[The fever left him.] Trench remarks, that the words seem to indicate, that there was no^ merely an abatement of the lexer, but that it suddenly fur.sook him. Compaie Luke iv, 9.
53. — [Himself believed.] Beda remarks, on the matter of the noble- man's believing, that "there are three degrees of faith, — the beginning, the increase, and the perfect- on. There was a begin- ning in this man, when he first came to Christ; an inurease, \\ hen our Lord told him that his son lived; and a perfection, whei. he found him to have recovered at that very time."
[His whole house.] This expression probably mean?, " his whole family," — including children and servants. We have no right whatever to exclude children from the sense of the words. Remembering this, we shall better understand what is meant, when it is written, St. Paul baptized " the household of Stepha- nas : " or when it is related, that the house of Lydia was baptized. (1 Cor. i. 16 ; Acts xvi. 15.)
There seems no reason for doubting that the nobleman, from this time forth, became a thorough, true-hearted, beUever in Christ. If, as some suppose, he is the same as Chuza, Herod's steward, we may perhaps date the conversion of Joanna his wite, to the period of the verse now before us.
Bishop Hall remarks on this verse, " G-reat men cannot want clients. Their example sways some : their authority more. They cannot go to either of the other worlds alone. In vain do they pretend power over others, who labour not to draw their famihes to Grod."
54. — [The second miracle that Jesus did.] The plain meaning of these words is, that our Lord had worked no other miracle in Galilee before this one, excepting that of turning the w-ater into wine at Cana. It appears likely that many of our Lord's earhest miracles were wrought in Judaea and Jerusalem; although we have no re- cord of them, except in the second chapter of St. John's GospeL (John ii. 23.) This fact is note-worthy, because it throws Hght on the wickedness of the Jews at Jerusalem, where at last Christ was condemned and crucified.
Chrysostom remarks, " The word ' second' is not added with- out cause, but to exalt yet more the praises of the Samaritans, by showing that even when a second miracle had been wrought, they who beheld it had not yet reached so high as those who had not. seen one."
Origen says, " Mystically the two journeys of Christ into G-alilee signify His two advents. At the first He makes us His guests at supper, and gives us wine to drink. At the second He raises up the nobleman's son at the point of death, — ke., the