towns," avoiding, according to His commands, any city of the Samaritans ;" preaching the Gospel, that men should repent; and "healing every where and they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick." It appears to have been a custom of the Jews to anoint sick persons with oil, in order to effect their recovery. Oil was employed among them as a symbol of plenty and of joy; probably this gave rise to the custom of anointing the sick with oil. As Christ's ministers they brought relief, they brought comfort and gladness: and oil was the emblem of this'; but whenever this anointing from the hands of the Apostles attained its end, it must have been supernatural; for the oil was only a symbol of the miraculous power, not the medicament whereby they cured the diseases. St. James, speaking afterwards to the elders of the Church, bids them use this unction, "in the name of the Lord," "with prayer," which addition, not the oil, made their cures miraculous 2. The gift of healing has now ceased, and therewith the rite of anointing; but a large body of Christians keep up an idle ceremony of anointing the sick, or rather, it may be said, the dead; whereas the anointing of the Apostles was for the benefit of the living; for "the prayer of faith shall save the sick; and the Lord shall raise him up." No such ceremony as extreme

1

Abp. Sumner.

2 Dr. Whitby.

3 Dr. Burkitt.

unction was observed in the primitive Church; so that, it may be inferred, that. the Christians of Christ's day only followed a custom in the use of oil, and did not establish a sacrament; for it was not "an outward visible sign of any inward and spiritual grace, and was " not ordained by Christ Himself"."

66

66

SECT. LVIII.-Death of the Baptist. Apostles return to Christ.—Matt. xiv. 13; Mark vi. 30-32; Luke ix. 10, 11. As the Apostles were still going through the land, in obedience to Christ's mission, Herod beheaded John the Baptist, whilst they were preaching in the name of Jesus. The fame of their Master, and of His doctrine, coming to the ears of the Tetrarch, he is struck with horror of conscience, and, notwithstanding the Sadduceeism of his opinions, he apprehends that John, or Elias, or some one of the old prophets," was again risen from the dead. Like most other persons of high rank at the time, Herod was of that sect who denied the immortality of the soul and the doctrine of a resurrection; yet the fears of the man overruled all the opinions of his sect, and raised up before his eyes the semblance of the murdered Baptist. Herod had murdered the holy man to please his mistress; but, no sooner did he hear that there was another in the country of equal, or rather superior fame, but he concluded

' Dr. Hook.

3

Dr. Lightfoot.

6

Bishop Porteus.

that the Baptist was returned from the grave, armed with power to take vengeance for his iniquities, and for his wrongs'.

Upon hearing of the murder of John, the Apostles immediately return to their Master and Christ departs privately with them into a desert place. "But the people saw them departing, and ran afoot out of all cities, and came together unto Him." "And He received them, and healed them that had need of healing; and He began to teach them many things, and to speak to them of the kingdom of God."

St. John mentions, in relating this occurrence, that "the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh." This was the third of the Passovers that had occurred since His baptism; and it is the last one of His public ministry, excepting that which took place at His death. It may be, that the coming on of the Passover, as well as the death of the Baptist, had brought back the Apostles to Galilee; for, St. Luke informs us, that the desert place, in which they were now collected altogether, "belonged to a place called Bethsaida." The circumstance of the approaching Passover may also possibly have occasioned the vast numbers who were now congregated there, because the people were all moving up to the festival.

'Bishop Sherlock.

s Dr. Lightfoot.

SECT. LIX. - Christ feedeth Five Thousand. - Matt. xiv. 14-21; Mark vi. 33-44; Luke ix. 12-17; John vi. 1-14.

THE account of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves is recorded by all four Evangelists; and it is observable that this is the only miracle which St. John relates in common with the rest. This Evangelist has also the peculiarity, that while the other three have recorded the appointment, and given a regular catalogue of the names of the Apostles, St. John, without naming the one or the other, always supposes, throughout his narrative, that Christ is accompanied by a select party of disciples, and that the number of them is twelve; and whenever he happens to notice any one of that number, it is one included in the catalogue of the other Evangelists'. Thus, in the present example, St. John alone specifies the name of the Apostle addressed. Jesus propounds to Philip the difficulty of feeding the multitude, by the question to him, who was of this his native city, "Whence shall we buy bread?" But this was said to prove him; for Himself knew what He would do'. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, is stated as making another question. A lad, it seems, had with him, for sale probably, in the crowd, "five barley loaves, and two small fishes;" and He commanded the multitude to sit down.

"Now

9 Dr. Hales.

Archdeacon Paley.

2

* Bishop Mann.

there was much grass in the place, and the men sat down, in number about four thousand." Looking up to heaven, Jesus "blessed, and gave thanks," before He distributed among the people. Such an example in our Divine Master it well becomes all Christians to imitate, both that we may acknowledge His unceasing liberality, in thus providing to our daily necessities, and also to pray that the food may be sanctified to us by promoting our health and welfare. The feeding of so vast a multitude, by a method altogether extraordinary, and beyond our conception, was a very remarkable and astonishing instance of our Lord's power over nature, and was calculated to make a most powerful impression on the minds of those who sat down ; yet, after all, the Providence of God every day feeds numbers infinitely greater in a most wonderful, though ordinary manner; for what proportion does five thousand bear to those numberless kindreds and countries that constantly subsist on His liberality? What is this one marvellous enlargement of five loaves and two fishes to the inconceivable productions of animals, the variety of plants, and herbs, and other increase of the earth, and the many unknown ways by which "He opens His hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness?" Jesus, by setting before the multitude the whole store within His reach, has left us a pattern of bene