their father, the devil, that a man may as well call them devils, as liars: and therefore, to avoid the scandal as well as the dangerous malignity of this damnable sin, I am resolved, by the blessing of God, always to tune my tongue in unison to my heart, so as never to speak any thing but what I think really to be true, so that if ever I speak what is not true, it shall not be the error of my will, but of my understanding. Beveridge. He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.-At first, man lost his innocence only in hope to get a little knowledge; and ever since then, lest knowledge should discover his error, and make him return to innocence, we are content to part with that now, and to know nothing that may discover or discountenance our sins, or discompose our secular designs. And as God made great revelations and furnished out a wise religion, and sent his Spirit to give the gift of faith to his church, that, on the foundation of faith, he may build a holy life; now our hearts love to retire into blindness, and sneak under covert of false principles, and run to a cheap religion, and an inactive discipline, and make a faith of our own, that we may build on it ease, and ambition, and a tall fortune, and the pleasures of revenge, and do what we have a mind to; scarce once in seven years denying a strong and an unruly appetite on the interest of a just conscience and holy religion.TAYLOR. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Alraham was, I am.-He was, indeed, from all eternity; he lived in the bosom of the everlasting Father, and his life was most pure, most holy, most peaceable, most pleasant, most glorious; a life of infinite content, of infinite satisfaction, of infinite joy, and of infinite love; a life spent in eternal love of the great fountain of Divinity, the express image of which he was; a life employed in kind thoughts to poor mortals, and in Divine contrivances how their misery might be retrieved, their bands loosened, their danger overcome, their enemies vanquished, and their souls advanced to celestial mansions; a life undisturbed by the noise of wars, unacquainted with tomults, free from all annoyances, unmolested by the disorders of a giddy and confused world; a life of eternal calmness, which no waves, no billows, no wind, no storms, no tempests could discompose; a life of perfect serenity, and immense sweetness; a life employed in the eternal and incomprehensible enjoyment of his own perfection. Prov. i. This life Christ lived, before he was pleased to visit this benighted world with his healing beams. And it concerns us to remember this life, in order that, from the consideration of it, the humiliation of the Lord Jesus, in coming to dwell among us, may appear in the livelier colours.-HORNECK. HYMN. Oh, from the world's vile slavery The man that was born blind restored to sight. He is brought to the Pharisees. AND as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master," who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. C b 4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, "I am the light of the world. 6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. 8 The neighbours there fore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? 9 Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he. 10 Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? 11 He answered and said, "A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. 12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not. 13 They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. 15 Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had re i ceived his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. 16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. 17 They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, 'He is a prophet. 18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until until they called the parents of him that had ceived his sight. re 19 And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? 20 His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: 21 But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him he shall speak for himself. 22 These words spake his parents, because m they feared the Jews for the Jews had a ver. 34.-6 ch. xi. 4.-c ch. iv. 34; & v. 19. 36; & xi. & xii. 35; & xvii. 4.-d ch. i. 5.9; & lii. 19; & viii. 12; & xii. 35, 46.-e Mark vii. 33; & viii. 23-1 Or, spread the clay upon the eyes of the blind man.-ƒ Ñet. f. 15.-g See 2 Kin. v. 14.-h ver. 6.7.—4 ver. 33. ch. iii. 2.- ch. viì. 12. 43; & x. 19.- ch. iv. 19; & vi. 14.m ch. vii. 13; & xii. 42; & xix. 38. Acts v. 13.-n ver. 34. ch. xvi. 2. READER. He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay; and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.— The matter used was clay. Could there be a meaner? Could there be aught more unfit? O Saviour, how oft hadst thou cured blindnesses by thy word alone! how oft by thy touch! how easily couldst thou have done so here! Was this to show thy liberty, or thy power? liberty, in that thou canst at pleasure use variety of means, not being tied to any; power, in that thou couldst make use of contraries. The utter disproportion of this help to the cure, adds glory to the worker! The clay is only put on to be washed off: and that not by every water: none shall do it but that of Siloam, which signifies sent; and if the man had not been sent to Siloam, he had been still blind. All things receive their virtue from Divine institution.HALL. He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.-What did this man think when his eyes were first given him? What a new world did he now find himself come into! How did he wonder at heaven and earth, and the faces and shapes of all this light kindles love.-LEIGHTON. He that now saw the light of the sun would not hide the light of truth from others. It is an unthankful silence to smother the works of God in secrecy. O God, we are not worthy of our spiritual eye-sight, if we do not publish thy mercies on the house-top, and praise thee in the great congregation! creatures, the cheerfulness of the light, the lively beams of the sun, the vast expansion of the air, the pleasant transparence of the water! at the glorious piles of the temple and stately palaces of Jerusalem! Every thing did not more please than astonish him. Lo! thus shall we be affected, and more, when, the scales of our mortality being done away, we shall see as we are seen; when we shall behold the blessedness of that other world, the glory of the saints and angels, the infinite majesty of the Son of God, the incomprehensible brightness of the all-glorious Deity! O my soul, that thou couldst be taken up beforehand with the admiration of that which thou canst not as yet be capable of foreseeing!-senses, his ear might perceive the HALL. How did this man know what Jesus did? He was then stone blind; what distinction could he yet make of persons, of actions? True: but yet the blind man never wanted the assistance of other's eyes; their relation hath assured him of the manner of his cure: besides the contribution of his other spittle to fall, and hear the enjoined He answered and said, A man that command; his feeling perceived the is called Jesus made clay, and anointed cold and moist clay upon his lids; all mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the these conjoined gave sufficient warrant pool of Siloam, and wash; and I went thus to believe, thus to report. Our and washed, and I received sight.-The ear is our best guide to a full appresun can make dark things clear, but hension of the works of Christ. The it cannot make a blind man see them works of God the Father, his creation but herein is the excellency of this and government, are best known by sun, that he illuminates not only the the eye; the works of God the Son, object but the faculty; doth not only his redemption and mediation, are reveal the mysteries of his kingdom, best known by the ear. O Saviour! but opens blind eyes to behold them. we cannot personally see what thou And the first lineament of the renewed hast done here! What are the monuimage of God in man, is that light in ments of thine apostles and evangethe understanding, removing not only lists but the relations of the blind that simple ignorance of Divine things, man's guide, what and how thou hast but those misconceits likewise, and wrought for us? On these we strongly false principles, and that wicked per- rely, these we do no less confidently tinacy, whereof man's mind is natu- believe, than if our very eyes had been rally full. He that at first "com-witnesses of what thou didst and sufmanded light to shine out of dark- feredst upon earth.-HALL. ness," infuseth saving knowledge and light into the dark soul of man, and that, whereas I was blind, now I see. 26 Then said they to him again, What did he to thee: how opened he thine eyes? 27 He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples? 28 Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. 29 We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow, "we know not from whence he is. 30 The man answered and said unto them, 'Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. 31 Now we know that 'God heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 32 Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. 33 'If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. 34 They answered and said unto him, "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. |