Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it
Blessedness from the Divine point of view
I. THE WOMAN’S EXCLAMATION.
1. Implying, in an indirect yet very strong manner, the blessedness of our Lord Himself; the idea being that from Him a blessedness was reflected on His mother. In this there is nothing but what is altogether commendable and deserving of imitation.
2. The exclamation was directly and chiefly intended to proclaim the blessedness of our Lord’s mother. Neither is it, in this sense, to be condemned. Jesus Himself does net deny, and we ought not to question its truth. The happiness of parents is very much involved in the conduct and history of their children. The relation is most intimate and most tender. Their offspring are so closely entwined round their heart, as to occasion them, either most acute anguish, or most exquisite pleasure. But, if it is thus a general truth that parents are happy in the happiness of their children, how great must have been the happiness of such a woman as the
Virgin Mary, in having such a son as Jesus Christ! Vast indeed were the blessing and honour which were hers! And, as Mary was blessed in bringing forth such a son at first, so she was blessed in His future character and exploits. She was blessed in His dutiful conduct as a son: for “He went down to Nazareth, and was subject” unto His parents. She was blessed in the progressive improvement of His human nature, for, “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” She was blessed in the whole tenor of His holy life, as He was perfectly free from all taint of sin, and exhibited a pattern of every grace. She was blessed in hearing many of His delightful discourses, as she frequently attended His ministrations, and formed one of the many hearers who “bore Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” She was blessed in seeing many of the wonderful works which He performed: for on many other occasions of this kind it might have been said, as it was said on that at Cana in Galilee, that “the mother of Jesus was them.” She was blessed in His glorious resurrection and ascension, when He rose a conqueror over death and hell, and when He was taken up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, to wait till all His enemies be made His footstool. There she still continues to be blessed in contemplating His blessedness, and in hearing the blessings which are multiplied on His name.
II. OUR LORD’S AMENDMENT ON THE WOMAN’S EXCLAMATION, He does not contradict what the pious woman had said. He only modifies and explains it, and makes an addition to it. Now, His amendment on the woman’s words teaches us--
1. That the happiness of Mary herself consisted rather in her being a believer in Christ, than in her being the mother of Christ.
2. That all true believers, as such, are more blessed than Christ’s mother, as such. Was she honoured in her maternal relation to Him?--they are all connected with Him by a still closer relation, even by that union in consequence of which He and they are said to be one. They are blessed with light, pardon, sanctification, comfort, and every present privilege; and all these are sure pledges of the everlasting blessedness of heaven. There is still another idea included in this amendment of our Lord’s; for, in its most extended meaning, it states a comparison, not only between the advantage of true religion, and that of having been the mother of Jesus, but also between the advantage of true religion and all other advantages whatever. We are here taught, then--
3. That those who are believers, are more blessed on that account than on any other. Are you rich? or, at least, in easy circumstances?--then it is true that you may be, in some degree, happy in freedom from anxiety about your temporal wants, and in the moderate enjoyment of earthly good: but what are such possessions in comparison of your spiritual treasures, the unsearchable riches of Christ? “All things are yours.” Other possessions are uncertain and temporary: but yours are the better, the “durable riches”; yours is the “inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away.” Are you learned in human knowledge?--so far well, for therein you may find much rational enjoyment. But rather blessed are you because you are taught of God in the wisdom which is from above, and instructed to know the Holy Scriptures, which have proved sufficient to make you wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (James Foote, M. A.)
Believers as blessed as the Blessed Virgin
I. A BLESSEDNESS WHICH IS NOT TO BE DENIED. The Virgin Mother was blessed among women. To God alone we must render worship; but the memory of this saintly woman is to be revered. The angel made no mistake when he said, “Hail, thou that art highly favoured: blessed art thou among women.” Nor was she in error when she said, “From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” We call her blessed most heartily, for so she was.
1. The blessing which she received had been the desire of ages.
2. When at last the boon was bestowed upon the humble virgin of Nazareth, who was of the house of David, it came as a great favour. We must not, then, treat it as a light thing. The Saviour’s “yea” was emphatic when the woman spake of His mother as highly blessed.
3. She herself received this honour as a great blessing. It was no vain thing to her to have charge of the infancy of our Lord. She felt it to be great blessedness to be placed in such a relation to the holy child Jesus.
