be attended with a want of spiritual bleffings, I know of no condition in life more completely wretched. "To the Poor," therefore, let the Gospel of CHRIST still be preached!

II. But there is another, and perhaps the trueft fenfe, in which the word, poor, iş here to be understood, viz. as it is expreffive of that humble, self-abafing difpofition of mind, which leads men to feel and acknowledge their own natural weakness, want, and corruption. This is the best, and, indeed, the only preparative for the Gofpel of CHRIST. They that are whole need not a phy

sician, but they that are fick." We must first feel the poverty of nature, before we can defire the riches of Grace. We must first labour under the guilt and mifery of fin, before we can see the neceffity, or defire the comfort of a Saviour. It is well worth our while, then, to inform ourselves, what is the nature

of

of this Poverty of Spirit, and in what manner the foul is exercised under it.

"By nature, we are dead in trefpaffes " and fins." A state of death, is a state of infenfibility. We are poor, finful, corrupted creatures, and, at the fame time, infenfible of this poverty, fin, and corruption. When the Light of the Spirit of God, therefore, breaks in upon the finner's heart, it opens a melancholy prospect to his view. He thought before, that he was rich, and had abun"dance;" but he is now intimately convinced, that he is "poor, and mise"rable, and blind, and naked."-" Be"hold I am vile!" is the language of his awakened heart. "I was shapen in "wickedness, and in fin hath my mo"ther conceived me. My heart is de"ceitful, and defperately wicked. My

iniquities are more in number than the hairs of my head. The thoughts of my heart are only evil continually.

"Woe

"Woe is me, for I am a man of un"clean lips, and a polluted heart! "Wherefore I abhor myself, and re

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pent in duft and ashes. LORD, what is "man, that thou art mindful of him; "or the fon of man, that thou vifiteft "him? Every man, at his best state, "is altogether vanity! As for me,

"I am a worm and no man. So fool"ish am I and ignorant, as if I was a "beaft before thee. I know and feel, "that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwel"leth no good thing."

Such, my brethren, is the language of the "Poor in Spirit ;" and fuch the nature of those exercises, which the finner must undergo as preparatory to his Reception of the Gospel. To those, who are thus Poor in Spirit, the Gospel of CHRIST is preached to those who are thus Poor in Spirit, the promises of that Gospel belong: "for thus faith the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth

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eternity, I dwell in the high and holy place; with him alfo, that is of a "contrite and humble fpirit, to revive "the spirit of the humble, and to re"vive the heart of the contrite ones. "Bleffed are the poor in fpirit, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven! "Whofoever fhall humble himself as "a little child, the fame is greatest in "the kingdom of heaven. Come unto

me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you reft.' Come, thou poor, humble, contrite foul! thy SAVIOUR loves thee. Humility is the grace, that, above all others, renders thee comely in his fight! It is the faireft ornament thou canst put on, to attract the esteem of thy Heavenly Bridegroom! Art thou poor, he will make thee rich? Art thou humble, he will exalt thee? Art thou broken-hearted, he will heal, strengthen, and comfort thee? Art thou naked, he will clothe thee? Art thou in captivity, he will ranfom thee, and set VOL. II.

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thee

thee free? His ftrength will be manifested in thy weakness. His light will fhine in thy darknefs: and though thou canst do nothing of thyself, thou fhalt "do all things through CHRIST ftrengthening thee."

Permit me now briefly to apply what hath been faid, to the two claffes of men I have mentioned in this discourse, viz. the poor in worldly circumftances, and the poor in fpirit.

Το you who are poor in worldly circumstances, suffer me to fay, in the language of Scripture, that "whom the "Lord loveth he correcteth, and chaft"eneth every fon that he receiveth; that

though no chaftening for the present is

joyous, but rather grievous, yet it af"terwards yields the peaceable fruits of "righteousness to them that are exer"cifed thereby."-Your lot may appear to you to be an hard one; but if you

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