7 

7:55 But he looking steadfastly up to heaven, saw the glory of God - Doubtless he saw such a glorious representation, God miraculously operating on his imagination, as on Ezekiel's, when he sat in his house at Babylon, and saw Jerusalem, and seemed to himself transported thither, Eze 8:1-4. And probably other martyrs, when called to suffer the last extremity, have had extraordinary assistance of some similar kind.

7:56 I see the Son of man standing - As if it were just ready to receive him. Otherwise he is said to sit at the right hand of God.

7:57 They rushed upon him - Before any sentence passed.

7:58 The witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul - O Saul, couldst thou have believed, if one had told thee, that thou thyself shouldst be stoned in the same cause? and shouldst triumph in committing thy soul likewise to that Jesus whom thou art now blaspheming? His dying prayer reached thee, as well as many others. And the martyr Stephen, and Saul the persecutor, (afterward his brother both in faith and martyrdom,) are now joined in everlasting friendship, and dwell together in the happy company of those who have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.

7:59 And they stoned Stephen, invoking and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit - This is the literal translation of the words, the name of God not being in the original. Nevertheless such a solemn prayer to Christ, in which a departing soul is thus committed into his hands, is such an act of worship, as no good man could have paid to a mere creature; Stephen here worshipping Christ in the very same manner in which Christ worshipped the Father on the cross.

22 

22:12  I - Jesus Christ. Come quickly - To judge the world.And my reward is with me - The rewards which I assign both to the righteous and the wicked are given at my coming. To give to every man according as his work - His whole inward and outward behaviour shall be.

22:13  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last - Who exist from everlasting to everlasting. How clear, incontestable a proof, does our Lord here give of his divine glory!

22:14  Happy are they that do his commandments - His, who saith, I come - He speaks of himself. That they may have right - Through his gracious covenant. To the tree of life - To all the blessings signified by it. When Adam broke his commandment, he was driven from the tree of life. They who keep his commandments" shall eat thereof.

17 In this chapter our Lord prays,

1. For himself, Joh 17:1-5.
   
2. For the apostles, Joh 17:6-19.
   And again, Joh 17:24-26.
   
3. For all believers, Joh 17:20-23. And
   
4. For the world, Joh 17:21-23.
   

17:20 For them who will believe - In all ages.

17:21 As thou art in me - This also is to be understood in a way of similitude, and not of sameness or equality. That the world may believe - Here Christ prays for the world. Observe the sum of his whole prayer,

1. Receive me into thy own and my glory;
2. Let my apostles share therein;
3. And all other believers:
4. And let all the world believe.

17:22 The glory which thou hast given me, I have given them - The glory of the only begotten shines in all the sons of God. How great is the majesty of Christians.

17:24 Here he returns to the apostles. I will - He asks, as having a right to be heard, and prays, not as a servant, but a Son: that they may behold my glory - Herein Is the happiness of heaven, Jo1 3:2.

17:25 Righteous Father - The admission of believers to God through Christ, flows even from the justice of God.

17:26 I have declared to them thy name - Thy new, best name of love; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me - That thou and thy love, and I and my love, may be in them - That they may love me with that love.