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Ver. 16,17. Mark hath much the same Mar_1:32-34 and Luk_4:40,41. Luke adds, he laid his hands upon them, and healed them. We before, Mat_4:24, showed who were meant by persons possessed by devils. See Poole on "Mat_4:24". It is only observable that it is said,
he cast out the spirits by his word, by the same power by which he made the world and all things therein, Gen_1:1-31, by his authoritative word. He
healed all that were sick, that is, all that were brought to him. Laying on of his hands, was but an external symbol or rite used in blessing, in miraculous operations, and in ordination of ministers. The great question is, how that which the prophet Isaiah said, Isa_53:4, was fulfilled by these miraculous operations. The words are, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; and, Isa_53:5, with his stripes we are healed: and the apostle Peter, referring to that text, saith, Who bare our sins in his own body on the tree, 1Pe_2:24. The words neither seem truly quoted, nor doth the sense appear the same, the evangelist applying what the prophet seems to speak of our sins, to our bodily infirmities, and his bearing them, to his curing them; whereas Peter seemeth to apply it to his bearing our sins, that is, the punishment of our sins, in his stripes, and by his sufferings on the cross. What I observed before is here to be considered, that the evangelists, in their quotations out of the Old Testament, took themselves only concerned to keep to the sense, not exactly to the words (which is a liberty we ordinarily take in quotations). As to the sense, grief and sorrows are terms capable of an interpretation, as to whatsoever comes upon us as the fruit and demerit of our sins, so as the prophet designed to express Christ’s suffering all the punishment due to us for sin, of which nature are all the afflictions of this life, and death itself, as well as the pains of hell. The only question is, how Matthew’s saying, he healed the people’s diseases, answered the prophet’s expression, he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. This scripture was twice fulfilled in Christ: as to their bodily griefs and sorrows, that is mentioned by Matthew, though he bare them not all in his own body, yet he had compassion on men with reference to them, and showed himself afflicted in their afflictions by his putting forth his Divine power to heal them; and he bore the guilt that was the cause of these and other griefs and sorrows upon the tree, as is said by Peter; and he therefore healed them, that he might demonstrate himself to be the true Messias prophesied of by Isaiah, who was to come, who was to bear our griefs and to carry our sorrows.