Sermon XXXVIII. [LXXXVIII. Ben.] On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xx. 30, about the two blind men sitting by the way side, and crying out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Thou Son of David.” 1. Ye know, Holy Brethren, full well as we do, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Physician of our eternal health; and that to this end He took the weakness of our nature, that our weakness might not last for ever. For He assumed a mortal body, wherein to kill death. And, “though He was crucified through weakness,” as the Apostle saith, “yet He liveth by the power of God.”2870 They are the words too of the same Apostle; “He dieth no more, and death shall have no more dominion over Him.”2871 These things, I say, are well known to your faith. And there is also this which follows from it, that we should know that all the 379 miracles which He did on the body, avail to our instruction, that we may from them perceive that which is not to pass away, nor to have any end. He restored to the blind those eyes which death was sure sometime to close; He raised Lazarus to life who was to die again. And whatever He did for the health of bodies, He did it not to this end that they should be for ever; whereas at the last He will give eternal health even to the body itself. But because those things which were not seen, were not believed; by means of these temporal things which were seen, He built up faith in those things which were not seen. 2. Let no one then, Brethren, say that our Lord Jesus Christ doeth not those things now, and on this account prefer the former to the present ages of the Church. In a certain place indeed the same Lord prefers those who “do not see, and yet believe,”2872 to them who see and therefore believe. For even at that time so irresolute was the infirmity of His disciples, that they thought that He whom they saw to have risen again must be handled, in order that they might believe. It was not enough for their eyes that they had seen Him, unless their hands also were applied to His limbs, and the scars of His recent wounds were touched; that that disciple who was in doubt, might cry out suddenly when he had touched and recognised the scars, “My Lord and my God.”2873 The scars manifested Him who had healed all wounds in others. Could not the Lord have risen again without the scars? Yes, but He knew the wounds which were in the hearts of His disciples, and to heal them He had preserved the scars on His own Body. And what said the Lord to him who now confessed and said, “My Lord and my God”? “Because thou hast seen,” He said, “thou hast believed; blessed are they who do not see, and yet believe.” Of whom spake He, Brethren, but of us? Not that He spake only of us, but of those also who shall come after us. For after a little while when He had 2870 2 Cor. xiii. 4. 2871 Rom. vi. 9. 2872 John xx. 29. 2873 John xx. 28. On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xx. 30, about the two blind men sitting by the way side, and crying out, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Thou Son of David.’ 793 On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xx. 30, about the two blind men sitting…