Cum descendisset Jesus de monte secutae sunt eum turbae multae: et
reliqua.
Matthew, the blessed Evangelist, wrote in this evangelical lecture, that
"Jesus came down from a mountain, and a great multitude followed him.
Behold, there came a leprous man, and fell down before Jesus, thus saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst cleanse me. Jesus stretched forth his hand,
and touched him, and said, I will; and be thou cleansed. Then immediately
was his leprosy all cleansed, and he was healed. Then said Jesus to him,
Take care that thou say it to no man; but go to God's temple, and show
thyself to the priest, and offer thy gift, as Moses commanded for a witness
to them."
The doctor Haymo says in exposition of this, that the mountain from which
Jesus descended betokened the kingdom of heaven, from which the Almighty
Son of God came down, when he assumed our nature, and became incarnate as a
human being, in order that he might redeem mankind from the power of the
devil. He was invisible and impassible in his nature; then he became
visible in our nature, and passible. The great multitude which followed him
betokened those faithful christians, who follow the Lord with the steps of
their moral virtues. Verily we follow Christ's foot-traces, if, with good
works, we imitate his examples. "Behold, there came a leprous man, and fell
down before Jesus, thus saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst cleanse me.
Jesus {123} stretched forth his hand, and touched him, and said, I will;
and be thou cleansed. Then immediately was his leprosy all cleansed, and he
was healed."
In this deed is manifested God's might, and his humility. The law of Moses
forbade to touch any leper, but the humble Christ would not despise him,
though he was loathsome; and also manifested that he was lord of the old
law, and not its slave. In his might he could have healed him with his
word, without touching; but he manifested that his touch is very salutary
to believers. The leper was a believer, when he cried, "Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst cleanse me." Jesus answered, "I will; and be thou cleansed."
Verily God's behest is act, as the psalmist said, "He said it, and
creatures were made. He commanded, and they were created."
In a spiritual sense this leper betokened all mankind, which was foully
leprous with divers sins in the inward man; but it inclined to the belief
of Christ, and wisely conceived that it could not receive a cleansing of
the soul, save through the Lord, who wrought no sin, nor was any guile
found in his mouth. Loathsome is the body of the leper with many ulcers and
tumours, and with divers scabs; but the inward man, that is the soul, is
much more loathsome, if it be seized with divers sins. We should rightly
believe in Christ, that he may heal our soul from the ulcers of sins; and
we should steadfastly implore his will to that fulfilment. His hand
betokens his might and his incarnation. As Christ by the touch of his hands
healed the leper, so also he redeemed us from the sins of our souls by the
assumption of our flesh; as the prophet Isaiah said, "Verily he took away
our diseases, and our pains he himself bare."
When he forbade the healed leper not to make it known to any man, he
thereby gave us an example that we should not publish our good deeds, but
we should shun, with inward {125} heart, vain pride, if we do some little
good. Verily we shall be requited with no other reward, if we do good for
pride, than with hell-torment; because pride is a deadly sin.
The old law commanded that every leper should go to the priest, and that
the priest should separate him from men, if he really were leprous. If he
were not manifestly leprous, he should then, by his judgement, be accounted
clean. If the priest accounted him leprous, and God's might afterwards
healed him, that he should then, with a gift, thank God for his cleansing.
So also should he, who is leprous within with deadly sins, go to God's
priest, and open his secret to the ghostly leech, and, by his counsel and
aid, heal by penance the wounds of his soul. Some men imagine that it will
suffice for a complete cure, if, with compunction of heart, they confess
their sins to God alone, and that they need not confess to any priest, if
they cease from evil: but if their opinion were true, the Lord would not
have sent him, whom he himself had healed, with any gift to the priest. For
the same example he also sent Paul, whom he himself had spoken to from
heaven, to the priest Ananias, thus saying, "Go into the city, and there
shall be told thee what it befitteth thee to do."
The priest made not the man leprous or unleprous, but he judged that he
should be separated from the society of men, if his leprosy were growing
worse, or should continue among men, if his leprosy were growing better. So
should the ghostly priest do: he should cure God's people, and separate,
and excommunicate from christian men him who is so leprous with sinful
practices that he infects others with his wickedness; concerning which the
apostle Paul said, "Remove the evil man from you, lest one unsound sheep
infect all the flock." If his leprosy be amending, that is, if he cease
from evil, and, through dread of God, correct his ways, let him {127} have
a dwelling among christian men, until he be full sound in his conditions.
The evangelist said, that "After this the Lord went to a city which is
called Capernaum; then a certain centurion approached him, praying and
saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home bedridden, and is grievously
tormented. The Lord answered him, I will come and heal him. Then the
centurion answered, and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst
enter under my roof; but say thy word, and my servant shall be healed. I am
a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this,
Go thou, and he goeth; to another, Come thou, and he cometh; to my servant,
Do this, and he doeth. Then Jesus, when he heard this, wondered, and said
to the multitude following, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so
great faith in the people of Israel. I say to you in sooth, that many shall
come from the east and the west, and shall rest with the patriarch Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. The rich children shall be
cast into utter darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then again said Jesus to the centurion, Go home, and betide thee as thou
hast believed. And the servant was healed from that hour."
The centurion approached Jesus not by halves, but fully. He approached with
great faith, and with true humility, and wisdom, and true love. Great faith
he had, when he said, "Lord, say thy word, and my servant shall be healed."
