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should be more formidable, than what it has undergone in two periods, the most distinguished for the free exertion of the human faculties, of any that have occurred in the history of the world; then may it seem credible, or rather then is the presumption strong and cogent, that neither, hereafter, will the prophecy be confuted, and that the gates of hell shall not, at any time, or at all, prevail against it.

THIRDLY, and lastly, We may learn, from both these conclusions, to put our trust in this impregnable fortress of our Religion; to embrace with stedfastness, and to observe with the utmost reverence, a RULE OF FAITH AND LIFE, which bears the signatures of immortality upon it, and appears to be under the special protection, as it proceeded originally from the special favour and authority, of God himself.

A

LARGER DISCOURSE,

BY WAY OF

COMMENTARY,

ON

THAT REMARKABLE PART

OF

THE GOSPEL-HISTORY,

IN WHICH

JESUS IS REPRESENTED,

AS DRIVING THE BUYERS AND SELLERS OUT OF THE TEMPLE.

A

DISCOURSE'

ON

CHRIST'S DRIVING THE BUYERS AND SELLERS OUT OF THE TEMPLE.

I PROPOSE, in this discourse, to take into consideration a very remarkable part of the Gospel-history; in which Jesus is supposed to have exercised an act of authority on some persons, whom the Jews permitted to carry on a certain traffic within the walls of the Temple.

I shall, FIRST, recite the several accounts, which the sacred historians have given of this transaction; and shall, THEN, hazard some

a The substance of this Discourse was delivered in a Sermon at Lincoln's-Inn, May 15, 1768.

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observations, which will, perhaps, be found to lessen, or to remove, the objections commonly made to it.

I begin with St. John's account of it, which is delivered in these words:

Ch. ii. 13-17.

"And the Jews passover was "at hand, and Jesus went up to "Jerusalem, and found in the "temple those that sold oxen, "and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money, sitting: "And when he had made a

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scourge of small cords, he "drove them all out of the tem

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ple, and the sheep and the "oxen; and poured out the "changers money, and over"threw the tables; and said "unto them that sold doves, "Take these things hence; make "not my Father's house an house "of merchandize. And his dis

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ciples remembered that it was "written, The zeal of thine "house hath eaten me up."

Thus far the Evangelist, St. John: And the

order of the history shews, that this was done

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