Thomas Watson-The Beatitudes Part one

 

 

The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew

5:1-12

by

Thomas Watson

Table of Contents

Title Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 1

To the Reader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 2

1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 3

2. There is a blessedness in reversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 11

3. The godly are in some sense already blessed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 18

4. Blessed are the poor in spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 21

5. The poor in spirit are enriched with a kingdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 28

6. Blessed are they that mourn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 35

7. Sundry sharp reproofs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 45

8. Motives to holy mourning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 47

9. The hindrances to mourning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 51

10. Some helps to mourning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 56

11. The comforts belonging to mourners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 57

12. Christian meekness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 68

13. The nature of spiritual hunger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 79

14. Spiritual hunger shall be satisfied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 88

15. A discourse of mercifulness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 92

16. A description of heart-purity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 112

17. The blessed privilege of seeing God explained. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 130

18. Concerning peaceableness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 135

19. They shall be called the children of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 145

20. Exhortations to Christians as they are children of God. . . . . . . . . . . p. 171

21. Concerning persecution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 174

An appendix to the beatitudes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 201

Indexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 209

Index of Scripture References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 209

Index of Scripture Commentary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 214

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The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

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The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

The Beatitudes

An exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Thomas Watson

The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

To the Reader

Christian Reader,

I here present you with a subject full of sweet variety. This Sermon of Christ on the Mount is a

piece of spiritual needlework, wrought about with divers colours; here is both usefulness and

sweetness. In this portion of Holy Scripture you have a breviary of religion, the Bible epitomised.

Here is a garden of delight, set with curious knots, where you may pluck those flowers which will

deck the hidden man of your heart. Here is the golden key which will open the gate of Paradise.

Here is the conduit of the Gospel, running wine to cherish such as are poor in spirit and pure in

heart. Here is the rich cabinet wherein the Pearl of Blessedness is locked up. Here is the golden pot

in which is that manna which will feed and refocillate (revive) the soul unto ever-lasting life. Here

is a way chalked out to the Holy of Holies.

Reader, how happy were it if, while others take up their time and thoughts about secular things

which perish in the using, you could mind eternity and be guided by this Scripture-clue which leads

you to the Beatific Vision. If, after God has set life before you, you indulge your sensual appetite

and still court your lusts, how inexcusable will be your neglect and how inexpressible your misery!

The Lord grant that while you have an opportunity, and the wind serves you, you may not lie idle

at anchor, and when it is too late begin to hoist up sails for Heaven. Oh now, Christian, let your

loins be girt, and your lamps burning, that when the Lord Jesus, your blessed Bridegroom, shall

knock, you may be ready to go in with Him to the marriage-supper, which shall be the prayer of

him who is

Yours in all true affection and devotion,

Thomas Watson

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The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

1. Introduction

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and

when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened

his mouth, and taught them.

Matthew 5:1, 2

The blessed evangelist St Matthew, the penman of this sacred history, was at first by profession a

publican or gatherer of toll; and Christ, having called him from the custom-house, made him a

gatherer of souls. This holy man in the first chapter sets down Christ’s birth and genealogy. In the

second, his dignity — a star ushers in the wise men to him, and as a king he is presented with gold

and frankincense and myrrh (vv 9-11). In the third chapter the evangelist records his baptism; in

the fourth, his temptations; in the fifth, his preaching, which chapter is like a rich mine. Every vein

has some gold in it.

There are four things in this chapter which offer themselves to our view,

1 The Preacher

2 The Pulpit

3 The Occasion

4 The Sermon

I The Preacher. Jesus Christ. The best of preachers. ‘He went up.’ He in whom there was a

combination of virtues, a constellation of beauties. He whose lips were not only sweet as the

honey-comb, but did drop as the honey-comb. His words, an oracle; his works, a miracle; his life,

a pattern; his death, a sacrifice. ‘He went up into a mountain and taught., Jesus Christ was every

way ennobled and qualified for the work of the ministry.

(i) Christ was an intelligent preacher. He had ‘the Spirit without measure’ (John 3:34) and knew

how to speak a word in due season, when to humble, when to comfort. We cannot know all the

faces of our hearers. Christ knew the hearts of his hearers. He understood what doctrine would best

suit them, as the husbandman can tell what sort of grain is proper for such-and-such a soil.

(ii) Christ was a powerful preacher. ‘He spake with authority’ (Matthew 7:29). He could set men’s

sins before them and show them their very hearts. ‘Come, see a man which told me all things that

ever I did’ (John 4:29). That is the best glass, not which is most richly set with pearl, but which

shows the truest face. Christ was a preacher to the conscience. He breathed as much zeal as

eloquence. He often touched upon the heart-strings. What is said of Luther is more truly applicable

to Christ. He spake ‘as if he had been within a man’. He could drive the wedge of his doctrine in

the most knotty piece. He was able with his two-edged sword to pierce an heart of stone. ‘Never

man spake like this man’ (John 7:46)

(iii) Christ was a successful preacher. He had the art of converting souls. ‘Many believed on him.’

(John 10:42), yea, persons of rank and quality. ‘Among the chief rulers many believed’ (John

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The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

12:42). He who had ‘grace poured into his lips’ (Psalm 45:2), could pour grace into his hearers’

hearts. He had the key of David in his hand, and when he pleased did open the hearts of men, and

make way both for himself and his doctrine to enter. If he did blow the trumpet his very enemies

would come under his banner. Upon his summons none dare but surrender.

(iv) Christ was a lawful preacher. As he had his unction from his Father, so his mission. ‘The Father

that sent me bears witness of me’ (John 8:18). Christ, in whom were all perfections concentred,

yet would be solemnly sealed and inaugurated into his ministerial as well as mediatory office. If

Jesus Christ would not enter upon the work of the ministry without a commission, how absurdly

impudent are they who without any warrant dare invade this holy function! There must be a lawful

admission of men into the ministry. ‘No man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of

God, as was Aaron’ (Hebrews 5:4). Our Lord Christ, as he gave apostles and prophets who were

extraordinary ministers, so pastors and teachers who were initiated and made in an ordinary way

(Ephesians 4:11); and he will have a ministry perpetuated; ‘Lo I am with you alway, even unto the

end of the world’ (Matthew 28:20). Sure, there is as much need of ordination now as in Christ’s

time and in the time of the apostles, there being then extraordinary gifts in the church which are

now ceased.

But why should not the ministry lie in common? ‘Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses?’ (Numbers

12:2). Why should not one preach as well as another? I answer — Because God (who is the God

of order) has made the work of the ministry a select, distinct office from any other. As in the body

natural the members have a distinct office, the eye is to see, the hand to work; you may as well say,

why should not the hand see as well as the eye? Because God has made the distinction. He has put

the seeing faculty into the one and not the other. So here, God has made a distinction between the

work of the ministry and other work.

Where is this distinction? We find in Scripture a distinction between pastor and people. ‘The elders

(or ministers) I exhort . . . Feed the flock of God which is among you’ (1 Peter 5:2). If anyone may

preach, by the same rule all may, and then what will become of the apostle’s distinction? Where

will the flock of God be if all be pastors?

God has cut out the minister his work which is proper for him and does not belong to any other.

‘Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine . . . give thyself wholly to them’, or, as it

is in the Greek, ‘Be thou wholly in them’ (1 Timothy 4, 13-15). This charge is peculiar to the

minister and does not concern any other. It is not spoken to the tradesman that he should give

himself wholly to doctrine and exhortation. No, let him look to his shop. It is not spoken to the

ploughman that he should give himself wholly to preaching. No, let him give himself to his plough.

It is the minister’s charge. The apostle speaks to Timothy and, in him, to the rest who had the hands

of the presbytery laid on them. And ‘Study to shew thyself approved . . ., a workman that needeth

not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15). This is spoken peculiarly

to the minister. Everyone that can read the word aright cannot divide the word aright. So that the

work of the ministry does not lie in common; it is a select, peculiar work. As none might touch the

ark but the priests, none may touch this temple-office but such as are called to it.

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But if a man has gifts, is not this sufficient? I answer, No! As grace is not sufficient to make a

minister, so neither are gifts. The Scripture puts a difference between gifting and sending. ‘How

shall they preach unless they be sent?’ (Romans 10:15). If gifts were enough to constitute a minister,

the apostle should have said, ‘How shall they preach unless they be gifted?, but he says ‘unless

they be sent?’ As in other callings, gifts do not make a magistrate. The attorney that pleads at the

bar may have as good gifts as the judge that sits upon the bench, but he must have a commission

before he sit as judge. If it be thus in matters civil, much more in ecclesiastical and sacred, which

are, as Bucer says, ‘things of the highest importance’. Those therefore that usurp the ministerial

work without any special designation and appointment discover more pride than zeal. They act out

of their sphere and are guilty of theft. They steal upon a people, and, as they come without a call,

so they stay without a blessing. ‘I sent them not, therefore they shall not profit this people at all’

(Jeremiah 23:32). And so much for the first, the preacher.

2. The pulpit where Christ preached. ‘He went up into a mountain.’

The law was first given on the mount, and here Christ expounds it on the mount. This mount, as is

supposed by Jerome and others of the learned, was Mount Tabor. It was a convenient place to speak

in, being seated above the people, and in regard of the great confluence of hearers.

3 The occasion of Christ’s ascending the mount: ‘Seeing the multitude.’

The people thronged to hear Christ, and he would not dismiss the congregation without a sermon,

but ’seeing the multitude he went up’. Jesus Christ came from heaven as a factor for souls. He lay

leiger here awhile; preaching was his business. The people could not be so desirous to hear as he

was to preach. He who treated faint bodies with compassion (Matthew 15:32), much more pitied

dead souls. It was his ‘meat and drink, to do his Father’s will (John 4:34). ‘And seeing the multitude’,

he goes up into the mount and preaches. This he did not only for the consolation of his hearers, but

for the imitation of his ministers.

From whence observe that Christ’s ministers according to Christ’s pattern must embrace every

opportunity of doing good to souls. Praying and preaching and studying must be our work. ‘Preach

the word; be instant in season, out of season’ (2 Timothy 4:2). Peter, seeing the multitude, lets

down the net and, at one draught, catches three thousand souls (Acts 2:41). How zealously industrious

have God’s champions been in former ages in fulfilling the work of their ministry, as we read of

Chrysostom, Augustine, Basil the Great, Calvin, Bucer and others, who for the work of Christ ‘were

nigh unto death’. The reasons why the ministers of Christ (according to his pattern) should be

ambitiously desirous of all opportunities for soul-service are:

(i) Their commission: God has entrusted them as ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). Now you know

an ambassador waits for a day of audience, and as soon as a day is granted, he faithfully and

impartially delivers the mind of his prince. Thus Christ’s ministers, having a commission delegated

to them to negotiate for souls, should be glad when there is a day of audience, that they may impart

the mind and will of Christ to his people.

(ii) Their titles: Ministers are called God’s sowers (1 Corinthians 9:11). Therefore they must upon

all occasions be scattering the blessed seed of the Word. The sower must go forth and sow; yea,

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The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

though the seed fall upon stones, as usually it does, yet we must disseminate and scatter the seed

of the Word upon stony hearts, because ‘even of these stones God is able to raise up children’ to

himself.

Ministers are called stars. Therefore they must shine by word and doctrine in the firmament of the

church. Thus our Lord Christ has set them a pattern in the text: ‘Seeing the multitude, he went up

into the mountain.’ Here was a light set upon an hill, the bright morning star shining to all that were

round about. Christ calls his ministers ‘the light of the world’ (Matthew 5:14). Therefore they must

be always giving forth their lustre. Their light must not go out till it be in the socket, or till violent

death as an extinguisher put it out.

(iii) Christ’s ministers must catch at all occasions of doing good to others, in regard of the work

which they are about, and that is saving of souls. What a precious thing is a soul! Christ takes, as

it were, a pair of scales in his hands and he puts the world in one scale and the soul in the other,

and the soul outweighs (Matthew 16:26). The soul is of a noble origin, of a quick operation; it is a

flower of eternity; here, in the bud; in heaven, fully ripe and blown. The soul is one of the richest

pieces of embroidery that ever God made, the understanding bespangled with light, the will invested

with liberty, the affections like musical instruments tuned with the finger of the Holy Ghost. The

soul is Christ’s partner, the angels, familiar. Now if the souls of men are of so noble an extract and

made capable of glory, oh how zealously industrious should Christ’s ministers be to save these

souls! If Christ spent his blood for souls, well may we spend our sweat. It was Augustine’s prayer

that Christ might find him at his coming either praying or preaching. What a sad sight is it to see

precious souls as so many pearls and diamonds cast into the dead sea of hell!

(iv) The ministers of Christ, ’seeing the multitude’, must ‘ascend the mount’, because there are so

many emissaries of Satan who lie at the catch to subvert souls. How the old serpent casts out of his

mouth floods of water after the woman to drown her! (Revelation 12:15). What floods of heresy

have been poured out in city and country, which have overflowed the banks not only of religion

but civility. Ignatius calls error ‘the invention of the devil’, and Bernard calls it ‘a sweet poison’.

Men’s ears, like sponges, have sucked in this poison. Never were the devil’s commodities more

vendible in England than now. A fine tongue can put off bad wares. The Jesuit can silver over his

lies, and dress error in truth’s coat. A weak brain is soon intoxicated. When flattery and subtlety

meet with the simple, they easily become a prey. The Romish whore entices many to drink down

the poison of her idolatry and filthiness, because it is given in ‘a golden cup’ (Revelation 17:4). If

all who have the plague of the head should die, it would much increase the bill of mortality. Now

if there be so many emissaries of Satan abroad, who labour to make proselytes to the church of

Rome, how it concerns them whom God has put into the work of the ministry to bestir themselves

and lay hold on all opportunities, that by their spiritual antidotes they may ‘convert sinners from

the error of their way and save their souls from death!’ (James 5:20). Ministers must not only be

‘pastores’, but ‘proeliatores’ (fighters, warriors). In one hand they must hold the bread of life and

‘feed the flock of God’; in the other hand, they must hold the sword of the Spirit and fight against

those errors which carry damnation in their front.

(v) The ministers of Christ should wait for all opportunities of soul-service, because the preaching

of the Word meets so many adverse forces that hinder the progress and success of it. Never did a

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The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

pilot meet with so many Euroclydons and crosswinds in a voyage, as the spiritual pilots of God’s

church do when they are transporting souls to heaven.

Some hearers have bad memories (James 1:25). Their memories are like leaking vessels. All the

precious wine of holy doctrine that is poured in runs out immediately. Ministers cannot by study

find a truth so fast as others can lose it. If the meat does not stay in the stomach, it can never breed

good blood. If a truth delivered does not stay in the memory, we can never be, as the apostle says,

‘nourished up in the words of faith’ (1 Timothy 4:6). How often does the devil, that fowl of the air,

pick up the good seed that is sown! If people suffer at the hands of thieves, they tell everyone and

make their complaint they have been robbed; but there is a worse thief they are not aware of! How

many sermons has the devil stolen from them! How many truths have they been robbed of, which

might have been so many deathbed cordials! Now if the Word preached slides so fast out of the

memory, ministers had need the oftener to go up the preaching mount, that at last some truth may

abide and be as ‘a nail fastened by the masters of assemblies’.

The ears of many of our hearers are stopped with earth. I mean the cares of the world, that the Word

preached will not enter, according to that in the parable, ‘Hearing they hear not’ (Matthew 13:13).

We read of Saul, his eyes were open, yet ‘he saw no man’ (Acts 9:8). A strange paradox! And is

it not as strange that men’s ears should be open, yet ‘in hearing hear not?’ They mind not what is

said: ‘They sit before thee as my people sitteth . . . but their heart goeth after their covetousness’

(Ezekiel 33:31). Many sit and stare the minister in the face, yet scarce know a word he says. They

are thinking of their wares and drugs and are often casting up accounts in the church. If a man be

in a mill, though you speak never so loud to him, he does not hear you for the noise of the mill. We

preach to men about matters of salvation, but the mill of worldly business makes such a noise that

they cannot hear; ‘in hearing they hear not’. It being thus, ministers who are called ’sons of thunder’

had need often ascend the mount and ‘lift up their voice like a trumpet’ (Isaiah 58:1) that the deaf

ear may be syringed and unstopped, and may hear ‘what the Spirit saith unto the churches’

(Revelation 2:7).

Others, as they have earth in their ears, so they have a stone in their hearts. They make ‘their hearts

as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law’ (Zechariah 7:12). The ministers of Christ

therefore must be frequently brandishing the sword of the Spirit and striking at men’s sins, that, if

possible, they may at last pierce the heart of stone. When the earth is scorched with the sun, it is

so hard and crusted together, that a shower of rain will not soften it. There must be shower after

shower before it will be either moist or fertile. Such an hardened piece is the heart of man naturally.

It is so stiffened with the scorchings of lust, that there must be ‘precept upon precept’ (Isaiah 28:10).

Our doctrine must ‘distil as the dew, as the small rain on the tender herb, and as the showers upon

the grass’ (Deuteronomy 32:2).

