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John viii. 22.

John viii. 23.

John viii. 24.

John viii. 25.

John viii. 26.

John viii. 27.

John viii. 28.

John viii. 29.

John viii. 30.

John viii. 31.

John viii. 32.

John viii. 33.

John viii. 34.

John viii. 35.

John viii. 36.

John viii. 37.

John viii. 38.

and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: Jerusalem. whither I go, ye cannot come.

Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.

And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus said unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.

I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.

They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.

Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

As he spake these words, many believed on him.

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

They answered him, We be Abraham's seed,
and were never in bondage to any man: how
sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?"

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say
unto you,
vant of sin.

b Whosoever committeth sin is the ser- b Rom. vi. 16.

And the servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth ever.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place you.

in

speak that which I have seen with my Fa

20.
2 Pet. ii, 19.

Jerusalem.

el John iii. 8.

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ther; and ye do that which ye have seen with
your father.

They answered and said unto him, Abraham is John viii. 39.
our father. Jesus saith unto them, If
ye were
Abraham's children, ye would do the works of

Abraham.

But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath John viii, 40. told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.

Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said John viii, 41. they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

Jesus said unto them, If God were your Fa- John viii. 42. ther, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth, and came from God: neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

Why do ye not understand my speech? even John viii. 43. because ye cannot hear my word.

of

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts John viii. 44. 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.

And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me John viii. 45.

not.

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

ye

d 1 Johniv. 6. d He that is of God heareth God's words: John viii. 47. therefore hear them not, because ye are not of

God.

Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, John viii. 48. Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and

hast a devil?

Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I ho- John viii. 49. nour my Father, and ye do dishonour me.

And I seek not mine own glory: there is one John viii. 50. that seeketh and judgeth.

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

Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know John viii. 52. 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.

Art thou greater than our father Abraham, John viii. 53. which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou chyself?

John viii. 54.

John viii. 55.

John viii. 56.

John viii. 57.

John viii. 58.

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:

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.

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

10

Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham 1o. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am".

10 Had our Lord been younger than the age at which the priests assumed their office, the Jews would have charged him with presumption, ignorance, or vanity. His exalted love, his generous compassion, his fervent piety, would have been attributed to inexperience, to the sallies of imagination, or to the youthful ardour of the passions. His virtues would have been associated in their minds with extravagance or romance, with enthusiasm or superstition. His pity and forbearance would have been considered as the effect of mere feeling, or weakness; his austerity as unnatural, presumptuous, and mo

rose.

Had our Lord, on the other hand, been an old man, it would have been said, He had lost all interest or concern in those objects and pursuits which kindle the most active and extensive desires; that he saw things with different views from human beings in general; that he had outlived the remembrance of the peculiar trials and temptations of early life, and made not proper allowances for the infirmities of others. Some might have reminded him, that the wisdom and experience of age were incompatible with the sprightliness and gaiety of youth; others might have deemed his opposition to the vices and corruption of the times, as proceeding from the love of singularity, or desire of distinction. His patience and forbearance might have been attributed to a deficiency of energy and spirit; and even his resignation in the hour of death, to the want of the power of enjoyment among the living; and, if he had delayed the work of his ministry to a later period, the question would have been asked, why he had deferred so long the reformation of a sinful and degenerate people ?—See on this subject, a Sermon by Mr. Hewlett, on the Duties of Middle Life, vol. iii. p. 278.

As the end of our Lord's ministry approaches, He proclaims, in still plainer language, that He possessed the attributes and characters of the Messiah. John, in the commencement of his Gospel, had asserted the pre-existence of Christ; and our Lord in this passage declares the same truth.

It appears to me, that our Lord here alludes to his eternity, as well as to his pre-existence. The passage may mean, "I not only exist at this moment; but before Abraham was I exist." I am the self-existent; the same Being which in your Scriptures of the Old Testament is known as the "I am," of

Jerusalem.

Jerusalem.

Then took they up stones to cast at him: but John viii. 59.

your fathers. The schoolmen rightly represent the eternity of God as a punctum stans: or, as Cowley expresses the idea, in his description of heaven

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And Archbishop King has well described the Deity, as having neither remembrance of the past, nor foreknowledge of the future, but as being ever existing in all places, and ever enduring throughout all time. Therefore whatever has, or is, or can, or will be, form but One present. Sir Isaac Newton, in his Scholium Generale, has expressed his notion of a Deity much in the same manner, but in the most sublime and expressive language. Alike conscious of the past, the present, and the future, our Lord asserts that such is his mode of existence, and claims the attributes of Deity to the same extent as they appertained to his heavenly Father.

