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John iv. 12.

"Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jefus answered and said unto her (the woman of Samaria), Whofoever drinketh of this water fhall thirst again, but whofoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, fhall never thirst; but the water that I fhall give him, fhall be in him a well of water, Springing up into everlasting life."

John iv. 31." In the mean while, his difciples prayed him, faying, Mafter, eat; but he faid unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. know not of. Therefore said the difciples one to another, Hath any man brought him aught to eat? Jefus faith unto them, My meat is, to do the will of him that fent me, and to finish his work."

John ix. 1-5. "And as Jefus paffed by, he faw a man which was blind from his birth and his difciples afked him, faying, Who did fin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jefus anfwered, Neither VOL. II.

I

hath

hath this man finned, nor his parents, but that the works of God fhould be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that fent me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

John ix. 35---40. "Jefus heard that they had caft him (the blind man above mentioned) out; and when he had found him, he faid unto him, Doft thou believe on the Son of God? And he anfwered and faid, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jefus faid unto him, Thou haft both feen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe; and he worshipped him. And Jefus faid, For judgement I am come into this world, that they which fee not might fee, and that they which fee might be made blind."

All that the reader has now to do, is to compare the series of examples taken from St. John, with the series of examples taken from the other evangelifts, and to judge whether

whether there be not a visible agreement of manner between them. In the above quoted paffages, the occafion is ftated, as well as the reflection. They feem therefore the most proper for the purpose of our argument. A large, however, and curious collection has been made by different writers*, of inftances, in which it is extremely probable that Chrift spoke in allufion to fome object, or fome occafion then before him, though the mention of the occafion, or of the object, be omitted in the hiftory. I only observe that these inftances are common to St. John's gospel with the other three.

- I conclude this article by remarking, that nothing of this manner is perceptible in the fpeeches recorded in the Acts, or in any other but thofe which are attributed to Christ, and that, in truth, it was a very unlikely manner for a forger or fabulist to attempt; and a manner very difficult for any

* Newton on Daniel, p. 148, note a Jortin, Dif.

p. 213. Bishop Law's Life of Christ.

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writer to execute, if he had to fupply all the materials, both the incidents, and the obfervations upon them, out of his own head. A forger or a fabulift would have made for Chrift, difcourfes exhorting to virtue and diffuading from vice in general terms. It would never have entered into the thoughts of either, to have crowded together fuch a number of allufions, to time, place, and other little circumftances, as occur, for inftance, in the fermon on the mount, and which nothing but the actual prefence of the objects could have fuggefted*.

II. There appears to me to exift an affinity between the hiftory of Chrift's placing a little child in the midst of his disciples, as related by the three firft evangelifts †, and the hiftory of Chrift's washing his disciples' feet, as given by St. Johnt. In the stories

* See Bishop Law's Life of Chrift.

+ Mat. xviii. 1. Mark ix. 33. Luke ix. 46.

† xiii. 3.

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themselves there is no refemblance. But the affinity which I would point out, confifts in these two articles: firft, that both stories denote the emulation which prevailed amongft Chrift's difciples, and his own care and defire to correct it. The moral of both is the fame. Secondly, that both stories are fpecimens of the fame manner of teaching, viz. by action; a mode of emblematic infiruction extremely peculiar, and, in these paffages, afcribed, we fee, to our Saviour, by the three firft evangelifts and by St. John, in inftances totally unlike, and without the smallest fufpicion of their borrowing from each other.

III. A fingularity in Chrift's language, which runs through all the evangelifts, and which is found in thofe difcourfes of St. John that have nothing fimilar to them in the other gofpels, is the appellation of “the Son of Man;" and it is in all the evangelifts found under the peculiar circumstance of being applied by Chrift to himself, but

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