SERMON V.

JOHN, V. 14.

Behold, Thou art made whole: Sin no more, left a worfe thing come unto thee.

THE

HE perfon here applied to was a certain impotent, friendless man, who had laboured under a malignant infirmity thirty and eight years; and was now got to the Pool of Bethesda, hoping to be relieved, as others were wont to be, by washing in those salutary waters: But being himself a cripple, and having no one to put him in at the proper feason, he lay there in a miferable condition,

condition, and, as it should seem, to no manner of purpofe; when our Bleffed Lord feeing him, and well knowing his cafe, had compaffion on him, and, by a miraculous exertion of his divine power, cured him of his inveterate malady; bidding him" rife, take up his bed, and walk." But the day, on which He performed this beneficent miracle, being the Sabbath, and the hypocritical Jews taking offence at it, he privily conveyed himself thence on account of the multi

tude. Afterward, we are told, "Jefus

findeth the man, on whom he had wrought the miracle, in the Temple,"

a very proper place for Him to repair to who had received fo wonderful a deliverance; nor a lefs proper one in which the Heavenly Phyfician might extend that healing to the foul of his patient, which he had fo liberally beftowed on his body. Here then, we may obferve, He, in a manner fomewhat emphatical

and

and authoritative, puts him in mind of his late cure," Behold Thou art made whole"- Thou, who art a finful wretch, art released from thy deserved bond; forget not this inftance of divine mercy— and withal fubjoins the following remarkable caution, "Sin no more". enforced too with a fanction no lefs remarkable, " left a worse thing come unto thee." From all which circumftances duly confidered arife two particulars well I worthy your attention, and which I fhall therefore make the fubject of the prefent difcourfe. The

First of which is, That this Man's
Infirmity had been owing to his
Sins: The

Second, That notwithstanding he was now made whole, yet if he returned to his former Sins, he might expect that fomething worse would befal him.

1. Firft

1. First then I obferve, this Man's Infirmity had been owing to his Sins.Thus much our Bleffed Saviour (who needed not that any fhould teftify of man, for he knew what was in man) clearly difcerned; and therefore bade him fin no more: Which was as much as if he had plainly told him-Thy fins have been the occafion of this tedious malady, therefore confider within thyfelf, be thankful and repent.

It is not indeed for man to impute every calamity, which happens to another, to the judgment of God; because, in this world of probation, it may please. the Almighty to afflict his fervants for many wife ends befides that of punishment-Which may be plainly enough inferred from the answer which our Lord himself made to his Difciples, upon their queftioning Him concerning the man that was blind from his birth, whether

this were occafioned through his own fins or those of his parents: To which he answered, "neither hath this man finned, nor his parents; (i. e. fo finned as that this blindnefs was inflicted for the guilt of either) but that the works of God fhould be made manifest in him.” So likewife, when the Jews told Jesus of "the Galilæans, whofe blood Pilate had mingled with their facrifices," he in a particular manner restrains them from paffing any fevere cenfure upon those unhappy perfons; or upon those other on whom the Tower in Siloam fell and flew them; as though they were in a more than ordinary degree finners, because they suffered fuch things: But advises them rather to look at home, and repent of their own fins, left they alfo fhould fall into the like dreadful circumftances, who perhaps deserved it as much or more.

However,