The general body of Christians have understood this passage as a plain declaration on the part of our Lord, that He did not begin to exist at the time when he assumed a human body in the form of an infant, but that he existed before the time of Abraham.

It is the belief of the Christian Church, and it was the faith also of the ancient Jews, that the Word of God, their Messiah, existed before his permanent incarnation. He existed before the creation of the world, when he was one with the Father; He existed also after the creation of the world, as the Angel Jehovah.

It will not be possible, in these notes, to discuss the various misinterpretations to which the Socinian writers have resorted, to explain away the grammatical sense of this, and other passages of Scripture, which assert the divinity of Christ. The expression, however, "Before Abraham was, I am," or before Abraham existed, I exist, is so satisfactory and so decisive, that it might have been supposed to have set the question at rest for ever. But the supporters of the Socinian heresy have, at various times, employed all their ingenuity and learning to give another interpretation to these words—and have presented the world with such a selection of absurd and contradictory illustrations, as to draw upon them the undivided censure of their mildest opponent. Dr. Pye Smith, who seems to write every sentence of his reply to Mr. Belsham with a smile, an apology, or a bow, condemns the interpretation of this passage as trifling, and absolute folly. Archbishop Magee, in the higher tone of dignified rebuke, which becomes a champion of the truth, chastises the ignorance, or blasphemy of the Socinian heresy, with more unsparing severity.

Πρὶν ̓Αβραὰμ γενέσθαι, ἐγώ εἰμι, are the words in the original. This is translated by Socinus: "Before Abraham can be Abraham, that is, the Father of many nations, I must be, the Messiah, or Saviour of the world." Faustus Socinus, the nephew of the heresiarch, tells us, that his uncle obtained this mean

Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, Jerusalem. going through the midst of them, and so passed

by.

Luke x. 17.

SECTION VII 12.

The Seventy return with Joy 13.

LUKE X. 17—25.

And the seventy returned again with joy, say- Uncertain. ing, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

ing by divine inspiration-non sine multis precibus ipsius, Jesu nomine invocato, impetravit ipse. This interpretation, however, is relinquished by Socinians of a later age, who consider, with Grotius, that Christ meant only to assert, that he was before Abraham in the decree of God (a).

12 These sections, from seven to eighteen inclusive, with the exception of some few passages, which on various authorities are placed elsewhere, are inserted here, on the united testimony of the five harmonizers, by whom I am principally guided. They contain an account of the actions of our Lord from the feast of tabernacles to that of the dedication. Several chapters of St. Luke relate events which are not recorded by the other Evangelists, and these are generally referred to the period which elapsed between the mission of the Seventy and Christ's apprehension. This period included both the feast of tabernacles and the dedication, and it is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to ascertain precisely the exact order of the events here mentioned, and to decide at which of these feasts they took place. The difficulty is further increased by the question, whether St. John's Gospel is to be read with these chapters of St. Luke, continuously from chap. vii. 11. to the conclusion of chap. x. or the eighth be divided from the ninth and tenth: that is, whether the healing of the man who was born blind, was effected by our Lord at the feast of tabernacles, or at the feast of dedication? I have principally observed the order proposed by Lightfoot, excepting that some passages are arbitrarily inserted elsewhere, on the authority of Newcome and others.

Archbishop Newcome places John ix. 10. before these chapters of St. Luke. He then proceeds with the interruptions before alluded to, from Luke x. 17. to Luke xviii. 14.

Doddridge inserts the cure of the blind man, John ix. 10. at the feast of the

(a) Cowley's Davideis, book i.-Watts's Hymns.-Archbishop King's Sermons, published at the end of his 8vo. edit. of the Origin of Evil.-Sir Isaac Newton's Scholium Generale, printed at the end of the Principia.-Allix, on the Judgment of the Jewish Church, against the Unitarians, chap. xv. Oxford edition, p. 187, &c.-Dr. Pye Smith, on the Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, vol. ii. p. 186.-Magee, on the Atonement, particularly the notes to vol. ii. part ii-Socinus contra Eutrop. tom. ii. p. 678. ap Smith.-And for a further account of Wakefield's, Priestley's, and Belsham's criticisms, see Archbishop Magee, vol. i. p. 81–88.

13 See next page.

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