tance and reformation: and then charging her to sin no more, he dismissed her. Shortly after, Jesus began again to discourse to the Jews of his missiont from God, telling them that he was the light of the world, and that whoever would follow him, should receive that illumination which would infallibly guide him to eternal life. The Jews refuse to believe him, because of his own single testimony of himself: to which he replied, "You that know not my divine extraction, judge of me only according to my human original, and in proportion to that give your opinion of me; but yet if I should do so, my judgment would be valid according to law, because this is the judgment and testimony of my Father, who by his Spirit and miracles, and his voice from heaven requiring all to believe on me, must needs judge them as obstinate unbelievers, who shall stand out against all this. It is the known custom of all laws, particularly of yours, (Deut. xvii. 6) that the testimony of two men is to be received in any cause whatever: and I and my Father are those two; for as I now witness of myself in a cause that concerns you; so my Father also, by a voice from heaven, by descent of the Spirit, by miracles and prophecies, testifies my commission from him." But the Jews regarding only his human extraction, Jesus replied, "You will not receive any knowledge concerning me or my Father: your acknowledgment of me is the only way to bring you to the knowledge of my Father. I shall depart from you, and then ye will seek me unprofitably; and by not believing me now, bring judg ments upon yourselves hereafter. After the Romans, at your solicitation, shall crucify me, there will be such evidences of my being truly what ye will not now be * Sin no more. Several critics observe that the word auaglaven to sin, is used by the most elegant Greek classics (as the correspondent word peccare is by the Latin) to signify the commission of adultery; which strongly intimates, that even the light of nature taught many of the heathen the exceeding sinfulness of it. See Doddridge on John viii. 1, &c. + Mission. See John viii. 12, 13, 15, &c. Crucify. See John viii. 28. lieve me to be, that you shall have no excuse to deny it ; then shall you be convinced, either to the working of your repentance or destruction, that I am the Messiah, and came from God, and do nothing but according to my commission from him." Upon this many of the Jews believed;* to whom addressing himself, he said, "If ye constantly practise my commands, ye are truly and really my disciples; and those truths which I shall reveal to you shall procure you a most valuable freedom." The other Jews then present, who were not believers, taking this as a reflection on them said, "We are heirs of the promises made to Abraham, † and were never yet slaves to any man; how then do we need freedom?" Jesus answered them, "I do assure you, you are mistaken in thinking yourselves to be free, for there are no such slaves as those that live indulging in sin; and being such, you are far from having any right to be continued in God's family, which belongs only to sons, § In the common account of the world, a servant is so far from being a son, or having any right to the inheritance of the family, that he is at the mercy of the heir when he comes to age, to cast him quite out of the family; and unless the son make him free, he cannot be free. And this is the case of all such as you. Christ must free him from his spiritual bondage of sin, before he can be capable of any benefit of being a son, even of a son by adoption.” The Jews then valuing themselves upon their being the children of Abraham and of God, he tells them, as to the first, that if they were indeed Abraham's children, they would be like him in his faith and obedience, as children resemble their parents in their nature and form and as to their being the children of God, he tells them, that their hatred to him is a certain proof that God is not their Father," For, says he, I am sent immediately from God, I came from heaven, and what I do is by commission Sons. See John viii. 15, and so on to the end of this sermon. from God. Ye imitate the devil, who from the beginning was malicious, proud, and bloody, and soon apostatized from God and the right way; for he is an enemy to truth, and therefore for him to lie, and confirm you in unbelief is natural to him. I am sure you have no fault or imposture to lay to my charge, and yet ye will not believe the truth when I speak it. If ye had true piety in you, then certainly my doctrine, being from God, would be acceptable to you, and ye would embrace it." To this the Jews could make no reply, but fell into reproachful language, calling him Samaritan* and madman ;† and misunderstanding on what grounds he gave himself the preference before Abraham, and thinking that he had spoken blasphemy, they resolved to confute him to some purpose, for they took up stones to cast at him: but he went out of the temple, and miraculously preserved himself, passing safely through the midst of them. But in his passage he met a man who had been born blind; and being asked by some of his followers whether it was the man's own sin, or some sin of his parents, that caused this blindness, he told them, that this misfortune was not sent as a punishment of his own or his parents' sin, but as an occasion to make public the glory of God: and Jesus, to demonstrate that himself was the light of the world in all senses, said it now, and proved it by a miracle; for sitting down, he made