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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1721)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>J O H N.</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. VIII.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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In this chapter we have,
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I. Christ's evading the snare which the Jews laid for him, in bringing
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to him a woman taken in adultery,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:1-11">ver. 1-11</A>.
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II. Divers discourses or conferences of his with the Jews that cavilled
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at him, and sought occasion against him, and made every thing he said a
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matter of controversy.
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1. Concerning his being the light of the world,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:12-20">ver. 12-20</A>.
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2. Concerning the ruin of the unbelieving Jews,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:21-30">ver. 21-30</A>.
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3. Concerning liberty and bondage,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:31-37">ver. 31-37</A>.
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4. Concerning his Father and their father,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:38-47">ver. 38-47</A>.
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5. Here is his discourse in answer to their blasphemous reproaches,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:48-50">ver. 48-50</A>.
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6. Concerning the immortality of believers,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:51-59">ver. 51-59</A>.
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And in all this he endured the contradiction of sinners against
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himself.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Joh8_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_6"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_7"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_8"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_9"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_10"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_11"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Woman Taken in Adultery.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
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2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and
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all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
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3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken
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in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
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4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery,
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in the very act.
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5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be
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stoned: but what sayest thou?
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6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse
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him. But Jesus stooped down, and with <I>his</I> finger wrote on the
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ground, <I>as though he heard them not.</I>
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7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and
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said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first
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cast a stone at her.
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8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
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9 And they which heard <I>it,</I> being convicted by <I>their own</I>
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conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, <I>even</I>
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unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing
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in the midst.
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10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the
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woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers?
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hath no man condemned thee?
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11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do
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I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Though Christ was basely abused in the foregoing chapter, both by the
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rulers and by the people, yet here we have him still at Jerusalem,
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still in the temple. <I>How often would he have gathered them!</I>
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Observe,</P>
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<P>
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I. His retirement in the evening out of the town
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>):
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<I>He went unto the mount of olives;</I> whether to some friend's
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house, or to some booth pitched there, now at the feast of tabernacles,
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is not certain; whether he rested there, or, as some think, continued
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all night in prayer to God, we are not told. But he went out of
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Jerusalem, perhaps because he had no friend there that had either
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kindness or courage enough to give him a night's lodging; while his
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persecutors had <I>houses</I> of their own to go to
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+7:53"><I>ch.</I> vii. 53</A>),
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he could not so much as borrow a place to lay his head on, but what he
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must go a mile or two out of town for. He retired (as some think)
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because he would not expose himself to the peril of a popular tumult in
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the night. It is prudent to go out of the way of danger whenever we can
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do it without going out of the way of duty. In the day-time, when he
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had work to do in the temple, he willingly exposed himself, and was
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under special protection,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+49:2">Isa. xlix. 2</A>.
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But in the night, when he had not work to do, he withdrew into the
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country, and sheltered himself there.</P>
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<P>
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II. His return in the morning to the temple, and to his work there,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>.
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Observe,</P>
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<P>
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1. What a diligent preacher Christ was: <I>Early in the morning he came
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again, and taught.</I> Though he had been teaching the day before, he
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taught again to-day. Christ was a constant preacher, in season and out
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of season. Three things were taken notice of here concerning Christ's
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preaching.
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(1.) The time: <I>Early in the morning.</I> Though he lodged out of
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town, and perhaps had spent much of the night in secret prayer, yet he
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came <I>early.</I> When a day's work is to be done for God and souls it
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is good to begin betimes, and take the day before us.
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(2.) The place: <I>In the temple;</I> not so much because it was a
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<I>consecrated</I> place (for then he would have chosen it at other
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times) as because it was now a <I>place of concourse;</I> and he would
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hereby countenance solemn assemblies for religious worship, and
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encourage people to come up to the temple, for he had not yet left it
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desolate.
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(3.) His posture: <I>He sat down,</I> and taught, as one having
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authority, and as one that intended to abide by it for some time.</P>
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<P>
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2. How diligently his preaching was attended upon: <I>All the people
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came unto him;</I> and perhaps many of them were the country-people,
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who were this day to return home from the feast, and were desirous to
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hear one sermon more from the mouth of Christ before they returned.
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They came to him, though he came early. They that <I>seek him early
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shall find him.</I> Though the rulers were displeased at those that
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came to hear him, yet they would come; and <I>he taught them,</I>
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though they were angry at <I>him</I> too. Though there were few or none
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among them that were persons of any figure, yet Christ bade them
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welcome, and taught them.</P>
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<P>
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III. His dealing with those that brought to him the <I>woman taken in
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adultery, tempting</I> him. The scribes and Pharisees would not only
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not hear Christ patiently themselves, but they disturbed him when the
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people were attending on him. Observe here,</P>
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<P>
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1. The case proposed to him by the scribes and Pharisees, who herein
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contrived to pick a quarrel with him, and bring him into a snare,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:3-6"><I>v.</I> 3-6</A>.</P>
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<P>
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(1.) They set the prisoner to the bar
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>):
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they brought him <I>a woman taken in adultery,</I> perhaps now lately
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taken, during the time of the feast of tabernacles, when, it may be,
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their dwelling in booths, and their feasting and joy, might, by wicked
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minds, which corrupt the best things, be made occasions of sin. Those
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that were <I>taken in adultery</I> were by the Jewish law to be put to
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death, which the Roman powers allowed them the execution of, and
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therefore she was brought before the ecclesiastical court. Observe, She
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<I>was taken in her adultery.</I> Though adultery is a work of
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darkness, which the criminals commonly take all the care they can to
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conceal, yet sometimes it is strangely brought to light. Those that
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promise themselves secrecy in sin deceive themselves. The scribes and
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Pharisees bring her to Christ, and set her in the midst of the
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assembly, as if they would leave her wholly to the judgment of Christ,
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he having <I>sat down,</I> as a judge upon the bench.</P>
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<P>
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(2.) They prefer an indictment against her: <I>Master, this woman was
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taken in adultery,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>.
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Here they call him <I>Master</I> whom but the day before they had
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called a <I>deceiver,</I> in hopes with their flatteries to have
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ensnared him, as those,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+20:20">Luke xx. 20</A>.
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But, though men may be imposed upon with compliments, he that searches
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the heart cannot.</P>
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<P>
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[1.] The crime for which the prisoner stands indicted is no less than
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adultery, which even in the patriarchal age, before the law of Moses,
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was looked upon as <I>an iniquity to be punished by the judges,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+31:9-11,Ge+38:24">Job xxxi. 9-11; Gen. xxxviii. 24</A>.
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The Pharisees, by their vigorous prosecution of this offender, seemed
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to have a great zeal against the sin, when it appeared afterwards that
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they themselves were not free from it; nay, they were within <I>full of
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all uncleanness,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:27,28">Matt. xxiii. 27, 28</A>.
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Note, It is common for those that are indulgent to their own sin to be
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severe against the sins of others.</P>
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<P>
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[2.] The proof of the crime was from the notorious evidence of the
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fact, an incontestable proof; she was <I>taken in the act,</I> so that
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there was no room left to plead not guilty. Had she not been taken in
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this act, she might have gone on to another, till her heart had been
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perfectly hardened; but sometimes it proves a mercy to sinners to have
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their sin brought to light, that they may <I>do no more
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presumptuously.</I> Better our sin should <I>shame</I> us than
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<I>damn</I> us, and be set in order before us for our conviction than
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for our condemnation.</P>
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<P>
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(3.) They produce the statute in this case made and provided, and upon
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which she was indicted,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>.
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Moses in the law commanded <I>that such should be stoned.</I> Moses
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commanded that they should be <I>put to death</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+20:10,De+22:22">Lev. xx. 10; Deut. xxii. 22</A>),
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but not that they should be stoned, unless the adulteress was espoused,
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not married, or was a priest's daughter,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+22:21">Deut. xxii. 21</A>.
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Note, Adultery is an exceedingly sinful sin, for it is the rebellion of
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a vile lust, not only against the command, but against the covenant, of
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our God. It is the violation of a divine institution in innocency, by
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the indulgence of one of the basest lusts of man in his degeneracy.</P>
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<P>
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(4.) They pray his judgment in the case: "<I>But what sayest thou,</I>
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who pretendest to be a teacher come from God to repeal old laws and
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enact new ones? What hast thou to say in this case?" If they had asked
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this question in sincerity, with a humble desire to know his mind, it
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had been very commendable. Those that are entrusted with the
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administration of justice should look up to Christ for direction; but
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<I>this they said tempting him, that they might have to accuse him,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>.
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[1.] If he should confirm the sentence of the law, and let it take its
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course, they would censure him as inconsistent with himself (he having
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received publicans and harlots) and with the character of the Messiah,
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who should be meek, and have salvation, and proclaim a year of release;
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and perhaps they would accuse him to the Roman governor, for
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countenancing the Jews in the exercise of a judicial power. But,
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[2.] If he should acquit her, and give his opinion that the sentence
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should not be executed (as they expected he would), they would
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represent him, <I>First,</I> As an enemy to the law of Moses, and as
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one that usurped an authority to correct and control it, and would
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confirm that prejudice against him which his enemies were so
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industrious to propagate, that he came to <I>destroy the law and the
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prophets. Secondly,</I> As a friend to sinners, and, consequently, a
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favourer of sin; if he should seem to connive at such wickedness, and
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let it go unpunished, they would represent him as countenancing it, and
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being a patron of offences, if he was a protector of offenders, than
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which no reflection could be more invidious upon one that professed the
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strictness, purity, and business of a prophet.</P>
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<P>
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2. The method he took to resolve this case, and so to break this
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snare.</P>
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<P>
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(1.) He seemed to slight it, and turned a deaf ear to it: He <I>stooped
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down, and wrote on the ground.</I> It is impossible to tell, and
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therefore needless to ask, what he wrote; but this is the only mention
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made in the gospels of Christ's writing. Eusebius indeed speaks of his
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writing to Abgarus, king of Edessa. Some think they have a liberty of
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conjecture as to what he wrote here. Grotius says, It was some grave
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weighty saying, and that it was usual for wise men, when they were very
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thoughtful concerning any thing, to do so. Jerome and Ambrose suppose
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he wrote, <I>Let the names of these wicked men be written in the
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dust.</I> Others this, <I>The earth accuses the earth, but the judgment
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is mine.</I> Christ by this teaches us to be slow to speak when
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difficult cases are proposed to us, not quickly to shoot our bolt; and
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when provocations are given us, or we are bantered, to pause and
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consider before we reply; think twice before we speak once: <I>The
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heart of the wise studies to answer.</I> Our translation from some
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Greek copies, which add, <B><I>me prospoioumenos</I></B> (though most
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copies have it not), give this account of the reason of his writing on
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the ground, <I>as though he heard them not.</I> He did as it were look
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another way, to show that he was not willing to take notice of their
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address, saying, in effect, <I>Who made me a judge or a divider?</I> It
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is safe in many cases to be deaf to that which it is not safe to
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answer,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+38:13">Ps. xxxviii. 13</A>.
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Christ would not have his ministers to be entangled in secular affairs.
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Let them rather employ themselves in any lawful studies, and fill up
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their time in writing on the ground (which nobody will heed), than busy
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themselves in that which does not belong to them. But, when Christ
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seemed as though he heard them not, he made it appear that he not only
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heard their words, but knew their thoughts.</P>
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<P>
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(2.) When they importunately, or rather impertinently, pressed him for
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an answer, he turned the conviction of the prisoner upon the
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prosecutors,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>.</P>
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<P>
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[1.] They <I>continued asking him,</I> and his seeming not to take
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notice of them made them the more vehement; for now they thought sure
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enough that they had run him aground, and that he could not avoid the
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imputation of contradicting either the law of Moses, if he should
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acquit the prisoner, or his own doctrine of mercy and pardon, if he
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should condemn her; and therefore they pushed on their appeal to him
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|
with vigour; whereas they should have construed his disregard of them
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as a check to their design, and an intimation to them to desist, as
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they tendered their own reputation.</P>
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<P>
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[2.] At last he put them all to shame and silence with one word: <I>He
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lifted up himself,</I> awaking as one out of sleep
|
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+78:65">Ps. lxxviii. 65</A>),
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and <I>said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first
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cast a stone at her.</I></P>
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<P>
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|
<I>First,</I> Here Christ avoided the snare which they had laid for
|
|
him, and effectually saved his own reputation. He neither reflected
|
|
upon the law nor excused the prisoner's guilt, nor did he on the other
|
|
hand encourage the prosecution or countenance their heat; see the good
|
|
effect of consideration. When we cannot make our point by steering a
|
|
direct course, it is good to fetch a compass.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly, In the net which they spread is their own foot taken.</I>
|
|
They came with design to accuse him, but they were forced to accuse
|
|
themselves. Christ owns it was fit the prisoner should be prosecuted,
|
|
but appeals to their consciences whether they were fit to be the
|
|
prosecutors.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>a.</I> He here refers to that rule which the law of Moses prescribed
|
|
in the execution of criminals, that the <I>hand of the witnesses must
|
|
be first upon them</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+17:7">Deut. xvii. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
as in the stoning of Stephen,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:58">Acts vii. 58</A>.
|
|
|
|
The scribes and Pharisees were the witnesses against this woman. Now
|
|
Christ puts it to them whether, according to their own law, they would
|
|
dare to be the executioners. Durst they take away that life with their
|
|
hands which they were now taking away with their tongues? would not
|
|
their own consciences fly in their faces if they did?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>b.</I> He builds upon an uncontested maxim in morality, that it is
|
|
very absurd for men to be zealous in punishing the offences of others,
|
|
while they are every whit as guilty themselves, and they are not better
|
|
than self-condemned who judge others, and yet themselves do the same
|
|
thing: "If there be any of you who is <I>without sin,</I> without sin
|
|
of this nature, that has not some time or other been guilty of
|
|
fornication or adultery, let him cast the first stone at her." Not that
|
|
magistrates, who are conscious of guilt themselves, should therefore
|
|
connive at others' guilt. But therefore,
|
|
|
|
(<I>a.</I>) Whenever we find fault with others, we ought to reflect
|
|
upon ourselves, and to be more severe against sin in ourselves than in
|
|
others.
|
|
|
|
(<I>b.</I>) We ought to be favourable, though not to the sins, yet to
|
|
the persons, of those that offend, and to restore them with a <I>spirit
|
|
of meekness,</I> considering ourselves and our own corrupt nature.
|
|
<I>Aut sumus, aut fuimus, vel possumus esse quod hic est--We either
|
|
are, or have been, or may be, what he is.</I> Let this restrain us from
|
|
<I>throwing stones</I> at our brethren, and proclaiming their faults.
|
|
<I>Let him that is without sin</I> begin such discourse as this, and
|
|
then those that are truly humbled for their own sins will blush at it,
|
|
and be glad to <I>let it drop.</I>
|
|
|
|
(<I>c.</I>) Those that are any way obliged to animadvert upon the
|
|
faults of others are concerned to look well to themselves, and keep
|
|
themselves pure
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+7:5">Matt. vii. 5</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>Qui alterum incusat probri, ipsum se intueri oportet.</I> The
|
|
snuffers of the tabernacle were of <I>pure gold.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>c.</I> Perhaps he refers to the trial of the suspected wife by the
|
|
jealous husband with the waters of jealousy. The man was to bring her
|
|
to the priest
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+5:15">Num. v. 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
as the scribes and Pharisees brought this woman to Christ. Now it was a
|
|
received opinion among the Jews, and confirmed by experience, that if
|
|
the husband who brought his wife to that trial had himself been at any
|
|
time guilty of adultery, <I>Aquæ non explorant ejus uxorem--The
|
|
bitter water had no effect upon the wife.</I> "Come then," saith
|
|
Christ, "according to your own tradition will I judge you; if you are
|
|
without sin, stand to the charge, and let the adulteress be executed;
|
|
but if not, though she be guilty, while you that present her are
|
|
equally so, according to your own rule she shall be free."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>d.</I> In this he attended to the great work which he came into the
|
|
world about, and that was to bring sinners to repentance; not to
|
|
destroy, but to save. He aimed to bring, not only the prisoner to
|
|
repentance, by showing her his mercy, but the prosecutors too, by
|
|
showing them their sins. They sought to ensnare him; he sought to
|
|
convince and convert them. Thus <I>the blood-thirsty hate the upright,
|
|
but the just seek his soul.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] Having given them this startling word, he left them to consider of
|
|
it, <I>and again stooped down, and wrote on the ground,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
As when they made their address he seemed to slight their question, so
|
|
now that he had given them an answer he slighted their resentment of
|
|
it, not caring what they said to it; nay, they needed not to make any
|
|
reply; the matter was lodged in their own breasts, let them make the
|
|
best of it there. Or, he would not seem to wait for an answer, lest
|
|
they should on a sudden justify themselves, and then think themselves
|
|
bound in honour to persist in it; but gives them time to pause, and to
|
|
commune with their own hearts. God saith, <I>I hearkened and heard,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+8:6">Jer. viii. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Some Greek copies here read, He <I>wrote on the ground,</I> <B><I>enos
|
|
hekastou auton tas hamartias</I></B>--<I>the sins of every one of
|
|
them;</I> this he could do, for he <I>sets our iniquities before
|
|
him;</I> and this he will do, for he will <I>set them in order</I>
|
|
before us too; he <I>seals up our transgressions,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+14:17">Job xiv. 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
But he does not write men's sins <I>in the sand;</I> no, they are
|
|
written as with a <I>pen of iron</I> and the <I>point of a diamond</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+17:1">Jer. xvii. 1</A>),
|
|
|
|
never to be forgotten till they are forgiven.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[4.] The scribes and Pharisees were so strangely thunderstruck with the
|
|
words of Christ that they let fall their persecution of Christ, whom
|
|
they durst no further tempt, and their prosecution of the woman, whom
|
|
they durst no longer accuse
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They went out one by one.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> Perhaps his writing on the ground frightened them, as the
|
|
hand-writing on the wall frightened Belshazzar. They concluded he was
|
|
writing bitter things against them, writing their doom. Happy they who
|
|
have no reason to be afraid of Christ's writing!</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> What he said frightened them by sending them to their
|
|
own consciences; he had <I>shown them to themselves,</I> and they were
|
|
afraid if they should stay till he lifted up himself again his next
|
|
word would show them to the world, and shame them before men, and
|
|
therefore they thought it best to withdraw. They went out <I>one by
|
|
one,</I> that they might go out <I>softly,</I> and not by a noisy
|
|
flight disturb Christ; they went away by <I>stealth,</I> as <I>people
|
|
being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Sa+19:3">2 Sam. xix. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
The order of their departure is taken notice of, <I>beginning at the
|
|
eldest,</I> either because they were most guilty, or first aware of the
|
|
danger they were in of being put to the blush; and if the eldest quit
|
|
the field, and retreat ingloriously, no marvel if the younger follow
|
|
them. Now see here,
|
|
|
|
1. The <I>force</I> of the word of Christ for the conviction of
|
|
sinners: <I>They who heard it were convicted by their own
|
|
consciences.</I> Conscience is God's deputy in the soul, and one word
|
|
from him will set it on work,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+4:12">Heb. iv. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
Those that had been old in adulteries, and long fixed in a proud
|
|
opinion of themselves, were here, even the oldest of them, startled by
|
|
the word of Christ; even scribes and Pharisees, who were most conceited
|
|
of themselves, are by the power of Christ's word made to retire with
|
|
shame.
|
|
|
|
2. The <I>folly</I> of sinners under these convictions, which appears
|
|
in these scribes and Pharisees.
|
|
|
|
(1.) It is folly for those that are under convictions to make it their
|
|
principal care to <I>avoid shame,</I> as Judah
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+38:23">Gen. xxxviii. 23</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>lest we be shamed.</I> Our care should be more to save our souls
|
|
than to save our credit. Saul evidenced his hypocrisy when he said,
|
|
<I>I have sinned, yet now honour me, I pray thee.</I> There is no way
|
|
to get the honour and comfort of penitents, but by taking the shame of
|
|
penitents.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It is folly for those that are under convictions to contrive how
|
|
to <I>shift off</I> their convictions, and to get rid of them. The
|
|
scribes and Pharisees had the wound <I>opened,</I> and now they should
|
|
have been desirous to have it <I>searched,</I> and then it might have
|
|
been <I>healed,</I> but this was the thing they <I>dreaded</I> and
|
|
<I>declined.</I>
|
|
|
|
(3.) It is folly for those that are under convictions to <I>get away
|
|
from Jesus Christ,</I> as these here did, for he is the only one that
|
|
can heal the wounds of conscience, and speak peace to us. Those that
|
|
are convicted by their consciences will be condemned by their Judge, if
|
|
they be not justified by their Redeemer; and will they then go from
|
|
him? To whom will they go?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[5.] When the <I>self-conceited</I> prosecutors quitted the field, and
|
|
<I>fled for the same,</I> the <I>self-condemned</I> prisoner stood her
|
|
ground, with a resolution to abide by the judgment of our Lord Jesus:
|
|
<I>Jesus was left alone</I> from the company of the scribes and
|
|
Pharisees, free from their molestations, <I>and the woman standing in
|
|
the midst</I> of the assembly that were attending on Christ's
|
|
preaching, where they set her,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
She did not seek to make her escape, though she had opportunity for it;
|
|
but her prosecutors had appealed unto Jesus, and to him she would go,
|
|
on him she would wait for her doom. Note, Those whose cause is brought
|
|
before our Lord Jesus will never have occasion to remove it into any
|
|
other court, for he is the refuge of penitents. The law which accuses
|
|
us, and calls for judgment against us, is by the gospel of Christ made
|
|
to withdraw; its demands are answered, and its clamours silenced, by
|
|
the blood of Jesus. Our cause is lodged in the gospel court; we are
|
|
<I>left with Jesus alone,</I> it is with him only that we have now to
|
|
deal, for to him all judgment is committed; let us therefore secure our
|
|
interest in him, and we are made for ever. Let his gospel <I>rule
|
|
us,</I> and it will infallibly <I>save us.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[6.] Here is the conclusion of the trial, and the issue it was brought
|
|
to: <I>Jesus lifted up himself, and he saw none but the woman,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:10,11"><I>v.</I> 10, 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though Christ may seem to take no notice of what is said and done, but
|
|
leave it to the <I>contending</I> sons of men to <I>deal it out among
|
|
themselves,</I> yet, when the hour of his judgment is come, he will no
|
|
longer keep silence. When David had appealed to God, he prayed, <I>Lift
|
|
up thyself,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+7:6,94:2">Ps. vii. 6, and xciv. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
The woman, it is likely, stood trembling at the bar, as one doubtful of
|
|
the issue. Christ was <I>without sin,</I> and might cast the first
|
|
stone; but though none more severe than he against sin, for he is
|
|
infinitely just and holy, none more compassionate than he to sinners,
|
|
for he is infinitely gracious and merciful, and this poor malefactor
|
|
finds him so, now that she <I>stands upon her deliverance.</I> Here is
|
|
the method of courts of judicature observed.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> The prosecutors are called: <I>Where are those thine
|
|
accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?</I> Not but that Christ knew
|
|
where they were; but he asked, that he might shame them, who declined
|
|
his judgment, and encourage her who resolved to abide by it. St. Paul's
|
|
challenge is like this, <I>Who shall lay any thing to the charge of
|
|
God's elect?</I> Where are those their accusers? The <I>accuser of the
|
|
brethren shall</I> be fairly <I>cast out,</I> and all indictments
|
|
legally and regularly quashed.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> They do not appear when the question is asked: <I>Hath
|
|
no man condemned thee?</I> She said, <I>No man, Lord.</I> She speaks
|
|
respectfully to Christ, calls him <I>Lord,</I> but is silent concerning
|
|
her prosecutors, says nothing in answer to that question which
|
|
concerned them, <I>Where are those thine accusers?</I> She does not
|
|
triumph in their retreat nor insult over them as witnesses against
|
|
themselves, not against her. If we hope to be forgiven by our Judge, we
|
|
must forgive our accusers; and if their accusations, how invidious
|
|
soever, were the happy occasion of awakening our consciences, we may
|
|
easily <I>forgive them this wrong.</I> But she answered the question
|
|
which concerned herself, <I>Has no man condemned thee?</I> True
|
|
penitents find it enough to give an account of themselves to God, and
|
|
will not undertake to give an account of other people.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Thirdly,</I> The prisoner is therefore discharged: <I>Neither do I
|
|
condemn thee; go, and sin no more.</I> Consider this,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(<I>a.</I>) As her discharge from the temporal punishment: "If they do
|
|
not condemn thee to be <I>stoned to death,</I> neither <I>do I.</I>"
|
|
Not that Christ came to disarm the magistrate of his sword of justice,
|
|
nor that it is his will that capital punishments should not be
|
|
inflicted on malefactors; so far from this, the administration of
|
|
public justice is established by the gospel, and made subservient to
|
|
Christ's kingdom: <I>By me kings reign.</I> But Christ would not
|
|
condemn this woman,
|
|
|
|
(<I>a.</I>) Because it was <I>none of his business;</I> he was no judge
|
|
nor divider, and therefore would not intermeddle in secular affairs.
