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VII.

A woman brought before our Saviour that was taken in adultery.

JOHN viii. 3, 4, 5.

The scribes and Pharisees brought unto Jesus a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adul tery, in the very act.

Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

IT was now the feast of tabernacles, or that solemn time of rejoicing for the space of seven days, which God had appointed to be kept for ever in the seventh month, when the fruits of the earth were safely gathered in a. And he commanded that eucharistical sacrifices should be offered every day of bullocks and rams and lambs, together with flour mingled with oil, and a kid of the goats for a sin-offering; (besides the usual daily sacrifices and offerings;) the former as a grateful acknowledgment of the goodness of their great Benefactor, who openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenty, and upon whose providence the whole creation depends for its support; and the latter, as an humble confession of their abuse of that plenty to luxury and excess, and a deprecation of the punishment that such wickedness deserves.

a Levit. xxiii. Numb. xxix.

And this gives us a fair intimation what is our duty in the like case, what God expects from us now, the reason of the thing being the same, though there is no express institution of this nature in the gospel, and which, we shall be most unworthy wretches if we neglect to perform. Not only public rejoicing, but public thanksgiving, should close the glad time of a seasonable and plentiful harvest; and freewill offerings in the gospel way, that is, a liberal charity to the poor and needy, should shew the inward gratitude of our souls for so great a blessing, and will prove a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God. And if, as there is but too much occasion, we bring a sin-offering too, a broken contrite heart, for our manifold abuses of the good things God hath formerly given us, in riot and intemperance, and form sincere resolutions of making a more sober and religious use of them for the future, it will be as acceptable a return as we can make to our munificent Benefactor, and will secure the continuance of his bounty to us.

And though there is no peculiar time appointed, nor form of devotion prepared in our church upon so truly joyful an occasion, (as I could wish there was, and is no more than is highly decorous and fitting,) yet we may every one supply that defect in our own minds, by suitable ejaculations at the time of public worship, added in proper places to the usual service, which will find their way to the throne of God, and no doubt meet with a very gracious reception.

The manner of the Jews keeping this solemn festival we find Levit. xxiii. 40, where they are commanded to take on the first day boughs of goodly

trees, (by which is meant, as we read Nehem. viii. 15, the olive, the pine, and the myrtle, and, as some think, the pome-citron, with the fruit hanging on them,) and the branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook ; and after they had carried them for a while in their hands in a kind of processional triumph, they were to make booths of them, in which they were to dwell the seven days of the feast; from whence it was called the feast of tabernacles.

Now the reason of this is given verse 43, that their generation might know that God made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, or tents, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. That is, to bring to their remembrance the wonderful support they had from God Almighty in their forty years' wandering to and fro in a barren wilderness, destitute of every thing that was needful to sustain life, and yet such vast numbers of them wanted for nothing, but when they provoked God to anger by their wickedness.

And as for the choice of those sort of trees before all others, olives, and pines, and palms, and myrtles, they were wont always to be used in triumphal solemnities, and made to signify prosperity and joy. But why the willows of the brook were added to them I cannot say, unless it was to signify the quick growth and increase of that people in their numbers and their wealth, as those trees shoot strangely when planted by the water-side; or to answer to the sin-offering, which they were to add to their eucharistical sacrifices, the willow usually signifying sorrow and dejection of mind; of which, as I observed before, there was to be a mixture in their

rejoicings at that feast. And if so, it shews how significant the least rite was that God was pleased to enjoin, and should induce us to conclude that in other instances, of which, it may be, we do not know how to give an account, so wise a Lawgiver would not expressly forbid or command any thing without good reason.

Now the last day of this feast, which was the great day of all, there was extraordinary rejoicing, with music and singing and dancing, in which the whole night was spent, and abundance of people, both men and women of all sorts, met together in the court of the temple, and employed more in jollity than devotion: that which was at first designed for a holy convocation degenerating into profane revelling and loose mirth, (as is too common still upon the like occasions,) and very probably concluding in filthy lewdness, to which, in that age, the Jews were extremely addicted, as the gravest of their own authors confess.

The next morning early after this jovial night, which the holy Jesus spent in devotion in the mount of Olives, he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, in the very acts; which, as some not improbably conjecture, she impiously and impudently committed in some part of the temple the night before, and for which the revelling doings there might give too much opportunity and temptation.

The woman, it is likely, was first brought before the sanhedrim, or great council, who were to judge b Levit. xxiii. 36. c John viii. 1, &c.

of such matters; and they, thinking it might be a good opportunity to entrap our Saviour, and draw him in to do something that he could not justify, and might make matter of accusation against him", sent her by some of their members to Jesus, as by way of inquiry what should be done with her, there being, as they pretended, some difficulty in the case, in which they desired his opinion.

They tell him, that Moses in the law commanded that such should be stoned, referring to what is said Deut. xxii. 23, 24, whereby we learn that this woman was betrothed, but not married, (for then she should have been not stoned but strangled, which kind of death the Jews understood to be meant when the sentence was of being put to death in general, not mentioning the manner how,) which makes her crime much greater than if she was a virgin disengaged to any man, and so the law judged it to be, verse 28, 29, it shewing a more impatient and ungoverned lust, and being a great wrong to her intended husband, and such as might prove of the worst consequences to his family. And it was done with her full consent too, for she was taken in the very act, without any sign of resistance, otherwise they could not say that the law adjudged her to be stoned; for it expressly ordered, and with the greatest reason, that those that were forced should have nothing at all done to them. So that there was all the aggravation that could be in this woman's wickedness, and she justly deserved to die.

But the man that debauched her having made his escape, (as we may suppose he had, by their not bringing him to our Lord together with the woman, Deut. xxii. 25, 26.

d Ver. 6.

e Levit. xx. 10.

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