hypocrites. It hath been asked, what he wrote; Dr. Hales suggests this sentence from the Scriptures, which would record both their offence, and their judgment, and was in harmony with his late invitation to those to come unto him and drink.

O Lord, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed.

They that depart from me shall be written in the earth.
Because they have forsaken the Lord,

Jerem. xvii. 13.

The fountain of living waters. Bishop Law, perhaps, gives the true meaning of the action. According to the rule in the trial of a woman suspected of this offence, the priest was to take up some of the dust of the floor of the tabernacle, and write on it the curses denounced, Numbers v. Jesus conformed to it as nearly as he could, and, by that act, shows his willingness to take cognizance of the cause, if they would abide the consequence, the being involved in the same curse if guilty.

82. The discourse, in which Jesus declares his existence before the birth of Abraham, is abruptly terminated by an attempt of his auditors to stone him. John viii.

AFTER this interruption, he proceeded in his instructions; and the sun probably then rising, he drew his imagery from that luminary of the material creation, and called himself the light of the world. The Pharisees objected that he bore witness to himself, and that therefore his testimony was not to be depended upon. He replied, that, notwithstanding their objection, it was valid, for he knew on what it rested; whereas they neither knew whence he came, nor whither he was going. He added, that he had moreover his Father's testimony, and that, with his own, according to the decision of their own law, was sufficient. In the course of the conversation he tells them, that they will put him to death, and that they have never really known his Father, who is their God; for if they had, they must have known him, who spoke what he had heard from him, and always did what pleased him. On their being led to declare themselves the children of Abraham, he tells

them that they are not entitled to that appellation, since they did not resemble him in their conduct, and that by their works they showed themselves to be the children of the devil, who was a manslayer and a liar. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whoever keepeth my saying, shall never see death;" meaning the second death, which alone deserves the name, eternal misery in the unseen world. The doctrine was known to them, but they misrepresent his meaning, and exclaimed, "Now we know that thou art possessed by a demon. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? Whom makest thou thyself?" Their question drew forth his memorable answer, "Abraham longed to see my day; he saw it, and rejoiced; and before Abraham was born, I am existing." The Anti-trinitarians tell us, that this means he was designated to his office before the existence of Abraham; a proposition not worth announcing with such solemnity, and which would have given no offence: but their attempt to stone him as a blasphemer for this speech, which he did not explain away, sufficiently proves that they understood him, and that he meant them to understand him, to speak of his existence before the patriarch, and consequently of his divinity. Many commentators maintain, that our Lord here assumes the title by which the Deity announced himself to Moses, I am that I am. This opinion appears to me to be erroneous, and I do not think that our Lord ever made so positive a declaration to his enemies; yet his divine nature is implied in the word I am; for if his existence was to be measured by time, as that of all created beings, he would have employed was, but his existence is one eternal now. it be asked when Abraham saw the day of Christ? we answer, In that illustrious trial of his faith, his offering up of his son, whom he received back again, v Tagaßoλy, (Heb. xi. 19.) in a figure, that is, the future sacrifice for sin was thus visibly represented to his senses; and not only the death, but the resurrection of the victim. Their fury terminated the discourse abruptly. He eluded their malice, passing through the midst of them, rendering himself, it is supposed, invisible.

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83. Jesus restores the sight of a man born blind.

John ix.

ON leaving the temple, he meets a blind beggar, whom he cures by anointing his eyes with clay, and sending him to wash it off in the pool of Siloam, which was typical of himself as the Sent of God, and to the water of which wells of salvation he had so lately referred. This miraculous cure sets in a strong light the wilful unbelief of the rulers, who were the more exasperated, because it had been performed on the Sabbath. At first they treated it as a collusion, and examined his parents; and when the fact could be no longer denied, they wished to dismiss him, charging him to give glory to God; which may be interpreted in the obvious sense of thanking him, but was meant, I conceive, for an exhortation to confess the deception". The man, however, whose faith had procured him the recovery of sight, was not satisfied with acknowledging the fact; he stood forth as the defender of his benefactor's moral character when his parents were overawed, declaring that such a miracle had never been accomplished before since the world began; that if this man had not come from God, he could have done nothing, and that God doth not hear sinners.

