stood them; and upon their answering in the affirmative, he added, that every teacher of the gospel ought to resemble a person whose house was completely furnished, and brought forth out of his treasures things new and old."

Our

Soon after Jesus left Capernaum, and repaired to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and preached in the synagogue the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; but his townsmen, though astonished at his doctrine, could not overcome the prejudices they had conceived against him, on account of the meanness of his family, and thence refused to own him for the Messiah. Saviour finding them the same incorrigible persons as when he visited them before, departed from them, and taught in the neighbouring villages. They, in common with all the Jews, were strangers to the true character of the Messiah, whom they considered as a temporal prince; and therefore could not bear that a person so mean as Jesus appeared to be, should perform works peculiar to that idol of their vanity, a glorious, triumphant, secular Messiah.

While our Lord resided in the neighbourhood of Nazareth, he sent out his disciples to preach in different parts of Galilee, and to proclaim the glad tidings that God was then going to establish the kingdom of the Messiah, wherein he would be worshipped, in spirit and in truth. And in order that they might confirm the doctrines they delivered, and prove that they had received their commission from the Son of God, they were endowed with the power of working miracles. How long they continued their preaching cannot be known, but it is reasonable to think they spent a considerable time in it, preaching in several parts of Judea.

The miracles which the apostles wrought, raised the expectations of men higher than ever the people were astonished to see the disciples of Jesus perform such miracles!

and then concluded that our Saviour must be greater than any of the old prophets, who could not transmit the power they enjoyed to any other.-This extraordinary circumstance could not fail of spreading his fame through the whole country it even reached the cars of Herod Antipos, who fearing a person of such extraordinary abili ties, was very uneasy; which some of his courtiers observing, endeavoured to remove, telling him, that one of the old prophets was risen from the dead; but this did not satisfy him, and he declared that he believed it was John the Baptist was raisen from the dead. "And he said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him." Matt. xiv. 2.

The Evangelist having, on this account, mentioned John the Baptist, informs us that Herod had put him to death: but when this happened is uncertain.

It has already been observed, that Herod had cast John into prison for his boldness in. reproving him for the adulterous commerce in which he lived with his brother's wife. The sacred writers have not told us how long be continued in prison, but it is plain. from his two disciples, who came from him to our Saviour, that his followers did not forsake him in his melancholy condition. Nay, Herod himself both respected and feared him, knowing that he was highly and deservedly beloved by the people; he consulted him often, and in many things followed his advice. But Herodias, his brother's wife, with whom he lived in so shameful a manner, being continually uneasy lest Herod should be prevailed upon to set him at liberty, sought all opportunities to destroy him; and at last an incident happened, which enabled her to accomplish her intentions.

The king having, on his birth-day, made a great feast for his friends, she sent her daughter Salome, whom she had by Philip, her lawful husband, into the saloon, to dance be

I

fore the king and his guests. Her performance was remarkably elegant, and charmed Herod, that he promised, with an bath, to give her whatever she asked.

Having obtained so remarkable a promise, she ran to her mother, desiring to know what she should ask! and was instructed by that wicked woman, to require the head of John the Baptist. Her mother's desire, doubtless surprised Salome, as she could not possibly see the use of asking what would be of no use to her. But Herodias would take no denial, peremptorily insisting on her demanding the head of the Baptist. Accordingly she turned to Herod, saying, "I will thou give me, by and by, in a charger, the head of John the Baptist."

So cruel a request thrilled every breast; the gaiety of the king was vanished; he was vexed and confounded. But being unwilling to appear either rash, fickle, or false, before a company of the first persons of his kingdom, for rank and character, he commanded the head to be given her; not oneof the guests having the courage to speak a single word in behalf of an innocent man, nor attempt to divert him from his mad purpose, though he gave them an opportunity of doing it, by signifying to them that he had performed his oath, merely out of regard to the company. Thus Herod, through a misplaced regard to his oath, and his guests, committed a most unjust and cruel action: an action that will for ever brand his memory with dishonour, and render his very name detestable to the latest posterity.

Soon after the command was given, the head of that venerable prophet, whose rebukes had struck Herod with awe in his loosest moments, and whose exhortations had often excited him to virtuous actions, was brought pale and bloody in a charger, and given to the daughter of Herodias, in the presence of all the guests.

The young lady eagerly received the bloody present, and carried it to her mother, who enjoyed the whole pleasure of revenge, and feasted her eyes with the sight of her enemy's head, now silent and barmless. But she could not silence the voice of the Baptist; it became louder, filling the earth and heavens, and publishing to every people and nation this woman's baseness. and adultery.

Thus fell that great and good man, John the Baptist, who was proclaimed by our Saviour himself, to be more than a prophet. Josephus tells us, that his whole crime consisted in exhorting the Jews to the love and. practice of virtue; and in the first place to piety, justice, and regeneration, or newness of life; not by the bare abstinence from this or that particular sin, but by an habitual. purity of mind and body.

