Christ gives us eight characters of blessed people;
which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian.
On each of them a present blessing is pronounced;
Blessed
are they; and to each a future blessing is promised,
which is variously expressed, so as to suit the nature of
the grace or duty recommended.
Do we ask then who are happy? It is answered,
I. The poor in spirit are happy, v. 3. There is a
poor-spiritedness that is so far from making men blessed
that it is a sin and a snare—cowardice and base fear, and a
willing subjection to the lusts of men. But this poverty of
spirit is a gracious disposition of soul, by which we are
emptied of self, in order to our being filled with Jesus
Christ. To be poor in spirit is, 1. To be contentedly
poor, willing to be emptied of worldly wealth, if God orders
that to be our lot; to bring our mind to our condition, when
it is a low condition. Many are poor in the world, but high
in spirit, poor and proud, murmuring and complaining, and
blaming their lot, but we must accommodate ourselves to our
poverty, must know how to be abased,
Phil. 4:12. Acknowledging the wisdom of God in
appointing us to poverty, we must be easy in it, patiently
bear the inconveniences of it, be thankful for what we have,
and make the best of that which is. It is to sit loose to
all worldly wealth, and not set our hearts upon it, but
cheerfully to bear losses and disappointments which may
befal us in the most prosperous state. It is not, in pride
or pretence, to make ourselves poor, by throwing away what
God has given us, especially as those in the church of Rome,
who vow poverty, and yet engross the wealth of the nations;
but if we be rich in the world we must be poor in spirit,
that is, we must condescend to the poor and sympathize with
them, as being touched with the feeling of their
infirmities; we must expect and prepare for poverty; must
not inordinately fear or shun it, but must bid it welcome,
especially when it comes upon us for keeping a good
conscience,
Heb. 10:34. Job was poor in spirit, when he
blessed God in taking away, as well as giving. 2. It
is to be humble and lowly in our own eyes. To be poor in
spirit, is to think meanly of ourselves, of what we are,
and have, and do; the poor are often taken in the Old
Testament for the humble and self-denying, as opposed to
those that are at ease, and the proud; it is to be as little
children in our opinion of ourselves, weak, foolish, and
insignificant, ch. 18:4; 19:14. Laodicea was poor in
spirituals, wretchedly and miserably poor, and yet
rich in spirit, so well increased with goods, as to
have need of nothing,
Rev. 3:17. On the other hand, Paul was rich in
spirituals, excelling most in gifts and graces, and yet
poor in spirit, the least of the apostles, less than
the least of all saints, and nothing in his own
account. It is to look with a holy contempt upon ourselves,
to value others and undervalue ourselves in comparison of
them. It is to be willing to make ourselves cheap, and mean,
and little, to do good; to become all things to all men.
It is to acknowledge that God is great, and we are mean;
that he is holy and we are sinful; that he is all and we are
nothing, less than nothing, worse than nothing; and to
humble ourselves before him, and under his mighty hand. 3.
It is to come off from all confidence in our own
righteousness and strength, that we may depend only upon the
merit of Christ for our justification, and the spirit and
grace of Christ for our sanctification. That broken and
contrite spirit with which the publican cried for mercy
to a poor sinner, is that poverty of spirit. We must call
ourselves poor, because always in want of God’s grace,
always begging at God’s door, always hanging on in his
house.
Now, (1.) This poverty in spirit is put first among the
Christian graces. The philosophers did not reckon humility
among their moral virtues, but Christ puts it first.
Self-denial is the first lesson to be learned in his school,
and poverty of spirit entitled to the first beatitude. The
foundation of all other graces is laid in humility. Those
who would build high must begin low; and it is an excellent
preparative for the entrance of gospel-grace into the soul;
it fits the soil to receive the seed. Those who are weary
and heavy laden, are the poor in spirit, and they
shall find rest with Christ.
