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Is there any one of you that can demonftrate, I have not receiv'd my Commiffion from God? No,not one: and therefore you have no juft reafon to diftruft me. Every one that loves God, and owns him for his Father, will moft chearfully hearken to his Doctrin; and the true reason why you will not liften to me, is because you do not refpect God as your Father, by your Obedience to him.

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Some of the Jews, exasperated with this Speech of Jefus, told him, that they could easily infer from his Difcourfes that he was not undefervedly call'd a Samaritan, or an Enemy to the Jewish Nation, and that he proclaim'd himself to be poffeffed with an evil Spirit by thus reviling the People of God. Jefus faid, I am not poffefs'd with an evil Spirit, but diligently bey my Father's Will, yet you flight what I fay to you, and for that reafon make this attempt to defame me. 'Tis not out of a defire of Reputation that I fpeak to you, neither is it your Opinion that I value, but the pleasure of God himfelf, that they to whom I am fent by him fhould receive me as his Ambaffador; and they fhall be most feverely punish'd who act contrary to the Will of God in this particular. Every one that believes my Sayings fhall not dy for ever, but partake of endless Happiness: whereas whoever defpiles my Dorin, fhall fuffer eternal Punishment in the World to come.

Thefe men retorted, that it was plain from his Difcourfe he was agitated with an evil Spirit, fince the Abraham and the Prophets, who were most holy and accept

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MATTHEW.

MARK.

LUKE.

JOHN.

'CHA P. VIII.

is dead, and the prophets; and thou fayeft, If a man keep my faying, he fhall never tafte of death.

53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thy felf?

54 Jefus anfwered, If I honour my felf, my honour is nothing it is my Father that honoureth me, of whom ye fay, that he is your God:

55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I fhould fay I know him not, I fhall be a liar like unto you but I know him, and keep his faying.

56 Your father Abraham rejoyced to fee my day, and he .faw it, and was glad.

57 Then faid the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty

able to God, were all dead, yet he made a tender of Immortality to the Obfervers of his Precepts. Then they ask'd him whether he thought himself a greater Favorite of God than Abraham and the Prophets who were dead. Whom, faid they, makeft thou thy felf, that thus promifeft to thy Difciples what God thought not fit to grant to thofe pious and devout perfons? If I fpoke honourably of my felf, faid Jefus, without any arguments to corroborate my Pretenfions, fuch boafting would indeed be vain and trifling. But my Father, by the Miracles he has enabled me to perform, fhows you who I am, and what value you ought to fet upon me; and him you call your God. Yet are you ignorant of that Worship which is acceptable to him: But I know it, and fhould I difown it, I fhould be a Liar like to you. Now I profefs to be acquainted with the Will of God in this particular, and Í faithfully execute his Commands. Abraham himself, whom you brag of as the Founder of your Nation, greatly defired to fee thofe times in which God had decreed to reveal himself to Men, which was to come to pass in this Age by my means; and thefe days he forefaw by the good will of God, and was greatly rejoic'd at it. Now Jefus by this meant a prophetical Revelation of things to come, I which thefe unskilful and malignant Jews interpreted, as if he had made himfelf contemporary with Abraham. They faid therefore; One may plainly fee by thy Looks that thou art not yet fifty years of age, how is it poffible then that thou

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fhouldft have feen Abraham? (Whereas Jefus had faid no fuch thing, but only that Abraham had feen thefe times of the Meffian by the good pleasure of God, who reveal'd them to him.)

Wonder not, faid he, if I affirm that Abraham faw thefe days; for God had-decreed to fend me to acquaint Mankind with his Laws, and the Rewards annex'd to the obfervance of them, long before Abraham had a being. With which words the Jews were fo very much offended, he feeming by them to prefer himself to Abrabam, that they took up Stones to throw at him. But Jefus having caft a Mift be fore their Eyes, fav'd himself thro the midst of them, and fo efcap'd their Fury.

CHA P. XL.

Jefus cures a man that was born blind, and has feveral Difcourfes concerning the cause of his Blindness, and his Cure; which having bin perform'd on the Sabbath-day, fills the Jews with rage against him. He fhows that he is the true Shepherd, and that be must lay down his Life for his sheep. The Jews are divided in their Opinions concerning him.

AS S Jefus pafs'd by, a certain man was plac'd in the way who was born blind. The Apoftles taking notice of him, ask'd their Mafter the reafon of his Blindnefs; Is it, faid they, the punishment of fome Sins committed by his Soul in a precedent ftate, or of fome Sin of either of his, Parents? Jefus replied: This

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MATTHEW.

MARK.

LUKE.

Јони.

С НА Р. ІХ.

3 Jefus answered, Neither hath this man finned,nor his parents: but that the works of God fhould be made manifeft in him.

4 I must work the works of him that fent 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 fpat on the ground, and 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 feeing.

8 The neighbours therefore, and they which before had feen him that he was blind, faid, Is not this he that fat and begged?

Blindness is not the punishment of his or his Parents Sins; but God did not hinder his being born blind, that his Power might one day be manifefted in the cure of it. While the time of my Miniftry lafts, I muft exert that Power of working Miracles · with which he that fent me has intrufted me; for the time draws near, in which I fhall not be corporeally prefent among Men, nor fhow thofe Miracles I now do, in their prefence. As men therefore are follicitous to complete their days-work before the Night fteals upon them, fo muft I while I am here on earth lay hold on the occafion, if I would have my miraculous Power be obferv'd by Men. While I am among them I must inlighten their Minds by my Doctrine, in like manner as I fhall beftow the fenfe of Seeing on this man in prefence of you all. Having thus fpoke, he fpat on the ground, and made a kind of Clay of the Duft and Spittle mixt together, with which he anointed the blind man's Eyes. Then faid he to him, Go thy way, and wash thy Eyes in the Pool of Siloam (which fignifies fent.) The man having done as he was order'd, return'd from the Pool with the perfect ufe of his Eyes. His Neighbors, and those that had feen him before, and knew he was born blind, inquir'd of one another whether he was not that very person who was wont to beg an Alms in the Road of thofe that paffed by? Some faid it was the

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very fame: Others denied, and would only have it that he very much refembled him. But the man himfelt plainly difcover'd who he was.

They ask'd him therefore after what manner he had got his Eye-fight, with which he had not bin before endued. He replied, that he had bin cur'd by Jefus, and in the manner we have related.

They ask'd then where Jefus was: he told them he knew not, becaufe as he parted from him he went and walned in the Pool of Siloam, and had not beheld him fince he had acquir'd his Eye-fight. Upon hearing of this, they hurried him away with them to the Sanhedrim, that by this man's Teftimony they might accufe Jefus of having violated the Sabbath; for it was on the Sabbath-day he had anointed the Eyes of the blind man with the Clay he made. The Pharifees again de manded of him in the Sanhedrim by what means he had obtain'd his fight, which the man ingenuously related to them. Upon this occafion fome of the Pharifees argued that Jefus could not be fent by God, because he had broke the Sabbath;

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