Ps. xxxi.

the provoking of all men: thou shalt keep them
secretly in thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues." 22.
Very firmly impressed with these views, the re-
sult, under God, of many years' constant and unre-
mitted parochial supervision, I proceed now to
remark upon the "BEATITUDES" referred to; and,
if I mistake not, were our lives squared thereunto,
the Holy Spirit of God helping our infirmities, we
should indeed show forth the fruit of good living,
exemplifying in these, the bodies of our death,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men."

66

Then, first, "BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT; FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN;" or, as it stands in St. Luke, (no matter whether the same sermon or not,) "BLESSED BE "BLESSED BE YE POOR; FOR YOUR'S IS THE KINGDOM of God."

4

in

Luke ii. 14.

Luke vi. 20.

Ps. lxxxix.

I. Herein, then, we see the blessed of Him, whose name Tabor and Hermon rejoiced. The 13. violent of this world have no part in it; to the poor, the poor in spirit, is the blessing consigned; with it, too, the body's poverty has no necessary

concern.

4

“Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver,

As did that Sinai in Moses. Jer. Taylor observes, "That the publication of the Christian law might retain some proportion at least, and analogy of circumstance, with the promulgation of the Law of Moses, Christ went up into a mountain, and from thence gave the oracle.". Consid. on the viii. Beatitudes, Works, vol. ii. p. 442. See also Hammond's Practical Catechism, lib. ii. § i. Works, vol. i. p. 28. Folio.

Gen. xiii. 2. and in gold," but withal poor IN SPIRIT, and the "father of the faithful." So likewise may those tens of thousands be, who, knowing wealth to be a snare, are liberal stewards of the manifold gifts of God. Still, the possessions of this world must be looked to thoughtfully, because a "woe" is denounced against those who are rich, and have "received" their "consolation" here, without defending or providing for "the fatherless children, and widows, and all that are desolate and oppressed." Against such, though in the first instance the inference was special, the proverb yet holdeth good, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!" As our blessed Lord condescended to explain his own words, "Children, how hard is it for them that TRUST IN RICHES to enter into the Mark x. 24. kingdom of God!"

Litany.

Matt. xix.

24.

Prov. xvi. 19.

Take we, then, the words as we find them, and there is matter enough to arrest the Christian man's attention, even as there was to arrest that of the Jew, unto whom our Lord was speaking, and who well understood the phrase, "Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud." So that we may, in a more extended sense, apply the term to the shephal ruach," that is to say, to the lowly and contrite one, to such as brought down, and kept low, great self-opinion, and higher thoughts, whether they were rich or poor. And this, in every congregation, is

the practical point; He that was "meek and lowly Matt. xi. in heart" hath declared it.

We do well, then, to impress it, and this too, first and foremost, and to the very last also. It should be the Alpha and Omega of every Christian minister's preaching, because our original corruption is ever lifting up its heel against it. Why else standeth it in the fore-front of our dear Lord's Sermon? Why, but for this, that without it we are hardly capable of receiving the atonement.

29.

We are all destitute of holiness,-born into the world "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Such is our first state, and, what is Rev. iii. 17. more, even since we are regenerate and born anew by the Holy Spirit, our self-love and self-opinion seems yet to struggle the more to rear itself on high, as if abashed at the "beauty of holiness." We are full, think the many, and in need of nothing,and, as long as this state of mind remains in us, the new man is hardly formed; the Holy Spirit is hindered from renewing us day by day; there is no poverty of spirit. As said that trenchant divine, "He who thinks himself holy and righteous enough, is a most unfit subject for the Gospel to work upon 5."

* See South's Sermon on this Beatitude, Works, vol. vi. p. 417. The case of Laodicea is naturally alluded to by him, as well as Jer. Taylor. See ut supra, p. 446, and Hammond, ut supra, p. 29.

B

But then, whether under coif or cowl, in the busy city or the lone hamlet, in seminaries or in market-places, is not this the spirit which we all find, unless it be kept down by God's holy fear and love? It must be confessed it is; and every sermon we preach, to ourselves or others, should be imbued with that holy exordium of our blessed Lord. He knew what was in man, and spake what He knew for his good alway.

Affixed to the blessing before us, as to those that followed after, is a reward; it being natural to all faithful men, as unto Moses of old time, to have Heb. xi. 26. "respect to the recompence of the reward;" for those who speak otherwise, speak not of human nature as it is, but after high-flown notions inconsistent with a state of imperfection. The reward here is, "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven," which, so to say, flows on and is inclusive of the rest. The meaning is, such Christians as are of a contrite and humble spirit, have their spirits and hearts revived—(if with persecutions, as is not unfrequent, the greater the paradox to the world)-by those blessings which are consigned over to them in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The riches of earth and heaven are theirs. The one they take by the way, having foretastes of eternity by the riches of God's grace,-the other is in reversion, when the grave and the gate of death is passed o.

• Hammond's words are, "This kingdom of grace here is

Luke xii.

Thus, without dwelling longer on particulars, we have a glimpse of what is to be drawn from this Beatitude, and to be practically applied. And, nothing Pelagian rests upon the man poor in spirit. In him it is God that worketh to will and to do. He knoweth his Lord's words to his comfort, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to GIVE you the kingdom." He laboureth in the 32. Lord, but recollecteth well that the kingdom of heaven on earth, as well as "the inheritance of the saints in light" above, is a GIFT. And so, such an one thinketh not with the unsanctified and the unholy still, that they may repent when they list, and turn them to God, but his prayer for himself, and for his brethren is this: "Turn THOU us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned." Who, then, Lam. v. 21. will not willingly lift up his voice with the three children, and say, "O ye holy and humble men of heart, bless ye the Lord; praise Him, and magnify him for ever!"

The second Beatitude is, "BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN: FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED;" Matt. v. 4. or, as it stands in St. Luke, "BLESSED ARE YE THAT WEEP NOW: FOR YE SHALL LAUGH."

II. The sense of these words is, evidently, Blessed are they that mourn for their sins; as

but an inchoation of that glory hereafter; and he that liveth here the life of an humble Christian, shall there be sure to reign the life of a victorious saint." Pract. Cat. ut supra, p. 29.

" Benedicite.

Luke vi. 21.