the occasion of that calamity being inflicted on him ? Our Lord informed them, that it was owing to a far different cause : that it had been ordained of God on purpose " that the works of God mierht be made manifest in him," and that in him the Messiah might be glorified. What a consoling thought is this to those who have endured, long and heavy afflictions, that God perhaps has sent those afflictions on purpose to glorify the riches of his grace and love by means of them ! Who would not submit to be reduced to the state of this blind beggar, in order to be made the honoured instrument of glorifying God, and the happy monument of his power and grace ?
Our blessed Lord, determining to heal him, made clay of his own spittle, and put it on his eyes, and bade him wash in the pool of Siloam. How strange a remedy was this ! In itself, it was more calculated to put out the eyes of one that could see, than to give sight to one that was blind. Whether the Lord Jesus intended by this act to shew, that men who are born blind are, as it were, still farther blinded by their inter- course with this present world, and that no power but his could remove this double veil from their eyes, I cannot say: but this is clear, that he did it, to shew, that he can work by any means, however inadequate ; that we must submit to use the means which he prescribes ; and that in the use of his instituted ordinances, of whatever kind they be, we may expect his blessings.
The man complied with the injunctions given him, and found the desired blessing. One would suppose that the sight of this stupendous miracle must have convinced all, that Jesus was the Messiah : but a determined infidel nothing will convince. The Pharisees were determined not to believe in Jesus : they there- fore endeavoured at first to disprove the miracle. When that was established beyond a possibility of doubt, they made the performing of the miracle on the Sabbath-day a ground of accusation against Jesus, and cried out against it as a scan- dalous violation of the Sabbath. When they saw the conviction that was fastened on the minds of the more ingenuous, they enacted a law, that every one who should confess Jesus to be the Messiah, should be excommunicated. Such are the weapons with which ungodly men have ever combated the truth of God: when they fail in argument, they have recourse to authority, and establish that by pains and penalties, which they have in vain laboured to maintain by an appeal to reason or Scripture.
The parents of the man were intimidated and silenced ; but the man that had received the benefit, boldly vindicated the character of his benefactor. His arguments were irresistible : but they served only to incense the haughty Pharisees, and to bring upon himself the sentence of excommunication. Thus will every truly enlightened man confess his Saviour ; and, when