56 John VII. 33. 33 Then faid Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am unto him that fent me. I with you, and then I go He tells them, he is going where they fhall not find him. Sect. 100.into the adjacent Court of the Temple, to seize bim, as he preached there to the Multitude. Then Jefus faid to them, as foon as they appeared, I know the Design on which fome of you are come, but God will not permit you immediately to execute it; for yet a little while longer I am to continue with you, and [then] I am to go again to 34 him that fent me. And when I am returned to him, I shall be entirely out of your Reach; fo that you shall seek me, and with that had me you in your Power again, but you shall not find me and where I am, or where I fhall then, and always be, you cannot poffibly come: Which he said, referring to his fpeedy Exaltation to the Heavenly World, and to the impotent Malice with which they should then oppofe his triumphant Cause. 35 ; But he was not understood in that Senfe; the Jews therefore who were prefent faid among themJelves, Whither is be about to go, that we shall not find him? Will he leave Judea, and go to the Remainders of the Holy Seed, who are difperfed among the Greeks, and other Nations? and will he teach them, or the Greeks themselves (f), even the Idolatrous Gentiles, after his being thus rejected by his own Nation at Home and Abroad? 36 What [Sort of] Saying is this, which he has now Spoken, You shall feek me, and shall not find me; and where I am, you cannot poffibly come? Thus they contiuued cavilling at his Words; yet were fo over-awed by his Prefence, that they did not dare to offer him any Violence, notwithftanding the Commiffion with which fome of them came. 34 Ye shall seek me, and fhall not find me: where I am, thither not come. and ye can (f) Will he go to the Difperfed among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?] By Greeks, we are here to understand Idolatrous Gentiles, and not Hellenifts, or Jews that ufed the Greek Language; for these were the Difperfed among them. There is therefore, I think, a Sting in thefe Words beyond what Commentators have obferved. They infinuate, that if he was to go into foreign Countries, to address himself to the Jews there, who might be supposed not fo well instructed, as those that lived in Judea and at Jerufalem, he would not be able to make any Profelytes, even among these; but would be constrained to apply himself to the ignorant and ftupid Gentiles, to feek Difciples among them; which to be fure appeared to these haugbty Scorners, one of the most infamous Circumftances that could be imagined, and most incompatible with the Character of the true Messiah. O confident is Error in its own Decifions, and so vain in its Self- Sect. 100. 26, 27. their Rulers for a fuppofed Credulity, in feeming, as it were, to acquiefce John vii. in Chrift's Claim to be the Meffiah; and imagined themselves, no doubt, exceeding wife in rejecting him, while they blindly took it for granted, he was the Son of Jofeph, and had not Patience to wait for the authentic Story of his miraculous Conception. Surely Men had need to look well to the Force of those Arguments, on which they venture their Souls by rejecting the Gospel. Our Lord answered their fecret Reasoning, in a Manner which might Ver. 28. justly have alarmed them; charging them with Ignorance of that GOD, whom they pretended to know, and whom with a prefumptuous Confi-. dence they claimed as theirs. And oh, that it may not be found at last, that many who have appeared moft confident of their Intereft in GOD, neither know him, nor are known by him! The Bleffed Jefus, who is the Brightness of his Glory, and the express Image of his Perfon, has the compleatest Knowledge of the Father. May Ver. 29. we be fo wife and happy, as to feek Inftructions from him, that the Eyes of our Understandings may be inlightened, and the Temper of our Hearts proportionably regulated, by all the Discoveries of the Divine Being which he makes! How obftinate and defperately hardened were the Hearts of thofe, who notwithstanding all the Proofs that Jefus gave of his Divine Miffion, were yet so far from hearkening to him, as to feek Opportunities to deftroy Ver. 30, 32. him! So dangerous and fatal is the Prevalence