Commentary on John, Chapter 9
CHAP. IX.
Verſe 1. He ſaw a man which was blinde.]
THis was enough to move Chriſt to mercy, the ſight of a fit object. When God ſets us up an Altar, be we ready with our ſacrifice.
Verſe 2. Who did ſinne, this man?] Imbuti era …r Iu…ai dogmate foreign. Beza.How could he ſinne before he was borne? But the Diſciples dream't of a Pythagoricall tranſanimation; hence this fooliſh queſtion.
Verſe 3. But that the works of God &c.] Hinc Alexander Ales, Paena, inquit, duplicem habet ordinationem, Ʋnam ad culpam, quae praecedit; alteram ad gloriam, quam praecedit. God ſometimes afflicts for his own glory, but ſinne is never at the bottome. And though God doth not alwayes afflict his for ſinne, as Job: Job. 11.6.yet Job ſhall do well to conſider, that God exacteth of him leſſe then his iniquity deſerveth, as Zophar telleth him.
Verſe 4. Whiles it is day.] As other men do, Pſal. 104.22. None can ſay he ſhall have twelve houres to his day: And night (death) is a time of receiving wages, not of doing worke. On this moment depends eternity: on the weakeſt wier hangs the greateſt waight.
Verſe 6. Made clay.] As he did at firſt in making Man, (the Poets tell us ſome ſuch thing of their Prometheus) to ſhew that this cure was done by that Almighty power, that he put forth in the Creation.
Verſe 7. He went his way and waſhed.] He obeyed Chriſt blindling. He looked not upon Siloam with Syrian eyes, as Naaman did upon Jordan: but, paſſing by the unlikelihood of a cure by ſuch a means, he beleeveth, and doeth as he was bidden, without ſciſcitation.
Verſe 16. This man is not of God.] True, if he had indeed made no conſcience of keeping the ſabbath. Sanctifying the Lords day in the primitive times was a badge of Chriſtianity. When the queſtion was propounded, Chriſtianu… ſu…intermittere non poſſumServaſti Dominicum? Haſt thou kept the Sabbath? the anſwer was returned, I am a Chriſtian, and may not do otherwiſe. The enemies and hinderers of ſanctifying the Sabbath, are called unbeleevers, vagabonds and wicked fellows, Acts 17.2, 5. B. White. Act and Mon. Sometipſum deteſtatus eſt, quòd Regi poitùs quam Deo ſtuduiſſet placere. S…uitet. Sueton Dio in Ve…paſ.That late great Antiſabbatarian Prelate, ſo much caſt off by the reſt, after he had ſerved their turns, might well have cryed out with Cardinal Wolſey, Surely, if I had been as carefull to ſerve God as I was to pleaſe men, I had not been at this paſſe.
How can a man that is a ſinner.] Yes that he may, by divine permiſſion, or at leaſt he may do ſomething like a miracle; as the falſe prophets, and Antichriſt. Suetonius tells us, that Veſpaſian cured a blinde man by ſpetting upon his eyes. And Dio teſtifieth that he healed another, that had a weak and withered hand, by treading upon it. And yet Voſpaſian lived and died a Pagan. This therefore was no convincing argument, that the Jews here uſed.
Verſe 17. He is a Prophet.] The more the Phariſees oppoſed the truth, the more it appeared. Veritas abſcondi erubeſcit, ſaith Tertullian. The Reformation was much furthered in Germany by the Papiſts oppoſition. Among many others, two Kings wrote againſt Luther, viz. Henry 8th of England, and Ludovicus of Hungary. This Kingly title, being entred into the controverſie, made men more curious; And as it happeneth in combats, that the lookers on are ready to favour the weaker, and to extoll his actions, though they be but mean: ſo here it ſtirred up a generall inclination toward Luther, ſaith the Authour of the hiſt. of the Councell of Trent. Luther alſo in an epiſtle to the Electour of Saxony, Hiſt of Count. of Trent, fol. 16.triumpheth, and derideth the fooliſh wiſedome of the Papiſts, in cauſing him and the other Proteſtant Princes, Scultet. Annal. 274.to rehearſe the confeſſion of their faith in a publike Aſſembly of the ſtates of Germany, and in ſending copies thereof to all the Courts of Chriſtendome for advice: whereby the Goſpel was more propagated, and the cauſe of Chriſt more advanced, then if many preachers had been ſent out, and licenſed.