4. She was, she must have been, Messed among women, and this woman who spake of her as such made no mistake; for think what blessings have come to all the world through the Virgin’s wondrous child. “In Him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” If all generations call Mary blessed, it is only because she brought into the world one who is a blessing to us all. And it was, it must have been, a great blessedness to Mary’s heart to think that “that holy thing” which was born of her was the channel of such blessedness to all mankind.
5. I must, however, remind you that whatever the blessedness which this holy woman derived from being the mother of our Saviour’s humanity, she needed it all, for she was called to a great fight of affliction because of it.
II. That brings us to our second head: To hear the Word of God and keep it is A BLESSING PREFERABLE to having been the mother of our Lord.
1. We are sure of this, because in the weighing of the blessings the blessed Master of Beatitudes holds the balances. Jesus Himself adjusts the scales of blessedness. He who began His ministry with the word “Blessed,” so often repeated, knows best which blessing is the best.
2. Happily this preference so truly given by the Master puts the highest blessedness within the reach of all of us who are here this morning. We are at this moment in a position to “hear the Word of God, and keep it.” If grace be given, there are only these two steps to blessedness.
3. I now ask you to notice that this preferable blessing is found in a very simple manner. “Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it.” The process is stripped of all ambiguity or mystery; there is nothing about it that is hard or difficult: “Hear the word, and keep it--that is all.”
III. So now we close by considering this as A BLESSEDNESS TO BE AT ONCE ENJOYED. I breathe to heaven this earnest prayer, that we may now enter into this blessedness. Let us see if we cannot sit still in our seats for a while, and drink in this wine on the lees well refined.
1. This blessedness belongs to the present. Blessed are they that are hearing the Word of God, and keeping it. It is not a remote, but an immediate blessedness. While you are hearing and keeping God’s Word you are then blessed. The blessedness is for this world, and for you. “But I am so cast down.” Yes, but you are blessedl! “Alas! I bear such a burden of afflictions.” Yes, but you are blessed. “Alas! I have not known a good time of late.” No, but you are blessed! Your blessedness does not depend upon your fancies and feelings. If you hear the Word of God, and keep it, you are at this moment blessed. Faith finds a present blessedness in the Word of God, which she hears and keeps.
2. This blessedness lies, in a great measure, in the very act of hearing and keeping God’s Word.
3. This blessing is not dependent upon outward circumstances. If you hear God’s Wind, and keep it, you may be very ill, and yet in spirit you will be well; you may be very feeble, and yet in spirit you will be strong; you may be dying, and yet you shall not die, for he that heareth the Word of God shall never see death. In hearkening to the Lord you have reached a region from which you look down upon the dust and smoke of time and sense. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Blessedness
I. THE WOMAN’S EXCLAMATION. We may notice the cause of her exclamation, the speaking of Jesus. His word, though powerful, is not a hurricane, but harmony.
II. ON WHAT HER ADMIRATION TURNED--“Jesus.” The cold-hearted Pharisee might have felt disposed to exclaim, “What irregularity! What a breach of order!” Jesus, however, was in no danger of being disconcerted in His discourse from any casual interruption, but was at all times fully at liberty to take advantage of every passing event.
III. OUR LORD’S REPLY. “Rather blessed are they that hear the Word,” etc. This reply naturally includes these particulars--
1. His admission of the truth she declared.
2. His assertion--“Blessed are they that hear the Word, and keep it.”
3. The description--They that keep it. Unfortunately, many content themselves with hearing (Eze_30:30; Eze_30:32).
I conclude--
1. To hear the Word of God is not to keep it. Many seem to believe religion consists in hearing.
2. Hearing is only instrumental to salvation.
3. The promise is not made to hearing, but to doing. Hear, and your souls live. Be not a hearer, but a doer, otherwise--
4. The blessing will prove a curse. (W. Jay.)
The blessing of those who hear and keep the Word of God
I. THE NECESSITY OF KNOWING THE WORD OF GOD. One great cause to which our falling so frequently into sin may be ascribed is, a want of attention to the duties incumbent upon us. Now it is evident that if we were to make it our daily practice to meditate upon the Word of God, we should have our duty continually before us. We should have the promises and the threatenings of the Almighty ever before our eyes: this would necessarily produce such an impression upon our hearts, as to make us fear and dread all iniquity, and to turn from the sins to which we are naturally inclined, and most strongly addicted.