|
|
His <I>kingdom</I> was <I>not of this world. Tractent fabrilia
|
|
fabri--Let every one act in his own province.</I>
|
|
|
|
(<I>b.</I>) Because she was prosecuted by those that were more guilty
|
|
than she and could not for shame insist upon their demand of justice
|
|
against her. The law appointed the hands of the witnesses to be first
|
|
upon the criminal, and afterwards the hands of all the people, so that
|
|
if they fly off, and do not condemn her, the prosecution drops. The
|
|
justice of God, in inflicting temporal judgments, sometimes takes
|
|
notice of a <I>comparative righteousness,</I> and spares those who are
|
|
otherwise obnoxious when the punishing of them would gratify those that
|
|
are worse than they,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:26,27">Deut. xxxii. 26, 27</A>.
|
|
|
|
But, when Christ dismissed her, it was with this caution, <I>Go, and
|
|
sin no more.</I> Impunity emboldens malefactors, and therefore those
|
|
who are guilty, and yet have found means to escape the edge of the law,
|
|
need to double their watch, <I>lest Satan get advantage;</I> for the
|
|
fairer the escape was, the fairer the warning was to go and sin no
|
|
more. Those who help to save the life of a criminal should, as Christ
|
|
here, help to save the soul with this caution.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(<I>b.</I>) As her discharge from the eternal punishment. For Christ to
|
|
say, <I>I do not condemn thee</I> is, in effect, to say, <I>I do
|
|
forgive thee;</I> and the <I>Son of man had power on earth to forgive
|
|
sins,</I> and could upon good grounds give this absolution; for as he
|
|
knew the hardness and impenitent hearts of the prosecutors, and
|
|
therefore said that which would confound them, so he knew the
|
|
tenderness and sincere repentance of the prisoner, and therefore said
|
|
that which would comfort her, as he did to that woman who was a sinner,
|
|
such a sinner as this, who was likewise looked upon with disdain by a
|
|
Pharisee
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+7:48,50">Luke vii. 48, 50</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.</I> So here, <I>Neither do
|
|
I condemn thee.</I> Note,
|
|
|
|
(<I>a.</I>) Those are truly happy whom Christ <I>doth not condemn,</I>
|
|
for his discharge is a sufficient answer to all other challenges; they
|
|
are all <I>coram non judice--before an unauthorized judge.</I>
|
|
|
|
(<I>b.</I>) Christ will not condemn those who, though they have sinned,
|
|
will <I>go and sin no more,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+85:8,Isa+55:7">Ps. lxxxv. 8; Isa. lv. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
He will not take the advantage he has against us for our former
|
|
rebellions, if we will but lay down our arms and return to our
|
|
allegiance.
|
|
|
|
(<I>c.</I>) Christ's favour to us in the remission of the sins that are
|
|
past should be a prevailing argument with us to <I>go and sin no
|
|
more,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+6:1,2">Rom. vi. 1, 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
Will not Christ condemn thee? Go then and sin no more.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_12"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_13"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_14"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_15"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_16"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_17"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_18"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_19"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_20"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Christ's Discourse with the Pharisees.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of
|
|
the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
|
|
shall have the light of life.
|
|
13 The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record
|
|
of thyself; thy record is not true.
|
|
14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of
|
|
myself, <I>yet</I> my record is true: for I know whence I came, and
|
|
whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.
|
|
15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.
|
|
16 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone,
|
|
but I and the Father that sent me.
|
|
17 It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two
|
|
men is true.
|
|
18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that
|
|
sent me beareth witness of me.
|
|
19 Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus
|
|
answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me,
|
|
ye should have known my Father also.
|
|
20 These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the
|
|
temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet
|
|
come.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The rest of the chapter is taken up with debates between Christ and
|
|
contradicting sinners, who cavilled at the most gracious words that
|
|
proceeded out of his mouth. It is not certain whether these disputes
|
|
were the same day that the adulteress was discharged; it is probable
|
|
they were, for the evangelist mentions no other day, and takes notice
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>)
|
|
|
|
how early Christ began that day's work. Though those Pharisees that
|
|
accused the woman had absconded, yet there were other Pharisees
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>)
|
|
|
|
to confront Christ, who had brass enough in their foreheads to keep
|
|
them in countenance, though some of their party were put to such a
|
|
shameful retreat; nay perhaps that made them the more industrious to
|
|
pick quarrels with him, to retrieve, if possible, the reputation of
|
|
their baffled party. In these verses we have,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. A great doctrine laid down, with the application of it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The doctrine is, <I>That Christ is the light of the world</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Then spoke Jesus again unto them;</I> though he had spoken a great
|
|
deal to them to little purpose, and what he had said was opposed, yet
|
|
he <I>spoke again,</I> for he <I>speaketh once, yea, twice.</I> They
|
|
had turned a deaf ear to what he said, and yet he <I>spoke again to
|
|
them,</I> saying, <I>I am the light of the world.</I> Note, Jesus
|
|
Christ is the light of the world. One of the rabbies saith,
|
|
<I>Light</I> is the name of the Messiah, as it is written,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Da+2:22">Dan. ii. 22</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>And light dwelleth with him.</I> God is light, and Christ is <I>the
|
|
image of the invisible God;</I> God of gods, Light of lights. He was
|
|
expected to be a <I>light to enlighten the Gentiles</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+2:32">Luke ii. 32</A>),
|
|
|
|
and so the <I>light of the world,</I> and not of the Jewish church
|
|
only. The visible light of the world is the sun, and Christ is the
|
|
<I>Sun of righteousness.</I> One sun enlightens the whole world, so
|
|
does one Christ, and there needs no more. Christ in calling himself the
|
|
light expresses,
|
|
|
|
(1.) What he is in himself--most excellent and glorious.
|
|
|
|
(2.) What he is to the world--the fountain of light, enlightening every
|
|
man. What a dungeon would the world be without the sun! So would it be
|
|
without Christ by whom <I>light came into the world,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+3:19"><I>ch.</I> iii. 19</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The inference from this doctrine is, <I>He that followeth me,</I> as
|
|
a traveller follows the light in a dark night, <I>shall not walk in
|
|
darkness,</I> but <I>shall have the light of life.</I> If Christ be the
|
|
light, then,
|
|
|
|
(1.) It is our duty to <I>follow him,</I> to submit ourselves to his
|
|
guidance, and in every thing take directions from him, in the way that
|
|
leads to happiness. Many follow <I>false lights--ignes fatui,</I> that
|
|
lead them to destruction; but Christ is the <I>true light.</I> It is
|
|
not enough to <I>look at</I> this light, and to <I>gaze</I> upon it,
|
|
but we must follow it, believe in it, and walk in it, for it is a light
|
|
to <I>our feet,</I> not <I>our eyes</I> only.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It is the happiness of those who follow Christ that they <I>shall
|
|
not walk in darkness.</I> They shall not be left destitute of those
|
|
instructions in the way of truth which are necessary to keep them from
|
|
destroying error, and those directions in the way of duty which are
|
|
necessary to keep them from damning sin. They shall have the <I>light
|
|
of life,</I> that knowledge and enjoyment of God which will be to them
|
|
the light of spiritual life in this world and of everlasting life in
|
|
the other world, where there will be no death nor darkness. Follow
|
|
Christ, and we shall undoubtedly be happy in both worlds. Follow
|
|
Christ, and we shall follow him to heaven.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The objection which the Pharisees made against this doctrine, and
|
|
it was very trifling and frivolous: <I>Thou bearest record of thyself;
|
|
thy record is not true,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
In this objection they went upon the suspicion which we commonly have
|
|
of men's self-condemnation, which is concluded to be the native
|
|
language of self-love, such as we are all ready to condemn in others,
|
|
but few are willing to own in themselves. But in this case the
|
|
objection was very unjust, for,
|
|
|
|
1. They made that his crime, and a diminution to the credibility of his
|
|
doctrine, which in the case of one who introduced a divine revelation
|
|
was necessary and unavoidable. Did not Moses and all the prophets bear
|
|
witness of themselves when they avouched themselves to be God's
|
|
messengers? Did not the Pharisees ask John Baptist, <I>What sayest thou
|
|
of thyself?</I>
|
|
|
|
2. They overlooked the testimony of all the other witnesses, which
|
|
corroborated the testimony he bore of himself. Had he only borne record
|
|
of himself, his testimony had indeed been <I>suspicious,</I> and the
|
|
belief of it might have been <I>suspended;</I> but his doctrine was
|
|
attested by more than <I>two or three</I> credible <I>witnesses,</I>
|
|
enough to <I>establish every word</I> of it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. Christ's reply to this objection,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
He does not retort upon them as he might ("You profess yourselves to be
|
|
devout and good men, but your witness is not <I>true</I>"), but
|
|
plainly vindicates himself; and, though he had waived his own testimony
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+5:31"><I>ch.</I> v. 31</A>),
|
|
|
|
yet here he abides by it, that it did not derogate from the credibility
|
|
of his other proofs, but was necessary to show the force of them. He is
|
|
the light of the world, and it is the property of light to be
|
|
self-evidencing. First principles prove themselves. He urges three
|
|
things to prove that his testimony, though of himself, was true and
|
|
cogent.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. That he was conscious to himself of his own authority, and
|
|
abundantly satisfied in himself concerning it. He did not speak as one
|
|
at uncertainty, nor propose a disputable notion, about which he himself
|
|
hesitated, but <I>declared a decree,</I> and gave such an account of
|
|
himself as he would <I>abide by: I know whence I came, and whither I
|
|
go.</I> He was fully apprised of his own undertaking from first to
|
|
last; knew whose errand he went upon, and what his success would be. He
|
|
knew what he <I>was</I> before his manifestation to the world, and what
|
|
he <I>should be</I> after; that he came <I>from the Father,</I> and was
|
|
going <I>to him</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+16:28"><I>ch.</I> xvi. 28</A>),
|
|
|
|
came <I>from glory,</I> and was going <I>to glory,</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+17:5"><I>ch.</I> xvii. 5</A>).
|
|
|
|
This is the satisfaction of all good Christians, that though the world
|
|
know them not, as it knew him not, yet they know whence their spiritual
|
|
life comes, and whither it tends, and go upon sure grounds.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. That they are very incompetent judges of him, and of his doctrine,
|
|
and not to be regarded.
|
|
|
|
(1.) Because they were <I>ignorant,</I> willingly and resolvedly
|
|
<I>ignorant: You cannot tell whence I came, and whither I go.</I> To
|
|
what purpose is it to talk with those who know nothing of the matter,
|
|
nor desire to know? He had told them of his coming from heaven and
|
|
returning to heaven, but it was <I>foolishness to them,</I> they
|
|
<I>received it not;</I> it was what the <I>brutish man knows not,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+92:6">Ps. xcii. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
They took upon them to judge of that which they did not understand,
|
|
which lay quite out of the road of their acquaintance. Those that
|
|
despise Christ's dominions and dignities speak evil of what they
|
|
<I>know not,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jude+1:8,10">Jude, <I>v.</I> 8, 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Because they were <I>partial</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>You judge after the flesh.</I> When fleshly wisdom gives the rule of
|
|
judgment, and outward appearances only are given in evidence, and the
|
|
case decided according to them, then men <I>judge after the flesh;</I>
|
|
and when the consideration of a secular interest turns the scale in
|
|
judging of spiritual matters, when we judge in favour of that which
|
|
pleases the carnal mind, and recommends us to a carnal world, we judge
|
|
after the flesh; and the judgment cannot be right when the rule is
|
|
wrong. The Jews judged of Christ and his gospel by outward appearances,
|
|
and, because he appeared so mean, thought it impossible he should be
|
|
the light of the world; as if the sun under a cloud were no sun.
|
|
|
|
(3.) Because they were <I>unjust</I> and <I>unfair</I> towards him,
|
|
intimated in this: "<I>I judge no man;</I> I neither make nor meddle
|
|
with your political affairs, nor does my doctrine or practice at all
|
|
intrench upon, or interfere with, your civil rights or secular powers."
|
|
He thus <I>judged no man.</I> Now, if he did not <I>war after the
|
|
flesh,</I> it was very unreasonable for them to <I>judge him after the
|
|
flesh,</I> and to treat him as an offender against the civil
|
|
government. Or, "<I>I judge no man,</I>" that is, "not now in my first
|
|
coming, that is deferred till I come again,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+3:17"><I>ch.</I> iii. 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Prima dispensatio Christi medicinalis est, non judicialis--The first
|
|
coming of Christ was for the purpose of administering, not justice, but
|
|
medicine.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. That his testimony of himself was sufficiently supported and
|
|
corroborated by the testimony of his Father <I>with him and for him</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>And yet, if I judge, my judgment is true.</I> He did in his doctrine
|
|
judge
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+9:39"><I>ch.</I> ix. 39</A>),
|
|
|
|
though not <I>politically.</I> Consider him then,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) As a judge, and his own judgment was valid: "<I>If I judge,</I> I
|
|
who have authority to execute judgments, I to whom all things are
|
|
delivered, I who am the Son of God, and have the Spirit of God, if I
|
|
judge, <I>my judgment is true,</I> of incontestable rectitude and
|
|
uncontrollable authority,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+2:2">Rom. ii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>If</I> I <I>should judge,</I> my judgment must be true, and then you
|
|
would be condemned; but the judgment-day is not yet come, you are not
|
|
yet to be condemned, but spared, and therefore now <I>I judge no
|
|
man;</I>" so Chrysostom. Now that which makes his judgment
|
|
unexceptionable is,
|
|
|
|
[1.] His Father's concurrence with him: <I>I am not alone, but I and
|
|
the Father.</I> He has the Father's concurring <I>counsels</I> to
|
|
<I>direct;</I> as he was with the Father before the world in forming
|
|
the counsels, so the Father was with him in the world in prosecuting
|
|
and executing those counsels, and never left him <I>inops
|
|
consilii--without advice,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+11:2">Isa. xi. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
All the <I>counsels of peace</I> (and of war too) <I>were between them
|
|
both,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+6:13">Zech. vi. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
He had also the Father's concurring power to authorize and confirm what
|
|
he did; see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+89:21,Isa+42:1">Ps. lxxxix. 21, &c.; Isa. xlii. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
He did not act <I>separately,</I> but in his own name and his Father's,
|
|
and <I>by the authority aforesaid,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+5:17,14:9,10"><I>ch.</I> v. 17, and xiv. 9, 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
[2.] His Father's commission to him: "It is the Father that <I>sent
|
|
me.</I>" Note, God will go along with those that he sends; see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+3:10,12">Exod. iii. 10, 12</A>:
|
|
|
|
<I>Come, and I will send thee,</I> and <I>certainly I will be with
|
|
thee.</I> Now, if Christ had a <I>commission</I> from the Father, and
|
|
the Father's <I>presence</I> with him in all his administrations, no
|
|
doubt his <I>judgment</I> was <I>true</I> and valid; no exception lay
|
|
<I>against</I> it, no appeal lay <I>from</I> it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Look upon him as <I>a witness,</I> and now he appeared no
|
|
otherwise (having not as yet taken the throne of judgment), and as such
|
|
his testimony was true and unexceptionable; this he shows,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:17,18"><I>v.</I> 17, 18</A>,
|
|
|
|
where,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] He quotes a maxim of the Jewish law,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
That <I>the testimony of two men is true.</I> Not as if it were always
|
|
true <I>in itself,</I> for many a time hand has been joined in hand to
|
|
bear a <I>false</I> testimony,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ki+21:10">1 Kings xxi. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
But it is allowed as sufficient evidence upon which to ground a verdict
|
|
(<I>verum dictum</I>), and if nothing appear to the contrary it is
|
|
taken for granted to be <I>true.</I> Reference is here had to that law
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+17:6">Deut. xvii. 6</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>At the mouth of two witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be
|
|
put to death.</I> And see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+9:15,Nu+35:30">Deut. ix. 15; Num. xxxv. 30</A>.
|
|
|
|
It was in <I>favour of life</I> that in capital cases two witnesses wee
|
|
required, as with us in case of treason. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+6:18">Heb. vi. 18</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] He applies this to the case in hand
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me
|
|
bears witness of me.</I> Behold two witnesses! Though in human courts,
|
|
where two witnesses are required, the criminal or candidate is not
|
|
admitted to be a witness for himself; yet in a matter purely divine,
|
|
which can be proved only by a divine testimony, and God himself must be
|
|
the witness, if the formality of two or three witnesses be insisted on,
|
|
there can be no other than the eternal Father, the eternal Son of the
|
|
Father, and the eternal Spirit. Now if the testimony of two distinct
|
|
persons, that are <I>men,</I> and therefore may deceive or be deceived,
|
|
is conclusive, much more ought the testimony of the Son of God
|
|
concerning himself, backed with the testimony of his Father concerning
|
|
him, to command assent; see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+5:7,9-11">1 John v. 7, 9-11</A>.
|
|
|
|
Now this proves not only that the Father and the Son are two distinct
|
|
persons (for their respective testimonies are here spoken of as the
|
|
testimonies of two several persons), but that these two are one, not
|
|
only one in their testimony, but equal in power and glory, and
|
|
therefore the same in substance. St. Austin here takes occasion to
|
|
caution his hearers against Sabellianism on the one hand, which
|
|
confounded the persons in the Godhead, and Arianism on the other, which
|
|
denied the Godhead of the Son and Spirit. <I>Alius est filius, et alius
|
|
pater, non tamed aliud, sed hoc ipsum est et pater, et filius, scilicet
|
|
unus Deus est--The Son is one Person, and the Father is another; they
|
|
do not, however, constitute two Beings, but the Father is the same
|
|
Being that the Son is, that is, the only true God.</I> Tract. 36,
|
|
<I>in</I> Joann. Christ here speaks of himself and the Father as
|
|
witnesses to the world, giving in evidence to the reason and conscience
|
|
of the children of men, whom he deals with as men. And these witnesses
|
|
<I>to</I> the world now will in the great day be witnesses
|
|
<I>against</I> those that persist in unbelief, and <I>their</I> word
|
|
will judge men.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
This was the sum of the first conference between Christ and these
|
|
carnal Jews, in the conclusion of which we are told how their tongues
|
|
were let loose, and their hands tied.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> How their tongues were let loose (such was the malice of
|
|
hell) to cavil at his discourse,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though in what he said there appeared nothing of human policy or
|
|
artifice, but a divine security, yet they set themselves to <I>cross
|
|
questions</I> with him. None so incurably <I>blind</I> as those that
|
|
resolve they <I>will not see.</I> Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>a.</I> How they evaded the <I>conviction</I> with a <I>cavil: Then
|
|
said they unto him, Where is thy Father?</I> They might easily have
|
|
understood, by the tenour of this and his other discourses, that when
|
|
he spoke of his <I>Father</I> he meant no other than God himself; yet
|
|
they pretend to understand him of a common person, and, since he
|
|
appeals to his testimony, they bid him <I>call his witness,</I> and
|
|
challenge him, if he can, to produce him: <I>Where is thy Father?</I>
|
|
Thus, as Christ said of them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
they <I>judge after the flesh.</I> Perhaps they hereby intend a
|
|
reflection upon the meanness and obscurity of his family: <I>Where is
|
|
thy Father,</I> that he should be fit to give evidence in such a case
|
|
as this? Thus they turned it off with a taunt, when they <I>could not
|
|
resist the wisdom and spirit with which he spoke.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>b.</I> How he evaded the <I>cavil</I> with a further
|
|
<I>conviction;</I> he did not tell them where his Father was, but
|
|
charged them with wilful ignorance: "<I>You neither know me nor my
|
|
Father.</I> It is to no purpose to discourse to you about divine
|
|
things, who talk of them as blind men do of colours. Poor creatures!
|
|
you know nothing of the matter."
