cannot pursue more effectual methods for this end, than repeated and importunate addresses to that fovereign Being, whofe omnifcience and infinite wisdom altogether qualify him to give us full and explicit inftructions upon this fubject. "He that planted the ear, shall not HE HEAR? "he that made the eye, fhall not HE SEE? "and he that formed the heart, fhall not HE "KNOW?"

Let us then be frequent and fervent in our applications to the Fountain of light and knowledge, for the affiftances of his grace, and the illuminations of his Divine Spirit; always keeping in mind the encouraging affurances of our bleffed Saviour" Ask and it shall be given you."

Wherefore, let us conclude with the following

prayer:

Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all defires known, and from whom no fecret: are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name, through Christ, our Lord.

SERMON

SERMON IV.

MATTHEW CHAP. viii. VER. 25.

THE

Lord fave us: we perish.

HE chapter from which I have taken my text (for your inftruction and my own) abounds with feveral occurrences highly worthy of our confideration. And, although the words I have now read to you are a detached paffage from the preceding incidents, yet it will be worth our while to regard this importunate addrefs of the difciples connectedly with the feveral miracles of our Lord, which are mentioned previously to their request.

This chapter is ufhered in with our Saviour's cure of a leper, verfes firft, fecond, and third"When he came down from the mountain, great "multitudes followed him. And behold there "came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, "if thou wilt, thou canft make me clean. And

Jefus put forth his hand, and touched him, say"ing, I will; be thou clean. And immediately "his leprofy was cleanfed."

Here it is to be noticed, that the Jewish leprosy was a disease peculiarly difficult of cure. If you look to the Mofaic account of this distemper (in the

14th chapter of Leviticus) you muft obferve, that this dreadful calamity was of that virulent and malignant nature, as not only to feize upon mankind, and preclude the unhappy fufferers from all fociety; but even to infect the garments and furniture, and ftain the very walls of the houfes.

What then must be the power of our bleffed Lord, who, by the application of his hand, and a fingle word from his mouth, could restore fo miferable an object to perfect health! I dare fay we are all tempted to think, that if we had been witneffes to this inftantaneous cure of fo loathfome and obftinate an evil, we should never afterwards have called into queftion the power of the Meffiah.

The next miracle which prefents itself, is the aftonishing recovery of the centurion's fervant. Here are feveral circumstances attending this hiftorical fact, which are not curforily to be paffed over.

The account runs thus-" And when Jesus was "entered into Capernaum, there came unto him.

a centurion, befeeching him; and faying, Lord, "my fervant lies at home fick of the palfy, griev❝oufly tormented. And Jefus faith unto him, I will "come and heal him. The centurion anfwered "and faid, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldft "come under my roof; but speak the word on

"ly, and my fervant fhall be healed. For I am a

"man

"man under authority, having foldiers under me; "and I fay to this man go, and he goeth, and to "another come, and he cometh, and to my fer«vant do this, and he doeth it. When Jefus "heard it, he marvelled, and faid unto them that "followed, Verily I fay unto you, I have not found "fo great faith, no not in ISRAEL. And I fay (c unto you, that many fhall come from the east "and weft, and fhall fit down with Abraham, and "Ifaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. "But the children of the kingdom fhall be caft "into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and

gnashing of teeth. And Jefus faid unto the "centurion, Go thy way; and as thou haft be"lieved, fo be it done unto thee. And his fervant ແ was healed in the felf-fame hour."

This centurion was a Roman and a Gentile. It is certain that he was a man of benevo

a very lent difpofition, from the encomiums which the Jews paffed upon him. For in St. Luke's * account of this ftory, the elders of the Jews are faid to interpofe in the centurion's behalf, and to give additional weight to his petition, by faying, that he was worthy of the favour he was foliciting at our Lord's hands, becaufe he loved their nation, and had built for them a fynagogue.

* Luke vii.

It is not altogether improbable, that the centu rion was partly a believer in the God of the Jews. For although the Romans had their appropriated deities, yet they feldom controverted the deities of other nations, and fometimes even admitted foreign gods into their own catalogue of divinities. But be this as it will, it is undoubtedly true that the centurion, by the very nature of his request, efteemed our Lord as poffeffed of the power of a God. Perhaps what induced him to entertain fuch fentiments of our Saviour, might be a prior acquaintance with the miracle which Jefus had wrought in Cana of Galilee, when he changed the water into wine at a marriage feaft; or (what ftill carries greater probability in it) as the centurion and his foldiers were ftationed at Capernaum, he might have received the most authentic intelligence of the extraordinary cure which Jefus. had performed upon the nobleman's fon in that city; for, fince true faith can only be founded upon a candid and diligent attention to proper evidence, we muft fuppofe that the centurion had founded his belief and confidence in our Lord upon proofs of fome miraculous exertions of his divine power. But when we confider that the recovery of the nobleman's fon was effected by Jefus at the great diftance of Cana from Capernaum, and that the cure was wrought upon the noble

man's