II. How THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORD OF GOD, so necessary to our salvation, IS TO BE ACQUIRED. The two chief means for the attainment of Divine knowledge are the reading of God’s holy Word, and the hearing of it preached. The sacred Scriptures are the great means of converting sinners, and of building up saints in their holy faith. History is full of conversions which the reading and hearing of God’s Word have occasioned. That eminent father of the Church, Augustine, tells us that he owed his conversion to the reading of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 13:11. Others have been converted from the hearing and the reading ofthese words: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” “In the beginning was the word.” Another in reading the Acts of the Apostles; and another from these words of St. Paul to Timothy: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” If such be their mighty and magnificent effects, how necessary to be known, and studied, and understood of men! Every part of Scripture, as being of Divine inspiration, ought to be thoroughly studied, and inwardly digested; though, doubtless, there are some books and Chapter s which claim our meditations, and require our studious perusal, more than others. And then, in order that we may reap real benefit and advantage from the perusal of the sacred Oracles, it is necessary that, like the Ethiopian eunuch, we should read them with care and application, as containing the true knowledge of salvation.
III. THAT THE READING AND HEARING OF THE WORD OF GOD ARE NOT SUFFICIENT FOR SALVATION, UNLESS IT BE REDUCED TO PRACTICE, is evident from these words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 7:24).
IV. THE BLESSEDNESS AND HAPPINESS WHICH ATTEND THOSE WHO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND KEEP IT. The blessedness of a true believer--of a faithful servant of Christ, is even greater than that of the mother of the Saviour. How noble--how glorious a privilege is this! In hearing and meditating upon the Word of God, believers experience a pleasure and a satisfaction of which the men of the world can form no estimate, and entertain no idea whatsoever. (J. Rudge, D. D.)
The blessedness of obedience
I. GOD INTENDS HIS WORD TO BLESS MAN. It is sent for this purpose. Truth is God’s greatest boon to man.
II. IF THIS BE SO, THEN THE BLESSING COMES OBVIOUSLY ENOUGH BY HEARING. The most natural way of conveying the truth is by speech. It is the earliest, the readiest, perhaps it shall be the latest. In many senses it will ever be the best. In simple, earnest speech you get all the requisites, truth itself in its appositeness, punctuation, emphasis, and, above all, the living soul transmitted by the living voice.
III. EVEN WHEN THE WORD IS PURE, AND THE PREACHER A TRUE MAN, PREACHER AND TRUTH ARE NOT ENOUGH. TO HAVE THE BLESSING THERE MUST BE THE INWARD HEARING AS WELL AS THE OUTWARD. Nothing will serve but the actual contact of truth with the spiritual intelligence, the cordial reception of the quickening Word, and its verification in the stillness of the soul’s depths. The Spirit quickeneth the Word by quickening the man, and, again, the man by the Word. Christ’s words let in the Spirit to listening hearts, for they were spirit and life.
IV. THE TRUTH MUST BE KEPT IN ORDER TO THE BLESSING. It must be kept, first, by spiritual means--by prayer, meditation, and constant endeavour of the soul to blend and assimilate the truth with itself, till they become, as it were, one. But nothing gives the truth a greater fixity in our nature and makes it ours so truly as embodying it in act and deed. It is at hand, it must be grasped; floating as sentiment and feeling, it must be secured, organized, converted into facts, and so into history. Truth is intended to be practised--it cannot otherwise pass into life.
1. When the heart has learned to endorse the truth, the outward doing is most natural and easy.
2. The nature that keeps the Word is blessed by being itself ennobled. As we learn to live by truth and for truth, we have sympathy with God.
3. And the blessing power of the truth thus heard and thus cherished is continuous.
V. BUT WHAT ABOUT HEARING AND NOT KEEPING? One cannot conceive of anything sadder. For hearing prepares a man for a higher test. We go to be examined in our own class, and thence depart to our own place. And the most tragic of all earth’s other tragedies appear to me necessarily to fall far short of this spiritual one. To have looked into the highest, and sunk to the lowest, to have had the noblest issues in our grasp, and to have preferred these miserable husks of self-indulgence and self-contentment! (T. Islip.)
A certain woman’s commendation of Christ
These be the parts of my text; and of these in order.
I. “Blessed is the womb that bare thee,” &c., saith the woman.
1. And that which occasioned and moved her thus to lift up her voice was the power of Christ’s works and words. Be not deceived--every good lesson should be unto you as a miracle to move you to give sentence for Christ against the Pharisees and all the enemies He hath; against the pride that despiseth Him, the luxury that defileth Him, the disobedience that trampleth Him under foot. Every good motion (for therein Christ speaketh to us) should beget a resolution; every resolution, a good work; every good work, a love of goodness; and the love of goodness should root and stablish and build us in the faith.
