And these acts of beneficence and kindness them." There is something so utterly astonishing in all this, that we might have imagined some mistake crept into the text, had no other passage of Scripture conveyed to us the same idea. For that our Lord will accept and reward what shall be so done to him, can be known only from himself and his Holy Spirit. But to reward, is the great end of his coming; as he has himself declared, in the twenty-second chapter of St. John's Revelation. "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be." are performed, not out of interest or party, or to serve a turn; not out of vanity or ostentation, or because others perform them, and we shall be reflected on and lose the esteem of men if we neglect to perform them; but they are performed through faith in what Christ has done and suffered for us, and through a grateful desire of making some return for all his goodness, to those whom he is pleased to style his brethren. "Inasmuch as ye have done it to these my brethren." "The children being partakers of flesh and blood, he also," by coming in the flesh," partook of the same; for which Before his appearance in the flesh, as at reason he is not ashamed to call them this time, he proclaimed by one of his holy brethren." Consider duly the weight of prophets, that whatsoever we give to the this motive. When you do good upon the poor he esteems as lent to himself; which strength of it, it is as if you addressed a much resembles the words of the text, poor person in the following manner-"I" Ye have done it unto me." And he does relieve you in your distress because of the not disdain to add, that he will be accountnear relation you bear to that blessed per-able for it; since thus we read, in the book son, who has relieved me in all mine; my of Proverbs, "He that hath pity upon the friend, my benefactor, my Saviour, my God. I too was an hungred, and he gave me the bread of life; I was thirsty, and he gave me the water of life; I was a stranger, not belonging to the fold, and he took me into it; I was naked, and he clothed me with the robe of righteousness; I was sick, and he visited me, and comforted me, and made me whole; I was in prison, and he came to me, loosed the bands of sin and death, and brought me forth into light, liberty, and salvation. You come recommended to me as one of those whom he condescends to call his brethren. Accept, for his sake, what I can give you: I would it were more all I have is too little." You see, then, the principle on which Christ directed that our charity should be shown. A noble, comprehensive, affecting principle it is. It involves within its compass, and supposes to be known and believed, the whole of Christianity. Thus employed, faith has its perfect work: it is made perfect in love. The acceptance it will be sure to find is the poor, lendeth unto the Lord; and look " expect, depend upon it, be assured-“ it shall be paid him again." Sir Thomas More, a famous Lord Chancellor of England, used always to say, "there was more rhetoric," more persuasive argument, "in this little sentence, than in a whole library." Again: he assures us by his blessed apostle, that every deed of kindness which is shown in this manner towards his name, will be remembered; for "God," saith the apostle, "is not unrighteous, that he should forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shown towards his name," towards his name you see, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister," still continuing, persevering in your charitable contributions; not suffering any good work of this sort which has been begun amongst you, to cease and come to nothing. Without apostolical authority, we should never have hazarded the expression here used, "God is not unrighteous, that he should forget," as if we might even deem him unjust, if he should not remember works of charity done to himself in the persons of the poor. Thus every thing contributes to establish the gracious declaration in my text, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' IIId, and last point to be considered. Our Lord accepts such works, when done upon such a principle, as if they had been done to himself: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' And this produces a reason for his rewarding them which no I ask your pardon-I have omitted a other consideration would afford. Infinite word-it runs, Inasmuch as ye have done mercy, after bestowing every thing upon it unto the least of these my brethren." us, has, as it were, set itself to contrive a Not men and women only, grown persons, manner in which it might become our debt- are meant ; children also are included; "You have done these acts of kind- the LEAST of these. They are not left out ness to ME; I take upon me to recompense of the account by our Lord, in his promises or. pends upon your farther bounty. On this, destitute of every other help, they, under the Providence of God, rely; on you their eyes and hopes are fixed, for the continuance of every advantage: and every advantage they enjoy will be continued to them, by the liberality of all such among you as shall duly meditate upon the affecting scene I have been endeavoring to represent. This affecting scene you will as surely see, these affecting words of the great Judge you will as surely hear, as he who has declared you shall see and hear them, is faithful and true. One thing only remains to be mentioned, that He who shall address those on the right hand in the gracious language of the text, shall and assurances of mercy: "Suffer little children to come to me: It is not the will of my Father, that one of these little ones should perish." Though the youngest, and the least, they are still the brethren of the Redeemer. They share his love; let them share yours. "A cup of cold water only given to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, shall in no wise lose its reward." But it is in your power to give them much more. You have given them much more you have ministered; continue still to minister. Through