(vi) Christ’s ministers, according to the example of their Lord and Master, should take all occasions

of doing good, not only in regard of God’s glory, but their own comfort. What triumph is it, and

cause of gladness, when a minister can say on his deathbed, ‘Lord, I have done the work which

thou gayest me to do’, I have been trading for souls! When a minister comes to the mount of glory,

the heavenly mount, it will be a great comfort to him that he has been so often upon the preaching

mount. Certainly if the angels in heaven rejoice at the conversion of a sinner (Luke 15:7,10), how

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The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

shall that minister rejoice in heaven over every soul that he has been instrumental to convert! As

it shall add a member to Christ’s body, so a jewel to a minister’s crown. ‘They that are wise’, or

as the original carries it, ‘They that are teachers shall shine (not as lamps or tapers, but) as stars

(Daniel 12:3); not as planets, but as fixed stars in the firmament of glory for ever.,

And though ‘Israel be not gathered’, yet shall God’s ministers ‘be glorious in the eyes of the Lord’

(Isaiah 49:5). God will reward them not according to their success, but their diligence. When they

are a ’savour of death’ to men, yet they are a ’sweet savour’ to God. In an orchard the labourer that

fells a tree is rewarded as well as he that plants a tree. The surgeon’s bill is paid though the patient

die.

First, let me crave liberty to speak a word to the Elishas, my reverend and honoured brethren in the

ministry. You are engaged in a glorious service. God has put great renown upon you. He has

entrusted you with two most precious jewels, his truths and the souls of his people. Never was this

honour conferred upon any angel to convert souls! What princely dignity can parallel this? The

pulpit is higher than the throne, for a truly constituted minister represents no less than God himself.

‘As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God’ (2

Corinthians 5:20). Give me leave to say as the apostle, ‘I magnify my office’ (Romans 11:13).

Whatever our persons are, the office is sacred. The ministry is the most honourable employment

in the world. Jesus Christ has graced this calling by his entering into it. Other men work in their

trade; ministers work with God. ‘We are labourers together with God’ (1 Corinthians 3:9). O high

honour! God and his ministers have one and the same work. They both negotiate about souls. Let

the sons of the prophets wear this as their crown and diadem.

But while I tell you of your dignity, do not forget your duty. Imitate this blessed pattern in the text,

‘the Lord Jesus who, seeing the multitudes, went up and taught’. He took all occasions of preaching

Sometimes he taught in the temple (Mark 14:49); sometimes in a ship (Mark 4:1), and here, upon

the mount. His lips were a tree of life that fed many. How often did he neglect his food, that he

might feast others with his doctrine! Let all the ministers of Christ tread in his steps! Make Christ

not only your Saviour, but your example. Suffer no opportunities to slip wherein you may be helpful

to the souls of others. Be not content to go to heaven yourselves, but be as the Primum Mobile,

which draws other orbs along with it. Be such shining lamps that you may light others to heaven

with you. I will conclude with that of the apostle: ‘Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,

unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is

not in vain in the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Secondly, let me turn myself to the flock of God. If ministers must take all opportunities to preach,

you must take all opportunities to hear. If there were twice or thrice a week a certain sum of money

to be distributed to all comers, then people would resort thither. Now think thus with yourselves;

when the Word of God is preached, the bread of life is distributed, which is more precious than

‘thousands of gold and silver’ (Psalm 119:72). In the Word preached, heaven and salvation is

offered to you. In this field the pearl of price is hid. How should you ‘flock like doves’ to the

windows of the sanctuary (Isaiah 60:8)! We read the gate of the temple was called ‘beautiful’ (Acts

3:2). The gate of God’s house is the beautiful gate. Lie at ‘these posts of wisdom’s doors’ (Proverbs

8 34).

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Not only hear the Word preached, but encourage those ministers who do preach by liberal

maintaining of them. Though I hope all who have God’s Urim and Thummim written upon them,

can say, as the apostle, ‘I seek not yours, but you’ (2 Corinthians 12:14), yet that scripture is still

canonical, ‘So hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel’

(1 Corinthians 9:14). Are not labourers in a vineyard maintained by their labours? says Peter Martyr.

And the apostle puts the question, ‘Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not the fruit of it? (1

Corinthians 9:7). Hypocrites love a cheap religion. They like a gospel that will put them to no

charges. They are content so they may have golden bags, to have wooden priests. How many by

saving their purses have lost their souls! Julian the Apostate robbed the ministers, pretending

conscience. I need not tell you how vengeance pursued him. Is it not pity the fire on God’s altar

should go out for want of pouring on a little golden oil? David would not offer that to God which

cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24).

Encourage God’s ministers by your fruitfulness under their labours. When ministers are upon the

‘mount’, let them not be upon the rocks. What cost has God laid out upon this city! Never, I believe,

since the apostles, times was there a more learned, orthodox, powerful ministry than now. God’s

ministers are called stars (Revelation 1:20). In this city every morning a star appears, besides the

bright constellation on the Lord’s Day. Oh you that feed in the green pastures of ordinances, be fat

and fertile; you that are planted in the courts of God, flourish in the courts of God (Psalm 92:13).

How sad will it be with a people that shall go laden to hell with Gospel blessings! The best way to

encourage your ministers is to let them see the travail of their souls in your new birth. It is a great

comfort when a minister not only woos souls, but wins souls. ‘He that winneth souls is wise’

(Proverbs 11:30). This is a minister’s glory. ‘For what is our joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not

even ye?’ (1 Thessalonians 2:19). A successful preacher wears two crowns, a crown of righteousness

in heaven, and a crown of rejoicing here upon earth. ‘Are not ye our crown?’

Encourage your ministers by praying for them. Their work is great. It is a work that will take up

their head and heart, and all little enough. It is a work fitter for angels than men. ‘Who is sufficient

for these things?’ (2 Corinthians 2:16). Oh pray for them! Christ indeed, when he ascended the

mount and was to preach, needed none of the people’s prayers for him. He had a sufficient stock

by him, the divine nature to supply him, but all his under-officers in the ministry need prayer. If

Saint Paul, who abounded in the graces of the Spirit and supernatural revelations, begged prayer

(1 Thessalonians 5:25), then surely other ministers need prayer who do not pretend to any such

revelations.

And pray for your ministers that God will direct them what to preach, that he will cut out their work

for them. ‘Go preach . . . the preaching that I bid thee’ (Jonah 3:2). It is a great matter to preach

suitable truths; there are ‘acceptable words’ (Ecclesiastes 12:10).

Pray that God will go forth with their labours, or else ‘they toil and catch nothing’. God’s Spirit

must fill the sails of our ministry. It is not the hand that scatters the seed which makes it spring up,

but the dews and influences of heaven. So it is not our preaching, but the divine influence of the

Spirit that makes grace grow in men’s hearts. We are but pipes and organs. It is God’s Spirit blowing

in us that makes the preaching of the Word by a divine enchantment allure souls to Christ. Ministers

are but stars to light you to Christ. The Spirit is the loadstone to draw you. All the good done by

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our ministry is ‘due to the Lord’s excellent and effectual working’ (Bucer). Oh then pray for us,

that God will make his work prosper in our hands. This may be one reason why the Word preached

does not profit more, because people do not pray more. Perhaps you complain the tool is dull, the

minister is dead and cold. You should have whetted and sharpened him by your prayer. If you

would have the door of a blessing opened to you through our ministry, you must unlock it by the

key of prayer.

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There is a blessedness in reversion

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Matthew 5:3

Having done with the occasion, I come now to the sermon itself. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’.

Christ does not begin his Sermon on the Mount as the Law was delivered on the mount, with

commands and threatenings, the trumpet sounding, the fire flaming, the earth quaking, and the

hearts of the Israelites too for fear; but our Saviour (whose lips ‘dropped as the honeycomb’) begins

with promises and blessings. So sweet and ravishing was the doctrine of this heavenly Orpheus

that, like music, it was able to charm the most savage natures, yea, to draw hearts of stone to him.

To begin then with this first word, ‘Blessed’. If there be any blessedness in knowledge, it must

needs be in the knowledge of blessedness. For the illustration of this, I shall lay down two aphorisms

or conclusions.

[1] That there is a blessedness in reversion!

[II] That the godly are in some sense already blessed.

[1] That there is a blessedness in reversion: The people of God meet with many knotty difficulties

and sinking discouragements in the way of religion. Their march is not only tedious but dangerous,

and their hearts are ready to despond. It will not be amiss therefore to set the crown of blessedness

before them to animate their courage and to inflame their zeal. How many scriptures bring this

olive-branch in their mouth, the tidings of blessedness to believers! ‘Blessed is that servant whom

his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing’ (Matthew 24:46). ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father’

(Matthew 25:34). Blessedness is the perfection of a rational creature. It is the whetstone of a

Christian’s industry, the height of his ambition, the flower of his joy. Blessedness is the desire of

all men. Aquinas calls it the ‘ultimate end’. This is the ‘white’ every man aims to hit; to this centre

all the lines are drawn.

Wherein does blessedness consist? Millions of men mistake both the nature of blessedness and the

way thither. Some of the learned have set down two hundred and eighty eight several opinions

about blessedness, and all have shot wide of the mark. I shall show wherein it does not consist, and

then wherein it does consist.

(1) Wherein blessedness does not consist. It does not lie in the acquisition of worldly things.

Happiness cannot by any art of chemistry be extracted here. Christ does not say, ‘Blessed are the

rich’, or ‘Blessed are the noble’, yet too many idolise these things. Man, by the fall, has not only

lost his crown, but his headpiece. How ready is he to terminate his happiness in externals! Which

makes me call to mind that definition which some of the heathen philosophers give of blessedness,

that it was to have a sufficiency of subsistence and to thrive well in the world. And are there not

many who pass for Christians, that seem to be of this philosophical opinion? If they have but worldly

accommodations, they are ready to sing a requiem to their souls and say with that brutish fool in

the gospel, ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease . . .’ (Luke 12:19).

‘What is more shameful’, says Seneca, ‘than to equate the rational soul’s good with that which is

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irrational.’ Alas, the tree of blessedness does not grow in an earthly paradise. Has not God ‘cursed

the ground’ for sin? (Genesis 3:17). Yet many are digging for felicity here, as if they would fetch

a blessing out of a curse. A man may as well think to extract oil out of a flint, or fire out of water,

as blessedness out of these terrestrial things.

King Solomon arrived at more than any man. He was the most magnificent prince that ever held

the sceptre. For his parentage: he sprang from the royal line, not only that line from which many

kings came, but of which Christ himself came. Jesus Christ was of Solomon’s line and race, so that

for heraldry and nobility none could show a fairer coat of arms. For the situation of his palace: it

was in Jerusalem, the princess and paragon of the earth. Jerusalem, for its renown, was called ‘the

city of God’. It was the most famous metropolis in the world. ‘Whither the tribes go up, the tribes

of the Lord’ (Psalms 122:4). For wealth: his crown was hung full of jewels. He had treasures of

gold and of pearl and ‘made silver to be as stones’ (1 Kings 10:27). For worldly joy: he had the

flower and quintessence of all delights — sumptuous fare, stately edifices, vineyards, fishponds,

all sorts of music to enchant and ravish the senses with joy. If there were any rarity, it was a present

for king Solomon’s court. Thus did he bathe himself in the perfumed waters of pleasure.

For wisdom: he was the oracle of his time. When the queen of Sheba came to pose him with hard

questions, he gave a solution to all her doubts (1 Kings 10:3). He had a key of knowledge to unlock

nature’s dark cabinet, so that if wisdom had been lost, it might have been found here, and the whole

world might have lighted their understanding at Solomon’s lamp. He was an earthly angel, so that

a carnal eye surveying his glory would have been ready to imagine that Solomon had entered into

that paradise out of which Adam was once driven, or that he had found another as good. Never did

the world cast a more smiling aspect upon any man; yet when he comes to give in his impartial

verdict, he tells us that the world has vanity written upon its frontispiece, and all those golden

delights he enjoyed were but a painted felicity, a glorious misery. ‘And behold all was vanity’

(Ecclesiastes 2:8). Blessedness is too noble and delicate a plant to dwell in nature’s soil.

That blessedness does not lie in externals, I shall prove by these five demonstrations.

(i) Those things which are not commensurate to the desires of the soul can never make a man

blessed; but transitory things are not commensurate to the desires of the soul; therefore they cannot

render him blessed. Nothing on earth can satisfy.

‘He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver’ (Ecclesiastes 5:10). Riches are unsatisfying:

Because they are not real. The world is called a ‘fashion’ (1 Corinthians 7:31). The word in the

Greek signifies a mathematical figure, sometimes a show or apparition. Riches are but tinned over.

They are like alchemy, which glisters a little in our eyes, but at death all this alchemy will be worn

off. Riches are but sugared lies, pleasant impostures, like a gilded cover which has not one leaf of

true comfort bound up in it.

Because they are not suitable. The soul is a spiritual thing; riches are of an earthly extract, and how

can these fill a spiritual substance? A man may as well fill his treasure chest with grace, as his heart

with gold. If a man were crowned with all the delights of the world, nay, if God should build him

an house among the stars, yet the restless eye of his unsatisfied mind would be looking still higher.

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He would be prying beyond the heavens for some hidden rarities which he thinks he has not yet

attained to; so unquenchable is the thirst of the soul till it come to bathe in the river of life and to

centre upon true blessedness.

(ii) That which cannot quiet the heart in a storm cannot entitle a man to blessedness; but earthly

things accumulated cannot rock the troubled heart quiet; therefore they cannot make one blessed.

If the spirit be wounded, can the creature pour wine and oil into these wounds? If God sets conscience

to work, and it flies in a man’s face, can worldly comforts take off this angry fury? Is there any

harp to drive away the ‘evil spirit’? Outward things can no more cure the agony of conscience than

a silken stocking can cure a gouty leg. When Saul was sore distressed (1 Samuel 28:15), could all

the jewels of his crown comfort him? If God be angry, whose ‘fury is poured out like fire, and the

rocks are thrown down by him’ (Nahum 1:6), can a wedge of gold be a screen to keep off this fire?

‘They shall cast their silver in the streets; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them

in the day of the wrath of the Lord’ (Ezekiel 7:19). King Belshazzar was carousing and ranting it.

‘He drank wine in the golden vessels of the temple’ (Daniel 5:3), but when the fingers of a man’s

hand appeared, ‘his countenance was changed’ (verse 6), his wine grew sour, his feast was spoiled

with that dish which was served in upon the wall. The things of the world will no more keep out

trouble of spirit, than a paper sconce will keep out a bullet.

(iii) That which is but for a season cannot make one blessed; but all things under the sun are but

‘for a season’, therefore they cannot enrich with blessedness. Sublunary delights are like those

meats which we say are a while in season, and then presently grow stale and are out of request.

‘The world passeth away’ (1 John 2:17). Worldly delights are winged. They may be compared to

a flock of birds in the garden, that stay a little while, but when you come near to them they take

their flight and are gone. So ‘riches make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward

heaven’ (Proverbs 23:5). They are like a meteor that blazes, but spends and annihilates. They are

like a castle made of snow, lying under the torrid beams of the sun. Augustine says of himself, that

when any preferment smiled upon him, he was afraid to accept of it lest it should on a sudden give

him the slip. Outward comforts are, as Plato says, like tennis balls which are bandied up and down

from one to another. Had we the longest lease of worldly comforts, it would soon be run out. Riches

and honour are constantly in flight; they pass away like a swift stream, or like a ship that is going

full sail. While they are with us they are going away from us. They are like a posy of flowers which

withers while you are smelling it; like ice, which melts away while it is in your hand. The world,

says Bernard,’ cries out, ‘I will leave you’, and be gone. It takes its salute and farewell together.

(iv) Those things which do more vex than comfort cannot make a man blessed; but such are all

things under the sun, therefore they cannot have blessedness affixed to them. As riches are compared

to wind (Hosea 12:1) to show their vanity, so to thorns (Matthew 13:17) to show their vexation.

Thorns are not more apt to tear our garments, than riches to tear our hearts. They are thorns in the

gathering, they prick with care; and as they pierce the head with care of getting, so they wound the

heart with fear of losing. God will have our sweetest wine run dregs, yea, and taste of a musty cask

too, that we may not think this is the wine of paradise.

(v) Those things which (if we have nothing else) will make us cursed, cannot make us blessed; but

the sole enjoyment of worldly things will make us cursed, therefore it is far from making us blessed.

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‘Riches are kept for the hurt of the owner’ (Ecclesiastes 5:13). Riches to the wicked are fuel for

pride: ‘Thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches’ (Ezekiel 28:5); and fuel for lust: ‘when I had

fed them to the full, they then committed adultery’ (Jeremiah 5:7). Riches are a snare: ‘But they

that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which

drown men in perdition’ (1 Timothy 6:9). How many have pulled down their souls to build up an

estate! A ship may be so laden with gold that it sinks; many a man’s gold has sunk him to hell. The

rich sinner seals up money in his bag, and God seals up a curse with it. ‘Woe to him that ladeth

himself with thick clay’ (Habakkuk 2:6). Augustine says that Judas for money sold his salvation,

and the Pharisees bought their damnation; so that happiness is not to be fetched out of the earth.

They who go to the creature for blessedness go to the wrong box.

If blessedness does not consist in externals, then let us not place our blessedness here. This is to

seek the living among the dead. As the angel told Mary concerning Christ, ‘He is not here, he is

risen’ (Matthew 28:6), so I may say of blessedness, It is not here, it is risen; it is in a higher region.