(2.) They are blessed. Now they are so, in this
world. God looks graciously upon them. They are his little
ones, and have their angels. To them he gives more grace;
they live the most comfortable lives, and are easy to
themselves and all about them, and nothing comes amiss to
them; while high spirits are always uneasy.
(3.) Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom
of grace is composed of such; they only are fit to be
members of Christ’s church, which is called the
congregation of the poor (Ps.
74:19); the kingdom of glory is prepared for
them. Those who thus humble themselves, and comply with God
when he humbles them, shall be thus exalted. The great, high
spirits go away with the glory of the kingdoms of the
earth; but the humble, mild, and yielding souls obtain
the glory of the kingdom of heaven. We are ready to
think concerning those who are rich, and do good with their
riches, that, no doubt, theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
for they can thus lay up in store a good security for the
time to come; but what shall the poor do, who have not
wherewithal to do good? Why, the same happiness is promised
to those who are contentedly poor, as to those who are
usefully rich. If I am not able to spend cheerfully
for his sake, if I can but want cheerfully for his
sake, even that shall be recompensed. And do not we serve a
good master then?
II. They that mourn are happy (v. 4); Blessed
are they that mourn. This is another strange blessing,
and fitly follows the former. The poor are accustomed to
mourn, the graciously poor mourn graciously. We are apt to
think, Blessed are the merry; but Christ, who was
himself a great mourner, says, Blessed are the mourners.
There is a sinful mourning, which is an enemy to
blessedness—the sorrow of the world; despairing
melancholy upon a spiritual account, and disconsolate grief
upon a temporal account. There is a natural mourning, which
may prove a friend to blessedness, by the grace of God
working with it, and sanctifying the afflictions to us, for
which we mourn. But there is a gracious mourning, which
qualifies for blessedness, an habitual seriousness, the mind
mortified to mirth, and an actual sorrow. 1. A penitential
mourning for our own sins; this is godly sorrow, a
sorrow according to God; sorrow for sin, with an eye to
Christ,
Zec. 12:10. Those are God’s mourners, who live a life of
repentance, who lament the corruption of their nature, and
their many actual transgressions, and God’s withdrawings
from them; and who, out of regard to God’s honour, mourn
also for the sins of others, and sigh and cry for their
abominations,
Eze. 9:4. 2. A sympathizing mourning for the afflictions
of others; the mourning of those who weep with them that
weep, are sorrowful for the solemn assemblies, for
the desolations of Zion (Zep.
3:18;
Ps. 137:1), especially who look with compassion on
perishing souls, and weep over them, as Christ
over Jerusalem.
Now these gracious mourners, (1.) Are blessed. As
in vain and sinful laughter the heart is sorrowful,
so in gracious mourning the heart has a serious joy,
a secret satisfaction, which a stranger does not
intermeddle with. They are blessed, for they are
like the Lord Jesus, who was a man of sorrows, and of
whom we never read that he laughed, but often that he wept.
The are armed against the many temptations that attend vain
mirth, and are prepared for the comforts of a sealed pardon
and a settled peace. (2.) They shall be comforted.
Though perhaps they are not immediately comforted, yet
plentiful provision is made for their comfort; light is sown
for them; and in heaven, it is certain, they shall be
comforted, as Lazarus,
Lu. 16:25. Note, The happiness of heaven consists in
being perfectly and eternally comforted, and in the
wiping away of all tears from their eyes. It is the
joy of our Lord; a fulness of joy and pleasures for
evermore; which will be doubly sweet to those who have
been prepared for them by this godly sorrow. Heaven
will be a heaven indeed to those who go mourning thither; it
will be a harvest of joy, the return of a seed-time of tears
(Ps.
126:5, 6); a mountain of joy, to which our way lies
through a vale of tears. See
Isa. 66:10.
III. The meek are happy (v. 5); Blessed are the
meek. The meek are those who quietly submit themselves
to God, to his word and to his rod, who follow his
directions, and comply with his designs, and are gentle
towards all men (Tit.
