The thief and the robber, said He, go up by another way.4084 “The hireling,” He said, if he
seeth a wolf or even a thief, “fleeth; because he careth not for the sheep;”4085 for he is an
hireling, not a shepherd. The one entereth in by the door, because he is the shepherd; the
second goeth up another way, because he is a thief; the third seeing them who wish to spoil
the sheep feareth and fleeth, because he is an hireling, because he careth not for the sheep;
for he is an hireling. If we shall find these three characters, ye have found, holy brethren,
both those whom ye should love, and those whom ye should tolerate, and those of whom
ye must beware. The Shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, of the robber
must we beware. There are men in the Church of whom the Apostle speaks, who preach the
Gospel by occasion, seeking of men their own advantage, whether of money, or of honour,
or human praise.4086 They preach the Gospel, wishing to receive rewards in whatsoever
way they can, and seek not so much his salvation to whom they preach, as their own advant-
age. But he who heareth the word of salvation from him who hath not salvation, if he believe
Him whom he preacheth, and put not his hope in him, by whom salvation is preached to
him; he that preacheth shall have loss; he to whom he preacheth shall have gain.
6. You have the Lord saying of the Pharisees, “They sit in Moses’ seat.”4087 The Lord
did not mean them only; as if He would send those who should believe on Christ to the
school of the Jews, that they might learn there wherein is the way to the kingdom of heaven.
Did not the Lord come for this end, that He might establish a Church, and separate those
Jews who had a good faith, and a good hope, and a good love, as wheat from the chaff, and
might make them one wall of the circumcision, to which should be joined another wall from
the uncircumcision of the Gentiles, of which two walls coming from different directions,
Himself should be the Corner-Stone? Did not the same Lord therefore say of these two
people who were to be one, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold”? Now He
was speaking to the Jews; “Them also,” said He, “must I bring, that there may be one fold,
and One Shepherd.”4088 Therefore there were two ships4089 out of which He had called His
disciples. They figured these two people, when they let down their nets, and took up so great
a draught4090 and so large a number of fishes, that the nets were almost broken. “And they
laded,” it is said, “both the ships.” The two ships figured the One Church, but made out of
two peoples, joined together in Christ, though coming from different parts. Of this too the
4084 John x. 1.
4085 John x. 12, 13.
4086 Phil. i. 18, ii. 21.
4087 Matt. xxiii. 2.
4088 John x. 16.
4089 Luke v. 2.
4090 Vim.
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The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling,…