"Master hitherto; canst thou love Him also in age, when "thou wilt have to sacrifice thine own pleasure in all things, "when thou shalt stretch forth thine hands on the cross "which must be borne by all His true disciples; when thou "shalt be the sport of the rude hands of enemies, to gird "thee with another than a fisher's belt, to carry thee to "other places than the free air of the Galilean lake? And now if thou fearest not this, once more, as at thy first "call, and as was promised to thee at the Last Supper, follow Me."

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In itself the passage is not so much a prediction of an actual event, as a warning of general suffering and distress, such as the passage, so strikingly similar to this in its immediately following upon the promise in Matt. xvi. 18, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself "and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matt. xvi. 24). But it is precisely after the manner of the Evangelist to refer to specific details, as the fulfilment of promises or warnings which themselves bear a more general signification, (see vii. 38; xii. 32, 38, and most indisputably xviii. 9). And in this case especially, where the words seemed expressly framed to meet the exact circumstances of Peter's death (the literal extension of the arms, the literal binding, whether of the girdle round his loins, or of hisr hands and feet to the cross), it was natural that the particular should throw the general into the shade, and that the self-crucifixion of Peter through his whole subsequent life

• Matt. iv. 19; John xiii. 36.

P So again the notion of "binding with a girdle" was expressive not only of the binding at crucifixion, but of imprisonment and affliction generally. (Acts xxi. 11.)

9 Evang. Nicod. 10.

Tunc Petrus ab altero vincitur, cum cruci adstringitur. Tert. adv. Gnost., c. 15. This may be a fair testimony to the general practice of binding, as well as nailing, criminals to the cross; but it is too evidently founded on this passage to be considered as an independent testimony to the particular mode of Peter's crucifixion.

should seem to be concentrated in the actual crucifixion which closed it, and thus signify "by what death he should "glorify God"-even as the two thoughts are beautifully blended together in the legend which is in fact a comment on this whole passage, and which represents Peter as escaping from Rome on the eve of his martyrdom, as if at the last seeking to have again that liberty which he was here warned to sacrifice, and meeting on the Appian way the vision of his risen Lord who said, "Venio Romam " iterum crucifigis."

The coincidence of this last passage with Matt. xvi. 24 has been just observed; it is remarkable and may perhaps throw some light on the context, that the parallel still seems to continue, and that in Matt. xvi. 28 occurs the passage which of all in the three first Gospels most nearly corresponds to the concluding words in John xxi. 19-22. Of these words, as forming the keystone of the whole chapter, and also occupying a prominent place in one of the subsequent Sermons, it will not be out of place to give an explanation here, though not immediately connected with the character of Peter.

As the last words to Peter were uttered (so we must conceive the scene) the Lord turned to depart; Peter, with the natural energy of his character, and also with the tendency which so often appears in the minds of the disciples, to take in its immediate literal sense what really could have only a spiritual meaning, sprang forward as if in obedience to His injunction to "follow Him," forgetting for the moment that as He came and went amongst them not as in former times, so they could be with Him only in the higher sense which His address had of itself indicated. But as Peter thus hung on his Master's parting

As 1 Pet. v. 1-5 may be considered an allusion to the first part of the address, so it might seem that 2 Pet. i. 14 is in allusion to the second part of it.

words, another step was heard behind, and he turned and beheld the beloved Disciple, silent as before, but, now that the dialogue with Peter was closed, following like him, in rapt attention, the track of his departing Lord. What wonder if, with the thought of the marked contrast of their characters, the active energy of the one, the passive gentleness of the other, impressed as it was even on the minute details of this brief scene,—elated it may be by his own restoration to favour, and excited by the foreshadowing of his own future destiny,—the natural impetuousness of Peter should break through the awful reverence which had up to that moment prevailed over the meeting, and vent itself in the question partly of eager curiosity, partly of halfexpressed complaint or personal interest at the fate of his youthful friend, too retiring to ask for himself, "Lord, and "what shall this man do?" It was on this occasion, it was under such circumstances, (so we can imagine the feeling to have run which dictated the record of this scene,) that the Lord uttered that memorable speech, on which has been founded the belief that John "should never die ;". with how much or how little truth may be inferred from the speech itself.

