than witty, who, when his friends bewailed the loss of one of his eyes, asked them whether they wept for the eye which he had lost, or the eye which remained. Weep rather, said he, for the enemy which stays behind, than for the enemy that is gone.

Lo, this man looked upon his eyes very differently from other men; he saw them as enemies which others see as officious servants, as good friends and favourites. Any or all of these are indeed according as they are used. They are good servants, if they go faithfully on the errands we send them, and return us true intelligence; good friends, if they advise and invite us to holy thoughts; but enemies, if they suggest and allure us to evil. If therefore thine eyes have been employed in evil offices to thy soul, God hath done that for thee which he hath in a figurative sense enjoined thee to do to thyself. If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is better for thee that one of thy members perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Matt. v. 29.

SECTION 5.

Blindness a freedom from temptations and many sorrows.

THOU hast lost thine eyes, and together with them, much earthly contentment:-But whithal, thou art hereby freed from many temptations. Those eyes were the inlets of sin, not only the mere passages by which it entered, but the busy agents in admitting it, the very panders of lust for the defiling of the soul. How many thousands are there, who upon their death-beds, recollecting their guilty thoughts, have wished they had been born blind. If therefore thou hast less joy, thou shalt sin less, neither shall any vain objects call away thy thoughts from the serious meditation of spiritual things.

Before, it was no otherwise with thee than the prophet Jeremiah reports it to have been with the Jews, that 'death is come up by the windows.' Jer. ix. 21. So it

was with our great grandmother Eve: she saw the tree was pleasant to the eyes, and thence partook of the fruit. So it hath been ever since with all the fruit of her womb, both in the old and latter world. The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. Gen. vi. 2. Not only filthy lusts, but even adulteries take up their lodgings in the eye. There the blessed apostle finds them: Having eyes, saith he, full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin. 2 Pet. ii. 14. While therefore thy heart walked after thine eyes, as Job speaks, it could do no other than carry thee down to the chambers of death. Thou art now delivered from the danger of so deadly a misguidance. Prov. vii. 27.

Hath not the loss of thine eyes, freed thee also from a world of sorrows? The old saying is, What the eye views not, the heart rues not.' Hadst thou but seen what others are forced to behold, those fearful conflagrations, those piles of murdered carcases, those streams of christian blood, those savage violences, those merciless rapines, those sacrilegious outrages, thy heart could not but bleed within thee. Now thou art affected with them only at a distance, as receiving them by the perfect intelligence of thine ear, from the unfeeling relation of others.

SECTION 6.

The cheerfulness of some blind men.

THINE eyes are lost:-What need thy heart to go with them? I have known a blind man more cheerful than I could be with both mine eyes.

Old Isaac was dark-sighted when he gave the blessing, contrary to his own intentions, to his son Jacob. Yet it seems he lived forty years after, and could be pleased then to have good cheer made him with wine and venison. Gen. xxvii. 25.

Our life doth not lie in our owne; the enirit of man is

that which supports his infirmities. Prov. xviii. 14. Labour to raise that to a cheerful disposition; and then in thy bodily darkness, there shall be light and joy to thy soul. Esth. viii. 16.

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SECTION 7.

The supply which God gives in other faculties.

HATH God taken away thine eyes:-But hath he not given thee an abundant supply in other faculties? Are not thine inward senses the more quick, thy memory stronger, thy fancy more active, thy understanding more apprehensive.

The wonders that we have heard and read of blind men's memories were not easy to believe, if it were not obvious to conceive, that the removal of all distractions gives them an opportunity of depositing more carefully all desired objects, and fixing them more surely where they are laid. Hence it is that some blind men have attained to those perfections, which their eyes could never have given them. It is reported of Didymus of Alexandria, who being blind from his infancy, through his prayers and diligent endeavours attained to such a pitch of knowledge in logic, geometry, arithmetic and astronomy, that he was admired by the learned masters of those arts; and for his rare insight into divinity, became the president in that famous church.

What need we doubt of this truth, when our own times have afforded us similar examples, for we have had several worthy divines, God's seers, bereaved of bodily eyes. Among the rest there was one* in my time, very eminent in the University of Cambridge, whom I had occasion to dispute with for his degrees, of great skill both in languages and arts, and of singular acuteness of judgment. An ancient historian also speaks of a blind man, who

Mr. Fisher, of Trinity College, Cambridge.

could steal more cunningly than any that had the use of their eyes. And I may say boldly of our Fisher, that he was more dexterous in picking the locks of difficult authors, and fetching forth the treasures of their hidden stores, than those who had the sharpest eyes about him. If they read books to him, he at the same time read lectures to them, and still taught more than he learned.

As for the other outward senses, they are commonly more exquisite in the blind. We read of some who have been of so accurate a touch, that by their very feeling they could distinguish betwixt black and white. And for the ear, our philosophers have observed, that sounds are sweeter to the blind than to the sighted; so also that they are more curiously judged of by them, the virtue of both those senses being now contracted into one.

But the most perfect recompense of the loss of these bodily eyes is in the exaltation of our spiritual eyes, which become so much the more enlightened in the beatific vision of God, as they apprehend more darkness in all earthly objects. Certainly, thou shalt not miss these material eyes, if thou mayest find thy soul thus happily enlightened.

SECTION 8.

Benefit of the eyes we once had.

THINE eyes are lost:-It is a blessing, that once thou hadst them. Hadst thou been born blind, thou wouldst probably have been a stranger to God and to the world. Hadst thou not once seen the face of this heaven, and this earth, and this sea, what expressions could have made thee sufficiently apprehensive of the wonderful works of thy Creator? What discourse could have made thee to understand what light is; what the sun, the fountain of it; what the heavens, the glorious region of it; and what the moon and stars, illuminated by it? How couldst thou have had thy thoughts raised so high as to

give glory to that great God, whose infinite power hath wrought all these marvellous things.

No doubt, God hath his own ways of mercy, even for those who are born dark; not requiring what he hath not given, but graciously supplying by his Spirit what is wanting in the outward man. Hence those who could never see the face of the world, shall see the face of Him that made it. But in an ordinary course of proceeding, those who have been blind from their birth, must needs want those helps of knowing and glorifying God in his mighty works. which lie open to the seeing.

These once filled thine eyes, and stay with thee still, after thine eyes have forsaken thee. What shouldst thou do, but walk on in the strength of those fixed thoughts, and be always adoring the Majesty of that God, whom that sight hath represented to thee so glorious; and in bumble submission to his good pleasure, strive against all the discomforts of thy sufferings.

History tells us of a valiant soldier, who after his eyes were struck out in the battle, covering his face with his target, fought still, laying about him as vehemently as if he had seen whom to smite. So do thou, my son, with no less courage. Let not the loss of thine eyes hinder thee from a cheerful resistance of those spiritual enemies, which labour to draw thee into an impatient murmuring against the hand of God. Wait humbly upon Him who hath better eyes in store for thee, than those that thou hast lost.

SECTION 9.

One sense supplied by another.

THOU hast lost thy hearing:-It is not easy to determine which loss is the greater, of the eye or of the ear; both are grievous. Now all the world is to thee as dumb, since thou art deaf to it. How small a matter bath made thee a mere cypher amongst men!