John Trapp on Matthew 8:2

Verse 2. And behold there came a Leper.] This leprosy wasLife of Sejanus by P. M. [illegible: 1 word] rife in our Saviours time: God so ordering, that Judea was sickest, when her Physitian was nearest. The [illegible: 1 word] are still a nasty people: And this kinde of leprosy seems to have been [illegible: 1 word] to them, as Plica Polonica, Morbus Gallicus, Sudor Anglicus. No stranger in England was touched with this disease, and yet the English were chased therewith, not in England onely, butLife of K. [illegible: 1 word]. 6. by [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. pag. [illegible: 1 word]. in other Countreys abroad: which made them like tyran's, both feared and avoided, where ever they came. So were these Jewish lepers. Hence that fable in Tacitus, that the Israelites were Turk. Hist. lib 5. driven out of Egypt for that lothsome disease. This, said one Malevolent Heathen, is the cause why they rest every seventh day. Bodinus observes it for a speciall providence of God, that in Arabia (which bordereth upon Judea,) there are no swine to be Summâ Dei bonitate [illegible: 1 word] sactum est, ne [illegible: 1 word] ad [illegible: 2 words], [illegible: 3 words] magis, [illegible: 1 word] magis [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word]. p. 354. [illegible: 1 word] Jo. [illegible: 1 word]. loc. com. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 4 words]. Ambr. found, lest that most leprous creature, saith he, should more and more infest and infect that people, who are naturally subject to the leprosy. And another good Authour is of opinion, that God did therefore forbid the Iews to eat either swines-flesh, or haresflesh: Quòd ista caro facilè in malè [illegible: 1 word] corporibus putrescat, because in diseased bodies it easily [illegible: 1 word] and turns to ill humours. And worshipped him.] Which he would hardly ever have done haply, had he not been a leper. Diseases, saith S. Ambrose, are the shop of vertues. King Alfred found himself ever best, when he was worst: and therefore praied God, to send him alwaies some sicknesse: Gehezies leprosy cured him, his white forehead made him a white soul. If thou [illegible: 1 word], thou canst, &c.] So Another came with, If thou [illegible: 1 word] doe any thing, help us: We never doubt of Christs will to doe us good, (saith a great Divine) but, in some degree, weD. [illegible: 1 word]. doubt also of his power. True faith doubts of neither: but believes against sense in things invisible, and against reason in things incredible. Sense corrects imagination, Reason corrects sense, but Faith corrects both.