PREFACE. THE Editor now concludes the last volume of the present Series of THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY, and he cannot dismiss a work which has occupied his thoughts for Twenty-One Years without feeling some painful emotions. The work has been to him and many others a measure of time, and he is naturally led to reflect at the present moment on the number of friends who assisted at its commencement, but have been withdrawn to the land of forgetfulness (and some of them long) before its conclusion! Their memory will ever be cherished by him with esteem and gratitude. Many are happily yet living to serve the cause of truth, who have contributed to lighten the Editor's labours and to make them successful, some few from the beginning of the work. These it would be a pleasure to him to name, if it were allowed. He must content himself, however, with giving them his cordial thanks, and expressing for them his best Christian wishes. The Editor cannot flatter himself that in so long a period, and such a multifarious work, he has not committed errors and given offence; but he is entitled to say, that he has acted in every case of doubt as seemed to him best at the time, and therefore hopes for an indulgent review of his humble labours. If the testimony of friends does not mislead him, he may cherish the persuasion that THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY has been in some degree serviceable to the cause of Christian Truth and Freedom certainly, it has never been made the instrument of personal interests, or of any object which the Editor is not prepared to avow and defend in the face of the world. Having so long endeavoured to fulfil his duty to the public, the Editor cannot be required to give any other explanation of his now resigning the work to other hands, than that he is desirous of devoting more of his remaining time to studies and pursuits more immediately connected with his profession. The Subscribers are already informed that the New Series will be devoted to the same great ends as the Old; and the Editor is assured, from his knowledge of the new Conductors, that whatever learning, talents, industry and urbanity can effect towards the success of a periodical work, will be exemplified in the progress of the New Series of THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY. A feeling of melancholy insensibly steals upon the heart whilst the pen is tracing a farewell address to friends, long united in important Christian labours; but the Editor will not conclude without performing the cheerful duty of commending his correspondents, subscribers and readers to the good Providence of Almighty God, the Father of Mercies! November 28, 1826. THE Monthly Repository. No. CCXLI.] JANUARY, 1826. Observations on the Miracle recorded in John ix. "8 the account of the cure and examination of the blind man, in the ninth chapter of St. John's Gospel, bears every mark of personal knowledge on the part of the historian."PALEY. I were reported have been very F a miracle precisely of this kind lately wrought in our own neighbourhood; if, on any decent authority, we were informed that a man said to have been blind from his birth had, on the sudden, received the sense of vision, and had received it entire, and independently on any ordinary means of cure and relief, and professedly by a miraculous power exercised in his behalf; we should not, I presume, be indifferent to the report. I have supposed that it comes to us on decent authority; for which reason, we should hardly dismiss it without some investigation. When no inquiry takes place, there can be no enlightened judgment on the effect of evidence, no proper conviction, whether of truth or falsehood. Some men's unbelief has a sort of credulousness: for he who, without and against testimony, admits every report, and he who adinits not even what unexceptionable testimony sustains, possess no very different states of mind; they have the same want of discrimination, the same imbecility of intellect. In the case which I have been putting, what would be our points of examination? Should we not ask, Who the man was on whom a miracle is said to have been wrought? Whether, in fact, he had been born blind? Whether he was blind at the time when his benefactor met him; and whether it afterwards appeared that he was, in truth, cured?* Let us pursue these questions: let us observe whether such inquiries were made, and how they were answered, in an instance which claims to be [Vol. XXI. matter of history, and not of supposition. Who was the subject of the alleged miracle? Although, till this moment, he had been a stranger to sight, he possessed, nevertheless, the use of the other senses, and of the faculties of "He is of age," said his parents; "ask him; he shall speak for himself," which he did with great propriety and effect, in a manner which clearly proved that he was master of his reason, and a competent judge of his own situation, and of the questions with which he was addressed." But had he, in fact, been born blind? This point too was naturally and carefully examined by the adversaries of Jesus Christ. The Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called