who passed by, and then, apprehending their dispossession thence, to desire to go into the swine of that place, and destroying them, which was their design upon the men, as the event proved. He who had the power, and graciously used it, to cast them out of the possessed men, was not tied to their suit as a point of capitulation. He could have cast them quite out of their coasts, and sent them back immediately to their own prison; but in Divine wisdom and justice, he grants their suit, knowing well what use they would make of it, and what would follow.

But Oh! the Gadarenes themselves were the swine, viler than those the devils entered and drowned; yea, they were worse possessed than the swine, and drowned in a more fearful deep, by the craft of those devils. And that was their plot. The devils, knowing how fast the hearts of the owners were linked to their swine, thought it likely that the swine being drowned, they would follow, would drown themselves in the rejecting of Jesus Christ. And they did so. How many who read or hear this with indignation, yet, possibly, do little better in their hearts,-cleaving to their herds, or other goods, gains, or pleasures, or any thing of this earth, and in the love of these, refusing Jesus Christ! Think it not a harsh word, but take heed ye be not such; for of the multitudes to whom Christ is offered, there are very few whose hearts do really open to him, and receive him. But Oh, happy they that do! This was the clearest instance of perfect misery, and yet, they were scarcely at all to be pitied, being the choosers and devisers of it themselves: They besought Jesus to depart, that is, besought life and blessedness to go from them. And what does a sinner, when he turns out and rejects motions and inspirations of holiness, lest his lusts and pleasures of sin should be lost, but dismiss Jesus, lest the swine should be drowned?

CHAPTER IX.

Ver. 1. And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.

He who measures the waters in the hollow of His hand, and commands them, (as ch. viii. v. 26.) is ferried over in some boat or small vessel. And was it not richly laden with this inestimable Pearl, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all fulness dwelling in Him? All the rich ships from both the Indies, were not to be compared to this.

Ver. 2. And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy.] The other Evangelists tell with what difficulty they did so, and how they overcame that difficulty with resolution and industry, which indeed overcome all. A strong bent towards Jesus Christ will not be hindered. Nor is their violence in uncovering the house, or their rudeness in interrupting his discourse, rejected or reproved, but all is accepted for the principle, faith, which was tempered with love to the sick, and even to Jesus Christ, as the person from whom they expected the cure.

And Jesus, seeing their faith]-It is needless to dispute that one may be benefited by the influence of another's faith. Surely, much may be done by it. Thus, it may bring and present a person, may recommend, may pray for him, and may be respected in the grant of mercy, not only in temporals, but in spirituals. But yet, the just lives only by his own faith, which no doubt this poor man had. For the word, theirs, excludes not, but rather includes the sick man's, who no doubt consented to this course in the same confidence. But yet, it is good to be in believing people's company. Another person, a family, a city, a society, may fare the better for the faith of an individual. Often, one who prays in a family, averts judgments, and draws down blessings upon the whole.

-Said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.] This, though not appearing to be the errand, was yet the most important part of the cure, the root of blessings and blessedness, removing the root of all care and misery. Whether the sick man did most of all, or did at all desire, or expect this at the hands of Jesus Christ, we cannot tell; but if he thought not of it, (and we see no other,) Oh, what a surprise of love! It is good, coming to Jesus on any terms, on any errand. Some come, driven by outward afflictions, and yet return delivered from sin and eternal death. In this respect, there is great variety in this matter of declaring a pardon. Some seek and knock, and wait long, and hear it not. Others are prevented, who scarcely sought it, but Christ's first word to them is this. But all is one as to the main: they who seek it with sorrow, shall be sure to find it with joy; and they who first find it without previous sorrow, shall yet be sure to find that sorrow for sin, in some measure, likewise, after pardon, if not before. And truly it seems sweetest and kindliest, when mercy melts the heart. But well may He say, Be of good courage, who could add this, Thy sins be forgiven thee. Oh! what can dismay after this? The heart, wholly filled with divine peace and love, bears up all, and sorrow is turned into joy before a soul thus assured. Jesus knew well, that the healing of his palsy, without this pardon, had been but a lame cure, only the half, and the far less, the meaner half. This was the main business that brought him down from Heaven to be a man, and to dwell among men, and that made him die for man; that which nailed him to the cross, and drew forth his heart's blood: it was for the remission of the sins of many. These cures of bodily diseases, though clear demonstrations of Christ's Divine power and goodness, were but a transient appendage and symbol of that mainly intended and highest mercy, the forgiveness of sins.

