HYMN. Jesus, my Saviour and my Lord, To Thee I lift mine eyes, Oh, may thy word my thoughts engage And grow in ev'ry grace. Oh, let it purify my heart And guide me all my days! Thy wonders, Lord, to me impart, And Thou shalt have the praise. § CCXLVIII. CHAP. VII. 25-53. Christ teacheth in the temple. Divers opinions of him among the people. The Pharisees are angry that their officers took him not, and chide with Nicodemus for taking his part. 25 Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? 26 But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. "Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? 27 'Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. 28 Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, k 31 And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? 32 The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. 33 Then said Jesus unto them, 'Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. 0 d where I am, thither ye cannot | Why have ye not brought him? come? 46 The officers answered, 37 In the last day, that Never man spake like this great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet 'glorified.) 40 Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is "the Prophet. 41 Others said, "This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come" out of Galilee? man. 47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? е 48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. 50 Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them.) 42 Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the 19. town of Bethlehem, where David was ? b a 43 So there was a division went a ver. 48.-6 Mat. xiii. 55. Mark vi. 3. Luke iv. 22. -c See ch. viii. 14.-d ch. v. 43; & viii. 42.-e ch. v. 32; & viii. 26. Rom. iii. 4.-fch. i. 18; & viii. 55.-g Mat. xi. 27. ch. x. 15.-h Mark xi. 18. Luke xix. 47; & xx. ver. 19. ch. viii. 37.-i ver. 44. ch. viii. 20.-k Mat. xii. 23. ch. iii. 2; & viii. 30.-7 ch. xiii. 33; & xvi. 16. -m Hos. v. 6. ch. viii. 21; & xiii. 33.-n Is. xi. 12; Jam. i. 1. 1 Pet. i. 1.-1 Or, Greeks.-o Lev. xxiii. 36. -p Is. lv. 1. ch. vi. 35. Rev. xxii. 17.-q Deut. xviii. 15. - Prov. xviii. 4. Is. xii. 3; & xliv. 3. ch. iv. 14.-s Is. xliv. 3. Joel ii. 28. ch. xvi. 7. Acts ii. 17, 33, 38. -ch. xii. 16; & xvi. 7.- Deut. xviii. 15, 18. ch. i. 21; & vi. 14.-r ch. iv. 42; & vi. 69.-y ver. 52. ch. i. 46.Ps. cxxxii. 11. Jer. xxiii. 5. Mic. v. 2. Mat. ii. 5. among the people because of Lnke ii. 4.-a1 Sam. xvi. 1, 4-6 ver. 12. ch. ix. 16; & him. C 44 And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. 45 Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, x. 19. c ver. 30.-d Mat. vii. 29.-e ch. xii. 42. Acts vi. 7. 1 Cor. i. 20, 26; & ii. 8.-fch. iii. 2.- Gr. to him.-g Deut. i. 17; & xvii. 8, &c.; & xix. 15.- Is. ix. 1, Mat. iv. 15. ch. i. 46. ver. 41. READER.-Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. The holy Jesus, having showed forth the treasures of his Father's wisdom, in revelations and holy precepts, and, upon the stock of his Father's greatness, having demonstrated great power in miracles, and these being instanced in acts of mercy, he mingled the glories of heaven, to transmit them to earth, to raise us up to the participations of heaven ; he was pleased, by healing the bodies of infirm persons, to invite their spirits to his discipline, and by his power to convey healing, and by that mercy, to lead us into the treasures of revelation; that both bodies and souls, our wills and understandings, by Divine instruments, might be brought to Divine perfections in the participations of a Divine nature. It was a miraculous mercy that God should look upon us in our blood, and a miraculous condescension that his Son should take our nature, and even this favour we could not believe without many miracles; and so contrary was our condition to all possibilities of happiness, that if salvation had not marched to us all the way in miracle, we had perished in the ruins of a sad eternity. And now it would be but reasonable, that, since God, for our sakes, hath rescinded so many laws of natural establishment, we also, for his, and for our own, would be content to do violence to those natural inclinations, which are also criminal when they derive into action. Every man living in the state of grace is a perpetual miracle, as his passions are made reasonable, as his reason is turned to faith, and his soul to spirit, and his body to a temple, and earth to heaven; and less than this will not dispose us to such glories, which, being the portion of saints and angels, and the nearest communications with God, are infinitely above what we see, or hear, or understand.-TAYLOR. It will be found true, that where there is no obedience, there is no right knowledge of Christ: but, out of all question, where there is not a competency of knowledge, there can be no obedience; and as these two lodge together, so observe what attends them both; 2 Thess. i. 8, "He shall come in flaming fire, to render vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." And if there be any that think to shroud unpunished amongst the thickets of ignorance, especially amidst the means of knowledge, take notice of this, though it may hide the deformity of sin from your own sight for a time, it cannot palliate it from the piercing eye, nor cover it from the revenging hand of Divine justice. As you would escape then that wrath to come, come to wisdom's school, and how simple soever ye be as to this world, if you would not perish with the world, learn to be wise unto salvation.-LEIGHTON. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.-See Commentary on Chap. IV. ver. 14, in § CCXL. This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. | is rejected, and nigh unto cursing, -By all which hath been spoken of the mission of the Spirit in great abundance, after Christ's sitting at the right hand of God, we should learn with what affections to receive the Gospel of salvation, for the teaching whereof the Holy Spirit was shed abroad abundantly on the ambassadors of Christ; and with what heavenly conversations to express the power which our hearts have felt therein, to walk as children of the light, and as becometh the gospel of Christ; to adorn our high profession and not to receive the grace of God in vain. Consider that the word thus quickened will have an operation, either to convince unto righteousness, or to seal unto condemnation; as the sun, either to melt, or to harden; as the rain, either to ripen corn or weeds; as the sceptre of a king, either to rule subjects or to subdue enemies; as the fire of a goldsmith, either to fine gold, or to devour dross! as the waters of the sanctuary, either to heal places, or to turn them into salt-pits, Ezek. xlvii. 11. Consider, according to the proportion of the Spirit of Christ, in his word revealed, shall be the proportion of their judgment who despise it. The contempt of a great salvation, and glorious ministry, shall bring a sorer condemnation, Heb. ii. 2-4. Sins against the light of nature are no sins in comparison of those against the gospel. The earth which drinketh in the rain that falls oft upon it, and yet beareth nothing but thorns and briars, Heb. vi. 7, 8. Consider that even here God will not always suffer his Spirit to strive with flesh; there is a day of peace which he calleth "our day;" a day wherein he entreateth and beseecheth us to be reconciled; but if we therein judge ourselves unworthy of eternal life, and go obstinately on till there be no remedy, he can easily draw in his Spirit, and give us over to the infatuation of our own hearts, that we may not be cleansed any more till he hath caused his fury to rest upon us, Ezek. xxiv. 13.-REYNOLDS. с JESUS went unto the mount of Olives. 2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. 3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5 "Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them," He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. |