A. That as Jesus was present at the feast of dedication, which was purely of human institution, 1 Maccabees, 4th and 9th, therefore we may conform to things indifferent in themselves, though only of human appointment.
30.Q. Does not this verse prove Christ to be God?
A. The Jews thought so, by their immediately taking up stones to stone him.
34.Q. How does our Saviour argue in this and the following verses?
A. It is what logicians call an argument ad hominem, when you confute or confound a person from something which he himself says or grants. It is also an argument a minori ad majus, when you prove a greater thing from the less. The process of the argument runs thus: If you call magistrates, gods, to whom the word of God only came, how much more ought you to own me to be God, and not to be angry with me for calling myself so, or the Son of God, who shew by my works, that I dwell in my Father and my Father in me?
CHAPTER XI.
3.Q. What learn you hence?
A. That it is not our piety will exempt us from sickness and other calamities of life, since he whom Christ loved, was sick: That when any of our relations are sick, we should apply, as these sisters did, to Jesus Christ to heal them: That it is a peculiar encouragement to pray, when we know those for whom we pray, are beloved of Christ: And that in all our addresses to God, both for ourselves and others, we ought to mention rather his love to us, than ours to him, for we love God because he first loved us; and our love is so little, that it is not worth speaking of.
6.Q. What learn you hence?
A. That God’s continuing his rod upon us, is no certain sign of his displeasure; nay that it is rather a token of his love, since Christ knew that Lazarus was sick, and yet abode two days before he went to his deliverance.