true fenfe of this phrafe, was poor in fpirit, it was undoubtedly our bleffed Redeemer himfelf, who fuffered with patience every indignity, and submitted with humility and refignation to every infult and oppreflion that could be inflicted on human nature. Him therefore, and hin alone, be it our bufinefs, as it is our duty, to imitate with all poffible care and attention; and this, if we do, we fhall undoubtedly, as he has graciously promifed, be truly bleffed.

Here, however, it may not be improper to obferve, that our Saviour doth not fay, nor could he indeed poffibly mean, that the poor in fpirit fhould always be bleffed in this life; fo far from it, that the quality here recom. mended will, in the common courfe of things, be more likely to render him frequently tho' undefervedly miserable; he who is lowly in his own eyes, will too often appear mean and contemptible in thofe of others. Modefty is a veil, which, however it may heighten the charms of virtue to a difcerning judgment," doth notwithstanding for the most part totally conceal them from the vulgar; and though humility may become the object of private admiration, she is but too generally the mark of public contempt and derifion.

Such falfe ideas do men fometimes entertain of fortitude and fpirit, that the bold violator of every law human and divine, who kills his beft friends in a duel, fhall be deemed a man of honour and courage, whilft the poor in fpirit, who from confcience and humanity refufes to

fhed

fhed the blood of his fellow-creature, fhall be branded with the opprobious name of a coward.

To this it must be added, that the meek and lowly lay themselves open to a thousand injuries which the haughty and revengeful are. not liable to. The world is indeed generally fo good-natured as to give us room and opportunity for the exercife of every moral and Christian virtue: if we are bleffed with a fupcrior portion of meeknefs, they will favour us with frequent occafions of exerting it; and if we are endowed with a more than ordinary fhare of patience, they will fupply us with fufficient trials of it: the humble fpirit will often be provoked, the quiet and forbearing fpirit will often be fcoffed at and infulted.

Very confonant therefore muft it be to our idea of the divine juftice, to fuppofe that what in this life muft ever fubject us to fo many misfortunes, forrows, and calamities, fhould meet with fome recompenfe in another. The extraordinary and tranfcendent merit indeed of this virtue may be inferred from the greatness of its reward. Bleffed, fays our Saviour, are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Those who have fuffered in this world, fhall enjoy in the next; thofe who have patiently fubmitted to injuries in one state, shall be totally exempted from them in another; he who, for a feries of years, hath eaten the bread of affliction, and drank the cup of forrow, fhall taste the manna of God, and be refreshed with the waters of comfort; he who hath been meek and lowly in his own eyes, fhall be ac

ceptable

ceptable in those of his Creator; and he who hath been despised and rejected of men, fhall be the chofen and beloved of God.

Bleffed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Not the fplendid dazzling object of ambition here below, not an earthly but an heavenly crown, a kingdom not to be lot, a crown that fadeth not away: the kingdoms of this world are indeed obtained, and preferved alfo but too often, by means very oppofite, and fpirits very different from thefe; and the kingdom of God is the only kingdom which the meek and humble, which the poor in fpirit wish to enjoy. How grateful will it be, after all the ftorms and dangers of a tempeftuous life, to put into this delightful harbour; after travelling through the dreary defert of this world, where scarce any thing is to be met with but thorns and briars, to arrive at laft at a wilderness of sweets, and be crowned with the olive branches of perpetual peace: it will not be the leaft of those bleffings, which the poor in fpirit fhall hereafter enjoy, that in the kingdom of God he will not meet with those who have perfecuted and oppreffed him, with the proud, the haughty, and the cruel; thofe turbulent and unruly fpirits fhall then be chained down in darknefs, condemned by an all-righteous judge to figh for ever after that reft and tranquillity which they had so long disturbed, and to envy that humility and poverty of fpirit which they had fo long despised.

Let

Let us remember, then, my brethren, that in virtue of this promife from our Redeemer, we are noble and aspiring candidates for empire; let it animate our zeal, and fire our ambition to call to mind that we are in purfuit of a kingdom, and that a glorious and an eternal one, not to be acquired by arms or violence, but by meeknefs, gentleness, and truth: a crown which we are not called to by inheritance, but by election; a kingdom, where the joys of dominion will not be leffened but heightened by participation. Laftly, and above all, let us remember, that to poffefs it, the spirit muft not be raised but fubdued; that we must stoop to rife; that by poverty alone we can be made rich, by humility alone we can be exalted.

Bleffed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

As the bleffed Saviour and Redeemer of

mankind, came down upon earth to confute the wisdom of the wife, and to put to filence the ignorance of foolish men, we shall find many of his doctrines, and more especially

those

It

thofe which he delivered in his fermon on the mount, in direct oppofition to thofe opinions which were generally received and established; and amongst thefe, there is not perhaps one more apparently paradoxical and uncommon than that which is expreffed in the words of my text: Bieffed, fays he, are they that mourn. feemeth indeed to contradict the voice of nature, to oppofe our reafon, and to give the lye to our fenfe and feeling. It is impoffible, one would imagine, that pain and forrow, which render us miferable, can ever make us bleffed; or that what we have fo long confidered as the object of fear and averfion, can ever become pleafing and defirable. But he who made and conftituted all things, can change the nature, effence, and difpofition of them. There is nothing fo bitter and calamitous which the power and goodness of God cannot render productive of joy and happinefs. Our Saviour therefore doth with great truth affert, (which the more we confider the more we fhall be convinced of) that the forrows, pains, and afflictions of this world, which we too often fo grievoufly complain of, are attended by confequences which we do not forefee, and followed by advantages which we never hoped for, or expected.

In a former difcourfe on the advantages of affliction, I obferved to you, that a mixture of good and evil in this life is (abstracted from all other confiderations) abfolutely and indif penfably neceffary. Sorrow is to joy what vice is to virtue, the best foil to its beauties; the comeliness of the one, is fet off and recommended