subjects of the Messiah should be thus happy; and, in opposition to such carnal views and expectations, he proclaims that those alone are happy who are meek and merciful, and ministers of peace. In a word, they expected a happiness springing from outward circumstances, and he proclaims and promises a happiness based upon personal character.

3. It may be remarked, generally, in regard to the happiness which, according to our passage, is allotted to the righteous, that it is described in terms expressive of its entire adaptation and suitableness to their desires and tastes. The poor in spirit are heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Declining to rest, and incapable of resting in an earthly, they shall receive a heavenly portion. Those that mourn shall be comforted. Those that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. The pure in heart, whose delight is in what is holy, shall see God. It is far from being the case, however, that nothing further is necessary to our happiness, than the possession of what is adapted to our tastes and desires. If our tastes be not pure and our desires well directed, neither the possession of what is adapted to them, nor any thing else, can afford us happiness. As we shall afterwards have occasion to evince at large, none but the righteous can be happy.

4. There are two grounds on which men may be pronounced happy. They may be pronounced happy as regards their experience, or because they are already in the enjoyment of happiness; and they may be pronounced happy because their present position is such that they shall afterwards be happy as regards their experience. It is on this latter ground that, according to the statement of the apostle James, we count them happy that endure." And it is on this ground, at least mainly, that the righteous are pronounced happy in our passage. This is evident from the fact, that, while they are declared to be already happy, the grounds on which they are declared to be happy are almost all future, and to be yet realised. Thus the ground on which the meek

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are declared happy is that they shall inherit the earth-that, though not as yet happy, as regards their experience, they are so circumstanced that they shall be thus happy hereafter. Accordingly, the declaration that the righteous are blessed, conveys that there is somewhat already realised in their case, to which future actually experienced blessedness is attached. What it is, we learn from the description given of their character and exercises, and from the declaration that theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

5. By the kingdom of heaven is meant the spiritual kingdom which Christ administers, comprising the department of grace on earth, and the department of glory in heaven. Of this kingdom the righteous are the subjects, and, consequently, so far as is compatible with their condition, or required by their welfare as subjects, it is theirs. In virtue of their enrolment among its subjects, they have a right,—a right graciously conferred indeed, but only the more valid and stable on that account,-to all the advantages that are necessary to secure and that constitute blessedness. In the first place, they have a right to the provision and supply suitable, in the mean time, for its subjects. It is essential to the arrangements of a well-ordered kingdom, that the subjects have access to sufficient means of subsistence. Accordingly, in the kingdom of heaven provision is made for supplying the wants and developing the powers of the spiritual life, on which the administration of this kingdom bears-such provision that the subjects of it shall lack no good thing. In the second place, they have a right to protection. As being righteous, and the subjects of the kingdom of heaven, they have many malignant and powerful enemies, from whose assaults they are wholly unable to defend themselves in their own strength. Their position, therefore, would be altogether insecure, and their utter ruin would soon be effected, if the constitution of the kingdom had not provided that ample protection should be extended to them. But this the constitu

tion of the kingdom has provided. Their almighty sovereign defends them. In the third place, they have a right to the future and consummated glory and blessedness of the kingdom of heaven. They are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus; they have been begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them.

6. And, as the kingdom of heaven is theirs, in the sense that they have a right to all advantages, here and hereafter, which the administration of it is intended to confer on its subjects, it is theirs also in the sense that those advantages are already in course of being conferred upon them. Christ has already imparted to them many and precious benefits, and he is engaged in working in them further all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power,—in perfecting that which concerneth them. Though a powerful earthly sovereign made it his special care to raise a favourite individual to worldly possessions and honours, and directed the application of all the resources of his kingdom to the accomplishment of this single end, the power exerted and the means employed in the case would be as nothing, in comparison with the power exerted and the means employed by Christ to advance the subjects of the kingdom of heaven to glory, honour, and immortality. Of all the operations carried on in our world, none is so extensive in its bearing or so momentous in its results, and none comprehends agencies and appliances so numerous and diversified, as the process by which Christ, in the administration of the kingdom of heaven, is subduing sinners to himself, and carrying forward and translating his subjects from a state of grace to a state of glory. This is the grand paramount process of divine providence, to which all its other processes are subordinate; and what claims our special attention here is, that its gracious design is, in every case, infallibly accomplished. Is it not

evident, then, that abundant ground for pronouncing the righteous blessed is afforded by the fact that theirs is the kingdom of heaven?

7. The character and exercises of the righteous afford further ground for pronouncing them blessed. They do so because they prove them to be the subjects of the kingdom of heaven, and the heirs, therefore, of its coming glory. Besides, it is a blessed thing for the righteous that such a character has been wrought in them, and that they have been awakened to such exercises. Is it not a blessed thing for them that they are poor in spirit, neither resting nor capable of resting in the perishing things of this world, but longing for a heavenly inheritance; that, instead of pursuing greedily the polluted pleasures of sin, they are pure in heart, delighting in nothing, either in activity or enjoyment, but what is holy; that, instead of cherishing sin, they have been taught to loathe it, and, mourning because of its presence and its defilement, hunger and thirst after righteousness; that they are no longer of a malignant, resentful, vindictive spirit, but are meek, compassionate, and merciful; that, separated for ever from the ministers of evil, they have become promoters of peace in all its forms,-of the peace of reconciliation with God, the peace of freedom from unholy, irregular, and insatiable desires,-and the peace of rest in the proper portion of the soul; and that, with noble strength of character and steadfastness of purpose, they are enabled to persevere in their pursuit of righteousness, whatever evils they encounter in pursuing it? Is it not a blessed thing for them that they have experienced such a transformation, and that under the operation of divine grace they have attained to such exalted excellence, that the fine gold which had become dim, and had been so wofully changed, is in course of being restored in all its purity and brightness?

8. But, as we formerly remarked, it is mainly because future blessedness is attached to the present position of the

righteous that they are pronounced blessed as occupying their present position. Hence, that we may perceive that they are blessed, we must consider the future blessedness that awaits them. And one view given of it is, that, whereas now they mourn because of sin, they shall be comforted; and, whereas they now hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled. They have been taught to desire earnestly the purification of their character from the defilement of sin, and its renewal after the image of God; and their desire in this respect shall be fully accomplished. Delivered from the body of death, under the burden of which they now groan, they shall be holy as God is holy, and pure as he is pure. While they shall thus be freed from the self-loathing, and from all the distressing exercises connected with the presence of sin, they shall experience the serenity of perfect health and internal peace. There is not in this, indeed, a source of any positive blessedness; but there is the qualification for such blessedness, and that freedom from inward derangement and attendant self-reproach, without which it cannot exist. And we may, we think, go even further than this. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness cannot, we conceive, when they attain to it, fail to regard this happy result with great satisfaction and joy. Our Lord seems to intimate that they shall so regard it, when he declares that "they shall be filled." They shall not only escape from the painful cravings of hunger and thirst, but shall further experience a high degree of satisfaction. The conception of a perfectly righteous or holy person comprehends entire freedom from all that disturbs or creates any jarring, absolute harmony within, and absolute harmony with the principles and arrangements of the divine government; and, accordingly, you no sooner form the conception of such a person than you see that he must be blessed.

9. A further view given of the blessedness which awaits the righteous, is that "they shall obtain mercy." They have