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always went about doing good, and healed the sick, and fed the hungry; for it is said that the Lord had compassion on the multitude, and he would not send them away an hungry, therefore, behold the great miracle that was wrought by the power of the Lord Jesus; for with five loaves and two fisheshe fed about five thousand men, besides women and children, and they did all eat and were filled, and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full: (Matt. xiv. 20, 21.) And again, he fed four thousand men, besides women and children, with seven loaves and a few little fishes, and they took of the broken meat that was left, seven baskets full. (Matt. xv. 37 38.)

And again, our Lord wrought a miracle upon the deep waters, for he walked on the sea and he saved: poor Peter when his faith failed within him, even at the time when he sunk in the deep waters. (Matt. xiv. 25 31.) And when he was in the land of Gennesaret they brought unto him all that were diseased, and besought him that they might only touch I the hem of his garment, and as many as touched were made perfectly whole. (Matt. xiv. 36.) Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him, saying, have mercy on me O Lord, thoa Son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil, but he answered not a word, and his disciples came and besought him, saying, send her away, for she crieth after us; but he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel; then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord help me; but he answered and said it is not meet to take the childrens' bread, and to cast it to dogs; and she said, truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table; then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt; and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. (Matt. xv.) It appears to me, it was not because the Lord would not have compassion upon the poor woman that he gave her such an answer, but likely it was to try her faith, and to humble her soul, and to prove her, and to bring her nearer to the Lord; and it also may be to prove her as a trial, or to bring her to the test, or to see if she had any other place whereby she might obtain help for her daughter, except the Lord Jesus. But it appears that there was none to help her daughter but the Lord, therefore

she come to her Lord in faith and in a very humble way and manner, and when the Lord saw her faith, and humility, and importunity, he was pleased, to heal her daughter, and it is left upon record for an encouragement for the Gentiles as well as the Jews; and we see by this that there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile, for he is Lord over all, and in him shall the Gentiles trust. (Rom. xv. 12.). And Jesus departed from thence and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain and sat down there, and great multitudes came unto him having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them, insomuch that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see; and they glorified the God of Israel. (Matt. xv. 30.) And there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatick, and sore vexed; for oft times he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water; and I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him; and Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said, Because of your unbelief. (Matt. xvii. 14.) Now we see that our Lord's people are weak in faith at times; now it seems to me, that it is not so easy a thing, as it is commonly thought, to believe the word of God; for I cannot obey what God hath commanded me, unless I first believe what he hath taught me and I think it is harder to lay the sure foundation of faith than it is to obey, for if our faith is rightly established, surely then I think our obedience will follow close after. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. (Luke xvii. 5.) And now, O Lord, I beseech thee, through Christ, to give us thy heavenly grace to increase our faith to believe in the works of the Lord Jesus, then grace, faith, and obedience will sweetly work together, Amen. And it appears, that the Lord hath more compassion upon his creatures than we have for one another; for behold, two blind men sitting by the way-side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David; and the multitude rebuked them because they should hold their peace; but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David:

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and Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I should do unto you? They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. (Matt. xx. 30.) And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. (xxi. 14.) Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he 'hungered; and when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever; and presently the fig-tree withered away. (Matt xxi. 19.) Ah, leaves of profession will not do when the Lord shall visit us, if we do not possess the fruit of righteousness, and as leaves will not satisfy the husbandman without fruit, neither will our profession avail us anything that is good in the sight of God without obedience to the Gospel of Christ, and our lives submissive unto holiness, and by their fruits ye shall know them, saith the Lord; but we still see the tender mercy of our Lord towards poor helpless sinners, for there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit;" aud he cried out, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And. Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him: and when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And the people were all amazed when they saw his powerful, and graceful, and gracious works; and his fame spread abroad throughout all the regions round about Galilee. (Mark i. 23.) It appears that the devils fear and tremble, and O that thy fame may spread abroad throughout all nations, and that they may all believe in thee thou lovely Son of God; and that they may all fear and tremble, and sincerely repent and receive grace to believe the Gospel, then perfect love will cast out fear. And another miracle Jesus wrought on one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Eph-pha-tha, that is, Be opened; and straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain: and they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; he

maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. (Mark vii. 32.) Now in St. Luke's Gospel you may find that our Lord wrought a great miracle in the sight of his disciples by a draught of fishes, and it was so that when the Lord had taught the people out of Simon Peter's ship, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets, for a draught, and Simon said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net; and when they had done this they enclosed a great multitude of fishes; and their net brake, and they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them; and they came and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink; and when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord! For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And after this, Peter did catch men by the power of grace from the Lord Jesus; for we see in Acts ii. 41, that there was added unto them in one day about three thousand souls; and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved, verse 47. And thanks be unto Almighty God for it; and I hope and trust, through Jesus Christ that there hast been added to thy church daily ever since such as should be saved; and I hope and pray that there will be till time shall be no longer; and may God Almighty grant it through Jesus

Christ our Lord.

And again, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise left up herself; and Jesus laid his hands on herand immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. (Luke xiii. 11.) And again, behold there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy; and Jesus had compassion on him, and healed him, and let him go. (Luke xiv. 4.) And as thou healed so many temporal bodies, so O Lord, be thou pleased to heal our spiritual souls, thou God of our salvation. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off, and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw

on us.

that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God; and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. (Luke xvii. 12.) Now it appears to me, that these nine men were nearer in relation to Christ, speaking after the manner of the flesh, than this Samaritan, and likely they were some of his own countrymen; but this poor Samaritan was counted as a stranger: but it appears, that he was most thankful, and most humble, and loved most, therefore I do not see it a right thing, that we who live in a Christian land should condemn or accuse any nation or people under heaven that are simple and humble, and worship that Supreme Being as well as they know how-though they may not understand the plan of salvation so well as we; for where there is most given, there is most required; and to him that is least given, there is less required; and let us be aware of this, that we that have the Gospel of Christ, must give God the praise and glory, lest we shall be the farthest off of the grace of Christ. And Christ did a miracle at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. And by his Almighty power and virtue, he turneth water into wine. (John ii. 9.) Now after this, there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick, even at the point of death, and he_besought the Lord that he would heal his son. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe. And by the word of Jesus it excited his faith, and his son was healed in the self same hour. (John iv. 50.) And we read also in John v. that there was at Jerusalem a pool of water, having five porches; in these lay a great many impotent people of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water; whosoever then first after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole, of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years; when Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise; take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was

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