Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

184 ST. MATTHEW.
him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake
and saw,"
The devil makes himself master of the heart, the
eyes, and the tongue of the sinner :—Of his heart,
by possessing it with the love of sin ; of the eyes of
his mind, by hindering him from seeing the guilt
and consequences of it ; and of his tongue, by diverting
him from prayer, confession, &c. Work,
O ray God, these three miracles upon sinners ; and
deliver my heart from every degree of this threefold
captivity !
" 23. And all the people were amazed, and said,
Is not this the son of David?"
Let us but reflect upon what God has done in
us, and upon what he can do, to drive out the evil
spirit of sin, to open our eyes, and untie our tongues ;
and we shall be then vvrapt up in admiration, and
full of hopes, with much greater cause than this
people. Whenever we have a good thought, a holy
desire, or an edifying v.^ord, let us say, without hesi-
tation, ' The son of David works this in us;' and let
us say it with gratitude.
" 24. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said,
This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelze-
bub, the prince of the devils."
The more disciples truth gains, the more enemies
she raises. Thus it is, that the malicious world
sometimes ascribes the conversion of sinners to mo-
tives of covetousness and interest, or to some passion
contrary to the Spirit of God. Can the spirit of
contradiction, hatred, and envy, proceed farther than
this, to choose rather to give to the devil than to
God, the honour of a work which it is forced to ac-