be attended with a want of spiritual blessings, 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 truest sense, in which the word, poor, is here to be understood, viz. as it is expressive of that humble, self-abafing difposition 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 Gospel of CHRIST.

They that are whole need not a phy"fician, but they that are sick." We must first feel the poverty of nature, before we can defire the riches of Grace. We must first labour under the guilt and misery of fin, before we can fee the necessity, 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 trespasses " and sins." A state of death, is a state of insensibility. We are poor, finful, corrupted creatures, and, at the fame time, insensible 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 mife"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 desperately wicked. My

iniquities are more in number than the "hairs of my head. The thoughts of

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

pent in dust and ashes. LORD, what is "man, that thou art mindful of him; " or the son of man, that thou visitest " 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 "beast 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 such 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

"eternity,

“ eternity, I dwell in the high and holy

place; with him also, that is of a "contrite and humble spirit, to revive "the spirit of the humble, and to re"vive the heart of the contrite ones. "Bleffed are the poor in spirit, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven! "Whofoever shall 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 rest." 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 fairest 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 ransom thee, and fet VOL. II.

B

thee

thee free? His strength will be manifefted in thy weakness. His light will shine in thy darkness: and though thou canst do nothing of thyself, thou shalt " do all things through CHRIST " strengthening thee."

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

To you who are poor in worldly circumstances, fuffer me to say, in the language of Scripture, that "whom the " Lord loveth he correcteth, and chast"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"cised thereby." - Your lot may appear to you to be an hard one; but if you improve