Christ here says that his sheep hear his voice, and follow him: but let us ask ourselves, Do we cling close to this heavenly shepherd? Do we follow him, both by our faith and by our lives? Do we know him, and hear his voice? Do we fly from strangers, the world, the flesh, and the devil? If so, we are his sheep indeed; and if we persevere, he will bring us, in spite of the world, the flesh, and the devil, to the pastures of eternal life. But if we run away from our shepherd, to follow these strangers, we must expect to fall a prey to wolves. (Med. vol. ii. p. 417)
Observe how in renouncing He excites them to follow Him. You hear Me not, He says, for neither are you sheep, but they who follow, these are of the flock. This He said, that they might strive to become sheep. Then by mentioning what they should obtain, He makes these men jealous, so as to rouse them, and cause them to desire such things.
What then? Is it through the power of the Father that no man plucks them away, and have you no strength, but art too weak to guard them? By no means. And in order that you may learn that the expression, The Father which gave them to Me, is used on their account, that they might not again call Him an enemy of God, therefore, after asserting that, No man plucks them out of My hand, He proceeds to show, that His hand and the Father's is One. Since had not this been so, it would have been natural for Him to say, The Father which gave them to Me is greater than all, and no man can pluck them out of My hand. But He said not so, but, out of My Father's hand...
, who up to that time had no existence? Else, what kind of (hypothesis) is it that the Lord, like a quibbler in answering, omitting the present subject-matter which it was His duty to refute, should spend His labour about one yet future? "But a `sheep' properly means a Christian,
