thirsted after righteoufnefs. Thus when his Disciples after the fatigue of a journey brought him food to eat, and urged him to take it, being then engaged in the contemplation of a far more important concern, the instruction and converfion of the Samaritans, he answered; "I have meat to eat, that ye know not of." And when they questioned among themselves, whether any man had given him aught to eat, he again made answer; "My meat is to do the. will of him that fent me, and to finish his work." He hungered and thirsted after righteousness, inafmuch as he cherished an ardent defire" to fulfil all righteousness ";" in other words to execute the great scheme of providence and grace in becoming righteousness to us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ". This we may contemplate both in his retired and in his focial life, when he fasted in private, and when he fate down to meat in company, when he prayed alone, or when he preached to the multitude, when he fupplied them with material food, or when he administered to them the bread of life.

g

Among the feveral exercifes, in which he displayed his hunger and thirst, after righte

f John iv. 31-34.

1 Cor. i. 30. 2 Cor. v. 21.

g Mat. iii. 15.

oufnefs,

oufnefs, was the zeal that he invariably fhewed, to turn mankind from the love of temporal to the love of fpiritual things, to direct that anxiety, which is commonly entertained for the aliment of their mortal bodies, to that more effential food, which promotes the nurture and conduces to the welfare of their immortal fouls. Thus in the fequel of his Sermon on the Mount he cautions his Difciples against that immoderate folicitude, fo much indulged by those who had no notion of a fuperior good: "Be not full of care, faying, What fhall we eat, or what fhall we drink, or wherewithal fhall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles feek. But feek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteoufnefs, and all these things shall be added unto you." According to this inftruction must we understand that petition in our daily prayer, which in the fame discourse he has given us, both as a model how we ought to pray, and as a fummary of all we have to ask. When we implore of God to give us every day our daily bread, we are taught to implore not only material bread for the nurture of the natural, but alfo the bread of life for the fuftenance of the fpiritual man. The fame was the moral application of the miracle

which he wrought, when from a cafual and very scanty store of food he fed many thoufands in the wildernefs. Thus when the people followed him in the hope of a continual fupply of the fame provifions, he reprehended them for the motive on which they came, and he added this inftructive caution; "Labour not for the meat which perifheth, but for that meat which endureth to eternal life, which the Son of man fhall give unto you;" namely, the doctrine of righteousness, which, if duly cherished in the heart, and cultivated in the practice, is effential to eternal life *.

From this general inftruction of our Lord we may collect the character of those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. In general they are fuch, as having already paffed the feverer difcipline of repentance, at their entrance on the Chriftian life, by mourning in a godly fort for fin, have a fervent zeal to fulfil every branch of Chriftian righteoufnefs. Having learnt to moderate their defires for the aliment of the body, they direct their principal concern to the fuftenance of the foul. Paying only a fubordinate regard for their advancement in the world, or the im

K John vi. 27.

provement

provement of their knowledge in temporal things, they are folicitous to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jefus Christ. Difencumbering their minds, as far as their station in the world will conveniently allow, from the many cares of life, they have chosen that better part which shall never be taken from them. Confidering themfelves as candidates for the high prize of their Christian calling, as children of the Kingdom and heirs of immortality, they employ their contemplations on that copious field of heavenly truth, the ways of divine providence and grace; and by the ftedfaft cultivation of their Chriftian faith, and a diligent obfervance of the Chriftian law, they endeavour to conform themselves to the will, the character, and image of God in righteousness and true holiness.

To fuch as these belongs the promise expreffed in this Beatitude, that they shall be fatisfied.

It is the radical defect of all temporal meats and drinks, that they can never satis fy. This appears more especially in those, who place their happiness in luxurious indulgence. Not confining themselves to the ordinary bounties of providence, which almost

every country liberally supplies to the needs of its inhabitants, they create to themselves artificial defires; they hunger and thirst after the luxuries of other climes; they compafs land and fea, they exhauft the elements to yield them a fuperfluous provifion for their pampered appetites. But in vain do they look for happiness in all this profufion of imaginary goods. By extravagant indulgence their appetite is cloyed without being fatiffied; their bodies are difordered; their years are diminished; and the evening of life is paffed in a gloomy penance for the excess and intemperance of their brighter day.

What the luxuries of this world promise in vain, is only to be found in the pursuit and cultivation of righteoufness. By that alone can man be finally and completely fatisfied. That alone can yield a folid and enduring pleasure, which will always continue with him, and will remain for evermore his own.

Of this the Heathens had little or no perception. Of righteousness in general according to the fcriptural fenfe they had no vital knowledge; and after a good yet unestimated and unknown they could have no intenfé defire. Of the fruits of righteousness they had made no sensible discovery, fufficient to

animate