How do men thirst after the world, as if the pearl of blessedness hung upon an earthly crown! O,

says one, if I had but such an estate, then I should be happy! Had I but such a comfort, then I should

sit down satisfied! Well, God gives him that comfort and lets him suck out the very juice and spirits

of it, but, alas, it falls short of his expectation. It cannot fill the hiatus and longing of his soul which

still cries ‘Give, give’ (Proverbs 30:15); just like a sick man. If, says he, I had but such a meat, I

could eat it; and when he has it, his stomach is bad, and he can hardly endure to taste it. God has

put not only an emptiness, but bitterness into the creature, and it is good for us that there is no

perfection here, that we may raise our thoughts higher to more noble and generous delights. Could

we distil and draw out the quintessence of the creature, we should say as once the emperor Severus

said, who grew from a mean estate to be head of the greatest empire in the world: I have, says he,

run through all conditions, yet could never find full contentment.

To such as are cut short in their allowance, whose cup does not overflow, but their tears be not too

much troubled; remember that these outward comforts cannot make you blessed. You might live

rich and die cursed. You might treasure up an estate, and God might treasure up wrath. Be not

perplexed about those things the lack of which cannot make you miserable, nor the enjoyment make

you blessed.

(2) Having shown wherein blessedness does not consist, I shall next show wherein it does consist.

Blessedness stands in the fruition of the chief good.

(i)) It consists in fruition; there must not be only possession, but fruition. A man may possess an

estate, yet not enjoy it. He may have the dominion of it, but not the comfort, as when he is in a

lethargy or under the predominance of melancholy. But in true blessedness there must be a sensible

enjoyment of that which the soul possesses.

(ii) Blessedness lies in the fruition of the chief good. It is not every good that makes a man blessed,

but it must be the supreme good, and that is God. ‘Happy is that people whose God is the Lord’

(Psalm 144:15). God is the soul’s rest (Psalm 116:7). Now that only in which the soul acquiesces

and rests can make it blessed. The globe or circle, as is observed in mathematics, is of all others

the most perfect figure, because the last point of the figure ends in that first point where it began.

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So, when the soul meets in God, whence it sprang as its first original, then it is completely blessed.

That which makes a man blessed must have fixed qualifications or ingredients in it, and these are

found nowhere but in God the chief good.

In true blessedness there must be meliority; that which fills with blessedness must be such a good

as is better than a man’s self. If you would ennoble a piece of silver, it must be by putting something

to it which is better than silver, as by putting gold or pearl to it. So that which ennobles the soul

and enriches it with blessedness, must be by adding something to it which is more excellent than

the soul, and that is God. The world is below the soul; it is but the soul’s footstool; therefore it

cannot crown it with happiness.

Another ingredient is delectability: that which brings blessedness must have a delicious taste in it,

such as the soul is instantly ravished with. There must be in it spirits of delight and quintessence

of joy, and where can the soul suck those pure comforts which amaze it with wonder and crown it

with delight, but in God? ‘In God’, says Augustine, ‘the soul is delighted with such sweetness as

even transports it.’ The love of God is a honeycomb which drops such infinite sweetness and

satisfaction into the soul as is ‘unspeakable and full of glory.’ (1 Peter 1:8). A kiss from God’s

mouth puts the soul into a divine ecstasy, so that now it cries out, ‘It is good to be here.’

The third ingredient in blessedness is plenty; that which makes a man blessed must not be too

scanty. It is a full draught which quenches the soul’s thirst; and where shall we find plenty but in

Deity? ‘Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures’ (Psalm 36:8); not drops but rivers!

The soul bathes itself and is laid, as it were, asteeping in the water of life. The river of paradise

overflowed and empties its silver streams into the souls of the blessed.

In true blessedness there must be variety. Plenty without variety is apt to nauseate. In God there is

‘all fullness’. (Colossians 1:19). What can the soul want, but it may be had in the chief good? God

is ‘the good in all good things’. He is a sun, a shield, a portion, a fountain, a rock of strength, an

horn of salvation. In God there is a complication of all excellencies. There are every moment fresh

beauties and delights springing from God.

To make up blessedness there must be perfection; the joy must be perfect, the glory perfect. ‘Spirits

of just men made perfect’ (Hebrews 12:23). ‘Blessedness must run through the whole.’ If there be

the least defect, it destroys the nature of blessedness, as the least symptom of a disease takes away

the wellbeing and right temperature of the body.

True blessedness must have eternity stamped on it. Blessedness is a fixed thing; it admits of no

change or alteration. God says of every child of his, ‘I have blessed him and he shall be blessed.’

As the sunshine of blessedness is ‘without clouds’, so it never sets. ‘I give unto them eternal life’

(John 10:28). ‘And so shall we ever be with the Lord’ (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Eternity is the highest

link of blessedness. Thus we have seen that this diamond of blessedness is only to be found in the

Rock of Ages. ‘Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.’

If there is such a blessedness in reversion, be convinced of the truth of this; set it down as an article

of your faith. We live in times wherein many are grown atheists. They have run through all opinions,

and now of professors they are turned epicures; they have drunk in so much of the poison of error

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that they are quite intoxicated and fallen asleep, and begin to dream there is no such state of

blessedness after this life; and this opinion is to them above the Bible. When men have the spiritual

staggers, it sadly presages they will die. Oh, it is a dangerous thing to hesitate and waver about

fundamentals; like Pythagoras, who doubted whether there was a God or no; so, whether there be

a blessedness or no. Doubting of principles is the next way to the denying of principles. Let it be

a maxim with every good Christian, there is a blessedness in reversion. ‘There remains a rest for

the people of God’ (Hebrews 4:9).

Revolve this truth often in your mind. There are many truths swim in the brain, which do not sink

into the heart, and those do us no good. Chew the cud. Let a Christian think seriously with himself,

there is a blessedness feasible and I am capable of enjoying it, if I do not lay bars in the way and

block up my own happiness. Though within I see nothing but guilt, and without nothing but curses,

yet there is a blessedness to be had, and to be had for me too in the use of means.

The serious meditation of this will be a forcible argument to make the sinner break off his sins by

repentance and sweat hard till he find the golden mine of blessedness. I say, it would be the

break-neck of sin. How would a man offer violence to himself by mortification and to heaven by

supplication, that at last he may arrive at a state of blessedness? What, is there a crown of blessedness

to be set upon my head? A crown hung with the jewels of honour, delight, magnificence? a crown

reached out by God himself? and shall I by sin hazard this? Can the pleasure of sin countervail the

loss of blessedness? What more powerful motive to repentance than this? Sin will deceive me of

the blessing! If a man knew certainly that a king would settle all his crown revenues on him after

a term of years, would he offend that regal Majesty and cause him to reverse or alter his will? There

is a blessedness promised to all that live godly. ‘This is the promise he has promised us, even eternal

life’ (1 John 2:25). We are not excluded, but may come in for a child’s part. Now shall we, by living

in sin, provoke God and forfeit this blessedness? O what madness is this! Well may the apostle call

them ‘foolish and hurtful lusts’ (1 Timothy 6:9), because every lust does what in it lies to cut off

the entail of mercy and block up the way to happiness. Every sin may be compared to the ‘flaming

sword’, which keeps the heavenly paradise that the sinner cannot enter.

Let us so deport ourselves, that we may express to others that we do believe a blessedness to come,

and that is by seeking an interest in God. For the beams of blessedness shine only from his face. It

is our union with God, the chief good, that makes us blessed. Oh, let us never rest till we can say,

‘This God is our God for ever and ever’ (Psalm 48:14). Most men think because God has blessed

them with an estate, therefore they are blessed. Alas, God often gives these things in anger. ‘God

grants a thing when he is angry which he does not will to give when he is tranquil.’ He loads his

enemies with gold and silver; as Plutarch reports of Tarpeia, a vestal nun, who bargained with the

enemy to betray the Capitol of Rome to them, if she might have the golden bracelets on their left

hands, which they promised; and being entered into the Capitol, they threw not only their golden

bracelets, but their bucklers too upon her, through the weight whereof she was pressed to death.

God often lets men have the golden bracelets, the weight whereof sinks them into hell. Oh, let us

pant after things heavenly, let us get our eyes fixed, and our hearts united to God, the supreme

good. This is to pursue blessedness as in the chase.

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Let us proclaim to the world that we do believe a blessedness to come by living blessed lives; walk

as becomes the heirs of blessedness. A blessed crown and a cursed life will never agree. Many tell

us they are bound for heaven, but they steer their course a quite contrary way. The Devil is their

pilot, and they sail hell-ward, as if a man should say he were going a voyage to the east, but sails

quite westward. The drunkard will tell you he hopes for blessedness, but he sails another way; you

must go weeping to heaven, not reeling. The unclean person talks of blessedness, but he is fallen

into that ‘deep ditch’ (Proverbs 23:27), where he is like sooner to find hell than heaven. A beast

may as well be made an angel as an unclean person in his leprosy enter into the paradise of God.

The covetous person (of whom it may be said, ‘he is a worm and no man’, for he is ever creeping

in the earth) yet would lay a claim to blessedness; but can earth ascend? Shall a lump of clay be

made a bright star in the firmament of glory? Be assured they shall never be blessed who bless

themselves in their sins. If, says God, the sinner ‘bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have

peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst; the Lord will not

spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and the

Lord shall blot out his name under heaven’ (Deuteronomy 29:19). A man can no more extract

blessedness out of sin than he can suck health out of poison. O let us lead blessed lives, and so

‘declare plainly that we seek a country’ (Hebrews 11:14).

To you that have any good hope through grace that you have a title to blessedness, let me say as

the Levites did to the people, ‘Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever’ (Nehemiah

9:5). What infinite cause have you to be thankful that the lot of free grace is fallen upon you! Though

you had forfeited all, yet God has provided a haven of happiness, and he is carrying you thither

upon the sea of Christ’s blood, the gale of his Spirit blowing your sails. You are in a better condition

through Christ, than when you had the robes of innocence upon you. God has raised you a step

higher by your fall. How many has God passed by and looked upon you! Millions there are who

shall lie under the bitter vials of God’s curses, whereas he will bring you into his banqueting-house

and pour out the flagons of wine and feast you eternally with the delicacies of heaven. O adore free

grace; triumph in this love of God. Spend and be spent for the Lord. Dedicate yourselves to him in

a way of resignation, and lay out yourselves for him in a way of gratulation. Never think you can

do enough for that God who will shortly set you ashore in the land of promise.

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3. The godly are in some sense already blessed

I proceed now to the second aphorism or conclusion, that the godly are in some sense already

blessed. The saints are blessed not only when they are apprehended by God, but while they are

travellers to glory. They are blessed before they are crowned. This seems a paradox to flesh and

blood. What, reproached and maligned, yet blessed! A man that looks upon the children of God

with a carnal eye and sees how they are afflicted, and like the ship in the gospel which was ‘covered

with waves’ (Matthew 8:24), would think they were far from blessedness. St Paul brings a catalogue

of his sufferings: ‘Thrice was I beaten with rods; once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck

. . .’ (2 Corinthians 11:24-26). And those Christians of the first magnitude, of whom the world was

not worthy, ‘had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings; they were sawn asunder; they were slain

with the sword’ (Hebrews 11:36, 37). What? And were all these during the time of their sufferings

blessed? A carnal man would think, If this be to be blessed, God deliver him from it.

But, however sense and reason give their vote, our Saviour Christ pronounces the godly man blessed;

though a mourner, though a martyr, yet blessed. Job on the dunghill was blessed Job. The saints

are blessed when they are cursed. Shimei cursed David. ‘He came forth and cursed him’ (2 Samuel

16:5). Yet when he was cursed David, he was blessed David. The saints, though they are bruised,

yet they are blessed. Not only shall they be blessed, they are so. ‘Blessed are the undefiled’ (Psalm

19:1). ‘Thy blessing is upon thy people’ (Psalm 3:8).

(1) How are the saints already blessed? In that they are enriched with heavenly blessings (Ephesians

1:3). They are ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4), not by an incorporation into the divine

essence, but by transformation into the divine likeness. This is blessedness begun. As the new-born

babe is said to have life in it as well as he who is fully grown, so the saints, who are partakers of

the divine nature, have an inchoate blessedness, though they have not arrived yet at perfection.

Believers have the seed of God abiding in them (1 John 3:9). And this is a seed of blessedness. The

flower of glory grows out of the seed of grace. Grace and glory differ not in kind but degree. The

one is the root, the other the fruit. Grace is glory in the dawning; glory is grace in the meridian.

And in this sense that assertion of Augustine is true, ‘Blessed are we in faith and in hope., Grace

is the first link in the chain of blessedness. Now he that has the first link of the chain in his hand,

has the whole chain. The saints have the Spirit of God in them, ‘The Holy Ghost which dwelleth

in us’ (2 Timothy 1:14). How can the blessed Spirit be in a man and he not blessed? A godly man’s

heart is a paradise, planted with the choicest fruit, and God himself walks in the midst of this

paradise, and must the man not needs be blessed?

(2) The saints are already blessed because their sins are not imputed to them. ‘Blessed is the man

to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity’ (Psalm 32:2). God’s not imputing iniquity, signifies God’s

making of sin not to be. It is as if the man had never sinned. The debt book is cancelled in Christ’s

blood, and if the debtor owe never so much, yet if the creditor cross the book, it is as if he had never

owed anything. God’s not imputing sin signifies that God will never call for the debt, or, if it should

be called for, it shall be hid out of sight. ‘In those days the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,

and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found’ (Jeremiah 50:20). Now

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such a man who has not sin imputed to him, is blessed, and the reason is, because if sin be not

imputed to a man, then the curse is taken away; and if the curse be taken away, then he must needs

be blessed.

(3) The saints are already blessed because they are in covenant with God. This is clear by comparing

two scriptures: ‘I will be their God’, (Jeremiah 31:33), and ‘Happy is that people whose God is the

Lord’ (Psalm 144:15). This is the crowning blessing, to have the Lord for our God. Impossible it

is to imagine that God should be our God, and we not be blessed.

This sweet word, ‘I will be your God’, implies propriety, that all that is in God shall be ours. His

love is ours, his Spirit ours, his mercy ours. It implies all relations: of a father, ‘I will be a father

unto you’ (2 Corinthians 6:18). The sons of a prince are happy. How blessed are the saints who are

of true blood royal? It implies the relation of an husband: ‘Thy Maker is thy husband’ (Isaiah 54:5).

The spouse, being contracted to her husband, is happy by having an interest in all he has. The saints

being contracted by faith are blessed, though the solemnity of the marriage be kept for heaven. It

implies terms of friendship. They who are in covenant with God are favourites of heaven. ‘Abraham

my friend’ (Isaiah 41:8). It is counted a subject’s happiness to be in favour with his prince, though

he may live a while from court. How happy must he needs be who is God’s favourite!

(4) The saints are already blessed because they have a reversion of heaven, as, on the contrary, he

who has hell in reversion is said to be already condemned. ‘He that believeth not is condemned

already’ (John 3:18). He is as sure to be condemned, as if he were condemned already. So he who

has heaven in reversion may be said to be already blessed. A man that has the reversion of a house,

after a short lease is run out, he looks upon it as his already. This house, says he, is mine. So a

believer has a reversion of heaven after the lease of life is run out, and he can say at present, Christ

is mine and glory is mine. He has a title to heaven, and he is a blessed man who has a title to show;

nay, faith turns the reversion into a possession.

(5) The saints are already blessed because they have the first-fruits of blessedness here. We read

of the earnest of the Spirit, and the seal (2 Corinthians 1:22), and the first-fruits (Romans 8:23).

Heaven is already begun in a believer. ‘The kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Ghost’

(Romans 14:17). This kingdom is in a believer’s heart (Luke 17:21). The people of God have a

prelibation and taste of blessedness here. As Israel tasted a bunch of grapes before they were actually

possessed of Canaan, so the children of God have those secret incomes of the Spirit, those smiles

of Christ’s face, those kisses of his lips, those love-tokens that are as bunches of grapes; and they

think themselves sometimes in heaven. ‘Paul was let down in a basket’ (Acts 9:25). Oftentimes the

Comforter is let down to the soul in an ordinance, and now the soul is in the suburbs of Jerusalem

above. A Christian sees heaven by faith, end testes it by joy; end what is this but blessedness?

(6) The saints may be said in this life to be blessed, because all things tend to make them blessed.

‘All things work together for good to them that love God’ (Romans 8:28). We say to him that has

everything falling out for the best, You are a happy man. The saints are very happy, for all things

have a tendency to their good. Prosperity does them good; adversity does them good. Nay, sin turns

to their good. Every trip makes them more watchful. Their maladies are their medicines. Are not

they happy persons that have every wind blowing them to the right port?

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(7) A saint may be said to be blessed, because part of him is already blessed. He is blessed in his

head; Christ, his head, is in glory; Christ and believers make one body mystical; their head is gotten

into heaven.

See the difference between a wicked man and a godly. Let a wicked man have never so many

comforts, still he is cursed; let a godly man have never so many crosses, still he is blessed. Let a

wicked man have the ‘candle of God shining’ on him (Job 29:3), let his way be so smooth that he

meets with no rubs; let him have success; yet still there is a curse entailed upon him. You may read

the sinner’s inventory (Deuteronomy 28:16, 17, 18). He is not more full of sin than he is of a curse.

Though perhaps he blesses himself in his wickedness, yet he is heir to God’s curse. All the curses

of the Bible are his portion, and at the day of death this portion is sure to be paid. But a godly man

in the midst of all his miseries is blessed. He may be under the cross, but not under a curse.

