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But if you always put the harshest construction on every action, and are not touched with a feeling of your brother's infirmities, nor shew any mercy in the opinion you form of his character and actions, no mercy will be shewn you either from Omnipotence, or the sons of men. God will inflict on you the punishments you deserve, and the world will be sure to retaliate the injury.

Our Blessed Lord having represented to the multitude the great principles of the Christian religion, next directed his discourse in a particular manner, to his apostles, who were to be the teachers of the Gospel of peace. He was apprehensive they might think that the precepts he laid down were not to be attained by human nature, and therefore directed them to apply to God for the assistance of his Spirit, together with all the other blessings necessary to their salvation. He assured them, that if they asked with earnestness and perseverance, the Father of mercies would not fail to answer their requests, and give them whatever they desired; adding the noblest precept of morality that was ever delivered by any teacher. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

Having laid down several other precepts and instructions, as well for the benefit of his teachers in particular, as the multitude in general, our Lord concluded his discourse with this admonition: That whoever heard, believed, and practised the things contained in his discourses, would, in the end, be like a wise builder, who laid the foundation of his house upon a rock, not to be af fected by wind or weather; but that he, who heard and practised them not, would be like a man, who built his house upon the sand, soon to be blown down by the winds, and washed away by the floods.

The grace and majesty with which our Blessed Saviour delivered this discourse gained him universal applause, and the people readily declared the great sense they had of the difference between such Divine discourses, and the common harangues of their ordinary teachers the Scribes. And to confirm his doctrine by the testimony of miracles, our Blessed Lord, on his descent from the mount, healed

a leper, and then remitted him to the priest to make his oblation in acknowledgment of the great benefit he had received at his hands.

CHAP. VI.

Our Blessed Lord goes to Capernaum, and heals the servant of a Roman Centurion. He raises to life a widow's son. Passes great encomiums on John the Baptist. Absolves a woman from her sins. Cures a demoniac at Capernaum, and reproves the Pharisees. Instructs the multitude in parables. Cures a woman of a bloody flux. Restores the daughter of Jairus to life, and performs other great miracles. Goes to Nazareth, and is ill treated by the people. Sends out his Apostles, and gives them their commission. The death of John the Baptist.

AFTER our Blessed Saviour had preached his sermon on the mount, he repaired to Capernaum, attended by his disciples and a prodigious concourse of people. As he entered the city he was met by a Roman centurion, who represented to him, in the most pathetic manner, the deplorable condition of his servant, who was grievously afflicted with the palsy. The compassionate Redeemer of mankind listened attentively to his complaint, and immediately told him, he would come and heal him. The centurion thought this too great a condescension to one who was not of the seed of Jacob, and therefore told him, that he did not mean he should give himself the trouble of going to his house, as that was a condescension he had not the least reason to expect, besides which he was perfectly satisfied that his word alone would be sufficient to effect the cure, the removal of diseases being as much subject to his command as the Roman soldiers were to him.

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Our Blessed Lord was greatly surprized at the distinguished confidence of his humble supplicant; not that he was a stranger to his faith, or the basis on which it

was built; he well knew the thoughts of his heart before he uttered his request; but he was filled with admiration at the exalted idea the Roman officer had conceived of his power, and to make this faith the more conspicuous, he gave it the praise it so justly deserved. Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel.

This exalted faith induced the Blessed Jesus to declare the gracious intentions of his Almighty Father with regard to the Gentiles, namely, that he would as readily accept their faith as that of the Jews, and place them with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while those who boasted of being the offspring of these great patriarchs, but fell far short of many others in their faith, should be excluded from the blissful seats of paradise. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Having thus addressed the multitude, the Blessed Jesus turned himself to the centurion, and said, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. Though the idea thou hast conceived of my power is just, though remarkably great, as a reward for thy faith, I grant the petition thou hast asked. And the Evangelists add, his servant was healed in the self-same hour.

After our Blessed Saviour had performed this miracle, he went to Nain, a town situated about two miles south of Mount Tabor, attended by many of his disciples, and a great multitude of people. Just as they were about entering the town, Behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. The poor woman, both by her words and actions, expressed the highest sense of her affliction, turning a deaf ear to such of her friends as endeavored to mitigate her grief by the force of argument. She was now deprived of her son, her only son, in the flower of his youth, who might have lessened his mother's toils, and been to her in the place of a husband; of that husband she had long since lost, and whose loss was supportable only through the comfort of this child, the surviving image of his departed

father, the balm of all her grief, the hope of her afflicted soul. Who now shall administer consolation to this solitary widow, to this lonely parent, bereaved of her husband, deprived of her child? What misery can be more complicated? What can be more natural, than that she should refuse to be comforted, that she should go down to the grave, with mourning, and visit the chambers of death, the residence of the beloved remains of her husband, and her son, with sorrow?

Towards the receptacle of mortality, that dreary waste of forgetfulness, the mournful funeral was now with slow and solemn pomp advancing, when the compassionate Redeemer of mankind met the melancholy procession, composed of a long train of her weeping neighbors and relations, who pitied her distress, sympathized with her in this great affliction, and were melted with compassion at her deplorable circumstances; but sighs and tears were all they had to offer, relief could not be expected from a human being; their commiseration, though grateful to her oppressed soul, could neither restore the husband, nor the son; submission and patience were the only lessons they could preach, or this afflicted daughter of Israel could learn.

But though man was unable to relieve the distresses of this disconsolate widow, the Saviour of the world, who beheld the melancholy procession, was both able and willing to do it. There was no need of a powerful solicitor, to implore assistance from the Son of God, his own compassion was abundantly sufficient: When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her; he both sought the patient, and offered the cure, unexpectedly. Weep not, said the Blessed Jesus to this afflicted woman! Alas! it had been wholly in vain to bid her refrain from tears, who had lost her only child, the sole comfort of her age, without administering the balm of comfort to heal her broken spirit. This our compassionate Redeemer well knew; and, therefore, immediately advancing towards the corpse, he touched the bier; the pomp of the funeral was instantly stopped, silence closed every mouth, and expectation filled the breast of every spectator. But this deep suspense did not long continue; that glorious voice,

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that shall one day call our dead bodies from the grave, filled their ears with these remarkable words: Young man, I say unto thee, arise. Nor was this powerful command uttered without its effect. He spake, and it was done; he called with authority, and immediately he that was dead sat up, and began to speak; and he restored him to his mother. He did not shew him around to the multitude; but, by a singular act of modesty and humanity, delivered him to his late afflicted, now astonished and rejoicing, mother, to intimate, that, in compassion to her great distress, he had wrought this stupendous miracle.

The numerous spectators, who saw this miracle performed, were so astonished, that they immediately glorified God on the occasion, and publicly declared, that a mighty prophet was sprung up among them; and that God had visited his people.

We have taken notice, in a foregoing chapter, that Herod Antipas, being incensed at the honest freedom of John the Baptist in reproving his adulterous commerce with Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, had cast him into prison; and in this state he still continued, though his disciples were suffered to visit and converse with him. In one of these visits they had given him an account of our Saviour's having elected twelve apostles to preach the Gospel, as also of the great miracles he had performed, particularly that of his having raised to life the son of the widow of Nain.

In consequence of this intelligence, the Baptist dispatched two of his disciples to our Lord, to ask him this important question: Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? When the two disciples came to the place where our Lord was, they found him amidst a prodigious number of people, employed in working miracles, curing the deaf, the blind, the lame, &c. Having told him from whence they came, and asked the question as directed by their master, the Blessed Jesus, instead of giving a direct reply, bade them return, and inform John of what they had seen. Go your way (said he) and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel is preached. Go tell

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