Jesus saith unto him, "If I will that he tarry till I come, "what is that to thee? Follow thou Me." The first impression conveyed and intended to be conveyed, is of a rebuke to Peter; that same rebuke which throughout the Scriptures, but in the Gospel History especially, is addressed to those who leave the thought of their own duties for profitless enquiries about the fate of others. "Lord, are there few that be saved?" was a similar question of Peter's on a former occasion, and met by a similar answer, "Strive to enter in at the strait gatet." And now the solemnity of the rebuke was enhanced by the additional awe which invested all their interviews since the Resurrec

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Luke xiii. 23, 24.

tion, and which more than ever refused to be broken in upon by questions of idle or irreverent curiosity. "Touch "Me not" is the prevailing tone which pervades the whole mysterious intercourse of the Forty Days.

But in this as in many of our Lord's rebukes, a positive lesson lies hid under the negative form in which it is couched, just as we find an eternal truth wrapt up in the answers to the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matt. xxiii., although the outward form in which they are expressed is intended not so much to impart truth, as to confute error. Even regarding it still in its reference to Peter, there is the general instruction conveyed which is so beautifully deduced from it in the Christian Year, and which so strongly resembles the answer given to the somewhat similar question of the same Apostle on a previous occasion, "We have forsaken all and followed Thee, what "shall we have therefore?" (Matt. xix. 27-xx. 16;) or to the demand of the mother of John himself, when she asked for her two sons the loftiest places in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. xxi. 20.) "What is it to thee, if he "tarry" till Christ comes, in rest and peace, whilst thou "art led to suffering and death? What is it to him, if he linger on year after year in loneliness and weariness of

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spirit, whilst thou art serving in active self-denial? Each "of Christ's servants has his appointed task. Thou art

"As in the previous passage, much depended on the double meanings of "gird" and "walk," (Šwvvvvαi, πеρiñатeîv,) so here on the various significations of μével. It is no doubt this very fulness of sense which renders the word so appropriate. (1.) It is probably chosen from its immediate contrast with ἀκολούθει. "He may stand still here, but thou must follow My depart"ing steps." But then (2.) it also has the sense which it seems to have acquired in the apostolic writings of "continuing in life," 1 Cor. xv. 6; 1 Thess. iv. 17, in which sense it must have been understood by the authors of the rumour of John's immortality. And (3.) both meanings must be invested with the notion of permanence and quiet resting, which, in St. John's writings especially, is the peculiar force of this word. (See inter alia, i. 32, 33; xiv. 17; xv. 4; 1 John iv. 16.)

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"the first, and yet it may be thy lot to become the last, "and he the last and youngest of the Apostles may by his "happy and peaceful end become the first: thou mayest glory in thy martyr's death, but he too may serve though he only 'stand and wait:' the cup that he shall "drink and the baptism that he shall be baptized with "is far different from thine, and from that of his elder "brother, yet each shall have the reward that is prepared "for him. In the Father's house are many mansions, and "divers are the paths which lead thither: whether there"fore thou murmurest for thyself, or complainest for him, "rest content in the belief that that which I will' is "good."

Such, if we may so far venture to paraphrase the Lord's words, is the most obvious and general lesson which they convey, the lesson of that resignation to the will of God and Christ, in which, according to the well-known saying of Bishop Butler, is involved the whole sum of human piety. But that "will" is on this occasion expressed in such definite language, as to invite to a consideration not merely of man's duty under it, whatever it might be, but of what it actually was to be. The natural inference undoubtedly is that His will was that John should "tarry till "He came." The first and most obvious sense in which this must have been fulfilled to the mind of the early Church, was that he, alone of all the more celebrated Apostles, lived to see the close of the Jewish dispensation in the fall of Jerusalem, which in the thoughts of the first disciples and in the speeches of our Lord Himself was blended with what is called "the coming of the Son of Man." It would be in this case an almost exact parallel in sense, as well as in position, to Matt. xvi. 28. There, as here, the general tenor of the whole passage speaks of the final reward of Christ's servants according to their several works at His coming, and of the near approach of that