your bounty it is, that they now appear in this sacred place; their bodies neatly clothed, their minds duly instructed, and qualified with us to worship our God in the beauty of holiness. A pleasant and comfortable sight it is to be-afterward say also to " them on the left hand, hold. The world cannot show us one that Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting is more so. Consider them as fully in- fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; cluded in the case before us. They are in for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no want; and they bear a near relation to Christ. meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no They can hardly be thought, at this tender drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not age, to have forfeited the high privileges of in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and their baptism, in which they were made in prison, and ye visited me not." On their "members of Christ, children of God, and asking, likewise, when he was seen of them heirs of the kingdom of heaven." And in any of these afflicting circumstances, and much, indeed, may it depend upon you, they had thus ungratefully denied him relief, whether they ever do forfeit them; the he shall answer them; "Inasmuch as ye did great design of these excellent institutions it not to one of the least of these my brethren, being to afford them opportunities of in-ye did it not to me." The final separation is struction, which their friends are unable to then to be made, and that gulf fixed between give or procure for them: to ground them them, which cannot be passed; "And these" well in such religious principles as may-such as had neglected to perform works of render them good and useful members of charity-" these shall go away into eversociety, conduct them safe through a world lasting punishment; but the righteous," they of temptations, and bring them to never- who had performed them, " into life eternal." ending glory. But the support of the in- The brethren of Christ are before you-Make stitution which is to do this for them, de- your choice. DISCOURSE XL. THE PARALYTIC HEALED. MATTHEW, IX. 2. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. THE active and elementary parts of nature, odors. wheresoever they exist, will manifest themselves by their effects; fire will warm, light will shine, aromatics will send forth sweet Jesus in like manner, on all occasions, discovers himself to be what his name implies, the SAVIOUR; leaving behind him, in every place, the warmth of fervent charity, the light of evangelical doctrine, and the fragrance of a good report concerning something done for the benefit of man, and the glory of God. He goeth about, not to gratify or to profit himself, but to diffuse his beneficence. He either teaches, or comforts, or raises from the dead; or heals, or feeds, or delivers, or departs into solitude to pray. And all for us. For us he preaches, that we may learn the truth; for us he heals, and performs other miracles that we may believe him; for us no less he retires, for us he prays, for us he gives thanks to his Father. Thus he changes his situation often, his disposition never; in this, as well as other things, "leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps," and not suffer any outward difference of circumstances to make us forget our Christian profession. The Gergesenes, as we find by the conclusion of the preceding chapter, preferring the preservation of their swine to the salvation of their souls, and, therefore, "desiring him to depart out of their coasts; he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city, Capernaum," i. e. the city not where he was born, but where he lived; a trafficking, luxurious, proud city and for that reason, as mercy looks out for the miserable, and a physician for them that are sick, chosen by him; who, though the only man that ever was without sin, disdained not to dwell and converse with sinners, seeing he came to call such to repentance. : Here it was that he performed the miracle mentioned in the text, which it is the design of the following discourse first to illustrate, and then to apply. It being "noised about," as St. Mark in his account informs us, "that Jesus was returned to Capernaum, and was in a certain house in the town, straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no not so much as about the door; and he," who always rejoined much more to teach than any could do to learn of him, "preached the word" of life and salvation "to them." The sermon was with authority and power, and the audience very attentive. But behold (for so St. Matthew introduces this miracle, and well worthy our beholding it will appear to be) an object on a sudden presented itself, which quickly engaged the notice of the speaker, no less than that of the hearers. A bed, with a poor wretch confined to it by the palsy, was seen descending from the roof, till it came down into the room and rested, where all that want rest must find it, at the feet of Jesus. Some good neighbors and friends of this unhappy man, it seems, who by the nature of his disease was rendered incapable of helping himself, were so kind as to carry him between four of them where they knew he might have relief. For it is plain, by the pains they took, that they had no doubt but Christ could and would heal him, if they could only contrive to place such a spectacle before his eyes. But here was the difficulty; for upon bringing their burden to the house, they found such a crowd of people, even about the door, that there was no room for a single person more to get in, much less for four with so ponderous and cumbrous a load. Men were not to be torn by any means from the lips of so eloquent a preacher, but were listening at the very doors and windows, to catch, if it were possible, somewhat of his doctrine. Such was, and such ever ought to be, the vehement and unfeigned desire of hearing Christ's word whenever it is preached. What therefore is to be done? Shall