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not that I am be, ye fhall die in your fins: Chapter Verfe and they very properly afked- Who art thou?' viii. But received an anfwer full as unintelligible as

the former, viz. Even the fame that I faid

unto you from the beginning :'-Adding—' I have many things to fay, and to Judge of you.' (And yet he had just before in the fifteenth verse) told them that be judged no man. And after this upon another occafion, Jefus faid.

• For

judgment I am come into this world: that they which fee not, might fee; and that they which fee might be made blind. (Vide John ch. ix,

v. 39.) But he that fent me is true and I

fpeak to the world thofe things which I have heard of him. The next verfe informs us that they understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then faid Jefus unto them, When ye have lift up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am be. Who? When they had lifted up, or crucified, the Son of Man, were they then, or from that circumftance, to know that he was the Son of God? The thirtieth verfe informs us- As he fpake thefe words, many believed on him :' and yet the following verfes inform us that a misunderstanding foon enfued, and Jefus afked them- Why do ye not understand my fpeech? Adding-Even because ye cannot hear my words *. Ye are of your father, the devil,

* Vide page 73.

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27

28

30

43

44

and

Chapter Verfe and the lufts of your father will ye do.' He viii. 48 goes on irritating the Jews till they afk-Say we

not well, that thou art a Samaritan, and haft a devil? He replied, that he had not a devil; that they dishonoured him, but that he honoured his 51 Father, adding Verily verily I fay unto you, if a man keep my faying, he shall never fee ' death.' This unintelligible fpeech irritates them still more; they tell him they were then affured that he had a devil: that Abraham and the prophets were dead; asked if he was greater than their father Abraham; and what he pretended to be? After telling them that he, whom they called their God, was his Father; that he 56 knew him, but they did not; he adds Your

father Abraham rejoiced to fee my day; and 'he faw it and was glad.' They, first reminding 57 him that he was not fifty years old, afked-And 58 haft thou feen Abraham? His reply- Verily verily I fay unto you, before Abraham was, 'am,' put them beyond all patience, and they 59 took up ftones to caft at him: but Jefus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them and fo paffed by. There is fome obfcurity in this laft verfe: to avoid being ftoned, Jefus hid himfelf: Where or how did he hide himself? What was the ufe of this hiding, if he foon after went out of the temple through the midst of the people? And how did he then efcape being ftoned? Are queftions only to be anfwered;

anfwered; by fuppofing that he rendered him- Chapter Verfe felf invifible. That he had this power, we are no where told there is indeed fomething like it in his appearances after the refurrection and a cafe fomething fimilar to the above, in Luke ch. iv, v. 30, where Jefus efcapes the people of his own town Nazareth.

The latter part of this eighth chapter and beginning of the ninth, affords interesting matter for enquiry- And as Jefus paffed by, he faw a ix. 6 man which was blind from his birth. And his

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difciples asked him, faying, Master, who did fin; this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jefus anfwered, neither hath this man finned, nor his parents: but that the works of God fhould be made manifeft in him. Adding-I muft work the works of him that fent me, while it is day; the night cometh ' when no man can work. As long as I am in 'the world, I am the light of the world.' He then anointed the man's eyes with clay, and ordered him to wash in the Pool of Siloam : the man did fo and received fight. By the queftion -Mafter, who did fin; this man or his parents; that he was born blind? and from feveral other paffages in the gospels, it is plain the difciples held the doctrine of pre-existence. Had they been in an error, their Mafter affuredly would upon this occafion have corrected it, inftead of which his reply, by implication, confirms their belief-Neither hath this man finned, nor his parents;

but

I

4

5

7

but that the works of God fhould be made manifest in him. (The inference to be made from the conclufion of this anfwer is not very fatisfactory. Did God caufe this man to be born blind, that his delegated power of giving him fight fhould be made manifeft in the perfon of Jefus ? But though it is plain, the apoftles held the doctrine of pre-existence; it is not fo clear that it was admitted by the Jews who were their Mafter's auditors in the laft chapter: if it was, why should they stone Jefus for faying he had, in that antecedent ftate, feen Abraham; or that Abraham rejoiced to fee him? St. Luke, Acts ch. xxiii, tells us the Scribes and Pharifees believed the refurrection of the dead, which was denied by the Sadducees. But hiftorians tell us that this refurrection was of the foul, in another body, according to the system of Pythagoras; and this, for reafons given in pages 90, 111, and 113, I believe to be the fact. But in this cafe it will be asked; Who then were the audience mentioned above? It might be answered-Sadducees but in this we are not warranted. Scribes and Pharifees are mentioned in that chapter, but not a word of the Sadducees. This brings us back to the Pharifees, and as they believed this antecedent ftate, their rage against Jefus, muft have had fome other fource. They were rigid obfervers of the law, and particularly fo of that part which related to the Sabbath-day. Jefus, at his firft outfet, had

told

told them (Matthew ch. v, v. 17, 18, 19) that Chapter Verfe he was not come to deftroy, but to fulfil their law: that not a tittle of it should pass, till heaven and earth fhould pass: and that whoever broke the leaft commandment, or taught men to do fo, fhould be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Notwithstanding all this; it appeared to them, that he afterwards not only broke the Sabbath himself, and taught others to do so likewise, but endeavoured to justify the fame by faying-The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath-day. Vide Matthew ch. xii, or page 63. This was a › crime they could not forgive, and for which he had more than once fled to avoid their refentment. There is not in the Jewish law, any command fo ftrictly and frequently enjoined as the fourth which relates to the Sabbath. Vide Exodus ch. xx. ch. xxxi, v. 13, 14, ch. xxxv, v. 2,3. Numbers ch. xv, v. 32. Jeremiah ch. xvii, v. 27. That resentment was, upon this occafion, increased by his irritating fpeeches, and at length roused to fury by his degrading, as they thought, their great father Abraham. John proceeds with the ftory of the blind man who had received fight, and fhould have told us, that the Pharifees first doubted the fact, as to his having been born blind, then queftioned his parents; and upon their confirming it; fome of the Pharifees faid to Jefus This man is not of God, because ix. ' he keepeth not the Sabbath-day.' Others asked

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