2. And so I pass from the motive and occasion to the person, who from what she saw and heard gave this free attestation. Truth doth not fail, though a Pharisee oppose it, but is of strength sufficient to make the weakest of its champions conqueror. For “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25). Neither number nor sex hath so much power upon truth as to alter its complexion. And as it was no prejudice to the truth that she was but one, no more was it that she was a woman. For why might not a woman, whose eye was clear and single, see more in Christ than the proudest Pharisee who wore his phylactery the broadest? All is, not in the miracle, but in the eye, in the mind, which, being goggle or mis-set, or dimmed with malice or prejudice, be-holdeth not things as they are, but, through false mediums, putteth upon them what shape it pleaseth, receiveth not the true and natural species they present, but vieweth them at home in itself as in a false glass, which returneth back by a deceitful reflection. And this is the reason why not only miracles, but doctrinal precepts also, find so different entertainment. Every man layeth hold on them and wresteth them to his own purpose, worketh them on his own anvil, and shapeth them to his own fancy and affections; as out of the same mass Phidias could make a goddess, and Lysippus a satyr. Prejudice will make a man persuade himself that is false which he cannot but know is most true. That which to a clear eye is a gross sin, and appeareth horror, to a corrupted mind may be as the beauty of holiness. The Pharisees saw it and the woman saw it: the one saw nothing but that which could not be seen, one devil casting out another; the other saw the finger and mighty power of God, and when she saw it, “she lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, “Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps that Thou hast sucked.”
3. And so we descend to that which we proposed in the third place, the vehemency and heat of her affection, which could not contain itself in her heart, but brake forth at her mouth. And hereto” we shall consider--
(1) That she spake.
(2) What she spake. “She lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou has sucked.”
(a) “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” saith our Saviour (Matthew 12:34). “It evaporateth itself into the outward habit, breaks forth into voice, opens her shop and wares, that she may behold her own provision and riches abroad.” The love of the truth tuneth the heart, and the heart the tongue. And this is the advantage that love hath of knowledge. Knowledge may be idle and unactive, but love is a restless thing, and will call up and employ every part of the body and every faculty of the soul to compass its end. Love is active, and will pace it on where knowledge doth but stand and gaze. Knowledge doth not always command our tongue; nay, many times we speak and act against our knowledge; but who speaks against that which he doth love?
(b) Now, in the next place, what was it that begat her love but the admiration of Christ’s person, His power, and His wisdom? She had heard of Moses and his miracles; but beholds a greater than Moses here. Application--
1. And, first, let us learn from this woman here to have Christ’s wonderful works in remembrance, to look upon them with a steadfast and a fixed eye, that they may appear unto us in their full glory, and fill us with admiration. For admiration is a kind of voice of the soul. Behold, these are the wonderful things of Christ--to unite God and man, to tie them together by a new covenant, to raise dust and ashes to heaven: this is a great miracle indeed!
2. By her lifting up her voice, and blessing the womb that bare Christ, which was a kind of adoration (for admiration had not so shut up her devotion and love but that it was vocal and reverent), we are taught to magnify our Saviour with the tongue, and hand, and knee, and every member we have, as David speaketh. But I do but beat the air, and labour in vain. For now it is religion not to express it; and he is most devout who doth least show it. O when will this dumb devil be cast out? A strange thing it is that everything else, even our vices, should be loud and vocal, and religion should be the only thing that should want a tongue I that devotion should lie hid, and lurk and withdraw itself into the inward man!
3. Last of all: This woman’s voice is yet lifted up, and calls upon us to lift up ours, even before the Pharisees. If our fear were not greater than our love, amongst these we should “lift up our voice like a trumpet,” and put these monsters to shame, strike off their visor with noise, and bring in truth to tear off the veil of their hypocrisy. For, what I shall we not lift up our voice for truth but when she hath most voices on her side? Must truth be never published but in the times of peace? or must a song of praise be never chanted out but in a choir of angels? A Pharisee before us is a temptation, difficulty and danger are nothing else but a temptation, which is therefore laid in our way, to try if anything can sever us from the love of Christ and His truth. If we start back in silence, we have betrayed the truth to our fears, and left it to be trodden under foot by a Pharisee. He that can trifle with his God will at last blaspheme Him to His face. We have already handled the circumstantial parts of the text; we are now to treat of the substantial--the woman’s speech and our Saviour’s.
