Ans. They have a deeper sense of God's majesty and greatness than others have, and also a more broken-hearted sense of their own vileness by reason of sin. They have a more affective light and sight of things ; God is another thing to them than before, so is sin and self. The more unworthy they are in their own apprehension, the more is God and ■Christ exalted. Faith is an emptying grace, and the best men have lowest thoughts of themselves. A proud man thinketh all things due to him, but an humble man nothing.
4. He is content with Christ's word without his bodily presence : ' Speak but the word, and my servant shall be healed.' God's word is enough to a believer ; he doth not limit him to a certain way of work- ing as if there were no way of working but that way only ; that is a sign of weakness of faith ; Ps. Ixxviii. 41, ' They limited the Holy One of Israel.' We are to depend upon him and submit to him, and not pre- scribe how and when he should help us, nor straiten and confine his power to such or such means. Compare John iv. 47, 48, with this cen- turion : ' A certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum' (the town where this centurion was in garrison), he again and again ' be- sought Jesus that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. And Jesus said, Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.' The cure must be done in their way : ver. 49, ' The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.' Christ refuseth to go to the ruler's house, being twice entreated, but here he ofi'ereth to come to visit this poor servant ; but the centurion saith, ' Speak but the word ; ' he was loath to give him this trouble to come to his house ; one word will as easily cure him as if he come personally ; he doth not tie his virtue to his bodily presence, but ascribeth all to his word. God made the world by a word, sustaineth the world by a word, therefore the centurion only desireth a word. There is a threefold word of God —
[1.] Verhum scriptum, his written word, his promise, and that is the food of faith ; and a believer can make a feast to himself in the promises when he is seemingly starved in the creature.
[2.] There is vei'hum henedictionis, his word of blessing. So Mat. iv. 4, ' Man liveth not by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' It is quoted out of Deut. viii. 3. In the
152 SERMON UPON MATTHEW VIII. 5-10.
wilderness, where they had neither bread nor water, they were not famished with want, nor compelled to use unlawful means for their relief, God blessed manna. He that provided forty 3^ears for such an huge multitude in the desert will not be wanting to his own Son who had fasted but forty days. It is not bread, but the blessing of God that sustaineth us. If they reserved aught of the manna till morning, it putrified and stank ; yet the same manna, kept by the commandment of God, was sweet and good in the Ark. God gave his blessing to the one, and not to the other.
[3.] There is verhum potenticB the word of his power : ' He spake, and it was done,' Ps. xxxiii. 9. So here the centurion desireth a word. The word made the world, and the word upholdeth it : Heb. i. 3, ' Upholding all things by the word of his power,' The powerful word of God doth all in the world : * He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth; his word runneth very swiftly,' Ps. cxlvii. 15. So Ps. cvii. 20, 'He sent his word, and healed them;' it is dictum factum with God. So ' the word of the Lord tried them.' Ps. cv. 19 ; that is, his power ; there is a powerful commanding word, which is enough.
5. Here is Christ's power and dominion over all events, and events that concern us and ours, fully acknowledged, and that is a great point gained : ' He is Lord both of the dead and living,' Eom. xiv. 9. Health and sickness are at his command. So Isa. xlv. 7, ' I form the light, and create darkness ; I make ])eace, and create evil ; I the Lord do all these things.' So Job xxxiv. 29, 'When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble ? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him ? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only ? ' Here is a clear confession of Christ's omnipotency and sove- reign dominion. This sovereign dominion is backed with omnipotency, and extendeth to all things. To devils: Mark ix. 25, ' I charge thee come out of him, thou dumb and deaf spirit.' To sickness : Luke iv. 39, * He rebuked the fever, and it left her.' Christ can speak to the leprosy: ' I will ; be thou clean,' Mat. viii. 3. To the winds and seas: ' Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the seas, and there was a great calm,' Mat. viii. 26, 27. To death: 'Lazarus, come forth,' John xi. 43. To nothing, as if it had ears and reason : Rom. iv. 17, ' And calleth those things which are not as though they were.' To the fishes in the sea : Jonah ii. 10, ' The Lord spake to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah upon the dry land.' Thus all creatures have an obediential ear, to hearken to what God saith, and God can make use of them according to his own pleasure ; yea, he can speak to sinners, who are the most stubborn and obstinate pieces of the creation : Ezek. xvi. 6, ' I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live ; ' Eph. v. 14, ^Wherefore he saith. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' Every creature is a servant of omnipotency, and doth suspend or exercise its natural operations as God biddetli it. Christ hath this power as God and heir of all things.