Reflections on the Excellence of the Words of CHRIST. 52 They answered and faid unto him, Art thou also of Galilee?' Search, and look; for out of Galilee arifeth no Prophet. 53 And every Man went unto his own House. W1 59 from credible Witneffes, what he hath done to de- Sect. 101. ferve Punishment? (See Deut. xvii. 8,-11. and C xix. 15, & feq.) But they, without entering farther into the Ar- John VII. gument, answered him only by faying in a flight 52. and fuperficial Manner, What, art thou thyfelf alfo of Galilee, that thou favoureft the Pretences of this contemptible Galilean? Search a little farther into the Matter, and thou wilt foon fee the Unreasonableness of doing it; for it is notorious even to a Proverb, that no Prophet is raifed up from Galilee (1), nor will Go D ever honour that contemptible Country with fuch a Production. · And having faid this, they would not wait for a Reply, but immediately broke up the Court; and fo every one went away to his own Houfe. IMPROVEMENT. 53 ITH what Delight and Thankfulness should we hear this gracious John vii. 37• Proclamation of Christ, which he now made in the Temple, and a while after repeated from the Throne of his Glory! If any Man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink; yea, whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely. (Rev. xxii. 17.) Bleffed Jefus, had we been allowed to have prefcribed to thee a Form of Words, in which thy kind Purposes towards us fhould have been expreffed, what could we have invented more pathetick, more condefcending, or more reviving? May we thirst for the Bleffings of thy Grace; and in the Confidence of Faith apply unto thee for them; and particularly, for these Communications of thy Spirit, which Ver. 39. are so highly excellent and defirable, and indeed so neceffary for us! Supply us with them, we intreat thee, in fo rich an Abundance, that we in our different Spheres may fupply others, and from us there may flow Ver. 38. Rivers of living Water! Well might fuch gracious Words as thefe, difarm the Rage of Enemies and Perfecutors. Let us add our Teftimony to theirs, and fay, Never Man Ver. 46. Spake (No Prophet is raised up from Galilee.] As it is plain, that Jonah, and probable, that Nahum alfo, was a Galilean, Sir Norton Knatchbull, and others, who imagine that these Rulers could not be ignorant of that, fuppofe, that @gopnns here fignifies the great Prophet, or Meffiah. But probably, had this been their Meaning, they would rather have quoted the Text, which mentions Bethlehem as the Birth-place of the Meffiah. The Anfwer muft therefore be acknowledged to be very mean and trifling; and the abrupt Manner, in which the Affembly was broke up, feems to intimate their Consciousness, that it would not bear Examination. 60 He goes to the Mount of Olives, and returns early to the Temple. Sect. 101. Spake as Jefus fpeaks. Let us hear him, with calm and thankful Attention, while his Voice ftill founds in his Word. Happy are those, that know the joyful Sound! (Pfal. lxxxix. 15.) The Pharifees, like deaf Adders, ftopped their Ears against the Voice of the Charmer; and while they proudly cenVer. 48, 49. fured the Populace as a brutal Herd, and gloried in their own fuperior Wisdom, rejected the Counsel of GOD; rafhly judging without ferious Enquiry, and weakly borne down by vulgar fenfelefs Prejudices against Ver. 51, 52. Names and Places; which is all the Senate of Ifrael oppofes, to the folid Argument of Nicodemus! That good Man, already confiderably improved by his Interview with Jefus, was undoubtedly confirmed in his Adherence to him, by obferving the Methods of their Oppofition: And where Magiftrates arm their Authority to overbear Argument, they will probably, in the Judgment of impartial Men, produce a Sufpicion at least, that they know their Cause to be incapable of a rational Defence. Ver. 53. CHRIST having Spent the Night in Retirement, returns to the Temple, where an Adulteress is brought before him; but he avoids giving Judgment in her Cafe, and turns the Confciences of his Enemies on themselves. John VIII. 1,---11. T JOHN VIII. I. HUS the Pharifees debated the Cafe, and in fuch Diffention their Affembly broke up; but Jefus in the mean Time, that he might. by fecret Converfe with his Heavenly Father, be animated to all the Labours and Dangers before him, went up to a Mountain in the Neighbourhood of Jerufalem, which lay to the Eaft of the City, on the other Side of the Brook Cedron, and is well known by the Name of the Mount of Olives, where he spent the Night in Meditation and Prayer. But that these Retirements might not break in on this Opportunity of publick Service, which the prefent Concourfe of People gave him, he returned to the Temple early in the Morning; and all the People, who came to worship there before they returned to their respective Habitations in the Country, (the Feast being now ended,) flocked a round AWoman caught in the Act of Adultery is brought before him. came unto him, and he fat down, and taught them. 3 And the Scribes and Pharifees brought unto him tery; and when they had fet her in the Midft, a Woman' taken in Adul 61 round him, to receive his Inftructions; and fuch Sect. 102. 