LORD and SAVIOUR; ]ESUS- CHRIST. 137 are from the earth, and are partakers of all the corruption and depravity 'confe- quent on the fall of man ; and from the evil pallions which arife in your own wicked hearts, you form your conceptions of me ; and, thinking me like yourfelves, conclude, that I can be capable of ehm- mitting fo horrid a crime as felf- rrrurdet,+. but you are miflaken in me ; myextraaion and my difpofition are very different from yours : I am not of this worfd ; I am no partaker ofthe evils confequentonfin; I have no propenfity to corrupt and evil pallions; my mind is not tainted with,the corruption ofhuman nature, the fource oftemptation, and the fountain of all evil : I came from above, and, if you believe in me, you will find a remedy for thole evils which flow from the bitter fountain,of the fall of man; and will be cleanfed from that pollution which flows from your earthlyorigin; but, if ye kill continue in unbelief, ye /Nadi die inyourfins. The Jews, in order to vindicate them- felves, inquired what fort of a perfön he was, or who he pretended tobe? To which our Lord replied, Even thefame that Ifaid unto youfrom ¿he beginning meaning the light of the world, which he had flyled him- felf in the beginning of this difcourfe: adding, I have many things to fay and to judge ofyou: but he thatfeutme is-true; and I fheak to the world thole things which I have heard of him. However plain" this difcourfe may appear, it was not under flood by the flupid Jews ; they did not per- ceive, that he f/iake -to them of the Father. But JESUS told them, thatwhen they had crucified him, they would be convinced by the miracles attending that awful hour, his refurrefl.ion from the dead, the defcent of the Holy Spirit on his difciples, and the deflruhiion of the Jewi[h nation, both who he was, and who the Father was that fent him : When ye have lifted so the Son of man, faid he, then (ball ye know that Iam he, and that Ido nothing ofnyflf; but as my Father bath taught me, I fßeak thefe things. And he that fent one is withme : No. 12. the Father hath'not left me alone ; for I do always thole things that pleafe him. As he fpake thefe words, many of the Jews believed him to be the Mefliah ; per- haps, by his being lifted up, they did not underhand his crucifixion, t nt' his being exalted"to the throne ofDavid : but Jesus told them, if they perfes'ered in the belief of his word,' they fhould really become his difciples, and -being fully inflrufted inevery dodfrinëöfthe`ghfpel, they fhould not only be' freed from the flavery of fin, but alfo from the ceremonial' part of the law of Mofes : If contbhue inmy zeerd, faid he, then are ye any' difc-iiles' indeed ; and ye /häll know the 'truth, and the truth 'hall makeyou, free. The Jews, on hearing him declare, that they fhould be" made' free; haílíly and warmly replied, "We be Abraham's feed, and- were never''in bondage to any Mnann. Thisaffertion, if taken in a literal fenfe, Was abfolutely falfe, the whole nation be- ing, at that very time, in bondage to the Romans nor were their anceflors any orangers to bondage and flavery, having feverely felt the tyrannical yoke of the Egyptian, Affyrian, and Babylonifh kings. It muff thereforebe fuppofed, that the ex- preffion was meant in a metaphorical fenfe. and alluded to fpiritual bondage : in this fenfe, it was a freedom in refpea to reli- gion which they afferted, and they meant, that they were the defcendants of illuflri- ous anceflors, who, in the work of times, had preferved fentiments in religion and government worthy the pofierity of Abra- ham; nor had the'hotteft perfecution of the Affyrian kings, been able to compel them to embrace the religion of the Hea- thens ; in refpeft to truth, theywere never in bondage to any man, and they afked our Redeemer, Ilowfayell thou, yefhall be madefree? In anfwerto this queflion, Jesus replied, that they who gave themfelves up to a vi- tious courfe of life, and to the gratification of their fenfual appetites, were the work of haves, "end it was highly neceffary fcr them L l to
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