mended by the deformity of the other: the heart which hath never groaned under calamity, will not fo truly enjoy the transports of felicity; paft flavery gives a double zest to prefent freedom. Thus a fine tafte of happiness can only be acquired by affliction, and he alone is to be pitied, who hath never known what it is to be miferable. But for the truth of this we have, in the words of my text, the teftimony of divine wifdom, and the fanction of divine authority. Our Saviour hath here exprefsly declared, that those who mourn, fo far from being unhappy, are truly bleffed.

We are not to underftand by the words before us, that all thofe who mourn, generally and indifcriminately confidered, must therefore be happy; that because they have been oppreffed by grievous fufferings, they are entitled to reward; that because they have been miferable, they must be bleffed: that would be to confound good and evil, merit and demerit; to fet the wife, virtuous, and religious, on a level with the foolish, the vicious, and the irreligious. He who mourns for the lofs of what he neither wants nor deferves, who weeps when he should rejoice, and complains when he fhould be thankful; he who mourns from fordid envy, or unreasonable difappointment, because he cannot prejudice another, to promote his own intereft and advantage; fuch men, be their afflictions ever so sharp and. poignant, can never hope to be bleffed, or expect to be comforted.

The

The bleffednefs fpoken of by our Saviour will be the reward only of virtuous and godly forrow; of thofe, and thofe alone, who mourn, either,

First, For a heavy and more than ordinary weight of human afflictions, which, unmerited by them, God hath in his wisdom thought fit to inflict upon them: or,

Secondly, Those who fincerely mourn for, and lament the burthen of their iniquities, the fins and offences which they have committed: or,

Thirdly, Those who charitably feel for, and fympathife with, the forrows and calamities of others, who weep with them that weep.

Thefe will undoubtedly inherit that bleffed happiness which our Saviour hath here predicted; thefe will be relieved, bleffed, and comforted, both here and hereafter.

Man, as the Pfalmift faith, is born unto forrow, even as the Sparks fly upwards; it is the common lot, the appointed portion of human

nature.

A heavy yoke is upon the fons of Adam, from him that fitteth on a throne of glory, to him that is humbled in earth and afhes. To what a variety of diseases is the body of man continually subject? by what an infinity of pangs is his mind perpetually oppreffed? Want, pain, disappointment, fickness, and adverfity, like fo many powerful tyrants, fubdue and reign by turns over us; scarce a day paffes but we feel fomething to remind us of mortality, and the hard condition of it.

Some,

Some, moreover, are vifited in a peculiar manner, and groan with unremitted anguifh under the iron hand of calamity. Some there are

He,

who perpetually feed on the bread of affliction, and drink the bitter cup of forrow. doubtlefs, who inflicted thefe evils, never intended, never wifhed or defired to find us infenfible of them: to mourn therefore is the indifputed privilege of our nature; grief therefore is innocent, and only when immoderate, exceffive, or ill-placed, can partake cither of guilt or folly. Our Redeemer himself, with the form of man, took upon him his infirmities, his griefs and calamities, and lamented them alfo; even he, we know, groaned in the fpirit, and was troubled. It is no fim therefore to mourn: our foul may be vexed, and our fpirit difquieted, without offending that divine Being who created them. It is our duty, notwithstanding, to fubmit with patience and refignation, to rely with confidence on our Redeemer, and to reft affured that his word muft be fulfilled, who hath faid, Bleffed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Whilft our afflictions bid us remember that we are men, we must not at the fame time forget that there is a God, but in the midst of our calamities bear in mind this his flattering declaration, and this his gracious promife: let us continually bear this little amulet about our necks to charm away the evil spirit of discontent, to exercife moreover the malicious dæmon of def pair. If affliction is (as our Saviour hath himfelf affured us it is) a real bleffing, let us con

fider it as fuch, and in all our forrows, miffortunes and calamities remember, that forrow is but a prelude to joy, and affliction the harbinger of felicity.

But, Secondly, Another fpecics of virtuous forrow is that which arifeth from a conscioufnefs of our own unworthinefs, that remorfe and contrition which every fincere penitent feels for the commiffion of fin, and which is the parent of repentance and reformation: he who heartily grieves for, and laments his paft offences, will moft probably guard against them for the future. This forrow is doubtlefs of a moft fharp and poignant nature, it inflicts the moft deep and painful wounds on the foul of man; the fting of life as well as of death is fin, and a wounded spirit who can bear?

As this is doubtlefs a great and galling af fliétion, wearying and oppreffive to the foul, the goodness of God hath to the weight of the evil proportioned its confolation and reward: Bleffed, therefore, are they who thus mourn, for they fhall be comforted. Thofe who mourn for their fins will always find comfort in the pleas ing reflection, that the debt which they are paying, how heavy and burthenfome foever it may be, is a debt which they owe to confcience, and which must be punctually discharged; that the forrow which they feel is a religious forrow; that the tears which they fhed are the tears of virtue; they will be dried up by him who wipeth the tears from every eye: in all their afflictions therefore they will comfort themselves with the fure and certain hope,

that

that though they mourn they shall rejoice, and are only miferable here, that they may be happy hereafter.

But, Thirdly, Thofe fhall be bleffed who charitably feel for, and fympathife with the afflicted, and lament the calamities of others, who weep with them that weep.

Compaffion is a debt which we all owe to the unhappy: though like other debts it is not always punctually discharged, it will, notwithftanding, be required of us. The benevolent, the generous and humane, cannot behold the diftreffes of his fellow-creatures with coldnefs and infenfibility; he feels for the forrows, laments the misfortunes, and fympathifes with the calamities of his neighbour: and in a world like this, abounding with evils of every kind, the good and benevolent man must frequently be unhappy; thofe arrows of affliction which never reach the callous heart, pierce deep into his; he fighs with the wretched, fickens with the distempered, fhivers with the naked, ftarves with the poor and deftitute: but he who thus kindly mourns for others, fhall himself be bleffed; he who thus pitied others, fhall himself meet with pity; and he who comforted others, fhall be comforted.

The Almighty hath of his infinite goodness graciously ordained, that the performance of every moral duty fhall carry with it fome portion of its own reward: every act of friendfhip, tenderness, and humanity towards thofe around us, is attended with a fweet complacency and fatisfaction of mind, that in a great measure compenfates for every difficulty and