his parents, of whom they made the inquiry. His parents, however fearful they were of giving a reply which might seem to acknowledge any faith of theirs in the Messiahship of Jesus, answer, know that this is our son, and that he was born blind." Can evidence be more decisive as to his identity and his former situation? For the rest, they refer the inquirers to their son himself. "We Here a third question is suggested: Was he actually blind at the time when his benefactor is stated to have relieved him by a iniracle? Nor was this part of the case overlooked by our Saviour's foes; nor was the doubt (if indeed doubt had any existence) unresolved. The change in this person's condition and appearance seems to have excited astonishment: and the historian tells us, very artlessly and unaffectedly, that "the neighbours who before had seen the man that he was blind, said, 'Is not this he who sate and begged?"" At first, their opinions were rather divided on this head: some said, "This is he;" * Ver. 21. + Vers, 13, &c., 24. &c. others said, "He is like him ;" and any suspicion of his identity, if any yet remained, was instantly done away by his avowing, "I am he." His answer to the inquiry, "How were thine eyes opened?" proves, as does the inquiry itself, that up to this moment he had been blind. Of the same purport, and conclusively to the same fact, is his subsequent language, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." * But the most comprehensive and important question of all remains: it is, Whether we have evidence that the man was, in truth, cured? Now this very inquiry was made on the spot where the miracle is alleged to have happened, at the time when it is said to have been wrought, and in the presence of the persons who were most disposed and best able to scrutinize the report. It cannot be immaterial to observe that our Lord previously intimated his design of performing a miracle in favour of this individual, and, by this intimation, courted the scrutiny which his mighty deeds would bear: "I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work-as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world;" its light in the highest and most interesting of all senses, but, at the same time, in the act by which I give sight to those who are literally blind! When he had thus spoken, he proceeded to remove the blindness of this individual: and should it be objected that, in effecting the removal of it, he seemed to employ means which some may regard as naturally leading to that end, the answer is obvious he used these signs, with the view of denoting that he himself was the instrument of Almighty God in granting this extraordinary relief. The cure was so instantaneous and perfect, that it could not have been brought about by merely human agency or outward remedies. Men who by any ordinary applications receive their sight, after long and total blindness, cannot however for a considerable time endure the rays of light, but must be introduced to it by degrees, and with the nicest caution. I may even intimate the probability that with * Ver. 25. out a miracle such applications would aggravate and confirm, and not remove, the evil. Happily for the Christian cause, the Pharisees, sifted the evidences and the circumstances of this cure with the utmost rigour. Still they could not deny the event-either its existence or its quality. All which they could finally object, was, that the miracle had been wrought on the Sabbath-day, that he who performed it was therefore a sinner, that of such a cure there had been no previous example, and that the subject of it was a man of humble rank; objections which could weigh nothing against direct evidence. If we examine yet more carefully the language and deportment of the individual who thus received his sight, and those of our Lord's enemies, we perhaps shall have a still fuller conviction of the reality of the miracle. The account given by the patient himself is this: "A man, who is called Jesus, made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the bath of Siloam, and wash; and I went and washed and received sight." Here we have an extremely plain and inartificial testimony, in which he who had been blind persevered, in despite of all the endeavours that were used to make him retract it; nay, though for continuing to bear it he suffered the lesser excommunication, or was cast out of the synagogue. In truth, nothing can be inore pertinent than this man's answers to the questions of the Pharisees; nothing, of the sort, more judicious and convincing than his remarks; nothing more natural and impressive than his acknowledgment of the Messiahship of him who had poured the light of day on his recently sightless eye-balls. No wonder that he who uttered such language admitted the claims of Jesus, and prostrated himself before him, not in token of adoration, but in proof of his submission to him, as his religious Lord and Teacher! There is something too in the whole of what the Pharisees said and did, on this occasion, which denotes that vice and passion were now struggling with their judgment. They cannot meet Ver. 34. See the marginal translation, and Bishop Pearce, in loc. + Vers. 36-39. |
