John 8

The reasons which incline me to believe so are, 1. It is said, Satan was a murderer, ab initio, from the beginning (John 8:44). Now whom did he murder?

6. Christ when he teaches, does not only illuminate, but animate. He does so teach, as he does quicken; (John 8:12): I am the light of the world, he that follows me shall have lumen vitae, the light of life. By nature we are dead, therefore unfit for teaching; who will make an o…

Question. How many ways may we glorify God? Response. 1. It is a glorifying God when we aim purely at God's glory; it is one thing to advance God's glory, another thing to aim at it; God must be the Terminus ad quem, the ultimate end of all our actions; thus Christ (John 8:50):…

Satan can do what he will with an ignorant man: he does not see the error of his way, therefore the devil can lead him into any sin; you may lead a blind man anywhere: Omne peccatum fundatur in ignorantia. 2. Satan rules the will: though he cannot force the will, yet he can by a…

To them he gave power to become the sons of God. Let us put ourselves on a trial; it is no sign we are adopted sons, because we are sons of godly parents: The Jews boasted that they were Abraham's seed (John 8:33), they thought they must needs be good, because they came of such…

2. He rules their memories; they shall remember that which is evil, and forget that which is good: Their memories are like a strainer that lets go all the pure liquor, and retains only the dregs. 3. He rules their wills: Though the Devil cannot force the will, yet he draws it (J…

God's children have this character: they are children that will not lie (Isaiah 63:8); the new nature in them will not suffer them. The liar is near a kin to the devil; and the devil will shortly claim kindred with him (John 8:44): "The devil is a liar and the father of it." He…

2. Mendacium Iocosum, a jesting lie, when a man tells a lie in sport to make others merry: he goes laughing to hell. When you tell a lie, you make yourselves like the Devil (John 8:44). The Devil is a liar, and the father of it.

Question 7. How we may know that God is our Father? All cannot say Our Father: The Jews boasted that God was their Father (John 8:36): We have one Father, even God. Christ tells them their pedigree, verse 44: You are of your Father the Devil.

2. The sacred observation of it, touching which these things are to be practiced. (1.) Rejoice at the approach of this day, as being a day wherein we have a prize for our souls, and enjoy much of God's presence (John 8:56). Abraham saw my day and rejoiced.

They represent no less than God himself (2 Corinthians 5:20): Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. Jesus Christ was of this calling; he had his mission and sanction from heaven (John 8:18). And this crowns the ministerial calling with honor.

This he calls honoring of God. John 8:29. I do always those things which please him. Verse 49. I honor my Father.

If God would have a beast stoned that killed a man, who had not the use of reason to restrain him, then much more will he be incensed against those, who go both against reason and conscience in spoiling the life of a man. 3. Murder is a diabolical sin: it makes a man Primogenitu…

Mark 14:22-24. Jesus took bread, etc. (2.) It must be a joyful remembrance (John 8:56). Abraham saw my day and rejoiced.

Quest. But are any so wicked as to do the devil's will? Answ. Yes; (John 8:44) You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. When a man tells a lie does he not do the devil's will?

And the like he endeavored between Christ's human nature and the divine, though hypostatically united. And likewise 4. 'That God has given us eternal life, and that life is in his Son' — this being the great truth of the gospel, so that a Christian who believes it not makes God…

Christ is a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world: That is, slain as well then as now: and that not only in the counsel and decree of God, whereby he is born and slain in all times and places: nor only in regard of the eternal power, efficacy, and merit of his death: but al…

Secondly, this teaches us, that Abraham's faith is rare in these days. Many make profession of Abraham's religion, but it seems they are as far deceived as the Jews were, John 8:39. The Jews would be Abraham's children, because they were of his flesh: and men now will be so, bec…

But this is a rare thing to be found in these days: our practice generally is contrary; for in our lives we follow our own humors and affections, never regarding what God does either will or nill. But if we will be Abraham's children, we must follow Abraham's practice in this pl…

And thus Christ reasons against the Scribes and Pharisees. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do (John 8:44). And true it is, that no child is so like his father that begat him, as every man by nature is like the devil: and the whole tenor an…

Grace itself gives no charter of exemption from it; an earthen pot though full of gold may break: the righteous who are earthen vessels, though they are filled with the golden graces are not freed from breaking by death: but their death is precious (Psalm 116:15). Wicked men lik…

Why are you afraid, O saint, that this sickness may be your death — as long as you know that the death of Christ is the death of death? Indeed, if you were to die in your sins — as John 8:21 — if death as a king reigned over you — Romans 5:14 — if it could feed upon you as the l…

Philosophers and physicians generally reckon sorrow among the chief causes of shortening life. Christ was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs, and this some think was the reason, that he appeared as a man of fifty, when he was little more than thirty years old (John 8:5…

Why so? You are generally, in your own opinion, already good friends with God; almost none of you think that you have hatred toward God, and so you carelessly and unconcernedly let the opportunity of making your peace with Him slip away — even like those Jews spoken of in John 8…

Where men do not like to retain God in their knowledge, or where the truth is detained in unrighteousness, it provokes God to give up to a reprobate mind, as the Apostle tells us (Romans 1). If you continue in my word (says Christ, John 8:31-32), then are you my disciples indeed…

