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fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily, I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them, went his way.

We see that it was the custom of our blessed Saviour to frequent the synagogues every sabbath day; how well therefore does it become his servants to be constant in their attendance on public ordinances, especially since those of the gospel are in many respects so much nobler than any which the Mosaic institution would admit!

In the synagogues the scriptures were constantly read; and it is matter of pleasing reflection that, in all ages of the Christian church, the reading them hath usually been made a part of the service in most of its solemn assemblies. Let it still be so with us for this reason, among others, that so glorious a testimony to the genuineness of scripture may not be impaired in our hands, but transmitted to those that shall arise after us.

And surely the Old Testament, as well as the New, deserves our attentive perusal; in which, if we are not strangely negligent, or strangely prejudiced, we must often meet with remarkable prophecies of Christ shining with a pleasing lustre, like lights in a dark place. (2 Pet, i. 19.) How amiable a view

of him is given in that which he now opened! Let us seriously attend to it. It is a moving representation that is here made of the deplorable state in which the gospel finds us! The helpless prisoners of Divine justice, the wretched captives of Satan, stripped and wounded, the eyes of our understanding blinded, and the powers of our souls enfeebled ; and, as it were, bruised with those chains which prejudice and vice have fastended upon them! But in these miserable circumstances Jesus appears to open the doors of our prison, to strike off our fetters, and even to restore our sight. He comes to enrich our impoverished souls, and to preach a far better jubilee than Moses could proclaim; the free forgiveness of all our sins and the recovery of an inheritance of eternal glory. Surely it should be to us a most acceptable time. Blessed are the people that know this joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance! Psalm lxxxix. 15.

In some sense this instructive and comfortable scripture is this day fulfilled in our ears likewise. Let us also bear our testimony to the gracious words of this welcome messenger whom God hath anointed for such happy purposes !

One would have imagined that while the eyes of his auditors were fixed upon him, their souls should have drank in his doctrine as the thirsty earth sucks up the rain, and that every heart should have been open to embrace him. But, O blessed Jesus, while thou art preaching these glad tidings of great joy, what a return dost thou find! Thou art ungratefully rejected, thou art impiously assaulted; and had their rage and malice been able to prevail, the joyful sound would have died into empty air as soon as it began, and this thy first sermon at Nazareth had been thy last.

Thus disdainfully art thou still rejected by multitudes who still hear the same message echoing from thy word. And is there not a malignity in the hearts of sinners which might lead those of our own days to the outrageous wickedness of these Nazarenes, were their opportunities the same, rather than they would bow their stubborn hearts to the obedience of faith? But while they are crucifying thee afresh by their sins, and putting thee to open shame, may we honour thee as the Son of God, the Saviour of men; and labour by the ardour of our love and the steadiness of our obedience, in some measure to balance the ingratitude of those who, while they are opposing thee, are destroying themselves!

SECTION XVIII.

MATTHEW IV. 12-26. MARK I. 14-20. LUKE IV.

31, 32.

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he came into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came down to, and dwelt in Capernaum, a city of Galilee, which is upon the sea-coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: The people which sat in darkness, saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up.-From that time Jesus began to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, and to say, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: Repent ye, and believe the gospel.

And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: And straightway he called them; and they immediately left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

Such was the zeal and courage of our blessed Redeemer, that he no sooner had been persecuted and assaulted at Nazareth, but he went and preached in the synagogue at Capernaum. Thus may all the opposition that we meet with in the course of our duty animate, rather than overbear, our resolution in performing it!

How happy was the land of Zabulon and Nephthalim in the

visits of such a guest! And may we not add too, how happy is our own land in being visited by the everlasting gospel, which is now much more clearly discovered to us than it was to these coasts while Christ began to open his ministry among their inhabitants.

In us is this prophecy of Isaiah eminently fulfilled: We but a few ages ago sat in darkness; and behold we see a great light. Our country, amidst all the advantages of its soil and situation, was, in a spiritual sense, the region and the shadow of death; but the Sun of Righteousness is risen upon us, nor do we only behold his rising beams, but his meridian lustre. May we not be so ungrateful as obstinately to shut our eyes against it, lest the valley of vision, and Emanuel's land, should on the whole prove to us the land of destruction and the valley of death itself!

That this may never be our case, let us diligently attend to this Divine Teacher, who speaks with such authority, and whose words are so weighty and powerful. May we feel the energy and authority of them! May they call us off from every undue attachment to the business or the pleasures of life! And if ever he should see fit to try us, as he did these his servants, with a command to forsake our nearest relations and our earthly all, for his service, let us do it with pleasure; remembering on the one hand, that he who loves father or mother, wife or children, houses or lands, more than Christ, is not worthy of him; and on the other hand, that he who abandons these engagements, for his sake, shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, and, in the world to come, life everlasting. (Matt. x. 37, and Mark x. 29, 30.)

SECTION XIX.

MARK I. 21-28.

LUKE IV. 31-37.

AND they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught them. And they were astonished at his doctrine; for his word was with power, for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God.

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rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and thrown him in the midst, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him, and hurt him not. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? for with authority and power he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him, and come out. And immediately his fame spread abroad, throughout all the region into every place of the country round about Galilee.

Justly may we join our astonishment with that of the inhabitants of Capernaum, and say, What manner of teaching is this? and with what regard should it be received, when the devils themselves, and the most desperate diseases, are thus apparently subject to him who uses it?

We see the malice of Satan in possessing and tormenting the bodies of men. God then permitted it, to render Christ's triumph over him so much the more illustrious, and the appearance of that great Deliverer so much the more welcome. Such diabolical operations as these are now restrained; and it is matter of great thankfulness that they are. But would to God that malignant enemy did not, in a yet more fatal manner, possess the souls of men and work in the children of disobedience! Yet there can the power of Jesus prevail, to bind the strong man and spoil his goods.

Wisely did Christ silence the suspicious praises of an unclean spirit, and vain is all the hope which men build merely on those orthodox professions of the most important truths, in which Satan himself could vie with them.

SECTION XX.

MATT. VIII. 14-17.-MARK 1. 29-34.-LUKE IV,

38-41.

AND forthwith when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon Peter and Andrew, with James and John. And Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a great fever: and anon they told him of her, and besought him for her. And he came, and stood over her, and took her by the hand, and rebuked the fever, and lifted her up, and

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