immediately union with the living Vine and fellow ship with the living God take place; and fuch have got the bleffing in the best fenfe, and in every sense, which is LIFE for evermore.

3. The whole cluster of bleffings that attend the bleffing of life now follow and flow in, in all their sweetnefs, 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.

Blessed are

Poverty of to fap the

For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. spirit goes before, to empty us of felf; 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 strong 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 loft. Spiritual poverty humbles the finner's proud fpirit, diffolves his ftubbornnefs, 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 fball not enter therein.

The Kingdom of Heaven, (1ft) fignifies the Gospel, with all it's bleffings, promises, and power. Hence it is called the Gospel of the Kingdom; and preaching it is called preaching the kingdom of God. Hence a person 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 de throned and cast out, and a fuperior power put forth and difplayed; which, Chrift fays, is the kingdom of heaven within us; that as fin has reigned unto death by Adam's fall, fo grace fhould reign unto life. through the righteoufnefs of Christ.

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 Papist may refuse; but in a divine power which none but God's elect know. It stands, ift, 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 Ghost. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghoft.

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 pleasure to give us, and into which the Saviour will one day introduce us. Whether, there fore, the Kingdom of Heaven means the Gofpel, 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. "Blessed are the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the "kingdom of heaven."

Bleffed 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

felf-despair, felf-abhorrence, and self-loathing; and who mourn at the abominations of a finful world, and at the dreadful infults that are hourly offered to the Majefty of Heaven. They shall be comforted; their mourning fhall be turned into rejoicing; their fackcloth fhall be put off, and they fhall be girded with gladness: "Beauty shall be given for ashes, "the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of "praise for the spirit of heavinefs."

The tenderness, the affection, the loyalty, of fuch a pious mourner, fhall be made manifeft; and a sense of everlasting love fhed abroad in the heart by the Spirit, fhall fatisfy fuch a foul of the approbation of Heaven. Enlargement of heart and unutterable love, faith in exercise and hope in vigour, heavenly fmiles and pregnant promifes, immortal fenfations and glorious prospects, inward feelings and distant views, the operations of the Spirit and the coming of Titus, fhall all confpire together to make fuch a foul "drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his "mifery no more.-Thine anger is turned away, "and thou comforteft me.-His anger endureth "but a moment: in his favour is life; weeping

may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the "morning.-Bleffed are they that mourn, for they "shall be comforted." That bleffed Spirit that convinces them of fin, fhall be their everlasting Comforter,

Blessed

Bleffed are the meek. Not fuch as are naturally fo, or those whofe paffions are foon touched, and eafily moved, and upon which the empty orator plays his accurfed game: for flefhly meeknefs, or native compaffion and pity, has nothing but flesh and blood in view, and is often attended with hatred to God; it favours not the things of God, but those that be of men. The Arminian may have this, while the worst of war against God is carried on in the heart. This is not what is meant in my text. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh.-Cor"ruption cannot inherit incorruption." Natural affections are corrupt, and fo is all meeknefs that flows from them. Nor does this meeknefs confift in a few crocodile tears, fuch as Efau might pour forth, or fuch as thofe fhed who howled upon their beds, and yet affembled by troops in harlots houses. The meeknefs here meant is a fruit of the Spirit; and is produced under his operation, when he has convinced the finner, convicted him, brought him in guilty by the word of God, stopped his mouth, and made him tremble. It is felt when the finner ceafes to kick, to murmur, to complain, to refift, and to rebel; when the heart is broken, and all human efforts are found to be ufelefs; when the finner's ftrength is all gone, and "he is ftill, and "knows that the Lord he is God;" when the foul is refigned, fubmiffive, and lies paffive, viewing the juftice of God, and confeffing the justice of the fen

tence;