PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Adultery.
to accuse him before the Roman governor of usurping
or intermeddling with the civil government.
This was their design; and Christ's behaviour
throughout the whole affair proceeded from a knowl ...
edge of this design; and a determination-to defeat it.
He ~ves them at first a cold and sullen reception,
well suited to the insidious intention with which "they
came ~ "He stooped down, and with his finger
wrote on the ground, as though . he heard. them
not."
"When thzy continued asking him;" when
they teased-him to speak, he dismissed them with a
rebuke. which the impertinent malice of their errand,
as well as the secret character of many of them
deserved: " He that is without sin (that is, this sin)
among you, let him first cast a stone at her." This
had i~s effect. Stung with the reproof, and disappoin~ed
of their aim, they stole away one by one~
and left Jesus. and the WOlnan alone. .And then·. fol.
lows the conversatio~,. which is the part of the' ilarrative
most material to our pre~~nt subject. "Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, where are those thine ac·
eusers? hath no nlan condemned thee? She said, .
No man, Lord .. And Jesus said . unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee; go and sin no more." Now,
when Christ asked the w,?man, "hath no man condC/lined
thee," he certainly spoke, and was under ..
stood by the woman to speak, of a legal and Judicial
condemnation; otherwise, her answer, ,. no man,
Lord," was not true. In every other sense of con.
demnation, as blame, censure, reproof, private judgment,
and the like, many had condemned her; all those
indeed who brought her to Jesus. If then a judicial
sentence was what Christ mea_nt by condc"?;;;ilJ.'!
in the question, the common u.~e of language r,!quireq·
U~ to suppose that he m~ailt the 'iame in his reply,,~
" neither do . I cond-emn thee," i. e. I pretend to no
judicial character or authoril;y over thee ;/~ it is no
office or busines~ {if mine to pronounce or execute
the sentence of the Jaw. ~
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