SERMON V.

St MATTHEW called from the Receipt of Cuftom.

MATT. ix. 9.

And as Jefus passed forth from thence, be faw a Man named Matthew, fitting at the Receipt of Cuftom: And he faith unto him, Follow me. And be arofe and followed him.

W

E this Day commemorate another Apoftle of the Holy Jefus, whofe Memory is dear, not only for his indefatigable Labour and Zeal, in preaching the Gospel, but alfo for the Account he has left of it in Writing. The Text (which is Part of the Gospel for the Day) is his own Relation of his own Converfion and Call. In which it is obfervable, that while the other two Evangelifts, who relate his Story, mention him only by the Name of Levi, Mark ii. 14. Luke v. 27. the better to conceal him

SERM, from the Reproaches which were very liberalV. ly bestowed (as I shall shew by and by) upon Men of his Employment and Calling; the Apostle himself freely and impartially records his own Hiftory, under his proper Name of Matthew; and (which is a further Evidence of his great Humility) in the Lift of the Apostles (in which the other Evangelifts give him the Precedence to Thomas,) he names Thomas first, and then himself, under the odious Character of Matthew the Publican, Mark iii. 18. Luke vi. 15. Matt. x. 3.

From hence, by the way, we have a double Inftruction worthy our Obfervation. For first, the Charity of the other Evangelifts in hiding and covering our Apoftle from Reproach, teaches us to treat a penitent Brother with Tenderness and Modefty: According to a known Rule among the Jews, never to say to a Man that repents, Remember thy former Works: It being against the Rules of Civility, as well as the Laws of Religion, when a Man has feen, and repented of the Errors of his paft Life, to reproach him with them.

On the other hand, the Frankness and Opennefs of St Matthew, in acknowledging his former fcandalous State, is an Instruction to

Bava Metfia, apud CAVE's St Matthew, p. 180..

us,

us, not to be afhamed to give Glory to God, s ERM. nor to spare ourselves in the mentioning and V. Acknowledgment of our own former Faults, whenever he rescues us by the Influence of his Grace, from a State and Condition that was leading us to Ruin: Since by how much the greater our Danger was, by fo much the greater was our Saviour's Mercy.

But not to infift upon collateral Hints, the Story of our Apoftle is fo full of Particulars worthy of our Remark, that almost every Word of it deferves a particular Confideration. I fhall lay them before you in the Order they arife, which, with the proper Ufes that may afterwards be made of them, will be the best Improvement of the present Festival.

If we look back upon the foregoing Part of this Chapter, we fhall find that our Saviour had just before been healing a Man that was fick of the Palfy. Leaving the Throng which had got about him, wondering and admiring at fo miraculous a Cure, he retires for a little while by himself: And after his Retreat (loving to divide his Time between the Satisfactions of a pious Privacy, and a charitable Converfation) he comes forth again, to feek new Occafions of doing good, Mark ii. 13. He was at this Time, it seems, at Ca-. pernaum,

V.

SERM. pernaum, where, leaving Nazareth, he had fixed his Habitation, Mark ii. 1. which therefore, in the first Verfe of this Chapter, is called his own City. Now Capernaum was fituated (as St Matthew himself tells us) upon the Sea Coaft, in the Borders of Zabulon and Napthahim. Matt. iv. 13. The Place being commodious for receiving of Cuftom and Toll, for the Paffage and Waftage of Perfons and Goods, over the Sea of Galilee; Here was placed, it feems, the Receipt of Custom, i. e, a Table, or, perhaps a Bench, under Cover, but open to the Sea-Side; fo that whoever fhould attend to receive the Duties, might have a clear View of the Ships and Lading, that paffed to and fro, upon the Sea. And this being a Place of publick Refort, where Paffengers and others, either for Bufinefs or Diverfion, were used to meet; our Saviour alfo comes hither, and, walking upon the Key, finds there, what he looks for, another Object of as much Pity and Compaffion, as the Man he had cured a little before, viz. a Publican; for Matthew, or, (as the other Evangelifts call him) Levi, the Son of Alpheus was fitting here, ready to receive the Cuftoms or Tolls above-mentioned,

This, you must know, was an Employment of very vile Efteem among the Jews: It

was

was reckoned fcandalous, through all the con- SERM. quered Provinces of the Romans: And the V. Perfons that managed it were looked on as Thieves and Cheats, for their Exactions, and ill Ufage of thofe with whom they had any thing to do. Among the Romans themselves indeed, it was esteemed a Place of Credit and Reputation, and was feldom conferred upon any under the Degree of a Knight; infomuch, that the Father of the Emperor Vefpafian, was Chief Publican of the Afian Provinces, and discharged the Office fo much to the Content and Satisfaction of the People, that he had a Statue erected to him infcribed, K2aws Teλwynov, i. e. to the boneft Publican *. But now thefe, being fent into diftant Provinces, to gather the Tributes that were due from thence, were used to employ the Natives under them, as Perfons beft fkilled in the Affairs and Customs of their own Country. However honourable therefore, the Chief Publicans might be, as having nothing to do, but to receive what was brought them; it is eafy to imagine, that those who were employed under them (of which Sort was the Apostle we this Day commemorate) must be many Ways obnoxious to the ill Will of the People.

* Suetonius in Vit. Vefpaf, c. i. p. 722.

For