It shows the privilege of a believer. He not only shall be blessed, but he is blessed. Blessedness is

begun in him. ‘You are blessed of the Lord’ (Psalm 115:15). Let the condition of the righteous be

never so sad, yet it is blessed; he is blessed in affliction. ‘Blessed is he whom thou chastenest’

(Psalm 94:12); blessed in poverty, ‘poor in the world, rich in faith’ (James 2:5); blessed in disgrace,

‘The spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you’ (1 Peter 4:14). This may be a cordial to the fainting

Christian; he is blessed in life and death! Satan cannot supplant him of the blessing.

How may this take away murmuring and melancholy from a child of God? Will you repine and be

sad when you are blessed? Esau wept because he wanted the blessing. ‘Bless me, even me also, O

my father, and Esau lifted up his voice and wept’ (Genesis 27:38). But shall a child of God be

immoderately cast down when he has the blessing? Adam sinned in the midst of paradise. How

evil it is to be blessed, and yet murmur!

What an encouragement is this to godliness! We are all ambitious of a blessing, then let us espouse

religion: ‘Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord’ (Psalm 112:1). But you will say, This way is

every where spoken against. It is no matter, seeing this is the way to get a blessing. Suppose a rich

man should adopt another for his heir, and others should reproach him, he does not care as long as

he is heir to the estate. So, what though others may reproach you for your religion, as long as it

entails a blessing on you; the same day you become godly, you become blessed.

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4. Blessed are the poor in spirit

Having spoken of the general notion of blessedness, I come next to consider the subjects of this

blessedness, and these our Saviour has deciphered to be the poor in spirit, the mourners, etc. But

before I touch upon these, I shall attempt a little preface or paraphrase upon this sermon of the

beatitudes.

1 Observe the divinity in this sermon, which goes beyond all philosophy. The philosophers use to

say that one contrary expels another; but here one contrary begets another. Poverty is wont to expel

riches, but here poverty begets riches, for how rich are they that have a kingdom! Mourning is wont

to expel joy, but here mourning begets joy: ‘they shall be comforted’. Water is wont to quench the

flame but the water of tears kindles the flame of joy. Persecution is wont to expel happiness, but

here it makes happy: ‘Blessed are they that are persecuted’. These are the sacred paradoxes in our

Saviour’s sermon.

2 Observe how Christ’s doctrine and the opinion of carnal men differ. They think, ‘Blessed are the

rich.’ The world would count him blessed who could have Midas, wish, that all he touched might

be turned into gold. But Christ says, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’. The world thinks, Blessed are

they on the pinnacle; but Christ pronounces them blessed who are in the valley. Christ’s reckonings

and the world’s do not agree.

3 Observe the nature of true religion. Poverty leads the van, and persecution brings up the rear.

Every true saint (says Luther) is heir to the cross! Some there are who would be thought religious,

displaying Christ’s colours by a glorious profession, but to be ‘poor in spirit’ and ‘persecuted’, they

cannot take down this bitter pill. They would wear Christ’s jewels, but waive his cross. These are

strangers to religion.

4 Observe the certain connection between grace and its reward. They who are ‘poor in spirit’ shall

have the ‘kingdom of God’. They are as sure to go to heaven, as if they were in heaven already.

Our Saviour would encourage men to religion by sweetening commands with promises. He ties

duty and reward together. As in the body the veins carry the blood, and the arteries the spirits, so

one part of these verses carries duty, and the other part carries reward. As that scholar of Apelles

painted Helena richly drawn in costly and glorious apparel, hung all over with orient pearl, and

precious stones; so our Lord Christ, having set down several qualifications of a Christian, ‘poor in

spirit’, ‘pure in heart’, etc.’ draws these heavenly virtues in their fair colours of blessedness, and

sets the magnificent crown of reward upon them, that by this brilliance, he might the more set forth

their unparalleled beauty, and entice holy love.

5 Observe hence the concatenation of the graces: poor in spirit, meek, merciful, etc. Where there

is one grace there is all. As they say of the cardinal virtues that they are strung together, so we may

say of the graces of the spirit, they are linked and chained together. He that has poverty of spirit is

a mourner. He that is a mourner is meek. He that is meek is merciful, etc. The Spirit of God plants

in the heart an habit of all the graces. The new creature has all the parts and lineaments, as in the

body there is a composition of all the elements and a mixture of all the humours. The graces of the

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Spirit are like a row of pearls which hang together upon the string of religion and serve to adorn

Christ’s bride. This I note, to show you a difference between a hypocrite and a true child of God.

The hypocrite flatters himself with a pretence of grace, but in the meantime he does not have an

habit of all the graces. He does not have poverty of spirit, nor purity of heart, whereas a child of

God has all the graces in his heart, at least radically though not gradually. These things being

premised, I come in particular to those heavenly dispositions of soul to which Christ has affixed

blessedness. And the first is Poverty of Spirit: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’.

Chrysostom and Theophylact are of opinion that this was the first sermon that ever Christ made,

therefore it may challenge our best attention. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’. Our Lord Christ being

to raise an high and stately fabric of blessedness, lays the foundation of it low, in poverty of spirit.

But all poverty is not blessed. I shall use a fourfold distinction.

1 I distinguish between ‘poor in estate’, and ‘poor in spirit’. There are the Devil’s poor, poor and

wicked, whose clothes are not more torn than their conscience. There are some whose poverty is

their sin, who through improvidence or excess have brought themselves to want. These may be

poor in estate but not poor in spirit.

2 I distinguish between ’spiritually poor’ and ‘poor in spirit’. He who is without grace is spiritually

poor, but he is not poor in spirit; he does not know his own beggary. ‘Thou knowest not that thou

art poor’ (Revelation 3:17). He is in the worst sense poor who has no sense of his poverty.

3 I distinguish between ‘poor-spirited’ and ‘poor in spirit’. They are said to be poor-spirited who

have mean, base spirits, who act below themselves. As they are men; such are those misers, who

having great estates, yet can hardly afford themselves bread; who live sneakingly, and are ready

to wish their own throats cut, because they are forced to spend something in satisfying nature’s

demands. This Solomon calls an evil under the sun. ‘There is an evil which I have seen under the

sun, a man to whom God has given riches, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he

desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof’ (Ecclesiastes 6:2). Religion makes no man

a niggard. Though it teaches prudence, yet not sordidness.

Then there are those who act below themselves as they are Christians, while they sinfully comply

and prostitute themselves to the humours of others; a base kind of metal that will take any stamp.

They will for a piece of silver part with the jewel of a good conscience. They will be of the state

religion. They will dance to the devil’s pipe, if their superior commands them. These are poor-spirited

but not poor in spirit.

4 I distinguish between poor in an evangelical sense and poor in a popish sense. The papists give

a wrong gloss upon the text. By ‘poor in spirit’, they understand those who, renouncing their estates,

vow a voluntary poverty, living retiredly in their monasteries. But Christ never meant these. He

does not pronounce them blessed who make themselves poor, leaving their estates and callings,

but such as are evangelically poor.

Well then, what are we to understand by ‘poor in spirit’? The Greek word for ‘poor’ is not only

taken in a strict sense for those who live upon alms, but in a more large sense, for those who are

destitute as well of inward as outward comfort. ‘Poor in spirit, then signifies those who are brought

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to the sense of their sins, and seeing no goodness in themselves, despair in themselves and sue

wholly to the mercy of God in Christ. Poverty of spirit is a kind of self-annihilation. Such an

expression I find in Calvin. The poor in spirit (says he) are they who see nothing in themselves,

but fly to mercy for sanctuary. Such an one was the publican: ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’

(Luke 18:13). Of this temper was St Paul: ‘That I may be found in Christ, not having mine own

righteousness’ (Philippians 3:9). These are the poor which are invited as guests to wisdom’s banquet

(Proverbs 7:3, 4).

Here several questions may be propounded.

(i) Why does Christ here begin with poverty of spirit? Why is this put in the forefront? I answer,

Christ does it to show that poverty of spirit is the very basis and foundation of all the other graces

that follow. You may as well expect fruit to grow without a root, as the other graces without this.

Till a man be poor in spirit, he cannot mourn. Poverty of spirit is like the fire under the still, which

makes the water drop from the eyes. When a man sees his own defects and deformities and looks

upon himself as undone, then he mourns after Christ. ‘The springs run in the valleys’ (Psalm 104:10).

When the heart becomes a valley and lies low by poverty of spirit, now the springs of holy mourning

run there. Till a man be poor in spirit, he cannot ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’. He must

first be sensible of want before he can hunger. Therefore Christ begins with poverty of spirit because

this ushers in all the rest.

(ii) The second question is, what is the difference between poverty of spirit and humility? These

are so alike that they have been taken one for the other. Chrysostom, by ‘poverty of spirit’,

understands humility. Yet I think there is some difference. They differ as the cause and the effect.

Tertullian says, none are poor in spirit but the humble. He seems to make humility the cause of

poverty of spirit. I rather think poverty of spirit is the cause of humility, for when a man sees his

want of Christ, and how he lives on the alms of free grace, this makes him humble. He that is

sensible of his own vacuity and indigence, hangs his head in humility with the violet. Humility is

the sweet spice that grows from poverty of spirit.

(iii) What is the difference between poverty of spirit and self-denial? I answer, in some things they

agree, in some things they differ. In some things they agree; for the poor in spirit is an absolute

self-denier. He renounces all opinion of himself. He acknowledges his dependence upon Christ

and free grace. But in some things they differ. The self-denier parts with the world for Christ, the

poor in spirit parts with himself for Christ, i.e. his own righteousness. The poor in spirit sees himself

nothing without Christ; the self-denier will leave himself nothing for Christ. And thus I have shown

what poverty of spirit is.

The words thus opened present us with this truth: that Christians must be poor in spirit; or thus,

poverty of spirit is the jewel which Christians must wear. As the best creature was made out of

nothing, namely, light; so when a man sees himself nothing, out of this nothing God makes a most

beautiful creature. It is God’s usual method to make a man poor in spirit, and then fill him with the

graces of the Spirit. As we deal with a watch, we take it first to pieces, and then set all the wheels

and pins in order, so the Lord first takes a man all to pieces, shows him his undone condition, and

then sets him in frame.

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The reasons are:

1 Till we are poor in spirit we are not capable of receiving grace. He who is swollen with an opinion

of self-excellency and self-sufficiency, is not fit for Christ. He is full already. If the hand be full of

pebbles, it cannot receive gold. The glass is first emptied before you pour in wine. God first empties

a man of himself, before he pours in the precious wine of his grace. None but the poor in spirit are

within Christ’s commission. ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; he hath sent me to bind up

the broken-hearted’ (Isaiah 61:1), that is, such as are broken in the sense of their unworthiness.

2. Till we are poor in spirit, Christ is never precious. Before we see our own wants, we never see

Christ’s worth. Poverty of spirit is salt and seasoning, the sauce which makes Christ relish sweet

to the soul. Mercy is most welcome to the poor in spirit. He who sees himself clad in filthy rags

(Zechariah 3:4,5), what will he give for change of raiment, the righteousness of Christ! What will

he give to have the fair mitre of salvation set upon his head! When a man sees himself almost

wounded to death, how precious will the balm of Christ’s blood be to him! When he sees himself

deep in arrears with God, and is so far from paying the debt that he cannot sum up the debt, how

glad would he be of a surety! ‘The pearl of price’ is only precious to the poor in spirit. He that

wants bread and is ready to starve, will have it whatever it cost. He will lay his garment to pledge;

bread he must have or he is undone. So to him that is poor in spirit, that sees his want of Christ,

how precious is a Saviour! Christ is Christ and grace is grace to him! He will do anything for the

bread of life. Therefore will God have the soul thus qualified, to raise the price of his market, to

enhance the value and estimate of the Lord Jesus.

3 Till we are poor in spirit we cannot go to heaven. ‘Theirs is the kingdom of heaven’. This tunes

and prepares us for heaven. By nature a man is big with self-confidence, and the gate of heaven is

so strait that he cannot enter. Now poverty of spirit lessens the soul; it pares off its superfluity, and

now he is fit to enter in at the ’strait gate’. The great cable cannot go through the eye of the needle,

but let it be untwisted and made into small threads, and then it may. Poverty of spirit untwists the

great cable. It makes a man little in his own eyes and now an entrance shall be made unto him,

‘richly into the everlasting Kingdom’ (2 Peter 1:11). Through this temple of poverty, we must go

into the temple of glory.

It shows wherein a Christian’s riches consist, namely in poverty of spirit. Some think if they can

fill their bags with gold, then they are rich. But they who are poor in spirit are the rich men. They

are rich in poverty. This poverty entitles them to a kingdom. How poor are they that think themselves

rich! How rich are they that see themselves poor! I call it the ‘jewel of poverty’. There are some

paradoxes in religion that the world cannot understand; for a man to become a fool that he may be

wise (1 Corinthians 3:18); to save his life by losing it (Matthew 16:25); and by being poor to be

rich. Reason laughs at it, but ‘Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom’. Then this poverty is

to be striven for more than all riches. Under these rags is hid cloth of gold. Out of this carcass comes

honey.

If blessed are the poor in spirit, then by the rule of contraries, cursed are the proud in spirit (Proverbs

16:5). There is a generation of men who commit idolatry with themselves; no such idol as self!

They admire their own parts, moralities, self-righteousness; and upon this stock graft the hope of

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their salvation. There are many too good to go to heaven. They have commodities enough of their

own growth, and they scorn to live upon the borrow, or to be beholden to Christ. These bladders

the Devil has blown up with pride, and they are swelled in their own conceit; but it is like the

swelling of a dropsy man whose bigness is his disease. Thus it was with that proud justiciary: ‘The

Pharisee stood and prayed, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust,

adulterers, or even as this publican; I fast twice in the week, I give tithes …’ (Luke 18:11). Here

was a man setting up the topsail of pride; but the publican, who was poor in spirit, stood afar off

and would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, ‘God be

merciful to me a sinner.’ This man carried away the garland. ‘I tell you’ (says Christ) ‘this man

went down to his house justified rather than the other’. St Paul, before his conversion, thought

himself in a very good condition, ‘touching the law, blameless’ (Philippians 3:6). He thought to

have built a tower of his own righteousness, the top whereof should have reached to heaven; but,

at last, God showed him there was a crack in the foundation, and then he gets into the ‘rock of

ages’. ‘That I may be found in him’ (Philippians 3:9). There is not a more dangerous precipice than

self-righteousness. This was Laodicea’s temper: ‘Because thou sayest I am rich and I have need of

nothing . . .’ (Revelation 3:17). She thought she wanted nothing when indeed she had nothing. How

many does this damn! We see some ships that have escaped the rocks, yet are cast away upon the

sands; so some who have escaped the rocks of gross sins, yet are cast away upon the sands of

self-righteousness; and how hard is it to convince such men of their danger! They will not believe

but that they may be helped out of their dungeon with these rotten rags. They cannot be persuaded

their case is so bad as others would make it. Christ tells them they are blind, but they are like

Seneca’s maid, who was born blind, but she would not believe it. The house, says she, is dark, but

I am not blind. Christ tells them they are naked, and offers his white robe to cover them, but they

are of a different persuasion; and because they are blind, they cannot see themselves naked. How

many have perished by being their own saviours! O that this might drive the proud sinner out of

himself! A man never comes to himself till he comes out of himself. And no man can come out,

till first Christ comes in.

If poverty of spirit be so necessary, how shall I know that I am poor in spirit? By the blessed effects

of this poverty, which are:

1 He that is poor in spirit is weaned from himself. ‘My soul is even as a weaned child’ (Psalm

131:2). It is hard for a man to be weaned from himself. The vine catches hold of everything that is

near, to stay itself upon. There is some bough or other a man would be catching hold of to rest

upon. How hard is it to be brought quite off himself! The poor in spirit are divorced from themselves;

they see they must go to hell without Christ. ‘My soul is even as a weaned child’.

2 He that is poor in spirit is a Christ-admirer. He has high thoughts of Christ. He sees himself naked

and flies to Christ that in his garments he may obtain the blessing. He sees himself wounded, and

as the wounded deer runs to the water, so he thirsts for Christ’s blood, the water of life. Lord, says

he, give me Christ or I die. Conscience is turned into a fiery serpent and has stung him; now all the

world for a brazen serpent! He sees himself in a state of death; and how precious is one leaf of the

tree of life, which is both for food and medicine! The poor in spirit sees all his riches lie in Christ,

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‘wisdom, righteousness, sanctification . . ’. In every exigency he flies to this magazine and

storehouse. He adores the all-fullness in Christ.

They say of the oil in Rheims, though they are continually almost spending it, yet it never wastes.

And such is Christ’s blood; it can never be emptied. He that is poor in spirit has recourse still to

this fountain. He sets an high value and appreciation upon Christ. He hides himself in Christ’s

wounds. He bathes himself in his blood. He wraps himself in his robe. He sees a spiritual dearth

and famine at home, but he makes out to Christ. ‘Show me the Lord (says he) and it sufficeth’.

3 He that is poor in spirit is ever complaining of his spiritual estate. He is much like a poor man

who is ever telling you of his wants; he has nothing to help himself with; he is ready to starve. So

it is with him that is poor in spirit. He is ever complaining of his wants, saying, I want a broken

heart, a thankful heart. He makes himself the most indigent creature. Though he dares not deny the

work of grace (which were a bearing false witness again the Spirit), yet he mourns he has no more

grace. This is the difference between an hypocrite and a child of God. The hypocrite is ever telling

what he has. A child of God complains of what he lacks. The one is glad he is so good, the other

grieves he is so bad. The poor in spirit goes from ordinance to ordinance for a supply of his wants;

he would fain have his stock increased. Try by this if you are poor in spirit. While others complain

they want children, or they want estates, do you complain you want grace? This is a good sign.