|
|
|
|
(<I>a.</I>) He charges them with ignorance of God: "<I>You know not my
|
|
Father.</I>" In Judah was God known
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+76:1">Ps. lxxvi. 1</A>);
|
|
|
|
they had some knowledge of him as the God that made the world, but
|
|
their eyes were darkened that they could not see the light of his glory
|
|
shining <I>in the face of Jesus Christ.</I> The <I>little children</I>
|
|
of the Christian church <I>know the Father,</I> know him as a Father
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+2:13">1 John ii. 13</A>);
|
|
|
|
but these rulers of the Jews did not, because they would not so know
|
|
him.
|
|
|
|
(<I>b.</I>) He shows them the true cause of their ignorance of God:
|
|
<I>If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.</I> The
|
|
reason why men are ignorant of God is because they are unacquainted
|
|
with Jesus Christ. Did we know Christ,
|
|
|
|
[<I>a.</I>] In knowing him we should know the Father, of whose person
|
|
he is the express image,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+14:9"><I>ch.</I> xiv. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
Chrysostom proves hence the Godhead of Christ, and his equality with
|
|
his Father. We cannot say, "He that knows a man knows an angel," or,
|
|
"He that knows a creature knows the Creator;" but he that knows Christ
|
|
knows the Father.
|
|
|
|
[<I>b.</I>] By him we should be instructed in the knowledge of God, and
|
|
introduced into an acquaintance with him. If we <I>knew Christ</I>
|
|
better, we should <I>know the Father</I> better; but, where the
|
|
Christian religion is slighted and opposed, natural religion will soon
|
|
be lost and laid aside. Deism makes way for atheism. Those become vain
|
|
in their imaginations concerning God that will not learn of Christ.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> See how their hands were tied, though their tongues
|
|
were thus let loose; such was the power of Heaven to restrain the
|
|
malice of hell. <I>These words spoke Jesus,</I> these bold words, these
|
|
words of conviction and reproof, <I>in the treasury,</I> an apartment
|
|
of the temple, where, to be sure, the chief priests, whose gain was
|
|
their godliness, were mostly resident, attending the business of the
|
|
revenue. Christ <I>taught in the temple,</I> sometimes in one part,
|
|
sometimes in another, as he saw occasion. Now the priests who had so
|
|
great a concern in the temple, and looked upon it as their
|
|
<I>demesne,</I> might easily, with the assistance of the janizaries
|
|
that were at their beck, either have seized him and exposed him to the
|
|
rage of the mob, and that punishment which they called the <I>beating
|
|
of the rebels;</I> or, at least, have <I>silenced</I> him, and stopped
|
|
his mouth there, as Amos, though tolerated in the land of Judah, was
|
|
forbidden to prophesy in the king's chapel,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Am+7:12,13">Amos, vii. 12, 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
Yet even <I>in the temple,</I> where they had him in their reach, <I>no
|
|
man laid hands on him,</I> for <I>his hour was not yet come.</I> See
|
|
here,
|
|
|
|
1. The restraint laid upon his persecutors by an invisible power; none
|
|
of them durst meddle with him. God can set bounds to the wrath of men,
|
|
as he does to the waves of the sea. Let us not therefore fear danger in
|
|
the way of duty; for God hath Satan and all his instruments in a chain.
|
|
|
|
2. The reason of this restraint: <I>His hour was not yet come.</I> The
|
|
frequent mention of this intimates how much the time of our departure
|
|
out of the world depends upon the fixed counsel and decree of God. It
|
|
<I>will</I> come, it is coming; not yet come, but it is at hand. Our
|
|
enemies cannot hasten it any sooner, nor our friends delay it any
|
|
longer, than the time appointed of the Father, which is very
|
|
comfortable to every good man, who can look up and say with pleasure,
|
|
<I>My times are in thy hands;</I> and better there than in our own. His
|
|
hour was not yet come, because his work was not done, nor his testimony
|
|
finished. To all God's purposes <I>there is a time.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_21"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_22"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_24"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_25"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_26"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_27"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_28"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_29"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_30"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Christ's Discourse with the Pharisees.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall
|
|
seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot
|
|
come.
|
|
22 Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith,
|
|
Whither I go, ye cannot come.
|
|
23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above:
|
|
ye are of this world; I am not of this world.
|
|
24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins:
|
|
for if ye believe not that I am <I>he,</I> ye shall die in your sins.
|
|
25 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto
|
|
them, Even <I>the same</I> that I said unto you from the beginning.
|
|
26 I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that
|
|
sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I
|
|
have heard of him.
|
|
27 They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
|
|
28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of
|
|
man, then shall ye know that I am <I>he,</I> and <I>that</I> I do nothing
|
|
of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
|
|
29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me
|
|
alone; for I do always those things that please him.
|
|
30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Christ here gives fair warning to the careless unbelieving Jews to
|
|
consider what would be the consequence of their infidelity, that they
|
|
might prevent it before it was too late; for he spoke words of terror
|
|
as well as words of grace. Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The wrath threatened
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Jesus said again unto them</I> that which might be likely to do them
|
|
good. He continued to teach, in kindness to those few who received his
|
|
doctrine, though there were many that resisted it, which is an example
|
|
to ministers to go on with their work, notwithstanding opposition,
|
|
because a remnant shall be saved. Here Christ changes his voice; he
|
|
had <I>piped to them</I> in the offers of his grace, and they <I>had
|
|
not danced;</I> now he mourns to them in the denunciations of his
|
|
wrath, to try if they would lament. He said, <I>I go my way, and you
|
|
shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go you cannot
|
|
come.</I> Every word is terrible, and bespeaks spiritual judgments,
|
|
which are the sorest of all judgments; worse than war, pestilence, and
|
|
captivity, which the Old-Testament prophets denounced. Four things are
|
|
here threatened against the Jews.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Christ's departure from them: <I>I go my way,</I> that is, "It shall
|
|
not be long before I go; you need not take so much pains to drive me
|
|
from you, I shall go of myself." They said to him, <I>Depart from us,
|
|
we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;</I> and he takes them at their
|
|
word; but woe to those from whom Christ departs. Ichabod, the glory is
|
|
gone, our defence is departed, when Christ goes. Christ frequently
|
|
warned them of his departure before he left them: he <I>bade often
|
|
farewell,</I> as one <I>loth to depart,</I> and willing to be invited,
|
|
and that would have them <I>stir up themselves to take hold on
|
|
him.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Their enmity to the true Messiah, and their fruitless and infatuated
|
|
enquiries after another Messiah when he was gone away, which were both
|
|
their sin and their punishment: <I>You shall seek me,</I> which
|
|
intimates either,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Their <I>enmity</I> to the <I>true Christ:</I> "You shall seek to
|
|
ruin my interest, by persecuting my doctrine and followers, with a
|
|
fruitless design to root them out." This was a continual vexation and
|
|
torment to themselves, made them incurably <I>ill-natured,</I> and
|
|
brought <I>wrath upon them</I> (God's and their own) <I>to the
|
|
uttermost.</I> Or,
|
|
|
|
(2.) Their <I>enquiries</I> after <I>false Christs:</I> "You shall
|
|
continue your expectations of the Messiah, and be the self-perplexing
|
|
seekers of a Christ to come, when he is already come;" like the
|
|
Sodomites, who, being struck with blindness, wearied themselves to find
|
|
the door. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+9:31,32">Rom. ix. 31, 32</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. Their final impenitency: <I>You shall die in your sins.</I> Here is
|
|
an error in all our English Bibles, even the old bishops' translation,
|
|
and that of Geneva (the Rhemists only excepted), for all the Greek
|
|
copies have it in the singular number, <B><I>en te hamartia
|
|
hymon</I></B>--<I>in your sin,</I> so all the Latin versions; and
|
|
Calvin has a note upon the difference between this and
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>,
|
|
|
|
where it is plural, <B><I>tais hamartiais</I></B>, that here it is
|
|
meant especially of the sin of unbelief, <I>in hoc peccato vestro--in
|
|
this sin of yours.</I> Note, Those that live in unbelief are for ever
|
|
undone if they die in unbelief. Or, it may be understood in general,
|
|
<I>You shall die in your iniquity,</I> as
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+3:19,33:9">Ezek. iii. 19, and xxxiii. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
Many that have long lived in sin are, through grace, saved by a timely
|
|
repentance from <I>dying in sin;</I> but for those who go out of this
|
|
world of probation into that of retribution under the guilt of sin
|
|
unpardoned, and the power of sin unbroken, there remaineth no relief:
|
|
salvation itself cannot save them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+20:11,Eze+32:27">Job xx. 11; Ezek. xxxii. 27</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. Their eternal separation from Christ and all happiness in him:
|
|
<I>Whither I go you cannot come.</I> When Christ left the world, he
|
|
went to a state of perfect happiness; he went to paradise. Thither he
|
|
took the penitent thief with him, that did not die in his sins; but the
|
|
impenitent not only <I>shall not</I> come to him, but they
|
|
<I>cannot;</I> it is morally impossible, for heaven would not be heaven
|
|
to those that die unsanctified and unmeet for it. You cannot come,
|
|
because you have <I>no right</I> to enter into that Jerusalem,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+22:14">Rev. xxii. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Whither I go you cannot come,</I> to fetch me thence, so Dr.
|
|
Whitby; and the same is the comfort of all good Christians, that, when
|
|
they get to heaven, they will be out of the reach of their enemies'
|
|
malice.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The jest they made of this threatening. Instead of trembling at
|
|
this word, they bantered it, and turned it into ridicule
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Will he kill himself?</I> See here,
|
|
|
|
1. What slight thoughts they had of Christ's threatenings; they could
|
|
make themselves and one another merry with them, as those that mocked
|
|
the messengers of the Lord, and turned the <I>burden of the word of the
|
|
Lord</I> into a <I>by-word,</I> and <I>precept upon precept, line upon
|
|
line,</I> into a merry song,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+28:13">Isa. xxviii. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
But <I>be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong.</I>
|
|
|
|
2. What ill thoughts they had of Christ's meaning, as if he had an
|
|
inhuman design upon his own life, to avoid the indignities done him,
|
|
like Saul. This is indeed (say they) to go whither we cannot follow
|
|
him, for we will never <I>kill ourselves.</I> Thus they make him not
|
|
only such a one as themselves, but worse; yet in the calamities brought
|
|
by the Romans upon the Jews many of them in discontent and despair did
|
|
kill themselves. They had put a much more favourable construction upon
|
|
this word of his
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+7:34,35"><I>ch.</I> vii. 34, 35</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Will he go to the dispersed among the Gentiles?</I> But see how
|
|
indulged malice grows more and more malicious.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The confirmation of what he had said.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. He had said, <I>Whither I go you cannot come,</I> and here he gives
|
|
the reason for this
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:23"><I>v.</I> 23</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>You are from beneath, I am from above; you are of this world, I am
|
|
not of this world.</I> You are <B><I>ek ton kato</I></B>--<I>of those
|
|
things which are beneath;</I> noting, not so much their rise from
|
|
beneath as their affection to these lower things: "You are <I>in with
|
|
these things,</I> as those that belong to them; how can you come where
|
|
I go, when your spirit and disposition are so directly contrary to
|
|
mine?" See here,
|
|
|
|
(1.) What the <I>spirit of the Lord Jesus</I> was--not of <I>this
|
|
world,</I> but from <I>above.</I> He was perfectly dead to the wealth
|
|
of the world, the ease of the body, and the praise of men, and was
|
|
wholly taken up with divine and heavenly things; and none shall be with
|
|
him but those who are <I>born from above</I> and have their
|
|
<I>conversation in heaven.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) How contrary to this <I>their</I> spirit was: "<I>You are from
|
|
beneath,</I> and of this world." The Pharisees were of a carnal worldly
|
|
spirit; and what communion could Christ have with them?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He had said, <I>You shall die in your sins,</I> and here he stand to
|
|
it: "Therefore I said, You shall die in your sins, because <I>you are
|
|
from beneath;</I>" and he gives this further reason for it, <I>If you
|
|
believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
See here,
|
|
|
|
(1.) What we are required to believe: <I>that I am he,</I> <B><I>hoti
|
|
ego eimi</I></B>--<I>that I am,</I> which is one of God's names,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+3:14">Exod. iii. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
It was the Son of God that there said, <I>Ehejeh asher Ehejeh--I will
|
|
be what I will be;</I> for the deliverance of Israel was but a figure
|
|
of good things to come, but now he saith, "<I>I am he;</I> he that
|
|
should come, he that you expect the Messias to be, that you would have
|
|
me to be to you. I am more than the bare name of the Messiah; I do not
|
|
only call myself so, but I <I>am he.</I>" True faith does not
|
|
<I>amuse</I> the soul with an empty sound of words, but <I>affects</I>
|
|
it with the doctrine of Christ's mediation, as a real thing that has
|
|
real effects.
|
|
|
|
(2.) How necessary it is that we believe this. If we have not this
|
|
faith, <I>we shall die in our sins;</I> for the matter is so settled
|
|
that without this faith,
|
|
|
|
[1.] We cannot be saved from the power of sin while we live, and
|
|
therefore shall certainly continue in it to the last. Nothing but the
|
|
<I>doctrine</I> of Christ's grace will be an argument powerful enough,
|
|
and none but the <I>Spirit</I> of Christ's grace will be an agent
|
|
powerful enough, to turn us from sin to God; and that Spirit is given,
|
|
and that doctrine given, to be effectual to those only who believe in
|
|
Christ: so that, if Satan be not by faith dispossessed, he has a lease
|
|
of the soul for its life; if Christ do not cure us, our case is
|
|
desperate, and we shall <I>die in our sins.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] Without faith we cannot be saved from the punishment of sin when
|
|
we die, for the <I>wrath of God remains</I> upon them that believe not,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mk+16:16">Mark xvi. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
Unbelief is the damning sin; it is a sin against the remedy. Now this
|
|
implies the great gospel promise: <I>If we believe that Christ is
|
|
he,</I> and receive him accordingly, <I>we shall not die in our
|
|
sins.</I> The law saith absolutely to all, as Christ said
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>You shall die in your sins,</I> for we are all guilty before God;
|
|
but the gospel is a defeasance of the obligation upon condition of
|
|
believing. The curse of the law is vacated and annulled to all that
|
|
submit to the grace of the gospel. Believers die in Christ, in his
|
|
love, in his arms, and so are saved from dying <I>in their
|
|
sins.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. Here is a further discourse concerning <I>himself,</I> occasioned
|
|
by his requiring faith in himself as the condition of salvation,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:25-29"><I>v.</I> 25-29</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The question which the Jews put to him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Who art thou?</I> This they asked tauntingly, and not with any
|
|
desire to be instructed. He had said, You must believe that <I>I am
|
|
he.</I> By his not saying expressly who he was, he plainly intimated
|
|
that in his person he was such a one as could not be <I>described</I>
|
|
by any, and in his office such a one as was <I>expected</I> by all that
|
|
looked for redemption in Israel; yet this awful manner of speaking,
|
|
which had so much significancy in it, they turned to his reproach, as
|
|
if he knew not what to say of himself: "<I>Who art thou,</I> that we
|
|
must with an implicit faith believe in thee, that thou art some mighty
|
|
HE, we know not <I>who</I> or <I>what,</I> nor are <I>worthy to
|
|
know?</I>"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. His answer to this question, wherein he directs them three ways for
|
|
information:--</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) He refers them to <I>what he had said</I> all along: "Do you ask
|
|
who I am? <I>Even the same that I said unto you from the
|
|
beginning.</I>" The original here is a little intricate, <B><I>ten
|
|
archen ho ti kai lalo hymin</I></B> which some read thus: <I>I am the
|
|
beginning, which also I speak unto you.</I> So Austin takes it. Christ
|
|
is called <B><I>Arche</I></B>--<I>the beginning</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Col+1:18,Re+1:8,21:6,Re+3:14">Col. i. 18; Rev. i. 8; xxi. 6; iii. 14</A>),
|
|
|
|
and so it agrees with
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>I am he.</I> Compare
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+41:4">Isa. xli. 4</A>:
|
|
|
|
<I>I am the first, I am he.</I> Those who object that it is the
|
|
accusative case, and therefore not properly answering to <B><I>tis
|
|
ei</I></B>, must undertake to construe by grammar rules that parallel
|
|
expression,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+1:8">Rev. i. 8</A>,
|
|
|
|
<B><I>ho en</I></B>. But most interpreters agree with our version, Do
|
|
you ask <I>who I am?</I>
|
|
|
|
[1.] I am <I>the same that I said to you from the beginning</I> of time
|
|
in the scriptures of the Old-Testament, the same that from the
|
|
beginning was said to be <I>the Seed of the woman, that should break
|
|
the serpent's head,</I> the same that in all the ages of the church was
|
|
the Mediator of the covenant, and the faith of the patriarchs.
|
|
|
|
[2.] <I>From the beginning</I> of my public ministry. The account he
|
|
had already given of himself he resolved to <I>abide by;</I> he had
|
|
declared himself to be the <I>Son of God</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+5:17"><I>ch.</I> v. 17</A>),
|
|
|
|
to be the Christ
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+4:26"><I>ch.</I> iv. 26</A>),
|
|
|
|
and the bread of life, and had proposed himself as the object of that
|
|
faith which is necessary to salvation, and to this he refers them for
|
|
an answer to their question. Christ is <I>one with himself;</I> what he
|
|
had said from the beginning, he saith still. His is an <I>everlasting
|
|
gospel.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He refers them to his Father's judgment, and the instructions he
|
|
had from him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>I have many things,</I> more than you think of, <I>to say, and</I>
|
|
in them <I>to judge of you.</I> But why should I trouble myself any
|
|
further with you? I know very well that <I>he who sent me is true,</I>
|
|
and will stand by me, and bear me out, for <I>I speak to the world</I>
|
|
(to which I am sent as an ambassador) <I>those things,</I> all those
|
|
and those only, <I>which I have heard of him.</I>" Here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] He suppresses his accusation of them. He had <I>many things</I> to
|
|
charge them with, and many evidences to produce against them; but for
|
|
the present he had said enough. Note, Whatever discoveries of sin are
|
|
made to us, he that searches the heart has still more to judge of us,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+3:20">1 John iii. 20</A>.
|
|
|
|
How much soever God reckons with sinners in this world there is still a
|
|
further reckoning yet behind,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:34">Deut. xxxii. 34</A>.
|
|
|
|
Let us learn hence not to be forward to say all we can say, even
|
|
against the worst of men; we may have many things to say, by way of
|
|
censure, which yet it is better to leave <I>unsaid,</I> for what is it
|
|
to us?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] He enters his appeal against them to his Father: <I>He that sent
|
|
me.</I> Here two things comfort him:--<I>First,</I> That he had been
|
|
<I>true to his Father,</I> and to the trust reposed in him: <I>I speak
|
|
to the world</I> (for his gospel was to be preached to every creature)
|
|
<I>those things which I have heard of him.</I> Being given for a
|
|
<I>witness to the people</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+55:4">Isa. lv. 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
he was <I>Amen,</I> a <I>faithful witness,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+3:14">Rev. iii. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
He did not <I>conceal</I> his doctrine, but spoke it <I>to the
|
|
world</I> (being of common concern, it was to be of common notice); nor
|
|
did he change or alter it, nor vary from the instructions he received
|
|
from him that sent him. <I>Secondly,</I> That his Father would be
|
|
<I>true to him;</I> true to the promise that he would <I>make his mouth
|
|
like a sharp sword;</I> true to his purpose concerning him, which was a
|
|
<I>decree</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+2:7">Ps. ii. 7</A>);
|
|
|
|
true to the threatenings of his wrath against those that should reject
|
|
him. Though he should not <I>accuse</I> them to his Father, yet the
|
|
Father, who sent him, would undoubtedly reckon with them, and would be
|
|
<I>true</I> to what he had said
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+18:19">Deut. xviii. 19</A>),
|
|
|
|
that whosoever would not hearken to that prophet whom God would raise
|
|
up <I>he would require it of him.</I> Christ would not accuse them;
|
|
"for," saith he, "he that sent me is true, and will pass judgment on
|
|
them, though I should not demand judgment against them." Thus, when he
|
|
<I>lets fall</I> the present prosecution, he <I>binds them over</I> to
|
|
the judgment-day, when it will be too late to dispute what they will
|
|
not now be persuaded to believe. <I>I, as a deaf man, heard not; for
|
|
thou wilt hear,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+38:13,15">Ps. xxxviii. 13, 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
Upon this part of our Saviour's discourse the evangelist has a
|
|
melancholy remark
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They understood not that he spoke to them of the Father.</I> See
|
|
here,
|
|
|
|
1. The power of Satan to blind the minds of those who believe not.
|
|
Though Christ spoke so plainly of God as his Father in heaven, yet they
|
|
did not understand whom he meant, but thought he spoke of some father
|
|
he had in Galilee. Thus the plainest things are riddles and parables to
|
|
those who are resolved to hold fast their prejudices; day and night are
|
|
alike to the blind.