In their resentment they excommunicated him; but Jesus found him out, and, to reward the honesty of this first sufferer in his cause, discovered himself to him as the Messiah, and he believed, and did him homage. Upon this Jesus observed, that he had come into the world for judgment, that those who saw not might see, and that those who saw might become blind. This judicial blindness, as he declared to some of the Pharisees who were present, arose not from an incapacity of seeing, but from their wilful closing of their eyes. The Sanhedrim had presumed to declare him to be a sinner, that is, an impostor; he therefore goes on to show, (for I consider the following chapter to be a continuance of the same discourse,) that these his calumniators were unworthy of the

m Joshua in these very words calls upon Achan to acknowledge his guilt. Josh. vii. 19. 1 Sam. vi. 5.

name of shepherds, that they were, in fact, thieves and robbers, and that he alone was the true Shepherd, who was willing even to lay down his life for the sheep. He represents himself also as the gate of a sheepfold, which in those countries, where it is necessary to take precautions against wild beasts, is of a more substantial nature than with us: and as it was through the gate that the shepherd entered, while they that came to rob and steal climbed over the fence; so he was the only entrance into the Church, and those who entered through him should be preserved and find pasture. He then reverts to the figure of the shepherd, and contrasts his own readiness to devote his life for them, with the cowardice of the hireling, who flees in the hour of danger, and leaves his sheep a prey to the wolf, "because he is a hireling, and the sheep are not his own." The Saviour declares his determination to die for the sheep, and he obscurely intimates the conversion of the Gentiles, saying, that he has other sheep whom he must bring, who also shall hear his voice, and both shall be united into one fold under him. In the east, the shepherd is a character of higher moral dignity than with us; there, instead of following, he walks before the sheep to see if they may venture forth, he protects, and is ready to risk life for them; and his care is repaid by a corresponding attachment on their part. As here described, he knows them individually, and they acknowledge his voice, and follow at his call. When therefore Jesus says, "I am the good Shepherd," to feel at all the force of the comparison, we must take these circumstances into consideration: but even then our con

A striking illustration of this language is afforded by Polybius, (xii.) who tells us, that "when strangers land in Corsica, the swine immediately run away, and flock to the sound of the horn blown by their keepers, who, instead of following their herds like the Greeks, go before them to some distance." We may presume, that the good Shepherd was a favourite emblem with the early Christians, from its frequent occurrence on their sepulchral monuments in the Roman catacombs. It was the custom in Greece for shepherds to give names to their sheep; Longus iv. and we learn from Mr. Hartley that it still prevails, for on desiring one of them to call a sheep, on his doing so it ran up to him with apparent pleasure; and he told him that many of them were still wild, and had not yet learned their names. Researches in Greece, p. 321.

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ception of his character will be far short of the truth, since a reference to the image in the Old Testament, will raise us above all created objects, even to the Deity himself, for we there shall discover that the good Shepherd is no other than Jehovah. "Behold," says Isaiah, (chap. xl. 10, 11.) " the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: he shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead them that are with young." And Jehovah himself says, by the mouth of Ezekiel, " Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out; I will feed them in a good pasture, and cause them to lie down.” xxxiv. 11, 13.

84. The seventy disciples return. Luke x.

THE seventy disciples returned exulting in their power over evil spirits, which exceeded their expectations, as only the cure of diseases was comprehended in their commission. This gave their Master an opportunity of directing their thankfulness to a subject which far more deserved it, the fact that their names were written in heaven. In another place (Matt. vii. 22.) he tells us, that some who have cast out devils in his name shall be rejected at the last day. How far more precious then is grace than gifts! Talents and learning in our days answer the same end as miraculous powers did then; they avail to the edification of others, but do nothing towards our own salvation. How awful the state, and how bitter will be the self-reproach, of those, who, after they have been the means of saving others, shall be themselves cast away!

85. A lawyer is taught the extent of his duty to his neighbour, by the example of a benevolent Samaritan. Luke x.

As Jesus was teaching, a lawyer, with the design of tempting him, asked him what he should do in order to obtain