almost in every line of this Divine sermon, there is a ready reference to their language, doctrines, customs, traditions, and opinions*.

A small rising, in the midst of an extensive plain, is supposed to have been the place from which our Lord delivered His Sermon on the Mount, and it is thought to have been the same spot to which Jesus retired when He spent the night in prayer before the election and ordination of the twelve Apostles. It has obtained the modern name of the Mount of the Beatitudes, from the blessings with which that beautiful sermon commences. It is a long low hill, of an oblong shape, having two projecting summits at one of its extremities, on which is a level surface, a little elevated, which the veneration of the middle ages crowned with a church, now in ruins. The manner of our Saviour's teaching was extremely peculiar, yet precisely adapted to the peculiarity of His character and situation. His lessons did not consist of disquisitions, or of any thing like moral essays or set treatises upon the several points which He mentioned. When He delivered a precept it was seldom that He added any proof or argument : still more seldom that He accompanied it with, what all precepts require, limitations and distinctions. His instructions were conceived in short, emphatic, sententious rules, in occasional

4

Dr. Lightfoot.

5 Dr. Wells.

6 Modern Traveller.

reflections, or in sound maxims. The circumstances under which He was continually placed, rendered it necessary for Him to comprise what He delivered within a small compass. The Sermon on the Mount should always be considered with this clue. It has been thought by some that it was made up of what Christ had said at different times and on different occasions. But there is no sufficient reason for this opinion. It is probable that our Lord delivered this discourse at one time and place, in the manner related by St. Matthew; but that He repeated many of the same maxims at different times, as opportunity or occasion suggested; and that they were often in His mouth, and were delivered to different hearers and in various conversations'.

SECT. XXXIX.-Christ healeth the Centurion's Servant.— Matt. viii. 5-13; Luke vii. 1–10.

AFTER the solemn address which Jesus had delivered from the Mount in the audience of the people, He retired to Capernaum, His most usual residence. In this city a man of good reputation, a centurion or commander of a hundred men in the Roman army, stationed in Judæa, having heard of Jesus, of His character, and of the miracles He had wrought; nay, who had, probably himself, profited by the knowledge of God that prevailed in that land, 7 Archdeacon Paley.

(for he had so far affected the Jews' religion that he had built them a synagogue at Capernaum,) this man sent the elders of that institution to Christ, "beseeching Him" to heal his servant laying “at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented." And Jesus went with them at their desire; but "whilst He was now not far from the house," the centurion, thinking himself unworthy, as a sinner and a Gentile, to receive so exalted a personage at the truckle bed-side of his servant, prevailed on some of his friends to go out to Him to stay His entry, at the same time expressing his belief that Jesus was able to perform the cure quite as well at a distance. At the last he went forth himself to meet Him, entreating Him to proceed no further; for he said, If I, who am but an inferior officer in an army, can give the word of command, and be immediately obeyed by my soldiers, how much more mayest Thou, to whom God hath committed such power and authority, say but the word, and what Thou sayest shall be effectual'? The orders that I give are executed at a distance: how much more certainly and perfectly will Thine be obeyed, who canst command the powers of nature'? He believed that Jesus had all the requisite power, and this was what at that time the Jews were especially bound to

8

Drs. Lightfoot and Robinson.

'Bishop Mann.

9 Dr. S. Clarke.

believe concerning Him, for they ought to have owned with Nicodemus, that "no man could do the miracles that He did unless God were with Him." This they in general refused to believe; but the centurion had no obstinate prejudices to oppose to his conviction; the miracles he had seen, or the doctrines he had heard, had produced their proper effect on him, and wrought an effectual faith. Our Lord approved his faith, and honoured it with a special mark of favour2; this man's faith is highly and justly extolled, though he was but a Gentile. Christ, by His commendation of it, gave the Jews to understand, that they for whom the kingdom of heaven in the Gospel was to be first addressed, and to whom it was accordingly now first preached by Himself, should nevertheless have no monopoly of its blessings. The centurion was not a Jew by religion, though, probably, he was a half convert, or what they called a proselyte of the gate; who were allowed to live among the children of Israel, but were not obliged to observe the ceremonial law. They were constrained to forsake idolatry, and to observe the moral precepts of the law, but were neither circumcised nor baptized into the covenant; at all events, in whatever degree this centurion had been admitted into the Israelitish communion, our Lord treats Him as a Gentile, for He said, Abp. Sumner.

2

3

Bishop Pearce.

Dr. Beausobre.

"I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." The faith of the master contributed to the cure of the servant; and thus He rewarded the sincere believer, whilst He displayed a proof of His power to the unconverted. What is here said to the centurion is applicable to all at all times. The language of the Gospel is, "As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." According to our faith in the Divine Word, and in Him whom that word makes known to us, so will it be with us all ".

SECT. XL.-Christ raiseth from the dead the Widow's Son at Nain.—Luke vii. 2—17.

THE day following this transaction, Jesus took a journey of some miles upon the road leading to Jerusalem, and as He approached "a city called Nain," which appears to have been situate not far from mount Tabor', a most affecting spectacle met His view. A distressed mother, who had been before bereaved of her husband, was now following her only son, her chief support and comfort, to the grave. The "dead man was carried out of the city." For, as the bodies of the dead were unclean by the law of the Jews, they were not permitted to bury their dead within their cities. When the age of the dead required a bier, as in this case, the attendance was numerous, more particularly of course when a sympathy for the survivor prevailed;

5 Dr. Graves.

6

Abp. Sumner.

7 Dr. Wells.