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into the college of apostles by our Lord himself. Prophecying, ejection of devils, and other miracles, are mentioned, to shew that no gift, endowment, or accomplish ment whatsoever, without faith and holiness, will avail to our acceptance with God; a caution very proper in those days, when the gifts of the Spirit were to be bestowed, in such plenty, on them who made profession of Christianity. He added, And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity, Though I call you to be my servant, and you professed yourselves such, I never knew you to be such, nor approved of you. I knew, indeed, that you were the slaves of other masters, mammon, your own belly, and ambition; wherefore, as your lives have been contrary both to my precepts and your own profession, begone; I will have nothing to do with you. That this is the true meaning of the expression, I never knew you, will appear, if the appellation, Lord, Lord, wherewith these wicked men addressed the judge, is attended to; for, in this connection, it is as if they had said, Master, dost thou not know thine own servants? Did not we preach by thy authority, and by thy power foretel future events, and cast out devils, and work many miracles? Because Jesus had now spoken a great deal, he concluded his discourse with the parable of the houses built on different foundations. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. In calm serene weather any edifice will stand but it is the wintry blasts that try the strength of a structure. The wise man, foreseeing these, provides against them by building his house upon a rock, where it stands immoveable in the midst of hurricanes. But the fool, not thinking of winter, is so charmed with the beauty of a particular situation, that, without considering, he builds his house there, even though it be a hillock of loose sand. The winter comes, heavy showers of rain fall, an impetuous torrent, from a neighbouring mountain, rushes by, and saps the foundation of his building. The storms beat upon it, the house shakes, it totters, it falls with a terrible noise, and makes the whole circumjacent plain to resound. He who hears my precepts, and puts them in practice, may be compared to the wise man, that built his house upon a rock. He provides for himself a place of shelter and accommodation that will subsist in the wreck of the world. On the other hand, he who hears my precepts, and does them not, may be compared to the fool who built his house upon the sand. The edifice. which he has reared for his future accommodation being built upon a bad foundation, will quickly fall. By this parable, therefore, our Lord has taught us, that the bare knowledge of true religion, or the simple hearing of the divinest lessons of morality that ever were delivered by men, nay, the belief of these instructions, if possible, without the practice of them, is of no importance at all. It is doing of the precepts of religion alone which can establish a man so stedfastly that he shall neither be shaken with the temptations, afflictions, and persecutions of the present life, nor by the terrors of the future. Whereas, whosoever heareth and doth them not will be overwhelmed and oppressed by the storms of both worlds; oppressed in this life, and utterly overwhelmed in that. which is to come.

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And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For. he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. The words of Christ made a wonderful impression on the minds of his auditors, whe

never had heard the like before. They began to relish the holy sweetness of truth, and were astonished at the freedom and boldness with which he spake. For he taught them as one having authority immediately from God, and, consequently, did not teach them as the scribes, whose lectures, for the most part, were absolutely trifling, being drawn from traditions from the comments of other doctors, which these ignorant and corrupt teachers substituted in the place of scripture, reason, and truth.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT TO THE FIRST MISSION OF THE Apostles.

The cure of the leper---the centurion's servant or son---the demoniac in the synagogue of Capernaum---Peter's wife's mother---the miraculous draught of fishes---Christ stills a storm--cures the demoniacs of Gadara---herd of swine perish--returns to Capernaum---the paralytic borne by four---calls Levi, or Matthew---whether they were the same---heals the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda---vindicates his disciples for rubbing the ears of corn---recovers the man with a withered hand---retires from the persecution of his enemies---chooses the apostles---their names and characters..

WE are now arrived at a part of the history of Jesus which has much exercised the abilities of critics and composers of Harmonies. We do not, therefore, wish to be considered as affirming, in every instance, the order in which the facts, here recorded, succeeded each other; but have arranged them according to the most probable opinion we have been able, after a careful examination, to form. It is, however, with great satisfaction we observe, that though it appears, in many instances, impossible to compose a perfect harmony of the four evangelists; yet, if their expressions be candidly compared, they will not be found to contradict each other, or to make any other variations than might be expected from faithful witnesses, who had not consulted together upon the precise manner of delivering their evidence.

Immediately after the sermon upon the mount there was performed the cure of the leper, mentioned by Matthew in the eighth chapter of his gospel. We shall give the story in the translation of Dr. Campbell, and afterwards subjoin a few explanatory remarks.

Being come down from the mountain, followed by a great multitude, a leper came, who, prostrating himself before him, said, Sir, if thou wilt, thou canst cleanse me. Jesus stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou cleansed. Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, See thou tell nobody; but go, shew thyself to the priest, and make the oblation prescribed by Moses for notifying (the cure) to the people.

1. It is remarkable that, in many instances, as Dr. Macknight justly observes, our Lord was at the greatest pains to conceal his miracles. Perhaps he did not intend that he should be universally believed on during his own life-time. He was, indeed, to fulfil the whole prophetical characters of the Messiah; that when the time appointed for erecting his kingdom came, the foundation, on which it was to rest, might want nothing of the strength and solidity that was necessary to support so great a fabric.

s the faith of the world. But all those prophetical characters of the Messiah, Jesus fulfilled and appropriated to himself; when in his own life-time, he proved his mission from God by miracles, communicated the knowledge of divine things to a competent number of disciples, in order to their propagating it through the world; and, in the conclusion, by his sufferings and death, not only confirmed his doctrine, but made atonement for the sins of men.