‘There is that maketh himself poor yet hath great riches’ (Proverbs 13:7). Some beggars have died

rich. The poor in spirit, who have lain all their lives at the gate of mercy and have lived upon the

alms of free grace, have died rich in faith, heirs to a kingdom.

4 He that is poor in spirit is lowly in heart. Rich men are commonly proud and scornful, but the

poor are submissive. The poor in spirit roll themselves in the dust in the sense of their unworthiness.

‘I abhor myself in dust’ (Job 42:6). He who is poor in spirit looks at another’s excellencies and his

own infirmities. He denies not only his sins but his duties. The more grace he has, the more humble

he is, because he now sees himself a greater debtor to God. If he can do any duty, he acknowledges

it is Christ’s strength more than his own (Philippians 4:13). As the ship gets to the haven more by

the benefit of the wind than the sail, so when a Christian makes any swift progress, it is more by

the wind of God’s Spirit than the sail of his own endeavour. The poor in spirit, when he acts most

like a saint, confesses himself ‘the chief of sinners’. He blushes more at the defect of his graces

than others do at the excess of their sins. He dares not say he has prayed or wept. He lives, yet not

he, but Christ lives in him (Galatians 2:20). He labours, yet not he, but the grace of God (1

Corinthians 15:10).

5 He who is poor in spirit is much in prayer. He sees how short he is of the standard of holiness,

therefore begs for more grace; Lord, more faith, more conformity to Christ. A poor man is ever

begging. You may know by this one that is poor in spirit. He is ever begging for a spiritual alms.

He knocks at heaven-gate; he sends up sighs; he pours out tears; he will not away from the gate till

he have his dole. God loves a modest boldness in prayer; such shall not be non-suited.

6 The poor in spirit is content to take Christ upon his own terms. The proud sinner will article and

indent with Christ. He will have Christ and his pleasure, Christ and his covetousness. But he that

is poor in spirit sees himself lost without Christ, and he is willing to have him upon his own terms,

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a Prince as well as a Saviour: ‘Jesus my Lord’ (Philippians 3:8). A castle that has long been besieged

and is ready to be taken will deliver up on any terms to save their lives. He whose heart has been

a garrison for the devil, and has held out long in opposition against Christ, when once God has

brought him to poverty of spirit, and he sees himself damned without Christ, let God propound

what articles he will, he will readily subscribe to them. ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do’ (Acts

9:6). He that is poor in spirit will do anything that he may have Christ. He will behead his beloved

sin. He will, with Peter, cast himself upon the water to come to Christ.

7 He that is poor in spirit is an exalter of free grace. None so magnify mercy as the poor in spirit.

The poor are very thankful. When Paul had tasted mercy, how thankfully does he adore free grace!

‘The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant’ (1 Timothy 1:14). It was super-exuberant. He sets

the crown of his salvation upon the head of free grace. As a man that is condemned and has a pardon

sent him, how greatly he proclaims the goodness and clemency of his prince! So St Paul displays

free grace in its orient colours. He interlines all his epistles with free grace. As a vessel that has

been perfumed makes the wine taste of it, so St Paul, who was a vessel perfumed with mercy, makes

all his epistles to taste of this perfume of free grace. They who are poor in spirit, bless God for the

least crumb that falls from the table of free grace. Labour for poverty of spirit. Christ begins with

this, and we must begin here if ever we be saved. Poverty of spirit is the foundation stone on which

God lays the superstructure of glory.

There are four things may persuade Christians to be poor in spirit.

1 This poverty is your riches. You may have the world’s riches, and yet be poor. You cannot have

this poverty without being made rich. Poverty of spirit entitles you to all Christ’s riches.

2 This poverty is your nobility. God looks upon you as persons of honour. He that is vile in his

own eyes is precious in God’s eyes. The way to rise is to fall. God esteems the valley highest.

3 Poverty of spirit sweetly quiets the soul. When a man is brought off from himself to rest on Christ,

what a blessed calm is in the heart! I am poor but ‘my God shall supply all my need’ (Philippians

4:19). I am unworthy but Christ is worthy. I am indigent, Christ is infinite. ‘Lead me to the rock

that is higher than I’ (Psalm 61:2). A man is safe upon a rock. When the soul goes out of itself and

centres upon the rock, Christ, now it is firmly settled upon its basis. This is the way to comfort.

You will be wounded in spirit till you come to be poor in spirit.

4 Poverty of spirit paves a causeway for blessedness. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit.’ Are you poor

in spirit? You are blessed persons. Happy for you that ever you were born! If you ask, Wherein

does this blessedness appear? read the next words, ‘Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’.

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5. The poor in spirit are enriched with a kingdom

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3

Here is high preferment for the saints. They shall be advanced to a kingdom. There are some who,

aspiring after earthly greatness, talk of a temporal reign here, but then God’s church on earth would

not be militant but triumphant. But sure it is the saints shall reign in a glorious manner: ‘Theirs is

the Kingdom of Heaven.’ A kingdom is held the acme and top of all worldly felicity, and ‘this

honour have all the saints’; so says our Saviour, ‘Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ All Christ’s

subjects are kings. By the kingdom of heaven is meant that state of glory which the saints shall

enjoy when they shall reign with God and the angels for ever; sin, hell and death being fully subdued.

For the illustration of this I shall show first wherein the saints in heaven are like kings.

Kings have their insignia or regalia, their ensigns of royalty and majesty.

1 Kings have their crowns. So the saints after death have their crown-royal. ‘Be thou faithful unto

death and I will give thee a crown of life’ (Revelation 2:10). Believers are not only pardoned but

crowned. The crown is an ensign of honour. A crown is not for every one. It will not fit every head.

It is only for kings and persons of renown to wear (Psalm 21:3). The crown which the poor in spirit

shall wear in heaven is an honourable crown. God himself installs them into their honour and sets

the crown-royal upon their head. And this crown that the saints shall wear, which is divinely orient

and illustrious, exceeds all other.

(i) It is more pure. Other crowns, though they be made of pure gold, yet they are mixed metal; they

have their troubles. A crown of gold cannot be made without thorns. It has so many vexations

belonging to it, that it is apt to make the headache. Which made Cyrus say, did men but know what

cares he sustained under the imperial crown, he thought they would not stoop to take it up. But the

saints’ crown is made without crosses. It is not mingled with care of keeping, or fear of losing.

What Solomon speaks in another sense I may say of the crown of glory, ‘It adds no sorrow with

it’ (Proverbs 10:22). This crown, like David’s harp, drives away the evil spirit of sorrow and disquiet.

There can be no grief in heaven any more than there can be joy in hell.

(ii) This crown of glory does not draw envy to it. David’s own son envied him and sought to take

his crown from his head. A princely crown is oftentimes the mark for envy and ambition to shoot

at, but the crown the saints shall wear is free from envy. One saint shall not envy another, because

all are crowned, and though one crown may be larger than another, yet everyone shall have as big

a crown as he is able to carry.

(iii) This is a never-fading crown. Tertullian says that this crown is not made out of either roses or

gems. Other crowns quickly wear away and tumble into the dust: ‘Doth the crown endure to all

generations?’ (Proverbs 27:24). Henry VI was honoured with the crowns of two kingdoms, France

and England. The first was lost through the faction of his nobles; the other was twice plucked from

his head. The crown has many heirs and successors. The crown is a withering thing. Death is a

worm that feeds in it; but the crown of glory is immarcescible, ‘it fadeth not away’ (1 Peter 5:4).

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It is not like the rose that loses its gloss and vernancy. This crown cannot be made to wither, but

like the flower we call Everlasting, it keeps always fresh and splendent. Eternity is a jewel of the

saints’ crown.

2 Kings have their Robes. The robe is a garment wherewith Kings are arrayed. ‘The King of Israel

and the King of Judah sat clothed in their robes’ (2 Chronicles 18:9). The robe was of scarlet or

velvet lined with ermine, sometimes of a purple colour, when it was called ‘Purpura,; sometimes

of an azure brightness. Thus the saints shall have their robes. ‘I beheld a great multitude which no

man could number of all nations and kindreds, clothed in white robes’ (Revelation 7:9). The saints,

robes signify their glory and splendour; white robes denote their sanctity. They have no sin to taint

or defile their robes. In these robes they shall shine as the angels.

3 Kings have their Sceptres in token of rule and greatness. King Ahasuerus held out to Esther the

golden sceptre (Esther 5:2); and the saints in glory have their sceptre, and ‘palms in their hands’

(Revelation 7). It was a custom of great conquerors to have palm branches in their hand in token

of victory. So the saints, those kings have ‘palms’, an emblem of victory and triumph. They are

victors over sin and hell. ‘They overcame by the blood of the Lamb’ (Revelation 12:11).

4 Kings have their Thrones. When Caesar returned from conquering his enemies, there were granted

to him four triumphs in token of honour, and there was set for him a chair of ivory in the senate

and a throne in the theatre. Thus the saints in heaven returning from their victories over sin shall

have a chair of state set them more rich than ivory or pearl, and a throne of glory (Revelation 3:21).

(i) This shall be a high throne. It is seated above all the kings and princes of the earth. Nay, it is far

above all heavens (Ephesians 4). There is the airy heaven, which is that space from the earth to the

sphere of the moon; the starry heaven, the place where are the stars and those ’superior planets’,

as the philosophers call them, planets of higher elevation, as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars etc.; the empyrean

heaven, which is called the ‘third heaven’ (2 Corinthians 12:2). In this glorious sublime place shall

the throne of the saints be erected. (ii) It is a safe throne. Other thrones are unsafe; they stand

tottering. ‘Thou hast set them in slippery places’ (Psalm 73:18); but the saints’ throne is sure. ‘He

that overcomes shall sit with me upon my throne’ (Revelation 3:21). The saints shall sit with Christ.

He keeps them safe, that no hand of violence can pull them from their throne. O ye people of God,

think of this; though now you may be called to the bar, yet shortly you shall sit upon the throne.

Having shown wherein the saints in glory are like kings, let us see wherein the kingdom of heaven

excels other kingdoms.

1 It excels in the Founder and Maker. Other kingdoms have men for their builders, but this kingdom

has God for its builder (Hebrews 11:10). Heaven is said to be ‘made without hands’ (2 Corinthians

5:1), to show the excellency of it. Neither man nor angel could ever lay stone in this building. God

erects this kingdom. Its ‘builder and maker is God’.

2 This kingdom excels in the riches of it. Gold does not so much surpass iron as this kingdom does

all other riches. ‘The gates are of pearl’ (Revelation 21:21). ‘And the foundations of the wall of it

are garnished with all precious stones’ (verse 19). It is enough for cabinets to have pearl; but were

‘gates of pearl’ ever heard of before? It is said that ‘Kings shall throw down their crowns and

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sceptres before it (Revelation 4:10), as counting all their glory and riches but dust in comparison

of it. This kingdom has deity itself to enrich it, and these riches are such as cannot be weighed in

the balance; neither the heart of man can conceive, nor the tongue of angel express.

3 This kingdom excels in the perfection of it. Other kingdoms are defective. They have not all

provisions within themselves, nor have they all commodities of their own growth, but are forced

to traffic abroad to supply their wants at home. King Solomon sent for gold to Ophir (2 Chronicles

8:18), but there is no defect in the kingdom of heaven; here are all delights and rarities to be had.

‘He that overcometh shall inherit all things’ (Revelation 21:7). Here is beauty, wisdom, glory and

magnificence. Here is the Tree of Life in the midst of this paradise. All things are to be found here

but sin and sorrow, the absence whereof adds to the fullness of this kingdom.

4 It excels in security. Other kingdoms fear either foreign invasions or intestine divisions. Solomon’s

kingdom was peaceable awhile but at last he had an alarum given him by the enemy (1 Kings

11:11,14). But the kingdom of heaven is so impregnable that it fears no hostile assaults or inroads.

The devils are said to be locked up in chains (Jude 6). The saints in heaven shall no more need fear

them than a man fears that thief’s robbings who is hanged up in chains. The gates of this celestial

kingdom ‘are not shut at all by day’ (Revelation 21:25). We shut the gates of the city in a time of

danger, but the gates of that kingdom always stand open to show that there is no fear of the approach

of an enemy. The kingdom has gates for the magnificence of it, but the gates are not shut because

of the security of it.

5 This kingdom excels in its stability. Other kingdoms have vanity written upon them. They cease

and are changed; though they may have a head of gold, yet feet of clay. ‘I will cause the kingdom

to cease’ (Hosea 1:4). Kingdoms have their climacteric year. Where is the glory of Athens? the

pomp of Troy? What is become of the Assyrian, Grecian, Persian monarchy? Those kingdoms are

demolished and laid in the dust; but the kingdom of heaven has eternity written upon it. It is an

‘everlasting kingdom’ (2 Peter 1:11). Other kingdoms may be lasting but not everlasting. The

apostle calls it ‘a kingdom that cannot be shaken’ (Hebrews 12:28). It is fastened upon a strong

basis, the omnipotence of God. It runs parallel with eternity. ‘They shall reign for ever and ever’

(Revelation 22:5).

I shall next clear the truth of this proposition that the saints shall be possessed of this kingdom.

1 In regard of God’s free grace, ‘It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom’ (Luke

12:32). It is not any desert in us but free grace in God. The papists say we merit the kingdom, but

we disclaim the title of merit. Heaven is a donative.

2 There is a price paid. Jesus Christ has shed his blood for it. All saints come to the kingdom through

blood. Christ’s hanging upon the cross was to bring us to the crown. As the kingdom of heaven is

a gift in regard of the Father, so it is a purchase in regard of the Son.

1 It shows us that religion is no unreasonable thing. God does not cut us out work and give no

reward. Godliness enthrones us in a kingdom. When we hear of the doctrine of repentance, steeping

our souls in brinish tears for sin; the doctrine of mortification, pulling out the right eye, beheading

the king-sin; we are ready to think it is hard to take down this bitter pill, but here is that in the text

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may sweeten it. There is a kingdom behind, and that will make amends for all. This glorious

recompense as far exceeds our thoughts as it surpasses our defects. No one can say without wrong

to God that he is a hard master. God gives double pay. He bestows a kingdom upon those that fear

him. Satan may disparage the ways of God, like those spies that raised an ill report of the good land

(Numbers 13:32). But will Satan mend your wages if you serve him? He gives damnable pay;

instead of a kingdom, ‘chains of darkness’ (Jude 6).

2 See here the mercy and bounty of God that has prepared a kingdom for his people. It is a favour

that we poor ‘worms and no men’ (Psalm 22:6) should be suffered to live. But that worms should

be made kings, this is divine bounty. It is mercy to pardon us, but it is rich mercy to crown us.

‘Behold, what manner of love’ is this! Earthly princes may bestow great gifts and donatives on

their subjects, but they keep the kingdom to themselves. Though Pharaoh advanced Joseph to

honour and gave him a ring from his finger, yet he kept the kingdom to himself. ‘Only in the throne

will I be greater than thou’ (Genesis 41:40); but God gives a kingdom to his people, he sets them

upon the throne. How David admires the goodness of God in bestowing upon him a temporal

kingdom! ‘Then went king David in, and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God! and

what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?’ (2 Samuel 7:18). He wondered that God

should take him from the sheepfold and set him on the throne! that God should turn his shepherd’s

staff into a sceptre! O then how may the saints admire the riches of grace, that God should give

them a kingdom above all the princes of the earth, nay, far above all heavens! God thinks nothing

too good for his children. We many times think much of a tear, a prayer, or to sacrifice a sin for

him, but he does not think much to bestow a kingdom upon us. How will the saints read over the

lectures of free grace in heaven and trumpet forth the praises of that God who has crowned them

with loving-kindness!

3 It shows us that Christianity is no disgraceful thing. Wise men measure things by the end. What

is the end of godliness? It brings a kingdom. A man’s sin brings him to shame (Proverbs 13:5).

What fruit had ye in those things whereof you are now ashamed? (Romans 6:21). But religion

brings to honour (Proverbs 4:8). It brings a man to a throne, a crown, it ends in glory. It is the

sinner’s folly to reproach a saint. It is just as if Shimei had reproached David when he was going

to be made king. It is a saint’s wisdom to contemn a reproach. Say as David when he danced before

the ark, ‘I will yet be more vile’ (2 Samuel 6:22). If to pray and hear and serve my God be to be

vile, ‘I will yet be more vile’. This is my excellency, my glory. I am doing now that which will

bring me to a kingdom. O think it no disgrace to be a Christian! I speak it chiefly to you who are

entering upon the ways of God. Perhaps you may meet with such as will reproach and censure you.

Bind their reproaches as a crown about your head. Despise their censure as much as their praise.

Remember there is a kingdom entailed upon godliness. Sin draws hell after it; grace draws a crown

after it.

4 See here that which may make the people of God long for death. Then they shall enter upon their

kingdom. Indeed the wicked may fear death. It will not lead them to a kingdom but a prison. Hell

is the gaol where they must lie rotting for ever with the devil and his angels. To every Christless

person death is the king of terror; but the godly may long for death. It will raise them to a kingdom.

When Scipio’s father had told him of that glory the soul should be invested with in a state of

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immortality, why then, says Scipio, do I tarry thus long upon the earth? Why do I not hasten to die?

