly.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

I must bid you farewell, and wish you all peace and happiness; not according to the fashionable compliment of the world, but seriously and with effect, as bestowing upon you that good which I wish: let not your hearts be dismayed at my valediction; neither be discouraged with the fear of those evils, which shall follow after my departure.

John 14:28

If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto my Father: for my Father is greater than I.

If ye did so spiritually love me as ye ought, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father; for the glory, wherewith my Father is eternally invested, is greater than that, which this human nature and life of mine is capable of: it is infinitely therefore for my advantage, that I go to the Father; and therein, also for yours. XIV. 30, 31. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for 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 gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. I have not many words more to speak unto you: I am now drawing near unto my end: Satan, the great ruler of this wicked world, is now working his utmost against me, and is stirring up my enemies and conspirators to my ruin; but he neither doth nor can find any the least advantage against me, except that, which I shall voluntary yield for the working out of man’s redemption: he shall not find in me, either sin or impotence; so as, whatever I shall suffer, it shall be out of my will, not out of his power or constraint; That herein the world may know, that I love the Father, in that, out of my obedience to his will, who hath decreed me to be the propitiation for the sins of the world, I do yield myself over to death; and, in this passion of mine, shall cheerfully fulfil all that, which the eternal counsel of my Father hath fore-determined to be done and undergone by me, &c. XV. 1, 2. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. As the natural vine is to the branches, so am I spiritually to my Church: I give juice and sap unto them that are mine; and all the moisture that they have, and the fruit that they bear, is received only from me, as the original thereof; so as I