this nobleman was one driven to Jesus by the strong constraint of an outward need, a need which no other but he could supply, (Isai. xxvi. 16,) rather than one drawn by the inner necessities and desires of his soul;-a man who would not have come but for this;* who shared in the carnal temper of the most of his fellow-countrymen (they, by the plural number which our Lord here uses, being, it is most probable, intended to be included in the same condemnation);—one who had (as yet, at least) no organ for perceiving the glory of Christ as it shone out in his person and in his doctrine,-whom nothing but miracles, "signs and wonders," would compel to a belief; unlike those Samaritans whom the Lord has just left, and who, without a miracle, had in great numbers "believed because of his word." (John iv. 41.) But "the Jews required a sign," (1 Cor. i. 22,) and this one, in the smallness of his present faith, straitened and limited the power of the Lord, counting it needful that he should "come down"t if his son was to be healed; being unable to conceive of any other cure, of any word spoken at a

Lord says, There shall no sign be given to them, the men who out of an unbelieving heart asked one, the same who but a little before had ascribed his miracles to Beelzebub. (Matt. xii. 24.) "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas,”-not, that is, to that evil and adulterous generation. The only sign for it is the appearance in the midst of it, of a warning prophet, a prophet of woe, a second and greater Jonah, with his burden of near judgment, proclaiming that in forty years shall Jerusalem be destroyed; the same being sealed by the wondrous circumstances of his life, by his resurrection, as Jonah by his deliverance from the whale's belly, to be indeed the commissioned of the Lord. Christ does not deny the value of the miracle, or say that he will do none; but only that he will do none for them, for an evil and adulterous generation which is seeking not after helps and confirmations of faith, but excuses and subterfuges for unbelief. These works of grace and power are reserved for those who are receptive of impressions from them. They are seals which are to seal softened hearts; hearts utterly cold and hard would take no impression from them, and therefore will not be tried with them. So that this is not, in fact, a slight put upon miracles, but an honoring of them. There are those upon whom they shall not be wasted.

* Augustine (In Ev. Joh., Tract. 16) reads the words of Christ as implying that this nobleman did not believe that Christ could do this very thing which he was asking of him. It was but a tentative request: in the utter lack of help any where, he snatched at what seemed to him, even while he was snatching at it, but as a straw, and so he received this rebuke: Arguit hominem in fide tepidum aut frigidum, aut omnino nullius fidei: sed tentare cupientem de sanitate filii sui, qualis esset Christus, quis esset, quantùm posset. Verba enim rogantis audivimus, cor diffidentis non videmus; sed ille pronuntiavit, qui et verba audivit, et cor inspexit. Yet the earnestness of the man's rejoinder, "Sir, come down ere my son die," is very unlike this.

+ Gregory the Great (Hom. 28 in Evang.): Minùs itaque in illum credidit, quem non putavit posse salutem dare, nisi præsens esset in corpore.

distance and yet mighty to save.* Not that we are to suppose that the Lord thus speaking meant to cast any slight on the significance of miracles, only they are not to serve for this, namely, to compel the reluctant and unbelieving to the faith, but to confirm the mission of a divine ambassador before them that have already been taken hold of by the power of the truth.

Yet, as Bengel observes, there is a beautiful admixture in this answer, of rebuke and encouragement; an implied promise of a miracle, even while the man is blamed, that he needeth this, that nothing short of this would induce him to put his trust in the Lord of life.† And so the man accepts it; for he does not suffer himself to be repelled by this word of a seeming, and indeed of a real severity; rather he now presses on the more earnestly, "Sir, come down‡ ere my child die;”— still, it is true, not guessing of any other help save through the Lord's bodily presence; still far off from the faith and humility of that centurion, who said, "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed;"— much less dreaming of a power that could raise the dead; it must be ere my child die," or the help will be too late. Therefore that gracious Lord, who had always the higher good of those who came in contact with him in his eye, again tries his faith, and in the trying strengthens it, sending him away with a mere word of assurance that it should go well with his child; "Go thy way, thy son liveth." And the nobleman was contented with that assurance; he "believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way," expecting to find that it should be done according to that word.

