76 The man is called again before the sanhedrim. SECT. reminds us that God is no farther from the accomplishment of any purpose or event when he works with, than without means; and that all the creatures are only that which his almighty operation makes them. 6, 7 -7 The blind man believed, and received the immediate benefit of it. Had he reasoned, like Naaman on the impropriety of the means, he had justly been left in darkness. Lord, may our proud hearts be subdued to the methods of thy recovering grace! And may we leave it to thee to choose how thou wilt bestow favours, which it is our highest interest on any terms to receive. 15, 17 It must be a satisfaction to every true Christian to observe the 18, 19 curiosity and exactness with which these Pharisees inquired into the miracles of Christ, and how thoroughly they canvassed every circumstance of them. A truth like this need not fear any examination. Every new witness which they heard confirmed the case, and confounded the obstinacy of their unbelief. But surely 20--23 the weakness of the parents was very pitiable, who, in the midst of the evidence and obligation of such a miracle, were more afraid of incurring a human sentence than of offending God, by failing to own so great a favour, and to confess the blessed Person by whom it was wrought. The fear of man bringeth a snare (Prov. xxix. 25); but they whose eyes Christ has opened in a spiritual sense will see a glory and excellence in him which will animate them boldly to bear their testimony to him, in defiance of all the censures which men can pass, or of all the penalties by which they can enforce them. SFCT. SECT. CXXXI. The man who was born blind that had received his sight is a second time examined before the sanhedrim, who, provoked by the freedom of his replies, excommunicate him; but Jesus meets him, and declares himself to be the Son of God. John IX. 24-38. cxxxi. NOW, John JOHN IX. 24. NOW, as the sanhedrim were not able to dis- JOHN IX. 24. THEN again called they the man that this man is a sinner. was blind, and said unin the preceding section by examining the pa- to him, Give God the IX. 24. rents, they therefore called a second time for the praise: we know that man who had been blind, and said to him, Give glory to God, by a free confession of the fraud, if there be any collusion or artifice in this affair; or, if the cure was really wrought in the a Give glory to God, by a free confession of the fraud, &c.] As it is greatly for the honour of the Divine omniscience and pro manner vidence that persons who are guilty of crimes not fully proved against them should freely confess them, and not presume, against 25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner, or no, I know They are provoked at his replies. 77 cxxxi. John manner thou affirmest, acknowledge the power, SECT. Then answered he and said, If he be a sinner, I25 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 But they again said to him, hoping that, in some 26 minute circumstance at least, he might contradict his former account, and give them some advantage against him, Tell us once more, as particularly as thou canst, what did he unto thee? and how did he open thine eyes? And as the man perceived that they intended 27 only to insnare him, he answered them eagerly, hear: wherefore would I have told you already, and ye have not regarded ye hear it again? will what I said, nor would at all believe me: why ve also be his disci- would you desire to hear it again? Would you you also become his disciples, as many have lately done, and some, perhaps, on occasion of this miracle which he has performed on me? ples? 28 Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple? but we are Moses' dis ciples. The Pharisees then were filled with indigna- 28 tion, and were so greatly exasperated at what appeared to them so insolent a speech, that they reviled him in very opprobrious language, and said, Thou art indeed this fellow's disciple, as many of the herd of ignorant people are ; but we would have thee to know that we scorn the imputation, for we are the disciples of Moses, and against the dictates of conscience, to maintain their own innocence; there is a great propriety in the phrase taken in this sense: (compare Josh. vii. 19, and Rev. xi. 13.) Yet some have taken it as a general adjuration by the glorious name of God; as 1 Kings xxii. 16; 2 Chron. xviii. 15; and Mat. xxvi. 63.)-The words also admit another sense, which I have comprehended in the paraphrase; but I prefer the former. This man is a sinner.] I cannot, with Mr. Locke (Reasonableness of Christianity, p. 28), imagine this any proof of a tradition among the Jews that the Messiah should be perfectly free from sin; but rather conclude that sinner here, as ver. 16, signifies a notoriously wicked man. It was certain We are the disciples of Moses.] Hereby d We 50 SECT. CXXV. The rich man begs for a drop of water to cool his tongue. a moment; for I am so tormented in this flame, that it excites an intolerable thirst, which is Luke continually raging and preying on my very XVI. 24 soul. 25 25 But Abraham wise Lazarus evil But Abraham said, with awful and inflexible severity, Son, remember the former days when said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifethou and Lazarus were upon earth, that thou time receivedst thy didst then in thy life-time receive thy good things good things, and likewhich thou wast so foolish as to choose for thy things: but now he is portion, in the neglect of God and of thy soul; comforted, and thou and likewise Lazarus then received [his] evil are tormented. things, of which thou wast witness but now the scene is changed, so that he in his turn is comforted, and thou art justly tormented; and neither his joy, nor thine anguish, can admit of 26 any end or interruption. And besides all this, as to the favour thou desirest from the hand of this, between us and Lazarus, it is a thing impossible to be granted; you there is a great gulph fixed: so that for between us and you there is a great chasm fixed; they which would pass a vast unmeasurable void is interposed; so that from hence to you, they who would go from hence to you, if any they pass to us, that cannot; neither can should be so compassionate as to desire to help would come from thence. you, cannot; neither can they who are there come unto us; but we are still to continue at an unapproachable distance from each other. 