appetite after it. "How many hired fervants of my "father have bread enough and to fpare, but I perish

"with hunger!" Nor has he got the hand of Faith to feed himself with, therefore he cannot receive Christ, he cannot mix faith with the word, he cannot apply a promise, and faith not being strong enough to attend his prayers, he can bring no comfort home; he faints, because he cannot believe.

Such a poor foul has no certain dwelling-place; he can place no, confidence in the flesh, because of the plague of his heart; nor find any rest in his bones, because of his fin; nor can he fee his foul sheltered in the cleft of the rock; he is expofed to the tempeft, without a covert; and to the ftorm, without a hiding-place.

No beggar ever fo ragged, fo miferable, fo deftitute, so deplorable at the brass knocker, as such a foul at Mercy's door; he is poor and wretched, miferable, blind, and naked, and he knows it; and what is ftill worfe, he feels himself liable to eternal imprisonment. This is the poor and needy man who waits at Wifdom's gate, and watches every motion at the posts of her door: he hears "that WISDOM "bath killed ber beafts and mingled her wine;" and he pays all poffible attention to her maidens, to see if his cafe is touched, his character described, or his name included when they bid the guests

This is the poor man that useth intreaties; he is not too proud to beg, though he is unable to dig:

nor

D

nor is he above prayer; many a heavy figh, many a filent groan, many a longing wifh, many a bitter cry, many a humble confeffion, is poured forth in the midst of all unutterable fhame and blufhing. These are the poor in fpirit; and as it is with poor beggars, fo it is with fuch, they are defpifed, kicked and cuffed by all; devils, finners, and hypocrites, are always fure to finite fuch. Nevertheless, these are the elect that cry day and night, and put their mouth in the duft, when they fue for a hope in God's mercy, and

Bleffed are fuch. To be bleffed, in the first place," is to have one's neck delivered from the legal yoke of precept, and one's foul redeemed and delivered from the terrible fentence of the Law. The bleffing and the curfe never were put' upon one and the fame mountain, nor upon one and the fame foul, at one and the fame time. The finner must come from Sinai, before he can get the bleffing at Zion.

2. It is by faith that he comes from the miniftration of death to the promise of life, or paffes, as Chrift faith, from death to life, fo as to come no more into condemnation; fuch a believing foul is bleffed with faithful Abraham, who obtained his bleffing by faith, when he saw the Saviour's day on Mount Moriah. Such an one receives the promife of the Spirit through faith; the Spirit of life, and Word of life, come both together; the word comes with power, in the Holy Ghoft and much affurance, and immediately

immediately union with the living Vine and fellowfhip with the living God take place; and fuch have the blessing in the best fenfe, and in every fenfe, which is LIFE for evermore.

got

3. The whole cluster of bleffings that attend the bleffing of life now follow and flow in, in all their fweethefs; a divine power fenfibly guards and keeps the foul, the light of a propitious Father fhines in the face of Jefus without a cloud and without a frown, which draws us nigh, and encourages to an holy freedom and familiarity; while pardoning, humbling, and comforting grace, heals the wounds, clofes the breaches, and polishes out all the fears and wrinkles made by the fiery Law, Sin, and Satan; while the countenance of God fhines upon the heart, and the way, when reconciliation, friendship and peace, flow like a river, and drive infidelity, devil and mifery, all before them. This, fays Jehovah, is my bleffing. "The Lord bless thee and "keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee "peace." Numb. vi. 24, 25, 26. Bleffed are

the poor in fpirit

Poverty of

For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. fpirit goes before, to empty us of felf; to fap the empire of Sin and Satan; to prepare the way, and make room. The kingdom follows after, and is fet up and established on the ruins of the former.

The

The poor foul comes out of the ftrong hold of Satan before he is crowned with grace: for, as the Wife Man faith,," out of prifon he cometh to "reign; whereas he that is born in his kingdom be"cometh poor," Ecclef. iv. 14. Even the crowned bead must become poor in fpirit, if he be faved; or poor and wretched to all eternity, if he be lost. Spiritual poverty humbles the finner's proud fpirit, diffolves his ftubbornness, and reduces him to a lowly mind and, child-like difpofition: which is needful; for Chrift declares, that whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, be fhall not enter therein.

The Kingdom of Heaven, (1ft) fignifies the Gospel, with all it's bleffings, promifes, and power. Hence it is called the Gospel of the Kingdom; and preaching it is called preaching the kingdom of God. Hence a perfon who is bleffed with a favoury, unctuous experience of the power of the Gofpel, and who is enlightened into the myfteries of it, is called "a fcribe inftructed unto the kingdom of "Heaven."

2. The Kingdom of Heaven fignifies the empire of Grace in the faints of God; where Satan is dethroned and caft out, and a fuperior power put forth and difplayed; which, Chrift fays, is the kingdom of beaven within us; that as fin has reigned unto death. by Adam's fall, fo grace fhould reign unto life through the righteoufnefs of Chrift.

This

This kingdom within us ftands not in word, which a fool may prate; nor in particular meat and drink, which the Pharifee may use; nor in meat and drink which a Papift may refuse; but in a divine power which none but God's elect know. It ftands,

ft, in juftification; 2dly, in reconciliation and friendship; 3dly, in regeneration; 4thly, in the unutterable happiness and holy triumphs of the foul under the Saviour's fceptre; and, 5thly, in the habitual and perpetual indwelling and abiding of the Holy Ghoft. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

But fometimes the Kingdom of Heaven means ultimate glory, which was prepared for the elect from the foundation of the world, and which it is God's good pleafure to give us, and into which the Saviour will one day introduce us. Whether, therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven means the Gospel, the myfteries of the kingdom; or whether it means. Grace, or whether it means Glory; the poor in fpirit are heirs of it; to them it is given to know the myfteries, and to them God will give grace and glory. "Bleffed are the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the "kingdom of heaven."

Blefjed are they that mourn-under a fight and fenfe of their own fin and finful ftate; fenfible of their rebellion against a good and gracious God; who look at the Saviour whom they have pierced, and mourn with inward regret and contrition, with

felf