Verſe 21. He is of age.] foreign. Felix ab foreign, ſay the Etymologiſts, ut felix ſit homo floridae & vegetae aetatis, Becman.corpore & animo valens.
Verſe 22. Put out of the Synagogue.] This was that kinde of excommunication they called Niddui or ſeparation; and ſuch were by the Greeks called foreign, and foreign. There were two other more heavy kinde of excommunications in uſe among the Jews, Cherem, and Samatha or Maranatha, which they derive as low as from Henoch, Jude 14. The Heathens alſo had their publike execrations, not raſhly to be uſed againſt any: Eſt enim execratio res triſtis, & mali ominis, ſaith Plutarch: who therefore highly commends that Athenian Prieſt, that being commanded by the people to curſe Alcibiades, refuſed to do it. That Archflamen of Rome, the Pope, is like a waſp: Cum pontiſex Rom. diras in …u livic. 12. Gall. Regem evomeret; Atqui (a…t rex) Precandi ille, non imprecandi cauſa pontiſex conſtitutus eſt. Firron. lib. 2. de geſt is Gallor.no ſooner angry, but out comes a ſting (an excommunication) which, being once out, is like a fools dagger, ratling and ſnapping without an edge, &c. It was grown to a Proverb among our fore-fathers, In nomine Domini incipit omne malum. John Cornford, (one of the ſix laſt that were burnt in England for the true Religion) when he heard himſelfe and his fellows excommunicated, ſtirred with a vehement zeal of God, and proceeding in a more true excommunication againſt the Papiſts, in the name of them all, pronounced ſentence againſt them in theſe words, In the name of our Lord Jeſus Chriſt, and by the power of his holy Spirit, and the authority of his holy Catholike and Apoſtolike Church, we do give here into the hands of Satan to be deſtroyed, the bodies of all thoſe blaſphemers and hereticks, that do maintain any errour againſt his moſt holy word, or do condemn his moſt holy truth for hereſie, to the maintaining of any falſe Church, or feigned Religion: ſo that by this thy juſt judgement, Act. an I Mon, fol. 1862.moſt mighty God, againſt thine adverſaries, thy true Religion may be known, to thy glory, and our comforts, and to the edifying of all our Nation. Good Lord ſo be it.
Verſe 24. Give God the glory.] It appears Joſh. 7.19. and 1 Sam. 65. that this was ſome ſolemne forme, in uſe among that people when they required an oath of delinquents: This the hypocrites made uſe of, as when the devils adjured Chriſt by the living God not to caſt them out. So their fore-fathers would perſecute godly men, and moleſt them with Church Cenſures, and then ſay, Let the Lord be glorified. Iſa. 66.5. With like honeſty as the Conſpiratours in K. Richard the ſeconds time here in England indorſed all their Letters, with Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, good will towards men: This poor man might have anſwered as Rob. Smith the Martyr did, when Bonner began the ſentence of death againſt him, Act and Mon.In Dei nomine, Ye begin in a wrong name, ſaid he.
Verſe 27. Will ye alſo be his Diſciples?] A bold ſpeech of ſo mean a man ſo little inlightned, to the Cheif-Prieſts and Phariſees. Such was that of Dirick Carver Martyr, to Bonner; Your doctrine is poiſon and ſorcery. If Chriſt were here, you would put him to a worſe death, then he was put to before. You ſay you can make God, Act. and Mon. fol. …5…7.you can make a pudding as ſoon, &c. And that of Henry Lawrence, who being to ſubſcribe the Bill of his examination, wrote, Ibid, 2533.Ye are all Antichriſt, and him ye follow, &c. And that of Anthony Parſons; Thou calleſt us theeves, ſaid the Biſhop of Saliſbury. I ſay, quoth Anthony, ye are not only theeves, but murtherers, ye are rather biteſheeps then true Biſhops, Ibid. 2111.&c.
