feeling of human nature is interested, and every temptation which can assail human frailty is guarded against with a benignant foresight, which bespeaks the all-seeing wisdom and unwearied mercy of our heavenly Instructor.

I have been the more anxious to lead you to contemplate the entire of this discourse as one object, because we should lose much of its beauty and its force, if we were to consider its precepts as so many distinct aphorisms, teaching separate and unconnected truths. So far, indeed, they are distinct, that every virtue has its peculiar tendency to secure that peculiar blessedness, which is marked out as connected with it; but as no blessing can be enjoyed where the other necessary parts of happiness are wanting, so no virtue can exist single and solitary. Each derives from its connexion with the rest its due proportion, and its fixed security; and all must therefore be considered, although distinct, yet as united in that heavenly model to which we must be assimilated, in order to exhibit in its perfect lustre the image of God impressed upon the soul.

In many other instances also, this is asserted in sacred writ. "He who loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?"* So inseparable is the union between the two leading virtues under which all others rank-the love of God and the love of man-and certainly the same connexion exists between the other different graces of the Christian character. He only can be steadily consistent in any one, who sincerely studies to cultivate all; as he who offends in one is guilty of all-guilty of outraging that Majesty, and despising those sanctions, from which the entire scheme of the divine law derives its authority and support. All the particulars, therefore, of this divine discourse are to be considered as parts of one grand moral system, which, embracing the entire constitution of man and the duties arising from it, shows the connexion between the observance of those duties and the attainment of that happiness which flows from the redeemed perfection of his nature, and the approbation of his God.

If this mode of considering this divine discourse be just and natural, it obviously excludes a narrow system of interpretation

1 John iv. 20.

which some commentators, indulging to excess a spirit of refinement and ingenuity, have been led to adopt, with reference to a great part of it, especially the beatitudes with which it commences. These they explain, as meant peculiarly to remove the Jewish errors and prejudices as to the temporal nature of the Messiah's kingdom: and thus they give some room for inferring that, where these errors and prejudices do not exist, its instructions are less applicable and less necessary. True it is, that it does expose these errors and prejudices, as every exposition of truth on any subject, has a tendency to remove, and may be applied to expose every error. But assuredly this was a secondary purpose; and these divine admonitions were not so confined to this object as not to be applicable to every human being, who, at any period, shall wish to discover those laws which, as a follower of Christ, he is bound to obey.

In truth the same mistaken views of happiness and depraved propensities of our nature, which misled the Jews in their interpretation of the prophets, and induced them to reject the Messiah because He came in a character repugnant to these worldly views and selfish propensities, still exist, and ever will exist in the great mass of mankind, in every age and clime, and still require our divine Lord's instructions to dispel or to counteract them.

Thus, when in the process of these instructions, our Lord declares that He came not "to destroy the law and prophets," "but to fulfil" them, and proceeds to correct the erroneous interpretations and traditions by which the Jewish teachers had made the law of God of none effect, we find his corrections and explanations equally applicable to all Christians of every age and nation, whom a similar corruption of nature has led to undervalue or neglect internal piety, purity, and self-government, and to hope for divine acceptance, by substituting in their place the easier service of long prayers, outward observances, and bodily austerities.

More decidedly still does this mode of considering this scheme of divine instruction, correct the still more pernicious and inexcusable error of those accommodating Christians, who would lower the law of God to conform it to the depravity of man; and who, because they distinctly see the moral strictness and the exalted piety which our divine Lord here requires, would

