943 5839 1885 SERMON XXXVI. 369 V.4 SERMON XXXVI. SANCTITY OF THE APOSTLES. Blessed is he, that shall not be offended in me.—MATT. xi. 6. THE general prejudices of the Jewish nation concerning the royal state and condition of the Saviour who was to come into the world,-was a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, to the greatest part of that unhappy and prepossessed people, when the promise was actually fulfilled. Whether it was altogether the traditions of their fathers,— or that the rapturous expressions of their prophets, which represented the Messiah's spiritual kingdom in such extent of power and dominion, misled them into it ;-or that their own carnal expectations turned wilful interpreters upon them, inclining them to look for nothing but the wealth and worldly grandeur which were to be acquired under their deliverer-whether these, or that the system of temporal blessings helped to cherish them in this gross and covetous expectation, it was one of the great causes for their rejecting him." This fellow, we know not from whence he is!"—was the popular cry of one part:—and they who seemed to know whence he was, scornfully turned it against him, by the repeated query,—" Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda and Simon?-and are not his sisters here with us?— And they were offended at him.”—So that, though it was prepared by God to be the glory of his people Israel, yet the circumstances of humility, in which he was manifested, were thought a scandal to them.-Strange!—that He who was born their king, should be born of no other virgin than Mary, the meanest of their people ;-(" for he hath regarded the low estate of his hand-maiden")-and one of the poorest too-for she had not a lamb to offer,-but was purified, as Moses directed in such a case, by the oblation of a turtle dove; that the Saviour of their nation, whom they expected to be ushered amidst them with all the ensigns and appa VOL. II. 2 A 933 ratus of royalty, should be brought forth in a stable, and answerable to distress ;-subjected all his life to the lowest conditions of humanity;—that whilst he lived, he should not have a hole to put his head in, nor his corpse in, when he died; but his grave too must be the gift of charity.— These were thwarting considerations to those who waited for the redemption of Israel, and looked for it in no other shape than the accomplishment of those golden dreams of temporal power and sovereignty which had filled their imaginations.—The ideas were not to be reconciled ;—and so insuperable an obstacle was the prejudice on one side, to their belief on the other-that it literally fell out, as Simeon prophetically declared of the Messiah,—that he was set forth for the fall, as well as the rising again, of many in Israel. This, though it was the cause of their infidelity, was, however, no excuse for it.-For whatever their mistakes were, the miracles which were wrought in contradiction to them, brought conviction enough to leave them without excuse; -and besides it was natural for them to have concluded, had their prepossessions given them leave,—that he who fed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, could not want power to be great ;-and therefore needed not to appear in the condition of poverty and meanness, had it not, on the other scores, been more needful to confront the pride and vanity of the world, and to show his followers what the temper of Christianity was, by the temper of its first institutor ;—who, though they were offered, and he could have commanded them,―despised the glories of the world; --took upon him the form of a servant ;—and, though equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation,—that he might settle, and be the example of, so holy and humble a religion, and thereby convince his disciples for ever, that neither his kingdom, nor their happiness, were to be of this world. Thus the Jews might have easily argued ;—but when there was nothing but reason to do it with on one side, and strong prejudices, backed with interest, to maintain the dispute, upon the other, we do not find the point is always so easily determined.-Although the purity of our Saviour's doctrine, and the mighty works he wrought in its support, were demonstratively stronger arguments for his divinity than the unrespected lowliness of his condition could be against it, yet the prejudice continued strong;—they had been accustomed to temporal promises;-so bribed to do their duty, they could not endure to think of a religion that would not promise, as much as Moses did, to fill their basket, and set them high above all nations;-a religion whose appearance was not great and splendid,—but looked thin and meagre;—and whose principles and promises,—like the curses of their law,-called for sufferings, and promised per secutions. If we take this key along with us through the New Testament, it will let us into the spirit and meaning of many of our Saviour's replies in his conferences with his disciples and others of the Jews;-so particularly in this place, (Matthew xi.) when John had sent two of his disciples to inquire, Whether it was he that should come, or that they were to look for another?-Our Saviour, with a particular eye to this prejudice, and the general scandal he knew had risen against his religion upon this worldly account,—after a recital to the messengers of the many miracles he had wrought; as that, the blind received their sight, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the dead raised ;—all which characters, with their benevolent ends, fully demonstrated him to be the Messiah that was promised them ;— he closes up his answer to them with the words of the text, -"And blessed is he that shall not be offended in me;" blessed is the man whose upright and honest heart will not be blinded by worldly considerations, or hearken to his lusts and prepossessions in a truth of this moment.—The like benediction is recorded in the 7th chapter of St. Luke, and in the 6th of St. John;-when Peter broke out in that warm confession of their belief:-" Lord, we believe-we are sure that thou art Christ, the son of the living God."-The same benediction is uttered,-though couched in different words, -"Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona ;-for flesh and blood |