3:2); who can bear provocation without being inflamed by
it; are either silent, or return a soft answer; and who can
show their displeasure when there is occasion for it,
without being transported into any indecencies; who can be
cool when others are hot; and in their patience keep
possession of their own souls, when they can scarcely keep
possession of any thing else. They are the meek, who
are rarely and hardly provoked, but quickly and easily
pacified; and who would rather forgive twenty injuries than
revenge one, having the rule of their own spirits.
These meek ones are here represented as happy, even in
this world. 1. They are blessed, for they are like
the blessed Jesus, in that wherein particularly they are to
learn of him, ch. 11:29. They are like the blessed God
himself, who is Lord of his anger, and in whom fury is not.
They are blessed, for they have the most comfortable,
undisturbed enjoyment of themselves, their friends, their
God; they are fit for any relation, and condition, any
company; fit to live, and fit to die. 2. They shall
inherit the earth; it is quoted from
Ps. 37:11, and it is almost the only express temporal
promise in all the New Testament. Not that they shall always
have much of the earth, much less that they shall be
put off with that only; but this branch of godliness has, in
a special manner, the promise of life that now is.
Meekness, however ridiculed and run down, has a real
tendency to promote our health, wealth, comfort, and safety,
even in this world. The meek and quiet are observed
to live the most easy lives, compared with the froward and
turbulent. Or, They shall inherit the land (so it may
be read), the land of Canaan, a type of heaven. So
that all the blessedness of heaven above, and all the
blessings of earth beneath, are the portion of the meek.
IV. They that hunger and thirst after righteousness
are happy, v. 6. Some understand this as a further instance
of our outward poverty, and a low condition in this world,
which not only exposes men to injury and wrong, but makes it
in vain for them to seek to have justice done to them; they
hunger and thirst after it, but such is the power on
the side of their oppressors, that they cannot have it; they
desire only that which is just and equal, but it is denied
them by those that neither fear God nor regard men.
This is a melancholy case! Yet, blessed are they, if
they suffer these hardships for and with a good conscience;
let them hope in God, who will see justice done, right take
place, and will deliver the poor from their oppressors,
Ps. 103:6. Those who contentedly bear oppression, and
quietly refer themselves to God to plead their cause, shall
in due time be satisfied, abundantly satisfied, in the
wisdom and kindness which shall be manifested in his
appearances for them. But it is certainly to be understood
spiritually, of such a desire as, being terminated on such
an object, is gracious, and the work of God’s grace in the
soul, and qualifies for the gifts of the divine favour. 1.
Righteousness is here put for all spiritual
blessings. See
Ps. 24:5; ch. 6:33. They are purchased for us by the
righteousness of Christ; conveyed and secured by the
imputation of that righteousness to us; and confirmed by the
faithfulness of God. To have Christ made of God to us
righteousness, and to be made the righteousness of
God in him; to have the whole man renewed in
righteousness, so as to become a new man, and to
bear the image of God; to have an interest in Christ and the
promises—this is righteousness. 2. These we must
hunger and thirst after. We must truly and really desire
them, as one who is hungry and thirsty desires meat and
drink, who cannot be satisfied with any thing but meat and
drink, and will be satisfied with them, though other things
be wanting. Our desires of spiritual blessings must be
earnest and importunate; "Give me these, or else I die;
every thing else is dross and chaff, unsatisfying; give me
these, and I have enough, though I had nothing else.’’
Hunger and thirst are appetites that return frequently,
and call for fresh satisfactions; so these holy desires rest
not in any thing attained, but are carried out toward
renewed pardons, and daily fresh supplies of grace. The
quickened soul calls for constant meals of righteousness,
grace to do the work of every day in its day, as duly as the
living body calls for food. Those who hunger and thirst
will labour for supplies; so we must not only desire
spiritual blessings, but take pains for them in the use of
the appointed means. Dr. Hammond, in his practical
Catechism, distinguishes between hunger and thirst.
