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Text away from the literal Senfe. It is this, that temporal Promifes, as they are not to be underftood to obftruct fpiritual or eternal ones, fo they are to be always taken in Subordination to them. So that God muft not be thought to evacuate or fruftrate a temporal Promife, when he makes it give Place to a spiritual or eternal one: As if inftead of a worldly Inheritance he should by the way of the Crofs bring us to an Increase of Grace here, or to the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter. He has not then fallen fhort of his temporal Promife, but has far exceeded it. As a Man would not be worse than his Word who had promised a Friend a Legacy, and instead of that fhould make him his Heir. St. Peter argues this Cafe excellently, and I fhall conclude with it, and defire to leave it with you, as the Sum of what I have now faid of this temporal Promise to the Meek. It is in 1 Pet. iii. 9. where he affures the good Chriftians, to whom he writes, of God's Bleffing, Protection, and Affiftance. Ye are called, fays he, to inherit a Bleffing. For he that will love Life, and fee good Days, (there's the inheriting the Earth,) let him refrain his Tongue from Evil, and bis Lips that they speak no Guile; let him efchew Evil, and do Good, let him feek Peace, and enfue it. (There's a Defcription of the Meek.) Then follows, firft, a Promife of God's Bleffing and Protection to him; For the Eyes of the Lord are over the Righteous, and his Ears are open unto their Prayers: But the Face of the Lord is against them that do Evil. Then, Jecondly, the general Favour of Men, And who is he that will harm you, if ye be Followers of that which is good? Laftly, A Sup pofition of the worft (which answers my last Caution :)

Caution:) If the World and the Favour of Men fhould fail, there is a better State of Happiness to come after all this: But if ye do fuffer for Righteousness fake happy are ye. And fo he goes on to defcribe the Bleffings of the Cross, and the higher Felicities prepared for them in a better Life. But I doubt I trefpafs upon your Patience. God of his infinite Mercy multiply upon you Bleffings both fpiritual and temporal in Chrift Jefus. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghoft, &c.

all

SERMON

SERMON VII.

MAT. V. 6.

Bleed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness: For they shall be filled.

O

The First Sermon on this Text.

UR Saviour's Difciples and Followers had now their Expectations mightily raised with the News of the approach

ing Kingdom of the Meffiah, with which both John the Baptift and he himself began to acquaint them in their Sermons; but having withal very carnal Notions of that Kingdom, as if by Violence and Conqueft they were to acquire great Wealth and Honour, and to live merry fenfual Lives in the Meffiah's Service; they flocked after him with their Minds full of Covetoufnefs, Oppreffion, Cruelty, Injuftice, and Thoughts of Conqueft, the unfitteft Temper of Mind for his Service that could poffibly be imagined. And therefore it is very obfervable, that fimul & femel, fo foon as John Baptift and he communicated the good News of the Meffiab's Kingdom being at Hand, they preached up likewise the Neceffity of a new Difpofition of Mind, or a Change of Heart and Life, which we call Repentance. Repent, faid they, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at

Hand.

Hand. And not contented with preaching the Doctrine of Repentance in general, they descended to the Particulars, and told their Hearers what new Difpofitions of Heart, and Amendments of Life, were neceffary for all Men in general, and for the divers Ranks and Stations of Men in particular, as they had Occafion to address them.

This Sermon on the Mount feems to be particularly levelled againft the common Indifpofitions of Heart, and Errors of Life, which they were guilty of who looked for the Kingdom of the Meffiah; for in it our Saviour acquaints the People and his Difciples who are the bleffed Perfons who fhall be admitted to that Kingdom, namely, not the Covetous and Ambitious, but the Poor in Spirit; not the Luxurious and Licentious, but the ferious, penitent Mourners; not the Fierce and Haughty, but the Meek and Lowly; not they who gaped after, and hoped to poffefs themselves of their Neighbours Eftates by unjuft Conqueft, but they who studied an exact Honesty and Uprightness in all their Dealings; not the Cruel and Hard-hearted, but the Merciful and Charitable; not the Lewd and Unclean, but the Pure in Heart; not the Fighting and Contentious, but the Quiet and Peaceable; not the Perfecutors, but the Perfecuted for Chrift's fake and their Duty. So that all the Beatitudes are the fetting up of fo many quite contrary Difpofitions of Mind to thofe they were prepoffeffed with, and only more particular Inftances of the general Doctrine, that they were to repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of the Meffiah, was at Hand.

VOL. I.

M

But

But now to come to this particular Beatitude, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteoufness: For they shall be filled. In thefe Words we have two Things diftinctly propofed to our Confideration.

I. A Virtue recommended; Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after Righteousness.

II. The particular Felicity promised to the Practifers of this Virtue; For they fhall be filled.

Neither of them is without its Difficulty; and because I apprehend this Text is not rightly understood, neither by the Generality of Readers, nor Interpreters, I must request your more unprejudicate and ferious Attention, while I open up what feems to me to be the true Senfe and Meaning of it.

I. To begin with the Virtue recommended, which is the hungering and thirsting after Righte oufness. The Word Righteousness is ufed in feveral Senfes in the New Testament, which has occafioned fome Variety of Interpretations concerning the Meaning of it in this Place. I fhall confider them diftinctly, that we may the better weigh them one against the other.

1. First, then, Righteoufnefs is fometimes used in a borrowed Law Sense, not for real, but imputed Righteoufnefs; when a Man is cleared in Judgment, whether by standing upon his Juftification, or by pleading his Pardon. This laft is the Righteousness of Faith in Chrift, by which we are juftified before God; and tho' it is not used in this Senfe in the Gofpels, nor any where else in the New Teftament, except in St. Paul's Epiftles;

yet

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