4. We begin with the woman’s, “Blessed is the womb that bare Thee,” etc. And that the mother of Christ was blessed we need not doubt. For we have not only the voice of this woman to prove it, but the voice of an angel, “Blessed art thou among women.” “All generations shall call her blessed” Luke 1:48).
(1) Blessed, as the occasion of so much good. For when we see a clear and silver stream, we bless the fountain; and, for the glory and quickening power of the beams, some have made a god of the sun. Whatsoever presents itself unto us in beauty or excellency, doth not only take and delight us, but, in the midst of wonder, forceth our thoughts to look back to the coasts from whence it came.
(2) Again: if it be a kind of curse to beget a wicked son, or, as Solomon did, “the foolishness of the people” (Sir 47:23). The historian observes that many famous men amongst the Romans either died childless, or left such children behind them that it had been better their name had quite been blotted out, and they had left no posterity. And speaking of Tully, who had a drunken and a sottish son, he adds, “It had been better for him to have had no child at all, than such an one.”
II. We come, next, to our Saviour’s gentle corrective, “Yea rather.” And this “Yea rather” comes in seasonably. For the eye is ready to be dazzled with a lesser good, if it be not diverted to a greater; as he will wonder at a star that never saw the sun. We stay many times and dwell with delight upon those truths which are of lesser alloy, and make not any approach towards that which is saving and necessary.
1. The philosopher will tell us that he that will compare two things together, must know them both. What a brightness hath honour to blind him that hath not tasted of the favour of God! What a paradise is carnal pleasure to him that a good conscience never feasted! What a substance is a ceremony to him that makes the precepts of the law but shadows! Therefore it is the method of wisdom itself to present them both unto us in their just and proper weight; not to deny what is true, but to take off our thoughts, and direct them to something better; that we may not dote so long on the one as to neglect and cast off the other. In my text the woman had discovered Christ’s excellency; and Christ discovers to her His will, His Father’s will, the doing of which will will unite her unto Him whom she thus admired, and make her one with Him, as He and His Father is one. “Blessed parents! yea, rather, Blessed thou, if thou hear My word and keep it.” This is a timely grace, to lead her yet nearer to the kingdom of heaven; the lifting up of her voice was too weak to lift up those everlasting gates. This was a seasonable--“reprehension” shall I call it, or “direction”?
2. And now if we look into the Church, we shall find that most men stand in need of a “Yea rather”; who will magnify Christ and His mother too, but not do His will; will do what they ought to do, but leave that undone for which that which they do was ordained. “Blessed sacrament of the Lord’s supper!” It is true; but, “Yea rather, Blessed are they that dwell in Christ.” “Blessed profession of Christianity!” “Yea rather, Blessed are they that are Christ’s.” “Blessed cross!” The fathers call it so. “Yea rather, Blessed are they that have ‘ crucified their flesh with the affections and lusts.’” “Blessed church!” “Yea rather, Blessed are they who are members of Christ.” “Blessed Reformation!” “Yea rather, Blessed are they that reform themselves.”
3. This resolve of wisdom itself, as it doth cool and moderate our affections towards the outward and temporal favours and blessings of God, towards those of his light hand, and those of His left, so it doth intend and quicken them towards that which is blessedness indeed. It sets us up a glass, that “royal law” (James 2:8), “that perfect law of liberty,” which if we “look into, and continue in it, being not forgetful hearers, but doers of the work, we shall be blessed in it” (James 1:25). “Blessed are they that hear the Word of God,” reacheth not home; and therefore there is a conjunction copulative to draw it closer, and link it with obedience, “Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it.” For, first, God hath fitted us hereunto. For, can we imagine that He should thus build us up, and stamp His own image upon us, that we should be an habitation for owls and satyrs, for wild and brutish imaginations? that He did give us understandings to find out an art of pleasure, a method and craft of enjoying that which is but for a season? Was the soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow, and is no more? Indeed, faith, in respect of the remoteness of the object, and its elevation above the ken of nature, may seem a hard lesson, yet in the soul there is a capacity to receive it; and if the other condition, of obedience and doing God’s will, did not lie heavy upon the flesh, the more brutish part, we should be readier scholars in our creed than we are. Secondly. As the precepts of Christ are proportioned to the soul, so being embraced they fill it with light and joy, and give it a taste of the world to come. For as Christ’s “yoke is easy,” but not till it is put on; so His precepts are not delightful till they are kept. Aristotle’s happiness in his books is but an idea, and heaven itself is no more to us till we enjoy it. The precepts of Christ in the letter may please the understanding part, which is always well-affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true; but till the will have set the feet and hands at liberty, even that which we approve we distaste, and that which we call “honey” is to us as bitter as gall. Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content, but the perverseness of our will breeds that worm which will soon eat it up. It is but a poor happiness to think and speak well of happiness, as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy. A thought hath not strength and wing enough to carry us to bliss. But when the will is subdued and made obedient to the truth, then God’s precepts, which are “from heaven, heavenly,” fill the soul with a joy of the same nature, not gross and earthy, but refined and spiritual; a joy that is the pledge and the earnest, as the apostle calls it, of that which is to come. (A. Farindon, D. D.)
