e

47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:

48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock.

49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

z Mat. vii. 16, 17.-a Mat. xii. 33.-† Gr. a grape.-b Mat. xii. 35.-e Mat. xii. 34.—d Mal. i. 6. Mat. vii. 21; & xxv. 11. ch. xiii. 25.-e Mat. vii. 24.

See § § XXVI. XXVII.

Matthew VII. 15-29.

2 And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.

3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.

4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:

5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.

6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:

7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee but say in a word, and

8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

a Mat. viii. 5.-t Gr. this man.

See § XXVIII.
Matthew VIII. 5-13.

§ CLXXVII.

CHAP. VII. 11-17.

Christ raiseth from death the widow's son at Nain.

11 And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.

12 Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother,

13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

14 And he came and touched the 'bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.

17 And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judæa, and throughout all the region round about.

| Or, coffin.-6 ch. viii. 54. John xi. 43. Acts ix. 40. Rom. iv. 17.-c ch. i. 65.-d ch. xxiv. 19. John iv, 19; & vi. 14; & ix. 17.-e ch. i. 68.

READER. And it came to pass the day after that he went into a city called Nain, &c.-The little city of Nain stood under the hill of Hermon, near unto Tabor; but now it is watered with better dews from above, the doctrine and miracles of a Saviour.

Not for state, but for the more evidence of the work, is our Saviour attended with a large train, so walled city, as if he meant to entering into the gate of that besiege their faith by his power, and to take it. His providence hath so contrived his journey, that

he meets with the sad pomp of a funeral. A woeful widow, attended with her weeping neighbours, is following her only son to the grave. There was nothing in this spectacle that did not comnot command compassion: a young man in the flower and the strength of his age, swallowed up by death. Our decrepid age both expects death and solicits it; but vigorous youth looks strangely upon that grim serjeant of God. Those mcllow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather up with contentment we chide to have the unripe unseasonably beaten down with cudgels.

But more, a young man, the only son, the only child, of his mother. No condition can make it more than grievous for a well-natured mother to part with her Own bowels, yet surely there is some mitigation of loss. Amongst many children, one may be more easily missed, for still we hope the surviving may supply the comforts of the dead; but when all our hopes and joys must either live or die in one, the loss of that one admits of no consolation. When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall unto the miserable, he can but say, "O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in the ashes, make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine only son." Such was the loss which was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother: neither tears nor words can suffice to discover it.

Yet more had she been guided by the counsel and supportation of a loving yoke-fellow this burden might have seemed less intolerable. A good husband may make amends for the loss of a son; had the root been left to her entire, she might better have spared the branch: now both are cut up; all the stay of her life is gone, and she seems abandoned to a perfect misery. And now, when she gave up herself for a forlorn mourner, past all capacity of redress, the God of mercy meets her, pities her, relieves her. Here was no solicitor but his own compassion. In other occasions he was sought and sued to. The centurion comes to him for a servant, the ruler for a son, Jairus for a daughter, the neighbours for a paralytic; here he seeks up the patient, and offers the cure unrequested. While we have to do with the will of the Father of mercies, our afflictions are the most powerful suitors. No tears, no prayers, can move Him so much as his own commiseration. O God, none of our secret sorrows can be either hid from thy eyes, or kept from thine heart, and when we are past all our hopes, or possibilities of help, then art thou nearest to us for deliverance.

Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy; the heart had compassion; the mouth said "Weep not ;" the feet went to the bier; the hand touched the coffin; the power of the deity raised the dead. What the heart felt was secret to itself, the tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort, "Weep not."

Alas, what are words to strong and just passions? To bid her not to weep, that had lost her only son, was to persuade her to be miserable, and not feel it; to feel and not regard it; to regard and yet to smother it. Concealment doth not remedy, but aggravate sorrow. That with the counsel of not weeping therefore she might see cause of not weeping, his hand seconds his tongue. He arrests the coffin and frees the prisoner, "Young man, I say unto thee, arise." The Lord of life and death speaks with command. No finite power could have said so without presumption, or with success. That is the voice that shall one day call up our vanished bodies from those elements into which they are resolved, and raise them out of their dust; neither sea, nor death, nor hell, can offer to detain their dead, when he charges them to be delivered. Incredulous nature! what, dost thou shrink at the possibility of a resurrection, when the God of nature undertakes it! It is no more hard for that Almighty word, which gave being unto all things, to say "let them be repaired" than "let them be made."

I do not see our Saviour stretching upon the dead corpse, as Elias and Elisha upon the son of the Shunamite and Sareptan; nor kneeling down and praying by the bier as Peter did to Dorcas. But I hear him speaking to the dead as if he were alive; and so speaking to the dead, that by the word he makes him alive; "I say unto thee arise."

Death hath no power to make that man be still, whom the Son of God bids arise: immediately he that was dead sat up. So, at the sound of the last trumpet, by the power of the same voice, we shall arise out of the dust and stand up glorious. This mortal shall put on immortality, this corruptible incorruption. This body shall not be buried but sown, and at our day shall therefore spring up with a plentiful increase of glory. How comfortless, how desperate, should be our lying down, if it were not for this assurance of rising. And now, behold, lest our faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficulty, he hath already, by what he hath done, given us tastes of what he will do. The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand, a million, a world; no power can raise one man but that which is infinite, and that which is infinite admits of no limitation. Under the Old Testament God raised one by Elias, another by Elisha living, a third by Elisha dead: by the hand of the Mediator of the New Testament he raised here the son of the widow, the daughter of Jairus, Lazarus; and in attendance of his own resurrection, he made a good delivery of holy prisoners at Jerusalem. He raises the daughter of Jairus from her bed, the widow's son from his coffin, Lazarus from his grave, the dead saints of Jerusalem from their rottenness; that it might appear no degree of death can hinder the efficacy of his overruling command.