isted in the world, Jer. i. 5; that is said to be already in being, which God has foreordained to bring into being, 1 Cor. ii. 7; Eph. i. 4; 2 Tim. i. 9; Titus i. 2; 1 Pet. i. 20, where Goadby remarks, that Peter speaks of Christ's preördination, not his preexistence; Rev. xiii. 8; in which passages, wisdom, afterwards revealed in the gospel; the disciples of Christ, afterwards appearing in the world; the hope of eternal life, afterwards published to men; Christ, afterwards" manifest in these last times;" and his death, afterwards occurring in Judea, are represented as already existing with God ages before, being foreseen and foreordained, even before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ existed before Abraham, inasmuch as God had determined to send him into the world, and promised Abraham that the whole world should be benefited by his gospel. Wakefield remarks, that "the peculiar force of the present tense in the usage of scriptural expressions, is to imply determination and certainty; (Before Abraham was, I am Christ;) as if he had said, 'My mission was settled and certain before the birth of Abraham." There had been no failure in the divine plans. From the first, even before the foundation of the earth, God had ordained that course of revelations, which, beginning with the patriarchs, and pouring increasing light into the world through Moses and the prophets, would educate successive generations of men in the knowledge and worship of the one true God, and finally be consummated in Christ, his beloved Son, the Saviour of the whole world. Chap. xvii. 5. The interruption, which Jesus met with from the violence of the Jews, prevented

his explaining more fully what his meaning was in this seemingly, but not really, paradoxical clause.

59. Then took they up stones to cast at him. Chap. x. 31. Stones could be easily procured on the spot, as the temple was undergoing repairs and additions at this period, and for many years afterwards. See Josephus. It has been said, that the Jews understood Jesus as saying that he was God, and that therefore they were ready to stone him for blasphemy. But it is forgotten, that if the Jews did understand him thus, it is no proof that such is his real meaning, for they very often mistook the sense of his words. Besides, there is no evidence that they thought his language implied that he was God, for they were incited to kill him on other occasions, when no topic of this sort was introduced. Luke iv. 29; John v. 16, vii. 44, xi. 50. Again, it was not charged against him at his trial, that he claimed to be God, but to be the Messiah. Mat. xxvi. 68; Luke xxii. 67, 70.- Hid himself. Our Saviour did not seek persecution, but avoided it as long as he could innocently.

In concluding this chapter, let us revert to some of the interesting and practical topics, which it suggests: the power of conscience even in the wicked, ver. 9; the mercy of Jesus, and, consequently, of God, to the sinful, without, however, abating the strictness of moral obligation, ver. 11; the encouraging assurances of Jesus that light and freedom should be imparted to his followers

- the light of life and freedom from sin, ver. 12, 32; the crucifixion of Christ, with the accompanying and subsequent events, as an evidence of the truth of his religion, ver. 28;

the announcement of the moral servitude of sin, ver. 34; love to Christ, as entitling men to be called the children of God, ver. 42; the power of the Christian faith to overcome the king of terrors, and confer everlasting life, ver. 51; and the majesty of the gospel, as extending back to a time anterior to Abraham, in the purposes of God, ver. 58; and of Christ, as foreordained from the foundation of the world to be the Saviour of mankind.

CHAPTER IX.

1, 2. Different opinions prevail respecting the connexion of this chapter with the foregoing, and whether the events in both occurred on the same day. These points cannot now be determined with certainty. -Master, who did sin, &c. The disciples here refer to current opinions among their countrymen, that every evil or calamity was the effect of some sin, and that those who suffered in this world, had sinned in some preexistent state. See Josephus, Philo, and the Talmudists. Indeed, the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls from one body to another, was common throughout the east, and exists to this day, except where it has been driven out by Muhammedanism. Lightfoot cites instances to show that some of the Jewish rabbins even held the opinion, that a child might sin before its birth.

In these and similar philosophical notions, may we not detect the latent germ of the modern doctrine of total depravity, and that Adam, in his fall, acted in a federate capacity for all his posterity? On the other hand, there is no support for the assertion, that the fact of Adam being appointed the federal head of his posterity, and then sinning at the fall, was the germ of the philosophical notions.

3. Neither hath this man sinned, &c. Jesus, in his reply, said virtually, that sin, neither in this man nor in his parents, was the cause of his blindness; not that they were sinless. He takes no steps to correct, any more than he did in relation to the demoniacs, the erroneous notions of the disciples respecting the preëxis.ence of souls, their transmigration, and the nature of sin; but answers their question in the shortest way, solely in reference to the present case. That the works of God should be made manifest in him. Or, it is done in conformity with the purposes of divine Providence. The power, glory, and wisdom of God are manifested in all his works, in their variety and complex relations; in what is small as well as what is great; in what is weak or defective as well as what is strong and perfect. For out of weakness the Creator educes strength, and out of evil good, and out of folly wisdom, and makes even the wrath, much more the imperfections, of man praise him. The

sightless orbs of the blind are a sermon by God on the value of sight to man, and manifest more impressively, than a thousand perfect eyes, the fearful and wonderful work of creative skill in fashioning their matchless organs. Or, again, in this particular case, the works of God were supernaturally manifested in the restoration of vision to him who had been born blind. See next verse.

Our

4. While it is day, &c. Chap. xi. 9, xii. 35, 36. In allusion, perhaps, to his performing this cure on the Sabbath day, since his time was short, and death was already frowning grimly upon his path. When no man can work. Eccl. ix. 10. Saviour often expresses his most earnest and solemn declarations in a general proposition, which marks that fervid state of mind, that rejects particulars and qualifications, and grasps, with one strong hold, upon the leading idea, to the exclusion of every thing else. The night of death was rapidly approaching, and, therefore, he must prosecute, with the greatest diligence, the work given him to do. Some suppose, that the approach of the natural night, or the declining of the sun towards the west, suggested the imagery of this and the following verse. His own sun was soon to set.

5. I am the light of the world. Chap. viii. 12. This was said, perhaps, in reference to giving sight to the blind.

6. Anointed the eyes of the blind man, &c. Various motives may have led to this act. It connected the miracle visibly and sensibly with the 23

VOL. II.

agent, and conveyed to the blind man, though he could not see, an assurance that Jesus performed the cure. Something of the kind accompanied many of our Lord's miracles. Again, as it was one of the traditional rules of the Jewish doctors, that "spittle should not be put upon or into the eyes of a blind man on the Sabbath day," our Saviour effected a cure by using both clay and spittle, to show his divine authority, and thus set aside their senseless and frivolous traditions, Grotius says, that to open the eyes of the blind was an acknowledged sign of the Messiah.

7. Siloam. Is. viii. 6; Neh. iii. 15; Luke xiii. 4. Jerome says, that "Siloam is a fountain at the foot of Mount Zion; whose waters do not flow regularly, but on certain days and hours, and issue with a great noise from hollows and caverns in the hardest rocks." Other writers speak of it as both a fountain and a pool; and an interesting account of it. is given by Robinson, in his late travels, who examined its location, witnessed the remarkable phenomenon of the irregular flow of the water, and described its general features as consisting of a "small, deep reservoir in the mouth of the valley of Tyropoeon, into which the water flows from a smaller basin, excavated in the solid rock, a few feet higher up, and then the little channel by which the stream is led off along the base of the steep, rocky point of Ophel, to irrigate the terraces and gardens extending into the valley of Jehoshaphat below." The pool of Bethesda.