49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.



Ver. 49. For I have not spoken of myself] The divine authority of gospel doctrine is here, in the close of this last sermon ad populum, most gravely asserted by our Saviour; as that which is undoubtedly authentic, because it comes from the Father, e cuius ore nil temere excidit. out of his mouth he destroys nothing rashly, David (saith one) sets the 119th Psalm as a poem of commendation before the book of God. The Son of David (say I) sets this text as his Imprimatur, his authoritative licence, at the end of the gospel. And as a friend once wrote to Aegidius, Abbot of Nuremberg, concerning the 119th Psalm, that they were, verba vivenda, non legenda, words not to be read, but lived; the same may I affirm of our Saviour’s sermons, and I know that his commandment is life everlasting.