they give it over, and return without having accomplished that for which they came? A lukewarm charity would have done so, contenting itself with the effort it had made, and concluding it impossible to do anything more. But these men were not to be discouraged. They thought therefore of an expedient, and immediately put it in practice; the relation of which we cannot so well understand, without considering that the houses in the eastern countries were built very low, and with a flat roof, in which there was a kind of trapdoor, as the inhabitants often used to go up from within, and spend some time upon the "house top," where we find "David walking," and "St. Peter praying." The friends of the sick man therefore having contrived to raise the bed to the roof (as it was not unusual to have a passage likewise by stairs on the outside of the house,) they broke open the afore-mentioned door that was therein (fastened probably on the inside,) and let down the bed, suspended by ropes, into the midst of the assembly, before Jesus. Behold, then, this sad spectacle-not so properly a man as a corpse. Of motion the disease deprived him; and without the power of motion what is life? What avails it to have limbs, if they cannot be used? Nor does this distemper affect the extreme and exterior parts of the body only, but the tongue is tied, and the head disordered. The understanding is benumbed; the memory becomes like a leaky vessel, and loses all that was committed to it; the judgment is naught, and the vigor of the mind perished. Many diseases are noisome, many painful, but still the use of the limbs is not taken away; and in most the soul is still at liberty to perforin her operations. But the object before us was deprived by the palsy of both. There he lies, those that carried him looking down from above, and the eyes of all in the room, we may be sure, fixed upon him. He falls not on his knees; he lifts not up his hands; he opens not his mouth; but his helpless condition was more effectual than if he had kneeled, his silence more eloquent than any prayer he could have put up. In the ears of mercy nothing speaks so powerfully as misery. The meek and gracious Redeemer was not at all offended at being thus interrupted, but highly approves the faith of those who had such confidence in him, as to let no difficulties and discouragements prevent their laying the sick man at his feet, in order to the obtaining of a cure. So much doth an operating, steady, persevering faith avail, not only for ourselves, but likewise for our poor sick brethren and neighbors; whom it is our duty to present to Christ by our prayers, as the friends of the man sick of the palsy presented him. For here is nothing mentioned about his faith, but only that of his bearers-"Jesus seeing their faith." And we have in St. James a promise of success made more particularly to the prayers of the priests in such cases: "Is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up." But the duty of interceding for the afflicted-incumbent on all-cannot be more forcibly recommended than by this circumstance of the miracle before us. Nor indeed will it ever be known, till the day of judgment, how many thousand blessings, both temporal and spiritual, have been brought down by the effectual fervent prayers of the faithful, on the heads of such as, like the poor paralytic, could not pray for themselves. Every man therefore," because every man has sinned, " is but vanity," a creature of no stability and strength, but presently fretted and worn down by sickness, as the best and fairest cloth is when the moth has once got into it. He, therefore, that would be healed of his sickness, should apply for the pardon of his sins. And to whom should he go for a perfect cure of both, but to him who first "said to the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee;" and then-" Arise, take up thy bed, and go to thine house." But, alas! the remission of sins by Jesus Christ, though the greatest and most glorious of all the divine mercies, and the ground and foundation of the rest, yet being not like a cure wrought on the body, outward, and visible, and perceivable by the senses, is often lightly set by and scoffed at by proud and worldly men. As in the case before us, us no sooner had Christ said, "thy sins are forgiven thee," but "certain of the Scribes and Pharisees," who were present, " 'began to reason in their hearts-Who is this that speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?" Who indeed! But does it follow, thou blind and envious Pharisee, that he blasphemeth who came into the world, as the law and the prophets foretold he should, to "save his people from their sins," and who showed himself possessed of almighty power by the works he daily and hourly wrought in the streets of Jerusalem! It is true, doubtless, that God only can forgive sins. But why, then, is not the only just and right conclusion drawn, viz: that he who does forgive them by his own power, and who demonstrates to sense that he does so, by removing the pains and penalties inflicted on their account-that he, I say, is very God, though he appears in the form of a man-"God manifest in the flesh, to destroy the works of the devil?" And now it might be expected that Jesus But such was the exceeding hardness of would, by the word of his power, command these men's hearts, that though Christ vouchthe sick man immediately to "arise and safed to them two most convincing proofs of walk." But, instead of addressing him upon his divinity, yet neither so believed they on the subject of his bodily disorder, he says to him. First, he answered to their thoughts, him-Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be thereby showing himself to be one "who forgiven thee." Here was the proof of an searcheth the heart and reins," the peculiar able and experienced physician, who would prerogative of God. "Jesus knowing their not skin the wound over, but strike directly thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in at the root, and