|
|
|
|
2. The reason why the threatenings of the word make so little
|
|
impression upon the minds of sinners; it is because they understand not
|
|
whose the wrath is that is revealed in them. When Christ told them of
|
|
the truth of him that sent him, as a warning to them to prepare for his
|
|
judgment, which is <I>according to truth,</I> they slighted the
|
|
warning, because they understood not to whose judgment it was that they
|
|
made themselves obnoxious.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(3.) He refers them to <I>their own convictions</I> hereafter,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:28,29"><I>v.</I> 28, 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
He finds they will not understand him, and therefore adjourns the trial
|
|
till further evidence should come in; they that <I>will not see shall
|
|
see,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+26:11">Isa. xxvi. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
Now observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] <I>What</I> they should ere long be <I>convinced of: "You shall
|
|
know that I am he,</I> that Jesus is the true Messiah. Whether you will
|
|
own it or no before men, you shall be made to know it in your own
|
|
consciences, the convictions of which, though you may <I>stifle,</I>
|
|
yet you cannot <I>baffle: that I am he,</I> not that you represent me
|
|
to be, but he that I preach myself to be, he that should come!" Two
|
|
things they should be convinced of, in order to this:--<I>First,</I>
|
|
That he did nothing <I>of himself,</I> not of himself as man, of
|
|
himself alone, of himself without the Father, with whom he was
|
|
<I>one.</I> He does not hereby derogate from his own inherent power,
|
|
but only denies their charge against him as a <I>false prophet;</I> for
|
|
of false prophets it is said that they prophesied <I>out of their own
|
|
hearts,</I> and followed <I>their own spirits. Secondly,</I> That as
|
|
<I>his Father taught him</I> so he <I>spoke these things,</I> that he
|
|
was not <B><I>autodidaktos</I></B>--<I>self-taught,</I> but
|
|
<B><I>Theodidaktos</I></B>--<I>taught of God.</I> The doctrine he
|
|
preached was the counterpart of the counsels of God, with which he was
|
|
intimately acquainted; <B><I>kathos edidaxe, tauta lalo</I></B>--I
|
|
speak those things, not only <I>which</I> he taught me, but <I>as</I>
|
|
he taught me, with the same divine power and authority.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] <I>When</I> they should be convinced of this: <I>When you have
|
|
lifted up the Son of man,</I> lifted him up upon the cross, as the
|
|
brazen serpent upon the pole
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+3:14"><I>ch.</I> iii. 14</A>),
|
|
|
|
as the sacrifices under the law (for Christ is the great sacrifice),
|
|
which, when they were offered, were said to be <I>elevated,</I> or
|
|
<I>lifted up;</I> hence the burnt-offerings, the most ancient and
|
|
honourable of all, were called <I>elevations</I> (<I>Gnoloth</I> from
|
|
<I>Gnolah, asendit--he ascended</I>), and in many other offerings they
|
|
used the significant ceremony of <I>heaving</I> the sacrifice up, and
|
|
<I>moving</I> it before the Lord; thus was Christ <I>lifted up.</I> Or
|
|
the expression denotes that his death was his exaltation. They that put
|
|
him to death thought thereby for ever to have <I>sunk</I> him and his
|
|
interest, but it proved to be the advancement of both,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+12:24"><I>ch.</I> xii. 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
When the Son of man was <I>crucified,</I> the Son of man was
|
|
<I>glorified.</I> Christ had called his dying his <I>going away;</I>
|
|
here he calls it his being lifted <I>up;</I> thus the death of the
|
|
saints, as it is their departure out of this world, so it is their
|
|
advancement to a better. Observe, He speaks of those he is now talking
|
|
with as the <I>instruments</I> of his death: when <I>you have lifted up
|
|
the Son of man;</I> not that they were to be the <I>priests</I> to
|
|
offer him up (no, that was his own act, he <I>offered up himself</I>),
|
|
but they would be his betrayers and murderers; see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+2:23">Acts ii. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
They <I>lifted him up</I> to the cross, but then he lifted up himself
|
|
to his Father. Observe with what tenderness and mildness Christ here
|
|
speaks to those who he certainly knew would put him to death, to teach
|
|
us not to hate or seek the hurt of any, though we may have reason to
|
|
think they hate us and seek our hurt. Now, Christ speaks of his death
|
|
as that which would be a powerful conviction of the infidelity of the
|
|
Jews. <I>When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you
|
|
know</I> this. And why then? <I>First,</I> Because careless and
|
|
unthinking people are often taught the worth of mercies by the want of
|
|
them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+17:22">Luke xvii. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> The guilt of their sin in putting Christ to death
|
|
would so awaken their consciences that they would be put upon serious
|
|
enquiries after a Saviour, and then would know that Jesus was he who
|
|
alone could save them. And so it proved, when, being told that with
|
|
wicked hands they had <I>crucified and slain</I> the Son of God, they
|
|
cried out, <I>What shall we do?</I> and were made to know assuredly
|
|
that this Jesus was <I>Lord and Christ,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+2:36">Acts ii. 36</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Thirdly,</I> There would be such signs and wonders attending his
|
|
death, and the <I>lifting of him up</I> from death in his resurrection,
|
|
as would give a stronger proof of his being the Messiah than any that
|
|
had been yet given: and multitudes were hereby brought to believe that
|
|
Jesus is the Christ, who had before contradicted and opposed him.
|
|
<I>Fourthly,</I> By the death of Christ the pouring out of the Spirit
|
|
was purchased, who would convince the world that <I>Jesus is he,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+16:7,8"><I>ch.</I> xvi. 7, 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Fifthly,</I> The judgments which the Jews brought upon themselves,
|
|
by putting Christ to death, which filled up the measure of their
|
|
iniquity, were a sensible conviction to the most hardened among them
|
|
that <I>Jesus was he.</I> Christ had often foretold that desolation as
|
|
the just punishment of their invincible unbelief, and <I>when it came
|
|
to pass (lo, it did come</I>) they could not but know that the great
|
|
<I>prophet had been among them,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+33:33">Ezek. xxxiii. 33</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] What supported our Lord Jesus in the mean time
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He that sent me is with me,</I> in my whole undertaking; <I>for the
|
|
Father</I> (the fountain and first spring of this affair, from whom as
|
|
its great cause and author it is derived) <I>hath not left me
|
|
alone,</I> to manage it myself, hath not deserted the business nor me
|
|
in the prosecution of it, for <I>do I always those things that please
|
|
him.</I> Here is,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> The assurance which Christ had of his Father's
|
|
<I>presence</I> with him, which includes both a divine <I>power</I>
|
|
going along with him to <I>enable</I> him for his work, and a divine
|
|
<I>favour</I> manifested to him to <I>encourage</I> him in it. <I>He
|
|
that sent me is with me,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+42:1,Ps+89:21">Isa. xlii. 1; Ps. lxxxix. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
This greatly <I>emboldens</I> our faith in Christ and our reliance upon
|
|
his word that he had, and knew he had, his Father with him, to
|
|
<I>confirm the word of his servant,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+44:26">Isa. xliv. 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
The King of kings accompanied his own ambassador, to attest his mission
|
|
and assist his management, and <I>never left him alone,</I> either
|
|
solitary or weak; it also <I>aggravated</I> the wickedness of those
|
|
that opposed him, and was an intimation to them of the <I>premunire</I>
|
|
they ran themselves into by resisting him, for thereby they were found
|
|
<I>fighters against God.</I> How easily soever they might think to
|
|
crush him and run him down, let them know he had one to back him with
|
|
whom it is the greatest madness that can be to <I>contend.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> The ground of this assurance: <I>For I do always those
|
|
things that please him.</I> That is,
|
|
|
|
1. That great affair in which our Lord Jesus was <I>continually</I>
|
|
engaged was an affair which the <I>Father that sent him</I> was highly
|
|
<I>well pleased with.</I> His whole undertaking is called the
|
|
<I>pleasure of the Lord</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+53:10">Isa. liii. 10</A>),
|
|
|
|
because of the counsels of the eternal mind about it, and the
|
|
complacency of the eternal mind in it.
|
|
|
|
2. His management of that affair was in nothing <I>displeasing</I> to
|
|
his Father; in executing his commission he punctually observed all his
|
|
instructions, and did in nothing vary from them. No mere man since the
|
|
fall could say such a word as this (for <I>in many things we offend
|
|
all</I>) but our Lord Jesus never offended his Father in any thing,
|
|
but, as became him, he <I>fulfilled all righteousness.</I> This was
|
|
necessary to the validity and value of the sacrifice he was to offer
|
|
up; for if he had in any thing <I>displeased</I> the Father himself,
|
|
and so had had any sin of his own to answer for, the Father could not
|
|
have been pleased with him as a propitiation for our sins; but such a
|
|
priest and such a sacrifice became us as was perfectly pure and
|
|
spotless. We may likewise learn hence that God's servants may
|
|
<I>then</I> expect God's presence with them when they <I>choose</I> and
|
|
do <I>those things that please him,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+66:4,5">Isa. lxvi. 4, 5</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
V. Here is the good effect which this discourse of Christ's had upon
|
|
some of his hearers
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>As he spoke these words many believed on him.</I> Note,
|
|
|
|
1. Though multitudes perish in their unbelief, yet there is a remnant
|
|
according to the election of grace, who <I>believe to the saving of the
|
|
soul.</I> If Israel, the whole body of the people, <I>be not
|
|
gathered,</I> yet there are those of them in whom Christ will be
|
|
<I>glorious,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+49:5">Isa. xlix. 5</A>.
|
|
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|
This the apostle insists upon, to reconcile the Jews' rejection with
|
|
the <I>promises made unto their fathers.</I> There is a remnant,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+11:5">Rom. xi. 5</A>.
|
|
|
|
2. The words of Christ, and particularly his <I>threatening</I> words,
|
|
are made effectual by the grace of God to bring in poor souls to
|
|
believe in him. When Christ told them that if they <I>believed not</I>
|
|
they should <I>die in their sins,</I> and never get to heaven, they
|
|
thought it was time to look about them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+1:16,18">Rom. i. 16, 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
3. Sometimes there is a <I>wide door opened,</I> and an
|
|
<I>effectual</I> one, even where they are <I>many adversaries.</I>
|
|
Christ will carry on his work, though <I>the heathen rage.</I> The
|
|
gospel sometimes gains great victories where it meets with great
|
|
opposition. Let this encourage God's ministers to preach the gospel,
|
|
though it be with <I>much contention,</I> for they shall not <I>labour
|
|
in vain.</I> Many may be <I>secretly</I> brought home to God by those
|
|
endeavours which are openly contradicted and cavilled at by men of
|
|
corrupt minds. Austin has an affectionate ejaculation in his lecture
|
|
upon these words: <I>Utinam et, me loquenti, multi credant; non in me,
|
|
sed mecum in eo--I wish that when I speak, many may believe, not on me,
|
|
but with me on him.</I></P>
|
|
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|
<A NAME="Joh8_31"> </A>
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|
<A NAME="Joh8_32"> </A>
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|
<A NAME="Joh8_33"> </A>
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|
<A NAME="Joh8_34"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_35"> </A>
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|
<A NAME="Joh8_36"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh8_37"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Christ's Discourse with the Pharisees.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
|
|
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<P>
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|
<FONT SIZE=+1>31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye
|
|
continue in my word, <I>then</I> are ye my disciples indeed;
|
|
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
|
|
free.
|
|
33 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in
|
|
bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
|
|
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
|
|
Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
|
|
35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: <I>but</I> the
|
|
Son abideth ever.
|
|
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free
|
|
indeed.
|
|
37 I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me,
|
|
because my word hath no place in you.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have in these verses,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. A comfortable doctrine laid down concerning the <I>spiritual
|
|
liberty</I> of Christ's disciples, intended for the encouragement of
|
|
<I>those</I> Jews <I>that believed.</I> Christ, knowing that his
|
|
doctrine began to work upon some of his hearers, and perceiving that
|
|
virtue had gone out of him, turned his discourse from the proud
|
|
Pharisees, and addressed himself to those <I>weak</I> believers. When
|
|
he had denounced wrath against those that were hardened in unbelief,
|
|
then he spoke comfort to those few feeble <I>Jews that believed in
|
|
him.</I> See here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. How graciously the Lord Jesus looks to those that <I>tremble at his
|
|
word,</I> and are ready to receive it; he has something to say to those
|
|
who have hearing ears, and will not pass by those who set themselves in
|
|
his way, without speaking to them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. How carefully he cherishes the beginnings of grace, and meets those
|
|
that are coming towards him. These <I>Jews that believed</I> were yet
|
|
but <I>weak;</I> but Christ did not therefore cast them off, for he
|
|
<I>gathers the lambs in his arms.</I> When faith is in its infancy, he
|
|
has <I>knees</I> to <I>prevent it, breasts</I> for it to <I>suck,</I>
|
|
that it may not <I>die from the womb.</I> In what he said to them, we
|
|
have two things, which he saith to all that should at any time
|
|
believe:--</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The character of a true disciple of Christ: <I>If you continue in
|
|
my word, then are you my disciples indeed.</I> When they <I>believed on
|
|
him,</I> as the great prophet, they gave up themselves to be <I>his
|
|
disciples.</I> Now, at their entrance into his school, he lays down
|
|
this for a settled rule, that he would own none for his disciples but
|
|
those that <I>continued in his word.</I>
|
|
|
|
[1.] It is implied that there are many who profess themselves Christ's
|
|
disciples who are not his <I>disciples indeed,</I> but only in show and
|
|
name.
|
|
|
|
[2.] It highly concerns those that are not <I>strong in faith</I> to
|
|
see to it that they be <I>sound in the faith,</I> that, though not
|
|
disciples of the highest form, they are nevertheless <I>disciples
|
|
indeed.</I>
|
|
|
|
[3.] Those who seem willing to be Christ's disciples ought to be told
|
|
that they had as good never come to him, unless they come with a
|
|
resolution by his grace to abide by him. Let those who have thoughts of
|
|
covenanting with Christ have no thoughts of reserving a power of
|
|
revocation. Children are sent to school, and bound apprentices, only
|
|
for a <I>few years;</I> but those only are Christ's who are willing to
|
|
be bound to him <I>for the term of life.</I>
|
|
|
|
[4.] Those only that <I>continue in Christ's word</I> shall be accepted
|
|
as his <I>disciples indeed,</I> that adhere to his word in every
|
|
instance without partiality, and abide by it to the end without
|
|
apostasy. It is <B><I>menein</I></B>--<I>to dwell</I> in Christ's word,
|
|
as a man does at home, which is his centre, and rest, and refuge. Our
|
|
converse with the word and conformity to it must be constant. If we
|
|
continue disciples to the last, then, and not otherwise, we approve
|
|
ourselves <I>disciples indeed.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The privilege of a true disciple of Christ. Here are two precious
|
|
promises made to those who thus approve themselves disciples indeed,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] "<I>You shall know the truth,</I> shall know all that truth which
|
|
it is needful and profitable for you to know, and shall be more
|
|
confirmed in the belief of it, shall know the certainty of it." Note,
|
|
<I>First,</I> Even those who are true believers, and disciples indeed,
|
|
yet may be, and are, much in the dark concerning many things which they
|
|
should know. God's children are but children, and understand and speak
|
|
as children. Did we not need to be taught, we should not need to be
|
|
disciples. <I>Secondly,</I> It is a very great privilege to <I>know
|
|
the truth,</I> to know the particular truths which we are to believe,
|
|
in their mutual dependences and connections, and the grounds and
|
|
reasons of our belief,--to know what is truth and what proves it to be
|
|
so. <I>Thirdly,</I> It is a gracious promise of Christ, to all who
|
|
continue in his word, that they shall know the truth as far as is
|
|
needful and profitable for them. Christ's scholars are sure to be well
|
|
taught.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] <I>The truth shall make you free;</I> that is, <I>First,</I> The
|
|
truth which Christ teaches tends to make men free,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+61:1">Isa. lxi. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
Justification makes us free from the guilt of sin, by which we were
|
|
<I>bound over</I> to the judgment of God, and <I>bound under</I>
|
|
amazing fears; sanctification makes us free from the bondage of
|
|
corruption, by which we were <I>restrained</I> from that service which
|
|
is perfect freedom, and <I>constrained</I> to that which is perfect
|
|
slavery. Gospel truth frees us from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and
|
|
the more grievous burdens of the traditions of the elders. It makes us
|
|
<I>free from</I> our spiritual enemies, free <I>in</I> the service of
|
|
God, free <I>to</I> the privileges of sons, and free <I>of</I> the
|
|
Jerusalem which is from above, which is free. <I>Secondly,</I> The
|
|
knowing, entertaining, and believing, of this truth does actually
|
|
<I>make us free,</I> free from prejudices, mistakes, and false notions,
|
|
than which nothing more <I>enslaves</I> and <I>entangles</I> the soul,
|
|
free from the dominion of lust and passion; and restores the soul to
|
|
the government of itself, by reducing it into obedience to its Creator.
|
|
The mind, by admitting the truth of Christ in the light and power, is
|
|
vastly enlarged, and has scope and compass given it, is greatly
|
|
elevated and raised above things of sense, and never acts with so true
|
|
a liberty as when it acts under a divine command,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+3:17">2 Cor. iii. 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
The enemies of Christianity pretend to <I>free thinking,</I> whereas
|
|
really those are the freest reasonings that are guided by faith, and
|
|
those are men of <I>free thought</I> whose thoughts are captivated and
|
|
brought into obedience to Christ.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The offence which the carnal Jews took at this doctrine, and their
|
|
objection against it. Though it was a doctrine that brought glad
|
|
tidings of liberty to the captives, yet they cavilled at it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>.
|
|
|
|
The Pharisees grudged this comfortable word to those that believed, the
|
|
standers by, who had <I>no part nor lot in this matter;</I> they
|
|
thought themselves reflected upon and affronted by the gracious charter
|
|
of liberty granted to those that believed, and therefore with a great
|
|
deal of pride and envy they answered him, "<I>We Jews are Abraham's
|
|
seed,</I> and therefore are <I>free-born,</I> and have not lost our
|
|
birthright-freedom; <I>we were never in bondage to any man; how sayest
|
|
thou then,</I> to us <I>Jews, You shall be made free?</I>" See
|
|
here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. What it was that they were grieved at; it was an <I>innuendo</I> in
|
|
those words, <I>You shall be made free,</I> as if the Jewish church and
|
|
nation were in some sort of bondage, which reflected on the Jews in
|
|
general, and as if all that did not believe in Christ continued in that
|
|
bondage, which reflected on the Pharisees in particular. Note, The
|
|
privileges of the faithful are the envy and vexation of unbelievers,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+112:10">Ps. cxii. 10</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. What it was that they alleged against it; whereas Christ intimated
|
|
that they needed to be made free, they urge,
|
|
|
|
(1.) "We are Abraham's seed, and Abraham was a <I>prince and a great
|
|
man;</I> though we live in Canaan, we are not descended from Canaan,
|
|
nor under his doom, <I>a servant of servants shall he be;</I> we hold
|
|
in <I>frank-almoign--free alms,</I> and not in <I>villenage--by a
|
|
servile tenure.</I>" It is common for a sinking decaying family to
|
|
boast of the glory and dignity of its ancestors, and to borrow honour
|
|
from that name to which they repay disgrace; so the Jews here did. But
|
|
this was not all. Abraham was in covenant with God, and his children by
|
|
his right,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+11:28">Rom. xi. 28</A>.
|
|
|
|
Now that covenant, no doubt, was a free charter, and invested them with
|
|
privileges not consistent with a state of slavery,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+9:4">Rom. ix. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
And therefore they thought they had no occasion with so <I>great a
|
|
sum</I> as they reckoned faith in Christ to be <I>to obtain this
|
|
freedom,</I> when they were thus free-born. Note, It is the common
|
|
fault and folly of those that have pious parentage and education to
|
|
trust to their privilege and boast of it, as if it would atone for the
|
|
want of real holiness. They were Abraham's seed, but what would this
|
|
avail them, when we find one in hell that could call Abraham father?
|
|
Saving benefits are not, like common privileges, conveyed by
|
|
<I>entail</I> to us and our issue, nor can a title to heaven be made by
|
|
<I>descent,</I> nor may we claim as <I>heirs at law,</I> by making out
|
|
our pedigree; our title is purely by purchase, not our own but our
|
|
Redeemer's for us, under certain provisos and limitations, which if we
|
|
do not observe it will not avail us to be Abraham's seed. Thus many,
|
|
when they are pressed with the necessity of regeneration, turn it off
|
|
with this, <I>We are the church's children;</I> but they are not all
|
|
Israel that are of Israel.
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>We were never in bondage to any man.</I> Now observe,
|
|
|
|
[1.] How false this allegation was. I wonder how they could have the
|
|
assurance to say a thing in the face of a congregation which was so
|
|
notoriously <I>untrue.</I> Were not the seed of Abraham in bondage to
|
|
the Egyptians? Were they not often in bondage to the neighbouring
|
|
nations in the time of the judges? Were they not seventy years captives
|
|
in Babylon? Nay, were they not at this time tributaries to the Romans,
|
|
and, though not in a <I>personal,</I> yet in a <I>national</I> bondage
|
|
to them, and groaning to be made free? And yet, to confront Christ,
|
|
they have the impudence to say, <I>We were never in bondage.</I> Thus
|
|
they would expose Christ to the ill-will both of the Jews, who were
|
|
very jealous for the honour of their liberty, and of the Romans, who
|
|
would not be thought to enslave the nations they conquered.
|
|
|
|
[2.] How foolish the application was. Christ had spoken of a liberty
|
|
wherewith the <I>truth</I> would make them free, which must be meant of
|
|
a <I>spiritual</I> liberty, for truth as it is the <I>enriching,</I> so
|
|
it is the <I>enfranchising</I> of the mind, and the <I>enlarging</I> of
|
|
that from the captivity of error and prejudice; and yet they plead
|
|
against the offer of <I>spiritual</I> liberty that they were never in
|
|
<I>corporal</I> thraldom, as if, because they were never in bondage to
|
|
any <I>man,</I> they were never in bondage to any <I>lust.</I> Note,
|
|
Carnal hearts are sensible of no other grievances than those that
|
|
molest the body and injure their secular affairs. Talk to them of
|
|
encroachments upon their civil liberty and property,--tell them of
|
|
waste committed upon their lands, or damage done to their houses,--and
|
|
they understand you very well, and can give you a sensible answer; the
|
|
thing touches them and affects them. But discourse to them of the
|
|
bondage of sin, a captivity to Satan, and a liberty by Christ,--tell
|
|
them of wrong done to their precious souls, and the hazard of their
|
|
eternal welfare,--and <I>you bring certain strange things to their
|
|
ears;</I> they say of it (as those did,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+20:49">Ezek. xx. 49</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>Doth he not speak parables?</I> This was much like the blunder
|
|
Nicodemus made about being <I>born again.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. Our Saviour's vindication of his doctrine from these objections,
|
|
and the further explication of it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:34-37"><I>v.</I> 34-37</A>,
|
|
|
|
where he does these four things:--</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. He shows that, notwithstanding their civil liberties and their
|
|
visible church-membership, yet it was possible that they might be in a
|
|
state of bondage
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:34"><I>v.</I> 34</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Whosoever commits sin,</I> though he be of Abraham's seed, and was
|
|
never in bondage to any man, is the servant of sin. Observe, Christ
|
|
does not upbraid them with the falsehood of their plea, or their
|
|
present bondage, but further explains what he had said for their
|
|
edification. Thus ministers should with meekness instruct those that
|
|
oppose them, that they may <I>recover themselves,</I> not with passion
|
|
provoke them to entangle themselves yet more. Now here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The preface is very solemn: <I>Verily, verily, I say unto you;</I>
|
|
an awful asseveration, which our Saviour often used, to command a
|
|
reverent attention and a ready assent. The style of the prophets was,
|
|
<I>Thus saith the Lord,</I> for they were <I>faithful as servants;</I>
|
|
but Christ, being a Son, speaks in his own name: <I>I say unto you,</I>
|
|
I the <I>Amen,</I> the faithful witness; he pawns his veracity upon it.
|
|
"I say it to you, who boast of your relation to Abraham, as if that
|
|
would save you."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The truth is of universal concern, though here delivered upon a
|
|
particular occasion: <I>Whosoever commits sin is the servant of
|
|
sin,</I> and sadly needs to be made free. A state of sin is a state of
|
|
bondage.
