74 They boast of being Abraham's Seed, yet they do not his Works:

John VIII. 38.

Sect. 104. impoffible to reconcile your Practice with my
Doctrine; for I Speak that which I have feen with
my Father, and which I know to be agreeable to
his Mind and Will; and you do that which you
have feen with your Father, and fhew a visible
Conformity to him: By which he intimated, that
their Works as much resembled the Nature of
the Devil, as his Doctrine answered to that of
GOD.

39 But they replied with fome Warmth, and faid
to him, Take heed on whom this Reflection may
fall; for Abraham is our Father, and furely thou
wouldst not infinuate any Thing to the Injury of
that holy Patriarch's Memory, who was called
the Friend of GOD.

Jefus fays to them, If you were indeed, and in
the most important Senfe, the Children of Abra-
bam, you would do the Works of Abraham, and
would make it the great Business of your Life to
40 imitate fo wife, and fo holy an Example.

41

42

But

the

now you feek and contrive to play me, a blameless
and innocent Man, for no other Reafon, but be-
cause I am one who has faithfully told you
Truth, which I have heard and received in Com-
miffion from GOD: Abraham your boafted An-
ceftor did not any Thing like this; but gave the
readiest Credit, and the most joyful Welcome, to
all the Meffages which GOD fent him. Never-
theless, tho' you are fo unlike Abraham, I may
well fay, as I have juft now intimated, (ver. 38.)
that you do the Works of him, who is indeed your
Father.

Then faid they to him, We would have thee to
know, that we are not born of Fornication; we
are not Bastard Jews, whofe Blood has been con-
taminated with idolatrous Alliances; but by Vir-
tue of our Defcent from his People, and our Pro-
feffion of his Religion, we have all one great, and
common Father, [which is] GOD.

Jefus faid to them, If GOD were indeed your Father, as you pretend, instead of attempting to take away my Life, you would honour and love me: For, to fpeak without any Reserve on this important Head, I renew the Declaration, that

I pro

have feen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have feen with your Father.

But imitate the Devil, and he therefore is their Father.

proceeded forth, and came from GOD; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

43 Why do ye not underftand my Speech? even because ye cannot hear my Word.

44 Ye are of your Father the Devil, and the Lufts of your Father ye will do: he was a Murderer from the Beginning, and abode not

nov

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75

And John VIII.

you

I proceeded originally, and do come from GOD (ƒ), Sect. 104. and appear among you as his Meffenger; for I came not of myself, but He has fent me, and I conftantly keep his Commiffion in View. why do you not understand this my Language, and 43. acknowledge it, fimple as it is, to be indeed Divine? [Is it] because you cannot hear my Word (g)? Can you pretend to fay, that I decline giving you the most publick and frequent Inftructions, or that those Instructions are unintelligible and obfcure? Your Confciences, in the general, know the contrary, as to the main Series of them. The Cafe is fufficiently plain, nor do I fear to 44 reprefent it in the most exprefs Terms: I tell therefore, You are the genuine Children of your Father the Devil (b); and the malicious and abominable Lufts of that accurfed Spirit, whom I justly call your Father, you will refolutely and obftinately perfift to do (i): And even now there is the plainest Evidence of your Refemblance to him, in your Design to murther me, and in your Oppofition to the Truth that I deliver to you; for be has always acted as the Enemy of Mankind, and was a Murtherer from the Beginning, in his Attempt to bring Deftruction on the World by Sin; (compare 1 John iii. 8.) and to accomplish his deftructive Purpose, as his original Integrity was loft by his Apoftacy from Go D, he threw off all Regard to what was right, and continued not

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(f) I proceeded originally, and do come from GOD.] This feems to be the proper Diftinction between Boy and now. The Seventy, (as feveral Commentators have obferved,) use the firft of thefe Words, to exprefs the Defcent of Children from their Parents. Compare Gen. xv. 4. xxxv. II. and Isa. xi. 1. The Form in which the other stands, favours the rendering I have given, (do come from GOD,) and may intimate, not only his firft Mission, but his exact Attendance to every particular Meffage.