3 And while he was engaged in this Exercise, the Scribes and Pharifees brought to him a Woman, who had just been taken in the Commiffion of Adultery (a), having been unhappily betrayed into it among those Intemperances, which too often attend publick Feafts; and as the Court of Judicature, before whom she should have been tried, was not yet affembled, they took that Opportunity of laying a Snare for Jefus, by fetting her before him, in the Midft of the People who were attending his Difcourfe. And as if they were 4 defirous of Information from him, they craftily faid unto him, Mafter, as thou profeffest thyself an extraordinary Teacher, we defire thou wouldst pronounce thy Judgment on this Cafe: Here is a Woman, who was taken in the very Act of Adultery: Now Mofes in the Law has commanded 5· fhould us, that fuch infamous Women should be stoned (b) ; 4 They fay unto him, Mafter, this Woman was taken in Adultery, in the very Act: 5 Now Mofes in the Law commanded us, that fuch (Lev. (a) Brought to him a Woman taken in Adultery.] It is well known, that this Story is want↓ ing in the Syriac Verfion, as well as in the Alexandrian, and Bodleian Copies, and indeed in most of the oldest Manufcripts; which engaged Beza to question, and Le Clerc, with many others, to reject its Authority. But I acquiefce in the Reasoning of the learned Dr. Mill, to whom I refer the Reader for the Arguments to prove it authentick; the critical Exami nation of these Matters lying quite out of the Sphere of my prefent Defign. A mistaken Apprehenfion, that fome Circumftances in the Story were indecent, and an exceffive Rigour with respect to those who had fallen into this truly deteftable Crime, might perhaps be the Occafion of this Omiffion, if it was not accidental in fome early Copies. Erafmus conjectures, it might be added by St. John, after fome Copies of his Gofpel had been taken ;. and Grotius, that fome who heard the Story from the Apostle's Mouth, recorded it, with the Approbation of Papias, and other eminent Perfons in the Church. The Notice that Eufebius, (Ecclef. Hift. lib. iii. cap. ult.) Jerom, (adv. Pelag. lib. ii. cap. 6.) and other antient Writers, have taken of the Dubioufnefs of this Paffage, with a few other Inftances of the like Nature, fhews that critical Exactnefs with which they examined into the Genuineness of the feveral Parts of the New Teftament, and fo, on the whole, ftrengthens the Evidence of Chriftianity, which (as I have fhewn at large in the Ninth of my Ten Sermons,) is fo infeparably connected with the Genuineness and Purity of the New Teftament. (b) Such Women Should be ftoned.] If they spoke accurately, this must have been a Woman, who had been betrothed to a Hufband, and had been guilty of this infamous Crime, before the Marriage was compleated; for fuch only are exprefsly condemned to be ftoned. (Deut. xxii. 22,-24.) The Jewish Writers tell us, that when (as in Cafe of other. Adulteries,) only Death in general was denounced, without fpecifying the particular Kind of it, Strangling was to be used. Cuftom indeed (as Grotius obferves,) might have introduced Stoning in all thefe Cafes: (Compare Ezek. xvi. 38, and 40.) Yet that would not juftify what they here fay.. 62 John VIII.5. 6 This they faid tempt He bids the guiltlefs Perfon throw the firft Stone at her. Sect. 102. (Lev. xx. 10. and Deut. xxii. 22.) but as thou fhould be stoned: but what takeft upon thee, either to fuperfede many of his fayeft thou? Precepts, or to interpret them in a very fingular Manner, we would be glad to hear thy Determination in an Affair of fo great Importance; what 6 therefore doft thou say? This they faid tempting him, that which Way foever he should determine, they might have an Opportunity to accufe him; either to the Jewish Rulers, if he acquitted fuch a Criminal; or to the Romans, if he ventured, tho' on the Authority of the Law, to pronounce a Capital Sentence against her, which he had no Authority from the Romans to do; and which the Jewish Rulers themselves had at prefent no Power to execute. (Compare John xviii. 