should not die, but “If I will,” &c. Now it appears to me that we have very distinctly, in Peter, Paul, and John, the three representatives of the Jewish Church, as planted, its tabernacle shortly to be put off; the Gentile Church in its energy, as planted, and ministerially sustained of the Apostle (i.e. Paul); but, after his decease, the flock un- spared, and perverse men arising, and so that departing too—Ichabod on that. John, on the contrary, is here placed in contrast with the cutting off of the Jewish body, likened in the person of Peter to the Lord, and made to represent the extended protracted existence of the Church, as one hanging on the will of the Lord, having lost and forfeited its real character, to which faithfulness attached blessing and sustaining power, as due to the character of God, and just hanging now on his secret counsel. And accordingly we have John here, who was in the bosom of Jesus and received the communication of His mind and secret knowledge, hanging over the fallen and falling fortunes of the. Church—already fallen, if we compare them with their estate as planted—not now sustained by Paul’s Apostolic care and energy, but beset by wolves and perverse men, and falling, yet sustained by this word, “If I will that he tarry till I come.” Now
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