|
|
|
|
[1.] See who it is on whom this brand is fastened--on him that
|
|
<I>commits sin,</I> <B><I>pas ho poion hamartian</I></B>--<I>every one
|
|
that makes sin.</I> There is not a <I>just man</I> upon earth, that
|
|
<I>lives, and sins not;</I> yet every one that sins is not a servant of
|
|
sin, for then God would have no servants; but he that <I>makes sin,</I>
|
|
that <I>makes choice</I> of sin, prefers the way of wickedness before
|
|
the way of holiness
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+44:16,17">Jer. xliv. 16, 17</A>),--
|
|
|
|
that <I>makes a covenant</I> with sin, enters into league with it, and
|
|
<I>makes a marriage</I> with it,--that <I>makes contrivances</I> of
|
|
sin, <I>makes provision</I> for the flesh, and devises iniquity,--and
|
|
that <I>makes a custom</I> of sin, who walks after the flesh, and
|
|
<I>makes a trade</I> of sin.
|
|
|
|
[2.] See what the brand is which Christ fastens upon those that thus
|
|
<I>commit sin.</I> He stigmatizes them, gives them a mark of servitude.
|
|
They are <I>servants of sin,</I> imprisoned under the guilt of sin,
|
|
under an arrest, in hold for it, <I>concluded under sin,</I> and they
|
|
are subject to the power of sin. He is a <I>servant of sin,</I> that
|
|
is, he makes himself so, and is so accounted; he has <I>sold himself to
|
|
work wickedness;</I> his lusts give law to him, he is at their beck,
|
|
and is not his own master. He does the work of sin, supports its
|
|
interest, and accepts its wages,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+6:16">Rom. vi. 16</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He shows them that, being in a state of bondage, their having a
|
|
place in the house of God would not entitle them to the inheritance of
|
|
sons; for
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:35"><I>v.</I> 35</A>)
|
|
|
|
<I>the servant,</I> though he be in the house for awhile, yet, being
|
|
but a <I>servant, abideth not in the house for ever.</I> Services (we
|
|
say) are no inheritances, they are but <I>temporary,</I> and not for a
|
|
<I>perpetuity; but the son</I> of the family abideth ever. Now,
|
|
|
|
(1.) This points primarily at the rejection of the Jewish church and
|
|
nation. Israel had been <I>God's son,</I> his <I>first-born;</I> but
|
|
they wretchedly degenerated into a <I>servile</I> disposition, were
|
|
enslaved to the world and the flesh, and therefore, though by virtue of
|
|
their birthright they thought themselves secure of their church
|
|
membership, Christ tells them that having thus made themselves servants
|
|
they should not <I>abide in the house for ever.</I> Jerusalem, by
|
|
opposing the gospel of Christ, which proclaimed liberty, and adhering
|
|
to the Sinai-covenant, which gendered to bondage, after its term was
|
|
<I>expired</I> came to be <I>in bondage with her children</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ga+4:24,25">Gal. iv. 24, 25</A>),
|
|
|
|
and therefore was unchurched and disfranchised, her charter seized and
|
|
taken away, and she was cast out as the son of the bond-woman,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+21:14">Gen. xxi. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
Chrysostom gives this sense of this place: "Think not to be made free
|
|
from sin by the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses, for Moses was
|
|
but a servant, and had not that perpetual authority in the church which
|
|
the Son had; but, if the Son make you free, it is well,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:36"><I>v.</I> 36</A>.
|
|
|
|
But,
|
|
|
|
(2.) It looks further, to the rejection of all that are the <I>servants
|
|
of sin,</I> and receive not the <I>adoption</I> of the <I>sons of
|
|
God;</I> though those unprofitable servants may be in God's house
|
|
awhile, as retainers to his family, yet there is a day coming when the
|
|
children of the <I>bond-woman</I> and of the <I>free</I> shall be
|
|
distinguished. True believers only, who are the children of the promise
|
|
and of the covenant, are accounted free, and shall abide for ever in
|
|
the house, as Isaac: they shall have a <I>nail</I> in the holy place on
|
|
earth
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ezr+9:8">Ezra ix. 8</A>)
|
|
|
|
and <I>mansions</I> in the holy place in heaven,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+14:2"><I>ch.</I> xiv. 2</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. He shows them the way of deliverance out of the state of bondage
|
|
into the <I>glorious liberty of the children of God,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+8:21">Rom. viii. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
The case of those that are the servants of sin is sad, but thanks be to
|
|
God it is not helpless, it is not hopeless. As it is the privilege of
|
|
all the sons of the family, and their dignity above the servants, that
|
|
they abide in the house for ever; so he who is <I>the Son,</I> the
|
|
first-born among many brethren, and the heir of all things, has a power
|
|
both of manumission and of adoption
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:36"><I>v.</I> 36</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.</I>
|
|
Note,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) Jesus Christ in the gospel offers us <I>our freedom;</I> he has
|
|
authority and power to <I>make free.</I>
|
|
|
|
[1.] To <I>discharge prisoners;</I> this he does <I>in
|
|
justification,</I> by making satisfaction for <I>our guilt</I> (on
|
|
which the gospel offer is grounded, which is to all a conditional
|
|
<I>act of indemnity,</I> and to all true believers, upon their
|
|
believing, an absolute <I>charter of pardon</I>), and for <I>our
|
|
debts,</I> for which we were by the law arrested and in execution.
|
|
Christ, as our surety, or rather our <I>bail</I> (for he was not
|
|
originally bound <I>with us,</I> but upon our insolvency bound <I>for
|
|
us</I>), compounds with the creditor, answers the demands of injured
|
|
justice with more than an <I>equivalent,</I> takes the <I>bond</I> and
|
|
<I>judgment</I> into his own hands, and gives them up <I>cancelled</I>
|
|
to all that by faith and repentance give him (if I may so say) a
|
|
<I>counter-security</I> to save his honour harmless, and so they are
|
|
<I>made free;</I> and from the debt, and every part thereof, they are
|
|
for ever acquitted, exonerated, and discharged, and a general release
|
|
is sealed of all actions and claims; while against those who refuse to
|
|
come up to these terms the securities lie still in the Redeemer's
|
|
hands, in full force.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He has a power to rescue <I>bond-slaves,</I> and this he does in
|
|
<I>sanctification;</I> by the powerful arguments of his gospel, and the
|
|
powerful operations of his Spirit, he breaks the power of corruption in
|
|
the soul, rallies the scattered forces of reason and virtue, and
|
|
fortifies God's interest against sin and Satan, and so the soul is made
|
|
free.
|
|
|
|
[3.] He has a power to <I>naturalize strangers and foreigners,</I> and
|
|
this he does in <I>adoption.</I> This is a further act of grace; we are
|
|
not only forgiven and healed, but <I>preferred;</I> there is a charter
|
|
of privileges as well as pardon; and thus the Son makes us free
|
|
<I>denizens</I> of the kingdom of priests, the holy nation, the new
|
|
Jerusalem.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Those whom Christ makes free are <I>free indeed.</I> It is not
|
|
<B><I>alethos</I></B>, the word used
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:31"><I>v.</I> 31</A>)
|
|
|
|
for disciples <I>indeed, but</I> <B><I>ontos</I></B>--<I>really.</I> It
|
|
denotes,
|
|
|
|
[1.] The truth and certainty of the promise, the liberty which the Jews
|
|
boasted of was an <I>imaginary</I> liberty; they boasted of a <I>false
|
|
gift;</I> but the liberty which Christ gives is a certain thing, it is
|
|
real, and has real effects. The servants of sin promise themselves
|
|
liberty, and fancy themselves free, when they have broken religion's
|
|
bands asunder; but they cheat themselves. None are <I>free indeed</I>
|
|
but those whom Christ <I>makes free.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] It denotes the singular excellency of the freedom promised; it is
|
|
a freedom that deserves the name, in comparison with which all other
|
|
liberties are no better than slaveries, so much does it turn to the
|
|
honour and advantage of those that are <I>made free</I> by it. It is a
|
|
<I>glorious</I> liberty. It is that which <I>is</I> (so
|
|
<B><I>ontos</I></B> signifies); it is <I>substance</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+8:21">Prov. viii. 21</A>);
|
|
|
|
while the things of the world are shadows, things that <I>are
|
|
not.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. He applies this to these unbelieving cavilling Jews, in answer to
|
|
their boasts of relation to Abraham
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>I know</I> very well <I>that you are Abraham's seed, but now you
|
|
seek to kill me,</I> and therefore have forfeited the honour of your
|
|
relation to Abraham, <I>because my word hath no place in you.</I>"
|
|
Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The dignity of their extraction admitted: "<I>I know that you are
|
|
Abraham's seed,</I> every one knows it, and it is your honour." He
|
|
grants them what was true, and in what they said that was false (that
|
|
they were <I>never</I> in bondage to any) he does not <I>contradict</I>
|
|
them, for he studied to <I>profit</I> them, and not to <I>provoke</I>
|
|
them, and therefore said that which would please them: <I>I know that
|
|
you are Abraham's seed.</I> They boasted of their descent from
|
|
<I>Abraham,</I> as that which <I>aggrandized</I> their names, and made
|
|
them exceedingly honourable; whereas really it did but <I>aggravate</I>
|
|
their crimes, and make them exceedingly sinful. Out of their own mouths
|
|
will he judge vain-glorious hypocrites, who boast of their parentage
|
|
and education: "Are you Abraham's seed? Why then did you not tread in
|
|
the steps of his faith and obedience?"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The inconsistency of their practice with this dignity: <I>But you
|
|
seek to kill me.</I> They had attempted it several times, and were now
|
|
designing it, which quickly appeared
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:59"><I>v.</I> 59</A>),
|
|
|
|
when they <I>took up stones to cast at him.</I> Christ knows all the
|
|
wickedness, not only which men do, but which they seek, and design, and
|
|
endeavour to do. To seek to kill any innocent man is a crime black
|
|
enough, but to <I>compass and imagine</I> the death of him that was
|
|
King of kings was a crime the heinousness of which we want words to
|
|
express.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(3.) The reason of this inconsistency. Why were they that were
|
|
Abraham's seed so very inveterate against Abraham's promised seed, in
|
|
whom they and <I>all the families of the earth</I> should be
|
|
<I>blessed?</I> Our Saviour here tells them, It is because <I>my word
|
|
hath no place in you,</I> <B><I>ou chorei en hymin</I></B>, <I>Non
|
|
capit in vobis,</I> so the Vulgate. "My word <I>does not take with
|
|
you,</I> you have no inclination to it, no relish of it, other things
|
|
are more taking, more pleasing." Or, "It does not <I>take hold of
|
|
you,</I> it has no power over you, makes no impression upon you." Some
|
|
of the critics read it, <I>My word does not penetrate into you;</I> it
|
|
descended as the rain, but it came upon them as the rain upon the rock,
|
|
which it runs off, and did not soak into their hearts, as the rain upon
|
|
the ploughed ground. The Syriac reads it, "<I>Because you do not
|
|
acquiesce in my word;</I> you are not persuaded of the truth of it, nor
|
|
pleased with the goodness of it." Our translation is very significant:
|
|
<I>It has no place in you.</I> They <I>sought to kill him,</I> and so
|
|
effectually to <I>silence</I> him, not because he had done they any
|
|
harm, but because they could not bear the convincing, commanding power
|
|
of his word. Note,
|
|
|
|
[1.] The words of Christ ought to have a place in us, the innermost and
|
|
uppermost place,--a <I>dwelling</I> place, as a man at home, and not as
|
|
a stranger or sojourner,--a <I>working</I> place; it must have room to
|
|
operate, to work sin out of us, and to work grace in us; it must have a
|
|
<I>ruling</I> place, its place must be <I>upon the throne,</I> it must
|
|
dwell in us richly.
|
|
|
|
[2.] There are many that make a profession of religion in whom <I>the
|
|
word of</I> Christ has no place; they will not <I>allow</I> it a place,
|
|
for they do not like it; Satan does all he can to <I>displace</I> it;
|
|
and other things possess the place it should have in us.
|
|
|
|
[3.] Where the word of God has no place no good is to be expected, for
|
|
room is left there for all wickedness. If the unclean spirit find the
|
|
heart empty of Christ's word, he <I>enters in, and dwells
|
|
there.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_38"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_39"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_40"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_41"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_42"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_43"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_44"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_45"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_46"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_47"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec5"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Christ's Discourse with the Pharisees.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do
|
|
that which ye have seen with your father.
|
|
39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father.
|
|
Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do
|
|
the works of Abraham.
|
|
40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the
|
|
truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
|
|
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be
|
|
not born of fornication; we have one Father, <I>even</I> God.
|
|
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love
|
|
me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of
|
|
myself, but he sent me.
|
|
43 Why do ye not understand my speech? <I>even</I> because ye cannot
|
|
hear my word.
|
|
44 Ye are of <I>your</I> father the devil, and the lusts of your
|
|
father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
|
|
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he
|
|
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the
|
|
father of it.
|
|
45 And because I tell <I>you</I> the truth, ye believe me not.
|
|
46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth,
|
|
why do ye not believe me?
|
|
47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear
|
|
<I>them</I> not, because ye are not of God.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here Christ and the Jews are still at issue; he sets himself to
|
|
convince and convert them, while they still set themselves to
|
|
contradict and oppose him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. He here traces the difference between his sentiments and theirs to a
|
|
different rise and origin
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:38"><I>v.</I> 38</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I speak that which I have seen with my Father,</I> and <I>you</I> do
|
|
<I>what you have seen with your father.</I> Here are two fathers spoken
|
|
of, according to the two families into which the sons of men are
|
|
divided--God and the devil, and without controversy these are contrary
|
|
the one to the other.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Christ's <I>doctrine</I> was from <I>heaven;</I> it was
|
|
<I>copied</I> out of the <I>counsels</I> of infinite wisdom, and the
|
|
kind intentions of eternal love.
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>I speak that which I have seen.</I> The discoveries Christ has
|
|
made to us of God and another world are not grounded upon guess and
|
|
hearsay, but upon ocular inspection; so that he was thoroughly
|
|
<I>apprized</I> of the nature, and <I>assured</I> of the truth, of all
|
|
he said. He that is given to be a witness to the people is an
|
|
eye-witness, and therefore unexceptionable.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It is what I have seen <I>with my Father.</I> The doctrine of
|
|
Christ is not a plausible hypothesis, supported by probable arguments,
|
|
but it is an exact counterpart of the incontestable truths lodged in
|
|
the eternal mind. It was not only what he had <I>heard from</I> his
|
|
Father, but what he had <I>seen with him</I> when <I>the counsel of
|
|
peace was between them both.</I> Moses spoke what he heard from God,
|
|
but he might not see the face of God; Paul had been in the third
|
|
heaven, but what he had seen there he could not, he must not, utter;
|
|
for it was Christ's prerogative to have <I>seen</I> what he
|
|
<I>spoke,</I> and to <I>speak</I> what he had <I>seen.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Their <I>doings</I> were from hell: "<I>You do that which you have
|
|
seen with your father.</I> You do, by your own works, father
|
|
yourselves, for it is evident whom you resemble, and therefore easy to
|
|
find out your origin." As a child that is trained up with his father
|
|
learns his father's words and fashions, and grows like him by an
|
|
affected imitation as well as by a natural image, so these Jews, by
|
|
their malicious opposition to Christ and the gospel, made themselves as
|
|
like the devil as if they had industriously set him before them for
|
|
their pattern.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. He takes off and answers their vain-glorious boasts of relation to
|
|
Abraham and to God as their fathers, and shows the vanity and falsehood
|
|
of their pretensions.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. They pleaded relation to Abraham, and he replies to this plea.
|
|
<I>They said, Abraham is our father,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:39"><I>v.</I> 39</A>.
|
|
|
|
In this they intended,
|
|
|
|
(1.) To do honour to themselves, and to make themselves look great.
|
|
They had forgotten the mortification given them by that acknowledgement
|
|
prescribed them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+26:5">Deut. xxvi. 5</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>A Syrian ready to perish was my father;</I> and the charge exhibited
|
|
against their degenerate ancestors (whose steps they trod in, and not
|
|
those of the first founder of the family), <I>Thy father was an
|
|
Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:3">Ezek. xvi. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
As it is common for those families that are sinking and going to decay
|
|
to boast most of their pedigree, so it is common for those churches
|
|
that are corrupt and depraved to value themselves upon their antiquity
|
|
and the eminence of their first planters. <I>Fuimus Troes, fuit
|
|
Ilium--We have been Trojans, and there once was Troy.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) They designed to cast an odium upon Christ as if he reflected upon
|
|
the patriarch Abraham, in speaking of their father as one they had
|
|
learned evil from. See how they sought an occasion to quarrel with him.
|
|
Now Christ overthrows this plea, and exposes the vanity of it by a
|
|
plain and cogent argument: "Abraham's children will do the works of
|
|
Abraham, but you do not do Abraham's works, therefore you are not
|
|
Abraham's children."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] The proposition is plain: "<I>If you were Abraham's children,</I>
|
|
such children of Abraham as could claim an interest in the covenant
|
|
made with him and his seed, which would indeed put an honour upon you,
|
|
then you would <I>do the works of Abraham,</I> for to those only of
|
|
Abraham's house who <I>kept the way of the Lord,</I> as Abraham did,
|
|
would God <I>perform what he had spoken,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+18:19">Gen. xviii. 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
Those only are reckoned the seed of Abraham, to whom the promise
|
|
belongs, who <I>tread in the steps</I> of his faith and obedience,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+4:12">Rom. iv. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though the Jews had their genealogies, and kept them exact, yet they
|
|
could not by them make out their relation to Abraham, so as to take the
|
|
benefit of the old entail (<I>performam doni--according to the form of
|
|
the gift</I>), unless they walked in the same spirit; good women's
|
|
relation to Sarah is proved only by this--<I>whose daughters you are as
|
|
long as you do well,</I> and no longer,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+3:6">1 Pet. iii. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, Those who would approve themselves Abraham's seed must not only
|
|
be of Abraham's faith, but do Abraham's works
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jam+2:21,22">James ii. 21, 22</A>),--
|
|
|
|
must come at God's call, as he did,--must resign their dearest comforts
|
|
to him,--must be strangers and sojourners in this world,--must keep up
|
|
the worship of God in their families, and always walk before God in
|
|
their uprightness; for these were the works of Abraham.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] The assumption is evident likewise: <I>But you do not do</I> the
|
|
works of Abraham, for <I>you seek to kill me, a man that has told you
|
|
the truth, which I have heard of God; this did not Abraham,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:40"><I>v.</I> 40</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> He shows them what their work was, their present work,
|
|
which they were now about; they <I>sought to kill him;</I> and three
|
|
things are intimated as an aggravation of their intention:--
|
|
|
|
1. They were so <I>unnatural</I> as to seek the life of <I>a man,</I> a
|
|
man like themselves, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh, who
|
|
had done them no harm, nor given them any provocation. You <I>imagine
|
|
mischief against a man,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+62:3">Ps. lxii. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
2. They were so <I>ungrateful</I> as to seek the life of one who had
|
|
<I>told them the truth,</I> had not only done them no injury, but had
|
|
done them the greatest kindness that could be; had not only not imposed
|
|
upon them with a lie, but had instructed them in the most necessary and
|
|
important truths; <I>was he therefore become their enemy?</I>
|
|
|
|
3. They were so <I>ungodly</I> as to seek the life of one who told them
|
|
the truth <I>which he had heard from God,</I> who was a messenger sent
|
|
from God to them, so that their attempt against him was <I>quasi
|
|
deicidium--an act of malice against God.</I> This was their work, and
|
|
they persisted in it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> He shows them that this did not become the children of
|
|
Abraham; for <I>this did not Abraham.</I>
|
|
|
|
1. "He did nothing like this." He was famous for his humanity, witness
|
|
his rescue of the captives; and for his piety, witness his obedience to
|
|
the heavenly vision in many instances, and some tender ones. Abraham
|
|
believed God; they were obstinate in unbelief: Abraham followed God;
|
|
they fought against him; so that he would be <I>ignorant of them, and
|
|
would not acknowledge them,</I> they were so unlike him,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+63:16">Isa. lxiii. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+22:15-17">Jer. xxii. 15-17</A>.
|
|
|
|
2. "He would not have done thus if he had lived now, or I had lived
|
|
then." <I>Hoc Abraham non fecisset--He would not have done this;</I> so
|
|
some read it. We should thus reason ourselves out of any way of
|
|
wickedness; would Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob have done so? We cannot
|
|
expect to be <I>ever with them,</I> if we be <I>never like
|
|
them.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] The conclusion follows of course
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:41"><I>v.</I> 41</A>):
|
|
|
|
"Whatever your boasts and pretensions be, you are not Abraham's
|
|
children, but father yourselves upon another family
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:41"><I>v.</I> 41</A>);
|
|
|
|
there is <I>a father whose deeds you do,</I> whose spirit you are of,
|
|
and whom you resemble." He does not <I>yet</I> say plainly that he
|
|
means the devil, till they by their continued cavils forced him so to
|
|
explain himself, which teaches us to treat even bad men with civility
|
|
and respect, and not to be forward to say that <I>of</I> them, or
|
|
<I>to</I> them, which, though <I>true,</I> sounds <I>harsh.</I> He
|
|
tried whether they would suffer their own consciences to infer from
|
|
what he said that they were the devil's children; and it is better to
|
|
hear it from them now that we are called to <I>repent,</I> that is, to
|
|
change our father and change our family, by changing our spirit and
|
|
way, than to hear it from Christ in the great day.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. So far were they from owning their unworthiness of relation to
|
|
Abraham that they pleaded relation to God himself as their Father: "We
|
|
are <I>not born of fornication,</I> we are not bastards, but legitimate
|
|
sons; <I>we have one Father, even God.</I>"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) Some understand this literally. They were not the sons of the
|
|
bondwoman, as the Ishmaelites were; nor begotten in incest, as the
|
|
Moabites and Ammonites were
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+23:3">Deut. xxiii. 3</A>);
|
|
|
|
nor were they a spurious brood in Abraham's family, but Hebrews of the
|
|
Hebrews; and, being born in <I>lawful</I> wedlock, they might call God
|
|
<I>Father,</I> who instituted that honourable estate in innocency; for
|
|
a legitimate seed, not tainted with divorces nor the plurality of
|
|
wives, is called a <I>seed of God,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+2:15">Mal. ii. 15</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Others take it figuratively. They begin to be aware now that
|
|
Christ spoke of a <I>spiritual</I> not a <I>carnal</I> father, of the
|
|
father of their religion; and so,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] They deny themselves to be a generation of idolaters: "We are
|
|
<I>not born of fornication,</I> are not the children of idolatrous
|
|
parents, nor have been bred up in idolatrous worships." Idolatry is
|
|
often spoken of as spiritual <I>whoredom,</I> and idolaters as
|
|
<I>children of whoredoms,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+2:4,Isa+57:3">Hosea ii. 4; Isa. lvii. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
Now, if they meant that they were not the posterity of idolaters, the
|
|
allegation was false, for no nation was more addicted to idolatry than
|
|
the Jews before the captivity; if they meant no more than that they
|
|
themselves were not idolaters, what then? A man may be free from
|
|
idolatry, and yet perish in another iniquity, and be shut out of
|
|
Abraham's covenant. <I>If thou commit no idolatry</I> (apply it to this
|
|
spiritual fornication), yet if thou kill thou art become a
|
|
<I>transgressor</I> of the covenant. A rebellious prodigal son will be
|
|
disinherited, though he be not <I>born of fornication.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] They boast themselves to be true worshippers of the true God. We
|
|
have not many fathers, as the heathens had, <I>gods many and lords
|
|
many,</I> and yet were without God, as <I>filius populi--a son of the
|
|
people,</I> has many fathers and yet none certain; no, <I>the Lord our
|
|
God is one Lord</I> and <I>one Father,</I> and therefore it is well
|
|
with us. Note, Those flatter themselves, and put a damning cheat upon
|
|
their own souls, who imagine that their professing the true religion
|
|
and worshipping the true God will save them, though they worship not
|
|
God in spirit and in truth, nor are true to their profession. Now our
|
|
Saviour gives a full answer to this fallacious plea
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:42,43"><I>v.</I> 42, 43</A>),
|
|
|
|
and proves, by two arguments, that they had no right to call God
|
|
Father.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> They did not love Christ: <I>If God were your Father, you
|
|
would love me.</I> He had disproved their relation to Abraham by their
|
|
going about to kill him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:40"><I>v.</I> 40</A>),
|
|
|
|
but here he disproves their relation to God by their not loving and
|
|
owning him. A man may pass for a <I>child</I> of Abraham if he do not
|
|
appear an enemy to Christ by gross sin; but he cannot approve himself a
|
|
child of God unless he be a faithful friend and follower of Christ.
