DISCOURSE III.

PART I.

MATTHEW xi. 6.

Blessed is be whofoever shall not be offended in me.

N the Beginning of this Chapter we read, that the Baptist sent two of his Difciples to Chrift, to inquire of him whether he

was indeed the great Prophet fo long expected by the People, and foretold by the Prophets, or whether they were still to expect and wait the Coming of another. Our Saviour detained the Disciples of John, till he had made them Eye-witneffes of the mighty Power that was in him. They faw,

at

at the Command of his Word, the Blind receive Sight, the Lame walk, the Lepers cleanfed, the Deaf restored to Hearing, and the Dead raised up to Life again: They faw likewise, that these mighty Powers were exercised without giving the leaft Sufpicion of any worldly Defign; that no Court was made to the Great or Wealthy by fingling them out either for Patients or for Disciples. The Benefit of the Miracles was chiefly the Lot of the Poor; and as they were better disposed to receive the Gofpel, fo were they prefered before the Rich and Mighty to be the Disciples of Chrift. When the Baptift's Difciples had feen and heard these Things, our Saviour thought them fufficiently enabled to fatisfy John in the Inquiry upon which he had fent them: Go, fays he, and fhew John thofe Things which ye do hear and fee: The Blind receive their Sight, and the Lame walk; the Lepers are cleanfed, and the Deaf bear; the Dead are raised up, and the Poor have the Gospel preached to them. Then follow immediately the Words of the Text: And bleffed is he whofoever shall not be offended

in me.

The clofe Connection of the Text with' the last Words of the fifth Verse fhews us what fort of Perfons our Saviour had in his

Eye,

Eye, when he spoke of the Offence taken at him in the World: The Poor, fays he, have the Gospel preached to them: And bleffed. is be whofoever shall not be offended in me. As if he had faid, The Poor are ready to embrace the Gospel, and happy are in this, yea happier far, notwithstanding their present uncomfortable Condition, than the Honourable and the Learned, who are too great, and in their own Opinion too wife, to hearken to the Inftructions of the Gospel.

The Words thus explained lead us to inquire,

First, What are the Offences which are generally taken at the Gospel of Christ: Secondly, From what Source these Offences

come.

The Poverty and Meanness in which our Saviour appeared, was the earliest, and may probably be the latest, Objection to the Gospel. He came from God to convert and to fave the World, to declare the Purposes and the Commands of the Almighty, and to exact Obedience from every Creature; but he came with lefs Attendance and Shew than if he had been an ordinary Messenger from the Governor of a Province. Hence it is, that we so often find him upbraided either with the Meannefs of his Parentage,

the

the Obfcurity of his Country, or the present Neceffity of his Circumftances: Is not this the Carpenter's Son? fays one; Can any Good come out of Nazareth? fays another; or any Prophet out of Galilee? fays a third. And when they faw him oppreffed with Sufferings, and weighed down with Afflictions, they openly infulted his Sorrow, and triumphed over his fond Pretences to fave the World: Thou, fay they, that deftroyeft the Temple, and buildeft it in three Days, fave thyfelf: If thou be the Son of God, 'come down from the Crofs. And fo blinded are Men with the Notions. of worldly Greatness, and fo apt to conceive of the Majesty of God according to their own Ideas of Power and Dignity, that this Prejudice has prevailed in every Age. The Apostle to the Corinthians preached Chrift crucified; but he was to the Jews a Stumblingblock, and to the Greeks Foolishness: For the Fews required a Sign, a visible temporal Deliverance, and had no Notion, much less any Want, as they could apprehend, of fuch a Saviour as Jefus. The Greeks fought after Wisdom, and thought that, if God were indeed to redeem the World, he would act more fuitably to his Power and Wifdom: Whenever they made their Jupiter speak, his Voice was Thunder, and Lightning was

his Appearance, and he delivered Oracles not to be communicated to vulgar Ears. So in the Old Testament, when God fpeaks, Clouds and Darkness are round about him, and his Prefence and his Voice are terrible. But here every thing had a different Turn: The Appearance was in the Likeness of a Man, and in the Form of a Servant; and, as he came in like a Servant, he went out like a Slave, he was esteemed ftricken, and his Departure was taken for Mifery. His Doctrine was framed rather to purify the Heart, and to give Wisdom to the Simple, than to exercife the Head, and furnish Matter for the Curious and Learned; to be a general Inftruction and a common Rule of Life to all Men, and not to fatisfy the Vanity of worldly Wisdom in Inquiries above its Reach. With Him the Precepts of Virtue are the Principles of Wifdom and Holiness, the greatest Ornament of the Mind of Man.

But thefe Things the wife and the great. Men of the World find hard to reconcile with the Wisdom and Majefty of God, according to their Notions of Wisdom and Power. Why did not Chrift, say they, appear in the Power and Majesty of his Father? Would not the Embaffy have been more worthy both of God and of Him? Would

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