For if this was the manner in which the incident took place, how can Matthew’s statement, that there “came to Him a certain centurion,” be correct, seeing that the man did not come in person, but sent his friends? The apparent discrepancy, however, will disappear if we look carefully into the matter, and observe that Matthew has simply held by a very familiar mode of expression. For not only are we accustomed to speak of one as coming867 even before he actually reaches the place he is said to have approached,868 whence, too, we speak of one as making small approach or making great approach869 to what he is desirous of reaching; but we also not unfrequently speak of that access,870 for the sake of getting at which the approach is made, as reached even although the person who is said to reach another may not himself see the individual whom he reaches, inasmuch as it may be through a friend that he reaches the person whose favour is necessary to him. This, indeed, is a custom which has so thor- oughly established itself, that even in the language of every-day life now those men are called Perventores871who, in the practice of canvassing,872 get at the inaccessible ears, as one may say, of any of the men of influence, by the intervention of suitable personages. If, therefore, access873 itself is thus familiarly said to be gained by the means of other parties, how much more may an approach874 be said to take place, although it be by means of others, which always remains something short of actual access! For it is surely the case, that a person may be able to do very much in the way of approach, but yet may have failed to succeed in actually reaching what he sought to get at. Consequently it is nothing out of the way for Matthew,—a 127 fact, indeed, which may be understood by any intelligence,—when thus dealing with an approach on the part of the centurion to the Lord, which was effected in the person of others, to have chosen to express the matter in this compendious method, “There came a centurion to Him.” 50. At the same time, however, we must be careful enough to discern a certain mystical depth in the phraseology adopted by the evangelist, which is in accordance with these words of the Psalm, “Come ye to Him, and be ye lightened.”875 For in this way, inasmuch as the Lord Himself commended the faith of the centurion, in which indeed his approach was really made to Jesus, in such terms that He declared, “I have not found so great faith in Israel,” 867 Accessisse, approaching. 868 Accessisse, come to. 869 Parum accessit vel multum accessit. 870 Perventio, arrival. 871 Reachers, comers at. 872 Ambitionis arte. 873 Perventio. 874 Coming at—accessus. 875 Accedite ad eum et illuminamini. Ps. xxxiv. 5. 276 An Explanation of the Circumstance that Matthew Tells Us How the Centurion…