|
|
Note, All that have God for their Father have a true love to Jesus
|
|
Christ, and esteem of his person, a grateful sense of his love, a
|
|
sincere affection to his cause and kingdom, a complacency in the
|
|
salvation wrought out by him and in the method and terms of it, and a
|
|
care to keep his commandments, which is the surest evidence of our love
|
|
to him. We are here in a state of probation, upon our trial how we will
|
|
conduct ourselves towards our Maker, and accordingly it will be with us
|
|
in the state of retribution. God has taken various methods to prove
|
|
us, and this was one: he sent his Son into the world, with sufficient
|
|
proofs of his sonship and mission, concluding that all that called him
|
|
Father would <I>kiss his Son,</I> and bid <I>him</I> welcome who was
|
|
the first-born among many brethren; see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+5:1">1 John v. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
By this our adoption will be proved or disproved--Did we love Christ,
|
|
or no? <I>If any man do not,</I> he is so far from being a child of God
|
|
that he is <I>anathema,</I> accursed,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+16:22">1 Cor. xvi. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
Now our Saviour proves that if they were God's children they would
|
|
<I>love him;</I> for, saith he, I proceeded <I>forth and came from
|
|
God.</I> They will love him; for,
|
|
|
|
1. He was the <I>Son of God: I proceeded forth from God.</I>
|
|
<B><I>Exelthon</I></B> this means his divine <B><I>exeleusis</I></B>,
|
|
or origin from the Father, by the communication of the divine essence,
|
|
and also the union of the divine <B><I>logos</I></B> to his human
|
|
nature; so Dr. Whitby. Now this could not but recommend him to the
|
|
affections of all that were <I>born of God.</I> Christ is called the
|
|
<I>beloved,</I> because, being the beloved of the Father, he is
|
|
certainly the beloved of all the saints,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+1:6">Eph. i. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
2. He was <I>sent of God,</I> came from him as an ambassador to the
|
|
world of mankind. He did not <I>come of himself,</I> as the false
|
|
prophets, who had not either their <I>mission</I> or their
|
|
<I>message</I> from God,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+23:21">Jer. xxiii. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe the emphasis he lays upon this: <I>I came from God; neither
|
|
came I of myself, but he sent me.</I> He had both his credentials and
|
|
his instructions from God; he came to <I>gather together in one the
|
|
children of God</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+11:51"><I>ch.</I> xi. 51</A>),
|
|
|
|
to bring <I>many sons to glory,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+2:10">Heb. ii. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
And would not all God's children embrace with both arms a messenger
|
|
sent from their Father on <I>such</I> errands? But these Jews made it
|
|
appear that they were nothing akin to God, by their want of affection
|
|
to Jesus Christ.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> They did not understand him. It was a sign they did
|
|
not belong to God's family that they did not understand the language
|
|
and dialect of the family: <I>You do not understand my speech</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>),
|
|
|
|
<B><I>ten lalian ten emen</I></B>. Christ's speech was divine and
|
|
heavenly, but intelligible enough to those that were acquainted with
|
|
the voice of Christ in the Old Testament. Those that had made the word
|
|
of the Creator familiar to them needed no other key to the dialect of
|
|
the Redeemer; and yet these Jews make strange of the doctrine of
|
|
Christ, and find knots in it, and I know not what stumbling stones.
|
|
Could a Galilean be known by his speech? An Ephraimite by his
|
|
<I>sibboleth?</I> And would any have the confidence to call God Father
|
|
to whom the Son of God was a barbarian, even when he spoke the will of
|
|
God in the words of the Spirit of God? Note, Those who are not
|
|
acquainted with the divine speech have reason to fear that they are
|
|
strangers to the divine nature. Christ spoke the words of God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+3:34"><I>ch.</I> iii. 34</A>)
|
|
|
|
in the dialect of the kingdom of God; and yet they, who pretended to
|
|
belong to the kingdom, understood not the idioms and properties of it,
|
|
but like strangers, and rude ones too, ridiculed it. And the reason why
|
|
they did not understand Christ's speech made the matter much worse:
|
|
<I>Even because you cannot hear my word,</I> that is, "You cannot
|
|
persuade yourselves to hear it attentively, impartially, and without
|
|
prejudice, as it should be heard." The meaning of this <I>cannot</I> is
|
|
an obstinate <I>will not;</I> as the Jews could not hear Stephen
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:57">Acts vii. 57</A>)
|
|
|
|
nor Paul,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+23:22">Acts xxiii. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, The rooted antipathy of men's corrupt hearts to the doctrine of
|
|
Christ is the true reason of their ignorance of it, and of their errors
|
|
and mistakes about it. They do not like it nor love it, and therefore
|
|
they will not understand it; like Peter, who pretended he <I>knew not
|
|
what the damsel said</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+26:70">Matt. xxvi. 70</A>),
|
|
|
|
when in truth he knew not what to say to it. <I>You cannot hear my
|
|
words,</I> for you have <I>stopped your ears</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+58:4,5">Ps. lviii. 4, 5</A>),
|
|
|
|
and God, in a way of righteous judgment, <I>has made your ears
|
|
heavy,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+6:10">Isa. vi. 10</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. Having thus disproved their relation both to Abraham and to God,
|
|
he comes next to tell them plainly whose children they were: <I>You are
|
|
of your father the devil,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:44"><I>v.</I> 44</A>.
|
|
|
|
If they were not God's children, they were the devil's, for God and
|
|
Satan divide the world of mankind; the devil is <I>therefore</I> said
|
|
to <I>work in the children of disobedience,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+2:2">Eph. ii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
All wicked people are the devil's children, <I>children of Belial</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+6:15">2 Cor. vi. 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
the serpent's seed
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:15">Gen. iii. 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
children of the wicked one,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+13:38">Matt. xiii. 38</A>.
|
|
|
|
They partake of his nature, bear his image, obey his commands, and
|
|
follow his example. Idolaters <I>said to a stock, Thou art our
|
|
father,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+2:27">Jer. ii. 27</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
This is a high charge, and sounds very harsh and horrid, that any of
|
|
the children of men, especially the church's children, should be called
|
|
<I>children of the devil,</I> and therefore our Saviour fully proves
|
|
it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. By a general argument: <I>The lusts of your father you will do,</I>
|
|
<B><I>thelete poiein</I></B>.
|
|
|
|
(1.) "You <I>do</I> the devil's lusts, the lusts which he would have
|
|
you to fulfil; you gratify and please him, and comply with his
|
|
temptation, and are <I>led captive by him at his will:</I> nay, you do
|
|
those lusts which the devil himself fulfils." Fleshly lusts and worldly
|
|
lusts the devil tempts men to; but, being a spirit, he cannot fulfil
|
|
them himself. The peculiar lusts of the devil are <I>spiritual
|
|
wickedness;</I> the lusts of the intellectual powers, and their corrupt
|
|
reasonings; pride and envy, and wrath and malice; enmity to that which
|
|
is good, and enticing others to that which is evil; these are lusts
|
|
which the devil fulfils, and those who are under the dominion of these
|
|
lusts resemble the devil, as the child does the parent. The more there
|
|
is of contemplation, and contrivance, and secret complacency, in sin,
|
|
the more it resembles the <I>lusts of the devil.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) You <I>will do</I> the devil's lusts. The more there is of the
|
|
<I>will</I> in these lusts, the more there is of the devil in them.
|
|
When sin is committed <I>of choice</I> and not by surprise, with
|
|
<I>pleasure</I> and not with reluctancy, when it is persisted in with a
|
|
daring presumption and a desperate resolution, like theirs that said,
|
|
<I>We have loved strangers and after them we will go,</I> then the
|
|
sinner <I>will</I> do the devil's lusts. "The lusts of your father you
|
|
<I>delight to do;</I>" so Dr. Hammond; they are rolled under the tongue
|
|
as a sweet morsel.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. By two particular instances, wherein they manifestly resembled the
|
|
devil--<I>murder</I> and <I>lying.</I> The devil is an enemy to life,
|
|
because God is the God of life and life is the happiness of man; and an
|
|
enemy to truth, because God is the God of truth and truth is the bond
|
|
of human society.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) He was <I>a murderer from the beginning,</I> not from his own
|
|
beginning, for he was created an angel of light, and had a first estate
|
|
which was pure and good, but from the beginning of his apostasy, which
|
|
was soon after the creation of man. He was
|
|
<B><I>anthropoktonos</I></B>--<I>homicida, a man-slayer.</I>
|
|
|
|
[1.] He was a <I>hater of man,</I> and so in affection an disposition a
|
|
murderer of him. He has his name, <I>Satan,</I> from
|
|
<I>sitnah--hatred.</I> He maligned God's image upon man, envied his
|
|
happiness, and earnestly desired his ruin, was an avowed enemy to the
|
|
whole race.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He was man's tempter to <I>that</I> sin which brought death into
|
|
the world, and so he was effectually the murderer of all mankind, which
|
|
in Adam had but <I>one neck.</I> He was a murderer of souls,
|
|
<I>deceived</I> them into sin, and by it <I>slew them</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+7:11">Rom. vii. 11</A>),
|
|
|
|
poisoned man with the forbidden fruit, and, to aggravate the matter,
|
|
made him his own murderer. Thus he was not only <I>at</I> the
|
|
beginning, but <I>from</I> the beginning, which intimates that thus he
|
|
<I>has been</I> ever since; as he began, so he continues, the murderer
|
|
of men by his temptations. The great tempter is the great destroyer.
|
|
The Jews called the devil <I>the angel of death.</I>
|
|
|
|
[3.] He was the first wheel in the first murder that ever was committed
|
|
by Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+3:12">1 John iii. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
If the devil had not been very strong in Cain, he could not have done
|
|
such an unnatural thing as to kill his own brother. Cain killing his
|
|
brother by the instigation of the devil, the devil is called the
|
|
<I>murderer,</I> which does not speak Cain's personal guilt the less,
|
|
but the devil's the more, whose torments, we have reason to think, will
|
|
be the greater, when the time comes, for all that wickedness into which
|
|
he has drawn men. See what reason we have to <I>stand</I> upon our
|
|
guard <I>against the wiles of the devil,</I> and never to hearken to
|
|
him (for he is a murderer, and certainly aims to do us mischief, even
|
|
when he <I>speaks fair</I>), and to wonder that he who is the murderer
|
|
of the children of men should yet be, by their own consent, so much
|
|
their master. Now herein these Jews were followers of him, and were
|
|
murderers, like him; murderers of souls, which they led blindfold into
|
|
the ditch, and made the <I>children of hell;</I> sworn enemies of
|
|
Christ, and now ready to be his betrayers and murderers, for the same
|
|
reason that Cain killed Abel. These Jews were that <I>seed of the
|
|
serpent</I> that were to <I>bruise the heel</I> of the <I>seed of the
|
|
woman; Now you seek to kill me.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He was <I>a liar.</I> A lie is opposed to truth
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+2:21">1 John ii. 21</A>),
|
|
|
|
and accordingly the devil is here described to be,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] An enemy to truth, and therefore to Christ. <I>First,</I> He is a
|
|
<I>deserter,</I> from the truth; he <I>abode not in the truth,</I> did
|
|
not continue in the purity and rectitude of his nature wherein he was
|
|
created, but left his first state; when he degenerated from goodness,
|
|
he departed from truth, for his apostasy was founded in a lie. The
|
|
angels were the <I>hosts of the Lord;</I> those that fell were not
|
|
<I>true</I> to their commander and sovereign, they were not to be
|
|
<I>trusted,</I> being charged with folly and defection,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+4:18">Job iv. 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
By <I>the truth</I> here we may understand the revealed will of God
|
|
concerning the salvation of man by Jesus Christ, the truth which Christ
|
|
was now preaching, and which the Jews opposed; herein they did <I>like
|
|
their father the devil,</I> who, <I>seeing</I> the honour put upon the
|
|
human nature in the <I>first Adam,</I> and <I>foreseeing</I> the much
|
|
greater honour intended in the <I>second Adam,</I> would not be
|
|
reconciled to that counsel of God, nor <I>stand in the truth</I>
|
|
concerning it, but, from a spirit of pride and envy, set himself to
|
|
resist it, and to thwart the designs of it; and so did these Jews here,
|
|
as his children and agents. <I>Secondly,</I> He is <I>destitute</I> of
|
|
the truth: <I>There is no truth in him.</I> His interest in the world
|
|
is supported by lies and falsehoods, and there is no truth, nothing you
|
|
can confide in, in him, nor in any thing he says or does. The notions
|
|
he propagates concerning good and evil are false and erroneous, his
|
|
proofs are lying wonders, his temptations are all cheats; he has great
|
|
knowledge of the truth, but having no affection to it, but on the
|
|
contrary being a sworn enemy to it, he is said to have <I>no truth in
|
|
him.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] He is a friend and patron of lying: <I>When he speaketh a lie he
|
|
speaketh of his own.</I> Three things are here said of the devil with
|
|
reference to the sin of lying:--<I>First,</I> That he is <I>a liar;</I>
|
|
his oracles were lying oracles, his prophets lying prophets, and the
|
|
images in which he was worshipped <I>teachers of lies.</I> He tempted
|
|
our first parents with a downright lie. All his temptations are carried
|
|
on by lies, calling <I>evil good and good evil,</I> and promising
|
|
impunity in sin; he knows them to be lies, and suggests them with an
|
|
intention to deceive, and so to destroy. When he now
|
|
<I>contradicted</I> the gospel, in the scribes and Pharisees, it was by
|
|
lies; and when afterwards he <I>corrupted it,</I> in the <I>man of
|
|
sin,</I> it was by strong delusions, and a great complicated lie.
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> That when he <I>speaks a lie</I> he <I>speaks of his
|
|
own,</I> <B><I>ek ton idion</I></B>. It is the proper <I>idiom</I> of
|
|
his language; of <I>his own,</I> not of God; his Creator never put it
|
|
into him. When men speak a lie they borrow it from the devil, <I>Satan
|
|
fills their hearts to lie</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+5:3">Acts v. 3</A>);
|
|
|
|
but when the devil speaks a lie the <I>model</I> of it is of his own
|
|
framing, the motives to it are from himself, which bespeaks the
|
|
desperate depth of wickedness into which those apostate spirits are
|
|
sunk; as in their first defection they had no tempter, so their
|
|
sinfulness is still their own. <I>Thirdly,</I> That he is the <I>father
|
|
of it,</I> <B><I>autou</I></B>.
|
|
|
|
1. He is the father of every <I>lie;</I> not only of the lies which he
|
|
himself suggests, but of those which others speak; he is the author and
|
|
founder of all lies. When men speak lies, they speak from him, and as
|
|
his mouth; they come originally from him, and bear his image.
|
|
|
|
2. He is the father of <I>every liar;</I> so it may be understood. God
|
|
made men with a disposition to truth. It is congruous to reason and
|
|
natural light, to the order of our faculties and the laws of society,
|
|
that we should speak truth; but the devil, the author of sin, the
|
|
spirit that works in the children of disobedience, has so corrupted the
|
|
nature of man that the wicked are said to be <I>estranged from the
|
|
womb, speaking lies</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+58:3">Ps. lviii. 3</A>);
|
|
|
|
he has taught them <I>with their tongues to use deceit,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+3:13">Rom. iii. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
He is the father of liars, who begat them, who trained them up in the
|
|
<I>way of lying,</I> whom they resemble and obey, and with whom all
|
|
<I>liars</I> shall have their portion for ever.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. Christ, having thus proved all murderers and all liars to be the
|
|
devil's children, leaves it to the consciences of his hearers to say,
|
|
<I>Thou art the man.</I> But he comes in the
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:45-58">following verses</A>
|
|
|
|
to assist them in the application of it to themselves; he does not call
|
|
them <I>liars,</I> but shows them that they were <I>no friends to
|
|
truth,</I> and therein resembled him who <I>abode not in the truth,
|
|
because there is no truth in him.</I> Two things he charges upon
|
|
them:--</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. That they would not <I>believe the word of truth</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:45"><I>v.</I> 45</A>),
|
|
|
|
<B><I>hoti ten aletheian lego, ou pisteuete moi</I></B>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) Two ways it may be taken;--
|
|
|
|
[1.] "Though I tell you the truth, yet you will not believe me
|
|
(<B><I>hoti</I></B>), <I>that I do so.</I>" Though he gave abundant
|
|
proof of his commission from God, and his affection to the children of
|
|
men, yet they would not believe that he told them the truth. Now was
|
|
<I>truth fallen in the street,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+59:14,15">Isa. lix. 14, 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
The greatest truths with some gained not the least credit; for they
|
|
<I>rebelled against the light,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+24:13">Job xxiv. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
Or,
|
|
|
|
[2.] <I>Because I tell you the truth</I> (so we read it) therefore
|
|
<I>you believe me not.</I> They would not receive him, nor entertain
|
|
him as a prophet, because he told them some unpleasing truths which
|
|
they did not care to hear, told them the truth concerning themselves
|
|
and their own case, showed them their faces in a glass that would not
|
|
flatter them; therefore they would not believe a word he said.
|
|
Miserable is the case of those to whom the light of divine truth is
|
|
become a torment.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Now, to show them the unreasonableness of their infidelity, he
|
|
condescends to put the matter to this fair issue,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:46"><I>v.</I> 46</A>.
|
|
|
|
He and they being contrary, either he was in an error or they were. Now
|
|
take it either way.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] If <I>he</I> were in an error, why did they not convince him? The
|
|
falsehood of <I>pretended</I> prophets was discovered either by the
|
|
<I>ill tendency</I> of their doctrines
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+13:2">Deut. xiii. 2</A>),
|
|
|
|
or by the <I>ill tenour</I> of their conversation: <I>You shall know
|
|
them by their fruits;</I> but (saith Christ) <I>which of you,</I> you
|
|
of the sanhedrim, that take upon you to judge of prophets, <I>which of
|
|
you convinceth me of sin?</I> They accused him of some of the worst of
|
|
crimes--gluttony, drunkenness, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking, confederacy
|
|
with Satan, and what not. But their accusations were malicious
|
|
groundless calumnies, and such as every one that knew him knew to be
|
|
<I>utterly false.</I> When they had done their utmost by trick and
|
|
artifice, subornation and perjury, to prove some crime upon him, the
|
|
very judge that condemned him owned he <I>found no fault in him.</I>
|
|
The <I>sin</I> he here challenges them to convict him of is,
|
|
<I>First,</I> An inconsistent doctrine. They had heard his testimony;
|
|
could they show any thing in it absurd or unworthy to be believed, any
|
|
contradiction either of himself or of the scriptures, or any corruption
|
|
of truth or manners insinuated by his doctrine?