The sentence of eternal death standing in full force above the head of an unpardoned sinner, if it were lively apprehended, Oh! what a paralytic trembling would it strike the soul into, causing the joints of it to shake and smite one upon another, in the midst of its fullest health and mirth, as the hand-writing on the wall did that drunken king Belshazzar. But we know not what sin is, though we hear and speak of it, and sometimes confess it; and therefore our hearts leap not at the report of a pardon, though we hear of it, and usually entreat it. Any of you, when complaining that you are robbed, or spoiled of your

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goods, would scarcely think it to the purpose were I to tell you, Your sins are pardoned. But oh! how fit a word it is to answer and drown all griefs; so pertinent that nothing besides it is so! And happy that soul that hears it from His mouth who gives it, and who alone can ascertain it. This is the answer that will satisfy. If thou sayest, "I am diseased;" ay, but thy sin is pardoned. am poor;" ay, but thy sin is pardoned. And surely, a soul that heeds it right, will be quieted, and will be bold, of good courage, as the word here is, and will embrace all other burdens, and go light under them; will say, Lord, now let me live, or let me die, let me abound or want, let me be healthy or sick, take away what thou wilt, or lay on what thou wilt, all is well; Thou hast pardoned my sin.

Ver. 3. And behold certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.] Supposing Jesus but a man, yet, there was no necessity for this construction. He was a holy man, a singular, extraordinary man, doing unparalleled miracles; and he said not, I forgive thy sins, but, Thy sins are forgiven thee; which was a word not beyond the capacity of a prophetical power to say it declaratively. And though there was an air of authority, might they not have thought, This may be the Messiah, who they knew was to come, and was to be the Son of God, and to bring remission of sins along with him? But that base spirit, the spirit of envy, with which they were filled, willingly rejects all better sort of constructions, and fastens on the absolutely worst it can invent. To an eye that looks through the dark glass of prejudice and malice, all is discoloured. Yet they are struck with so much awe, that they dare not speak it out. was, they were obscured by his brightness. riæ, as one calls the philosophers, and could the opinion they had gained: a sore mischief, and one much attaching to known and venerable possession. Genus irritabile vatum.

That which struck them They were animalia glonot endure to go less in

But a spirit devoted to HIM whose due all glory is, willingly resigns it to Him, in what way He will. Let whoso will be best or chief, so that still He be chief of all, and glorified in all. The holy Baptist had another spirit than these rabbies: he told it freely and gladly, He must increase, but I must decrease. It was his end, as the morning star is willingly drowned in the brightness of the rising sun.

Ver. 4. And Jesus knowing their thoughts.] This, without any thing further, was clearly enough to demonstrate his Divine power. Oh! that this was ever in our thoughts, that all our thoughts are under his eye! If they were so, and we knew them to be so, to some grave, wise man, how wary, and choice should we be of them! And shall we have less regard to the holiest and wisest Lord, to whom they are all naked and open?

Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?] There was no reason in the thing, but the reason was, their hearts were evil, and their emissions like themselves. An evil heart is an incessant forge of evil thoughts. It is a corrupt spring still issuing forth, and till it be renewed, it cannot find any other. From the heart come evil thoughts: that is in the front of all the black train that comes forth of the heart, as our Saviour teaches, Matt. xv. 19. These are the seeds of all the wickedness that fills the world. Chief regard, therefore, is to be had to the heart. An excellent advice that of Solomon, Keep thy heart

with all diligence. To amend some evil customs, without the renewing of the heart, is but to lop the branches that will grow again, or others in their stead; but a holy heart meditates on holy things, is still in heaven, is all reverence towards God, and meekness and charity to

men.

Ver. 5. Whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, and walk ?] Though the remission of sins flows originally from the same power, and so is equal, and in its own place hath the preference, being by far the greater mercy, yet, the other of bodily cure runs into the senses, and so both is more evident to the beholders, and affects them more. The other word might be spoken with less control, the efficacy or inefficacy of it not falling under the cognition of them that heard it; but this of healing the palsy, would either be attested or denied in the effect.