But he manifested great humility, when he said, "Lord, I am not worthy that
thou shouldst enter under my roof." He had great wisdom, when he understood
that Christ is everywhere present, through his divine nature, who went
bodily visible among men. He was not void of true love, when he besought
the Lord for the health of his servant. Many other men besought the Lord,
some for their own health, some for their children's, some for their dear
friends'; but this officer prayed {129} with true love for the health of
his servant, for that makes no distinction with regard to family
relationship. The Lord saw the manifold goodness of this officer, and said,
"I will come and heal thy servant."
John the Evangelist wrote that "An under-king came to Christ, and besought
him that he would go home with him and heal his son; for he lay at the
point of death. Then said Jesus to the under-king, Return home, thy son
liveth. He believed the speech of Jesus, and went home. Then came his
servants towards him, and informed him that his son was well. He then
inquired at what hour he recovered. They said, Yesterday, after mid-day,
the fever left him. Then the father knew that it was the hour at which
Jesus said to him, Go home, thy son liveth. The king then believed in God,
and all his family."
The Lord would not, invited, go bodily to the king's sick son, but absent
healed him by his word; and he was ready, uninvited, to go bodily with the
centurion. Everyone well knows that a king has greater power than any
centurion, but the Almighty Son of God manifested by that deed, that we
should not honour the rich for their riches, but for human nature; nor
should we despise the indigent for their indigence; but that we should
honour God's image in them. The humble Son of God was ready to visit the
servant by his presence, and he healed the prince with his behest; on which
the prophet said, "The Lord supreme beholdeth the humble, and knoweth the
proud from afar."
The Lord wondered at the centurion's faith, not because he knew it not
before, who knows all things, but he to whom he was wonderful manifested to
men his faith with praise. Whence came the officer's faith but of Christ's
gift, who afterwards praised him in these words? "Verily I say unto you, I
have not found so great faith in the people of Israel." {131} This was not
said of the patriarchs or prophets, but of the present people, who were not
yet of so great faith.
Mary and Martha were two sisters of great faith in God: they said to
Christ, "Lord, if thou hadst been present, our brother would not have
died." This officer said to Christ, "Say thy word, and my servant shall be
whole. I am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me; and I
say to this, Go thou, and he goeth; to another, Come thou, and he cometh;
to my servant, Do this, and he doeth. How much more canst thou, who art
Almighty God, through thy behest, execute whatsoever thou wilt!" The Lord
said, "I say to you in sooth, that many shall come from the east and the
west, and shall rest with the patriarch Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in
the kingdom of heaven." These words are pleasant to hear, and they greatly
gladden our minds, that many shall come from the east part of the world,
and from the west part, to the kingdom of heaven, and rule with the
patriarchs in everlasting joy.
By the two parts, the east and the west, are betokened the four corners of
the whole world, from which God's chosen shall be gathered from every
people to the dwelling of the patriarchs and of all the saints. By the east
part may be betokened those who in youth incline to God; because in the
east part is the day's beginning. By the west part are betokened those who
in age turn to God's service; because in the west part the day ends.
The following sentence is very awful, "The rich children shall be cast into
utter darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The rich
children are the Jewish, over whom God ruled, by the old law; but they
rejected Christ, and despised his doctrine; and he casts them into utter
darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many rich men,
however, thrive to God, if they are righteous and merciful. The patriarch
Abraham was a rich man, and David the great king, and Zaccheus, who gave
half his riches to the {133} poor, and with the half part compensated
fourfold for what he had before wrongfully gained. These rich and their
like come by good conversion to the everlasting kingdom, which will never
fail them.
They are called children of God who love him more than this world; and
those are called rich children who plant the root of their hearts in this
present life more than in Christ: such shall be cast into darkness. The
gospel says, "Into utter darkness." Utter darkness is the blindness of the
body without. Inward darkness is the darkness of the mind within. He who in
this present life is blinded within, so that he has no understanding, nor
heed of God's commandments, he will then be blinded without, and deprived
of every light; because he had before spent his life without remembrance of
God. The miserable guilty ones shall suffer torment in everlasting fire,
and yet that swart fire shall give them no light. Worms shall tear their
bodies with fiery teeth, as Christ said in his gospel, "There their worm
shall never die, nor their fire be quenched." There shall be associated in
one torment, those who in life were united in evil deeds, so that murderers
shall eternally be tortured together; and adulterers with adulterers, the
rapacious with the rapacious, robbers with robbers, perjurers with
perjurers, in the broad flame, without any ending, shall perish. There
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; for their eyes shall be tormented
in the great burning, and their teeth shall afterwards quake in the intense
cold. If any one doubt of the universal resurrection, let him understand
this divine saying, That there shall be a true resurrection, where there
shall be weeping eyes and gnashing teeth.
The Lord said to the centurion, "Go home, and betide thee as thou hast
believed; and his servant was healed from that hour." By this is to be
understood how greatly a christian man's own faith profiteth him, when that
of another man profiteth him so greatly. Verily, for the centurion's faith
was {135} the bedridden healed. Faith is of all virtues first; without it
no man may be pleasing to God; and the righteous lives by his faith. Let us
believe in the Holy Trinity, and in true Unity, that the Almighty Father,
and his Son, that is his wisdom, and the Holy Ghost who is the love and
will of them both, that they are three in person and in name, and one God,
in one Godhead ever continuing, without beginning and end. Amen.
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