nor are there wanting, thank God, distinguished inftances of the fame kind in our own age, in our own nation, among our own commanders, and in the recent memory of every one here prefent. All which examples tend to confirm the obfervation already made, of the perfect confiftency of a military, and every other mode of life, with a firm belief in the doctrines and a conscientious obedience to the precepts of religion.

Thirdly, there is ftill another reflection arifing from this circumftance, with which I fhall conclude the prefent Lecture; and this is, that when we obferve men bred up in arms repeatedly spoken of in fcripture in fuch strong terms of commendation as those we have mentioned, we are authorized to conclude, that the profeffion they are engaged in is not, as a mistaken sect of Christians amongst us profeffes to think, an unlawful one. On the contrary, it feems to be ftudiously placed by the facred writers in a favorable and an honorable light; and in this light it always has been and always ought to be confidered. He who undertakes an occupation of great toil and great danger, for the purpose of ferving, defending, and protecting his country, is a moft valuable and refpectable member of fociety; and if he conducts himself with valor, fidelity, and humanity, and amidst the horrors of war cultivates the gentle manners of peace, and the virtues of a devout and holy life, he moft amply deferves, and will affuredly receive the esteem, the admiration, and the applause of his grateful country, and what is of still greater importance, the approbation of his God.

LECTURE IX.

MATTHEW x.

NOW proceed to the confideration of the 10th Chapter of St. Matthew.

In the preceding chapter we find our Saviour working a great variety of miracles. He healed the man that was fick of the palfy, and forgave his fins; a plain proof of his divinity, because none but God has the power and the prerogative of forgiving fins; and therefore the Jews accufed him of blafphemy for pretending to this power. He alfo cured the woman who touched the hem of his garment. He raised to life the deceased daughter of the ruler of the fynagogue. He restored to fight the two blind men that followed him; and he caft out from a dumb man the devil with which he was poffeffed, and restored him to his fpeech. Thefe miracles are particularly recorded: but befides these there must have been a prodigious number wrought by him, of which no diftinct mention is made; for we are informed in the 31ft verse that he went about all the cities and villages teaching in their fynagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every ficknefs and every disease among the people.

These continued miracles must neceffarily have produced a great number of converts. And accordingly we find the multitude of his followers was now fo great, that he' found it necessary to appoint some coadjutors to himself in this great work. "The harveft truly is plenteous, fays he to his disciples, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would fend forth laborers into his harvest*."

* Matth. ix. 37, 38,

Thefe laborers he now determined to fend forth; and in purfuance of this refolution we find him in the beginning of this chapter calling together his disciples, out of whom he selected twelve, called by St. Matthew apostles or messengers, whom he sent forth to preach the gospel, and furnished them with ample powers for that purpofe ; powers fuch as nothing lefs than Omnipotence could be ftow. The names of these apostles were as follows; Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, another James, Thaddeus or Jude, Simon, Judas Iscariot. Thefe twelve perfons, St. Matthew tells us, Jefus fent forth, and commanded them, faying, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any cities of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the loft fheep of the houfe of Ifrael; and as ye go, preach, faying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand." This was the business which they were fent to accomplish; they were to go about the country of Judea, and to preach to the Jews in the first place the holy religion which their divine mafter had just began to teach. Then follow their powers; "heal the fick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, caft out devils."

After this come their instructions, and a variety of directions how to conduct themselves in the discharge of their arduous and important miffion, of which I fhall take notice hereafter; but must first offer to your confideration a few remarks on this extraordinary defignation of the apoftles to their important office.

And in the first place, who were the men fingled out by our bleffed Lord for the purpose of diffufing his religion through the world; that is for the very fingular purpose of perfuading men to relinquifh the religion of their ancestors, the principles they had imbibed from their infancy, the customs, the prejudices, the habits, the ways of thinking which they had for a long courfe of years indulged, and to adopt in their room a system of thinking and acting in many respects directly oppofite to them; a religion expofing them to many present hardships and se

* Matth. x. 2-3.

vere trials, and referring them for their reward to a dif tant period of time, and an invifible world. Was it to be expected that fuch a change as this, fuch a fudden and violent revolution in the minds of men, could be brought about by common and ordinary inftruments? Would it not require agents of a very fuperior order, of confiderable influence from their birth and wealth and fituation in life, men of the profoundeft erudition, of the brighteft talents, of the most confummate knowledge of the world and the human heart, of the most infinuating manners, of the most commanding and fafcinating eloquence ?— Were then the apoftles of this defcription? Quite the contrary. They were plain, humble, unpretending men, of low birth and low occupations, without learning, without education, without any extraordinary endowments, natural or acquired, without any thing in fhort to recommend them but their fimplicity, integrity, and purity of manners. With what hopes of fuccefs could men fuch as these fet about the most difficult of all enterprizes, the reformation of a corrupt world, and the converfion of it to a new faith? Yet we all know that they actually did accomplish these two most arduous things, and that on the foundations they laid the whole fuperftructure of the Chriftian church has been raised, and the divine truths of the Gospel spread through all parts of the civilized world. How then is this to be accounted for? It is utterly impoffible to account for it in any way but that which Chrift himself points out, in this very charge to his apoftles: "Heal the fick," fays he to them in the 8th verfe," cleanfe the lepers, raise the dead, caft out devils." Here is the explanation of the whole mystery. It was the powers with which they were invested, the miracles they were enabled to perform, which procured fuch multitudes of converts. The people faw that God was with them, and that, therefore, every thing they taught must be true.

Here is at once a fufficient cause affigned for the effect produced by agents, apparently fo unequal to the production of it. We challenge all the infidels in the world to affign any other adequate caufe. They have never yet done it; and we affert with confidence that they never

can,

These then were the powers the Apoftles carried along with them; and where fhall we find the fovereign that could ever furnish his ambassadors with fuch qualifications as these? If they were asked with what authority they were invested, and what proofs they could give that they were actually commiffioned to inftru&t mankind in the principles of true religion, by that great perfonage the Son of God, whofe fervants and minifters they pretended to be, their answer was short and decifive; bring us your fick, and we will heal them; fhew us your lepers, and we will cleanse them; produce your dead, and we will reftore them to life. It would not be very eafy to difpute the authenticity of such credentials as these.

It is further to be observed on this head, that the cir cumftance of our Saviour not only working miracles. himfelf, but also enabling others to perform them, is an inftance of divine power, to which no other prophet or teacher before him, true or falfe, ever pretended. In this, as in many other refpects, he ftands unrivalled and alone.

After this follow fome directions, no lefs fingular and new." Provide neither gold nor filver, nor brafs in your purfes, nor fcrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither fhoes, nor yet ftaves*."

That is, they were to take a long journey, without making any other provifion for it than the staff in their hand, and the clothes they had on, for, fays Jefus, the workman is worthy of his meat; an intimation that the providence of God would watch over and fupply their wants. This required fome confidence in their Mafter; and unless they had good grounds for thinking that it was in his power to engage Providence on their fide (or in other words, that he was actually the Son of God) they would scarce have run the risk of fo unpromising an expe dition. But this conclufion grows infinitely stronger when we come to the declaration in the next and following verses.

* Matth. x. 9—10.