thence persuade themselves that such a system could be intended only for apostles, saints, and martyrs, and might be safely neglected, and its strictness softened down by the less aspiring Christian of later times. No, my brethren, it is not permitted to us thus to degrade the standard of Christian morals and Christian piety. Every principle which our divine Lord has laid down, we are bound to adopt ; every command which He has promulgated, we are bound to obey as strictly as any one of that multitude, to whom that command was originally addressed by our Redeemer himself. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," is the rule which we, as well as they, must determine to follow. This is the spirit which we must cultivate, this is the high mark we must strive to reach. In these efforts we may not always succeed; we may be overpowerd by the force of temptation, or betrayed by the infirmity of nature, and this may be forgiven, if we repent and turn to our Redeemer. But for the deliberate contumacy which declares, so far shall my obedience go, but no further, there is no palliation, no hope. The Searcher of hearts will despise such hypocrisy, and spurn at such service. How clear and how decisive on this subject is the declaration of our divine Lord— "Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach those things, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." May this warning be deeply engraven on your hearts. And may the assisting grace of God enable us to will and to do after God's good pleasure, that, when He shall return in power and great glory to judge the world, we may be found. acceptable in his sight, who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification, our Teacher and Lord, our Redeemer and Judge!

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SERMON X.

SERMON ON THE MOUNT.-FIRST AND SECOND BEATITUDES.

MATT. V. 3, 4.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

On the last Sabbath day, my fellow Christians, I called your attention to the entire of our Lord's sermon on the mount, as peculiarly deserving your devout regard. I called on you to remark the unspeakable dignity of Him who condescended thus to instruct and direct us, the universal obligation of his commands, the awful responsibility of despising such an instructor. Proceed we now to consider these instructions: and may the Spirit of divine wisdom assist us to improve them with a sincere and humble heart!

These declarations of our divine Lord, which I have quoted, annexing happiness to the characters here enumerated, can scarcely fail to appear strange and paradoxical to all who have not reflected on them with a serious and religious mind. By the common usage of our language, it has unfortunately happened that the very character here placed first, as the head and foundation of all the rest, as peculiarly stamped with the divine approbation, and secure of its necessary consequence-true and lasting happiness-has been connected with the ideas of degradation and contempt, so as to pass into a proverb of reproach; poverty of spirit being the most despicable character, and poorspirited the most degrading epithet, which scorn can apply to any individual. It is, therefore, particularly important to clear away a misconception so injurious to the cause of truth and piety, and to show that the character here recommended, far from resembling that which the common feelings of mankind have thus stigmatized, is totally distinct from it; that it is really entitled to that approbation which our divine Lord bestows upon

it,nd fitted to receive and enjoy that happiness which he has declared it shall attain. And this, perhaps, is the more necessary, because some of the most sincere, and, in other points, most judicious advocates for Christianity in modern times, describing the temper which our Lord honours with these beatitudes, add that the world calls it mean-spirited, tame, and abject. If this were true, it certainly would only prove how falsely the world judges; it would not detract from the intrinsic excellence of the Christian character, nor diminish our obligation to cultivate it; but if, as I conceive, it is a misapprehension, it is highly expedient to remove it. It is unnecessary to represent the world as worse than it is; and it cannot be useful to the interests of religion to go farther than truth compels us, in describing it as clogged with difficulties, impeded by opposition, and branded with disgrace. What characters then does the world stigmatize as poor-spirited? Certainly those who are pusillanimous and cowardly; who shrink from maintaining what they know to be right, through the apprehension of some trifling danger, or who sacrifice it to some paltry interest-men who court the favour of their superiors by unworthy compliances, and do not attempt to punish insults or injuries, not because they have conquered their resentment, but because they cannot conquer their fears. But the poverty of spirit which our Lord describes, must be diametrically opposite to this sordidness and timidity; for it belongs to those who, in the cause of truth and righteousness, will bear, without shrinking, the severest persecution, embittered with reviling and disgrace. It belongs to those who, though they return not evil for evil, nor railing for railing, yet fear not "men which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." It belongs to those who, fearing God, rise above all other fear. Thus remote is Christian poverty of spirit from pusillanimity or cowardice, from sordidness or meanness.

But some divines have explained it as describing a spirit free from covetousness, resigned to poverty, and which fears rather than desires wealth. Now this, though an essential part of the Christian character, yet surely cannot be considered as the grand basis on which the whole rests-as the primary and leading temper which qualifies for admission into the kingdom of heaven. No; our Lord undoubtedly has a higher and more