४

(8) Is it because you cannot hear my Word?] I chufe to place a Mark of Interrogation after this Claufe, ol Suvade anser Tov nyov Tov Eμov; and Juvas axsew may refer, either to their Opportunity of hearing, which is the most common Senfe of the Word, or to their Capacity of understanding: I have therefore included both. ceding Claufe, evidently fignifies, to understand, A&ts viii. 30. and to diftinguish, John x. 14. -The Word wwonew, in the pre(b) You are of your Father the Devil.] The Account Jofephus gives of the Wickedness of the Jews about this Time, abundantly vindicates this Affertion of our Lord, from any Appearance of undue Severity. See Jofeph. Bell. Jud. lib. v. cap. 10. (al. vi. 11.) §. 5.cap. 13. (al. 16.) §. 6. Edit. Havercamp. and Mr. Lardner's Ĉredibility, Book i. chap. 6. pag. 181,-184.

(i) You will refolutely and obftinately. perfift to do.] This is plainly the Sense of the Words, exels wolew. See Note (a) on John i. 43. Vol. i. pag. 127.

76

John VIII. 44.

Reflections on the Regard due to the Words of CHRIST.

Sect. 104. in the Truth, but by an audacious and most per-
nicious Lye ruined the First Parents of the Hu-
man Race, because there was, and is no Truth in
him: And indeed when he speaks a Lye, he speaks
of his own, and indulges the Biafs of his own frau-
dulent and perfidious Nature; for he is himself
a Lyar, and was the Father of it, or the first
Forger of that deteftable and pernicious Crime.
45 And as you are of fuch a Difpofition, if I would
flatter your Prejudices and Vices, you would hear
me with Pleasure; but because I plainly and faith-
fully Speak the Truth, without Defire of Favour,
or Fear of Offence, you, being under the Influence
46 of this falfe Spirit, do not believe me. If
deny this, and accufe me of Falfhood and Preva-
rication in any Degree, how will you prove your
Charge? Which of you convinces me of that, or
any other Sin? But, on the other Hand, if I do
indead fpeak the Truth, why do you not believe me?
47 He that is of GOD, or that is really a Child of
GOD, and a Partaker of his Spirit, hears with an
affectionate and obedient Regard the Words of
GOD, his Heavenly Father, and receives them
with Reverence, by whomfoever they are brought::
The Reason therefore, why you do not hear mine,
is because, as I have often faid, you are not the
Children of GOD.,

Jahnviii.31.

Ver. 44.

M

you

in the Truth, because there is no Truth in him. When he fpeaketh a Lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a Liar, and the Father of it.

45 And because I tell you the Truth, ye believe me

not.

I

46 Which of you convinceth me of Sin? And if

fay the Truth, why do ye not believe me?

47 He that is of GoD, heareth GOD's Words: ye: therefore hear them not, be-

caufe ye are not of GOD..

IMPROVEMENT.

AY we approve ourselves the fincere Difciples of Jefus, by continuing in his Word, and being faithful even unto Death, as ever Ver. 37, 38. we expect a Crown of Life! (Rev. ii. 10.) Without this, External Privileges will turn to but little Account. The Children of Abraham may be the Children of Satan; and they are fo, if they imitate the Temper and Works of the Fiend, rather than of the Patriarch. The Devil was from the Beginning a Lyar, and a Murtherer; and all Falfhood and Malice are from him. Let us earneftly pray, that we may be freed from them, and from the Tyranny of every other Sin, to which we have been enflaved; that Chrift, the Son, may make us free of his Father's Family, and of his Heavenly Kingdom! Then we shall be free indeed, and no more be reduced to Bondage.

Ver. 36.

May

They call him a Samaritan, and fay he is poffeffed.

77

Ver. 47.

May we prove, that we are the Children of GOD, by our Readiness to Sect. 104. bear, and receive the Words of our Bleffed Redeemer, the Words of incarnate Truth, and Wisdom, and Love; whom none of his Enemies could ever convict of Sin, nor ever accused him of it, but to their own Confu- Ver. 46. fion! May we resemble him in the Innocence and Holiness of his Life, that we may the more eafily and gracefully imitate that Courage and Zeal, with which he reproved the haughtieft Sinners, and bore his Testimony against the Errors and Vices of that degenerate Age and Nation in which he lived.

SECT. CV.

JESUS promifing Immortality to his Followers, and fpeaking of his own Existence as prior to that of Abraham, the Jews: in the Temple attempt to ftone him; but he miraculously. efcapes from their Hands. John VIII. 48, to the End.

JOHN VIII. 48.. THEN anfwered the Jews, and faid unto

him, Say we not well, that thou art a Samaritan, and haft a Devil?.