31.). But Jefus, ftooping down, wrote fomething on the Ground with his Finger (c), chufing (as it were) to speak to them by that Action, rather 7 than by Words. But as they, thinking that they had him at a great Advantage, continued afking him with greater Importunity, he raised himself up, and without replying directly to their Demand, only faid to them, Let him of you that is without Sin in this or any other Respect, purfue the Profecution, and throw the first fatal Stone at her when she is condemned (d); (compare Deut. xvii. 7.) thus prudently avoiding a Decifion of the have to accufe him. But Jeing him, that they might fus ftooped down, and with his Finger wrote on the Ground, as tho' he heard them not. 7 So when they continued afking him, he lift up himself, and faid unto them, He that is without Sin among you, let him first cast Stone at her. a fay. But our Lord's Spirit was too noble, to take the Advantage of fuch a Slip, if it was a Miftake: He had a much greater View, and filenced them in a far more effectual Manner. (c) Wrote on the Ground with his Finger.] The following Words, un pomeres, as the he heard them not, or (as I would render them,) as not regarding them, are wanting in the most valuable Manufcripts. Dr. Mill therefore, I think, juftly omits them, as feveral other printed Editions of the Greek Teftament do. Were they admitted, they would cut off moft of the Conjectures, which learned Men have advanced, as to what Chrift wrote; a Queftion, which it is impoffible for us to determine, and which we have no Need at all to be folicitous about. I am inclined to think, there was a Language in the Action itself, either to intimate, that these hypocritical Pharifees fhould be themselves (as the Prophet expreffes it, fer. xvii. 13.) written in the Earth, or that they were to attend to what was written: But I can determine nothing, and muft fay with a great Critick on thefe Words, Nefcire velle, quæ Magifter optimus nefcire nos vult, erudita Infcitia eft: " To be willing to con"tinue ignorant, of what our great Master has thought fit to conceal, is no inconfiderable "Part of Chriftian Learning." (d) Let him of you that is without Sin, throw the firft Stone at her.] Le Clerc makes the fuppofed Im ropriety of this Reply, a farther Argument against the Genuineness of this Text; fince the Law did not require the Witnesses or Executioners to be free from Sin, in order to the Efficacy of fuch a Profecution. But it may be answered, that our Lord's certain Knowledge of what the Effect would be, vindicated the Wisdom of his putting the Matter upon this Iffue, by which it is plain in Fact he escaped their Snare. (e) Went They all retire, and he bids the Woman fin no more. 63 the Cafe, and leading them to reflect on their own Sect. 102. 8 And again he ftooped Guilt. And Stooping down again, he wrote on down, and wrote on the the Ground, as he had done before, and left them John VIII.8. Ground. 9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own Conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldeft, even unto the laft and Jefus was left alone, and the Woman standing in the Midft. to When Jefus had lift up himself, and faw none to her, Woman, where are thofe thine Accufers? hath but the Woman, he said un no Man condemned thee? II She faid, No Man, Lord. And Jefus faid unto her, Neither do I condemn thee; go, and fin no more. to their own Reflections. But having heard [bis Anfwer,] and being by 9 ΙΟ And Jefus raifing himself up, and feeing none (e) Went out one by one, beginning from the eldeft.] It is ftrange, any fhould have interpreted this Claufe fo rigoroufly, as to imagine that every particular Perfon went out juft according to his Age. It feems only to intimate, that thofe Elders of the People, who had been moft eager in the Profecution, appeared under the moft fenfible Confufion, and were fome of the first that left the Affembly. And in this View it is very remarkable; especially confidering, that they were now in the Prefence of the Multitude, before whom they would, no doubt, be defirous to keep up the strictest Appearance of Virtue, in order to maintain their Influence over them.Tho' (as Dr. Whitby, fhews on ver. 7.) Adultery prevailed much among the Jews about this Time, yet I fee no Reason to conclude, that their Confcience convicted every one of them of this particular Crime. Their Partiality (as Mr. Lardner well obferves,) feems to appear in bringing only the Woman, not the Man, when the Law condemned both. (Lardn. Credib. Vol. i. pag. 46.) (f) Sin no more.] Elfner, (Obferv. Vol. i. pag. 318.) and Suicer, (Thefaur. Vol. i. p. 205.) have fhewn, that the Word anaglave, to fin, is ufed by the most elegant Greek Claffics, (as the correfpondent Word peccare is by the Latin,) to fignify the Commiffion of Adultery; which strongly intimates, that even the Light of Nature taught many of the Heathens the exceed |