_First_ of them; it is rightly from hence asserted by the[124] _Bishop_ of _Lichfield_ and others, that the _Samaritans_ had an Expectation of a _Messiah_: But why then did not the _Bishop_ and others, who are now in Quest after Arguments of _Jesus_'s Messiahship, prove him hence to be the _Messiah_, because he told the _Samaritan_ woman her Fortune? If this was a real and substantial Argument to her of _Jesus_'s _Messiahship_, it ought to be urg'd by the Clergy at this Day. The Controversy about _Jesus_'s Messiahship is now on foot; Why do the Advocates for it overlook this Proof of it? Why, because, as I suppose, they are aware, that _Infidels_ would make sport with it. But if _Jesus_'s telling the Woman her Fortune was no real and conclusive Argument of his being the _Messiah_; St. _John_ has told us an impertinent Tale of a simple Woman, upon whose Credulity and false Notions _Jesus_ palm'd himself as the true _Messiah_; and whether he did not ill thus to banter and deceive the Woman, let any one judge. But let us here behold the Difference amongst the _Jews_ and _Samaritans_, as to the Expectation of a _Messiah_. Some of the old _Jews_, like the Apostles, expected the _Messiah_ would be a temporal Prince, a great Warriour and Conqueror of the World. Others[125] of them, like the Fathers, expected he would be a Prophet like _Moses_ in all Things, and deliver his People out of another _Egypt_: But here the _Samaritans_ expected he would be a _Conjurer_ and _Fortune-Teller_; or there is no Sense in what the Woman said to the Men of the City, _v._ 29. _Come and see a Man that has told me all that I have done_, particularly my Fortune of having had five Husbands, and being now an Adulteress, _Is not this the Christ?_ What could she mean, but that the _Messiah_ would be a strolling _Fortune-Teller_, to inform People of the Events of their Lives past and to come? And _Jesus_ to humour the Woman in her Conception of himself and of the _Messiah_, says to her, _v._ 26. _I that speak unto thee, am He._ Whether our _Divines_ like _Jesus_ the better for this Story of him literally, I can't tell; but I am sure they dislike the Fortune-telling Trade at this Day in others, and believe it to be all Fraud, and are for punishing strolling _Gypsys_ for Cheats, who practice it; and in the last Age were intent on the[126] Prosecution of judicial Astrologers, who pretended to it: And if antient History had furnish'd us with an Instance of the Punishment of a pretended _Fortune-Teller_ in the Reign of _Tiberius_, they could not have found Fault with it. Whether any Accusations were laid against _Jesus_ for such his Delusions of the People, we know not. Evangelical History is silent, or the _Evangelists_ have prudently suppressed it. But I much wonder, that our _Gypsys_, from this Story, don't account themselves the genuine Disciples of _Jesus_, being endu'd with the like Gifts and exercising no worse Arts, than he himself practised.