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and habits, moft contrary to the peaceful, humane, and gentle fpirit of the Gofpel, and moft expofed to the fascination of gaiety, pleafure, thoughtleffnefs, and diffipation. Yet amidst all thefe obftructions to purity of heart, to mildness of difpofition and fanctity of manners, we fee this illuftrious CENTURION rifing above all the difadvantages of his fituation, and inftead of finking into vice and irreligion, becoming a model of piety and humility, and all thofe virtues which neceffarily fpring from fuch principles. This is an unanswerable proof, that whenever men abandon themselves to impiety, infidelity, and profligacy, the fault is not in the fituation but in the heart; and that there is no mode of life, no employment or profeffion, which may not, if we pleafe, be made confiftent with a fincere belief in the Gofpel, and with the practice of every duty we owe to our Maker, our Redeemer, our fellowcreatures, and ourselves.

Nor is this the only inftance in point; for it is extremely remarkable, and well worthy our attention, that among all the various characters we meet with in the New Testament, there are few reprefented in a more amiable light, or spoken of in stronger terms of approbation, than those of certain military men. Befides the centurion who is the fubject of this Lecture, it was a centurion, who at our Saviour's crucifixion gave that voluntary, honeft, and unprejudiced testimony in his favor, “Truly this was the Son of God." It was a centurion who generously preferved the life of St. Paul, when a propofition was made to deitroy him after his fhipwreck on the island of Melita†.— It was a centurion to whom Saint Peter was fent by the exprefs appointment of God, to make him the firft convert among the Gentiles: a diftinction of which he seemed, in every respect, worthy; being, as we are told, "a juft and a devout man, one that feared God with all his houfe, that gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway‡."

We fee then that our centurion was not the only military man celebrated in the Gospel for his piety and virtue;

Matth. xxvii. 54. † Acts xxvii. 43. As x, 2,

nor are there wanting, thank God, diftinguished 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 confistency of a military, and every other mode of life, with a firm belief in the doctrines and a confcientious obedience to the precepts of religion.

Thirdly, there is ftill another reflection arifing from this circumstance, with which I fhall conclude the prefent Lecture; and this is, that when we obferve men bred up in arms repeatedly spoken of in feripture 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 fect of Chriftians 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 applaufe of his grateful country, and what is of still greater importance, the approbation of his God.

LECTURE IX.

MATTHEW x.

I NOW

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 pally, 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 pow er. He also cured the woman who touched the hem of his garment. He raised to life the deceafed 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 reftored him to his fpeech. These miracles are particularly recorded: but befides these there must have been a prodigious number wrought by him, of which no dif tinct mention is made; for we are informed in the 31ft verfe that he went about all the cities and villages teaching in their fynagogues, and preaching the gofpel of the kingdom, and healing every fickness 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 neceffary to appoint fome coadjutors to himself in this great work. "The harvest truly is plenteous, fays he to his difciples, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harveft, that he would fend forth laborers into his harvest*."

Matth. ix. 37, 38.

These laborers he now determined to fend forth; and in pursuance of this resolution we find him in the beginning of this chapter calling together his difciples, 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 purpose ; powers fuch as nothing less than Omnipotence could beftow. The names of these apostles were as follows; Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, another James, Thaddeus or Jude, Simon, Judas Iscariot. These 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 house 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 master 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 inftructions, 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 muft firft offer to your confideration a few remarks on this extraordinary defignation of the apostles 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 relinquish 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 prefent hardships and fe

Matth. . 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 sudden 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 description? 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 Gofpel 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," cleanse 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 caufe 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.

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