ing at the Sheep-Pool* of Bethesda, waiting till an

Sheep-Pool. This Sheep-pool was the place where the sacrifices used to be washed; and Bethesda, a house of mercy, so called in Hebrew, or an hospital, where the sick lay to be cured. As to the Sheep-pool, there are many conjectures about its medicinal virtue. The use of it in relation to sheep was not for the washing of live sheep there by such as brought them to be sacrificed, out the carcases or entrails of them when they were slain: and this was done by the Nethinim (or inferior officers) who delivered them to the priests to be offered in the temple: which supposes this washing to be intermediate between the slaying and offering the sacrifices, and to belong to all the sacrifices, not the sheep only. Such was the opinion of some, who gave this as the commonly assigned reason of the divine healing power that these waters had, because the sacrifices were washed there.

Dr. Maclane is of opinion that this was a public bath, as the word signifies, as is plain from the sense of its primitive ouμbay to swim, Acts xxvii. 43, and from Josephus, Ant. xv. 3, who uses it to denote the baths at Jericho. Wherefore, their opinion who affirm that this pool served for washing the sheep designed for sacrifice before they were driven into the temple, and the entrails also of the beasts sacrificed there, seems to be without foundation. Besides, it is inconsistent with the situation of Bethesda, near the sheep-gate in the south-east wall of the city, or according to the compilers of the Universal History, in that which was on the north-east, a great way from the temple.

The ingenious editor of Calmet's dictionary, in his FRAGMENTS, No. 66, proposes another method of solving the difficulties which attend this relation.

He supposes that there were, in fact, two distinct waters; first, the constant body of water in the pool, wherein the sheep were washed, before they were sacri ficed; and, secondly, an occasional issue of water, falling from a crevice of the rock whereinto this bason was sunk, from the height of several feet; he conceives that this was the medicinal water which" was troubled at the season ;" and falling perhaps in no great quantity, the person who could first get to it, received its full benefit, because he received it fresh from the rock, and before it was mingled with the waters of the pool. The account given of the spot by travellers partly agrees with this, for it seems that the spring issues from between the stones of a wall, above the bath.

Dr. Doddridge thinks that in consequence of the Jews making so ungrateful a return to Christ for this miracle, the healing virtue of Bethesda was lost, and he observes that though the evangelist speaks of the pool as still at Jerusalem, when he wrote, yet he mentions "the descent of the angel" as a thing which had been, but not still continuing. See John v. ii. and iv. and this may account for the silence of Josephus concerning the pool of Bethesda, who in several cases seems to have been afraid of disgusting his pagan readers by relating any thing supernatural

or marvellous.

angel* at a certain season should move the waters, after which whosoever stepped first in was cured of his infirmity. This poor man had laboured thirty-eight years under his distemper, and waited every season for an opportunity of getting first into the pool, but still was prevented by some one or other of the hospital, who got in before him. Jesus seeing him lying under so many years disappointment, had compassion on him, and asked him, Wilt thou be made whole? The poor cripple supposing he would have offered him his assistance to get into the pool, told him he had no one to help him into the water. But Jesus meant him a more immediate cure, for he commanded him to rise, take up his bed, and walk. The man was immediately made whole, and, as his heavenly physician commanded, took up his bed, and prepared to walk to his house. This cure happened to be wrought upon the Sabbath; and therefore the Jews took occasion from thence to quarrel with the man that was cured, telling him that it being the Sabbath he could not answer for carrying his bed. But he, greatly delighted with, and entirely depending on the power and authority of the person who had cured him, tells the malicious Jews, that he that had cured him gave him authority to carry his bed. They asked him who that was: but the man knew not; for Jesus had withdrawn himself. Soon after, seeing the man in the temple, and suspecting, or perhaps seeing something irregular in his demeanor, he gives him this preventive admonition, "Behold, thou art whole now; sin no more, lest a worse evil happen unto thee." The man now well

Angel. The sick person was to go into the pool immediately upon the moving or troubling the waters; which must signify, that just upon the moving they had a force, which soon cooled or decayed again by the sinking of that which was stirred up, or by the evaporation of it. All which, if it be a natural, and no miraculous way of curing, it will be the more unlikely that the word Angel should here signify an Angel of God. For it may easily be supposed that there was an officer or servant sent down by them that had any skill in it, to trouble the waters at a fit time; and being a messenger sent before, as it were, to prepare for the sick man's coming after him, might well be called Angelos, not an angel, but a messenger, which the word in Greek properly signifies.