1. That there be distinct knowledge in some measure of the object; an antecedent that faith presupposes, and for which cause faith gets the name of knowledge here and elsewhere in Scripture; the antecedent being put for the consequent; for faith has always knowledge with it, tho…

This rugged and uneasy temper of spirit, being the great hinderer, indeed the very opposite, of that stayed and sweet contentment of heart with and in every state; which is the very life of a Christian's life, consisting (as the Lord says) not in the abundance of the things whic…

Assertion 1. Jesus Christ that holy thing (Luke 1:35), was a fit high Priest, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners (Hebrews 7:26). Which of you (says Christ to the Jews) convinces me of sin (John 8:46). There could not be a spot in this Lamb sacrificed for the sins…

They shall go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find him; for he has withdrawn himself from them. (Proverbs 1:24) I called, and you refused; verse 26. then this must follow, verse 28. (as also John 8:21, the like is) they shall call upon me, but I…

Children of Belial (Deuteronomy 1:3). Of the Devil (John 8:44). And with an emphasis, the wicked (Psalm 9:17).

And indeed, so far as these affections are seated in our souls, and not drenched in the passions of the body, (to which our souls are united) they are the very same kind of affections in us, that are in them. Hence the same lusts that are in men, are said to be in devils (John 8…

The second work of the Spirit is, that it is not only a spirit of union, but it is also a spirit of liberty; for of all the kinds of temper in a Son, there is nothing more expresses the frame of a Son (next to his likeness, and union with the Father) than liberty does; where the…

And he is called also [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], the wicked one (Matthew 13:19) as the first and deepest in evil. And because this malicious cruel spirit ruined mankind at first, he is called a liar and murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). A liar because of his deceit; a m…

You stand upon the vantage ground, but are not taller in stature than heathens and Jews. Disciples in name, not in deed (John 8:31): 'If you continue in my words, then are you my disciples indeed': Christians of letter, not of the Spirit. Oh, reverence Christ, if Moses and Elija…

But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image, which you have set up. Please God, and God will always be with you, when you seem to be left destitute (John 8:29). And he that sent me, is with me; the father has not left me…

Our conversion is more pleasing to God, than our destruction. 3. He is pleased with the execution and management of it by Christ; he carried himself in the office of the mediator, according to what was enjoined him (John 8:29): I do always the things that please him. John 5:30:…

Christ's sheep whether Jew or Gentile, they have all the same character, they all hear his voice, and (John 10:27) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. They distinguish his voice, own his voice, obey his voice; so (John 8:47) Whoever is of God hears God's…

This liberty then is not given to us by the law or for our righteousness, but freely for Christ's sake: which thing Paul here witnesses, and plainly declares throughout his whole Epistle. Christ also in John 8 says: If the son shall make you free, there shall you be free indeed.…

For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8). Also: If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8). However then a Christian man be terrified through the law, showing to him his sin, notwithstanding he therefore despairs not: For he…

Hereof it follows that the blessing and faith of Abraham is the same that ours is: that Abraham's Christ is our Christ: that Christ died as well for the sins of Abraham as for us. Abraham, which saw my day and rejoiced (John 8). Therefore all sound but one thing.

Notwithstanding, although we have this prerogative, that we are righteous by nature, born to the law and the works thereof, and are not sinners as the Gentiles, yet are we not therefore righteous before God. Hereby it is evident that Paul speaks not of ceremonies, or of the cere…

I. They held, that there was one God, and that this God was the father, without any distinction of persons: for when Christ mentioned the distinction of the father, and the sonne, they would not acknowledge it, John 8. 19. II.

So must we do, that of children of the devil, are made the children of God. And if we live according to the lusts of our flesh, as the men of this world do, whatever we profess, we are in truth the children of the devil (John 8:44; 1 John 3). Secondly, we must use every day to b…

It pertains not to all mankind, but only concerns the Jews, to whom it was a yoke of bondage (Acts 15). The sign of this bondage, whereby it may be discerned, is to keep a course or practice in sinning (John 8:34). He that commits sin is a servant of sin: or again, a life led ac…

Thirdly, such as reioyce in the vertues of their ancestors, as the Iewes bragged they were the seede of Abraham. Ioh. 8. 33. which vaine glorying of other mens vertues, John Baptist reproous, when he says, Thinke not to say with your selues, we have Abraham for our father&c. Mat…

From there it is that these calumniations and false accusations are raised up against the faithful servants of God at this day: from there is it also that such doubtful and curious questions are propounded to them, even as nets and snares to put the innocent in hazard of their l…

For who is sufficient to be his own redeemer? Now because the work of this redemption belongs in particular to the kingdom of Christ, it thereupon follows, that he is only the finisher of it; as himself says (John 8:36). Again, it is not enough to be once redeemed: for mark what…

It is also the end of the Gospel to set the captives at liberty. We are all prisoners and fettered, until Christ has set us free by his grace (John 8:36). But let us beware that we reject not the benefit which he offers us when he is about to smite off our irons.

The covenant, which God had made with Abraham, was employed by them as a shield to defend a bad conscience: not that they rested their salvation on the person of one man, but that God had adopted all the posterity of Abraham. Meanwhile, they did not consider, that none are entit…

What then? He gave sight to the blind, in order to show that he is “the light of the world,” (John 8:12). He restored life to the dead, to prove that he is “the resurrection and the life,” (John 11:25).