Matthew Poole and continuators on John 14:1

LEt not your hearts be troubled : ye believe in God , believe also in me .

Through grief, or fear, which are the Two Passions which ordinarily most disturb our minds; our Saviour himself was troubled, but not sinfully: his trouble neither arose from unbelief, nor yet was in an undue measure: it was (as one well expresseth it) like the meer agitation of clear water, where was no mud at the bottom; but our trouble is like the stirring of water that hath a great deal of mu[illegible: 1 letter] at the bottom, which upon the royling, riseth up, and maketh the whole body of the water in the vessel impure, ro[illegible: 1 letter]led and muddy. It is this sinful trouble caused from these Two passions, and rising up to an immoderate degree, and mixed with a great deal of unbelief and distrust in God, against which our Saviour here cautioneth his Disciples; and the Remedy he prescribes against those afflicting passions, is a believing in God, and a believing on him.

The Two latter passages in the Verse, are so penned in the Greek, that they may be read Four ways; for the Verb Believe, twice repeated, may be read either indicatively or imparitively, or the one may be read indicatively, and the other imperatively; so as they may be translated, You believe in God, you believe also in me. And so they teach us, that there is no such Remedy for inward troubles, as a believing in God, and a believing in Jesus Christ; and those that do so, have no just Reason for any excessive heart-troubles. Or else they may be read, believe in God, believe in me: or else as we read them, ye believe in God, believe also in me: or believe in God, ye believe in me. But the Disciples Faith in Christ, as Mediator, and God-Man, being yet weak, and their weakness being what our Saviour hath ordinarily blamed, not magnified, or commended, the best Interpreters judg the sense which our Translators give, to be the best sense; and judg that our Saviour doth inculcate to them his Divine Nature, and again offer himself to them as the proper Object of their Faith. You (saith he) own it for your duty to trust in God, as your Creator, and he that provideth for you.

Believe also in me, as God equal with my Father; and in me, as the Messiah, your Mediator and Redeemer; so as you have one to take care of all your concerns, both those of your Bodies, and those of your Souls also, so as you have nothing to be immoderately, and excessively, or distrustfully troubled for; therefore Let not your hearts be troubled; onely without care or distust, commit your selves to me.