mystery as a thing inconceivable, and altogether irreconcileable to human reason: but such mysteries are not in the gospel of Christ men may have run into contradictions by endeavoring to explain the mysteries of God farther than he has explained them; but let not the gospel be charged with their errors: nothing is more fatal to religion than attempts to explain and account for the hidden wisdom of God on principles of human reason. Concerning the persons of the Godhead there are indeed great mysteries, which are not revealed: God has not told us how his Son and his Spirit dwell in him, or how they came from him these therefore are properly mysteries, hidden in his secret wisdom, and which we are no where called on to inquire into: we might readily take God's word for them, without entering into natural and philosophical inquiries; especially as they are well qualified to be objects of faith. Common sense might teach us not to call God to account, or pretend to enter into the reason of his doings.

DISCOURSE III.

MATTHEW, CHAP. XI.-VERSE 6.

Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.

PART I.

IN the beginning of this chapter we read, that the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Christ, to inquire of him whether he was indeed the great Prophet so 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-witnesses of the mighty power that was in him. They saw, at the command of his word, the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers cleansed, the deaf restored to hearing, and the dead raised up to life again: they saw likewise, that these mighty powers were exercised without giving the least suspicion of any worldly design; that no court was made to the great or wealthy by singling 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 gospel, so were they preferred before the rich and mighty to be the disciples of Christ. When the Baptist's disciples had seen and heard these things, our Saviour thought them sufficiently enabled to satisfy John in the inquiry on which he had sent them: Go,' says he, ' and show John 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 to them.' Then follow imme

diately the words of the text: 'And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.'

The close connexion of the text with the last words of the fifth verse shows us what sort of persons our Saviour had in his eye, when he spoke of the offence taken at him in the world : 'The poor,' says he, have the gospel preached to them: and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.' As if he had said, The poor are ready to embrace the gospel, and happy are in this, yea, happier far, notwithstanding their present uncomfortable condition, than the honorable and the learned, who are too great, and in their own opinion too wise, to hearken to the instructions 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 save the world, to declare the purposes and the commands of the Almighty, and to exact obedience from every creature: but he came with less attendance and show 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 meanness of his parentage, the obscurity of his country, or the present necessity of his circumstances: Is not this the Carpenter's son?' says one; Can any good come out of Nazareth?' says another; or any prophet out of Galilee?' says a third. And when they saw him oppressed with sufferings, and weighed down with afflictions, they openly insulted his sorrow, and triumphed over his fond pretences to save the world: ‹ Thou,' say they, that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself: If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.' And so blinded are men with the notions of worldly greatness, and so 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 Christ crucified;' but he was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness:' for the Jews' required a sign,' a visible temporal deliverance, and

had no notion, much less any want, as they could apprehend, of such a Saviour as Jesus. The Greeks sought after wisdom,' and thought that, if God were indeed to redeem the world, he would act more suitably to his power and wisdom; 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 speaks, clouds and darkness are round about him,' and his presence 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 stricken, and his departure was taken for misery.' His doctrine was framed rather to purify the heart, and to give wisdom to the simple, than to exercise the head, and furnish matter for the curious and learned; to be a general instruction and a common rule of life to all men, and not to satisfy the vanity of worldly wisdom in inquiries above its reach. With him the precepts of virtue are the principles of wisdom and holiness, the greatest ornament of the mind of man.

But these things the wise and the great men of the world find hard to reconcile with the wisdom and majesty of God, according to their notions of wisdom and power. Why did not Christ, say they, appear in the power and majesty of his Father? Would not the embassy have been more worthy both of God and of him? Would any prince, who had a mind to reclaim his rebellious subjects to obedience, not rather choose to send a person of honor with a suitable retinue, whose appearance might command respect and credit, than an ambassador clothed in rags and poverty, fit only to create in the rebels a greater contempt both of himself and his prince? If it was the purpose of God that the world through faith should be saved, would not the world more securely and readily have confided in one whose very appearance would have spoken his dignity, than in one who seemed to be even more miserable than themselves, and not able to rescue himself from the vilest and most contemptible death?

But let us now, in the second place, consider what foundation there is in reason for this great prejudice.

It is no wonder to hear men reason on the notions and

ideas which are familiar to them. Great power and great authority are connected with the ideas of great pomp and splendor; and when we talk of the works of God, our minds naturally turn themselves to view the great and miraculous works of providence: and this is the reason why men are slow to discern the hand of God in the ordinary course of nature, where things, being familiar to us, do not strike with wonder and admiration.

When Naaman the Syrian came to the prophet of Israel to be cured of his leprosy, Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, 'Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again unto thee, and thou shalt be clean.' The haughty Syrian disdained the easy cure, and scorned the prophet: Is this your man of God, and this his mighty power, to send me to a pitiful river of Israel? 'Behold,' says he, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned, and went away in a rage.' But his servants, not a little wiser than their master, thus reason the case with him: My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith unto thee, wash and be clean?' Upon this gentle rebuke his stomach came down, and he condescended to follow the Prophet's direction: and his flesh came again like the flesh of a young child, and he was clean.' Not unlike to Naaman's folly is theirs, who take offence at the poverty and meanness of the Author of our redemption. His sentiments and theirs agree: he expected to have seen some surprising wonder wrought for his cure; and, when he was bid only to wash, he thought there could be nothing of God in so trifling a remedy. And is not this their sense, who think that so obscure, so mean a person as Jesus, could never be the messenger of God on so great an errand as the salvation of the world? who thus expostulate, Why came he not in a majesty suitable to his employment, and then we would have believed him; but how can we expect to be raised to the glory of God by him who was himself the scorn and contempt of men?