Hunger is a desire of food to sustain, such as
sanctifying righteousness. Thirst is the desire
of drink to refresh, such as justifying righteousness,
and the sense of our pardon.
Those who hunger and thirst after spiritual
blessings, are blessed in those desires, and shall
be filled with those blessings. (1.) They are blessed
in those desires. Though all desires of grace are not grace
(feigned, faint desires are not), yet such a desire as this
is; it is an evidence of something good, and
an earnest of something better. It is a desire
of God’s own raising, and he will not forsake the work of
his own hands. Something or other the soul will be
hungering and thirsting after; therefore they
are blessed who fasten upon the right object, which is
satisfying, and not deceiving; and do not pant after the
dust of the earth,
Amos 2:7;
Isa. 55:2. (2.) They shall be filled with those
blessings. God will give them what they desire to complete
their satisfaction. It is God only who can fill a soul,
whose grace and favour are adequate to its just desires; and
he will fill those with grace for grace, who, in a
sense of their own emptiness, have recourse to his fulness.
He fills the hungry (Lu.
1:53), satiates them,
Jer. 31:25. The happiness of heaven will certainly fill
the soul; their righteousness shall be complete, the favour
of God and his image, both in their full perfection.
V. The merciful are happy, v. 7. This, like the
rest, is a paradox; for the merciful are not taken to be the
wisest, nor are likely to be the richest; yet Christ
pronounces them blessed. Those are the merciful,
who are piously and charitably inclined to pity, help, and
succor persons in misery. A man may be truly merciful,
who has not wherewithal to be bountiful or liberal; and then
God accepts the willing mind. We must not only bear our own
afflictions patiently, but we must, by Christian sympathy,
partake of the afflictions of our brethren; pity must be
shown (Job
6:14), and bowels of mercy put on (Col.
3:12); and, being put on, they must put forth themselves
in contributing all we can for the assistance of those who
are any way in misery. We must have compassion on the souls
of others, and help them; pity the ignorant, and instruct
them; the careless, and warn them; those who are in a state
of sin, and snatch them as brands out of the burning.
We must have compassion on those who are melancholy and in
sorrow, and comfort them (Job
16:5); on those whom we have advantage against, and not
be rigorous and severe with them; on those who are in want,
and supply them; which if we refuse to do, whatever we
pretend, we shut up the bowels of our compassion,
James 2:15, 16;
1 Jn. 3:17. Draw out they soul by dealing thy
bread to the hungry,
Isa. 58:7, 10. Nay, a good man is merciful to his
beast.
Now as to the merciful. 1. They are blessed; so it
was said in the Old Testament; Blessed is he that
considers the poor,
Ps. 41:1. Herein they resemble God, whose goodness is
his glory; in being merciful as he is merciful, we
are, in our measure, perfect as he is perfect. It is
an evidence of love to God; it will be a satisfaction to
ourselves, to be any way instrumental for the benefit of
others. One of the purest and most refined delights in this
world, is that of doing good. In this word,
Blessed are the merciful, is included that saying of
Christ, which otherwise we find not in the gospels, It is
more blessed to give than to receive,
Acts 20:35. 2. They shall obtain mercy; mercy
with men, when they need it; he that watereth, shall
be watered also himself (we know not how soon we may
stand in need of kindness, and therefore should be kind);
but especially mercy with God, for with the
merciful he will show himself merciful,
Ps. 18:25. The most merciful and charitable
cannot pretend to merit, but must fly to mercy. The
merciful shall find with God sparing mercy (ch.
6:14), supplying mercy (Prov.
19:17), sustaining mercy (Ps.
41:2), mercy in that day (2
Tim. 1:18); may, they shall inherit the kingdom
prepared for them (ch. 25:34, 35); whereas they
shall have judgment without mercy (which can be
nothing short of hell-fire) who have shown no
mercy.