knowing his physician, told the Jews he met, that it was Jesus who had healed him; which so enraged them that they sought to slay him: for this offence seemed double to the Jews, both working a cure, which they thought unJawful on the Sabbath, and also commanding the man to carry his bed. To this exception of theirs against him, because he cured on the Sabbath, Jesus made this reply: "God* my Father, from whose rest you take the cele bration of the Sabbath, did not so rest from all work on the Sabbath; but that ever since he hath done works of providence, of preservation and mercy every day: and why may not I his Son do so without exception, my Father's actions and mine being the same?" This the Jews, that knew the Son of God must be of the divine nature, and therefore equal with God, interpreted to be blasphemy in him, whom they believed not to be the Messiah, and therefore ought to be punished with death. To this exception of theirs against Christ, he answered, "Although I affirm myself to be the Son of God, and so am rightly concluded by you to be equal with my Father, yet this is far from being impiety in me, far from opposing myself against God, for I do nothing but what is the express will of my Father; and therefore it was reasonable for me to say what I did, that my Father's actions will justify me in doing the same. For out of the infinite love my Father bears to me, he communicates all things to me, and by that means you are likely to have greater matter of wonder than the curing of this sick man on the Sabbath can amount to; for even to the raising of the dead, (which is far greater than that of curing the sick) my Father hath communicated his power to me; and as my Father raiseth, so will I whomsoever I please; and for the office of judging angels or men, my Father doth it not himself, but hath put all power into the Son's hand. According to this you must be hypocrites, to pretend that you zealously honour the Father, when you despise and dishonour me, who am sent with this power on purpose to

God. See John v. from ver. 17, to the end of the chapter.
Say. John. v. 17.

be honoured by all men, in the same manner as my Father is honoured, that so I may work a reformation among you. This is so perfectly the will of my Father, that I must tell you that on your hearkening at this time to me, and believing and entertaining my doctrine as the message of God, depends your eternal welfare. I assure you, this power, which God my Father hath given me at this time, extendeth to the greatest things, even to raising the dead out of their graves, which ye shall shortly see exercised by me: for as God hath of himself power to give life, so hath he given this power to me, and I possess it. And as I am God, my Father hath given me all power and authority both now and hereafter. Wonder not at what I say; for there shall certainly be a time of general resurrection for the dead, a specimen of which shall shortly be seen among you. The righteous shall have their bodies and souls united in bliss, and the wicked have also a restitution of their bodies to receive their punishment and sentence. My judgment is righteous and agreeable to the method and decree of my Father, that they who believe on me shall be saved, and they that reject me shall be condemned. This my Father hath declared; and therefore it is not seeking honour or revenge to myself that I-say or do this, but going according to the will of my Father. Ye know there is another that beareth witness of me; and for a proof thereof ye sent to John, who baptized me, when the Spirit descended on me; and he saw it, and testified to you the truth of it. He was Elias, being like fire, and his word like a burning lamp, and for a while ye rejoiced to hear him; but as soon as he testified of me, then ye presently rejected him. Ye look into and examine the Old Testament, whereon ye depend, and believe, through the performance of the Mosaical law, ye shall have eternal life; but on examination ye will find all those prophecies are types, and fulfilled in me, and that all the promises of life therein have an aspect to the Giver of life. But though ye look on these as the repository of your present and future bliss, and though they direct you to me as the only means to attain it, yet ye wilfully reject me, and consequently that happiness.

Alas! It is not your good opinion or approbation that I contend for, while I thus speak: ye have not the love of God in you, and therefore ye reject me. Consider the unreasonableness of your actions: I bring my commission from God, and ye regard it not; yet if another, without any commission from God, a mere counterfeit, in his own name come and undertake to seduce you,* What multitudes of you Jews will follow him? 'Tis not possible you should believe aright, that are so much in love with the praise of men, as to take him for a prophet who hath no other testimony of himself that he is so, but his own, or the voice of other men, and dare not believe on me; the rulers for fear of the people, and the people for fear of the rulers; and in the mean while both contemn the favour and approbation of God, and set his testimony at nought, and reject me who come authorised with it. 'Tis not so much I, to whom you have done this affront, and therefore I shall not bring any complaint against you before the Father; but it is your own prophet Moses, on whom you pretend so much to depend, that will rise up in judgment, and testify against you. Had you believed Moses, that prophet whom ye seem so much to value, his predictions and typical representations would have led you to believe on me, in whom they are all completed. But if your own Moses cannot prevail with you, I can expect to carry no weight or authority with you."

Here was an excellent admonition, mixed with love and reproach, terror and tenderness; and though the very worst that the Jews could make of it, must needs terminate in their own good, yet the plainer he spake the more stupid and unintelligent they are; and the more affectionately he invites them, the more stubbornly they reject him.

Upon the first second-day sabbath, that is, the ordinary sabbath happening in the passover week, probably the very

Seduce you. Alluding probably to Simon Magus, or Judas, of Galilee; the former deceiving the Jews with his' pretended miracles; the latter, under pretence of patriotically delivering his countrymen from the Roman yoke, and that it was unlawful to pay tribute to Cæsar, led 4000 of them into the wilderness, where they were all slain by the Romans. In all this admirable discourse, our blessed Lord shews the Jews, that he came to establish a kingdom not of this world.