There is here again something to be learned by a comparison of the Lord's dealing with this man and with the centurion of the other Gospels. Here being entreated to come, he does not, but sends his healing word. There, being asked to speak that word of healing, he rather proposes himself to come; for here, as Chrysostom, unfolding the mo tives of his different conduct in the two instances, well brings out, a

* Bengel will have this to be the especial point of the whole answer, laying the entire emphasis thus: "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe:" Innuit Jesus se etiam absenti reguli filio posse vitam dare; et postulat ut regulus id credat, neque profectionem Jesu postulet suscipiendam cum ipso sanationem apud lectulum visuro. Others have done the same: see KÖCHER's Analecta (in loc.)

+ Simul autem miraculum promittitur, fidesque prius etiam desideratur, et dum desideratur, excitatur. Responsum externâ quâdam repulsa specie et tacitâ opis promissione mixtum, congruit sensui rogantis ex fide et imbecillitate mixto.

Karáßnot, Capernaum lying upon the shore, and lower than Cana, where now they were.

narrow and poor faith is enlarged and deepened, there a strong faith is crowned and rewarded. By not going he increases this nobleman's faith; by offering to go, he brings out and honors that centurion's humility. Nor shall we fail to observe by the difference of his conduct in the two cases how far was the Lord from being an accepter of persons. He will not come, but only send, to the son of this nobleman (see 2 Kin. v. 10, 11); he is prompt to visit in his own person the servant of that centurion.*

It would seem that now his confidence in Christ's word was so great, that he proceeded leisurely homewards, since it was not till the next day that he reached his house, though the distance between the two cities was not so great that the journey need have occupied many hours. Maldonatus quotes Isai. xxviii. 16, "He that believeth shall not make haste." It is worthy of note that his inquiry of the servants who met him on his return with news of his child's recovery, was when the child "began to amend," to be a little better. For at the height of his faith, the father had only looked for a slow and gradual amendment, and therefore he used such an expression as this: but his servants answer, that at such an hour, the very hour when Jesus spake the word, the fever not merely began to subside, there was not merely a turning point in the disease, but it "left him,"§ it suddenly forsook him. "So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth, and himself believed;"-this he did for all the benefits. which the Lord had bestowed on' him, he accepted another and the crowning benefit, even the cup of salvation; and not he alone, but, as so often happened, and this for the bringing us into the perception of the manner in which each smaller community, as well as the great community of mankind,—a nation, or as in this case a family, is united and bound together under its federal head, his conversion drew after it that

Thus the Opus. Imperf. in Matt., Hom. 22: Illum ergo contemsit, quem dignitas sublevabat regalis; istum autem honoravit, quem conditio humiliabat servilis.

† Κομψότερον ἔσχε meliusculè se habuit. Kouós from koμéw,—so in Latin, comptus, for adorned in any way. Thus in Arrian, (Diss. Epict., 3, 10,) koμŵç Exes, (bellè habes, Cicero,) are the words of the physician to his patient that is getting better

A beautiful remark of Bengel's: Quo curatius divina opera et beneficia considerantur, eo plus nutrimenti fides acquirit.

§ Ammonius (in Catend): Οὐ γάρ ἁπλῶς, οὐδὲ ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἀπηλλάγη τῆς ἀσθενείας τὸ παιδίον ἀλλ' ἀθρόον ὡς φαίνεσθαι μὴ φυσέως ἀκολουθίαν εἶναι τὸ θαῦμα, ἀλλὰ τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

So it was plainly in the case of Simon's wife's mother; for at Christ's word "immediately she arose and ministered unto them," (Luke iv. 39,) and there exactly the same phrase (åøñkev abτýv) is used.

of all who belonged to him: "himself believed, and his whole house." (Cf. Acts xvi. 15, 34; xviii. 8.)*