VI. The pure in heart are happy (v. 8); Blessed
are the poor in heart, for they shall see God. This is
the most comprehensive of all the beatitudes; here holiness
and happiness ar fully described and put together.
1. Here is the most comprehensive character of the
blessed: they are pure in heart. Note, True religion
consists in heart-purity. Those who are inwardly pure, show
themselves to be under the power of pure and undefiled
religion. True Christianity lies in the heart, in the
purity of heart; the washing of that from
wickedness,
Jer. 4:14. We must lift up to God, not only clean hands,
but a pure heart,
Ps. 24:4, 5;
1 Tim. 1:5. The heart must be pure, in opposition
to mixture—an honest heart that aims well; and pure,
in opposition to pollution and defilement; as
wine unmixed, as water unmuddied. The heart
must be kept pure from fleshly lusts, all
unchaste thoughts and desires; and from worldly lusts;
covetousness is called filthy lucre; from all
filthiness of flesh and spirit, all that which come out
of the heart, and defiles the man. The heart must
be purified by faith, and entire for God; must be
presented and preserved a chaste virgin to Christ. Create
in me such a clean heart, O God!
2. Here is the most comprehensive comfort of the
blessed; They shall see God. Note, (1.) It is the perfection
of the soul’s happiness to see God; seeing him, as we
may by faith in our present state, is a heaven upon
earth; and seeing him as we shall in the future state,
in the heaven of heaven. To see him as he is,
face to face, and no longer through a glass darkly; to see
him as ours, and to see him and enjoy him; to see him and be
like him, and be satisfied with that likeness (Ps.
17:15); and to see him for ever, and never lose the
sight of him; this is heaven’s happiness. (2.) The happiness
of seeing God is promised to those, and those only, who are
pure in heart. None but the pure are capable
of seeing God, nor would it be a felicity to the
impure. What pleasure could an unsanctified soul take in the
vision of a holy God? As he cannot endure to look
upon their iniquity, so they cannot endure to look
upon his purity; nor shall any unclean thing enter into the
new Jerusalem; but all that are pure in heart, all
that are truly sanctified, have desires wrought in them,
which nothing but the sight of God will sanctify; and divine
grace will not leave those desires unsatisfied.
VII. The peace-makers are happy, v. 9. The wisdom
that is from above is first pure, and then
peaceable; the blessed ones are pure toward God,
and peaceable toward men; for with reference to both,
conscience must be kept void of offence. The
peace-makers are those who have, 1. A peaceable
disposition: as, to make a lie, is to be given
and addicted to lying, so, to make peace, is to have
a strong and hearty affection to peace. I am for peace,
Ps. 120:7. It is to love, and desire, and delight in
peace; to be put in it as in our element, and to study to be
quiet. 2. A peaceable conversation; industriously, as
far as we can, to preserve the peace that it be not broken,
and to recover it when it is broken; to hearken to proposals
of peace ourselves, and to be ready to make them to others;
where distance is among brethren and neighbours, to do all
we can to accommodate it, and to be repairers of the
breaches. The making of peace is sometimes a
thankless office, and it is the lot of him who parts a
fray, to have blows on both sides; yet it is a good
office, and we must be forward to it. Some think that this
is intended especially as a lesson for ministers, who should
do all they can to reconcile those who are at variance, and
to promote Christian love among those under their charge.
Now, (1.) Such persons are blessed; for they have
the satisfaction of enjoying themselves, by keeping
the peace, and of being truly serviceable to others, by
disposing them to peace. They are working together with
Christ, who came into the world to slay all enmities,
and to proclaim peace on earth. (2.) They shall be
called the children of God; it will be an evidence to
themselves that they are so; God will own them as such, and
herein they will resemble him. He is the God of peace; the
Son of God is the Prince of peace; the Spirit of adoption is
a Spirit of peace. Since God has declared himself
reconcilable to us all, he will not own those for his
children who are implacable in their enmity to one another;
for if the peacemakers are blessed, woe to the
peace-breakers! Now by this it appears, that Christ never
intended to have his religion propagated by fire and sword,
or penal laws, or to acknowledge bigotry, or intemperate
zeal, as the mark of his disciples. The children of this
world love to fish in troubled waters, but the children of
God are the peace-makers, the quiet in the land.
