150 SERMON UPON MATTHEW VIII. 5-10.
never wants an errand to the throne of grace ; either necessity brings us thither, or delight. Christ inviteth us to come for what he hath to give : Mat. xi. 28, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' He is angry that we will not come : John V. 40, ' And ye will not come to me that ye may have life.' If we be backward, he sendeth afflictions upon ourselves and families : Hosea v. 15, ' In their affliction they will seek me early.' Surely it is a delight to him to do his office in helping distressed creatures, or else he would never have taken it upon him. The elect shall be brought to him upon one occasion or another, and he will kindly receive them: John vi. 37, ' All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and he that Cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' An apoplexy fallen on a beloved servant bringeth this centurion to Christ. Well, then, since Christ is ' able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him,' Heb. vii. 25, let us not neglect the occasions of coming to him, but get nearer to God by repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Would Christ stoop so low as to take our nature and purchase us with his blood, and be strange to us when we come for the fruits of his purchase and his mercy, to help us and ours?
2. That he accounteth misery an object proper enough for mercy to work upon. The centurion came to him, snying, ' Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented,' ver. 6 ; that is, grievously affected with the disease. Alas ! what can we bring to Christ but sins and sicknesses ? Justice seeketh a meet object, for it giveth to every one what is due, but mercy only seeketh a fit occasion. It doth not consider what is deserved, but what is desired and wanted. Etiam si sim indignus, sum tamen indigens, saith Romeranius — I am not worthy, but I am needy. The more affected we are with our misery, the fitter for Christ's mercy : Ps. ix. 18, ' The needy shall not always be forgotten.' The more hope we have, the more we are sensible of our need : Ps. xl, 17, ' But I am poor and needy, yet the Loi'd thinketh upon me.' Faith giveth us this ground of hope, that misery is a motive to God's pity. Thoug'n we have nothing within us or without us to commend us to Christ, yet he will not despise the miserable and the needy, and they shall not perish who in the sense of that need repair to him. God bringeth all-sufficiency to the covenant, we bring nothing but all-necessity ; as the widow was only to provide empty vessels ; the oil failed not till the vessels failed. Christ's bowels yearn towards the distressed.
3, When Christ offereth to come and heal him, ver. 7, 'I will come and heal him' (which was the great condescension of the Son of God to a poor servant), see how the centurion taketh it, ver. 8, 'He answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shonldest come under my roof.' Humility is a fruit of faith. A sound believer hath an high esteem of Christ and a low esteem of himself, and the one breedeththe other; they see Christ so excellent and themselves so vile, in regard of past sin and present infirmities. What ! the Son of God come to the house of an ethnic, and one that hath lived in idolatry and the worship of false gods ! The godly are ever acknowledging their vileness and baseness, and indignity and unworthiness, when they have to do witli God and Christ : Gen. xviii. 27, ' And Abraham answered, and said,
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Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes;' 2 Sam. vii, 18, ' Then went David in, and sat before the Lord, and ho said, Who am I, 0 Lord God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto ? ' Gen. xxxii. 10, ' I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth whicli thou hast showed unto thy servant.' So Mat. iii. 11, ' Whose shoes L am not worthy to bean' So when Christ had let out a beam of his xiivinity in that great draught of fishes, Peter said, ' Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man,' Luke v. 8. The prodigal : Luke xv. 19, * I am not worthy to be called thy son.' So 1 Cor. xv. 9, ' I am the least of the apostles, and am not meet to be called an apostle.' So though the Jews had said of our centurion, Lord, go to him, for ' he is worthy,' Luke vii. 4 : yet he saith of himself, ' Lord, I am not worthv that thou shouldest come under my roof.'
Quest. Why are true and sound believers so ready to profess their imworthiness ?