The wisdom of this plan was worthy of its author. For, had our Lord, during his ministry, proposed to convert great numbers of the Jews, he might, no doubt, have done it with as much success as after his ascension. But then the consequences would have been inconvenient in two respects. First, Had the Jews become universally Christ's followers, they would have endeavoured to make him a king; by which means, one main end of his coming must have been defeated, his dying a atonement for sin, and the Christian religion have been deprived of the evidence which it derives from the greatest of all his miracles, his resurrection from the dead. Second, This general good reception given to Jesus by his countrymen might have made the Gentiles reject him, supposing it was a contrivance to support the sinking credit of the nation. On the other hand, if it should be said that our Lord would not have convinced more than he did, though he had attempted it, this consequence, at least, must have followed from the attempt. Herod in Galilee, or the governor in Judea, provoked at him for affecting popularity, would have cut him off. Or, though they had despised him, and let him alone, the haughty priests would certainly have de stroyed him before his time. We are warranted to say this by what happened toward the conclusion of his ministry, when he went into Judea, taught in the temple, and wrought his miracles publicly before the world They pursued him so hotly, that though he was innocent of every crime, they constrained the governor to condemn him, and execute upon him the punishment of the vilest malefactor. But it was necessary that Jesus should perform many miracles for the confirmation of his mission, and preach many sermons in order to prepare his disciples for their future work; he was obliged, at least, in the beginning of his ministry, to keep himself as private as the nature of his work would admit. And this he supposes was one of the reasons that induced him to spend so large a share of his public life in Galilee, and the other countries around the lake.

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But farther, our Lord kept himself private, that he might not be too much incommoded by the crowds. For, though he used every prudent method to prevent it, he was often hurried to such a degree that he had not leisure to take his necessary meals, far less leisure for instructing his disciples. [Mark i. 45. iii. 20. vi. 31.] To conclude: besides these general reasons, there may oft-times have been particular circumstances which made it fit to conceal the miracle, on occasion of which the caution was given. We know there was a reason of this kind attending the miracle under consideration. Jesus intended that the priests should pass judgment on the cure of the leper, before they knew how it had been brought about; because, had they known this, it is more than probable, that, in order to destroy the credit of the miracle, they would have refused to pronounce the man clean.

2. The same able writer observes, that it has been generally thought that this is the leper whose cure is recorded, Mark i. 40. Luke v. 12. But the cures, in his opinion, are different. That was performed in a city, this in the fields. Having cleansed the leper here mentioned, Jesus entered into Capernaum, and cured the centurion's son that was sick. Whereas, the other leper having published the miracle, Jesus could not, at least in the day time, go into the town, but was obliged to remain without, in desert places, to shun the crowd, It must be acknowledged, indeed, that there are some

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things similar in the two cures; for instance, both the lepers say to Christ, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. But it was so natural to address their desires unto the Son of God in this form, by which, also, they expressed their belief in his power, that it is rather matter of wonder we do not find it more frequently made use of. We have a parallel example, Mat. ix. 27, Luke xviii. 38, whose different blind men, at different times, desiring cures, make use of the same form of address, Son of David, have mercy on us. Farther, there is the same command given to the lepers, to go shew themselves to the priest. But this command must have been repeated, not twice, but twenty times, on the supposition that Jesus cleansed lepers so often. Accordingly, we find him repeating it to the lepers whom he cleansed at one time, in Samaria, [Luke xvi. 14.] As for the circumstance of bidding the cured person tell no man what had happened, it occurs almost in every miracle performed by Christ during the two first years of his ministry.

But however convincing these arguments might appear to the learned commentator, they have not been able to obtain our consent to his opinion; for we still think it probable that it was the same miracle, which might be performed within the precincts of Capernaum, and might be the cause, though a little remote, of our Lord's leaving that city, and retiring into the desert.

3. Dr. Campbell vindicates his translation of the last verse by the following note. Both the sense and the connexion shew that the them here means the people. It could not be the priests, for it was only one priest (to wit, the priest then entrusted with that business,) to whom he was commanded to go. Besides, the oblation could not serve as an evidence to the priest. On the contrary, it was necessary that he should have ocular evidence, by an accurate inspection in private, before the man was admitted into the temple, and allowed to make the oblation but his obtaining this permission, and the solcain ceremony consequent upon it, was the public testimony of the priest, the only legal judge to the people that the man's uncleanness was removed. This was a matter of the utmost consequence to the man, and of some consequence. to them. Till such testimony was given, he lived in a most uncomfortable seclusion from society. No man durst, under pain of being also secluded, admit him into his house, eat with him, or so much as touch him. The antecedent, therefore, to the pronoun them, though not expressed, is easily supplied by the sense. To me it is equally clear, that the only thing meant to be attested by the oblation was the cure. The suppositions of some commentators on this subject are quite extravagant. Nothing: can be more evident than that the person now cleansed was not permitted to give any testimony to the priest, or to any other, concerning the manner of his cure, or the person by whom it had been performed. See thou tell nobody. The prohibition is expressed, by the evangelist Mark, in still stronger terms. Prohibitions of this kind were often transgressed by those who received them; but that is not a good reason for represeating our Lord as giving contradictory orders.

When the leper was dismissed, Jesus proceeded to Capernaum, and, as he was entering the town, a Roman centurion, in Herod's pay, met and told him of the grievous. distress that a young person, belonging to him, was in, by reason of a palsy which he laboured under. [Mat. viii. 5.] And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant, (or, as others render it, my son,) lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. Jesus. kindly replied, that he would come and heal him. The centurion answered, that he did not mean he should take the trouble of going to his house, being a Gentile, but only that he would be so good as to command this young man's cure, though at a distauce; for he knew his power was equal to that effect, diseases and devils, of all kinds,

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