devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh 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.

46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe

51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, * If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.

52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. 'Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.

53 Art thou greater than our Father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?

54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: "it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:

55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.

56 Your father Abraham Prejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, "I am.

temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

m Rom. vi. 14, 18, 22; & viii. 2. Jam. i. 25; & ii. 12. -n Lev. xxv. 42. Mat. iii. 39.-o Rom. vi. 16, 20. 2 Pet. ii. 19.-p Gal. iv. 30.-q Rom. viii. 2. Gal. v. 1.—r ch. vii. 19. ver. 40-s ch. iii. 32; & v. 19, 30; & xiv. 10. 24.- Mat. iii. 9. ver. 33.- Rom. ii. 28; & ix. 7.

Is. lxi. 1.

them that are bound.” Having paid our complete ransom,

he sends his word as the message, and his Spirit to perform it effectually, to set us free, to let us know

Ixiv. 8. Mal. i. 6-a I John v. 1.-6 ch. xvi. 26; & xvii. 8, 25.-c ch. v. 43; & vil, 28. 29.-d ch. vii. 17.-e Mat. xiii. 38. 1 John iii. 8.-f Jude vi.-g ch. x. 26, 27. 1 John iv. 6.-h ch. vii. 20; & x. 20. ver. 52-i ch. v. 41; & vii. 18.—k ch. v. 24 ; & xi. 26.— Zech. i. 5. Heb.

He was bound and scourged, as a slave or malefactor, to purchase us

Acts iii. 13.-0 ch. vii. 28, 29.-p Luke x. 24.-q Heb xi. 13.-r Ex. iii 14. Is. xliii. 13. ch. xvii. 5, 24. Col. i. 17. Rev. i. 8.-s ch. x. 31, 39; & xi. 8.- Luke iv. 30.

READER.-Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. If we regard our woful fall, which was the consequence of sin, we are all degenerate; we have all fallen from the highest honour into the greatest disgrace, and the deepest gulf of all sorts of misery; we have given away our liberty and greatest dignity, in exchange for the most shameful and most deplorable bondage; instead of the sons of God, we are become the slaves of Satan; and if we now want to know to what family we belong, the apostle will tell us, "That we are children of wrath, and sons of disobedience."LEIGHTON.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.-As we are naturally subject to the vile drudgery of sin, so we are condemned to the proper 66 wages of sin," which the apostle tells us is "death," according to the just sentence of the law. But our Lord Jesus Christ was anointed for this purpose, "to set us free;" both to work and to publish liberty, to "proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to

our special care, first to have part in it, and then to be like it, and "stand fast in it," in all points.

But that we deceive not ourselves, as too many do who have no portion in this liberty, we ought to know that it is not to inordinate walking and licentiousness, as our liberty, that we are called, but from them, as our thraldom; we are not called from obedience, but to it.-LEIGH

ΤΟΝ.

When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.-One great title which the Most High is pleased to give himself, and by which he is pleased to reveal himself to us, is the God of truth: so that I shall be so much the liker to the God of truth, by how much I am the more constant to the truth of God. And, the further I deviate from this, the nearer I approach to the nature of the devil, who is the father of lies, (John viii. 44,) and liars too. And hence it is, that of all the sins the men of fashion are guilty of, they can least endure to be charged with lying. To give a man the lie, or to say, You lie, is looked upon as the greatest affront that can be put upon them. And why so? And why so? But only because this sin of lying makes them so like

their father, the devil, that a man may as well call them devils, as liars: and therefore, to avoid the scandal as well as the dangerous malignity of this damnable sin, I am resolved, by the blessing of God, always to tune my tongue in unison to my heart, so as never to speak any thing but what I think really to be true, so that if ever I speak what is not true, it shall not be the error of my will, but of my understanding.-Beveridge.