Yet, might it not be asked, Did he not believe before? was not the healing itself a reward of his faith? Yes, he believed that particular word of the Lord's; but this is the adherence of faith, the entering intc the number of Christ's disciples, the giving of himself to him as to the promised Messiah. Or, supposing he already truly believed, there may be indicated here a heightening and augmenting of his faith. For a true faith is yet most capable of this increase; "Lord, increase our faith;" (Luke xvii. 5;) and so in him who said, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief," (Mark ix. 24,) the true faith was born, though as yet its actings were weak and feeble. So, too, we read after the last miracle of the water made wine, that "his disciples believed on him,” (John ii. 11,) who yet, being already his disciples, must have believed on him before. Thus in the Old Testament they who suffered themselves to be guided by Moses must have already believed that he was the instrument of God for their deliverance, yet not the less is it said after the great overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, that the people “believed the Lord and his servant Moses." (Exod. xiv, 31.) We have another analogous example, 1 Kin. xvii. 24, where after the mighty work which Elijah did, raising the widow's son, she addresses him thus: "Now by this I know thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth," while yet she had recognized him as such before, (ver. 18;) now, however, her faith received a new confirmation; (cf. John xi. 15; xiii. 19;) and so we may accept it here.

The Jews have their miracle, evidently founded upon, and in rivalry of, this Vitringa (De Synag., p. 147) quotes it: Quando ægrotavit Filius R. Gamalielis, duos misit studiosos sapientiæ ad R. Chanina, Dusæ filium, ut per preces pro eo gratiam divinam implorarent. Postquam eos vidit, ascendit in cœnaculum suum, Deumque pro eo oravit. Ubi verò descendit, dixit, Abite, quia febris illum jam dereliquit. Illi verò considentes, signatè annotarunt illam horam, et quando reversi sunt ad R. Gamalielem, dixit ipsis, Per cultum! Nec excessu nec defectu temporis peccâstis, sed sic prorsus factum: eâ enim ipsâ horâ dereliquit ipsum febris, et petiit à nobis aquam potandam. Cf. LAMPE, Com. in Joh., v. 1, p. 813

Beda: Unde datur intelligi et in fide.gradus esse, sicut et in aliis virtutibus, quibus est initium, incrementum, et perfectio. Hujus ergo fides initium habuit, cùm filii salutem petiit: incrementum, cùm credidit sermoni Domini dicentis, Filius tuus vivit; deinde perfectionem obtinuit, nuntiantibus servis.

14

III.

THE FIRST MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES.

LUKE V. 1-11.

THERE have been some in all times who have deemed themselves bound to distinguish this narrative from those in St. Matthew (iv. 18), and St. Mark (i. 16-20). Augustine, for example, finds the differences so considerable, that he can only suppose the circumstance narrated by St. Luke to have first happened, our Lord then predicting to Peter that hereafter he should catch men; but not at that time summoning him to enter on the work; that without any sinful drawing back, he and his fellows returned after a while to their usual employments;-they only on a somewhat later occasion, that recorded by St. Matthew and St. Mark, hearing the word of command, "Follow me," which then they obeyed, and attached themselves for ever to their heavenly Lord.*

Now that there are some difficulties, yet such as hardly deserve that name, in the harmonizing of the two accounts, every one will readily admit; but the flying immediately to the resource of supposing an event happened, with slight variations, twice or even three times over, whenever there is any difficulty in bringing the parallel accounts perfectly to agree, seems a very questionable expedient, at least to him who will deal honestly in the matter, and will ask himself whether he would be satis

De Cons. Evang., 1. 2, c. 17: Unde datur locus intelligere eos ex capturâ piscium ex more remeâsse, ut postea fieret quod Matthæus et Marcus narrant. . . Tunc enim non subductis ad terram navibus tanquam curâ redeundi, sed ita eum secuti sunt, tanquam vocantem ac jubentem ut eum sequerentur. Mr. Greswell in the same way, (see his Dissert., v. 2, Diss. 9,) earnestly pleads for the keeping asunder the two narrations. Yet any one who wishes to see how capable they are, by the expenditure of a little pains, of being exactly reconciled, has only to refer to SPANHEIM's Dub. Evang., v. 3, p. 337. Lightfoot, in his Harmony, sees but the records of one and the same event, and Grotius and Hammond.