8. Of his healing a Man of an Infirmity at the Pool of Bethesda.
Whether it be not manifest, that the Literal and Evangelical Story of these Miracles, from what I have argu'd and reason'd upon them, does not consist of Absurdities, Improbabilities, and Incredibilities, according to the Proposition before us, let my Readers judge; and so I come to the Consideration of
9. A ninth Miracle of Jesus, viz. that[205] of his giving sight to a Man who was born blind, by the means of Eve-salve, made of Dirt and Spittle.
Blindness, as far as one may guess by the Evangelical History, was the Distemper that Jesus frequently exercis'd his Power on: And there is no doubt to be made, but he heal'd many of one Weakness, Defect and Imperfection, or other in their Eyes, but whether he wrought any Miracle upon any he is supposed to have cured, is uncertain. There are, as it's notorious, many kinds of Blindness, that are incurable by Art or Nature: and there are other kinds of it, that Nature and Art will relieve a Man in. But whether Jesus used his healing Power against the former, as well as the latter sort of Blindness, is more than can be affirm'd, or at least proved by our Divines. And unless we knew of a certainty, that the sore or blind Eyes, Jesus cured, were absolutely out of the reach of Art and Nature; Infidels will imagine, and suggest, that he was only Master of a good Ointment for sore Eyes, and being successful in the use of it, ignorant People would needs think, he wrought Miracles.
The World is often bless'd with excellent Oculists, who thro' Study and Practice have attain'd to wonderful Skill in Eye-Maladies, which, tho' they are of various sorts, yet, by Custom of Speech all pass under the general Name of Blindness. And sometimes we hear of famous Chance-Doctors, like Jesus, who by a Gift of God, Nature, or Fortune, without any Skill in the Structure of the Eyes, have been very successful in the Cure of one Distemper or other incident to them: Such was Sir William Read, who, tho' no Scholar, nor of acquir'd Abilities in Physick and Surgery, yet cured his Thousands of sore or blind Eyes; and many of them too to the surprise and astonishment of profess'd Surgeons and Physicians. Whether He, or Jesus, cured the greater number of Blindness may be question'd. To please our Divines, it shall be granted that Jesus cured the greater Numbers; but that he cured worse or more difficult Distempers in the Eyes, can't be proved. Sir William indeed met with many Cases of blind and sore Eyes, that were out of the reach of his Power; and so did Jesus too, or he had never let great Multitudes of the blind, and otherwise distemper'd People, go unheal'd by him. Our Divines will here say, that it was never want of Power in Jesus, but want of Faith in the diseased, if he did not heal them; but in other Surgeons and Physicians, it is confessedly their own Insufficiency: To which I have only this Answer, that our Physicians and Surgeons are to be commended for their Ingenuity, to impute it to their own Defect of Power, and not to lay the Blame upon their Patients, when they can't cure them: And it is luckly for us Christians, that we have this Salvo for the Credit of Jesus's miraculously healing Power, that it was not fit, he should exert it against Unbelief; otherwise reasonably speaking, He with Sir William Read, Greatrex, Vespasian, our former Kings of England, and Seventh-Sons, must have pass'd but for a Chance-Doctor.
But to come to the particular Consideration of the Miracle before us. Jesus restored, it seems, a blind Man to his Eye-sight, by the use of a peculiar Ointment, and washing of his Eyes, as directed, in the Pool of Siloam. Where lies the Miracle? I can't see it; but hope our Divines will take their opportunity to point it out to me. Our Surgeons, with their Ointments and Washings can cure sore and blind Eyes of one sort or other; and Jesus did no more here; and yet he must be reckon'd a Worker of Miracles; and they but artificial Operators: where's the Sense and Reason of this difference between them? If Mr. Moor, the Apothecary, for the notable Cures he performs, by the means of his Medicines, should write himself, and be accounted by his Admirers, a Miracle-worker; he and they would be but laugh'd at for it: And yet Jesus for his curing the sore Eyes of a poor Man with an Ointment, must be had in veneration for a divine and miraculous Operator, as much as if by the breath of his Mouth he had removed an huge Mountain!
A Miracle, if I mistake not the Notion of our Divines about it, is a supernatural Event, or a Work out of the Power of Nature or Art to effect. And when it is spoken of the Cure of a Disease, as of Blindness or Lameness, it ought to be so represented, as that skilful and experienced Surgeons and Physicians, who can do strange and surprizing Cures by Art, may give it upon their judgment, that no Skill of Man could reach that Operation; but that it ought to pass for the Work of a divine and almighty Hand and Power. But there is no such care taken in the Description of any of the Diseases, which Jesus cured; much less of this before us; against the miraculousness of which, consequently, there are these two Exceptions to be made:
First, that we know nothing of the Nature of this poor Man's Blindness; nor what was the defect of his Eyes; nor whether it was curable by Art or not: Without which Knowledge, it is impossible and unreasonable to assert, that there was a Miracle wrought in the Cure of him. If his blindness or weakness of Eye-sight was curable by human means, and Jesus did use those means, there's an end of the Miracle. If the Evangelist had given us an accurate Description of the Condition of this Man's Eyes before Cure, we could have judg'd better: But this is their constant neglect in all the Distempers Jesus heal'd, and is enough to induce us to doubt of his miraculous Power. There are, as I have said, some sorts of sore or blind Eyes curable by Art, as Experience does testify; and there are others incurable, as Physicians and Patients do lament. Of which sort this Man's was, we know not. The worst that we know of his Case, is, that he was blind from his Birth, or Infancy, which might be: and yet Time, Nature and Art, may give relief to him. As a Man advances in Years, the diseases of Childhood and Youth wear off. What we call the King's-Evil, or an Inflammation in the Eyes, in time will abate of its Malignity. Nature will not only by degrees work the Cure it-self, but the seasonable help of a good Oculist will soon expedite it, tho' in time of Infancy he could be of no use. And who knows but this might be the Case of this blind Man, whose Cure Jesus by his Art did only hasten and help forward. However, there are Grounds enough to suspect, that it was not divine Power which heal'd this Man, or Jesus had never prepared and order'd an Ointment and Wash for him.
Should our Divines suppose or describe, for the Evangelist, a state of Blindness in this Man, incurable by Art; that would be begging the Question, which no Unbeliever will grant. But to please them, I will yield, without Enquiry into the Nature of this Man's Blindness, that, if Jesus had used no Medicines; if with only a word of his Mouth he had cured the Man, and he had instantaneously recover'd, as the Word was spoken; here would have been a real and great Miracle, let the Blindness or Imperfection of the Man's Sight before, be of what kind or degree soever. But Jesus's use of Washings and Ointments absolutely spoils and destroys the Credit of the Miracle, and we ought by no means to ascribe that to the immediate Hand and Power of God, which Medicines and Balsams are apply'd to the Effect of. And this brings me to the