r SECTION II. a OF OUR LORD'S BENEVOLENCE. e TILLOTSON has justly observed that "our Lord was a pattern both of the contemplative and active life, shews us how to mix these to the greatest advantage, and by his own example teaches us that we cannot serve God better than by doing good to men." His benevolence, which is the second virtue in rank after piety, was wonderful and unexampled. Though he was rich in the glories of his divine nature, yet for our sakes he became poor, and clothed himself with human infirmities, sin only excepted. During his abode on carth, we have constantly occasion to admire his assiduous and laborious beneficence, his a gentle, benign and affectionate disposition and conduct. The severity of the baptist's appearance, of his manner of life and address, was wisely intended to raise the attention of the Jews, and to remind them of their ancient prophets; particularly of 8 Elijah, the next in eminence to their great lawgiver Moses. And this rigour of character served as a shade to place our Lord's amiable qualities in a stronger light. There is a true simplicity and force in St. Peter's description of Jesus, that he "hwent about doing good." He was always dispensing good, not only to the bodies of men, which is here particu g e a Serm. on 1 Pet. ii. 21, p. 224. fol. b 2 Cor. viii. 9. He was uns, 2 Cor. x. 1. e Matt. iii. 4. fib. v. 7. h Acts x. 38. Heb. iv. 15. 8 2 Kings i. 8. larly meant, but also to their souls. And he is with equal justness and sublimity represented by the prophet Malachi as " the sun of righteousness, with healing in his wings." The evils of pain and disease, of ignorance and vice, fled before him, as the sun dispels darkness. But let us illustrate this part of our Lord's character by facts recorded in the gospels. k St. Matthew repeatedly asserts of Jesus that he healed "all manner of disease and all manner of 'sickness among the people :" and the disorders which, in the opinion of the Jews, were most afflictive and dreadful, seem to have been the special " objects of his miraculous power. m Those whom he raised from the dead were the only • son of a widow, the only daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus the friend of his immediate and constant ૧ followers. There are some secondary circumstances in his benevolent miracles which well deserve our notice. When a blind man was brought to him at Bethsaida, he did not delegate the humane office to one of his disciples, but himself took him by the hand, and led him out of the city. When he healed a demoniac, an only son, he lifted him from the ground where he lay as dead, and restored him to his father. And, with the same unspeakable benignity, C. iv. 2. * c. ix. 5. sickness and pain; from ! Mananía is used by 6. for words translated n ægrotare, and ɔɔ dolere. Luke x. 17. Matt. x. 1. Acts. x. 38. See some miracles, excepted against as not having a beneficial tendency, explained c. iii. sect. 2. p. 281. Luke vii. 12. Luke ix. 49. P viii. 42. John xi. 11. Mark viii. 23. he not only raised the widow of Nain's son, but himself' delivered him into her hands. Such was his attention to those who most wanted instruction and reformation, that his enemies invidiously characterized him as the "" friend of publicans and sinners." His address to the Jews was truly affectionate : "Come w unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden [with the grievous yoke of the law,] and I will give you rest.” W It is often recorded of him that he sat at meat with * Pharisees, though perhaps at the very time his conduct was watched by them with a jealous enmity: and, no doubt, he was at all times intent on softening and subduing the prejudices of that haughty and worldly sect. He shewed great benignity to a y woman who had been a sinner, by not disdainfully spurning her from him like a proud Pharisee; but by permitting her to anoint his feet, by commending her faith, and by reassuring her of forgiveness. He performed three miracles on Gentiles; and often a foretold, both in direct terms and in parables, their admission into his church and into his kingdom of glory. The Samaritans were a people against whom the Jews entertained the strongest prejudices, and the sharpest religious enmity. But our Lord's mind was so far from being tinctured with hatred towards them, Luke vii. 15. xi. 37. xiv. 1. Luke xvii 16. " Matt. xi. 19. y ib. vii. 36-50. w ib. xi. 28. * See c. iii, sect. 1, p. 175. * Luke vii. 36. Mark vii. 29. b Matt. viii. 11. that he shewed them the greatest humanity. At the c well of Jacob he instructed a woman of Samaria, and unreservedly declared to her his Messiahship: he spake of the Samaritans as a part of his spiritual harvest; at their request he remained in their city two days; and during that interval gave them ample reason to conclude from his divine instructions that he was the Saviour of the world. d When he related the beautiful parable of the wounded Jewish traveller, a Samaritan was represented as softening and binding up his wounds, and taking the most tender care of him; and was accordingly proposed as a perfect example of compassion and beneficence to his hearers, and to his disciples in all ages. When the Samaritans refused to receive him and his apostles because they were journeying to Jerusalem, and James and John, full of natural animosity towards them, asked permission to consume them by fire from heaven; our Lord reproved their intemperate zeal in these instructive words, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of: for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." When the & Samaritan leper " glorified God with a loud voice" for his recovery," and fell down on his face at Jesus's feet, giving him thanks," our Lord placed his gratitude in the fullest light: "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? d © John iv. 42. Xgisos seems a gloss. It is omitted in some mss. and versions; and Mill approves of the omission. Luke x. c. ix. 8 Luke xvii. 15-18. C There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger." And though, when our Lord sent out the twelve, he forbad them to go into the way of the Gentiles, or to enter into a city of the Samaritans, who were of Gentile origin; it being the privilege of the Jews that the gospel should be first preached to them; yet he shewed how superior he was to the malevolence of the times, and how attentive to remove it from others, when, immediately before his ascension, he thus addressed the apostles; "Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in SAMARIA, and to the ends of the earth." And at another time, when he commanded that an offender, who despised public and private admonition, should be to his disciples as a heathen and a publican, he meant to explain the manner in which a christian brother was to be avoided on such occasions, and adapted his language to Jewish customs and ideas. n After Jesus had wrought 1 miracles both in Jerusalem and in Galilee, and his fame as a prophet had been spread abroad, he went to Nazareth, his place of abode, from his second to about his thirtieth year. Here he raised the wonder of the Nazarenes at his gracious words, and declared himself a prophet; censuring at the same time their prejudices against him on account of his humble descent, and intimating, with much dignity, that they were as unworthy of him as their forefathers had been of the great prophets Elijah and Elishah. At this they were b Matt. x. 5. i Acts i. 8. iv, 54. Luke iv. 14. Matt. xviii. 17. a ib. 16-30. ! John ii. 11, 23. |