remove the cause of the your hearts?" Secondly, by releasing the malady, which was SIN. For had man never sick man, in a moment and by a word speaksinned, he had never been sick. Sickness is ing, from a disease inflicted as a punishment a part of the curse inflicted on disobedience; for sin, he demonstrated to all the world the and thither the holy Psalmist has taught us to authority and power he had to pronounce recur in all our visitations, saying, "When the sentence, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin," Whether," says he, "is easier to say, Thy thou makest his beauty to consume away, sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, and like as it were a moth fretting a garment. walk?" Both, blessed Jesus, are equally imVOL. II. 27 His possible to any one but a God of almighty | tion. This is the last of those called "the power and infinite mercy, who first made seven deadly sins ;" and when it seizes upon man, and then redeemed him. Such, there- the man, it takes away the use of his powers fore, we acknowledge thee to be who saidst and faculties in matters spiritual, exactly as "That ye may know the Son of man hath the palsy does in matters temporal. power on earth to forgive sins-Arise, take nerves are unstrung, and he is under an absoup thy bed, and go to thine house," i. e. You lute inability to work out his salvation, and shall see a divine power go along with my walk in the way of God's commandments. words to heal an outward and visible disease His hands can neither be lifted up to heaven of the body, that ye may no longer doubt of in devotion, nor stretched out to the poor in the same divine power going along with them charity. His feet cannot support or carry to work the inward and spiritual cure of the him forward in a course of holy duties. His soul by the remission of sins. Accordingly, tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth, when no sooner were the words spoken, but the it should utter prayers or praises to God, or sick man instantly "arose, took up that instruct and comfort, reprove or exhort his whereon he lay, and departed to his house," neighbor. His understanding is likewise dull no longer mute, but "glorifying God," per- and heavy, when the doctrines of salvation haps in the words of the hundred and third are proposed to it; his memory retaineth not psalm, for words better adapted to his case divine truths; and the vigor of his spirit is cannot be conceived-" Praise the Lord, O departed. His will is chained down to the my soul, and all that is within me praise his creature, nor can by any human means be holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and disengaged from the earth; and what is worst forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all of all, the man laboring under this mental or thy sins, and healeth all thine infirmities." intellectual palsy, and brought down by it to Can a miracle be more complete, more glo- the gates of eternal death, seems to himself all rious than this? What have the Pharisees the while to thrive and flourish, because he has to say? Do they yet doubt whether this perhaps riches, and honors, and pleasures in man's sins are forgiven him; and whether possession, and can bask himself in the sunGod is in Jesus to forgive them? They are shine of this world, saying to his poor soul in silent, as if the palsy, like Naaman's leprosy this most wretched condition, "Soul, thou cleaving to Gehazi, when it left the man had hast goods laid up for many years; take thine seized upon them, and the opening of his ease, eat, drink, and be merry." But suffer mouth had been the closing of theirs. But not, O man, the world and the good things as our Lord once said, that if his disciples thereof to deceive thee to thy destruction. were to be silent, the very stones would cry They may increase the disorder, and hasten out, rather than that God should want the thy miserable end. Thy true condition can honor due unto his name; so though these only be judged of by the state of thy soul. men, swelling with malice and envy, sat Turn thine eyes inward, and see whether the speechless, neither willing to commend, nor description just given belongs to it. If it able to find fault, yet the hearts of the com- does, then behold and acknowledge thy picmon people, more generous and open to con- ture in "the man sick of the palsy lying on viction, were touched at once upon seeing a bed;" and thou wilt presently cry out, if the paralytic leap off his bed, whole and thou art not quite overcome of the distemper, sound, and walk away with it upon his "O wretched man that I am! who shall deshoulders" And they were all amazed, and liver me from the body of this death?" I ansaid, We have seen strange things to-day "— swer-yea, thou wilt return answer to thywe never saw it on this fashion. "And they self, if thou considerest this miracle arightglorified God:" which that we may all be "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our the more effectually moved to do, let us, Lord." 2dly, Make an application of this miracle to ourselves. For, by the wonderful cure wrought upon the body of this poor man, we are taught For it must be considered, that bodily dis- where to have recourse when the palsy has eases, as they were introduced by sin, so are seized the soul. He who said, "Arise and they pictures and representations of corres- walk," said likewise, "thy sins be forgiven ponding disorders produced by the same sin thee;" and his word was with equal power in our souls, which thereby became subject in both cases. Nor is it possible that he to the fever of anger, the dropsy of covetous- who vouchsafed to heal the more base and ness, the leprosy of uncleanness, the lunacy ignoble part of man, his body, should negof ambition, and, among other maladies, to lect his precious and immortal soul. All, the palsy of spiritual sloth and listlessness in therefore, that are spiritually "sick of the things pertaining to the work of our salva-palsy " must apply to Christ. No difficul |