when they were fuppofed to be cured. But no natural remedy is prescribed by Mofes for the cure of it. It was confidered by the Jews as a difeafe fent by God, and to be cured only by his interpofition. There could not, therefore, be a ftronger proof of our Saviour's divine power, than his curing this most loathsome disease, of which many instances befides this occur in the Gofpels. The manner too in which he performed this cure was equally an ev idence that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him*; it was instantaneous, with a touch, and a few words, and those words the moft fublime and dignified that can be imagined: I WILL BE THOU CLEAN: and immediately the leprofy departed from him. This was plainly the lan guage as well as the act of a God. I WILL; BE THOU

CLEAN.

Yet with all this fupernatural power there was no oftentation or parade, no arrogant contempt of ancient ceremonies and institutions (which an enthusiast always tramples under foot ;) but on the contrary a perfect fubmiffion to the established laws and ufages of his country. He faid to the man who was healed, "See thou tell no man; but go thy way, fhew thyfelf to the priest, and offer the gift that Mofes commanded, for a testimony unto them." Here he gave at once a ftriking example both of humility and obedience. He enjoined the man to keep fecret the aftonishing miracle he had wrought, and he commanded" him to comply with the injunctions of Mofes; to fhew himfelf to the priest, to undergo the examination, and to offer the facrifice prefcribed by the lawt; which at the fame time that it fhewed his difpofition to fulfil all righteoufnefs, eftablifhed the truth of the miracle beyond all controversy, by making the priest himself the judge of the reality of the cure. This was not the mode which an

impoftor would have chofen.

After this miracle, the next incident that occurs is the remarkable and interefting ftory of the centurion, whofe fervant was cured of the palfy by our Saviour. The relation of this miracle is as follows; "When Jefus was

entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centuri on, befeeching him and faying, Lord, my fervant lieth at home fick of the palfy, grievously tormented*. And Jefus faith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and faid, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldeft come under my roof, but fpeak the word only, and my fervant fhall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having foldiers under me; and I fay unto this man go, and he goeth; and to another come, and he cometh; and to a third do this, and he doeth it. When Jefus heard it, he marvelled, and faid to them that followed him, Verily I fay unto you, I have not found fo great faith, no, not in Ifrael, And Jefus faid unto the centurion, go thy way; and as thou haft believed, fo be it done unto thee: and his fervant was healed in the felffame hour."

This is the fhort and edifying hiftory of the Roman centurion; and the reafon of its being recorded by the fa cred writers was, in the first place, to give a moft ftriking evidence of our Saviour's divine power, which enabled him to restore the centurion's fervant to health at a distance, and without fo much as feeing him; and in the next place to fet before us, in the character of the centurion, an illuftrious example of those eminent Christian virtues, humanity and charity, piety and generofity, humility and faith,

Of the former of thefe virtues, humanity and charity,

*In the parrallel paffage of St. Luke, chap. vii. it is faid that the centurion fent mcffengers to Jefus; but no mention is made of his coming to him in perfon. This difficulty may be cleared up by obferving, that in fcripture what any perfon does by his messengers he is frequently reprefented as doing by himself. Thus Chrift, who preached to the Ephefians by his apoftles, is faid to have preached to them himself. Eph. ii. 17. But it seems to me not at all improbable, that the cens turion may both have sent messengers to Jefus, and afterwards gone to him in perfon. "Not thinking himfelf worthy," (as he himself expreffes it) to go to Chrift in the firft inftance, he fent probably the elders of the Jews, and then fome of his friends, to implore our Lord to heal his fervant, not meaning to give him the trouble of coming to his house. But when he found that Jefus was actually on his way to him, what was more natural for him than to haften out of his houfe to meet him, and to make his acknowledgments to him in person ?

he gave a very convincing proof in the folicitude he fhewed for the welfare of his fervant, and the strong intereft he took in the recovery of his health. And this is the more remarkable and the more honorable to the centurion, because in general the treatment which the fervants of the Romans experienced from their masters was very different indeed, from what we fee in the prefent inftance. These servants were almost all of them slaves, and were too commonly treated with extreme rigor and cruelty. They were often strained to labor beyond their ftrength, were confined to loathfome dungeons, were loaded with chains, were fcourged and tortured without reason, were deferted in fickness and old age, and put to death for trivial faults and flight fufpicions, and sometimes out of mere wantonnefs and cruelty, without any reafon at all. Such barbarity as this, which was at that time by no means uncom mon, which indeed has in a greater or less degree univerfally prevailed in every country where flavery has been eftablished, and which fhows in the strongest light the danger of trufting abfolute power of any kind, political or perfonal, in the hands of fuch a creature as man; this barbarity, I fay, forms a most striking contraft to the kindness and compaffion of the centurion, who, though he had fo much power over his flaves, and fo many inftances of its feverest exertion before his eyes, yet made use of it as we here fee, not for their oppreffion and destruction, but their happiness, comfort, and prefervation.