of Error, in fuch as like not to retain GOD in their Knowledge, that they will even venture on the greatest Wickedness, when once they are given over to a reprobate Mind. (Rom. i. 28.) May GOD preferve us from a Spirit of Delufion, and fill us with that Wisdom, that we may know the Things belonging to our Peace; and being ready to receive the Truth in the Love of it, may we acknowledge and attend to Chrift, as fent of GOD! May we learn this Heavenly Wisdom in Time, fince the Hour is approaching, when Chrift will be fought in vain, and all Correfpondence between him and Sinners will be finally cut off! Where he is, they cannot then Ver. 34. come; and to be excluded from him, will at length appear infupportable Mifery, even to thofe, who with proud Folly, and fatal Self-fufficiency, are now moft ready to fay unto him, Depart from us, for we defire not the Knowledge of thee, or thy Ways. (Job xxi. 14.) 58 JESUS calls them to come, and receive the Spirit from Dim. Sect. 101. John VII. 37. SE C T. CI. CHRIST invites his Hearers to come, and imbibe the Spirit from him; and by these, and other gracious Difcourfes, difarms the Refolution of the Officers, who return to the Sanhedrim without him; where a fhort Debate arifes between Nicodemus and his Brethren. John VII. 37, to the End. SUC JOHN VII. 37. UCH were the Difcourfes which our Lord made to the People, in the Prefence of those who were fent by the Sanhedrim to feize him; and this happened in the eighth and laft Day, that great [Day] of the Feast of Tabernacles, when, according to the Inftitution of Mofes, (Lev. xxiii. 34, 36. Numb. xxix. 35.) there was to be an holy Convocation, attended with fome extraordinary Sacrifices. Now on this Day, when it was cuftomary for the Priefts to furround the Altar with their Palm-Branches, and to pour out Water in the Temple, as an Expreffion of the general Defire of the Meffiah's Appearance, and the pouring forth of the Spirit by him (a), Fefus flood on an Eminence, that he might be the better heard and feen, and proclaimed with a loud Voice, faying, If any Man thirst, that is, if he ardently defire true Happiness, and long for the Bleffings promised under the Administration of the Meffiah, let him come unto me by Faith, and drink his Fill; for I am most ready freely to communicate every needful Bleffing, and particularly thofe Supplies of the Spirit, which you profefs fo earnestly to defire. (Com JOHN VII. 37. IN the laft Day, that great Day of the Feaft, Jefus ftood and cried, faying, If any Man thirft, let him come unto me, and drink. (a) When it was cuftomary for the Priefts to pour out Water, &c.] That there was a Custom on this Day of drawing Water out of the Fountain of Siloam, and pouring it out before the Lord in the Temple, at the Time of Evening Sacrifice; and that the Priest who did it stood on fome Eminence, the Jewish Rabbies unanimoufly affure us. (See Reland's Antig. Heb. part. iv. cap. 6. §. 6.) Some think, it was intended to fupplicate the former Rain: But the Context inclines me much rather to believe thofe Jewish Writers, produced by Dr. Lightfoot, (in his Hor. Hcb. on this Place,) who fay, it was meant, as a Way of invoking the Divine Influences of the Blessed Spirit, and as a Mark of their Defire of having it poured out upon them. See Tremellius's excellent Note on this Text. (b) As The People are 38 He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath faid, out of his Belly fhall flow Rivers of livingWater. t 39 (But this fpake he of the Spirit, which they that ceive: for the Holy Ghoft was not yet given, because that Jefus was not yet glorified) believe on him, fhould re 40 Many of the People therefore, when they heard this Saying, faid, Of á Truth this is the Prophet, 41 Others faid, This is the divided in their Sentiments about him. 38. 