And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Ver. 39. For judgment I am come] To judge, much otherwise than those unjust judges have done, that have cast out this poor servant of mine for a blasphemer. Bishop Bonner having a blind harper before him, said, that such blind abjects, that follow a sort of heretical preachers, when they come to the feeling of the fire, will be the first that will flee from it. To whom the blind man said, that if every joint of him were burnt, yet he trusted in the Lord not to flee. A blind boy, that had suffered imprisonment at Gloucester not long before, was brought to Bishop Hooper the day before his death. Mr Hooper, after he had examined him on his faith, and the cause of his imprisonment, beheld him stedfastly, and the water appearing in his eyes, said unto him: "A poor boy, God hath taken from thee thy outward sight, for what consideration he best knoweth, but hath given thee another sight much more precious: for he hath endued thy soul with the eye of knowledge, and faith," &c. It is a worthy speech of Mr Beza upon this text, Prodeant omnes Pharisaeorum nostri temporis Academia. Let all our University Pharisees come forth together: that blind and heretical Church (as they call it) hath, by the blessing of God, children of seven years old that can before all the world confute and confound their erroneous doctrines, Habet ecclesia illa caeca et heretica septennes pueros, qui teste universo mundo, &c.: witness the children of Merindal and Chabriers, John Ferry's child of eight years old, that told Bonner's chaplain (who said Fetty was a heretic,) My father is no heretic, but you are a heretic, for you have Balaam's mark. This child they whipped to death. Alice Driver, martyr, nonplussed all the doctors that examined her: and then said, God be honoured; you be not able to resist the Spirit of God in me a poor woman. I was never brought up in the University as ye have been: but I have driven the plough many a time before my father, and yet I will set my foot against the feet of any of you all, &c.