clay of his spittle, • Samaritan. This title of Samaritan is here given to Christ by way of reproach: Not that they thought him so, but because this was an odious name among the Jews: or else, because he conversed with the Samaritan woman, which was against the Jewish rule, John iv. 9, he is thought a deserter of the Jewish law, and so to be one of them. + Madman. This is rendered, "thou hast a devil." All sorts of diseases were sometimes brought on men by the devil, and so generally they that were brought to Christ for cure, are said to be possessed; but especially those who were more strangely affected without any visible cause of it, were generally thought to suffer this from the devil's obtaining power to possess them; and of this sort, especially mad-men, who being not discernibly sick, did yet behave themselves as if they were under some strong distemper, and therefore by them supposed to be possessed by some evil spirit. So in Justin Martyr, Apol. 2. "They that are possessed are by all men called mad." and anointing the eyes of the blind man, bid him go and wash in Siloam.* The blind man joyfully obeyed, and went and washed as he was commanded, and returned seeing; which so amazed his neighbours, that they questioned whether this was the same man that used to beg. He told them positively he was the same man, and gratified their curiosity by informing them who was his physician, and the method of his cure. This miracle being performed on the sabbath-day, the Pharisees laid hold on the circumstance to lessen Jesus, saying, "This man cannot be of God, because he violateth the sabbath." But others with less prejudice said, " Certainly such miracles cannot be wrought but by the finger of God, and therefore cannot be the work of an impostor, or a man of sin. The incredulous Jews would not believe matter of fact in the man that was blind; and thinking to make the thing appear intricate, and beyond the capacity of the vulgar, who they feared might by these miracles be induced to believe on Jesus, sent for the parents of the man who was restored to his sight, of whom they asked these three questions, Whether he was their son? whether he was born blind? And whether they knew how, or by whom he was cured? To the two first questions they answered directly, "We know him to be our son, and that he was born blind; but how, or by whom he recovered his sight he himself best knows; he is of age, let him answer for himself." The poor parents durst say no more; for they had been before cautioned by an agreement among the Jews, which was, that if any man did confess Christ, he should be excluded from the synagogue; and therefore they referred them for a further answer to their son. Him therefore they a second time examined, attempting to draw him from that opinion of Christ which he seemed to entertain, by bidding him ascribe the praise of his cure wholly to God, and not to look on Jesus with any veneration; telling him, that if he did it on the day, and in * Siloam. There is a tradition, that this was a pool of limpid water, which God sent at the prayer of Isaiah the prophet a little before his death, to satisfy the necessities of his people oppressed with thirst and a close siege; and it stood at the foot of the mount Sion. the manner beforementioned, it was thereby evident that he had broken the sabbath, and so came not from God, but was an impostor, who consequently had no such virtue or piety as could contribute any thing to this matter. The poor blind man, however, would not recede from the truth; for he said, "Whether he be a sinner, or no, I cannot tell; but this I certainly know, that whereas I was blind, I now, through him, enjoy the blessing of sight." This recognition of Jesus very greatly incensed the Jews, insomuch that they taxed him with being his disciple; boasting that themselves were the disciples of Moses, but as for Jesus, they knew not whence he was. The poor man in the simplicity and zeal of his heart, willing to do justice to his physician, says, "It is strange that one should do such miracles as these, and you learned men know not whether he be sent from God or not. It is allowed on all hands that an impostor or false teacher is not enabled by God to work such great miracles, but only pious and faithful servants of God, that came to do his will, not their own. It is above all human power to open the eyes of one born blind: if he were not sent and empowered by God, he could never do such things as these." This provoked them so much, that they first stigmatized him with the greatest reproach imaginable, that his being born blind was a mark and character of some extraordinary evil in him, which made him very unfit to teach doctors and rabbies in matters of this moment; and then they cast him out of the synagogue with disgrace. But Jesus, meeting him, received him into the church; for he informed him that he was the Christ: the man became enlightened; believed him, and paid the acknowledgment and adoration to him, that was due to the Messiah. But the Pharisees blasphemed for such was the dispensation of the divine mysteries, that the blind should see; and they which think they see clearly should become blind, because they had not the excuse of ignorance to extenuate their sin; but in the midst of light they shut their eyes, and doted upon darkness, therefore did their sin remain. Notwithstanding the obstinacy of the Jews, and the repeated instances of their malice and prejudice against Jesus and his doctrine, he continued his sermon to the |