3. And Jefus put forth his hand, and touched him, faying, I will, be thou clean. And immediately his leprofy was cleanfed.

4. And Jefus faith unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way, fhew thy felf to the priest, and offer the gift that Mofes commanded, for a teftimony unto them.

5. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, befeeching him, 6. And faying, Lord, my fervant lieth at home fick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

7. And Jefus faith unto him, I will come and heal him.

8. The centurion anfwered and faid, Lord, I am not worthy that thou fhouldeft come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my fervant Shall be healed.

9. For I am a man under authority, having foldiers under me and I fay to this man, Go, and he goeth: and to another, Come, and he cometh: and to my fervant, Do this, and he doth it.

10. When Jefus heard it, he marvelled, and faid to them that followed, Verily I fay unto yon, I have not found fo great faith, no not in Ifrael.

11. And I fay unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall fit down with Abraham, and Ifaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

12. But the children of the kingdom shall be caft out into outer darkness: there fhall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

13. And Jefus faid unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou haft believed, fo be it done unto thee. And bis fervant was healed in the felf-fame

bour.

The

The MORAL REFLECTION.

TH

HIS paffage of St. Matthew's gospel proposes two miracles; first, the cure of a leper; And behold there came a leper and worshipped him, Saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Our charitable Saviour immediately stretched out his hand, and with one touch reftored the fuppliant to perfect health; And Jefus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean: and immediately his leprofy was cleanfed: this poor man acknowledged Chrift's power; Thou canft, nor did he doubt of his will, but of his own unworthiness to receive the favour; and therefore did not prefume to follicit for a miracle; but opening his mifery to Chrift, he left the event wholly to his determination, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean; your power is infinite, nor is your goodnefs lefs I fling my felf therefore into your arms; I commit my felf to your difpofal; I neither afk a continuation of my disease, nor a delivery from it. If you think fit, I will receive health with joy, or bear my diftemper with patience.

This is a rare leffon for all Chriftians, how they are to behave themselves in their addreffes to God; it is a pattern, by which they muft draw up their petitions, when they fue for any temporal bleffing: firft, (like the leper) they muft approach God with veneration and refpect. There came a leper and worshipped him. This debt we owe his majefty, and the state of a fuppliant demands it. Secondly, They must acknowledge his power. He, who made all things of nothing, can difpofe of nature as he pleases; he can raise the dead, as well as ftrike dead the living, and with the fame facility cure diseases, as cause them. If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. In fine, all the goods of nature

and

and fortune, are the pure effects of his goodnefs; and the evils, of his permiffion. His will to do us good is as boundless as his power. He, who hath given us his Son, fays St. Paul, how shall be not with him give us all things? if we ask what becomes his goodness, and what clashes not with our falvation?

When we approach God with thefe difpofitions, we must leave the fuccefs of our prayers to his determination, and expect his pleasure, not only with patience but indifference; that is, we must not urge our demand with importunity, as if we intended to teaze God into a compliance, but receive a grant or denial with the fame chearfulness; for oftentimes it is a greater favour to refufe our petitions than to grant them; and he obliges us more when he ftrikes, than when he heals us.

For alas! we are fo great ftrangers to our own conftitutions, fo ignorant of the nature of things, that we know not what is beneficial, what is hurtful to us. We mistake serpents for fifh, and poifon for a cordial. Poor Rachel was inconfolable, when the faw herself without children, and concluded fhe could not furvive the mortification of barrennefs; Give me children, or I die. But fecundity, which the fuppofed would prolong her life, abridged it. She thought fhe could not live without issue, and fhe died because God made her fruitful. How many, impatient of pain, cry out for health? of poverty, for wealth? Yet thofe groan under a continuation of their disease, and these of their indigence. Hence they repine at providence, and complain that heaven, which is all bounty to others, is as hard as brass to them. But these people should confider, that the granting of their request would perchance be a punishment, and the denial a bleffing thofe may abuse health, and these money, to their damnation; for it is certain, most men live better,

better, when they are upon the point of dying, than when they enjoy health and vigour, and few people mend their lives with their fortunes. The afflicted leper laid open his mifery with this indifference, and received a cure, for his modefty; And Felus put forth his hand and touched him, faying, I will be thou clean. And immediately bis leprofy was cleanfed.

But if we must never petition God for a temporal bleffing without this provifo, If it will conduce to his glory and our falvation, we must not however permit fuch a reservedness to accompany our prayers, when we implore his mercy, and fue for pardon of our fins. It is not fufficient to tell him, with the leper in the gofpel, Lord, if you pleafe, you can cure the diseases of my foul; but we must importune him with prayers and tears, and implore his divine affiftance with fervour and perfeverance. For tho' temporal bleffings may turn to our difadvantage, fpiritual ones cannot. Pardon of our fins reconciles us to God, renews our loft title to his promises, and fets us in the way to heaven, which is the end of our creation, and of Chrift's facred paffion.

Say not, I want grace to break the chains that bind me to fin, to difengage my will from thofe charming objects that hamper it. This is a mere pretext; and to say, you cannot pray, or cannot repent for want of grace, is to encrease the catalogue of your crimes with herefy. He, who wrought a miracle to cleanfe a leper, will he refufe his help to thofe, who make their addreffes to his mercy, for a cure of their fouls? no certainly; his commands are not impoffible; he always gives force to comply with the most oppofite to flesh and blood, when he impofes them. It is inconfiftent with his goodness to punifh a poor creature for what he cannot help, but not for what he will not do;

indeed

indeed he requires our co-operation: for, as St. Auftin fays very well, He who made us without our concurrence, is notwithstanding refolved not to fave us without it.

Open therefore all the difeafes of your foul to him, who with fo much chearfulness cured thofe of the body. Tell him, with the holy fifters of Lazarus, He whom thou lovest is fick. He, whom you have loved to fuch a point, as to take upon you the bafenefs of his nature, and in the end to die by his cruelty, is not only fick, but dead to your grace, dead to your love, and by confequence alive to all the tortures of a guilty confcience, and (unless your mercy interpofes) to all the pains of the damned. And as this poor leper heard, I will be thou ; clean; you will hear these comfortable words, This fickness is not unto death. This mortal diftemper of the foul is not unto death eternal, but an argument that God's mercy exceeds man's wickedness; that it can forgive more crimes than we are able to commit; that it never refufes grace to those who afk it with earneftnefs and importunity, nor pardon to thofe, who fue for it with true forrow and unfeigned repentance.

Our Saviour ordered the leper to conceal the miracle; See thou tell no man, Matth. viii. 4. But alas! the poor man was fo transported, that, unable to confine his joy within his own breast, he proclaimed the favour, together with his Benefactor. By the prohibition of Chrift, we are taught to beware of vanity; and by the divulging of the miracle, gratitude. Chrift commands us to conceal the charities of our right hand from the knowledge of our left; that is, to condemn to fecrecy all our virtues, that, being out of the reach of vanity, (which often follows virtue as well as vice) we may expect a full retribution from God alone.

Yet,