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+18:20"><I>ch.</I> xviii. 20</A>.
|
|
|
|
Or, <I>Secondly,</I> An incongruous conversation: "Which of you can
|
|
justly charge me with any thing, in word or deed, unbecoming a
|
|
prophet?" See the wonderful condescension of our Lord Jesus, that he
|
|
demanded not credit any further than the allowed motives of credibility
|
|
supported his demands. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+2:5,31,Mic+6:3">Jer. ii. 5, 31; Mic. vi. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
Ministers may hence learn,
|
|
|
|
1. To <I>walk</I> so <I>circumspectly</I> as that it may not be in the
|
|
power of their most strict observers to convince them of sin, <I>that
|
|
the ministry be not blamed.</I> The only way not to be convicted of sin
|
|
is not to sin.
|
|
|
|
2. To be willing to <I>admit a scrutiny;</I> though we are confident in
|
|
many things that we are in the right, yet we should be willing to have
|
|
it tried whether we be not in the wrong. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+6:24">Job vi. 24</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] If <I>they</I> were in an error, why were they not convinced by
|
|
him? "<I>If I say the truth, why do you not believe me?</I> If you
|
|
cannot convince me of error, you must own that I <I>say the truth,</I>
|
|
and why do you not then <I>give me credit?</I> Why will you not deal
|
|
with me upon trust?" Note, If men would but enquire into the reason of
|
|
their infidelity, and examine why they do not believe that which they
|
|
cannot gainsay, they would find themselves reduced to such absurdities
|
|
as they could not but be ashamed of; for it will be found that the
|
|
reason why we believe not in Jesus Christ is because we are not willing
|
|
to part with our sins, and deny ourselves, and serve God faithfully;
|
|
that we are not of the Christian religion, because we would not indeed
|
|
be of any, and unbelief of our Redeemer resolves itself into a
|
|
downright rebellion against our Creator.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Another thing charged upon them is that they would not hear the
|
|
words of God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:47"><I>v.</I> 47</A>),
|
|
|
|
which further shows how groundless their claim of relation to God was.
|
|
Here is,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) A doctrine laid down: <I>He that is of God heareth God's
|
|
words;</I> that is,
|
|
|
|
[1.] He is <I>willing</I> and <I>ready</I> to hear them, is sincerely
|
|
desirous to know what the mind of God is, and cheerfully embraces
|
|
whatever he knows to be so. God's words have such an authority over,
|
|
and such an agreeableness with all that are born of God, that they meet
|
|
them, as the child Samuel did, with, <I>Speak, Lord, for thy servant
|
|
heareth.</I> Let the word of the Lord come.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He <I>apprehends</I> and <I>discerns</I> them, he so hears them as
|
|
to perceive the <I>voice of God</I> in them, which the natural man does
|
|
not,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+2:14">1 Cor. ii. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
He that is of God is <I>soon aware</I> of the discoveries he makes of
|
|
himself of the <I>nearness of his name</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+75:1">Ps. lxxv. 1</A>),
|
|
|
|
as they of the family know the master's tread, and the master's knock,
|
|
and <I>open to him immediately</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+12:36">Luke xii. 36</A>),
|
|
|
|
as the sheep know the voice of their shepherd from that of a stranger,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+10:4,5,So+2:8"><I>ch.</I> x. 4, 5; Cant. ii. 8</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The application of this doctrine, for the conviction of these
|
|
unbelieving Jews: <I>You therefore hear them not;</I> that is, "You
|
|
heed not, you understand not, you believe not, the words of God, nor
|
|
care to hear them, <I>because you are not of God.</I> Your being thus
|
|
deaf and dead to the words of God is a plain evidence that you are
|
|
<I>not of God.</I>" It is in his word that God manifests himself and is
|
|
present among us; we are therefore reckoned to be well or ill affected
|
|
to his word; see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+4:4,1Jo+4:6">2 Cor. iv. 4; 1 John iv. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Or, their not being of God was the reason why they did not profitably
|
|
<I>hear the words of God,</I> which Christ spoke; they did not
|
|
understand and believe him, not because the things themselves were
|
|
obscure or wanted evidence, but because the hearers were <I>not of
|
|
God,</I> were not born again. If the word of the kingdom do not bring
|
|
forth fruit, the blame is to be laid upon the soil, not upon the seed,
|
|
as appears by the parable of the sower,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+13:3">Matt. xiii. 3</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_48"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_49"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_50"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec6"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Christ's Discourse with the Pharisees.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well
|
|
that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?
|
|
49 Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father,
|
|
and ye do dishonour me.
|
|
50 And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and
|
|
judgeth.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here is, I. The malice of hell breaking out in the base language which
|
|
the unbelieving Jews gave to our Lord Jesus. Hitherto they had cavilled
|
|
at his doctrine, and had made invidious remarks upon it; but, having
|
|
shown themselves uneasy when he complained
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:43,47"><I>v.</I> 43, 47</A>)
|
|
|
|
that they would not hear him, now at length they fall to downright
|
|
railing,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:48"><I>v.</I> 48</A>.
|
|
|
|
They were not the common people, but, as it should seem, the scribes
|
|
and Pharisees, the men of consequence, who, when they saw themselves
|
|
convicted of an obstinate infidelity, scornfully turned off the
|
|
conviction with this: <I>Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and
|
|
hast a devil?</I> See here, see it and wonder, see it and tremble,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. What was the blasphemous character commonly given of our Lord Jesus
|
|
among the wicked Jews, to which they refer.
|
|
|
|
(1.) That he was a Samaritan, that is, that he was an enemy to their
|
|
church and nation, one that they hated and could not endure. Thus they
|
|
exposed him to the ill will of the people, with whom you could not put
|
|
a man into a worse name than to call him <I>a Samaritan.</I> If he had
|
|
been a Samaritan, he had been punishable, by the <I>beating of the
|
|
rebels</I> (as they called it), for coming into the temple. They had
|
|
often enough called him <I>a Galilean--a mean man;</I> but as if that
|
|
were not enough, though it contradicted the other, they will have him a
|
|
<I>Samaritan--a bad man.</I> The Jews to this day call the Christians,
|
|
in reproach, <I>Cuthæi-Samaritans.</I> Note, Great endeavours
|
|
have in all ages been used to make good people odious by putting them
|
|
under black characters, and it is easy to run that down with a crowd
|
|
and a cry which is once put into an ill name. Perhaps because Christ
|
|
justly inveighed against the pride and tyranny of the priests and
|
|
elders, they hereby suggest that he aimed at the ruin of their church,
|
|
in aiming at its reformation, and was <I>falling away</I> to the
|
|
Samaritans.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That <I>he had a devil.</I> Either,
|
|
|
|
[1.] That he was <I>in league with the devil.</I> Having reproached his
|
|
doctrine as tending to Samaritanism, here they reflect upon his
|
|
miracles as done in combination with Beelzebub. Or, rather
|
|
|
|
[2.] That he was possessed with a devil, that he was a melancholy man,
|
|
whose brain was <I>clouded,</I> or a mad man, whose brain was
|
|
<I>heated,</I> and that which he said was no more to be believed than
|
|
the extravagant rambles of a distracted man, or one in a delirium. Thus
|
|
the divine revelation of those things which are above the discovery of
|
|
reason have been often branded with the charge of enthusiasm, and the
|
|
prophet was called a <I>mad fellow,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+9:11,Ho+9:7">2 Kings ix. 11; Hosea ix. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
The inspiration of the Pagan oracles and prophets was indeed a frenzy,
|
|
and those that had it were for the time beside themselves; but that
|
|
which was truly <I>divine</I> was not so. <I>Wisdom is justified of her
|
|
children,</I> as wisdom indeed.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. How they undertook to justify this character, and applied it to the
|
|
present occasion: <I>Say we not well that thou art so?</I> One would
|
|
think that his excellent discourses should have altered their opinion
|
|
of him, and have made them recant; but, instead of this, their hearts
|
|
were more hardened and their prejudices confirmed. They value
|
|
themselves on their enmity to Christ, as if they had never spoken
|
|
<I>better</I> than when they spoke the worst they could of Jesus
|
|
Christ. Those have arrived at the highest pitch of wickedness who avow
|
|
their impiety, repeat what they should retract, and justify themselves
|
|
in that for which they ought to condemn themselves. It is bad to say
|
|
and do ill, but it is worse to <I>stand to it;</I> I do <I>well to be
|
|
angry.</I> When Christ spoke with so much boldness against the sins of
|
|
the great men, and thereby incensed them against him, those who were
|
|
sensible of no interest but what is secular and sensual concluded him
|
|
<I>beside himself,</I> for they thought none but a madman would lose
|
|
his preferment, and hazard his life, for his religion and
|
|
conscience.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The meekness and mercifulness of Heaven shining in Christ's reply
|
|
to this vile calumny,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:49,50"><I>v.</I> 49, 50</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. He denies their charge against him: <I>I have not a devil;</I> as
|
|
Paul
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+26:25">Acts xxvi. 25</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>I am not mad.</I> The imputation is unjust; "I am neither actuated
|
|
by a devil, nor in compact with one;" and this he evidenced by what he
|
|
did against the devil's kingdom. He takes no notice of their calling
|
|
him a <I>Samaritan,</I> because it was a calumny that disproved itself,
|
|
it was a personal reflection, and not worth taking notice of: but
|
|
saying he had a devil reflected on his commission, and therefore he
|
|
answered that. St. Augustine gives this gloss upon his not saying any
|
|
thing to their calling him a Samaritan--that he was indeed that good
|
|
Samaritan spoken of in the parable,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+10:33">Luke x. 33</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He asserts the sincerity of his own intentions: But <I>I honour my
|
|
Father.</I> They suggested that he took undue honours to himself, and
|
|
derogated from the honour due to God only, both which he <I>denies</I>
|
|
here, in saying that he made it his business to honour his Father, and
|
|
him only. It also proves that he <I>had not a devil;</I> for, if he
|
|
had, he would not honour God. Note, Those who can truly way that they
|
|
make it their constant care to honour God are sufficiently armed
|
|
against the censures and reproaches of men.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. He complains of the wrong they did him by their calumnies: <I>You do
|
|
dishonour me.</I> By this it appears that, as man, he had a tender
|
|
sense of the disgrace and indignity done him; reproach was a sword in
|
|
his bones, and yet he underwent it for our salvation. It is the will of
|
|
God that <I>all men should honour the Son,</I> yet there are many that
|
|
<I>dishonour him;</I> such a contradiction is there in the carnal mind
|
|
to the will of God. Christ honoured his Father so as never man did, and
|
|
yet was himself dishonoured so as never man was; for, though God has
|
|
promised that those who honour him he will honour, he never promised
|
|
that men should honour them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. He clears himself from the imputation of vain glory, in saying this
|
|
concerning himself,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:50"><I>v.</I> 50</A>.
|
|
|
|
See here,
|
|
|
|
(1.) His <I>contempt</I> of worldly honour: <I>I seek not mine own
|
|
glory.</I> He did not aim at this in what he had said of himself or
|
|
against his persecutors; he did not court the applause of men, nor
|
|
covet preferment in the world, but industriously declined both. He did
|
|
not <I>seek his own glory</I> distinct from his Father's, nor had any
|
|
separate interest of his own. For men to <I>search their own glory</I>
|
|
is <I>not glory</I> indeed
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+25:27">Prov. xxv. 27</A>),
|
|
|
|
but rather their shame to be so much <I>out in their aim.</I> This
|
|
comes in here as a reason why Christ made so light of their reproaches:
|
|
"<I>You do dishonour me,</I> but cannot disturb me, shall not disquiet
|
|
me, for I <I>seek not my own glory.</I>" Note, Those who are dead to
|
|
men's praise can safely bear their contempt.
|
|
|
|
(2.) His <I>comfort</I> under worldly dishonour: <I>There is one that
|
|
seeketh and judgeth.</I> In two things Christ made it appear that he
|
|
<I>sought not his own glory;</I> and here he tells us what satisfied
|
|
him as to both.
|
|
|
|
[1.] He did not <I>court</I> men's respect, but was indifferent to it,
|
|
and in reference to this he saith, "<I>There is one that seeketh,</I>
|
|
that will secure and advance, my interest in the esteem and affections
|
|
of the people, while I am in no care about it." Note, God will seek
|
|
<I>their</I> honour that do not seek <I>their own;</I> for before
|
|
honour is humility.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He did not <I>revenge</I> men's affronts, but was unconcerned at
|
|
them, and in reference to this he saith, "<I>There is one that
|
|
judgeth,</I> that will vindicate my honour, and severely reckon with
|
|
those that trample upon it." Probably he refers here to the judgments
|
|
that were coming upon the nation of the Jews for the indignities they
|
|
did to the Lord Jesus. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+37:13-15">Ps. xxxvii. 13-15</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>I heard not, for thou wilt hear.</I> If we undertake to judge for
|
|
ourselves, whatever damage we sustain, our recompence is in our own
|
|
hands; but if we be, as we ought to be, humble appellants and patient
|
|
expectants, we shall find, to our comfort, <I>there is one that
|
|
judgeth.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_51"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_52"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_53"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_54"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_55"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_56"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_57"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_58"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh8_59"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec7"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Christ's Discourse with the Pharisees</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he
|
|
shall never see death.
|
|
52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a
|
|
devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a
|
|
man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.
|
|
53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and
|
|
the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?
|
|
54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it
|
|
is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your
|
|
God:
|
|
55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should
|
|
say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know
|
|
him, and keep his saying.
|
|
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw <I>it,</I>
|
|
and was glad.
|
|
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years
|
|
old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
|
|
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before
|
|
Abraham was, I am.
|
|
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid
|
|
himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of
|
|
them, and so passed by.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
In these verses we have,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The doctrine of the immortality of believers laid down,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:51"><I>v.</I> 51</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is ushered in with the usual solemn preface, <I>Verily, verily, I
|
|
say unto you,</I> which commands both attention and assent, and this is
|
|
what he says, <I>If a man keep my sayings, he shall never see
|
|
death.</I> Here we have,
|
|
|
|
1. The <I>character</I> of a believer: he is one that <I>keeps the
|
|
sayings</I> of the Lord Jesus, <B><I>ton logon ton emon</I></B>--<I>my
|
|
word;</I> that <I>word of mine</I> which I have delivered to you; this
|
|
we must not only <I>receive,</I> but <I>keep;</I> not only <I>have,</I>
|
|
but <I>hold.</I> We must keep it in mind and memory, keep it in love
|
|
and affection, so keep it as in nothing to violate it or go contrary to
|
|
it, keep it <I>without spot</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+6:14">1 Tim. vi. 14</A>),
|
|
|
|
keep it as a trust committed to us, keep in it as our way, keep to it
|
|
as our rule.
|
|
|
|
2. The <I>privilege</I> of a believer: <I>He shall by no means see
|
|
death for ever;</I> so it is in the original. Not as if the bodies of
|
|
believers were secured from the stroke of death. No, even the
|
|
<I>children of the Most High</I> must <I>die like men,</I> and the
|
|
followers of Christ have been, more than other men, in deaths often,
|
|
and <I>killed all the day long;</I> how then is this promise made good
|
|
that they <I>shall not see death?</I> Answer,
|
|
|
|
(1.) The property of death is so altered to them that they do not see
|
|
it as death, they do not see the terror of death, it is quite taken
|
|
off; their sight does not <I>terminate</I> in death, as theirs does who
|
|
<I>live by sense;</I> no, they look so clearly, so comfortably, through
|
|
death, and beyond death, and are so taken up with their state on the
|
|
other side death, that they overlook death, and <I>see it not.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The power of death is so broken that though there is no remedy,
|
|
but they must see <I>death,</I> yet they shall not see death <I>for
|
|
ever,</I> shall not be always shut up under its arrests, the day will
|
|
come when <I>death shall be swallowed up in victory.</I>
|
|
|
|
(3.) They are perfectly delivered from <I>eternal death,</I> shall not
|
|
be <I>hurt of the second death.</I> That is the death especially meant
|
|
here, that death which is <I>for ever,</I> which is opposed to
|
|
everlasting life; this they shall never see, for they shall <I>never
|
|
come into condemnation;</I> they shall have their everlasting lot where
|
|
there will be <I>no more death,</I> where they <I>cannot die any
|
|
more,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+20:36">Luke xx. 36</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though now they cannot avoid seeing death, and tasting it too, yet they
|
|
shall shortly be there where it will be <I>seen no more for ever,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+14:13">Exod. xiv. 13</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The Jews cavil at this doctrine. Instead of laying hold of this
|
|
precious promise of immortality, which the nature of man has an
|
|
ambition of (who is there that does not love life, and dread the sight
|
|
of death?) they lay hold of this occasion to reproach him that makes
|
|
them so kind an offer: <I>Now we know that thou hast a devil.</I>
|
|
Abraham <I>is dead.</I> Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Their <I>railing: "Now we know that thou hast a devil,</I> that thou
|
|
art a madman; thou ravest, and sayest thou knowest not what." See how
|
|
these swine trample underfoot the precious pearls of gospel promises.
|
|
If now at last they had evidence to prove him <I>mad,</I> why did they
|
|
say
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:48"><I>v.</I> 48</A>),
|
|
|
|
before they had that proof, <I>Thou hast a devil?</I> But this is the
|
|
method of malice, first to <I>fasten</I> an invidious charge, and then
|
|
to <I>fish</I> for evidence of it: <I>Now we know that thou hast a
|
|
devil.</I> If he had not abundantly proved himself a <I>teacher come
|
|
from God,</I> his promises of immortality to his credulous followers
|
|
might justly have been ridiculed, and charity itself would have imputed
|
|
them to a crazed fancy; but his doctrine was evidently divine, his
|
|
miracles confirmed it, and the Jews' religion taught them to expect
|
|
such a prophet, and to believe in him; for them therefore thus to
|
|
reject him was to abandon that promise to which their <I>twelve tribes
|
|
hoped to come,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+26:27">Acts xxvi. 7</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Their <I>reasoning,</I> and the colour they had to <I>run him
|
|
down</I> thus. In short, they look upon him as guilty of an
|
|
insufferable piece of arrogance, in making himself greater than
|
|
<I>Abraham and the prophets: Abraham is dead,</I> and <I>the
|
|
prophets,</I> they are dead too; very true, by the same token that
|
|
these Jews were the genuine offspring of those that killed them. Now,
|
|
|
|
(1.) It is true that Abraham and the prophets were great men, great in
|
|
the favour of God, and great in the esteem of all good men.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It is true that they <I>kept God's sayings,</I> and were obedient
|
|
to them; and yet,
|
|
|
|
(3.) It is true that they <I>died;</I> they never pretended to
|
|
<I>have,</I> much less to <I>give,</I> immortality, but every one in
|
|
his own order was <I>gathered to his people.</I> It was their honour
|
|
that they <I>died in faith,</I> but die they must. Why should a good
|
|
man be afraid to die, when Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead?
|
|
They have <I>tracked</I> the way through that darksome valley, which
|
|
should reconcile us to death and help to take off the terror of it. Now
|
|
they think Christ talks madly, when he saith, <I>If a man keep my
|
|
sayings, he shall never taste death. Tasting</I> death means the same
|
|
thing with <I>seeing</I> it; and well may death be represented as
|
|
grievous to <I>several</I> of the senses, which is the destruction of
|
|
them <I>all.</I> Now their arguing goes upon two mistakes:--
|
|
|
|
[1.] They understood Christ of an immortality in this world, and this
|
|
was a mistake. In the sense that Christ spoke, it was not true that
|
|
<I>Abraham and the prophets were dead,</I> for God is still the <I>God
|
|
of Abraham</I> and the <I>God of the holy prophets</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+22:6">Rev. xxii. 6</A>);
|
|
|
|
now God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; therefore
|
|
Abraham and the prophets are still alive, and, as Christ meant it, they
|
|
had not <I>seen</I> nor <I>tasted</I> death.
|
|
|
|
[2.] They thought none could be greater than Abraham and the prophets,
|
|
whereas they could not but know that the Messiah would be greater than
|
|
Abraham or any of the prophets; they did virtuously, but he excelled
|
|
them all; nay, they borrowed their greatness from him. It was the
|
|
honour of Abraham that he was the Father of the Messiah, and the honour
|
|
of the prophets that they testified beforehand concerning him: so that
|
|
he certainly <I>obtained a</I> far <I>more excellent name than
|
|
they.</I> Therefore, instead of inferring from Christ's making himself
|
|
greater than Abraham that he had a <I>devil,</I> they should have
|
|
inferred from his proving himself so (by doing the works which neither
|
|
Abraham nor the prophets ever did) that he was the Christ; but their
|
|
eyes were blinded. They scornfully asked, <I>Whom makest thou
|
|
thyself?</I> As if he had been guilty of pride and vain-glory; whereas
|
|
he was so far from making himself greater than he was that he now drew
|
|
a veil over his own glory, emptied himself, and made himself less than
|
|
he was, and was the greatest example of humility that ever was.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. Christ's reply to this cavil; still he vouchsafes to reason with
|
|
them, that every mouth may be stopped. No doubt he could have struck
|
|
them dumb or dead upon the spot, but this was the <I>day of his
|
|
patience.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. In his answer he insists not upon his own testimony concerning
|
|
himself, but waives it as not sufficient nor conclusive
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:54"><I>v.</I> 54</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>If I honour myself, my honour is nothing,</I> <B><I>ean ego
|
|
doxazo</I></B>--<I>if I glorify myself.</I> Note, Self-honour is no
|
|
honour; and the affectation of glory is both the forfeiture and the
|
|
defeasance of it: it is <I>not glory</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+25:27">Prov. xxv. 27</A>),
|
|
|
|
but so great a reproach that there is no sin which men are more
|
|
industrious to hide than this; even he that most affects praise would
|
|
not be thought to do it. Honour of our own creating is a mere chimera,
|
|
has nothing in it, and therefore is called <I>vain-glory.</I>
|
|
Self-admirers are self-<I>deceivers.</I> Our Lord Jesus was not one
|
|
that <I>honoured himself,</I> as they represented him; he was
|
|
<I>crowned</I> by him who is the fountain of honour, and glorified not
|
|
himself to be made a high priest,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+5:4,5">Heb. v. 4, 5</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He refers himself to <I>his</I> Father, God; and to <I>their</I>
|
|
father, Abraham.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) To his Father, <I>God: It is my Father that honoureth me.</I> By
|
|
this he means,
|
|
|
|
[1.] That he <I>derived</I> from his Father all the honour he now
|
|
claimed; he had commanded them to believe in him, to follow him, and to
|
|
keep his word, all which put an honour upon him; but it was the Father
|
|
that <I>laid help</I> upon him, that <I>lodged</I> all <I>fulness</I>
|
|
in him, that sanctified him, and sealed him, and sent him into the
|
|
world to receive all the honours due to the Messiah, and this justified
|
|
him in all these demands of respect.
|
|
|
|
[2.] That he <I>depended</I> upon his Father for all the honour he
|
|
further <I>looked for.</I> He courted not the applauses of the age, but
|
|
despised them; for his eye and heart were upon the glory which the
|
|
Father had promised him, and <I>which he had with the Father before the
|
|
world was.</I> He aimed at an advancement with which the Father was to
|
|
<I>exalt him, a name</I> he was to <I>give him,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Php+2:8,9">Phil. ii. 8, 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, Christ and all that are his depend upon God for their honour; and
|
|
he that is sure of honour where he is known cares not though he be
|
|
slighted where he is in disguise. Appealing thus often to his Father,
|
|
and his Father's testimony of him, which yet the Jews did not admit nor
|
|
give credit to,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> He here takes occasion to show the reason of <I>their</I>
|
|
incredulity, notwithstanding <I>this</I> testimony--and this was their
|
|
<I>unacquaintedness</I> with God; as if he had said, "But why should I
|
|
talk to you of my Father's honouring me, when he is one you know
|
|
nothing of? You <I>say of him that he is your God, yet you have not
|
|
known him.</I>" Here observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>a.</I> The profession they made of relation to God: "<I>You say that
|
|
he is your God,</I> the God you have chosen, and are in covenant with;
|
|
you say that you are Israel; but all are not so indeed that are of
|
|
Israel,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+9:6">Rom. ix. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, Many pretend to have an interest in God, and say that he is
|
|
<I>theirs,</I> who yet have no just cause to say so. Those who called
|
|
themselves the <I>temple of the Lord,</I> having <I>profaned the
|
|
excellency of Jacob,</I> did but trust in lying words. What will it
|
|
avail us to say, He is <I>our God,</I> if we be not in sincerity <I>his
|
|
people,</I> nor such as he will own? Christ mentions here their
|
|
profession of relation to God, as that which was an aggravation of
|
|
their unbelief. All people will honour those whom their God honours;
|
|
but these Jews, who said that the Lord was their God, studied how to
|
|
put the utmost disgrace upon one upon whom their God put honour. Note,
|
|
The Profession we make of a covenant relation to God, and an interest
|
|
in him, if it be not improved <I>by us</I> will be improved <I>against
|
|
us.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>b.</I> Their ignorance of him, and estrangement from him,
|
|
notwithstanding this profession: <I>Yet you have not known him.</I>
|
|
|
|
(<I>a.</I>) <I>You know him not at all.</I> These Pharisees were so
|
|
taken up with the study of their traditions concerning things foreign
|
|
and trifling that they never minded the most needful and useful
|
|
knowledge; like the false prophets of old, who <I>caused people to
|
|
forget God's name by their dreams,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+23:27">Jer. xxiii. 27</A>.
