53 And every man went unto his own house.



Ver. 53. And every man went, &c.] Nicodemus, with one word seasonably put in, dissolves the council; and keeps them, for this time, from attempting against Christ. See what one man may do against a mischievous multitude otherwise. Ille regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet. (Virgil.) What a stickler was Nehemiah at Jerusalem, Paphnutius at the Nicene Council, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, in their generations. It is good to be doing, though there be few or none to second us; and though we be asked, as that good Bishop Liberius was by the Arian emperor Constantius, Quota pars es tu orbis terrarum? (Theodoret, ii. 16.) It is said of Luther, Quod unus homo solus totius orbis impetum sustinuerit.