then justly claims authority, yet, in many instances, he condescends to state the reasons of his commands, and may therefore require them to trust him, when he does not see fit to assign any.

39. The cure of the centurion's servant, at the request of his master. Matt. viii. Luke vii.

THE most eminent instances of faith, for they drew forth our Lord's admiration, were exhibited by Gentiles-by the centurion, and the woman of Canaan. A centurion was a Roman officer, commanding, as his name signifies, a hundred men. That nation in general despised the Jews too much to condescend to inquire into their religion. Even the philosophic Tacitus gives us strange and fabulous notices, though he might, if he had chosen, have been better informed, since he lived in the same town and at the same time with Josephus. They were regarded as hating other nations, and were hated of course in return. This centurion, however, was a honourable exception. He loved them, no doubt on account of their religion. He had been at the expence of building the synagogue at Capernaum, and we may presume that he had renounced the idolatry in which he had been bred, and worshipped the only true God. Matthew describes him as coming in person; Luke as speaking through the elders; for I agree with the majority of harmonists, that there was but one such centurion; and we have a similar instance in the petition of the sons of Zebedee, made, according to one Evangelist, by themselves; according to another, by their mother. Probably the centurion, in the first instance, sent, and finding that Jesus was on the way, hastened out of his house to meet him. Deeply affected by this act of condescension, he regarded his house, the habitation of a Gentile, as unfit for one so holy to enter. Being full of faith, and perhaps calling to mind the case of the nobleman's son of the same town, who was cured at a distance, he added, that it was not necessary that Jesus should so demean himself, and illustrated his meaning by his own office and power. He was

only an inferior officer, subject to his Tribune's authority; yet having a company of soldiers under him, he found them prompt to obey his orders, whether delivered to them on the spot, or sent to them from a distance; and in like manner his servant implicitly obeyed him. By a figure of speech, not uncommon among the ancients, and of which we have other instances in the New Testament, the reader is left to draw the inference, which expressed is this; "Much more can one, who is not under authority either present or absent, cure my dying servant, by commanding the disease to leave him." The servant was healed instantly; and our Lord took occasion to remark, that many of the Gentiles from distant parts of the earth would be admitted hereafter into the presence of Abraham, when his children after the flesh, cast into the darkness without, would mourn, and gnash their teeth from vexation and envy at their exclusion from the banquet, which they imagined was provided only for themselves. The Jews, while miracles of every kind were daily wrought by him, were asking for a sign, whereas the centurion is fearful of betraying the least distrust in his power. He declares his belief, that he can cure at a distance as well as near, and acknowledges his own unworthiness; and this lowliness of mind is the more remarkable, since the Romans were a proud and imperious people, and have not even a word in their language that answers to our humility. The centurion, however, possessed this virtue, which predisposes the mind to listen to the evidence, and to relish the humbling doctrines of Christianity; and his attachment to his servant places his disposition in honourable contrast with most of his countrymen, who treated their slaves with a severity, which the laws of no modern nation would allow, torturing them, and even putting them to death, for trivial offences. It is remarkable, that this is not the only centurion whose praise is in the Gospel. Another, the just and devout Cornelius, was selected to be the first fruits of the Gentile harvest; a centurion preserved the life of Paul; and a centurion declared of the dying Jesus, deserted by his friends and rejected by his nation, that he was the Son of God.

38. The son of a widow of Nain is raised from the dead. Luke vii.

THIS was succeeded by a more amazing miracle, the restoration to life of a young man, whom Jesus met, carried out to the grave, as he was entering Nain, a small town in the neighbourhood. He is described as the only son of a widow, and compassion for her appears to have been his motive for raising him from the dead; the miracle made a great impression on the inhabitants, who acknowledged that God had visited his people, and that Jesus was the Prophet who should come into the world.