He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.-At first, man lost his innocence only in hope to get a little knowledge; and ever since then, lest knowledge should discover his error, and make him return to innocence, we are content to part with that now, and to know nothing that may discover or discountenance our sins, or discompose our secular designs. And as God made great revelations and furnished out a wise religion, and sent his Spirit to give the gift of faith to his church, that, on the foundation of faith, he may build a holy life; now our hearts love to retire into blindness, and sneak under covert of false principles, and run to a cheap religion, and an inactive discipline, and make a faith of our own, that we may build on it ease, and ambition, and a tall fortune, and the pleasures of revenge, and do what we have a mind to; scarce once in seven years denying a strong and an unruly appetite on the interest of a just conscience and holy religion.— TAYLOR.

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Alraham was,

I am.-He was, indeed, from all eternity; he lived in the bosom of the everlasting Father, and his life was most pure, most holy, most peaceable, most pleasant, most glorious; a life of infinite content, of infinite satisfaction, of infinite joy, and of infinite love; a life spent in eternal love of the great fountain of Divinity, the express image of which he was; a life employed in kind thoughts to poor mortals, and in Divine contrivances how their misery might be retrieved, their bands loosened, their danger overcome, their enemies vanquished, and their souls advanced to celestial mansions; a life undisturbed by the noise of wars, unacquainted with tumults, free from all annoyances, unmolested by the disorders of a giddy and confused world; a life of eternal calmness, which no waves, no billows, no wind, no storms, no tempests could discompose; a life of perfect serenity, and immense sweetness; a life employed in the eternal and incomprehensible enjoyment of his own perfection. Prov. i. This life Christ lived, before he was pleased to visit this benighted world with his healing beams. And it concerns us to remember this life, in order that, from the consideration of it, the humiliation of the Lord Jesus, in coming to dwell among us, may appear in the livelier colours.--HORNECK.

HYMN.

Oh, from the world's vile slavery
Almighty Saviour, set me free;
And, as my treasure is above,

Be there my thoughts, be there my love.
But oft, alas! too well I know,
My thoughts, my love, are fix'd below;

The man that was born blind restored

made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,

7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

8 The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?

AND as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master," who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day the night cometh, when no man can work.

5 As long as I am in the world, "I am the light of the world.

6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and

he said, I am he.

10 Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?

11 He answered and said, "A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.

12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.

13 They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.

14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

15 Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had re

them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do

see.

16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, i How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.

17 They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, 'He is a prophet.

18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight.

19 And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then

doth he now see?

20 His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:

21 But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; him he shall speak for him

self.

22 These words parents, because " the Jews for the

ask

spake his they feared Jews had

23 Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.

a ver. 34.-6 ch. xi. 4.-c ch. iv. 34; & v. 19. 36; & xi.

& xii. 35; & xvii. 4.- ch.

i. 5.9; & lii. 19; & vili.

12; & xii. 35, 46.-e Mark vil. 33; & viil. 23- Or, 15-g See 2 Kin. v. 14.- ver. 6.7.-i ver. 33. ch. spread the clay upon the eyes of the blind man.-ƒ Ñeh.

iii. 2.- ch. vii. 12. 43; & x. 19.-/ ch. iv. 19; & vi. 14.mch. vii. 13; & xii. 42; & xix. 38. Acts v. 13.-n ver. 34. ch. xvi. 2.

READER. He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay; and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.— The matter used was clay. Could there be a meaner? Could there be aught more unfit? O Saviour, how oft hadst thou cured blindnesses by thy word alone! how oft by thy touch! how easily couldst thou have done so here!

Was this to show thy liberty, or thy power? liberty, in that thou canst at pleasure use variety of means, not being tied to any; power, in that

The utter disproportion of this help to the cure, adds glory to the worker!

thou couldst make use of contraries.

The clay is only put on to be washed off: and that not by every water: none shall do it but that of Siloam, which signifies sent; and if the man had not been sent to Siloam, he had been still blind. All things receive their virtue from Divine institution.

HALL.

He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.-What did this man think when his eyes were first given him? What a new world did he now find himself come into! How did he wonder at heaven and earth, and the faces and shapes of all