Secondly, His preaching the gospel.
First, His miracles. ' The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.' This was foretold : Isa. XXXV. 5, 6, ' Then the eyes of the blind shall be open, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped : then shall the lame leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.' And then for his setting afoot the gospel, compare Isa. Ixi. 1, with Luke iv. 18. Isa. Ixi. 1, ' The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek : ho hath sent me to bind up the broken- hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening the prison to them that are bound.' Luke iv. 18, ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor : he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that are bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.' And Luke iv. 21, 'This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.' This is here expressed, ' The poor have the gospel preached to them' — {TrTwyol evayyeXi^ovTat) 'The poor are evan- gelised ' — have not only the promises of the gospel offered to them, but the impression and power of it is left upon their hearts. By the poor may be meant the humble-minded, or persons of the meanest and lowest condition — the humble-minded, or such as were aftected with their sin and misery. The proud resist and stand out against the gospel, but the broken-hearted thankfully accepted glad tidings
80 NOT TO BE OFFENDED IN CIIllIST [^LVT. XI. G.
of this salvation. The IMessiah was to j)reach to ' the poor,' Luke iv. 18. But in Isa. Ixi. 1, it is ' the meek.' The gospel doth aftect the poor needy soul, so as to put a stamp of grace upon it. They that are sensible of their sin and misery are the pro])er objects of this dispensation ; or else it may be meant of persons of the meanest and lowest condition. The Christian cliurch was made up of such at lirst : James ii. 5, ' Hearken, my beloved brethren ; hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the khigdoni wiiich he hath promised to them that love him?' and 1 Cor. i. l2(J, ' For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wi.se men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.' Christ did not then call the eminent and great, but the obscure and despised of the world, lest religion should seem to owe its growth and progress rather to the power of the world than to the evidence of the truth. Now these are said to be evangelised, that is, to have a good share in the blessed message, they above others being wrought upon and aflected with it. To be evangelised implieth grace on God's part, and on theirs a willing reception of the impression of it, so as to be changed by it. The poor are all to be gospelled ; those whose poverty is sanctified to make way for brokenness of heart, which is not said to exclude the rich from all benefit ; some were called then, though not many. Grace, where it prevails in the heart, ])uts rich and poor on the same level. It humbleth the rich, and exalteth the })()or, James i. 9, 10. It teacheth the one to abound, the other to be abased, Phil. iv. 12. Poverty and riches do as they are used. Now, saith Christ, tell John the things that ye hear and see ; let him expound the characters of the Messiah as they lie in the Old Testa- ment ; and if they be verified in me, see what application and infer- ence you ought to make. Therefore he dismisseth them with this conclusion: ' And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.' In which words observe : —
1. The privilege: And blessed is he: it is meant of our supreme blessedness.
2. The qualification: Whosoever is not offended in me. Where observe — 1. It is negatively expressed: not offended. 2. There is a universal negative : ivhosoever is not. But are all those who are not oilended at Christ saved ? I answer, No ; you must look upon this conclusion as annexed to the last clause of the former verse, — ' The I)oor have the gospel preached unto them : and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.' To be offended is to be scandalised, or kei)t from owning Christ as the true Messiah: all are hajjpy and blessed so far as they are evangelised, and miserable so far as scanda- lised. When the kingdom of heaven is brought to us, nothing can bar us from entering into it but our being olTended in Christ. But if we be not scandalised so as to hinder our being evangelised, then we are in a hapjjy and bles.sed condition ; that is, blessed so far as the impediment of our blessedness is removed ; and indeed, that is all the blessedness we can attain unto in this lil'e. Thus blessedness is ascribed to pardon of sins, Ps. xxxii. 1, because that taketh away the legal impediment. Bles.sedtiess is ascribed to sanctification, Ps. cxix. 1, 'Blessed are the undefiled in the way,' because that removeth the