fall from their master's table; the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith and he said unto her, For this saying, be it unto thee even as thou wilt: go thy way: the demon is gone out of thy daughter. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. And when she was come to her house, she found that the demon was gone out, and her daughter laid upon a couch.

SECTION LXXXI.

Christ goes through Decapolis, healing and teaching.

MATT. xv. 29, 30, 31. MARK vii. 31, to the end.

And again Jesus departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, came nigh unto the lake of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers in his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. And he went up into a mountain, and sat down there, and great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them: insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the maimed healed, the dumb speaking, the lame walking, and the blind seeing: and they glorified the God of Israel.

SECTION LXXXII.

Four thousand Men are fed miraculously.

MATT. XV. 32, to the end.

MARK viii. 1-11.

In those days, the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way, for divers of them came from far. And his disciples say unto him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? Whence should we have so much bread as to fill so great a multitude? And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and broke them, and gave to his disciples, to set before the multitude; and they did set them before the people. And they did all eat, and were filled; and they took up of the broken food that was left, seven baskets full. And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. And he sent away the multitude, and immediately he entered into a ship, with his disciples, and came into the coasts of Magdala, into the parts of Dalmanutha.

SECTION LXXXIII.

The Pharisees require other Signs-Christ charges them with Hypocrisy.

MATT. xvi. 1-13. MARK viii. 11-part of 22.

The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, tempting and seeking of him a sign from heaven, and they began to question with him, and desired that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather for the sky is red. And in the morning, It

will be foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowring, O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; and can ye not discern the signs of the times? And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation, a wicked and adulterous generation, seek after a sign? Verily, I say unto you, There shall no sign be given to this generation, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.

And he left them, and departed; and entering into the ship again, departed to the other side. And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread; neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. Then Jesus charged them, and said unto them, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Sadducees, and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, and knew it, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? Do ye not understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up-neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Having eyes, see ye not? and do ye not remember? When I broke the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve? And when the seven loaves among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand? that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he had not bade them beware of the leaven of bread, but of the [false] doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

SECTION LXXXIV.

Christ heals a Blind Man at Bethsaida.

MARK viii. 22-27.

And he cometh to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and had put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught? And he looked up, and said, I see walking men as trees. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

SECTION LXXXV.

Peter confesses Christ to be the Messiah.

MATT. xvi. 13-21. MARK viii. 27-31. LUKE ix. 18-22.

And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Cæsarea Philippi. And it came to pass, when Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, as he was apart praying, his disciples were with him. And by the way he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men, or the people, say that I the Son of man, am? Whom say the people that I am? And they answered, and said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said unto him, Thou art the Christ, the Messiah of God, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered, and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter (a stone); [thou hast confessed that I am the Son of God, who is the Petra or Rock (of ages)] and on this very Rock I will build

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my Church, and the powers of hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound by heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed by heaven. Then he strictly charged his disciples, and commanded them, that they should tell no man that he, Jesus, was the Messiah, or the Christ.*

SECTION LXXXVI.

Christ declares the Necessity of his Death and Resurrection. MATT. xvi. 21, to the end. MARK Viii. 31, to the end. LUKE ix. 22-28. MARK ix. 1.

And from that time forth began Jesus to shew unto

"It is well remarked by Dr. Townsend that the word TεTOO cannot signify any thing more than a stone; so that the Popish application to Peter (or TεTpoç) as the foundation of Christ's Church, is not only inconsistent with the real meaning of the appellative, which Christ at that very time conferred upon him, and with the necessary grammatical construction of it, but also with the figurative importance of the other word, Tεrpа, the rock; ET TAνтη τη πεтpa, 'upon this rock,' he declared the foundation of the Church; a title of dignity, which, as I have already shewn by several texts of Scripture, is applicable only to God or to Christ." Perhaps our Lord on this occasion pointed to himself as the very Rock, or used some significant action, to indicate that he himself was the symbolic Rock as distinguished from the symbolic stone. At any rate, he is especially called the Rock, both in the Old and New Testament; for St. Paul expressly tells us that the Israelites "drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor., x., 4). The popular mistake has found no favour, except among those expositors who have failed to observe the plain distinction between a stone and a rock.

How far the Apostolic power of the keys, and of binding, and loosing, has been continued since the Apostolic days, to any churches or individuals, is an open question, on which grievous errors and disputes have occurred, that are to be deeply regretted and cautiously avoided.

N.B-The words in brackets or italics are not in the original, but such words are added in this and other versions of Scripture to express an intermediate link of the chain of argument, in certain cases of difficulty.