39. John enquires if Jesus be the Messiah. Matt. xi. Luke vii.

JOHN, having been now some time in prison, sent two of his disciples to enquire if Jesus were the promised Messiah. Some commentators think that he sent them for their satisfaction; others, that his own faith was staggered, seeing that Jesus took no steps to deliver him, and did not even declare himself; and this seems better to suit the reply, "Happy is he to whom I am not an occasion of stumbling." To his question our Lord did not answer in words which might have given his enemies a handle against him, but by an appeal to this miracle, which he was then performing, and the fact of his preaching to the poor. John had wrought no miracle, and that rendered the evidence derived from his the more decisive, especially as they had been predicted by the same prophet, who had described the Baptist's preparatory ministry. Our Lord, on their departure, turning to the Jews, bore his testimony to John, as being far more than a prophet, the very Elias that was to come, the harbinger of the Messiah. And yet, though none was greater than him under the old dispensation, the least in the kingdom of heaven would be his superior: that is, the Christian of the lowest attainments would be favoured with more distinct views of the nature and glory of the Gospel. He then animadverted upon the per

verseness of that generation, which was alike dissatisfied with the austere and abstemious habits of John, and his own more social mode of life; observing, that wisdom was justified of all her children, the difference in their modes of life being suited to the different offices assigned to them for accomplishing the divine purposes.

40. Jesus upbraids those who had seen his miracles without repenting, and invites the weary and heavy laden to come unto him. Matt. xi.

HE next upbraids for their unbelief the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, and declares his willing acquiescence in his Father's decree, that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven should be concealed from the wise and learned, (that is, from those whom the world accounts such,) and revealed unto babes, or persons of childlike humility and willingness to learn. He calls upon all who labour and are heavy laden to come unto him, promising that he would grant them not mere deliverance from toil, but the rest which not only puts an end to fruitless labour, but affords a reviving cordial. There is not only peace but joy in believing. There is a rest from the unsatisfying and harassing anxieties felt by those whose hearts are set upon this world. There is a rest from the uneasiness of conscience, and a rest in degree from the power of sin. Preparatory to this invitation, he produces, as it were, his commission from his Father; and for the encouragement of the weary heavy laden sinner, who wishes to come to him, and yet might doubt his ability to fulfil his promises, he declares, that all power has been delivered unto him. The expressions "to labour," and "to be burthened," comprehend in their literal sense all the modes in which working animals are commonly employed; they either wear a yoke, or bear a burthen. The moral meaning of this figurative language is clear. To labour is to pursue the work of sin as an agent; to be burthened is to endure the pains and penalties of evil as a passive recipient. To

this miserable course of action and endurance are opposed the blessed activities, and not less blessed sufferings, of the Christian life, "my yoke is easy;" it is a service of perfect freedom, "my burthen is light;" for though the Christian has his sorrows, he would not exchange them for this world's joys. The happy consequence promised is rest unto the soul, rest from evil action and from mental suffering; the former given on coming to Christ, the latter found by perseverance in the course recommended. The beauty of the passage is heightened, if compared with the oppressive yoke of the national teachers, as described by Jesus on another occasion, "They bind burdens heavy and hard to be borne, and place them on men's shoulders, but they will not move them with one of their fingers;" whereas our Lord bare our infirmities, and does not impose, but invites us to take up his burthen." Still we must remember, that, though freed from bondage, the Christian must bear a yoke-the yoke of obedience to his Lord's commands; and this, though it will require self-denial, will be rendered easy by copying his example; and to those who love him it will be its recommendation, that he requires nothing but what he hath himself performed, and that in the path he hath marked out for us we may perceive his own footsteps all the way.

41. A woman who was a sinner anoints the feet of Jesus at an entertainment. Luke vii.

AN opportunity soon offered of proving him to be in the best sense, what was brought against him as an accusation, the friend of publicans and sinners-" the sinner's friend, but sin's eternal foe." He accepts a Pharisee's invitation to dinner, and a woman who was a notorious sinner, that is a harlot, and it may be a Gentile, encouraged perhaps by his late gracious call upon all to come unto him who laboured and were heavy laden, enters while he is reclining at the meal. She stands

a Jebb on Sacred Literature, p. 208.