nor is it the defign of providence to de tach us altogether from the cares of the body, till this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal fhall have put on immortality. Again, whatever advances we may have made in righteousness, yet in our present state of frailty we still are liable and prone to fin; and whenever we do fin, we renew to ourselves the neceffity to mourn. In the future life, to all the truly faithful in Chrift every fource of mourning fhall for ever ceafe. It is the effential character of the heavenly state, that the tears fhall be wiped from all eyes, and there fhall be no more forrow nor wailing: for the former things are paffed away". There will then be no room either for natural or for moral evil, the two great objects of mourning now. For death and fin fhall be swallowed up in victory. Then they, who have improved their afflictions to a religious use, and they, who have cherished a godly forrow to repentance, fhall close their mourning in eternal confolation. • Rev, xxi. 4. SERMON XII. MATTHEW v. 6. Bleed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness : for they fhall be fatisfied. AMONG the different objects of human defire there is none perhaps more prevalent than that of gratification in meats and drinks. It is good and comely in the general opinion of men to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all their labour all the days of their lives more especially, if God hath given them riches and substance and means of enjoyment, do they account it wife to take their portion, and to rejoice in their abundance 2. Among the Heathens in general, whofe views were limited to the prefent life, it was the folicitous enquiry, as our Lord himfelf obferves, "What shall we eat, and what fhall we drink, and wherewithal fhall we be clothed?" Attending entirely to the wants of the body, they totally overlooked the necesfities of the foul. And this fentiment alfo predominated among the Jews. When therefore they hungered and thirfted in the wilderness, and cried unto the Lord for relief, it was agreeable to the divine wisdom to instruct them, "that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God ":" He requires, not only material bread for the fuftenance of the body, but also fpiritual food for the nurture of the foul. And when they were replenished with the corn and wine, the milk and honey of the promised land, it was still moré neceffary to remind them again and again of thofe more important wants effential to the fpiritual life, which required a superior diligence and care to fatisfy. Some few indeed among them, more feriously touched with a fenfe of what was neceffary for their better part, expreffed a defire for a more folid and permanent repast. Thus David, when he fojourned in a dry and barren wilderness, wherein his tears had been his food day and night, declared his b Deut. viii. 3. Mat. iv. 4. hunger hunger and thirst after spiritual things; and folicitoufly bent his hopes to the time of his reappearing in the fanctuary of the Lord, when his foul fhould be fatisfied with plenty in performing the duties of devotion to his God c. It was one part of our Saviour's teaching to incite this defire after spiritual food. He directed that folicitude, which is commonly employed in making provision for the body, to the fuftenance which is neceffary to the ftrengthening and refreshing of the foul. To this intent he said, Bleffed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. The righteousness, which is here proposed for the defires of men, has been accepted by fome in the more limited fenfe of equity in their dealings toward one another. From the station and order, which it holds in this place, I do not fcruple to understand it in the most comprehensive fignification of holy Scripture, namely, the whole of what we owe both to God and Man, the cultivation and exercise of all religion, the ftudies of its doctrines, and the obfervance of its laws. As in the foregoing fentence our Lord pronounces a bleffing on them that mourn, that mourn after a godly fort, and to a religious ufe and end; fo in this he pronounces a bleffing on those, who, leaving the principles of Christian difcipline, resolve to persevere, and to go on to perfection; who, having already laid the foundation of their religious life in repentance from dead works and faith towards God, are animated with a holy zeal to be fruitful in every good work, and to increase in the knowledge of God, to be filled with the fruits of righteousness, and, to adopt a still more forcible expreffion of holy writ, to be filled with all the fulness of God a. Of this religious hunger and thirst our Lord was an eminent example. When he took upon him a human form, he submitted to fuftain the feelings and infirmities of human nature. Thus immediately before he entered upon his ministry, when he was tempted in the wilderness, he fafted forty days and forty nights, and was afterwards a-hungerede. And in his travels through the land in the exercise of his miffion he was frequently exposed to the fame bodily want. But while he occafionally hungered and thirfted after temporal fuftenance, he continually hungered and Heb. vi. 1. Col. i. 10. Phil. i. 11. Eph. iii. 19. • Mat. iv. 2. thirsted |