Believers are not perfectly happy till death. When Croesus asked Solon whom he thought happy,

he told him one Tellus, a man that was dead. A Christian at death shall be completely installed into

his honour. The anointing oil shall be poured on him, and the crown-royal set upon his head. The

Thracians, in their funerals, used music. The heathens (as Theocritus’ observes) had their funeral

banquet, because of that felicity which they supposed the parties deceased were entered into. The

saints are now ‘heirs of the kingdom’ (James 2:5). Does not the heir desire to be crowned?

Truly there is enough to wean us and make us willing to be gone from hence. The saints ‘eat ashes

like bread’. They are here in a suffering condition. ‘Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth,

as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth’ (Psalm 141:7). When a man hews and cuts

a tree the chips fly up and down; here and there a chip. So here a saint wounded, there a saint

massacred; our bones fly like chips up and down. ‘For thy sake we are killed all the day long’

(Romans 8:36). But there is a kingdom a-coming; when the body is buried the soul is crowned.

Who would not be willing to sail in a storm if he were sure to be crowned as soon as he came at

the shore? How is it that the godly look so ghastly at thoughts of death, as if they were rather going

to their execution than their coronation? Though we should be willing to stay here awhile to do

service, yet we should with St Paul, ‘desire to be dissolved and be with Christ’. The day of a

believer’s dissolution is the day of his inauguration.

But how shall we know that this glorious kingdom shall be settled upon us at death?

1 If God has set up his kingdom within us; ‘The kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17:21). By

the kingdom of God there is meant the kingdom of grace in the heart. Grace may be compared to

a kingdom. It sways the sceptre; it gives out laws. There is the law of love. Grace beats down the

devil’s garrisons. It brings the heart into a sweet subjection to Christ. Now is this kingdom of grace

set up in your heart? Do you rule over your sins? Can you bind those kings in chains? (Psalms

149:8). Are you a king over your pride, passion and unbelief? Is the kingdom of God within you?

While others aspire after earthly greatness and labour for a kingdom without them, do you labour

for a kingdom within you? Certainly if the kingdom of grace be in your heart, you shall have the

kingdom of glory. If God’s kingdom enter into you, you shall enter into his kingdom. But let not

that man ever think to reign in glory, who lives a slave to his lusts.

2 If you are a believer, you will go to this blessed kingdom: ‘Rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom’

(James 2:5). Faith is an heroic act of the soul. It makes an holy adventure on God, by a promise.

This is the crowning grace. Faith puts us into Christ, and our title to the crown comes in by Christ.

By faith we are born of God, and so we become children of the blood-royal. By faith our hearts are

purified (Acts 15:9, 10), and we are made fit for a kingdom; ‘rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom’.

Faith paves a causeway to heaven. Believers die heirs to the crown.

3 He that has a noble, kingly spirit shall go to the heavenly kingdom. ‘Set your affection on things

above’ (Colossians 3:2). Do you live in the world, above the world? The eagle does not catch flies,

she soars aloft in the air. Do you pant after glory and immortality? Do you have a brave majestic

spirit, an heavenly ambition? Do you mind the favour of God, the peace of Sion, the salvation of

your soul? Do you abhor that which is sordid and below you? Alexander would not exercise at the

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Olympic games. Can you trample upon all sublunary things? Is heaven in your eye, and Christ in

your heart and the world under your feet? He who has such a kingly spirit that looks no lower than

a crown, ‘he shall dwell on high’, and have his throne mounted far above all heavens.

The exhortation has a double aspect.

I It looks towards the wicked. Is there a kingdom to be had, a kingdom so enamelled and bespangled

with glory? Oh then, do not by your folly make yourselves incapable of this preferment. Do not

for the satisfying of a base lust forfeit a kingdom. Do not drink away a kingdom. Do not for the lap

of pleasure lose the crown of life. If men, before they committed a sin, would but sit down and

rationally consider whether the present gain and sweetness in sin would countervail the loss of a

kingdom, I believe it would put them into a cold sweat, and give some check to their unbridled

affections. Jacob took Esau by the heel. Look not upon the smiling face of sin, but ‘take it by the

heel’. Look at the end of it. It will deprive you of a kingdom, and can anything make amends for

that loss? O, is it not madness, for the unfruitful works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11), to lose a

kingdom? How will the devil at the last day reproach and laugh at men, that they should be so

stupidly sottish as for a rattle to forgo a crown! Like those Indians who for pictures and glass beads

will part with their gold. Surely it will much contribute to the vexation of the damned to think how

foolishly they missed of a kingdom.

2 The exhortation looks toward the godly, and it exhorts to two things.

(i) Is there a kingdom in reversion? Then let this be a motive to duty. Do all the service you can

for God while you live. ‘Spend and be spent.’ The reward is honourable. The thoughts of a kingdom

should add wings to prayer, and fire to zeal. ‘What honour and dignity has been done to Mordecai?’

says King Ahasuerus (Esther 6:3). Inquire what has been done for God? What love have you shown

to his name? What zeal for his glory? Where is the head of that Goliath lust you have slain for his

sake? Methinks we should sometimes go aside into our closets and weep to consider how little

work we have done for God. What a vast disproportion is there between our service and our reward!

What is all our weeping and fasting compared to a kingdom! Oh improve all your interest for God.

Make seasons of grace, opportunities for service.

And that you may act more vigorously for God, know and be assured, the more work you do, the

more glory you shall have. Every saint shall have a kingdom, but the more service any man does

for God, the greater will be his kingdom. There are degrees of glory which I will prove thus: First,

because there are degrees of torment in hell. ‘They shall receive greater damnation’ (Luke 20:47).

They who make religion a cloak for their sin, shall have an hotter place in hell. Now if there be

degrees of torment in hell, then by the rule of contraries there are degrees of glory in the kingdom

of heaven. Again, seeing God in his free grace rewards men according to their works, therefore,

the more service they do the greater shall their reward be. ‘Behold I come quickly and my reward

is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be’ (Revelation 22:12). He that has done

more shall receive more. He whose pound gained ten, was made ruler over ten cities (Luke 19:16,

17). This may very much excite to eminency in religion. The more the lamp of your grace shines,

the more you shall shine in the heavenly orb. Would you have your crown brighter, your kingdom

larger, your palm-branches more flourishing? Be Christians of degrees. Do much work in a little

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time. While you are laying out, God is laying up. The more glory you bring to God, the more glory

you shall have from God.

(ii) Walk worthy of this kingdom. ‘That ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you to his

kingdom’ (1 Thessalonians 2:12). Live as kings. Let the majesty of holiness appear in your faces.

Those who looked on Stephen, ’saw his face as it had been the face of an angel (Acts 6:15). A kind

of angelic brightness was seen in his visage. When we shine in zeal, humility, gravity, this beautifies

and honours us in the eyes of others, and makes us look as those who are heirs apparent to a crown.

Here is comfort to the people of God in case of poverty. God has provided them a kingdom: ‘Theirs

is the kingdom of heaven’. A child of God is often so low in the world that he has not a foot of land

to inherit. He is poor in purse as well as in spirit. But here is a fountain of consolation opened. The

poorest saint who has lost all his golden fleece is heir to a kingdom, a kingdom which excels all

the kingdoms and principalities of the world, more than pearl or diamond excels brass. It is peerless

and endless. The hope of a kingdom, says Basil, should carry a Christian with courage and

cheerfulness through all his afflictions. And it is a saying of Luther, ‘The sea of God’s mercy,

overflowing in spiritual blessings, should drown all the sufferings of this life’. What though you

go now in rags? You shall have your white robes. What though you are fed as Daniel with pulse

and have coarser fare? You shall feast it when you come into the kingdom. Here you drink the

water of tears, but shortly you shall drink the wine of paradise. Be comforted with the thoughts of

a kingdom.

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6. Blessed are they that mourn

Blessed are they that mourn.

Matthew 5:4

Here are eight steps leading to true blessedness. They may be compared to Jacob’s Ladder, the top

whereof reached to heaven. We have already gone over one step, and now let us proceed to the

second: ‘Blessed are they that mourn’. We must go through the valley of tears to paradise. Mourning

were a sad and unpleasant subject to treat on, were it not that it has blessedness going before, and

comfort coming after. Mourning is put here for repentance. It implies both sorrow, which is the

cloud, and tears which are the rain distilling in this golden shower; God comes down to us.

The words fall into two parts, first, an assertion that mourners are blessed persons; second, a reason,

because they shall be comforted.

1 I begin with the first, the assertion; mourners are blessed persons. ‘Blessed are ye that weep now’

(Luke 6:21). Though the saints’ tears are bitter tears, yet they are blessed tears. But will all mourning

entitle a man to blessedness? No, there is a twofold mourning which is far from making one blessed.

There is a carnal mourning. There is a diabolical mourning.

There is a carnal mourning when we lament outward losses. ‘In ‘Rama there was a voice heard,

lamentation and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children . . .’ (Matthew

2:18). There are abundance of these tears shed. We have many can mourn over a dead child, that

cannot mourn over a crucified Saviour. Worldly sorrow hastens our funerals. ‘The sorrow of the

world worketh death’ (2 Corinthians 7:10).

2 There is a diabolical mourning and that is twofold: When a man mourns that he cannot satisfy

his impure lust, this is like the devil, whose greatest torture is that he can be no more wicked. Thus

Ammon mourned and was sick, till he defiled his sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:2). Thus Ahab mourned

for Naboth’s vineyard: ‘He laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat

no bread’ (1 Kings 21:4). This was a devilish mourning.

Again, when men are sorry for the good which they have done. Pharaoh grieved that ‘he had let

the children of Israel go’ (Exodus 14:5). Many are so devilish that they are troubled they have

prayed so much and have heard so many sermons. They repent of their repentance; but if we repent

of the good which is past, God will not repent of the evil which is to come.

To illustrate this point of holy mourning, I shall show you what is the adequate object of it. There

are two objects of spiritual mourning, sin and misery. Sin, and that twofold, our own sin; the sin

of others.

Our own sin. Sin must have tears. While we carry the fire of sin about us, we must carry the water

of tears to quench it (Ezekiel 7:16). They are not blessed (says Chrysostom) who mourn for the

dead, but rather those who mourn for sin; and indeed it is with good reason we mourn for sin, if

we consider the guilt of sin, which binds over to wrath. Will not a guilty person weep, who is to

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be bound over to the sessions? Every sinner is to be tried for his life and is sure to be cast if mercy

does not become an advocate for him.

The pollution of sin. Sin is a plague spot, and will you not labour to wash away this spot with your

tears? Sin makes a man worse than a toad or serpent. The serpent has nothing but what God has

put into it. Poison is medicinable (capable of being used as a medicine); but the sinner has that

which the devil has put into him. ‘Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?’ (Acts

5:3). What a strange metamorphosis has sin made! The soul, which was once of an azure brightness,

sin has made of a sable colour We have in our hearts the seed of the unpardonable sin. We have

the seed of all those sins for which the damned are now tormented. And shall we not mourn? He

that does not mourn has surely lost the use of his reason. But every mourning for sin is not sufficient

to entitle a man to blessedness. I shall show what is not the right gospel-mourning for sin, and what

is the right gospel-mourning for sin.

What is not the right gospel-mourning for sin? There is a fivefold mourning which is false and

spurious.

A despairing kind of mourning. Such was Judas’ mourning. He saw his sin, he was sorry, he made

confession, he justifies Christ, he makes restitution (Matthew 27). Judas, who is in hell, did more

than many nowadays. He confessed his sin. He did not plead necessity or good intentions, but he

makes an open acknowledgement of his sin. ‘I have sinned’. Judas made restitution. His conscience

told him he came wickedly by the money. It was ‘the price of blood’, and he ‘brought again the

thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests’ (Matthew 27:3). But how many are there who invade the

rights and possessions of others, but not a word of restitution! Judas was more honest than they

are. Well, wherein was Judas’ sorrow blameworthy? It was a mourning joined with despair. He

thought his wound broader than the plaster. He drowned himself in tears. His was not repentance

unto life (Acts 11:18), but rather unto death.

An hypocritical mourning. The heart is very deceitful. It can betray as well by a tear as by a kiss.

Saul looks like a mourner, and as he was sometimes ‘among the prophets’ (1 Samuel 10:12) So he

seemed to be among the penitents. ‘And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed

the commandment of the Lord’ (1 Samuel 15:24). Saul played the hypocrite in his mourning, for

he did not take shame to him self, but he did rather take honour to himself: ‘honour me before the

elders of my people’ (verse 30). He pared and minced his sin that it might appear lesser, he laid his

sin upon the people, ‘because I feared the people’ (verse 24). They would have me fly upon the

spoil, and I dare do no other. A true mourner labours to draw out sin in its bloody colours, and

accent it with all its killing aggravations, that he may be deeply humbled before the Lord. ‘Our

iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens’ (Ezra 9:6).

The true penitent labours to make the worst of his sin. Saul labours to make the best of sin; like a

patient that makes the best of his disease, lest the physician should prescribe him too sharp physic.

How easy is it for a man to put a cheat upon his own soul, and by hypocrisy to sweep himself into

hell!

A forced mourning. When tears are pumped out by God’s judgements, these are like the tears of a

man that has the stone, or that lies upon the rack. Such was Cain’s mourning. ‘My punishment is

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greater than I can bear’ (Genesis 4:13). His punishment troubled him more than his sin; to mourn

only for fear of hell is like a thief that weeps for the penalty rather than the offence. The tears of

the wicked are forced by the fire of affliction.

An extrinsic mourning; when sorrow lies only on the outside. ‘They disfigure their faces’ (Matthew

6:16). The eye is tender, but the heart is hard. Such was Ahab’s mourning. ‘He rent his clothes and

put sackcloth on his flesh, and went softly’ (1 Kings 21:27). His clothes were rent, but his heart

was not rent. He had sackcloth but no sorrow. He hung down his head like a bulrush, but his heart

was like an adamant. There are many who may be compared to weeping marbles, they are both

watery and flinty.

A vain fruitless mourning. Some will shed a few tears, but are as bad as ever. They will cozen and

be unclean. Such a kind of mourning there is in hell. The damned weep but they blaspheme.

What is the right gospel-mourning? That mourning which will entitle a man to blessedness has

these qualifications:

It is spontaneous and free. It must come as water out of a spring, not as fire out of a flint. Tears for

sin must be like the myrrh which drops from the tree freely without cutting or forcing. Mary

Magdalene’s repentance was voluntary. ‘She stood weeping’ (Luke 7). She came to Christ with

ointment in her hand, with love in her heart, with tears in her eyes. God is for a freewill offering.

He does not love to be put to distrain.

Gospel-mourning is spiritual; that is, when we mourn for sin more than suffering. Pharaoh says,

Take away the plague. He never thought of the plague of his heart. A sinner mourns because

judgement follows at the heels of sin, but David cries out, ‘My sin is ever before me’ (Psalm 51:3).

God had threatened that the sword should ride in circuit in his family, but David does not say, ‘The

sword is ever before me’, but ‘My sin is ever before me’. The offence against God troubled him.

He grieved more for the treason than the bloody axe. Thus the penitent prodigal, ‘I have sinned

against heaven, and before thee’ (Luke 15:18,21). He does not say, ‘I am almost starved among

the husks’, but ‘I have offended my father’. In particular, our mourning for sin, if it be spiritual,

must be under this threefold notion:

1 We must mourn for sin as it is an act of hostility and enmity. Sin not only makes us unlike God,

but contrary to God: ‘They have walked contrary unto me’ (Leviticus 26:40). Sin affronts and

resists the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:51). Sin is contrary to God’s nature; God is holy; sin is an impure

thing. Sin is contrary to his will. If God be of one mind, sin is of another. Sin does all it can to spite

God. The Hebrew word for ’sin’ signifies ‘rebellion’. A sinner fights against God (Acts 5:39). Now

when we mourn for sin as it is a walking Antipodes’ to heaven, this is a gospel-mourning. Nature

will not bear contraries.

2 We must mourn for sin as it is a piece of the highest ingratitude. It is a kicking against the breasts

of mercy. God sends his Son to redeem us, his Spirit to comfort us. We sin against the blood of

Christ, the grace of the Spirit and shall we not mourn? We complain of the unkindness of others,

and shall we not lay to heart our own unkindness against God? Caesar took it unkindly that his son,

Brutus, should stab him — ‘and thou, my son!’ May not the Lord say to us, ‘These wounds I have

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received in the house of my friend!’ (Zechariah 13:6). Israel took their jewels and earrings and

made a golden calf of them. The sinner takes the jewels of God’s mercies and makes use of them

to sin. Ingratitude dyes a sin in grain, hence they are called ‘crimson sins’ (Isaiah 1:18). Sins against

gospel-love are worse in some sense than the sins of the devils, for they never had an offer of grace

tendered to them. ‘The devil sinned though constituted in innocence, I indeed when restored. He

continued in wickedness by reprobation of God, I indeed when recalled by God. He was hardened

by punishment, I indeed by (divine) gentleness. And thus both of us went against God, the one by

not seeking to know himself, I indeed against the one who died for me. Behold his (the devil’s)

dreadful likeness, but in many things I see myself even more dreadful’ (Anselm: Concerning the

fall of the Devil.) Now when we mourn for sin as it has its accent of ingratitude upon it, this is an

evangelical mourning.