26 And besides all 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my 27 Then the rich man, as he perceived that his own case was irretrievable, said unto Abraham, There may however be a passage from you to the other world, as it is plain there is from thence father's house; to you; I beseech thee therefore, O Father, that thou wouldst please to send him to my father's house, on an errand of the utmost importance; 28 For I have there five brethren, thoughtless young creatures like myself, who are now revelling on those possessions which were once mine £ and are likely ere long to fall into the same misery with this place of torment. me I earnestly entreat thee therefore that he may be sent to testify to them the reality and im The Hebrews drank their wine mingled portance 28 For I have fire brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into thren also might know him on his appear. ing to them. I have five brethren, &c.] As no mention is made of any surviving wife and children, but his five brethren are described as living still together in his father's house, one would imagine that our Lord intended to represent this wretched creature as a young man, who (unhappily for himself, like many modern rakes,) coming early to the possession of his estate, soon broke his constitution by debauchery, and so left his riches to the younger children of the family, having no other heirs. : If Reflections on the case of the rich sinner and the poor saint. 29 Abraham saith 51 CXXV. portance of this invisible world, that they may be SECT. Luke XVI. 29 But Abraham said in reply to him, Thou 29 unto him, They have knowest they have an excellent Divine revelation phets; let them hear in the writings of Moses and the prophets; let them but hearken to the warnings and instructions that are given by them, and they have means sufficient to secure them from that danger. them. 50 And he said, but if one went unto And when the poor tormented creature found 30 Nay, father Abraham, this also was objected to, he pleaded still in their them from the dead, behalf, and said, Nay, father Abraham, they will slight these as I foolishly did; but surely if one go to them from the dead, they cannot withstand so awful a messenger, but will undoubtedly repent, and reform their lives. they will repent. 31 And he said, un not Moses and the But Abraham put an end to the discourse, 31 to him, If they hear with an assurance of the fruitlessness of any such prophets, neither will extraordinary means for their conviction; and he they be persuaded, said to him, The evidences of the Divine revelathough one rose from tion are such, that if they hearken not to Moses the dead. and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded to IMPROVEMENT. MOST evidently may we learn from this parable, that it is im- Ver. possible to know either love or hatred by any thing that is before 19--21 us under the sun; (Eccles. ix. 1.) Who that had seen the pomp and plenty of this rich sinner, and compared it with the indi If they hearken not to Moses, &c.] It is true, Moses no where expressly asserts a future state of rewards and punishments; yet the facts recorded by him strongly enforce the natural arguments in proof of it; and the prophets speak plainly of it in many places. See Psal. xvi. 9, 10, 11.. xvii. 15. xxiii. 6. xlix. 14, 15. lxxiii. 17. & seq. Prov. xiv. 32. Eccles. iii. 17, 21. xi. 9. xii. 7, 13, 14. and Ezek. xviii. 19, 20, 21.-Bishop Atterbury has excellently shewn the justice of Abraham's assertion here, in his incomparable discourse VOL. VII. gence on this text. (See his Sermons, Vol. II. G 52 CXXV. Reflections on the case of the rich sinner and the poor saint. SECT. gence and misery of Lazarus, would have imagined that the latter had been the child, and the former the enemy, of God? But Luke let us judge nothing before the time; (1 Cor. iv. 5.) Our Lord XVI. 21 Jesus Christ shews us the period of all the prosperity of the wicked, and of all the calamities with which good men may be exercised. And what availed the luxuries of life, or the magnificence of burial, 23, 24 to a wretch tormented in flames? Surely the fierceness of those flames would be proportionable to the luxury in which he had formerly lived, and the sense of his torment be heightened by the delicacy he had once indulged. May God awaken those unhappy persons, whatever their rank in the present life may be, who place their happiness and glory in being clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day! May they lift up their enchanted deluded eyes, and see that pointed sword of the Divine vengeance which is suspended over them by so weak a thread; and may they take this warning from one greater than Moses and the prophets, from one that came from the dead to enforce it, that they pass not into that place of torment ! 22 Let poor afflicted saints take comfort in what has now been read, though they may be despised and slighted by men. The time will shortly come, when those angels who now descend in an invisible form to minister to them, will appear as their guard to convoy 23 them to the regions of glory. Abraham's bosom, will be opened to them, and the dainties of heaven be set before multitudes, who, perhaps, while on this side the grave, hardly knew how to procure even the necessaries of life. May we never view those seats of glory, as this wretched sensualist did, at an unapproachable distance! Let us think seriously of his deplorable circumstances, when he asked a drop of water 25 from the tip of Lazarus's finger, and yet was denied. Dreadful representation! yet made by Christ himself, who surely knew how to describe the case with the utmost propriety. Behold, O our souls, this son of Abraham, in that flaming prison, in all the restless agonies of torment and despair: and we may judge what dependance to place on a descent from pious ancestors, or a participation of external privileges. 27, 28 We enquire not curiously into the motives which engaged him to request that so extraordinary a warning might be sent to his brethren; whether it might proceed from a remainder of natural affection, from a fear of meeting them in the same misery, or from a mixture of both. It is enough to observe how and upon 31 what principles it was denied, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Let none vainly excuse themselves from believing the evidence of the revelation God has given, on a pretence that if they saw |