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mitted in the world? That God may be glori fied in removing it? Why does the body of man die? That God may raise it up again. When we philosophize in this manner we find light, and certainty, and comfort: we have a memorable example of it in the case before us; and, I humbly think, this is the use we ought to make of it.

Next in order is the cure of the blind man ; concerning which, we are first taught the manner of it, and then the moral of it: the manner of it is very instructive; but the moral is more so. The power of God being invisible in its operation, is always attended with some outward form, as a visible sign of it. In the present case, Jesus anoints the eyes of the pa tient with clay, and bids him go and wash it off with water, in the Pool of Siloam: in conquence of which, when the water should wash away the clay, the Divine Power would take away the blindness. Now, if this man had been a modern Philosopher, he would have put a question or two: he would have said,

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Clay! What can that do? it will make my eyes worse instead of better. And as to the water that is to wash it away, when did that make a blind man see? And why the waters Moam? What are they more than others? Thus

Thus does human wisdom stand questioning and expecting to have a reason for every thing; and this, in cases where, perhaps, a reason cannot be given; the will of God being the only reason, and the best of all; but it is such as human reason never yet submitted to: nothing but faith can submit to the will of God: and as nothing but the will and plea sure of God can save lost mankind, nothing but faith, which submits to that will, can be saved. Man asks, how can an effect follow from that which is no cause of it? But faith answers, it will be a cause, if God shall please to make it so therefore I will take it as a cause, and trust to him for the effect. Thus doth faith reason, and it finds its own account in so doing; but thus the Philosopher never did reason, nor will he ever. And Naaman was one of them when he argued, that if water was to be the cure of his leprosy, why not any water; why not the better waters of Damascus, rather than the worse in Israel? But here he was mistaken-water was not to be used as a natural cause, but a spiritual cause; a cause according to the will of God; a pledge, without the use of which, the invisible divine cause of the cure would never have acted. The Syrian was angry, when he

was

was directed to the use of such a cause; and Christianity, for the admitting and prescribing of such causes, is never forgiven by the wise reasoners of the world, but called superstition. But the poor man now before us, being blessed with common sense, and having none of that fine superior sense, which turns a man into a fool by making him act absurdly, did as he was bid; he went to the proper place, though he could give no reason for it but the command of Christ, and he returned with his eyesight. So much for the manner of this cure; the moral of it is still of more value.

When our Saviour was about to perform the miracle, he preached upon the case, and gave the sense of it. "As long," said he," as "I am in the world, I am the light of the world." He did not come into the world to cure the bodies, but the souls of men; and he never cured their bodies, but as a sign that he came to cure their souls. If his office had been to cure their bodies, he

might have said, I am come to give sight to this man that was born blind: but no; he gives light to a world; and to this poor man only as a sign of it. He is a figurative and spiritual sun, and if he restores

he blind the light of the day, it is nothing han a proof that he restores to the understanding

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standing the light of truth. He shines, as the sun does, who is his image, not to an individual, not to a nation, not to an age, not to a world; but to all places, and to all times. He who comes to destroy the works of the Devil, must work upon the same great scale. The Devil is called the God of this world, who hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them. There fore, he who came to destroy the works of the Devil must act as a light of the world; and restore the sight of their minds, that the light of the glorious gospel may shine unto them and this was the sense and spirit of the miracle, as Christ himself hath applied it. In the common way of reasoning, nothing more is considered, than that a miracle is an act of divine power; to shew that he by whom it is done must be a teacher come from God, and that God is with him: but there is much more than this to be learned; for while the power of the miracle shews that he was sent of God, the sense of the miracle teaches for what purpose he was sent; and so where reason sees a proof, faith hears a sermon.

Christ is therefore the light of life, the light

VOL. VII.

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of the mind, without whom every man is in darkness, without whom every man is born in darkness: and before the Gospel can shine in upon the mind, the eyes of the understanding must be restored to sight, that the organ of faith may receive the things of God; withqut which an unbeliever, let him be as wise and as learned as he will in all other things, is perfectly in the state of a man that is blind; he was born blind, and he continues so.

We come now to a most interesting part of the narrative; the effect which this miracle had upon the Pharisees, who could not receive it. When the sun shines full upon a man's eyes, and he cannot turn away from it, he discovers symptoms of uneasiness, which make him appear to great disadvantage. And the case is the same with his mind: which, when the truth which it cannot receive is thrown strongly upon it, is in the same condition with the face; it is agitated and convulsed, and so much out of shape, that the mind of a wise man cannot be distinguished from that of an idiot: of which reflexion the truth will be fully onfirmed by the case before us.

For in the Pharisees, who were assembled non this occasion, we have a set of men, ed in the law, and subtile and captious

disputants,

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