We must mourn for sin as it is a privation; it keeps good things from us; it hinders our communion

with God. Mary wept for Christ’s absence. ‘They have taken away my Lord’ (John 20:13). So our

sins have taken away our Lord. They have deprived us of his sweet presence. Will not he grieve

who has lost a rich jewel? When we mourn for sin under this notion, as it makes the Sun of

Righteousness withdraw from our horizon; when we mourn not so much that peace is gone, and

trading is gone, but God is gone, ‘My beloved had withdrawn himself’ (Canticles 5:6); this is an

holy mourning. The mourning for the loss of God’s favour is the best way to regain his favour. If

you have lost a friend, all your weeping will not fetch him again, but if you have lost God’s presence,

your mourning will bring your God again.

Gospel-mourning sends the soul to God. When the prodigal son repented, he went to his father. ‘I

will arise and go to my father’ (Luke 15:18). Jacob wept and prayed (Hosea 12:4). The people of

Israel wept and offered sacrifice (Judges 2:4,5). Gospel-mourning puts a man upon duty. The reason

is, that in true sorrow there is a mixture of hope, and hope puts the soul upon the use of means.

That mourning which like the ‘flaming sword’ keeps the soul from approaching to God, and beats

it off from duty, is a sinful mourning. It is a sorrow hatched in hell. Such was Saul’s grief, which

drove him to the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7). Evangelical mourning is a spur to prayer. The

child who weeps for offending his father goes to his presence and will not leave till his father be

reconciled to him. Absalom could not be quiet ‘till he had seen the king’s face’ (2 Samuel 14:32,

33).

Gospel-mourning is for sin in particular. The deceitful man is occupied with generalities. It is with

a true penitent as it is with a wounded man. He comes to the surgeon and shows him all his wounds.

Here I was cut with the sword; here I was shot with a bullet. So a true penitent bewails all his

particular sins. ‘We have served Baalim’ (Judges 10:10). They mourned for their idolatry. And

David lays his fingers upon the sore and points to that very sin that troubled him (Psalm 51:4). I

have done this evil. He means his blood-guiltiness. A wicked man will say he is a sinner, but a

child of God says, I have done this evil. Peter wept for that particular sin of denying Christ. Clemens

Alexandrinus says, he never heard a cock crow, but he fell a-weeping. There must be a particular

repentance before we have a general pardon.

Gospel tears must drop from the eye of faith. ‘The father of the child cried out with tears, ‘Lord, I

believe’ (Mark 9:24). Our disease must make us mourn, but when we look up to our Physician,

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who has made a plaister of his own blood, we must not mourn without hope. Believing tears are

precious. When the clouds of sorrow have overcast the soul, some sunshine of faith must break

forth. The soul will be swallowed up of sorrow, it will be drowned in tears, if faith be not the bladder

to keep it up from sinking. Though our tears drop to the earth, our faith must reach heaven. After

the greatest rain, faith must appear as the rainbow in the cloud. The tears of faith are bottled as

precious wine (Psalm 56:8).

Gospel-mourning is joined with self-loathing. The sinner admires himself. The penitent loathes

himself. ‘Ye shall loath yourselves in your own sight for all your evils’ (Ezekiel 20:43). A true

penitent is troubled not only for the shameful consequence of sin, but for the loathsome nature of

sin; not only the sting of sin but the deformed face. How did the leper loathe himself! (Leviticus

13:45). The Hebrew doctors say, the leper pronounced unclean was to put a covering on his upper

lip, both as a mourner and in token of shame. The true mourner cries out, O these impure eyes! this

heart which is a conclave of wickedness! He not only leaves sin but loathes sin. He that is fallen

in the dirt loathes himself (Hosea 14:1).

Gospel-mourning must be purifying. Our tears must make us more holy. We must so weep for sin,

as to weep out sin. Our tears must drown our sins. We must not only mourn but turn. ‘Turn to me

with weeping’ (Joel 2:12). What is it to have a watery eye and a whorish heart? It is foolish to say

it is day, when the air is full of darkness; so to say you repent, when you draw dark shadows in

your life. It is an excellent saying of Augustine, ‘He truly bewails the sins he has committed, who

never commits the sins he has bewailed’. True mourning is like the ‘water of jealousy’ (Numbers

5:12-22). It makes the thigh of sin to rot. ‘Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters’

(Psalm 74:14). The heads of our sins, these dragons, are broken in the waters of true repentance.

True tears are cleansing. They are like a flood that carries away all the rubbish of our sins with it.

The waters of holy mourning are like the river Jordan wherein Naaman washed and was cleansed

of his leprosy. It is reported that there is a river in Sicily where, if the blackest sheep are bathed,

they become white; so, though our sins be as scarlet, yet by washing in this river of repentance,

they become white as snow. Naturalists say of the serpent, before it goes to drink it vomits out its

poison. In this ‘be wise as serpents’. Before you think to drink down the sweet cordials of the

promises, cast up the poison that lies at your heart. Do not only mourn for sin, but break from sin.

Gospel-mourning must be joined with hatred of sin. ‘What indignation!’ (2 Corinthians 7:11). We

must not only abstain from sin, but abhor sin. The dove hates the least feather of the hawk. A true

mourner hates the least motion to sin. A true mourner is a sin-hater. Amnon hated Tamar more than

ever he loved her (2 Samuel 13:15). To be a sin-hater implies two things: first, to look upon sin as

the most deadly evil, a complicated evil. It looks more ghastly than death or hell. Second, to be

implacably incensed against it. A sin-hater will never admit of any terms of peace. The war between

him and sin is like the war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ‘There was war between Rehoboam

and Jeroboam all their days’ (1 Kings 14:30). Anger may be reconciled. Hatred cannot. True

mourning begins in the love of God, and ends in the hatred of sm.

Gospel-mourning in some cases is joined with restitution. It is as well a sin to violate the name as

the chastity of another. If we have eclipsed the good name of others, we are bound to ask them for

forgiveness. If we have wronged them in their estate by unjust, fraudulent dealing, we must make

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them some compensation. Thus Zacchaeus, ‘If I have taken anything from any man by false

accusation, I restore him fourfold’ (Luke 19:8), according to the law of Exodus 22:1. St James bids

us not only look to the heart but the hand: ‘Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts’

(James 4:8). If you have wronged another, cleanse your hands by restitution. Be assured, without

restitution, no remission.

Gospel-mourning must be a speedy mourning. We must take heed of adjourning our repentance,

and putting it off till death. As David said, ‘I will pay my vows now’ (Psalm 116:18), so should a

Christian say, I will mourn for sin now. ‘Blessed are ye that weep now’ (Luke 6:21). As Popillius,

the Roman Legate, when he was sent to Antiochus (Epiphanes) the king, made a circle round about

the king and bade him make his answer before he went out of that circle, so God has encircled us

in the compass of a little time, and charges us immediately to bewail our sins. ‘Now God calleth

all men everywhere to repent’ (Acts 17:30). We know not whether we may have another day granted

us. Oh let us not put off our mourning for sin till the making of our will. Do not think holy mourning

is only a deathbed duty. You may seek the blessing with tears, as Esau when it is too late. ‘During

tomorrow?, says Augustine. How long shall I say that I will repent tomorrow? Why not at this

instant? ‘Delay brings danger’. Caesar’s deferring to read his letter before he went to the

Senate-house, cost him his life. The true mourner makes haste to meet an angry God, as Jacob did

his brother; and the present he sends before is the sacrifice of tears.

Gospel-mourning for sin is constant. There are some who at a sermon will shed a few tears, but

this land-flood is soon dried up. The hypocrite’s sorrow is like a vein opened and presently stopped.

The Hebrew word for ‘eye’ signifies also ‘a fountain’, to show that the eye must run like a fountain

for sin and not cease; but it must not be like the Libyan fountain of the sun which the ancients speak

of; in the morning the water is hot, at midday cold. The waters of repentance must not overflow

with more heat in the morning, at the first hearing of the gospel, and at midday, in the midst of

health and prosperity, grow cold and be ready to freeze. No, it must be a daily weeping. As Paul

said, ‘I die daily’ (1 Corinthians 15:31), so a Christian should say, ‘I mourn daily’. Therefore keep

open an issue of godly sorrow, and be sure it be not stopped till death. ‘Let not the apple of thine

eye cease’ (Lamentations 2:18). It is reported of holy John Bradford that scarce a day passed him

wherein he did not shed some tears for sin. Daily mourning is a good antidote against backsliding.

I have read of one that had an epilepsy, or falling sickness, and being dipped in seawater, was cured.

The washing of our souls daily in the brinish waters of repentance is the best way both to prevent

and cure the falling into relapses.

Even God’s own children must mourn after pardon; for God, in pardoning, does not pardon at one

instant sins past and future; but as repentance is renewed, so pardon is renewed. Should God by

one act pardon sins future as well as past, this would make void part of Christ’s office. What need

were there of his intercession, if sin should be pardoned before it be committed? There are sins in

the godly of daily incursion, which must be mourned for. Though sin be pardoned, still it rebels;

though it be covered, it is not cured (Romans 7:23). There is that in the best Christian which is

contrary to God. There is that in him which deserves hell, and shall he not mourn? A ship that is

always leaking must have the water continually pumped out. While the soul leaks by sin, we must

be still pumping at the leak by repentance. Think not, O Christian, that your sins are washed away

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only by Christ’s blood, but by water and blood. The brazen laver (Exodus 30:18) that the people

of Israel were to wash in might be a fit emblem of this spiritual laver, tears and blood; and when

holy mourning is thus qualified, this is that ’sorrowing after a godly sort’ (2 Corinthians 7:11),

which makes a Christian eternally blessed.

As we must mourn for our own sins, so we must lay to heart the sins of others. The poets feign that

Biblis was turned into a fountain. Thus we should wish with Jeremiah, that our eyes were a fountain

of tears, that we might weep day and night for the iniquity of the times. Our blessed Saviour mourned

for the sins of the Jews: ‘Being grieved for the hardness’ (or brawniness) ‘of their hearts’ (Mark

3:5). And holy David, looking upon the sins of the wicked, his heart was turned into a spring, and

his eyes into rivers. ‘Rivers of tears run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law’ (Psalm

119:136). Lot’s righteous soul ‘was vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked’ (2 Peter

2:7). Lot took the sins of Sodom and made spears of them to pierce his own soul. Cyprian says that

in the primitive times, when a virgin who vowed herself to religion had defiled her chastity, shame

and grief filled the whole face of the congregation.

Have not we cause to mourn for the sins of others? The whole axle-tree of the nation is ready to

break under the weight of sin. What an inundation of wickedness is there amongst us? Mourn for

the hypocrisy of the times. Jehu says ‘Come, see my zeal for the Lord’, but it was zeal for the throne

(2 Kings 10:16). This is the hypocrisy of some. They entitle God to whatever they do. They make

bold with God to use his name to their wickedness; as if a thief should pretend the king’s warrant

for his robbery. ‘They build up Sion with blood; the heads thereof judge for reward; yet will they

lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us?’ (Micah 3:10, 11). Many with a religious

kiss smite the gospel under the fifth rib. Could not Ahab be content to kill and take possession, but

must he usher it in with religion, and make fasting a preface to his murder? (1 Kings 21:12). The

white devil is worst. A burning torch in the hand of a ghost is most affrighting. To hear the name

of God in the mouths of scandalous hypocrites is enough to affright others from the profession of

religion.

Mourn for the errors and blasphemies of the nation. There is now a free trade of error. Toleration

gives men a patent to sin. What cursed opinion that has been long ago buried in the church, but is

now dug out of the grave, and by some worshipped! England is grown as wanton in her religion,

as she is antic in her fashions. The Jesuits’ Exchange is open, and every one almost is for an opinion

of the newest cut. Did men’s faces alter as fast as their judgements, we should not know them.

Mourn for covenant violation. This sin is a flying roll against England. Breach of covenant is

spiritual harlotry, and for this God may name us ‘Lo-ammi’, and give us a bill of divorce (Hosea

1:9).

Mourn for the pride of the nation. Our condition is low, but our hearts are high. Mourn for the

profaneness of the land. England is like that man in the gospel who had ‘a spirit of an unclean devil’

(Luke 4:33). Mourn for the removing of landmarks (Deuteronomy 27:17). Mourn for the contempt

offered to magistracy, the spitting in the face of authority. Mourn that there are so few mourners.

Surely if we mourn not for the sins of others, it is to be feared that we are not sensible of our own

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sins. God looks upon us as guilty of those sins in others which we do not lament. Our tears may

help to quench God’s wrath.

The saints are members of the body mystical as well as political, therefore they must be sensible

of the injuries of God’s church. ‘We wept when we remembered Sion’ (Psalm 137:1). The people

of Israel, being debarred from the place of public worship, sat by the rivers weeping. They laid

aside all their musical instruments. ‘We hanged our harps upon the willows’ (verse 2). We were

as far from joy as those willows were from fruit. ‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange

land?’ (verse 4). We were fitter to weep than to sing. The sound of song is not agreeable to mourning.

When we consider the miseries of many Christians in Germany, the Dukedom of Savoy, and other

foreign parts, who have been driven from their habitations because they would not desert the

Protestant and espouse the Popish religion; when instead of a Bible, a crucifix; instead of prayers,

mass; instead of going to church, they should go on pilgrimage to some saint or relic. When we

consider these things, our eyes should run down. Mourn to see God’s church a bleeding vine. Mourn

to see Christ’s spouse with ‘garments rolled in blood’.

Methinks I hear England’s passing bell go. Let us shed some tears over dying England. Let us

bewail our intestine divisions. England’s divisions have been fatal. They brought in the Saxons,

Danes, Normans. If ‘a kingdom divided cannot stand’, how do we stand but by a miracle of free

grace? Truth is fallen and peace is fled. England’s fine coat of peace is torn and, like Joseph’s coat,

dipped in blood. Peace is the glory of a nation. Some observe, if the top of the beech tree be taken

off, the whole tree withers. Peace is the apex and top of all earthly blessings. This top being cut

off, we may truly say the body of the whole nation begins to wither apace.

Mourn for the oppressions of England. The people of this land have laid out their money only to

buy mourning.

Though we must always keep open the issue of godly sorrow, yet there are some seasons wherein

our tears should overflow, as the water sometimes rises higher. There are three special seasons of

extraordinary mourning, when it should be as it were high-water in the soul:

1 When there are tokens of God’s wrath breaking forth in the nation. England has been under God’s

black rod these many years. The Lord has drawn his sword and it is not yet put up. O that our tears

may blunt the edge of this sword! When it is a time of treading down, now is a time of breaking

up the fallow ground of our hearts. ‘Therefore said I, look away from me, I will weep bitterly for

it is a time of treading down’ (Isaiah 22:4, 5). ‘A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds

. . . therefore turn ye even to me with weeping and with mourning’ (Joel 2:2, 12). Rain follows

thunder. When God thunders in a nation by his judgements, now the showers of tears must distil.

When God smites upon our back, we must ’smite upon our thigh’ (Jeremiah 31:19). When God

seems to stand upon the ‘threshold of the temple’ (Ezekiel 10:4), as if he were ready to take his

wings and fly, then is it a time to lie weeping between ‘the porch and the altar’. If the Lord seems

to be packing up and carrying away his gospel, it is now high time to mourn, that by our tears

possibly his ‘repentings may be kindled’ (Hosea 11:8).

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2 Before the performing solemn duties of God’s worship, as fasting or receiving the Lord’s Supper.

Christian, are you about to seek God in an extraordinary manner? ‘Seek him sorrowing’ (Luke

2:48). Would you have the smiles of God’s face, the kisses of his lips? Set open all the springs of

mourning, and then God will draw nigh to you in an ordinance and say, ‘Here I am’ (Isaiah 58:9).

When Jacob wept, then he ‘found God in Bethel’ (Hosea 12:4). ‘He called the name of the place

Peniel, for (says he) I have seen God face to face’ (Genesis 32:30). Give Christ the wine of your

tears to drink, and in the sacrament he will give you the wine of his blood to drink.

3 After scandalous relapses. Though I will not say with Novatus that there is no mercy for sins of

recidivation or relapse, yet I say there is no mercy without bitter mourning. Scandalous sins reflect

dishonour upon religion (2 Samuel 12:14). Therefore now our cheeks should be covered with

blushing, and our eyes bedewed with tears. Peter, after his denying Christ, wept bitterly. Christian,

has God given you over to any enormous sin as a just reward of your pride and security? Go into

the ‘weeping bath’. Sins of infirmity injure the soul, but scandalous sins wound the gospel. Lesser

sins grieve the Spirit, but greater sins vex the Spirit (Isaiah 63:10). And if that blessed Dove weeps,

shall not we weep? When the air is dark then the dew falls. When we have by scandalous sin

darkened the lustre of the gospel, now is the time for the dew of holy tears to fall from our eyes.

Next to the seasons of mourning, let us consider the degree of it. The mourning for sin must be a

very great mourning. The Greek word imports a great sorrow, such as is seen at the funeral of a

dear friend. ‘They shall look on me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one

that mourneth for his only son’ (Zechariah 12:10). The sorrow for an only child is very great. Such

must be the sorrow for sin. ‘In that day there shall be great mourning, as the mourning of

Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon (verse 11). In that valley Josiah, that famous and pious

prince, was cut off by an untimely death, at whose funeral there was bitter lamentation. Thus bitterly

must we bewail, not the death, but the life of our sins. Now then, to set forth the graduation of

sorrow.

Our mourning for sin must be so great as to exceed all other grief. Eli’s mourning for the ark was

such that it swallowed up the loss of his two children. Spiritual grief must preponderate over all

other. We should mourn more for sin than for the loss of friends or estate.

We should endeavour to have our sorrow rise up to the same height and proportion as our sin does.