The next virtues which attract our notice in the centurion's character are his piety and generofity. These were eminently displayed in the affection he manifested towards the Jewish people, and his building them a place of worfhip at his own expence; for the elders of the Jews informed Jefus," that he loved their nation, and had built them a fynagogue*.”

The Jews, it is well known, were at this time under the dominion of the Romans. Their country was a Roman province, where this centurion had a military command; and they who are acquainted with the Roman hif

* Luke vii. 5.

tory know well with what cruelty, rapacity, and oppref
fion, the governors and commanding officers in the con-
quered provinces too commonly behaved towards the
people whom they were fent to keep in awe.
So far were
they from building them temples or fynagogues, that they
frequently invaded even those facred retreats, and laid
their facrilegious hands on every thing that was valuable
in them. Of this we have abundant proofs in the history
of Verres, when governor of Sicily; and Verres was in
many respects a faithful reprefentative of too large a part
of the Roman governors. In the midst of this brutality
and infolence of power does this gallant foldier stand up
to patronize and affist a distressed and an injured people;
and it is a testimony as glorious to his memory as it is fin-
gular and almost unexampled in his circumstances, that he
loved the Jewish nation, and that he gave a very decifive
and magnificent proof of it, by building them a fyna-
gogue; for there cannot be a stronger indication both of
love to mankind and love towards God, than erecting
places of worship where they are wanted*. Without
buildings to affemble in, there can be no public worship.
Without public worship there can be no religion; and
what kind of creatures men become without religion; in-
to what exceffes of barbarity, ferocity, impiety, and ev-
ery species of profligacy they quickly plunge, we have
too plainly feen; God grant that we may never feel.

*There is a most dreadful want of this nature in the western part
of this great metropolis. From St. Martin's-in-the-Fields to Mary-
bone church inclufive, a space containing perhaps 200.000 fouls. there
are only five parish churches, St Martin's, St. Anne's Soho, St.
James's, St. George's Hanover Square and the very small church of
Mary bone. There are, it is true, a few chapels inte fperfed in this
fpace; but what they can contain is a mere trifle, compared to the
whole number of inhabitants in thofe parts. and the lowest claffes are
almost entirely excluded from them. The only measure that can be
of any effential fervice, is the erection of feveral spacious parish church-
es, capable of receiving very large congregations. and affording de-
cent accommodations for the lower and inferior, as well as the higher
orders of the people. In the reign of Queen Anne, a confiderable
fum of money was voted by Parliament for fifty new churches
moft devoutly to be wifhed that the prefent Parliament would, to a
certain extent at leaft, follow fo honorable an example. It is, I am
fure, in every point of view, political, moral, and religious, well
worthy the attention of the British legislature, A fufficient number

It is

E

The next remarkable feature in the character of the centurion is his humility. How completely this most amiable of human virtues had taken poffeffion of his foul, is evident from the manner in which he folicited our Sav iour for the cure of his fervant: how cautious, how mod eft, how diffident, how timid, how fearful of offending, even whilst he was only begging an act of kindness for another! Twice did he fend meffengers to our Lord, as thinking himself unworthy to address him in his own per fon; and when at our Saviour's approach to his house he himself came out to meet him, it was only to entreat him not to trouble himself any further; for that he was not worthy that Jesus should enter under his roof.

This lowlinefs of mind in the centurion is the more remarkable, becaufe humility, in the gofpel fenfe of the word, is a virtue with which the ancients, and more par ticularly the Romans, were totally unacquainted. They had not even a word in their language to defcribe it by. The only word that feems to exprefs it, humilitas, fignifies bafenefs, fervility, and meanness of spirit, a thing very different from true Christian humility; and indeed this was the only idea they entertained of that virtue.-. Every thing that we call meek and humble, they confidered as mean and contemptible. A haughty imperious overbearing temper, a high opinion of their own virtue and wisdom, a contempt of all other nations but their own, a quick sense and a keen resentment, not only of injuries, but even of the flightest affronts, this was the favorite and predominant character among the Romans; and that gentleness of difpofition, that low estimation of our own merits, that ready preference of others to our felves, that fearfulness of giving offence, that abasement of ourselves in the fight of God which we call humility, they confidered as the mark of a tame, abject, and unmanly mind. When, therefore, we fee this virtuous cen turion differing fo widely from his countrymen in this ref

of new parish churches, erected both in the capital and in other parts of the kingdom where they are wanted, for the use of the members of the church of England of all conditions, would very effentially con-. duce to the interefts of religion, and the fecurity and welfare of the eftablished Chruch,