XXVI.]  AND   THE    LIFE.  547

even  by  himself.  And  the  better  to  assure  them  of  it,
he  doth  not  only  say,  "  I  am  the  way,"  but  adds,  "  I  am
the  truth  and  the  life ;"  that  is,  the  true  and  living
way  in  the  highest  manner  that  can  be,  in  the  very
abstract  the  truth  and  the  life  itself:  so  that  we  may
certainly  depend  upon  him  as  "the  way"  unto  the  Father,
seeing  he  is  "  the  truth ;"  and  not  doubt  but  he  can
carry  us  through  that  way,  and  bring  us  to  the  end  of
it,  seeing  he  is  "  the  life "  too,  and  so  can  quicken,
actuate,  and  enable  us  to  walk  in  that  way  without
fainting  or  stumbling.  And  that  we  may  know  that  he
is  not  only  the  way,  but  the  only  way,  he  adds,  "  no
man  cometh  unto  the  Father,  but  by  me."

But  that  we  may  both  fully  understand,  and  be  duly
affected  with,  this  great  truth,  uttered  by  Him  who  is
the  truth  itself,  it  will  be  necessary  to  consider  what
he  means  by  coining  to  the  Father,  and  how  he  himself
is  the  way,  and  the  only  way,  so  that  "  no  man  cometh
unto  the  Father,  but  by  him,"  and  that  by  him  any
man  may  come  unto  the  Father.
