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and various currents of water, and therefore of great convenience for performing the ceremonies of baptism. While he was here, a dispute arose between his followers and certain Jews who were present, which of the Baptisms, that of John, or that of Jesus, was to be preferred? Being unable to decide the dispute among themselves, they referred it to the opinion of John, who told them, that the person, of whom he had given such honorable testimony, received proselytes (and that in prodigious numbers) by the same ceremony of Baptism as he did. He then repeated the testimony he had before given of his Divine master, and reminded his followers how frequently he had told them, that the person of whom they spake was the Messiah, whom God had sent into the world for the salvation of mankind, and himself no more than his herald; and that his ministry, therefore, was now going to decline, even as, upon the approach of the sun, the glory of the morning star decreased. John said many other things of the like nature to prove our Blessed Saviour to be the Son of God, and concluded his harangue with these important words: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not on the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The Baptist, having publicly preached the great doctrine of salvation throughout the wilderness of Judea, where he had continued a considerable time, departed from thence, and went into the territories of Herod Antipas in Galilee. As Herod esteemed both his preaching and person, John frequently went to his court, and having naturally a great freedom of speech, as well as being desirous of faithfully discharging his ministry, he one day reproved Herod for his wicked course of life, and particularly for his cohabiting with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, who was still living. Herod, being weak enough to inform Herodias of what John had said, she was exasperated against him to such a degree that, though Herod had some esteem and reverence for him, yet, from her malicious insinuations, she prevailed on Herod to put John into prison, intending, no doubt, when a convenient opportunity should offer, to have him destroyed,

During these transactions in Galilee, our Blessed Lord continued preaching and baptizing in the wilderness of Judea. But understanding that the Pharisees began to be envious of him on account of the great numbers of people that resorted to him, he resolved to leave that part of the country, and pass into Galilee, in order to enter upon the more solemn part of his ministerial function. In the course of his journey it was necessary for him to pass through Samaria; and as he travelled on foot, and the weather was exceeding hot, when he came within a small distance of Shechem, he sent his disciples into the city to buy provisions, and sat himself down by the side of a famous spring called Jacob's Well.

After our Blessed Lord had sat a short time by the well side, there came a woman of a loose life and conversation from the city with a pitcher to draw water. As soon as our Lord saw her, he requested of her to give him to drink; upon which the woman perceiving him to be a Jew, asked him how he could make any such request to a Samaritan, since there were such great feuds, and so little dealings, between them and the Jews? Little did the woman know the excellency of the person who asked her so small a favor; but, in some measure to convince her, our Lord took occasion from hence, under the metaphor of water, to discourse with her on spiritual blessings, and to make her sensible of his Omnipotence. He told her, "That all who drank of the water of Jacob's Well would thirst again, being but a temporal allay of a desire incident to human nature; whereas those who drank of the water which he was ready to disperse, should never thirst, because that water flowed from the inexhaustible fountain of Divine Grace." He then reminded her of some remarkable incidents that had occurred to her in the course of her life, particularly of her having been five times divorced for adultery, and that she at that very time lived in a state of fornication.

These undeniable truths greatly alarmed the woman, who, to evade the present subject of discourse, which filled her with a degree of awe and fear, as supposing he could be no less than a prophet, propounded to him a question which had afforded great controversy between

the Jews and Samaritans, viz. Which was the proper place of public worship, Mount Gerezim, or Jerusalem? To this our Blessed Lord replied, that it was not the place, but the manner, in which adoration was offered to the Father of Spirits, that rendered religious worship acceptable; telling her likewise, that the time was approaching when all sacrifices, and ceremonial rites, should cease, and when God, who was a Spirit, would be worshipped in a more humble and spiritual manner than he had hitherto been.

In consequence of this answer, which apparently referred to things spiritual and eternal, the woman informed the Blessed Jesus of her expectation of the arrival of the promised Messiah, who would punctually satisfy them with respect to those things which had been so long and undecisively contested. Our Blessed Lord, being now pleased to make himself known to her, replied, I that speak unto thee am he. This intelligence greatly astonished the woman, who immediately left her pitcher, and ran into the city to publish to the people the glad tidings, that the great deliverer of mankind was then sitting by the side of Jacob's Well.