|
|
|
|
Or,
|
|
|
|
(<I>b.</I>) <I>You know him not aright,</I> but mistake concerning him;
|
|
and this is as bad as not knowing him at all, or worse. Men may be able
|
|
to dispute subtly concerning God, and yet may think him such a one as
|
|
themselves, and <I>not know him.</I> You say that he is <I>yours,</I>
|
|
and it is natural to us to desire to know <I>our own,</I> yet you
|
|
<I>know him not.</I> Note, There are many who <I>claim-kindred</I> to
|
|
God who yet have no acquaintance with him. It is only the name of God
|
|
which they have learned to talk of, and to hector with; but for the
|
|
nature of God, his attributes and perfections, and relations to his
|
|
creatures, they know nothing of the matter; we <I>speak this to their
|
|
shame,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+15:34">1 Cor. xv. 34</A>.
|
|
|
|
Multitudes satisfy themselves, but deceive themselves, with a titular
|
|
relation to an <I>unknown God.</I> This Christ charges upon the Jews
|
|
here,
|
|
|
|
[<I>a.</I>] To show how vain and groundless their pretensions of
|
|
relation to God were. "You say that he is yours, but you give
|
|
yourselves the lie, for it is plain that you do not know him;" and we
|
|
reckon that a cheat is effectually convicted if it be found that he is
|
|
ignorant of the persons he pretends alliance to.
|
|
|
|
[<I>b.</I>] To show the true reason why they were not wrought upon by
|
|
Christ's doctrine and miracles. They knew not God; and therefore
|
|
perceived not the image of God, nor the voice of God in Christ. Note,
|
|
The reason why men receive not the <I>gospel of Christ</I> is because
|
|
they have not the <I>knowledge of God.</I> Men <I>submit not to the
|
|
righteousness of Christ</I> because they are <I>ignorant of God's
|
|
righteousness,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+10:3">Rom. x. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
They that know not God, and obey not the gospel of Christ, are put
|
|
together,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Th+1:8">2 Thess. i. 8</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> He gives them the reason of <I>his</I> assurance that
|
|
his Father would <I>honour</I> him and <I>own him: But I know him;</I>
|
|
and again, <I>I know him;</I> which bespeaks, not only his
|
|
<I>acquaintance</I> with him, having lain in his bosom, but his
|
|
<I>confidence</I> in him, to stand by him, and bear him out in his
|
|
whole undertaking; as was prophesied concerning him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+50:7,8">Isa. l. 7, 8</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>I know</I> that I shall not be ashamed, for he is near that
|
|
justifies; and as Paul, "<I>I know whom I have believed</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ti+1:12">2 Tim. i. 12</A>),
|
|
|
|
I know him to be faithful, and powerful, and heartily engaged in the
|
|
cause which I know to be his <I>own.</I>" Observe,
|
|
|
|
1. How he <I>professes</I> his knowledge of his Father, with the
|
|
greatest certainty, as one that was neither afraid nor ashamed to own
|
|
it: <I>If I should say I know him not, I should be a liar like unto
|
|
you.</I> He would not deny his relation to God, to humour the Jews, and
|
|
to avoid their reproaches, and prevent further trouble; nor would he
|
|
retract what he had said, nor confess himself either deceived or a
|
|
deceiver; if he should, he would be found a false witness against God
|
|
and himself. Note, Those who disown their religion and relation to
|
|
God, as Peter, are liars, as much as hypocrites are, who pretend to
|
|
know him, when they do not. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+6:13,14">1 Tim. vi. 13, 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
Mr. Clark observes well, upon this, that it is a great sin to deny God's
|
|
grace in us.
|
|
|
|
2. How he <I>proves</I> his knowledge of his Father: <I>I know him and
|
|
keep his sayings,</I> or <I>his word.</I> Christ, as man, was obedient
|
|
to the moral law, and, as Redeemer, to the mediatorial law; and in both
|
|
he kept <I>his Father's</I> word, and <I>his own word</I> with the
|
|
Father. Christ requires of us
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:51"><I>v.</I> 51</A>)
|
|
|
|
that we <I>keep his sayings;</I> and he has set before us a copy of
|
|
obedience, a copy without a blot: he <I>kept his Father's sayings;</I>
|
|
well might he who <I>learned obedience</I> teach it; see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+5:8,9">Heb. v. 8, 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
Christ by this evinced that he knew the Father. Note, The best proof of
|
|
our acquaintance with God is our obedience to him. Those only know God
|
|
aright that keep his word; it is a ruled case,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+2:3">1 John ii. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Hereby we know that we know him</I> (and do not only fancy it),
|
|
<I>if we keep his commandments.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Christ refers them to <I>their</I> father, whom they boasted so
|
|
much of a relation to, and that was Abraham, and this closes the
|
|
discourse.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] Christ asserts Abraham's prospect of him, and respect to him:
|
|
<I>Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was
|
|
glad,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:56"><I>v.</I> 56</A>.
|
|
|
|
And by this he proves that he was not at all out of the way when he
|
|
<I>made himself greater than Abraham.</I> Two things he here speaks of
|
|
as instances of that patriarch's respect to the promised Messiah:--</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> The ambition he had to <I>see his day: He rejoiced,</I>
|
|
<B><I>egalliasto</I></B>--<I>he leaped at it.</I> The word, though it
|
|
commonly signifies <I>rejoicing,</I> must here signify a transport of
|
|
<I>desire</I> rather than of <I>joy,</I> for otherwise the latter part
|
|
of
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:56">the verse</A>
|
|
|
|
would be a tautology; he <I>saw it, and was glad.</I> He <I>reached
|
|
out,</I> or <I>stretched himself forth,</I> that he might <I>see my
|
|
day;</I> as Zaccheus, that ran before, and climbed the tree, <I>to see
|
|
Jesus.</I> The notices he had received of the Messiah to come had
|
|
raised in him an expectation of something <I>great,</I> which he
|
|
earnestly longed to know more of. The dark intimation of that which is
|
|
considerable puts men upon enquiry, and makes them earnestly ask
|
|
<I>Who?</I> and <I>What?</I> and <I>Where?</I> and <I>When?</I> and
|
|
<I>How?</I> And thus the prophets of the Old Testament, having a
|
|
general idea of a grace that should <I>come, searched diligently</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+1:10">1 Pet. i. 10</A>),
|
|
|
|
and Abraham was as industrious herein as any of them. God told him of a
|
|
land that he would give his posterity, and of the wealth and honour he
|
|
designed them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+15:14">Gen. xv. 14</A>);
|
|
|
|
but he never <I>leaped</I> thus to see that day, as he did to see the
|
|
day of the Son of man. He could not look with so much indifferency upon
|
|
the promised <I>seed</I> as he did upon the promised land; <I>in
|
|
that</I> he was, but <I>to the other</I> he could not be, contentedly a
|
|
stranger. Note, Those who rightly know any thing of Christ cannot but
|
|
be earnestly desirous to know more of him. Those who discern the
|
|
dawning of the light of the Sun of righteousness cannot but wish to see
|
|
his rising. The mystery of redemption is that which <I>angels desire to
|
|
look into,</I> much more should we, who are more immediately concerned
|
|
in it. Abraham desired to see Christ's day, though it was at a great
|
|
distance; but this degenerate seed of his discerned not his day, nor
|
|
bade it welcome when it came. The appearing of Christ, which gracious
|
|
souls love and long for, carnal hearts dread and loathe.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> The satisfaction he had in what he did see of it:
|
|
<I>He saw it, and was glad.</I> Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>a.</I> How God gratified the pious desire of Abraham; he longed to
|
|
see Christ's day, and he <I>saw it.</I> Though he saw it not so
|
|
plainly, and fully, and distinctly as we now see it under the gospel,
|
|
yet he saw something of it, more <I>afterwards</I> than he did at
|
|
first. Note, To him that has, and to him that asks, shall be given; to
|
|
him that uses and improves what he has, and that desires and prays for
|
|
more of the knowledge of Christ, God will give more. But how did
|
|
Abraham see Christ's day?
|
|
|
|
(<I>a.</I>) Some understand it of the sight he had of it in the other
|
|
world. The separate soul of Abraham, when the veil of flesh was rent,
|
|
saw the mysteries of the kingdom of God in heaven. Calvin mentions this
|
|
sense of it, and does not much disallow it. Note, The longings of
|
|
gracious souls after Jesus Christ will be fully satisfied when they
|
|
come to heaven, and not till then. But,
|
|
|
|
(<I>b.</I>) It is more commonly understood of some sight he had of
|
|
<I>Christ's day</I> in this world. They that <I>received not the
|
|
promises,</I> yet <I>saw them afar off,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+11:13">Heb. xi. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
Balaam saw Christ, but not <I>now,</I> not <I>nigh.</I> There is room
|
|
to conjecture that Abraham had some vision of Christ and his day, for
|
|
his own private satisfaction, which is not, nor must be, recorded in
|
|
his story, like that of Daniel's, which must be <I>shut up, and sealed
|
|
unto the time of the end,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Da+12:4">Dan. xii. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
Christ knew what Abraham saw better than Moses did. But there are
|
|
divers things recorded in which Abraham saw more of that which he
|
|
longed to see than he did when the promise was first made to him. He
|
|
saw in Melchizedek one <I>made like unto the Son of God,</I> and a
|
|
priest for ever; he saw an appearance of Jehovah, attended with two
|
|
angels, in the plains of Mamre. In the prevalency of his intercession
|
|
for Sodom he saw a specimen of Christ's intercession; in the casting
|
|
out of Ishmael, and the establishment of the covenant with Isaac, he
|
|
saw a figure of the gospel day, which is Christ's day; for these things
|
|
were an allegory. In offering Isaac, and the ram instead of Isaac, he
|
|
saw a double type of the great sacrifice; and his calling the place
|
|
<I>Jehovah-jireh--It shall be seen,</I> intimates that he saw something
|
|
more in it than others did, which time would produce; and in making his
|
|
servant <I>put his hand under his thigh,</I> when he swore, he had a
|
|
regard to the Messiah.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>b.</I> How <I>Abraham</I> entertained these discoveries of Christ's
|
|
day, and bade them welcome: <I>He saw, and was glad.</I> He was glad of
|
|
what he <I>saw</I> of God's favour to himself, and glad of what he
|
|
<I>foresaw</I> of the mercy God had in store for the world. Perhaps
|
|
this refers to Abraham's laughing when God assured him of a son by
|
|
Sarah
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+17:16,17">Gen. xvii. 16, 17</A>),
|
|
|
|
for that was not a laughter of distrust as Sarah's but of joy; in that
|
|
promise he saw Christ's day, and it <I>filled him with joy
|
|
unspeakable.</I> Thus he embraced the promises. Note, A believing
|
|
sight of Christ and his day will put gladness into the heart. No joy
|
|
like the joy of faith; we are never acquainted with true pleasure till
|
|
we are acquainted with Christ.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] The Jews cavil at this, and reproach him for it
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:57"><I>v.</I> 57</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?</I>
|
|
Here, <I>First,</I> They suppose that if Abraham saw him and his day he
|
|
also had seen Abraham, which yet was not a necessary <I>innuendo,</I>
|
|
but this turn of his words would best serve to expose him; yet it was
|
|
true that Christ had seen Abraham, and had talked with him as a man
|
|
talks with his friend. <I>Secondly,</I> They suppose it a very absurd
|
|
thing for him to pretend to have seen Abraham, who was <I>dead</I> so
|
|
many ages before he was born. The state of the dead is an
|
|
<I>invisible</I> state; but here they ran upon the old mistake,
|
|
understanding that corporally which Christ spoke spiritually. Now this
|
|
gave them occasion to <I>despise his youth,</I> and to upbraid him with
|
|
it, as if he were <I>but of yesterday, and knew</I> nothing: <I>Thou
|
|
art not yet fifty years old.</I> They might as well have said, <I>Thou
|
|
art not forty;</I> for he was now but thirty-two or thirty-three years
|
|
old. As to this, Irenæus, one of the first fathers, with this
|
|
passage supports the tradition which he says he had from some that had
|
|
conversed with St. John, that our Saviour lived to be fifty years old,
|
|
which he contends for, <I>Advers. Hæres.</I> lib. 2, cap. 39, 40.
|
|
See what little credit is to be given to tradition; and, as to this
|
|
here, the Jews spoke <I>at random;</I> some year they would mention,
|
|
and therefore pitched upon one that they thought he was far enough
|
|
short of; he did not look to be forty, but they were sure he could not
|
|
be fifty, much less contemporary with Abraham. Old age is reckoned to
|
|
begin at fifty
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+4:47">Num. iv. 47</A>),
|
|
|
|
so that they meant no more than this, "Thou art not to be reckoned an
|
|
old man; many of us are much thy seniors, and yet pretend not to have
|
|
seen Abraham." Some think that his countenance was so altered, with
|
|
grief and watching, that, together with the gravity of his aspect, it
|
|
made him look like a man of fifty years old: <I>his visage was so
|
|
marred,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+52:14">Isa. lii. 14</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] Our Saviour gives an effectual answer to this cavil, by a solemn
|
|
assertion of his own seniority even to Abraham himself
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:58"><I>v.</I> 58</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Verily, verily, I say unto you;</I> I do not only say it in private
|
|
to my own disciples, who will be sure to say as I say, but <I>to
|
|
you</I> my enemies and persecutors; I say it to your faces, take it how
|
|
you will: <I>Before Abraham was, I am;</I>" <B><I>prin Abraam
|
|
genesthai, ego eimi</I></B>, <I>Before Abraham was made or born, I
|
|
am.</I> The change of the word is observable, and bespeaks Abraham a
|
|
creature, and himself the Creator; well therefore might he make himself
|
|
<I>greater</I> than Abraham. <I>Before Abraham he was, First,</I> As
|
|
God. <I>I am,</I> is the name of God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+3:14">Exod. iii. 14</A>);
|
|
|
|
it denotes his self-existence; he does not say, <I>I was,</I> but <I>I
|
|
am,</I> for he is the first and the last, immutably the same
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+1:8">Rev. i. 8</A>);
|
|
|
|
thus he was not only before Abraham, but before <I>all worlds,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+1:1,Pr+8:23"><I>ch.</I> i. 1; Prov. viii. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> As Mediator. He was the appointed Messiah, long
|
|
before Abraham; the <I>Lamb slain from the foundation of the world</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+13:8">Rev. xiii. 8</A>),
|
|
|
|
the channel of conveyance of light, life, and love from God to man.
|
|
This supposes his divine nature, that he is the same in himself from
|
|
eternity
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+13:8">Heb. xiii. 8</A>),
|
|
|
|
and that he is the same to man ever since the fall; he was made of God
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wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, to Adam, and
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Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Shem, and all the patriarchs that lived
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|
and died by faith in him before Abraham was born. Abraham was the root
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|
of the Jewish nation, the rock out of which they were hewn. If Christ
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was before Abraham, his doctrine and religion were no novelty, but
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were, in the substance of them, prior to Judaism, and ought to take
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place of it.</P>
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<P>
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[4.] This great word ended the dispute <I>abruptly,</I> and put a
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period to it: they could bear to hear no more from him, and he needed
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|
to say no more to them, having witnessed this good confession, which
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|
was sufficient to support all his claims. One would think that Christ's
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|
discourse, in which shone so much both of grace and glory, should have
|
|
captivated them all; but their inveterate prejudice against the holy
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|
spiritual doctrine and law of Christ, which were so contrary to their
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pride and worldliness, baffled all the methods of conviction. Now was
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|
fulfilled that prophecy
|
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+3:1,2">Mal. iii. 1, 2</A>),
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that when the messenger of the covenant should <I>come to his
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temple</I> they <I>would not abide the day of his coming,</I> because
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he would be <I>like a refiner's fire.</I> Observe here,</P>
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<P>
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<I>First,</I> How they were <I>enraged</I> at Christ for what he said:
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<I>They took up stones to cast at him,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+8:59"><I>v.</I> 59</A>.
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|
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Perhaps they looked upon him as a blasphemer, and such were indeed to
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|
be stoned
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+24:16">Lev. xxiv. 16</A>);
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|
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but they must be first legally tried and convicted. Farewell justice
|
|
and order if every man pretend to execute a law at his pleasure.
|
|
Besides, they had said but just now that he was a distracted
|
|
crack-brained man, and if so it was against all reason and equity to
|
|
punish him as a malefactor for what he said. <I>They took up
|
|
stones.</I> Dr. Lightfoot will tell you how they came to have stones so
|
|
ready in the temple; they had workmen at this time repairing the
|
|
temple, or making some additions, and the pieces of stone which they
|
|
hewed off served for this purpose. See here the desperate power of sin
|
|
and Satan in and over the children of disobedience. Who would think
|
|
that ever there should be such wickedness as this in men, such an open
|
|
and daring rebellion against one that undeniably proved himself to be
|
|
the Son of God? Thus every one has a stone to throw at his holy
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|
religion,
|
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+28:22">Acts xxviii. 22</A>.</P>
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|
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<P>
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|
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<I>Secondly,</I> How he made his <I>escape</I> out of their hands.
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1. He <I>absconded;</I> Jesus <I>hid himself;</I>
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<B><I>ekrybe</I></B>--<I>he was hid,</I> either by the crowd of those
|
|
that wished well to him, to shelter him (he that ought to have been
|
|
upon a throne, high and lifted up, is content to be <I>lost in a
|
|
crowd</I>); or perhaps he concealed himself behind some of the walls or
|
|
pillars of the temple (<I>in the secret of his tabernacle he shall hide
|
|
me,</I>
|
|
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+27:5">Ps. xxvii. 5</A>);
|
|
|
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or by a divine power, casting a mist before their eyes, he made himself
|
|
invisible to them. <I>When the wicked rise a man is hidden,</I> a wise
|
|
and good man,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+28:12,28">Prov. xxviii. 12, 28</A>.
|
|
|
|
Not that Christ was afraid or ashamed to stand by what he had said, but
|
|
his <I>hour was not yet come,</I> and he would countenance the flight
|
|
of his ministers and people in times of persecution, when they are
|
|
called to it. The Lord hid Jeremiah and Baruch,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+36:26">Jer. xxxvi. 26</A>.
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|
2. He <I>departed,</I> he <I>went out of the temple,</I> going
|
|
<I>through the midst of them,</I> undiscovered, and <I>so passed
|
|
by.</I> This was not a cowardly inglorious flight, nor such as argued
|
|
either guilt or fear. It was foretold concerning him that he should not
|
|
fail nor be discouraged,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+42:4">Isa. xlii. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
But,
|
|
|
|
(1.) It was an instance of his power over his enemies, and that they
|
|
could do no more against him than he gave them leave to do; by which it
|
|
appears that when afterwards he was taken in their pits he <I>offered
|
|
himself,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+10:18"><I>ch.</I> x. 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
They now thought they had made sure of him and yet he <I>passed through
|
|
the midst</I> of them, either their eyes being blinded or their hands
|
|
tied, and thus he left them to fume, like a lion <I>disappointed of his
|
|
prey.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) It was an instance of his prudent provision for his own safety,
|
|
when he knew that his work was not done, nor his testimony finished;
|
|
thus he gave an example to his own rule, <I>When they persecute you in
|
|
one city flee to another;</I> nay, if occasion be, to a
|
|
<I>wilderness,</I> for so Elijah did
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ki+19:3,4">1 Kings xix. 3, 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
and the woman, the church,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+12:6">Rev. xii. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
When they took up loose stones to throw at Christ, he could have
|
|
commanded the fixed stones, which did <I>cry out of the wall</I>
|
|
against them, to avenge his cause, or the earth to open and swallow
|
|
them up; but he chose to accommodate himself to the state he was in, to
|
|
make the example imitable by the prudence of his followers, without a
|
|
miracle.
|
|
|
|
(3.) It was a righteous deserting of those who (worse than the
|
|
Gadarenes, who <I>prayed him to depart</I>) stoned him from among them.
|
|
Christ will not long stay with those who bid him be gone. Christ did
|
|
again visit the temple after this; as one <I>loth to depart,</I> he
|
|
<I>bade oft farewell;</I> but at last he abandoned it for ever, and
|
|
left it <I>desolate.</I> Christ now <I>went through</I> the midst of
|
|
the Jews, and none of them courted his stay, nor stirred up himself to
|
|
take hold of him, but were even content to let him go. Note, God never
|
|
forsakes any till they have first provoked him to withdraw, and will
|
|
have none of him. Calvin observes that these chief priests, when they
|
|
had driven Christ out of the temple, valued themselves on the
|
|
possession they kept of it: "But," says he, "those deceive themselves
|
|
who are proud of a church or temple which Christ has forsaken."
|
|
<I>Longe falluntur, cum templum se habere putant Deo vacuum.</I> When
|
|
Christ left them it is said that he passed by silently and unobserved;
|
|
<B><I>paregen houtos</I></B>, so that they were not aware of him. Note,
|
|
Christ's departures from a church, or a particular soul, are often
|
|
<I>secret,</I> and not soon taken notice of. As <I>the kingdom of God
|
|
comes not,</I> so it <I>goes not, with observation.</I> See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jdg+16:20">Judg. xvi. 20</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Samson wist not that the Lord was departed from him.</I> Thus it was
|
|
with these forsaken Jews, God left them, and they never missed him.</P>
|
|
|
|
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