It may not be improper, on this occasion, to hint, that the history of this birth-day transmitted to posterity in the scriptures, stands a perpetual beacon to warn the great, the gay, and the young, to beware of dissolute mirth. Admonished by so fatal an example, they should be careful to maintain, in the midst of their jollity, an habitual: recollection of spirit, lest reason, at any time, enervated by the pleasures of sense, should slacken the rein of wisdom, or let it drop, though only for a moment, because their head-strong passions, ever impatient of controul, may catch the opportunity, and rush with them into follies, whose consequences will be unspeakably, perhaps eternally bitter..

Their compassionate master, on hearing this melancholy news, retired with them by sea into a desart place, belonging to Bethsaida, that by retirement, meditation and prayer, they might be refreshed and recruited for their spiritual labours; and, at the same time, leave an example to us, that we should often retire from the noise and hurry of the world, and offer the most fervent prayers to our most heavenly Father.

But the multitude attended so closely, that their departure was not long concealed; and great numbers of people repaired to the place, where they supposed Jesus and his disciples had secluded themselves. Struck with the greatness of his miracles on those that were sick, and anxious to hear more instructions from the mouth of so divine a Teacher, no difficulties were too great for them to surmount, nor any place too retired for them to penetrate, in search of their

admired Preacher.

labourers; motives abundantly sufficient to excite compassion in the Son of God.

The situation of those numerous throngs of people scattered abroad, without a guide, without a guardian: a large flock of defenceless sheep, without a single shepherd to defend them from the jaws of the infernal wolf, was truly deplorable; the blessed Jesus, therefore, that good shepherd who came to lay down his life for the sheep, was moved with pity towards them: the same pity which brought him from the courts of heaven, for the sake of his lost and wandering sheep in the desart, now brought him to this multitude of people, whom he instructed in the doctrines of eternal life; and, with his usual goodness, healed all the sick among them.

Intentionally devoted to teaching and healing the people; our blessed Saviour did not perceive the day to wear away, and that the greatest part of it was already spent: but his disciples, too anxious about the things of this world, thought proper to advise him of it; as if the Son of God wanted any directions from man.

The day, said the disciples, is now far advanced, and the place a solitary desart, where neither food nor lodging can be procured: It would therefore be convenient to dismiss the people, that they may repair to the towns or villages, on the borders of the wilderness, and provide themselves with food and lodging, for they have nothing to eat.

five barley loaves and two fishes were multiplied into a quantity sufficient to supply the wants of five thousand men, besides women and children, who, on the most favourable supposition, must amount to an equal number. "And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes, as much as they would." John vi. 11.

Thus did the compassionate and powerful Redeemer feed at least ten thousand people with five barley loaves and two small fishes, giving a magnificent proof, both of his power and goodness. For after all had eaten to satisfy, they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces of meat-much larger quantity than was at first set before our Lord to divide.

Miraculous works! But what is too hard for God! What is impossible to Omnipotence! Strange perverseness of the sons of men, that after such manifestations of Almighty power, they should incredulously doubt, or impiously distrust the works of the Son of God; as the extraordinary circumstances attending them, must convince the most hardened sinner, that they were the effect of God's unlimited power and goodness.

The literal account of this miracle, as recorded by the several evangelists, is very plain, as well as circumstantial; and it is remarkable, that the place and time tended to magnify its greatness. The place was a desart, where there was no possibility of procuring any sustenance. Had he done this mighty work in any of the towns or villages round about, the pharisees in those days, and the infidels in ours might have objected, that he had received secretly some supplies; but this, in the present case, was impossible. The time was the evening: the people had been all the day fasting, and consequently were ready for their meal;

had it been done in the morning, they might have said, either that the people had been just refreshed, or were not hungry; consequently the miracl not great. But the time and place wholly removed all objections of this kind, and proved beyond a possibility of doubt, that God can furnish a table in the wilderness."

We should learn from this mighty miracle to remember, That it is God Almighty who every year blesses mankind with plentiful supplies of every thing necessary; who, agreeable to the emphatical works of David,

visiteth the earth, and blesseth it; who maketh it very plenteous, who watereth her furrows, and sendeth rain into the little vallies thereof, who maketh it soft with showers, and blesseth the increase of it: who crowneth the year with his goodness, while his clouds drop fatness: making the vallies stand so thick with corn, that they laugh and sing."--Whose beneficent hand and liberal bounty call for all their praise and claim all their thankfulness. For however inattentively we may behold this mighty work of Omnipotence, it is no less a miracle, that she should every day support and feed the whole race of mankind, and all the creatures of his hand, than that Christ should feed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes; for what proportion does five thousand bear to those myriads of men, who are daily fed from the fruits of the earth theincrease of which is equally a miracle with the increase of the bread and loaves, by the blessing of Jesus.-How small is the seed sown when compared with the produce? It is carried out in handfuls and brought home in sheaves: and who can tell by what secret operations this wonderful effect is wrought! Nature is equally wonderful in all her works as in this particular; and the divinity, to an attentive observer equally visible in these regular productions, as in miraculous supplies afforded; equally seen in the wine produced from the moisture of the earth filtrated through the branches of the vine, as in that instantaneously made