59 (Compare Ifa. lv. Now this, which was true in a more extenfive 39 Then many of the People, when they heard this 40 the (b) As the Scripture hath in many Places faid and promised.] Chryfoftom, and after him many other eminent Criticks, refer this to the former Claufe, and understand it, as if he had faid, He that hath that Faith in me, which the Scripture requires: (See Caftalio, Zegerus, and Fac. Cappellus, in loc) And thus they avoid the Difficulty, which arifes from our not finding the following Words in Scripture. But it feems much more natural, with Grotius, to fuppofe, that here is a general Reference to the feveral Prophecies, which refer to the Effufion of the Spirit by the Meffiab under the Similitude of pouring out Water; and accordingly I have paraphrafed the Words in that View of the Connection. See Ifa. lii. 15. xliv. 3. lviii. II. and Joel ii. 28. (c) Out of his Belly, or from within him.] The Belly is frequently put for the Mind, or Heart Compare Job xv. 35. xx. 20. and Prov. xx. 27, 30. It fometimes fignifies in a more general Way, the Inward Part of a Thing; (1 Kings vii. 20. Mat. xii. 40.) and may perhaps have fome Allufion here to the Prominency of that capacious Golden Vafe, from which the Water was now poured out in a large Stream. (d) This he spake of the Spirit.] It is ftrange, that, when the Evangelift has thus plainly commented on thefe Words of Christ, a late eminent Writer fhould venture to advance a different Interpretation, and explain them as spoken of the Doctrine of the Gospel. (e) Surely this Man is a Prophet.] As the Article is prefixed, it might feem natural to render it the Prophet, were it not afterwards diftinguished from the Chrift. On this Account I conclude, that here, as alfo John i. 21. o pools fignifies only a Prophet, that is, one of the antient Prophets revived. See Sect. 20. Note (c), Vol. i. pag. 127. H 2 (f) A 60 42. The Officers admire his Preaching, and return without him. Galilee ? 42 Hath not the Scripture faid, That Chrift cometh of the Seed of David, and out of the Town of Bethlehem, where David' was? 43 So there was a Divifion among the People be Sect. 101.the Mefiab himself: But in Oppofition to this, the Chrift. But fome faid, Some objected, and faid, Shall the Meffiab, when Shall Chrift come out of he appears, come out of Galilee, as we know this John VII. Jefus of Nazareth does? Hath not the Scripture faid exprefsly, that the Meffiah is to come from the Seed of David? and hath it not alfo added, that he is to arife from the Town of Bethlehem Judah, where David was [born,] and which was the antient Seat of his Family? (Compare Ifa. xi. 43 1. and Mic. v. 2.) And thus they were divided in their Sentiments, and there was a warm Diffention (f) among the People on his Account. And the Officers alfo, who had been fent to apprehend him, were at a Lofs what they should do, and fome of them would have feized him; but ftruck with the Regard, which feveral of the People expreffed towards him, and above all, impreffed by the Dignity and Sweetness of his Difcourses, and the fecret Hand of Heaven which wrought for his Deliverance, they were fo far reftrained, that no Man laid Hands on him. 44 45 46 Then the Officers came back to the Chief-Priefts and the Pharifees, without accomplishing the Purpofe for which they were fent: And when the Sanhedrim perceived, they had not executed their Commiffion, they faid unto them, Why have ye not brought him with you as your Prifoner, according to the Orders you received from us? cause of him. 44 And fome of them would have taken him; but no Man laid Hands on him. 46 The Officers anfwer this Man. The Officers replied, We could not find in our felves, (f) A warm Diffention.] So I apprehend the Word Exopa always fignifies. And thus the Word Schifm, which is juft the fame, (with an English Termination,) expreffes, not merely, nor neceffarily, a Separation from each other, but an angry Debate, whether it be, or be not, attended with Separation. (g) No Man ever Spake, as this Man doth.] Plutarch mentions it as a memorable Proof of the extraordinary Eloquence of Mark Anthony, when Marius fent Soldiers to kill him, that when he began waparte dai Tov Javalov, to plead for his Life, he difarmed their Refolution, and melted them into Tears. (Plutarch. Vit. pag. 431.) But thefe Officers are thus vanquished, merely by hearing Christ's gracious Difcourfes to the People, which is a Circumftance much more remarkable. They return in a Kind of Amaze, and inftead of feizing him as their Prisoner, or making a laboured Apology for their Failure, only break out into a pathetick Exclamation, that no Man in the World ever fpake like him. It is a Reflection, which I hope we often make, as we read his Difcourfes. (b) Have |