nobleman and his family, that Jesus was the true Messiah, the great Prophet so long promised to the world.

After some stay in the city and neighbourhood of Cana, Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had spent the greatest part of his youth, and, as his custom was, went to the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and read that celebrated prediction of the Messiah in the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."- Luke iv. 18, 19.

It should be remembered, that our blessed Saviour read the passage in the original Hebrew, which was then a dead language; and, as he had never been taught letters, could do it only by inspiration from above. But he did more; he explained the passage with such strength of reason, and beauty of expression, that the inhabitants of Nazareth, who well knew he had never been initiated into the rudiments of learning, heard him with astonishment. But as he performed no miracle in their city, they were offended at him. Perhaps they thought the place

of his residence should have been his peculiar care; and, as he could, with a single word, heal the sick at a distance, not a single person in Nazareth should have been afflicted with any kind of disease. That they really entertained sentiments of this kind, seems plain from our Saviour's own words: "Ye will surely say to me, Physician heal thyself; whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country;" -evidently alluding to the great and benevolent miracle he had wrought on the nobleman's son.

But the holy Jesus, by enumerating the miracles Elijah had done in behalf of the widow of Sarepta, who was a heathen; and the inhabitants of an idolatrous city, in the time of famine, when many widows in Israel perished with hunger; and of Naaman the Syrian, who was cured of his leprosy by the prophet Elisha, when numbers of Jews, afflicted with the same loathsome disease, were suffered to continue in their uncleanness, sufficiently proved that the prophets had, on some extraordinary occasions, wrought miracles in favour of those whom the Israelites, from a fond conceit of their being the peculiar favourites of Heaven, judged unworthy of such marks of particular favour. The council was so incensed at this reply, that forgetting the sanctity of the Sabbath, they hurried him through the streets, to

the brow of the hill whereon the city was built, intending to cast him headlong down the precipice but the Son defeated their cruel intentions, by miraculously confounding their sight, and withdrawing from the fury of these wretched people.

CHAPTER VI.

OUR LORD PROCEEDS TO CAPERNAUM.-ADDS TO THE NUMBER OF HIS FOLLOWERS.-PROCLAIMS THE GOSPEL IN GALILEE.-PREACHES TO A NUMEROUS AUDIENCE HIS WELL-KNOWN AND EXCELLENT DISCOURSE UPON THE MOUNT.

THE holy Jesus, aggrieved by the cruel Nazarenes, departed from them, and visited Capernaum the capital of Galilee (being built on the borders of the Lake of Gennesaret), which was a place highly convenient for the design; for, besides the numerous inhabitants of that city, the trading towns on the lake were crowded with strangers, who, after hearing the doctrine of the gospel preached by the great Redeemer of mankind, would not fail to spread, in their respective countries, the happy tidings of salvation.

Though it was expedient that he should spend

a considerable time in preaching and working miracles, to confirm his mission, and instruct his disciples in the doctrine they were afterwards to publish to the whole world, this could not be done at Jerusalem, the residence of the Scribes and Pharisees, whose ambition would never have suffered so celebrated a teacher as Jesus to reside among them; these countries were, therefore, the only places where he could for any time take up his residence, and instruct the people in such a manner as to answer the great intention of his coming into the world.

If any should inquire, why he chose Capernaum in preference to all the other places situated on the Lake of Gennesaret? we reply, because he was certain of being favourably received by the inhabitants of that city. He had gained the friendship of the principal family, by restoring to health a favourite child, who, to all human appearance, was just sinking into the chambers of the grave. Nor was this family the only friends he had in that city; so stupendous a miracle could not fail of procuring the love and esteem of all the relations of that noble family: besides, so benevolent and surprising a miracle must have greatly conciliated the respect of all the inhabitants of Capernaum, who could not be ignorant of so remarkable an event. And, accordingly,

our Saviour spent here, and in other places bordering on the lake, a great part of the time of his public life; so that the inhabitants of these parts enjoyed a considerable share of the blessed company, and divine instructions, of the Son of God.

It may not be amiss, in this place, to give a short description of this celebrated lake, called in the Old Testament the Sea of Chinneroth; but in the New it has three different appellations, being called the Sea of Galilee, from the province of Galilee in general; the Sea of Tiberias, from a city of that name on its western shore; and the Lake of Gennesaret, from a particular tract of Galilee, extending a considerable way along its western side.

According to Josephus, it is a hundred furlongs in length, and forty in breadth. The bottom is of gravel, which renders the waters both of a good colour and taste. It is softer than either fountain or river water; and at the same time so cold, that it will not grow warm, though exposed to the rays of the sun in the very hottest season of the year. The river Jordan runs through the midst of it, which stocks it with a variety of fish, of a peculiar form and flavour not found in any other place.

The countries surrounding this lake were large,