" [170:1]
From the account in St. John, the miracle of the opening of the eyes of
the man born blind seems to have excited unbounded astonishment:--
"Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes
of one that was born blind." "Can a devil open the eyes of the
blind?" (John ix. 32, x. 21.)
But more than this. If there be any truth whatsoever in the Gospel
narrative, the disciples themselves, instead of exhibiting anything
approaching to the credulity with which the author of "Supernatural
Religion" taxes the contemporaries of Christ, exhibited rather a spirit
of unbelief. If they had transmitted to us "cunningly devised fables,"
they never would have recorded such instances of their own slowness of
belief as is evinced by their conduct respecting the feeding of the four
thousand following upon the feeding of the five thousand, when they ask
the same question in the face of the same difficulty respecting the
supply of food.
Above all, their slowness of belief in the Resurrection of Christ after
their Master's direct assertion that He would rise again, is directly
opposed to the idea suggested by the author of "Supernatural Religion,"
that they were ready to believe anything which seemed to favour His
pretensions.
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