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SERMON XLI.

PREACHED DECEMBER 15, 1771.

MATTH. xi. 5.

The Poor have the Gospel preached unto them.

MANY circumstances, attending the Gospel of Jesus, are such, as we should not previously have expected: Yet, when duly considered, they fully approve themselves to our best

reason.

We have a memorable instance, in the Text, Among other marks, by which it pleased our blessed Lord to authenticate his mission, one was, That the Poor had the Gospel preached

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unto them. Go, (says he to the disciples of John the Baptist, who had sent them to know of Jesus, whether he were indeed the Messiah) Go, and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and THE POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL

PREACHED UNTO THEM.

We are surprized, perhaps, on the first mention of these words, to find this last circumstance put upon a level with the rest, even with that greatest of all miracles, the raising of the dead to life. We may not immediately apprehend, why the Poor should be thus considered by the Saviour of the world; or how the truth of his pretensions comes to be concerned in this treatment of them. But, upon inquiry, we shall find there were some important reasons which determined our Lord to this conduct, and which made that conduct, in a peculiar manner, expressive of his person and office.

FIRST, This character was directly applied to the Messiah, in the ancient prophecies. Our Lord himself, in the text, quotes the very words of Isaiah: So that, in preaching the Gospel to

the Poor, he fulfilled that prediction, and so far corresponded to the character, which the word of prophecy had given of the Messiah.

But this circumstance, we may suppose, would have been no part of the Messiah's' character, but for reasons which made it fit and right, that He should be thus distinguished Let us, further, inquire, then,

SECONDLY, what those reasons, probably were; only premising one word, to ascertain the objects, both of the prophecy, and of our Lord's charitable attention.

There is no doubt but the word, poor, in the prophecies alledged, and in Christ's application of them, is very capable of being understood in a metaphorical or spiritual sense, and was even intended to be so understood; I mean, in that sense, which our Lord gives to the word, Poor, when he says-Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But this metaphorical sense does not exclude, it rather supposes, the literal. For, who are the poor in spirit, for the most part, but the poor in fortune? they, whom neither the pride of

a Matthew v. 3.

knowledge and education, nor the pride of wealth and place, has corrupted with vain ideas: of their own sufficiency? But, there is a pe-culiar reason for the literal interpretation of the Text. For the words, blind, lame, and deaf, have, likewise, their metaphorical sense in the prophet, as well as the word, poor. Yet our Lord alledges the completion of the prophecy, in the literal meaning of those words; for he refers the messengers of John to what they saw and heared; to the miracles, he was then working, or had worked, on the blind, lame, and deaf, that is, in restoring their bodily senses and members b. So that, when the poor are spoken of by Jesus, at the same time, we must needs understand him as speaking of the poor, properly so called, that is, of the lower ranks of people, whom he was even then instructing, as well as healing.

We see, then, That Christ preached the Gospel to the poor, in the literal, as well as spiritual sense of that word: And, in so doing, he both fulfilled the whole extent of the pros phecy; and, as we shall now find, gave an eminent proof of the GOODNESS and WISDOM of character.

his own

Compare, Luke vii. 21, 22.

For, consider the state of the poor, how much they wanted, and how much better, than the rich, they deserved, instruction, when our Lord, in mercy, came to preach the Gospel to them.

I. The condition of the poor, that is, of the people at large, was truly deplorable, at that time. They were every where treated by their superiors with the utmost contempt, and left to struggle with an almost invincible ignorance and corruption.

:

The Jews, indeed, had the benefit of a divine law but their Scribes and Doctors had made it of none effect, by their traditions. They had corrupted the word of God, by their fanciful cabbalistical glosses; and had debased their holy ritual, into a frivolous and sordid superstition. They had the key of knowledge in their hands; but they neither employed it to the purpose of opening the true meaning of the Scriptures, themselves, nor would suffer the people to make this use of it. In the mean time, their pride increased with their other vices they thought themselves wise and pru

c. Matthew xv. 6.

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