Sermon LXXXVI.
[CXXXVI. Ben.]
On the same lesson of the Gospel, John ix., on the giving sight to the man that was born
blind.
1. We have heard the lesson of the Holy Gospel which we are in the habit of hearing;
but it is a good thing to be reminded: good to refresh the memory from the lethargy of for-
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getfulness. And in fact this very old lesson has given us as much pleasure as if it were new.
Christ gave sight to one blind from his birth; why do we marvel? Christ is the Saviour; by
an act of mercy He made up that which He had not given in the womb. Now when He gave
that man no eyes, it was no mistake of His surely; but a delay with a view to a miracle. You
are saying, it may be, “Whence knowest thou this?” From Himself I have heard it; He just
now said it; we heard it all together. For when His disciples asked Him, and said, “Lord,
who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”4047 What answer He made,
ye, as I did, heard. “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God
should be made manifest in him.”4048 Lo then wherefore it was that He delayed when He
gave him no eyes. He did not give what He could give, He did not give what He knew He
should give, when need was. Yet do not suppose, Brethren, that this man’s parents had no
sin, or that he himself had not, when he was born, contracted original sin, for the remission
of which sin infants are baptized unto remission of sins. But that blindness was not because
of his parents’ sin, nor because of his own sin; “but that the works of God should be made
manifest in him.” For we all when we were born contracted original sin: and yet we were
not born blind. However enquire carefully, And we were born blind. For who was not born
blind? blind, that is, in heart. But the Lord Jesus, for that He had created both, cured both.
2. With the eyes of faith ye have seen this man blind, ye have seen him too of blind
seeing; but ye have heard him erring. Wherein this blind man erred, I will tell you; first, in
that he thought Christ a prophet, and knew not that He was the Son of God. And then we
have heard an answer of his entirely false; for he said, “We know that God heareth not sin-
ners.”4049 If God heareth not sinners, what hope have we? If God heareth not sinners, why
do we pray, and publish the record of our sin by the beating of the breast? Where again is
that Publican, who went up with the Pharisee into the temple4050 and while the Pharisee
was boasting, parading4051 his own merits, he standing afar off, and with his eyes fastened
on the ground, and beating his breast, was confessing his sins? And this man, who confessed
4047 John ix. 2.
4048 John ix. 3.
4049 John ix. 31.
4050 Luke xviii. 10.
4051 Ventilante.
On the same lesson of the Gospel, John ix., on the giving sight to the man that was born blind.
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On the same lesson of the Gospel, John ix., on the giving sight to the man…