put on Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal, Deut. xi. 29. These two mountains were to reprefent Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. For Ebal, fignifying a collection of old age, or a mass that disperfes, fitly represents the bond-children, who are in the flesh, collected together, and ftanding fast in the old Adam, under the yoke of Mofes; which, at laft, will be all difperfed, and carried away as with a flood. While Gerizim fignifies piercers, or cutters, and fitly represents the Eleet in union with the Saviour, in whose strength they fpeak like the piercings of a fword, and who are the Lord's wood-cutters, his battle-axe, and weapons of war, Jer. li. 20. And so, in the fpiritual fignification, here are the first Adam and his family, and the fecond Adam and his family; or the children of the flesh, and the children of God; or, in other words, the bond-woman, and the free-woman. Hagar is, in the figure, Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerufalem which is, and is in bondage with her children: but the heavenly Jerufalem is free, and is the mother of us all. Paul fixes the curfe on Mount Sinai-As many as are of the works of the Law are under the CURSE. And David fixes the bleffing on Mount ZionUpon Mount Zion bath God commanded the BLESSING, even life for evermore. In allufion to Gerizim, the Saviour afcends this mount; and, having got his little church with him, which he had just founded, and which church is to ftand to the world's end, he opens

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opens his mouth, and pronounces the bleffings of the everlafting Gofpel upon them: and, to let us know that his little church was Mount Zion, he calls it a city fet on a hill that cannot be bid; which city is Zion, the city of the Great King; and which bill is God's Holy Hill of Zion. The city, the bill, and the church, are one and the fame thing; and upon that mount Chrift executes his Father's command: he pronounces the bleffing; and fo he was commanded to do. For upon Mount Zion God com manded the bleffing, and fet his King upon that holy hill, to bestow it. Mount Calvary was to communicate all the bleffings of dying Love to Mount Zion, and pregnant Zion was to spread her little hills on every fide; while the mountains should bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness. "There "fhall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the i top of the mountains: the fruit thereof shall "fhake like Lebanon," Pfalm lxxii. 16. Here is the first fulfilment of that prophecy; here is Chrift, the first bandful of corn, the firft-fruits; and here is his little church, "the firft-fruits of his creatures. And as the cedars of Lebanon, when fhaken with the wind, fcatter their cones, and spread their feedby which means thousands of young plants spring up, under the bleffing of Providence, without human labour-fo this handful of corn, and the fruits of it, being fhaken from the Mofaic difpenfation, and scattered by perfecution, have, under the strong

gales

gales of the Holy Ghoft, fpread the word of eternal life throughout the world, while numerous young plants of righteousness have sprung up, the righthand planting of God, that he may be glorified. But

The Saviour carefully defcribes the cafe and inward state of those gracious fouls upon whom his bleffings are pronounced-no random arrows are discharged from his bow, nor is any uncertain artillery taken from his quiver, nor discharged by his valiant men of Ifrael; for though they fight, they never beat the air. He first discovers the cafe, and then pours in the oil.

Bleffed are the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. True fpiritual poverty stands in a perfon's being made fenfible, under the convincing and convicting operations of the Holy Spirit of Power, that he is deftitute of all true riches: he has no righteousness to appear in before God; but is miferable and entirely naked, exposed to wrath, to shame, and everlasting contempt, unless Divine clemency interfere.

"He owes five hundred pence, and has nothing "to pay with." He owes obedience to the Law; but has neither a heart to it, nor ability for it. He feels the arrow of fpiritual famine; he is in want, husks he cannot now fill his belly with, and the bread of life is not as yet broken to him; he feels his need of it, and hears of it, which fharpens his appetite

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appetite after it. "How many hired servants of my

father have bread enough and to fpare, but I perifh "with hunger!" Nor has he got the hand of Faith to feed himself with, therefore he cannot receive Chrift, he cannot mix faith with the word, he cannot apply a promife, and faith not being strong enough to attend his prayers, he can bring no comfort home; he faints, becaufe 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 reft 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, fo deplorable at the brafs knocker, as fuch 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 Wisdom's gate, and watches every motion at the pofts of her door: he hears "that WISDOM "bath killed her beafts and mingled her wine;" and he pays all poffible attention to her maidens, to fee if his cafe is touched, his character defcribed, 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 is he above prayer; many a heavy figh, many a filent groan, many a longing wish, many a bitter cry, many a humble confeffion, is poured forth in the midst of all unutterable fhame and blufhing. Thefe are the poor in spirit; 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 fmite 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 muft come from Sinai, before he can get the bleffing at Zion.

2. It is by faith that he comes from the ministration 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 faw the Saviour's day on Mount Moriah. Such an one receives the promise 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