The incarnation
For, first, she knew at large that it was a blessed thing to be an instrument or conveyance of any great good unto others. “Blessed above women shall Jail the wife of Heber be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent” (Judges 5:24). She had done her part to work deliverance for Israel. A cistern that contains the waters poured into it is much inferior to a fountain that sends them forth. It is nothing so laudable to be wrought upon, as to work that which is honourable. Even the parents that have enriched the world with such as are ornaments unto it, benediction reflects upon them for it, because they are conduit pipes of public felicity. Yet all those that have made others happy by their gifts and qualities had been for ever unhappy themselves if the child that was born this day had not sucked the breasts of a virgin. O happy parent I whose womb contained all the treasure that maintains the whole earth. Somewhat she collineated at this meaning that said unto our Saviour, “Blessed,” &c. And each parent partakes in this reason, that it is joy and honour to them to have a renowned Son. All fruitfulness is to be congratulated, but hers especially--“Blessed is the womb,” &c. I make no scruple to affirm it, that this was the very thought and fancy of the woman that uttered these words, that the mother was most honoured, full of fame and glory, who had a Son that spake so divinely, and wrought such heavenly miracles. It is a great recompense which God gives to careful parents upon earth when their offspring live soberly and temperately to be their comfort and honour. The fear of the Lord which is instilled into children from their infancy is not only the children’s, but even the parents’ happiness. The rare endowments that appeared in Christ made a certain woman hero cast the praise of it upon the mother, “Blessed,” &c. And thus far in the literal sense, as far as flesh and blood could reveal unto her; but if she could have seen into the Scriptures, as the Holy Spirit hath enabled us to see into them, there are other grounds of more evangelical observation. And first let it be noted, that the blessedness which is attributed to the womb that bore our Saviour redounds to all the members of His mystical body. Even as upon that saying of our Saviour to St. Peter, “Blessed art thou,” &c. (Matthew 16:1-28.). The eternal Father did more for us when He made Him flesh than when He made the heaven and the earth beside; without His incarnation the earth had been our curse, all the elements our plague, the heaven above our envy, and the hell beneath our portion for ever. One man in a family having a fortunate advancement makes his whole blood and kindred fortunate with him; how much more shall Christ make all mankind happy being made one of us. He is come near unto us all by that nature which He assumed of ours; and He hath redeemed us all by that glorious Deity which was ever His own. Finally, there was a concurrency of all sorts of blessedness in this most mysterious incarnation.
II. I have done with the first general part of the text, the acclamation, both as a certain woman apprehended the words in her natural understanding, and in that prophetical sense which was above her understanding. Now it will be most material to observe how the Master of all wisdom corrected and refined it, “Yea rather, blessed,” &c. O sacred Virgin, much more happy in entertaining the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. I must not (and if I would I have no time) set forth before you what a fecundity of error there is in man’s heart about the notion of blessedness. Our Saviour confines our straggling imaginations to this rule, that no good thing of a subordinate condition can style a man happy; it is a title to be given to that immense communication of good, when the soul shall enjoy the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. And this is tried by two particulars--First, if we treasure up the precious things of God in our ear, then if wetransmit them to a more inward and a safer place, and treasure them up in our heart. So that the understanding of the law of God consists not in knowledge and speculation, but in practice and execution. We must be servants as well as disciples. (Bishop Hacket.)
Keeping the Word of God
The Rev. Mr. Erskine mentions a fact which may afford a very useful hint to every hearer of the gospel. A person who had been to public worship, having returned home perhaps somewhat sooner than usual, was asked by another member of the family who had not been there, “Is all done?” “No,” replied he, “all is said, but all is not done!” How little is commonly done of all that is heard! “Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.”