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MATTH. viii.

THE eighth chapter of St. Matthew, a part of

which will be the fubject of this Lecture, begins with the miraculous cure of the leper, which is related in the following manner :

When our Lord was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him, and behold there came a Ieper and worshipped him, faying, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, faying, I will; be thou clean and immediately his leprofy was cleanfed. And Jefus faith unto him, fee thou tell no man; but go thy way, fhew thyfelf to the priest, and offer the gift that Mofes commanded, for a teftimony unto them."

The leprofy is a diforder of the moft malignant and difgufting nature. It was once common in Europe. Thofe infected with it were called Lazars, who were feparated from all human fociety (the difeafe being highly contagious) and were confined in hofpitals called I azarettos, of which it is faid there were no lefs than nine thou fand at one time in Europe. For the last two hundred years this distemper has almoft entirely vanished from this. and other countries of Europe, and an inftance of it now is but feldom to be met with. In the Eaft it ftill exifts to a certain degree; and there in former ages it had its fource and origin, and raged for a great length of time with extraordinary violence.

In the law of Mofes, there are very particular directions given concerning the treatment of lepers, and a ceremonial appointed for the examination of them by the priest

when they were fupposed to be cured. But no natura?". remedy is prescribed by Mofes for the cure of it.

confidered by the Jews as a disease fent by God, and to be cured only by his interpofition. There could not, therefore, be a stronger proof of our Saviour's divine power, than his curing this most loathfome difeafe, of which many instances befides this occur in the Gofpels. The manner too in which he performed this cure was equally an evidence that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him*; it was instantaneous, with a touch, and a few words, and thofe words the moft fublime and dignified that can be imagined: I WILL; BE THOU CLEAN: and immediately the leprofy departed from him. This was plainly the language as well as the act of a God. I WILL; BE THOU

CLEAN.

Yet with all this fupernatural power there was no oftentation or parade, no arrogant contempt of ancient ceremonies and inftitutions (which an enthusiast always tramples under foot ;) but on the contrary a perfect fubmiffion to the established laws and ufages of his country. He faid to the man who was healed, "See thou tell no man; but go thy way, fhew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Mofes commanded, for a teftimony unto them.” Here he gave at once a striking example both of humility and obedience. He enjoined the man to keep fecret the aftonishing miracle he had wrought, and he commanded. him to comply with the injunctions of Mofes; to fhew himself to the priest, to undergo the examination, and to offer the facrifice prefcribed by the lawt; which at the fame time that it fhewed his difpofition to fulfil all righteoufnefs, eftablifhed the truth of the miracle beyond all. controversy, by making the priest himself the judge of the reality of the cure. This was not the mode which an impoftor would have chofen.

After this miracle, the next incident that occurs is the remarkable and interesting story of the centurion, whofe fervant was cured of the palfy by our Saviour. The relation of this miracle is as follows; "When Jefus was

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entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, befeeching him and faying, Lord, my fervant lieth at home fick of the palfy, grievoufly tormented*.

Jefus faith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and faid, Lord, I am not worthy that thou fhouldeft come under my roof, but fpeak the word only, and my fervant fhall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having foldiers under me; and I fay unto this man go, and he goeth; and to another come, and he cometh; and to a third do this, and he doeth it. When Jefus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed him, Verily I fay unto you, I have not found fo great faith, no, not in Ifrael. And Jefus faid unto the centurion, go thy way; and as thou haft believed, fo be it done unto thee: and his fervant was healed in the felffame hour."

This is the fhort and edifying hiftory of the Roman centurion; and the reafon of its being recorded by the facred writers was, in the first place, to give a moft ftriking evidence of our Saviour's divine power, which enabled him to restore the centurion's fervant to health at a distance, and without fo much as feeing him; and in the next place to fet before us, in the character of the centurion, an illuftrious example of those eminent Christian virtues, humanity and charity, piety and generofity, humility and faith.

