Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/409



passage, which is here extracted entire.
 * dence on both views can not be better presented than in Bloomfield's note on this

"Here again the commentators differ in opinion. Some, as Grotius, Poole, Hammond, Whitby, and others, apply the [Greek: autou] to Lazarus, and take it as equivalent to 'let us go and die together with him.' But it is objected by Maldonati and Lampe, that Lazarus was already dead; and die like him they could not, because a violent death was the one in Thomas's contemplation. But these arguments seem inconclusive. It may with more justice be objected that the sense seems scarcely natural. I prefer, with many ancient and modern interpreters, to refer the [Greek: autou] to Jesus, 'let us go and die with him.' Maldonati and Doddridge regard the words as indicative of the most affectionate attachment to our Lord's person. But this is going into the other extreme. It seems prudent to hold a middle course, with Calvin, Tarnovius, Lyser, Bucer, Lampe, and (as it should appear) Tittman. Thomas could not dismiss the idea of the imminent danger to which both Jesus and they would be exposed, by going into Judea; and, with characteristic bluntness, and some portion of ill humor, (though with substantial attachment to his Master's person,) he exclaims: "Since our Master will expose himself to such imminent, and, as it seems, unnecessary danger, let us accompany him, if it be only to share his fate." Thus there is no occasion, with Markland and Forster, apud Bowyer, to read the words interrogatively." (Bloomfield's Annotations, vol. III. p. 426, 427.)

In John's minute account of the parting discourses of Christ at the Last Supper, it is mentioned, that Jesus after speaking of his departure, as very near, in order to comfort his disciples, told them, he was going "to prepare a place for them, in his Father's house, where were many mansions." Assuring them of his speedy return to bring them to these mansions of rest, he said to them, "Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." But so lost, for the time, were all these words of instruction and counsel, that not one of his followers seems to have rightly apprehended the force of this remark; and Thomas was probably only expressing the general doubt, when he replied to Jesus, in much perplexity at the language, "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" Jesus replied, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me." But equally vain was this new illustration of the truth. The remark which Philip next made, begging that they might have their curiosity gratified by a sight of the Father, shows how idly they were all still dreaming of a worldly, tangible and visible kingdom, and how uniformly they perverted all the plain declarations of Jesus, to a correspondence with their own pre-conceived, deep-rooted notions. Nor was this miserable error removed, till the descent of that Spirit of Truth, which their long-suffering and ever watchful Lord invoked, to teach their still darkened souls the things which they would not now see, and to bring to their remembrance all which they now so little heeded.

The remaining incident respecting this apostle, which is recorded by John, further illustrates the state of mind in which each