Just as our Blessed Saviour had made himself known to the woman, and she had departed from the spot, his disciples returned from the city, and immediately sat before their master, the provision they had purchased; but he, wholly absorbed in meditation, refused the refreshment they had brought, telling them, he had meat to eat that they knew nothing of. This unexpected answer surprized his disciples, who, taking his words in a literal sense, thought some person or other had, during their absence, supplied him with provisions. But our Blessed Lord soon explained the mystery, by telling them, that he did not mean natural, but spiritual food; that, to execute the commission he had received from his Father was far better than meat or drink; and the satisfaction he was going to receive from the conversion of the Samaritans much greater than any sensual enjoyment.

In the mean time the woman, having returned to the city, proclaimed aloud that she had met with a person who had told her all the secrets of her life, and that he

could be no other (as he had told her himself) than the long promised Messiah. This report astonished the Samaritans, and, at the same time, roused their curiosity to see a person foretold by Moses and the prophets, and of whose appearance there was then so universal an expectation. Accordingly, great numbers of them repaired to Jacob's Well, and no sooner did they see our Blessed Saviour than, being fully persuaded that he could be no other person than the great Messiah, the first request they made was, that he would deign to take up his residence in their city. Our Lord so far complied with their request as to continue with them two days, an interval which he spent in preaching to them the kingdom of God; so that the greater part of the people embraced the doctrine of the Gospel, and, at his departure, said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

From Shechem our Blessed Lord proceeded to Cana, where he changed the water into wine, and where the Galileans (who, at the Passover, had seen the miracles which he did at Jerusalem) received him with the greatest respect and reverence. During his stay here, a nobleman of Capernaum came, and addressed himself to him with great humility, desiring that he would be pleased to go thither, and heal his son, who was then just at the point of death. Our Blessed Saviour readily complied with the latter part of his request; but to remove a prejudice which had been conceived that it was necessary for him to be personally present in order to restore the sick person to health, as well as to shew the great excellence of his power, he refused to go to Capernaum, and therefore dismissed the nobleman with assurance that his son was restored to health: Go thy way; (said he) thy son liveth. As the believing father was joyfully returning home, he was met on the way by some of his servants, who congratulated him with the welcome news of his son's recovery. In consequence of this he required of them the hour when the child began to mend; and by the answer they gave him he perceived that it was at the very instant, when our Lord had declared to him, thy son

liveth. Whereupon not only the nobleman, but likewise his whole family, being convinced of our Saviour's divinity, became converts to the Christian faith.

After our Blessed Saviour had spent some days in the city and neighborhood of Cana, he went to Nazareth, the place where he received his education, and where he had resided till he came to years of maturity. On the sabbath-day he went, as was his constant custom, into the synagogue, and standing up, read (as it was usual for lay-men then to do) a passage in the prophet Isaiah, beginning with these words: The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the Poor, &c. He spoke on this subject with so much gracefulness as to attract, in a very particular manner, the attention of the whole congregation. Many of them admired his discourse, but the greater part, who had known him in his youth, and the manner in which he had been brought up by his parents, treated it with disrespect, and contemptuously intimated the insignificant light in which they looked upon him, on account of the meanness of his extract, as if he had been no more than a carpenter's son. On this our Blessed Lord took occasion to upbraid them with their ingratitude and insensibility, upon which they were so provoked, that they hurried him out of the synagogue, and took him to the brow of a hill on which the city was built, with a design to have him thrown down from thence, and destroy him, which they would certainly have done, had he not, by a miraculous power, imperceptibly withdrawn himself from them, and quitted their city.

In consequence of this ill treatment from the Nazarenes, our Blessed Saviour took up his residence at Capernaum, the capital of Galilee, which, from its being built on the borders of the lake Genesareth, was a place highly convenient for his designs. For, besides the numerous inhabitants of that city, the trading towns on the lake were crouded with people, who, after hearing the doctrine of the Gospel preached by the great Redeemer of mankind, could not fail to spread, in their respective countries, the happy tidings of salvation.

VOL. iii.

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