VIII. Those who are persecuted for righteousness’
sake, are happy. This is the greatest paradox of all,
and peculiar to Christianity; and therefore it is put last,
and more largely insisted upon than any of the rest, v.
10–12. This beatitude, like Pharaoh’s dream, is doubled,
because hardly credited, and yet the thing is certain;
and in the latter part there is change of the person,
"Blessed are ye—ye my disciples, and immediate
followers. This is that which you, who excel in virtue, are
more immediately concerned in; for you must reckon upon
hardships and troubles more than other men.’’ Observe here,
1. The case of suffering saints described; and it is a
hard case, and a very piteous one.
(1.) They are persecuted, hunted, pursued, run down, as
noxious beasts are, that are sought for to be destroyed; as
if a Christian did caput gerere lupinum—bear a wolf’s
head, as an outlaw is said to do—any one that finds him
may slay him; they are abandoned as the offscouring of
all things; fined, imprisoned, banished, stripped of
their estates, excluded from all places of profit and trust,
scourged, racked, tortured, always delivered to death, and
accounted as sheep for the slaughter. This has been the
effect of the enmity of the serpent’s seed against the holy
seed, ever since the time of righteous Abel. It was
so in Old-Testament times, as we find,
Heb. 11:35, etc. Christ has told us that it would much
more be so with the Christian church, and we are not to
think it strange,
1 Jn. 3:13. He has left us an example.
(2.) The are reviled, and have all manner of evil said
against them falsely. Nicknames, and names of reproach,
are fastened upon them, upon particular persons, and upon
the generation of the righteous in the gross, to render them
odious; sometimes to make them formidable, that they may be
powerfully assailed; things are laid to their charge that
they knew not,
Ps. 35:11;
Jer. 20:18;
Acts 17:6, 7. Those who have had no power in their hands
to do them any other mischief, could yet do this; and those
who have had power to persecute, had found it
necessary to do this too, to justify themselves in
their barbarous usage of them; they could not have baited
them, if they had not dressed them in bear-skins; nor have
given them the worst of treatment, if they had not first
represented them as the worst of men. They will revile
you, and persecute you. Note, Reviling the saints
is persecuting them, and will be found so shortly,
when hard speeches must be accounted for (Jude 15),
and cruel mockings,
Heb. 11:36. They will say all manner of evil of you
falsely; sometimes before the seat of judgment,
as witnesses; sometimes in the seat of the scornful,
with hypocritical mockers at feasts; they are the
song of the drunkards; sometimes to face their faces, as
Shimei cursed David; sometimes behind their backs, as the
enemies of Jeremiah did. Note, There is no evil so black and
horrid, which, at one time or other, has not been said,
falsely, of Christ’s disciples and followers.
(3.) All this is for righteousness’ sake (v. 10);
for my sake, v. 11. If for righteousness’ sake,
then for Christ’s sake, for he is nearly interested
in the work of righteousness. Enemies to righteousness are
enemies to Christ. This precludes those from the blessedness
who suffer justly, and are evil spoken of truly
for their real crimes; let such be ashamed and confounded,
it is part of their punishment; it is not the suffering, but
the cause, that makes the martyr. Those suffer for
righteousness’ sake, who suffer because they will not
sin against their consciences, and who suffer for doing that
which is good. Whatever pretence persecutors have, it is the
power of godliness that they have an enmity to; it is really
Christ and his righteousness that are maligned, hated, and
persecuted; For thy sake I have borne reproach,
Ps. 69:9;
Rom. 8:36. Source: Matthew
Henry
Out of Trouble: An Introduction
1.0 Trouble and Values, Matthew 4-8
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