Verſe 31. We know that God heareth not ſinners,] Their incenſe ſmels of the hand that offers it: The lepers lips ſhould be covered according to the Law: the wicked compaſſe God with lies, when they cry, Hoſ. 11.12.My father, my father &c. This is one of thoſe naturall notions that the devil could never blot out of mans minde, that God heareth not ſinners, Hine Achilies Homericue,foreign.he will never accept of a good motion from a bad mouth, as that ſtate in ſtory would not. He ſilenced the devil acknowledging him; and of witches good prayers one ſaith, Si magicea, Dius non vult tales: ſi piae, non per tales.
Verſe 34. Thou waſt altogether borne in ſinnes] Becauſe borne blinde: ſo they upbraid him with his miſery, as if therefore a notorious offender. This is harſh and raſh judgement.
And doeſt thou teach us?] Oh, take heed of that. But a mortified man will yeeld to learn of any body: a little childe ſhall lead him, Iſa. 11.6. Acts 18.16.Learned Apollos was better inſtructed by a couple of poor tent-makers.
Verſe 35. And when he had found him.] So when the Pope had excommunicated Luther, and the Emperour proſcribed him, Chriſt Jeſus was with him, and carried on the worke. Longè majora parturit mihi jam calamus, ſaith he: Neſcio unde veniunt iſtae meditationes. And in his book of the Babyloniſh captivity, Luth. Epiſt.he profeſſeth, ſe quotidie, velit, nolit, doctiorem fieri.
Verſe 39. For judgement I am come. To judge, much otherwiſe then thoſe unjuſt judges have done, that have caſt out this poor ſervant of mine, for a blaſphemer. B. Bonner having a blinde harper before him, ſaid, that ſuch blinde abjects, that follow a ſort of hereticall preachers, when they come to the feeling of the fire, will be the firſt that will flee from it. To whom the blinde man ſaid, Act and Mon. fol.1821.that if every joint of him were burnt, yet he truſted in the Lord not to flee. A blinde boy, that had ſuffered impriſonment at Gloceſter not long before, was brought to Biſhop Hooper, the day before his death. Mr Hooper, after he had examined him of his faith, and the cauſe of his impriſonment, beheld him ſtedfaſtly, and the water appearing in his eyes, ſaid unto him: Ah poor boy, God hath taken from thee thy out ward ſight, for what conſideration he beſt knowith, but hath given thee another ſight much more precious: for he hath endued thy ſoul with the eye of knowledge, and faith, Ibid. 1321.&c. It is a worthy ſpeech of Mr Beza upon this Text, Prodeant omnes Phariſaeorum noſtri temporis Academiae. Let all our Univerſity-Phariſees come forth together: That blinde and hereticall Church (as they call it) hath, by the bleſſing of God, Habet eccleſia illa caca & boreticaſeprennes pueros, qui teſte un…er o mundo, &c.children of ſeven years-old, that can, before all the world, confute and confound their erroneous doctrines: witneſſe the children of Merindall and Chabriers, John Fettyes childe of eight years old, that told Bonners Chaplain (who ſaid Fetty was an heretick) My father is no heretick; but you are an heretick, for you have Balaams marke. This childe they whipt to death, &c. Alice Driver Martyr, Act. and Mon. fol. 1864.nonpluſt all the Doctours that examined her: and then ſaid, God be honoured; you be not able to reſiſt the ſpirit of God in me a poor woman. Ibid. 1857.I was never brought up in the Univerſity as ye have been: but I have driven the plow many a time before my father, and yet I will ſet my foot againſt the foot of any of you all, &c.
Verſe 41. But now ye ſay, We ſee] If, after conviction, men run away with the bit in their mouthes, Baſil in ep. ad E…vag.the ſin is the greater: But their caſe is deplorable, qui quod verum ſit ne que ſcient, ne que ſustinent diſcere, as Baſil complains of the Weſterne Church in his time.