and though houses set apart for his worship and the divine service are good and convenient, yet we must not forget that he dwells not in temples made with hands; but where two or three are met in his name, he is present in the midst. The true temple shall be open and manifest in another world, and this is God and the Lamb himself. We should not place any great matter in the form of setting forth the word of God, since Jesus frequently sat and taught the people. He meant by it the greatest familiarity, and spoke with creatures as a father to his dear children. His being willing to be seen and heard by all, should teach us he is not willing any should be hindered to look upon him and be saved; nor is it of him, when he is not heard to eternal life. The god of this world is the sole author and cause of all that blindness, backwardness, and unwilJingness in men to come to Jesus that they might have life.

The time will not allow me to speak of all the blessed doctrines contained in this sermon of our Lord's at this time; I will therefore only speak of those beatitudes or blessings pronounced in the former part of it, and this I purpose to do in a simple and free manner.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.". It must not be left unobserved that the poor in spirit, or the spiritually poor people, have the first right to all the blessings of God. This is to me very important.

When St. Luke relates the particulars of this divine discourse he mentions only the poor; but St. Matthew is more clear; for though our Saviour's disciples were poor men, and but few noble or rich called to his church, yet therefore, because the poor or common people heard him gladly

gladly and followed him, are they not blessed; but the poor in spirit, the souls who are poor and worthless in their own eyes, these are they our Saviour blesses. It might not be amiss to observe, that poor and mean people in the world have succeeded better with our Saviour than the rich or wealthy; but perhaps the God of equity has so ordered it, that some who desire it have been vessels of honour in the world, and had their good things here, while others have had their evil things and been vessels of dishonour, but have found the Pearl of great price, and in their low estate, like the virgin Mary, have found the Lord, and that treasure laid up in heaven. Though, as I said before, the outward or bodily poverty have not always had this effect, or been the reason of their being chosen into the kingdom of heaven; but where the wants and afflictions, the poverty and penury of this life have put the soul upon seeking true riches, there, it must be confessed, it was good for them that they have been afflicted. Riches, on the other hand, have proved a hurt and a snare, and hindered many from being saved. Our Saviour says, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of God?" They have much to leave; they find it difficult to submit to the foolishness of the preaching of faith; a sense of honour keeps them ashamed of Jesus and his people; their education teaches them to despise the unpolished simplicity and artless behaviour of the children of God; they know how to reason; they are high, and all their little religious acts are so magnified, that it often seems to them as if they supported the cause of the Lord, and their power defended it, or as if Jesus was beholden to them; and when they put on the form of godlmess, they are too apt to lord it over the meaner sort, and people of an

inferior

.

inferior rank; thus they cheat themselves and miss true happiness: Or, are they profane? then their riches help them on in their mad course, and pave their way and make it smooth to hell. They take great liberties, they jest and ridicule the scriptures, they mock the faith, dispute atheistically, serve their lusts, pleasures, and the god of this world with all greediness, oppress their subjects, and are quite unconcerned about giving any account of their stewardship till they are called away, and then what good will all their riches do them? Who of their companions can save them, or of what advantage will it be for them to recollect how great or wealthy they have been in the world, when they have lost their own souls? Many of these, if they had been poor in the world, perhaps might have had a part in the kingdom of God; and, on the other hand, I doubt not but that many in heaven might have perished had they been rich or great in the world. The wise Disposer of all things knows what he does; he has chosen his people should have little of the world, but he has prepared for them a kingdom: we should not therefore once repine, because the blessings of this life seem to be so unequally divided, or because some are so loaded with good things, and we have but food and raiment, or even suffer in that respect. He that sitteth in heaven, ruleth all things well. Let us only get an interest in him, and we shall not envy them who have their corn and wine and oil increased; we are far richer than they all, and far happier; for when the earth is burnt up and time is no longer, we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and riches which no moth or rust can corrupt or thief break through and steal.

After all that has been said, where a man is a faithful steward of that committed to him, and

where

where his heart leaves all that he has and gets hold of Jesus our dear Saviour; his having been rich or noble, will be no hindrance to his salvation; and where a poor man despises our Saviour's grace, and lives careless of his blood and merits, and does not come to him, his poverty will not help him he may be a beggar, or suffer want, or be very low and poor in the world, and yet have a high, proud, and stubborn heart, and be of that unhappy number that God beholds afar off.

True poverty of spirit is, as St. Austin observes, humility; it is a lowliness of heart which proceeds from a divine conviction of our sinful and bad estate by nature. That man is poor who has no money, clothes, house, or friend, but is in debt greatly; his wife and children are sold to be slaves, and he cast into prison till payment be made. Thus he is poor in spirit who knows he has no good thing dwelling in him, he has no real righteousness, he has a sense of his owing his Lord very much, he has nothing to offer, can promise nothing, can do nothing, feels his guilt, his sinful nature, his enmity, his carelessness, his hardness of heart, and incapacity to help himself. He looks upon himself directly in that state described in the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel, cast out to the loathing of his person in the open field, neither washed, clothed, or pitied, but friendless and undone. No one but he that had experienced a deep awakening by means of the Holy Spirit can judge of such people's case; how mean, how little and worthless they are in their own eyes! how self-condemned and abhorred for all they do, or think, or say! how sincerely they can tell our Saviour, I am poor and needy! This is indeed the state and condition of all men; but

they

they do not, they will not know and confess it. Hence arise all the deceits of self-righteousness, and all the fancies of being holy, good, or better than others. Hence they frequently suppose themselves rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, but imagine they have been educated well, done a great deal of good, wronged nobody, kept to church, given alms, and been merciful, charitable to the poor, and made a tolerable proficiency in the knowledge of the scriptures? but such are the Laodiceans, the lukewarm people, whom our Saviour will spew out of his mouth, and whose righteousness is like the morning dew. A poor sinner has not such thoughts; he cannot value himself any more; he looks upon himself on a level with the worst and the vilest of men: and that not perhaps because he has been a murderer, an adulterer, or house-breaker, but on account of his filthy and corrupt heart; he finds fault with all that others about him may praise and commend in him; and under such a sense of his fallen and spoiled state, he sits down at Jesu's feet, or begs at his door of mercy; he can plead nothing he has done or merited: he has nothing unspotted or without blemish to lay upon his altar, all that he has is lame and halt and blind, and therefore his only hope, his thirst and daily cry is, Have mercy on me! O dear Saviour, pity me!

No angel's tongue can describe how dear and precious Jesus is in such a soul's eyes; they would part with their lives joyfully to know him as their own; had they ten thousand worlds they would not hesitate a moment about it, but would part with them all to feel his love and be assured of his tender mercy: blessed are such poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I know thy poverty," "I says our Saviour to such, but thou art high. It

was