George Hutcheson
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me Philip? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Followeth Christs answer to this proposition, clearing the encouragement and his unity with the Father. It may be taken up in three branches; whereof the first (in this verse) is a reprehension of Philips ignorance, and a complaint that, notwithstanding his long converse with them, yet, he knew him so ill, as not to see the Father in seeing of him, but taking no notice of that, did still call for a sight of the Father. Whence learn, 1. Even Christs disciples may, for a long time, be but ill scholars and slow of conception; As here Christ findes them. 2. Ignorance in disciples is rebuke worthy, and Christ will not spare it in them; As here he reproves Philip. 3. Christ takes notice of the means of knowledge his people enjoy, and the continuance thereof with them, that he may aggravate their continued in ignorance; for, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? 4. Christ may be very long with his people, and they be studying to know him, and yet not know him fully; for, hast thou not known me, Philip? Not that he was simply ignorant of Christ, but that he knew him not so, as to know the Father in him. 5. Christ doth reprove the ignorance of followers with much tendernesse, and so as may witnesse his affection to them and their welfare; Therefore, doth he propound the challenge by way of regrate, Hast thou not known me? 6. As the Father can only be savingly known in Christ; So none do know Christ rightly, and as they ought, unlesse they know the Father in him, who is the expresse image of his person, and he in whom the fulnesse of the undivided essence of the Godhead dwells bodily; for, Philip hath not known Christ aright, since he saith, shew us the Father, and that because, he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. So that if he had known him as he ought, he had not been ignorant of the Father. 7. The knowledge of God which is to be had in Christ, is a most clear and distinct knowledge; for, it is a sight, he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. 8. The excellency and preciousnesse of things desired by Saints, will not bear weight before God, if they be not put up in a right way, and if the desire be joyned with inadvertency and not emproving of means received; for, albeit, shew us the Father, be a commendable desire, Yet in so far, as he propounds it in these tearmes, to know him without the Son, and as if they had not seen him already in the Son, Christ rejects it. He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, shew us the Father?