Ver. 6. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.] Now he asserts a peculiar power of forgiving sin. Though a man walking on the earth as the rest, yet, in testimony of the Divine power, He saith to the sick of the palsy,—this apostrophe maketh the proof more lively, joining presently the real experiment of that miraculous cure,-Arise, take up thy bed. That word which gave being to the world, what is hard to it? And in the case of spiritual deadness, soul-palsy, no more is necessary than a word from His mouth, and it shall be lively and strong; it shall skip and leap. Is. xxxv. 6. Lord, speak that word! And indeed, wheresoever he pardons sin, He withal makes the soul able and nimble, to run in the way of His commandments; to carry its head, that before carried it; to command and wield at pleasure those low things wherein it rested.

They

Ver. 8. But when the multitude saw it they marvelled.] feared, says St. Luke. A gracious work it was, yet so full of wonder, that it struck them with a kind of fear. And they glorified God. Thus shall he break out, and shine bright in His works, when most opposed by evil men. Yet they knew him not well, but took him for an extraordinary man only. But thus he was pleased to be known by degrees, and to rise as the morning light. It is a common presumption, and generally that of the least knowing, to think that they have the true and full sense of the articles of religion; and that presumption is commonly accompanied with this precipitancy, that we would constrain all to know and believe, at once, without delay, whatsoever we think and believe. Who had given such power unto men. had they known this honour given unto men, that this man was God, they would have wondered much more. And if he was so astonishingly wonderful in healing a sick man, how wonderful shall he be in raising the dead! And if in his lowness, his power was admired, how much more shall all admire that power which shall then be given him, when the man, Christ, shall come in the brightness of his glory, to judge the world!

But

Ver. 9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom.] He staid no long time upon earth, but he lost no part of that time. Every step to us is a wonder of goodness. And here is a cure which the Evangelist ingenuously relates as done upon himself, which was no less, if not

more wonderful, than that performed upon the paralytic; and done as easily and quickly by the same means, a word spoken.

He saw a man named Matthew. He loves first, and spies first, when we think on nothing less than him; as he says to Nathanael : Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. And this seeing of Matthew was no casual, but a designed sight, proceeding from a former sight, like unto that of Nathanael; and is the sight of his fore-knowing and fore-choosing love. So even this very sight of his calling and converting power did prevent Matthew, while he thought of no such thing, and would have let Jesus pass, being so intent upon his busy employment, as either not to have seen him at all, or to have taken no notice of him.

Sitting at the receipt of custom. This is the common case, the posture of called sinners. While they are thinking of no such thing, but altogether drowned in other desires and cares, (even at the church, their hearts are often more in their shops, or fields, or any earthly business they are engaged in,) their very hearts being a little custom-house, such a crowd and noise of cares and vanities, as there is usually of people in a custom-house, He who hath their names in His book of life, at His appointed time glances at them, by a powerful look cast on them, and, by a word spoken to them, draws them to Himself; and that without minding any previous worth or congruous disposition in them, more than in others; yea, finding them in a more indisposed temper and posture, possibly, than many others who are not called, as the Evangelist here freely and humbly declares of himself, speaking out his calling, and his busy diligence in it, in the very instant that he is called from it. Observe, likewise, his express

ing of his common name, Matthew; whereas the other Evangelist, in the recital of this story, gives him that other name which was the more honourable, Levi. Sitting at the receipt of custom, a profession of great gain, but little credit among the Jews; and though, possibly, not utterly unlawful in the nature of it, yet, so generally corrupt in the exercise and management of it; like some other callings, which, though a man cannot absolutely determine them to be unlawful, are yet seldom or never lawfully and spotlessly discharged. Therefore, the Jews shunned the very society of publicans (tax-gatherers) as a wicked, execrable kind of men, and did in a manner necessitate them to converse with the worst sort of persons, as being expelled and generally avoided by all others; so that you find them here, ver. 10, and usually in the Gospel, linked together, publicans and sinners, that is, noted, nefarious sinners, such as harlots, and other scandalously vicious persons. Yet from this stained and ill-reputed calling, is Matthew called by the holy Lord, to follow him. As he called poor fishermen, and made them fishers of men, to catch men, to save them by their net spread, the word of life preached, so he calls a rich publican to be a gatherer-in of his tribute and treasure in the world, the souls of chosen sinners, by the publication of the Gospel.

No rank of men is so low, as to be below the condescension of His choice and grace; and none are so remote, in the reputed or real iniquity of their station or person, as to be without the extent and reach of His saving hand. And He is pleased to give instances of this in choosing whom He will, and making them what He will, that no VOL. II.

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