49 Jefus answered, I have not a Devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do difho

nour me.

.

NOW

JOHN VIII, 48.

48.

OW when the Jews heard Jefus fo ex- Sect. 105-
prefsly declaring, that they were ignorant
of GOD, and' were the Children, not of Abra- John VIII..
ham, but of the Devil, they answered him there-
fore with great Rage and Contempt, and faid unto
bim, Do we not well fay, that thou, who fpeakeft
of Ifraelites in fuch Language as this, art a Sa-
maritan, rather than one of the Holy Seed, and
art poffelfed by a Damon, who hurries thee on to
fuch Outrage and Madness (a)?

But to this infolent Charge Jefus meekly an- 49
fwered, It is plain from the whole Series of my..
· Difcourfes and Actions, that I am not a Dæmoniack,.
nor can any of you produce any Thing in all that
I have faid or done, which looks like Lunacy or
Impiety; but the Truth is, I bonour my Father,
by bearing a steady and confiftent. Testimony to
the Doctrine he fent me to reveal to the World
and because this is contrary to your corrupt Pre-
judices

(a) Poffeffed by a Damon, who hurries thee on to fuch Outrage and Madness.] See Note (a) on John vii. 20. pag. 48.

(b) Shall.

50.

50 And I feek not mine own Glory: there is one that feeketh and judgeth.

78 He that keeps his Word, fhall never fee Death. Sect. 105. judices and Paffions, therefore you dishonour me by fuch opprobrious Reflections, in hope of difcreJohn VIII. diting my Meffage. But as for what perfonally relates to me, I am little affected with it; for I feek not my own Glory; nevertheless I know, there is one that feeketh, and will fecure it, and who now judgeth of all that paffes, and will at length evidently fhew the exact Notice he has taken of it, to my Honour, and to your Confufion. For GoD will not only finally glorify me, but 51 will confer the highest Honours and Rewards on and therefore verily, all my faithful Servants ; verily I fay unto you, If any one keep my Word, he shall never fee Death (b), but shall affuredly be intitled to Eternal Life, and fhall immediately be advanced to fo glorious and happy a State, that the Diffolution of this mortal Nature fhall, with refpect to him, hardly deferve to be called Death.

52

Then the Jews, thinking he had afferted, that
his Difciples should be exempted from the com-
mon Lot of Mortality, faid again to him in a re-
proachful Way, Now we affuredly know, that thou
haft a Damon dwelling in thee, which hurries
thee on to this Madness and Pride, otherwise thou
couldst never talk at this extravagant Rate: For
Abraham, the Friend of GoD, and the great
Founder of our Nation, is dead; and all the holy
Prophets, whom GOD raifed up in fucceeding
Ages, were fo far from being able to bestow Im-
mortality on their Followers, that even they them-
felves are long fince dead; and yet thou prefump-
tuoufly fayeft, If any Man obferve my Word, he
53 ball never taste of Death (c).
Art thou greater

than.

51 Verily, verily I fay unto you, If a Man keep fee Death. my Saying, he shall never

52 Then faid the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou haft a Devil. Abra

ham is dead, and the Prophets; and thou fayeft, If a Man keep my Saying, he

fhall never tafte of Death.

53 Art thou greater than

our

(b) Shall never fee Death, &c.] The Turn I have given to this Expreffion in the Paraphrafe accounts, not only for this Paffage, and that in John xi. 26. (Sec. 140.) but for what is faid, of Christ's having abolished Death, (2 Tim. I. 10.) having deftroyed the Devil, (Heb. ii. 14.) and raised up Chriftians with himself, and made them fit with him in heavenly Places. (Eph. ii. 6.) Death is as nothing, compared to what it would otherwise have been to the Sinner; and the Felicity of Heaven is fo fure, and fo near, that by an easy and common Figure true Chriftians are spoken of as already there. See the following Note.

(c) Yet thou fayeft, If any Man obferve my Word, he shall never taste of Death.] This is not the Phrafe, which our Lord used, ver. 51. tho' perhaps its Signification is nearly equivalent. But I think it fhews, how improper it would be, to interpret the preceding Words, Davator & un Dewpnon ess Tov alava, He shall not fee Death for ever; i. e. he fhall not die eternally. For on this Interpretation of the Words, there could have been no Shadow of Force

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