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derstanding, to hear from my SAVIOUR GOD the blessed injunction, Stretch forth thy hand: and thus, too, shall I further rejoice in complying willingly with that injunction, until each faculty of my mind be restored to harmony and due proportion with the other, so that in me may be fulfilled the concluding words of the above memorable history, It was restored whole, like as the other. AMEN.

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THE DEVIL CAST OUT FROM

THE BLIND AND DUMB.

MATT. xii. 22 to 29.

Then was brought to Him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, &c. &c.

Q. YOU have already told me what is to be understood by being possessed of a devil. Can you now tell me what is here further to be understood by one blind and dumb ?

A. According to the letter of the history, by one blind and dumb is to be understood a person deprived of bodily sight, and of bodily speech; but according to the spiritual sense, is to be understood the state of the Jewish church at that period, which, in consequence of being immersed in the evil of self-love, and the love of the world, was blind to the knowledge of heavenly truth, and overspread with the darkness of false principles and persuasions, by reason of which it was also dumb, or unable to think, to utter, and to teach any truth of doctrine condu cive to good of life. For there are two distinct. origins of spiritual dumbness, one in the will, and the other in the understanding, and the

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latter is here recorded, because connected with blindness; whereas, when the former is noticed, it is connected with deafness, (Mark ix. 25,) blindness having relation to a defect of truth in the understanding, arising from the influence of false principles and persuasions; and deafness having relation to a defect of good in the will, by reason of the influence of evil love and corrupt affections.

Q. Do you conceive, then, that there is any necessary connexion between blindness and dumbness?

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A. Not according to the literal meaning of those two bodily imperfections, but, according to the spiritual meaning, the connexion, I conceive, is both necessary and close. For blindness, according to the spiritual idea, implies a defect of the spiritual light of truth in the human understanding, through the influence of false principles and persuasions; and where this is the case, spiritual dumbness must be a necessary consequence, because without spiritual thought derived from the light of truth in the understanding, it is impossible for man to give utterance to truth; and if he cannot give utterance to truth, he is then spiritually dumb, agreeable to what has been above observed concerning this spiritual infirmity.

Q. And what do you understand by the words which follow, where it is written, He healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw?

A. By He, is to be understood the GREAT SAVIQUB, whose name is JESUS CHRIST; and by heal

ing him, is further to be understood the restoration of the blessing of sight and of speech, whe ther considered in a natural or in a spiritual sense. By the blind and dumb therefore both speaking and seeing, is further to be understood the effect of the healing virtue applied by the GREAT REDEEMER, and made manifest both naturally and spiritually; naturally by opening the eyes of one who had been blind, and by unloosing his tongue; and spiritually by opening the eyes of the understanding also, to see by the bright light of the ETERNAL TRUTH, and at the same time by unloosing the organs of spiritual speech, to give utterance to that truth, and thus to declare the praises of the INCARNATE GOD.

Q. But it is written further, that all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the Son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devilshow do you understand what is here said of the people, and the opposite sentiment ascribed to the Pharisees?

A. By the people being amazed, is to be un derstood the sacred awe with which their minds were impressed on observing the operation of the divine power exercised upon the blind and dumb man possessed with a devil; and by their exclamation, Is not this the Son of David? is further to be understood, the unanimous conviction wrought in their minds by a supernatural agency, that JESUS CHRIST was the expected Messiah, and consequently was a being more than human.

Again, by the Pharisees saying, This fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils, is to be understood the lamentable perversion of the divine truth in the minds of all hypocrites, or of those who practise external piety, while their hearts are totally void of the heavenly spirit and love of charity. For the miracle above recorded was a manifest proof of divine agency, being wrought, as JESUS CHRIST afterwards declares (verse 28,) by the Spirit of GOD. But the Spirit of Gon is the Spirit of divine truth, and therefore the Pharisees, in ascribing the miracle to Beelzebub, proved themselves guilty of that most terrible and unpardonable of all sins, the sin against the HOLY GHOST, which is nothing else but the perversion and consequent profanation of divine truth. Moreover, by Beelzebub is meant the god of flies; and by flies, according to their spiritual signification, are to be understood the false principles and persuasions of the natural mind; therefore the Pharisees in ascribing the miracle to Beelzebub, and not to the SPIRIT of GOD, not only perverted and profaned the truth, but gave a manifest proof of their own folly, by supposing that the prince of the devils could oppose himself and his own kingdom, or that Satan could cast out Satan. Yet such, alas! is still the folly of those, who deny the divine omnipotence of the BLESSED JEsus, and thus rob Him of His divinity; when yet they ought rather to conclude, in agreement with the tenor of what JESUS afterwards declares, that in His divine person the kingdom of Gon

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