purpose to give comfort and assistance to all such well-disposed persons, whatever was their outward condition; for that there was no difference among his rational creatures in the sight of God, but what was made by their virtuous dispositions and obedience to his laws. And it took off the prejudice and offence that might arise from the great and learned of the nation rejecting Jesus and excommunicating his disciples, when it appeared upon what passionate insufficient grounds they proceeded, and when our Saviour scrupled not to lay it. to the charge of their wilful incorrigible blindness, and reproved them for it with such just severity.

That this charge was felt by them, is seen in the reply that they here made to him, when they say (v. 40.) "Are we blind also?" Upon which Jesus said unto them: "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." i. e. It would have been better for you to have been quite blind. But now when you see and know the miracles I perform, but wilfully reşist such undeniable evidence of my authority from God, your unbelief is without excuse.

II.

It was manifest, at the first preaching of the Gospel, that it made many to see, who did not see, according to our Lord's beautiful allusion to the miracle he had wrought on the blind man. By its peculiar advantages, its easy doctrines and most powerful motives, men of little worldly account, and wholly uncultivated with learning, attained to great wisdom and perfection in virtue, where there was a love of truth, probity, and integrity of heart, and a mind attentive to instruction. And instances are not wanting of many, in all ages, in the private unobserved paths of life, who, by the lessons of holy Scripture, have arrived at great eminence in piety and benevolence the greater because often little known in the world, and therefore more surely genuine and sincere, and approved by the searcher of hearts.

But it was likewise true in that age, in the particular case of the unbelieving Pharisees; and it is true also in general, that though the Gospel was proposed for a benefit to all, many remain uninfluenced, and are even made worse by it. For this is the sure effect of refusing light and knowledge, and the means of being made better.

Not

Not but that its doctrines are most pure and heavenly; its motives to holy practice most weighty and affecting: and it represents virtue under the most amiable and engaging form; easily attainable by those that love her; and though oft unendowed with worldly things, yet high in the favour of God and all good beings, and destined for a crown of righteousness and immortal happiness in the future world.

But then that high standard of purity and perfection in benevolence, and the divine love which the Gospel holds forth, and the strict moral discipline which it enjoins to carry us to it, turns out not seldom the innocent cause of its being aspersed and abused. For men of superior rank or abilities, who have high conceits of themselves, but who have no dispositions to virtue, and strong propensities to particular vices, cannot bear to be dictated to, or told they are in the wrong, and so far from the truth and lost to it, as they really are, according to the standard of the Gospel. Hence, as it were in their own defence, they turn themselves to find flaws in the sacred writings, and make objections to them; and oppose and reject what so much opposes and condemns their own practice and favourite pursuits; and plunge

plunge themselves deeper and deeper in error

and vicious excesses.

So that to such characters becomes applicable the latter clause of that saying of our Lord: (Mat. xiii. 12.) "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath."

Men that will not profit by the Gospel offers of holiness and eternal life, will be left without further instruction, as it would be lost upon them, and it would do them no good. And in neglecting to improve their present advantages they will go on from bad to worse, by their evil passions and prejudices becoming heightened by indulgence, and by the gradual and natural decay of all dispositions to virtue and goodness, for want of habit and exercise; which is the meaning of that expression, taking away from a man even that he hath.

It was not therefore a judicial blindness brought upon men at the preaching of the Gospel, but the effect of their own evil dispositions, which our Saviour here declares; and it agrees with what the apostle says (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.) "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the god of this

world

world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

By those that are lost, understand such as are hardened in vice beyond recovery, not by any immediate act of God, but by their own wilful perseverance in evil courses.

And by the god of this world blinding their hearts lest they should see, is not intended the agency of any evil power without them, but the fascinating power and influence of worldly pleasures, riches, and greatness, in taking away all relish for the pure and holy doctrine which Jesus taught, and in setting them against it, which may be called the god of this world; because the bulk of men basely bow down and submit to be governed by them.

III.

It appears hence, that the design of the Gospel was not by compulsive violent methods to awe and constrain men to holiness, and obedience to the will of God; but, by rational motives of their own truest interest and happiness, to win over and prevail with them; and, if they would not listen to or comply