healed all manner of sickness, but in more than one instance, to console their sorrowing friends, he raised up those who were already dead.

For the miracle, indeed, of the extraordinary draught of Fishes, it seems difficult to assign any other reason, than that it was wrought by our Saviour to display his power; whereas, that the exact number caught should have comprehended every species of Fish, according to the catalogue of an ancient poetical writer;* and that such number was an indication of the various tribes of people who should hereafter become members of the Christian Church, is an idea too fanciful to deserve much serious consideration. It is, probably, to the same design, that of exhibiting a most striking example of the miraculous powers of Christ, that we are to attribute the extraordinary circumstances which accompanied the cure or dispossession of the Gadarene Demoniacs: t though how far the destruction of animal life was a necessary consequence of the cure,

*

Oppian. Halieut. Vide Fabric. Bibl. Græc. Tom. 3,

page 647.

+ Matth. viii. 28; Mark v. 1; Luke viii. 26.-See Jortin Rem. on E. H. Vol. 1, p. 371.—Matthew speaks of two demoniacs, as dwelling in the country of the Gergesenes; Mark and Luke, of only one. It appears, that Gergesa and Gadara were adjoining towns.-See Lightfoot's Chorogr. Century, Ch. lxxv.

whether our Lord intended to shew how much the life of one or two men was more to be regarded than that of a whole herd of swine; or whether any allusion is implied to the nature of unclean animals, as held in abhorrence by the Jews, it is impossible for us to determine. But whatever difficulties may occur in the narrative of this, or any other miracles of Christ, that their general character was that of mercy and benevolence cannot be disputed.

That which appears most like an exception to this observation, is the imprecation on the barren Fig Tree, related in the words of my Text. To devote a tree to eternal sterility because he was disappointed in finding no fruit upon it, when he was hungry, seems to betray a degree of impatience and irritability, by no means consistent with the character of the

meek and lowly Jesus. In a still stronger light does this inconsistency appear in the narrative of St. Mark: *-"On the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry; and seeing a Fig Tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet: And Jesus answered and said unto it: No man shall eat fruit of thee hereafter

* Chap. xi. v. 12, seq.

for ever." Was it then reasonable to expect ripe figs upon a tree, when "the time of figs was not yet;"-when the fruit was not yet formed? Or, was there any sufficient ground for causing the tree to be "dried up from the roots," because it disappointed such premature expectation.

The difficulty here lies in reasoning from false principles; from making no distinction between the seasons and productions of one country and those of another. In our northern climates, figs, as well as other fruits, in a state of ripeness, are found only once in a year; but in Palestine it was otherwise. In that country, we learn, that the fruit of many trees hung upon them all the winter, by reason of the mildness of the temperature. Of figs, in particular, they had a remarkable sort, which "put forth their fruit every year, but it was ripe only every third year; so that on that tree, every year, one might see three sorts of fruit; viz. the fruit of the present year, of the past, and of the year before that."*

There was surely, therefore, nothing unreasonable that on such Trees our Lord should expect to find ripe fruit. It must be observed, that Christ was going to Jerusalem from Bethphage, a place abounding with Fig Trees,

* Vide Mischna Surenhus, Tom. 1, p. 173, 174; Othon. Lex. Rabbin. Philos. ad voc. Ficus; Lightfoot; Opp. Tom. page. 226.

2,

as its name imports. Why his attention was directed to this Tree in particular we learn from Saint Mark; viz.-that "seeing a Fig Tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves." It was from this circumstance, that the Tree had leaves upon it, that our Saviour expected to find fruit. For, at the season when this event took place, (within a few days of the Passover, a Festival nearly corresponding with our Easter,) had the Fig Tree been of that ordinary kind with which we are acquainted, it would either have been leafless, or its leaves would have been so young and tender as, especially at any considerable distance, to be scarcely visible. "Now learn," says our Saviour, "a parable of the Fig Tree. When its branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh."* These were not, therefore, the leaves of the present Spring; but either those of the year past, which had remained upon the Tree all the winter, or else, (which is most probable,) the Tree was of that peculiar kind, which had figs and leaves together hanging upon it two or three years before the fruit became ripe. Saint Mark, as is justly remarked by Doctor

66

* Matth. xxiv. 32.

Lightfoot, satisfactorily accounts for the whole transaction. Why, on that mountain which abounded with Fig Trees, Christ fixed only upon this one, was-"because the time of figs was not yet;" for, had it been so, he might have gathered Figs from any of the Trees round about him: The reason of his disappointment was the specious appearance of the Tree, which, having leaves at this early season of the year, promised to afford that extraordinary kind of fruit, which was the slow production of two or three succeeding

summers.

But however reasonable it might be, under these circumstances, to expect fruit upon this Tree, it may be asked, why so heavy a denunciation against it, on finding it fruitless: "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever." Undoubtedly we are not to ascribe that severe sentence to impatience on being disappointed. This, indeed, would be a motive, as I before observed, unworthy of the Saviour of mankind; and the action proceeding from it, such as could not be held forth as an object of imitation to his disciples. But here we are not to seek for an adequate motive in our own conjectures only; the Scripture has informed us that one design at least of working this miracle was to show the power of faith. When Peter saw the Fig Tree "dried up from the roots,"