is recorded in my text. In the further prosecution of my subject I shall explain to you at large the circumstances of the recovery granted to the lepers, and I shall occasionally intersperse such moral reflections as may preserve you from the same guilt, when you have received the same or similar mercies.

The sufferers, who were the objects of that compassion, which was ever alive to the distresses of mankind, met our Lord at his entrance into a village, and stood, says St. Luke, afar off. This fact is introduced not less pertinently than pathetically. It points out the peculiar severities of a disorder, which banished those who fell into it from the society of their fellow-creatures, exposed them to abhorrence, even while it entitled them to pity, cut off all the means of relief, and all the hope of consolation, and added the gloom of solitude to the pangs of disease. Nothing could set the worth of a a pure heart and unblemished conduct in a more advantageous point of view than the consideration that the impure, even in body, were unworthy to enter his presence. This thought must have acquired greater solemnity from the declaration, which deprived the leper of all intercourse with mankind; and it must have struck the Jews with all the force of habit, as they daily saw numbers of the defiled, deserted, helpless sufferers. The lepers, who had heard the pretensions of Christ, and probably had seen his miracles, immediately implore his protection in this short, but moving address - Jesus, Master, have mercy

upon us.

The Evangelist proceeds-and when he saw them, he said-go, show yourselves to the priests; and it came to pass, that as they went they were cleansed. And when he saw them-mark, I beseech you now how quick are the springs-how forcible the movements of that pity, which reigned in the breast of your Saviour. No sooner does he perceive their sufferings than he determines to alleviate them— their faith than he engages to reward it. At the same time, you will observe, that the exertions of benevolence by no means interfere with the dictates of prudence, and that while he establishes the validity of his own claims, he preserves a strict and exemplary regard for the instructions of Moses. He lays no schemes for popular applause; he avoids all appearance of setting up his own authority against that of the Jewish legislator. He at once guards against the misconstructions of his enemies, and converts the gratitude of his friends to the most valuable and becoming purposes. He bids the lepers show themselves to the priest, that by virtue of his office, the cure might be authoritatively ascertained, and publicly announced. If you consult the various methods of purification which, in the 14th of Leviticus, were imposed upon those who were cured from leprosy, you will find them supremely wise and good. For as the infection disqualified them from joining in the solemn worship of God, the removal of that infection was attended by a formal, open admission into his temple. This admission too was accompanied by a sacrifice

on the part of those who were cured, which was both an acknowledgment of the mercies they had already received, and a condition of their approaching right to the civil and religious privileges of their countrymen. Not less striking marks of wisdom you will find in the authentic declaration of the priest, that the leper was made sound. It linked together the rules of policy with the duties of religion. It procured a kind and honourable reception to the person who was recovered, and at the same time lifted up the attention of the Jews to that Almighty power, by which alone the recovery could be established.

Among other circumstances of judgment united with mercy in this command of Christ, I must point out one, which, however incidental and subordinate it may appear, was very important to those whom it more directly concerned. Among the ten was one Samaritan. Now an opinion engendered probably by superstition, and fostered by vanity, had grown up among the Jews, that the Samaritans had incurred the combined guilt of hypocrisy and of apostacy—that their professions of reverence for the Jewish legislator were treacherous—and their partial observance of his law an abomination to God. Hence they usurped a right of treating them with the most outrageous disdain; they industriously shunned all intercourse in public and in private, and, like other bigots in other ages, perversely annexed an idea of merit to their own haughtiness of contempt, and inhumanity

of persecution. But Christ gave no countenance to these groundless and invidious distinctions. On the contrary, he, by his answer, decides the cause that had long been agitated between the contending parties; he corrects the mistakes of the Samaritan, by sending one of their countrymen to Jerusalemnot Mount Gerizim-and he humbles the arrogance of the Jew, by permitting a stranger to join in their worship.

The Evangelist tells us, that as they went they were cleansed. Now it is probable that these men, who asked for assistance at the hands of Christ, differed from each other in their moral character as well as their religious profession. The Jew was mingled by his sufferings with the Samaritan, and the good man with the bad. But the merciful Jesus did not permit these real and important distinctions to operate on such an occasion. One common act of faith cancelled all their demerits; and one common degree of misfortune brought them within the reach of Christ's mercy. Consider then the comprehensive, as well as the active compassion of our Master. Were the pangs only of the virtuous sufferer alleviated? Was the prayer even of one unheard? Were not the ten cleansed, indiscriminately and immediately cleansed? After hearing this question, could you conceive any room left for that which follows? Your regard for the honour of human nature, and the warmth of your affection for the benevolence of its blessed redeemer, would at first lead you, no doubt, to pronounce it impos

sible. I join with you in your honest wishes that it were so. But the same Scriptures which record the disorders and the recovery of nine, record also their shocking ingratitude. But where, says Christ, are the nine? When the Jews betrayed such obstinacy of temper, and such unfeelingness of heartwhen they so suddenly forgot the favours they had so recently experienced, I am sure the most corrupt among my hearers will acknowledge the conduct of these ingrates to be inexcusable; and I am equally sure the most virtuous may find in Christ's reproof some lesson that bids him look back into himself. It reminds you, that all of you, like the lepers, have groaned under affliction-it tells you, that like them you have solicited and received succour from aboveand it should be a warning to you, lest, like them, you forget the gracious author of your happinessthat being to whom you are indebted for all that you enjoy, and for more than you deserve. Some, perhaps, have agonized on the bed of sickness, where the assistance of false friends has been refused to you, or the efforts of your sincerest wellwishers, your nearest and dearest relations, your most skilful physicians have been exerted in vain. Others have been alarmed at the approach of dangers which threatened ruin to your fortunes, or your characters. In various measures, and at various times, you have all been oppressed with sorrow, or entangled in difficulty. I flatter myself that in these critical situations, your sincere, earnest prayers have been addressed to the throne of grace;