Of the former of thefe virtues, humanity and charity,

*In the parrallel paffage of St. Luke, chap. vii. it is faid that the centurion fent meffengers to Jefus; but no mention is made of his com ing to him in perfon. This difficulty may be cleared up by obferving, that in fcripture what any perfon does by his meffengers he is frequent ly reprefented as doing by himself. Thus Chrift, who preached to the Ephefians by his apofles, is faid to have preached to them himself, Eph. ii. 17. But it seems to me not at all improbable, that the cen turion may both have fent meffengers to Jefus, and afterwards gone to him in perfon. Not thinking himself worthy," (as he himfelf expreffes it) to go to Chrift in the first inftance, he fent probably the elders of the Jews, and then fome of his friends, to implore our Lord to heal his fervant, not meaning to give him the trouble of coming to his houfe. But when he found that Jefus was actually on his way to him, what was more mtural for him than to haten out of his houfe to meet him, and to make his acknowledgments to him in perfon ?

he gave a very convincing proof in the folicitude he fhew ed for the welfare of his fervant, and the strong intereft he took in the recovery of his health. And this is the more remarkable and the more honorable to the centurion, be cause in general the treatment which the fervants of the Romans experienced from their masters was very different indeed, from what we fee in the prefent inftance. These fervants were almost all of them flaves, and were too commonly treated with extreme rigor and cruelty. They were often strained to labor beyond their ftrength, were confined to loathsome dungeons, were loaded with chains, were fcourged and tortured without reason, were deferted in fickness and old age, and put to death for trivial faults and flight fufpicions, and fometimes out of mere wantonnefs and cruelty, without any reafon at all. Such barbarity as this, which was at that time by no means uncom mon, which indeed has in a greater or less degree univerfally prevailed in every country where flavery has been eftablished, and which shows in the strongest light the danger of trufting abfolute power of any kind, political or perfonal, in the hands of fuch a creature as man; this barbarity, I fay, forms a moft ftriking contrast to the kindness and compaffion of the centurion, who, though he had fo much power over his flaves, and so many inftances of its feverest exertion before his eyes, yet made use of it as we here fee, not for their oppreffion and destruction, but their happiness, comfort, and preservation.

The next virtues which attract our notice in the centurion's character are his piety and generosity. These were eminently displayed in the affection he manifefted towards the Jewish people, and his building them a place of worfhip at his own expence; for the elders of the Jews informed Jefus," that he loved their nation, and had built them a fynagogue*."

The Jews, it is well known, were at this time under the dominion of the Romans. Their country was a Roman province, where this centurion had a military command; and they who are acquainted with the Roman hif

* Luke vii. 5.

tory know well with what cruelty, rapacity, and oppreffion, the governors and commanding officers in the conquered provinces too commonly behaved towards the people whom they were fent to keep in awe. So far were they from building them temples or fynagogues, that they frequently invaded even thofe facred retreats, and laid their facrilegious hands on every thing that was valuable in them. Of this we have abundant proofs in the history of Verres, when governor of Sicily; and Verres was in many respects a faithful representative of too large a part of the Roman governors. In the midst of this brutality and infolence of power does this gallant foldier ftand up to patronize and affift a diftreffed and an injured people; and it is a teftimony as glorious to his memory as it is fingular and almost unexampled in his circumftances, that he loved the Jewifb nation, and that he gave a very decifive and magnificent proof of it, by building them a fynagogue; for there cannot be a stronger indication both of love to mankind and love towards God, than erecting places of worship where they are wanted*. Without buildings to affemble in, there can be no public worship. Without public worship there can be no religion; and what kind of creatures men become without religion; into what exceffes of barbarity, ferocity, impiety, and ev ery fpecies of profligacy they quickly plunge, we have too plainly feen; God grant that we may never feel.

There is a moft dreadful want of this nature in the western part of this great metropolis. From St. Martin's-in-the-Fields to Marybone church inclufive, a space containing perhaps 200 000 fouls. there are only five parish churches, St Martin's, St. Anne's Soho, St. James's, St. George's Hanover Square and the very small church of Marybone. There are it is true. a few chapels interfperfed in this fpace; but what they can contain is a mere trifle, compared to the whole number of inhabitants in those parts and the lowest claffes are almost entirely excluded from them. The only meafure that can be of any effential service, is the erection of several spacious parish churches, capable of receiving very large congregations, and affording de cent accommodations for the lower and inferior as well as the higher orders of the people. In the reign of Queen Anne, a confiderable fam of money was voted by Parliament for fifty new churches It is molt devoutly to be wished that the prefent Parliament would, to a certain extent at leaft, follow fo honorable an example It is, I am fure, in every point of view, political, moral, and religious, well worthy the attention of the British legiflature, A fufficient number

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