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fiftance of such proofs as must have been convincing to their own minds: unconquerable ignorance would not have been deemed culpable, by the God of mercy; but they were not only poffeffed of the prophecies respecting the Meffiah, which they hourly faw fulfilled before their eyes, but also were witneffes of fuch works performed by him, in confirmation of his doctrines, as no man before ever did, and which they must have known the power of God alone could perform. We must suppose that these thoughts must, at times, have been very troublesome to them; but, whatever conviction they might have received, our Lord's precepts and conduct were so oppofite to their worldly fchemes and temporal interefts, that they were determined, by every means in their power, to crush a fyftem fo ill-fuited to their pride and felf-importance. Vain and presumptuous mortals, to ftrive with their Maker, and to fuppofe that their policy could overturn his wife and unalterable councils! Without a caufe,' indeed,

did they hate him; who, independent of the infinite spiritual benefits he conferred upon them by the facrifice of himself to make atonement for their guilt, fpent his whole life in doing good to them!

The gift of the holy Spirit, which our Lord here again promises to fend to the aid and fupport of his disciples, under all their trials and fufferings, when he should return to the Father, was to be an additional witness, both to them and to the world, of the truth of his divine mission: -to them, as the accomplishment of the promise he had made to them; to the world, by confering on them fuch new talents, in the gift of languages and other fpiritual graces, as were neceffary for the great business they had in hand, and which muft forcibly strike all those who had formerly known them without fuch advantages.

Accept, most gracious and merciful God, of our humble and hearty thanks, that thou haft vouchfafed us the light of thy beloved Son's most glorious gospel,

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and the affiftance of thy holy fpirit! and grant that we may ever be grateful for fuch inestimable favors, and make so good a use of them, as that we may become partakers of thine everlasting kingdom, through the merits and mediation of Jefus Chrift! Amen.

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CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH.

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1.

ST. JOHN, CHAP. XVI.

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'HESE things have I spoken unto you, that ye fhould not be of

2. They fhall put you out of the fynagogues: yea, the time cometh, that "whosoever killeth you, will think that he "doeth God service.

"3. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known "the Father, nor me.

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4. But these things have I told you, "that, when the time shall come, ye may "remember that I told you of them. And these things I faid not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.”

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Our

Our Lord foretels all the troubles and sufferings which should befal his disciples when he should leave them, that their faith in him, inftead of being weakened, fhould, on the contrary, acquire new ftrength, by the remembrance that he had before prepared them to expect, from a misguided world, the fame treatment which he himself had met with, and from the fame causes. Calamities, or what may appear as such, (for they are sometimes bleffings in difguife,) lofe much of their force when we are forewarned of them.

Whilft our Saviour remained with the disciples, the information was unnecessary; nor, indeed, might their faith in him, at the beginning, have been proof against so dismal a prospect; but now that he was about to leave them, he omitted no method of fortifying their minds; that, when the hour of trial should come, they might not shrink from their duty, though the performance of it should subject them to the cruellest persecutions, nay even to death itfelf; which he tells them the infatuated Jews

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