Manasseh was a great sinner and a great mourner. ‘He humbled himself greatly’ (2 Chronicles

33:12). Manasseh made the streets run with blood and he made the prison in Babylon run with

tears. Peter wept bitterly. A true mourner labours that his repentance may be as eminent as his sin

is transcendent.

Having shown the nature of mourning, I shall next show what is the opposite to holy mourning.

The opposite to mourning is ‘hardness of heart’, which in Scripture is called ‘an heart of stone’

(Ezekiel 36:26). An heart of stone is far from mourning and relenting. This heart of stone is known

by two symptoms:

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One symptom is insensibility. A stone is not sensible of anything. Lay weight upon it; grind it to

powder; it does not feel. So it is with an hard heart. It is insensible of sin or wrath. The stone in the

kidneys is felt but not the stone in the heart. ‘Who being past feeling . . .’ (Ephesians 4:19).

An heart of stone is known by its inflexibility. A stone will not bend. That is hard which does not

yield to the touch. So it is with an hard heart. It will not comply with God’s command. It will not

stoop to Christ’s sceptre. An heart of stone will sooner break than bend by repentance. It is so far

yielding to God that like the anvil it beats back the hammer. It ‘resists the Holy Ghost’ (Acts 7:51).

Oh Christians, if you would be spiritual mourners, take heed of this stone of the heart. ‘Harden not

your hearts’ (Hebrews 3:7,8). A stony heart is the worst heart. If it were brazen, it might be melted

in the furnace of iron; it might be bowed with the hammer. But a stony heart is such that only the

arm of God can break it and the blood of God soften it. Oh the misery of an hard heart! An hard

heart is void of all grace. While the wax is hard, it will not take the impression of the seal. The

heart, while it is hard, will not take the stamp of grace. It must first be made tender and melting.

The plough of the Word will not go upon an hard heart. An hard heart is good for nothing but to

make fuel for hellfire. ‘After thy hardness of heart thou treasurest up wrath’ (Romans 2:5). Hell is

full of hard hearts, there is not one soft heart there. There is weeping there but no softness. We read

of ‘vessels fitted to destruction’ (Romans 9:22). Impenitence fits these vessels for hell, and makes

them like sere wood which is fit to burn. Hardness of heart makes a man’s condition worse than

all his other sins besides. If one be guilty of great sins, yet if he can mourn, there is hope. Repentance

unravels sin, and makes sin not to be. But hardness of heart binds guilt fast upon the soul. It seals

a man under wrath. It is not heinousness of sin, but hardness of heart that damns. This makes the

sin against the Holy Ghost incapable of mercy, because the sinner that has committed it is incapable

of repentance.

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7. Sundry sharp reproofs

This doctrine draws up a charge against several sorts:

1 Those that think themselves good Christians, yet have not learned this art of holy mourning.

Luther calls mourning ‘a rare herb’. Men have tears to shed for other things, but have none to spare

for their sins. There are many murmurers, but few mourners. Most are like the stony ground which

‘lacked moisture’ (Luke 8:6).

We have many cry out of hard times, but they are not sensible of hard hearts. Hot and dry is the

worst temper of the body. Sure I am that to be hot in sin, and to be so dry as to have no tears, is the

worst temper of the soul. How many are like Gideon’s dry fleece, and like the mountains of Gilboa!

There is no dew upon them. Did Christ bleed for sin, and can you not weep? If God’s bottle be not

filled with tears, his vial will be filled with wrath. We have many sinners in Sion, but few mourners

in Sion. It is with most people as with a man on the top of a mast; the winds blow and the waves

beat, and the ship is in danger of ship wreck, and he is fast asleep. So when the waves of sin have

even covered men and the stormy wind of God’s wrath blows, and is ready to blow them into hell,

yet they are asleep in security.

2 This doctrine reproves them who instead of weeping for sin, spend their days in mirth and jollity.

Instead of mourners we have ranters. ‘They take the timbrel and harp, they spend their days in

wealth’ (Job 21:12, 13). ‘They pursue the Sybarite life’, says Luther. ‘They do not give themselves

to mourning, but follow after their enjoyments’. They live epicures and die atheists. St James bids

us ‘turn our laughter to mourning’ (James 4:9). But they turn their mourning to laughter. Samson

was brought forth to make the Philistines sport (Judges 16:25). The jovial sinner makes the devil

sport. It is a saying of Theophylact, ‘It is one of the worst sights to see a sinner go laughing to hell.’

How unseasonable is it to take the harp and viol when God is taking the sword! ‘A sword, a sword

is sharpened and also furbished; should we then make mirth?’ (Ezekiel 21:9, 10). This is a sin that

enrages God. ‘In that day did the Lord of hosts call to weeping and to mourning, and behold joy

and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine; and it was revealed

in mine ears by the Lord of hosts. Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith

the Lord God of hosts’ (Isaiah 22:12, 14). That is, this your sin shall not be done away by any

expiatory sacrifice, but vengeance shall pursue you for ever.

3 This doctrine reproves those who, instead of mourning for sin, rejoice in sin (Proverbs 2:14);

‘Who take pleasure in iniquity’ (2 Thessalonians 2:12). Wicked men in this sense are worse than

the damned in hell, for I dare say they take little pleasure in their sins. There are some so impudently

profane, that they will make themselves and others merry with their sins. Sin is a soul sickness

(Luke 5:31). Will a man make merry with his disease? Ah wretch, did Christ bleed for sin, and do

you laugh at sin? Is that your mirth which grieves the Spirit? Is it a time for a man to break jests

when he is upon the scaffold, and his head is to be stricken off?’ You who laugh at sin now, the

time is coming when God will ‘laugh at your calamity’ (Proverbs 1:26).

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4 This doctrine reproves those that cry down mourning for sin. They are like the Philistines who

stopped the wells (Genesis 26:15). These would stop the wells of godly sorrow. Antinomians say

this is a legal doctrine, but Christ here preaches it: ‘Blessed are they that mourn.’ And the apostles

preached it, ‘And they went out and preached that men should repent’ (Mark 6:12). Holy ingenuity

will put us upon mourning for sin. He that has the heart of a child cannot but weep for his unkindness

against God. Mourning for sin is the very fruit and product of the Spirit of grace (Zechariah 12:10).

Such as cry down repentance, cry down the Spirit of grace. Mourning for sin is the only way to

keep off wrath from us. Such as with Samson would break this pillar, go about to pull down the

vengeance of God upon the land. To all such I say, as Peter to Simon Magus, ‘Repent therefore of

this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of shine heart may be forgiven thee’, O

sinner (Acts 8:22). Repent that you have cried down repentance.

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8. Motives to holy mourning

Let me exhort Christians to holy mourning. I now persuade to such a mourning as will prepare the

soul for blessedness. Oh that our hearts were spiritual limbecs, distilling the water of holy tears!

Christ’s doves weep. ‘They that escape shall be like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning,

every one for his iniquity’ (Ezekiel 7:16).

There are several divine motives to holy mourning:

1 Tears cannot be put to a better use. If you weep for outward losses, you lose your tears. It is like

a shower upon a rock, which does no good; but tears for sin are blessed tears. ‘Blessed are they

that mourn.’ These poison our corruptions; salt-water kills the worms. The brinish water of repenting

tears will help to kill that worm of sin which should gnaw the conscience.

Gospel-mourning is an evidence of grace. ‘I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants

of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace, and they shall mourn . . .’ (Zechariah 12:10). The Holy Ghost

descended on Christ like a dove (Luke 3:22). The dove is a weeping creature. Where there is a

dove-like weeping, it is a good sign the Spirit of God has descended there. Weeping for sin is a

sign of the new birth. As soon as the child is born, it weeps: ‘And behold the babe wept’ (Exodus

2:6). To weep kindly for sin is a good sign we are born of God. Mourning shows a ‘heart of flesh’

(Ezekiel 36:26). A stone will not melt. When the heart is in a melting frame, it is a sign the heart

of stone is taken away.

3 The preciousness of tears. Tears dropping from a mournful, penitent eye, are like water dropping

from the roses, very sweet and precious to God. A fountain in the garden makes it pleasant. That

heart is most delightful to God which has a fountain of sorrow running in it. ‘Mary stood at Christ’s

feet weeping’ (Luke 7:38). Her tears were more fragrant and odoriferous than her ointment. The

incense, when it is broken, smells sweetest. When the heart is broken for sin, then our services give

forth their sweetest perfume. ‘There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth’ (Luke 15:7).

Whereupon St Bernard calls tears ‘the wine of angels’. And sure, God delights much in tears, else

he would not keep a bottle for them (Psalm 56:8). One calls tears ‘a fat sacrifice’, which under the

law was most acceptable (Leviticus 3:3). St Jerome calls mourning a plank after shipwreck.

Chrysostom calls tears a sponge to wipe off sin. Tears are powerful orators for mercy. Eusebius

says there was an altar at Athens, on which they poured no other sacrifice but tears, as if the heathens

thought there was no better way to pacify their angry gods, than by weeping. Jacob wept end ‘had

power over the angel’ (Hosea 12:4). Tears melt the heart of God. When a malefactor comes weeping

to the bar, this melts the judge’s heart towards him. When a man comes weeping in prayer and

smites on his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’ (Luke 18:13), this melts God’s heart

towards him. Prayer (says Jerome) inclines God to shew mercy; tears compel him. God seals his

pardons upon melting hearts. Tears, though they are silent, yet have a voice (Psalm 6:8). Tears

wash away sin. Rain melts and washes away a ball of snow. Repenting tears wash away sin. That

sin, says Ambrose, which cannot be defended by argument, may be washed away by tears.

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4 The sweetness of tears. Mourning is the way to solid joy. ‘The sweetest wine is that which comes

out of the winepress of the eyes’, says Chrysostom. The soul is never more enlarged than when it

can weep. Closet tears are better than court music. When the heart is sad, weeping eases it by giving

vent. The soul of a Christian is most eased when it can vent itself by holy mourning. Chrysostom

observes that David who was the great mourner in Israel was the sweet singer in Israel. ‘My tears

were my meat’ (Psalm 42:3). On which place Ambrose gives this gloss: ‘No meat so sweet as tears.’

‘The tears of the penitent,’ says Bernard, ‘are sweeter than all worldly joy.’ A Christian thinks

himself sometimes in the suburbs of heaven when he can weep. When Hannah had wept, she went

away and was no more sad. Sugar when it melts is sweetest. When a Christian melts in tears, now

he has the sweetest joy. When the daughter of Pharaoh descended into the river, she found a babe

there among the flags; so when we descend into the river of repenting tears, we find the babe Jesus

there who shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. Well therefore might Chrysostom solemnly bless

God for giving us this laver of tears to wash in.

5 A mourner for sin not only does good to himself but to others. He helps to keep off wrath from

a land. As when Abraham was going to strike the blow, the angel stayed his hand (Genesis 22:12),

so when God is going to destroy a nation, the mourner stays his hand. Tears in the child’s eye

sometimes move the angry father to spare the child. Penitential tears melt God’s heart and bind his

hand. Jeremiah, who was a weeping prophet, was a great intercessor. God says to him, ‘Pray not

for this people’ (Jeremiah 7:16), as if the Lord had said, Jeremiah, so powerful are your prayers

and tears, that if you pray I cannot deny you. ‘This kind of labour bears sway’, as he said in Plautus.’

Tears have a mighty influence upon God. Surely God has some mourners in the land, or he had

destroyed us before now.

6 Holy mourning is preventing physic. Our mourning for sin here will prevent mourning in hell.

Hell is a place of weeping (Matthew 8:12). The damned mingle their drink with weeping. God is

said to hold his bottle for our tears (Psalm 56:8). They who will not shed a bottle-full of tears shall

hereafter shed rivers of tears. ‘Woe to you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep’ (Luke

6:25). You have sometimes seen sugar lying in a damp place dissolve to water. All the sugared

joys of the wicked dissolve at last to the water of tears. Now tears will do us good. Now it is

seasonable weeping. It is like a shower in the spring. If we do not weep now it will be too late.

Could we hear the language of the damned, they are now cursing themselves that they did not weep

soon enough. Oh is it not better to have our hell here, than hereafter? Is it not better to shed repenting

tears than despairing tears? He that weeps here is a blessed mourner. He that weeps in hell is a

cursed mourner. The physician by bleeding the patient prevents death. By the opening a vein of

godly sorrow, we prevent the death of our souls.

7 There is no other way the Gospel prescribes to blessedness but this: ‘Blessed are they that mourn’.

This is the road that leads to the new Jerusalem. There may be several ways leading to a city; some

go one way, some another; but there is but one way to heaven, and that is by the house of weeping

(Acts 26:20). Perhaps a man may think thus, If I cannot mourn for sin, I will get to heaven some

other way. I will go to church; I will give alms; I will lead a civil life. Nay, but I tell you there is

but one way to blessedness, and that is, through the valley of tears. If you do not go this way, you

will miss of Paradise. ‘I tell you, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish’ (Luke 13:3). There

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are many lines leading to the centre, but the heavenly centre has but one line leading to it, and that

is a tear dropping from the eye of faith. A man may have a disease in his body that twenty medicines

will heal. Sin is a disease of the soul which makes it sick unto death. Now there is but one medicine

will heal, and that is the medicine of repentance.

8 Consider what need every Christian has to be conversant in holy mourning. A man may take

physic when he has no need of it. Many go to the Bath when they have no need. It is rather out of

curiosity than necessity. But O what need is there for everyone to go into the weeping bath! Think

what a sinner you have been. You have filled God’s book with your debts, and what need you have

to fill his bottle with your tears! You have lived in secret sin. God enjoins you this penance, ‘Mourn

for sin’. But perhaps some may say, I have no need of mourning, for I have lived a very civil life.

Go home and mourn because you are but civil. Many a man’s civility, being rested upon, has

damned him. It is sad for men to be without repentance, but it is worse to need no repentance (Luke

15:7).

9 Tears are but finite. It is but a while that we shall weep. After a few showers that fall from our

eyes, we shall have a perpetual sunshine. In heaven the bottle of tears is stopped. ‘God shall wipe

away all tears . . .’ (Revelation 7:17). When sin shall cease, tears shall cease. ‘Weeping may endure

for a night, but joy cometh in the morning’ (Psalm 30:5). In the morning of the ascension, then

shall all tears be wiped away.

10 The benefit of holy mourning. The best of our commodities come by water. Mourning makes

the soul fruitful in grace. When a shower falls, the herbs and plants grow. ‘I will water thee with

my tears, O Heshbon!’ (Isaiah 16:9). I may allude to it; tears water our graces and make them

flourish. ‘He sends his springs into the valleys’ (Psalm 104:10). That is the reason the valleys

flourish with corn, because the springs run there. Where the springs of sorrow run, there the heart

bears a fruitful crop. Leah was tender-eyed; she had a watery eye and was fruitful. The tender-eyed

Christian usually brings forth more of the fruits of the Spirit. A weeping eye is the water-pot to

water our graces.

Again, mourning fences us against the devil’s temptations. Temptations are called ‘fiery darts’

(Ephesians 6:16), because indeed they set the soul on fire. Temptations enrage anger, inflame lust.

Now the waters of holy mourning quench these fiery darts. Wet powder will not soon take the fire.

When the heart is wetted and moistened with sorrow, it will not so easily take the fire of temptation.

Tears are the best engines and waterworks to quench the devil’s fire; and if there be so much profit

and benefit in gospel-sorrow, then let every Christian wash his face every morning in the laver of

tears.

11 And lastly, to have a melting frame of spirit is a great sign of God’s presence with us in an

ordinance. It is a sign that the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon us, when our frozen hearts thaw

and melt for sin. It is a saying of Bernard, ‘By this you may know whether you have met with God

in a duty, when you find yourselves in a melting and mourning frame’. We are apt to measure all

by comfort. We think we never have God’s presence in an ordinance, unless we have joy. Herein

we are like Thomas. ‘Unless (says he) I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, I will not believe’

(John 20:25). So are we apt to say that, unless we have incomes of comfort, we will not believe

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that we have found God in a duty; but if our hearts can melt kindly in tears of love, this is a real

sign that God has been with us. As Jacob said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not’

(Genesis 28:16). So, Christian, when your heart breaks for sin and dissolves into holy tears, God

is in this duty, though you do not know it.

Methinks all that has been said should make us spiritual mourners. Perhaps we have tried to mourn

and cannot. But as a man that has dug so many fathoms deep for water and can find none, at last

digs till he finds a spring; so though we have been digging for the water of tears and can find none,

yet let us weigh all that has been said and set our hearts again to work, and perhaps at last we may

say, as Isaac’s servants said, ‘We have found water’ (Genesis 26:32). When the herbs are pressed,

the watery juice comes out. These eleven serious motives may press out tears from the eye.

But some may say, My constitution is such that I cannot weep. I may as well go to squeeze a rock

as think to get a tear.

I answer, but if you cannot weep for sin, can you not grieve? Intellectual mourning is best. There

may be sorrow where there are no tears. The vessel may be full though it wants vent. It is not so

much the weeping eye God respects, as the broken heart. Yet I would be loath to stop their tears

who can weep. God stood looking on Hezekiah’s tears: ‘I have seen thy tears’ (Isaiah 38:5). David’s

tears made music in God’s ears. ‘The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping’ (Psalm 6:8). It is

a sight fit for angels to behold, tears as pearls dropping from a penitent eye.

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9. The hindrances to mourning

What shall we do to get our heart into this mourning frame? Do two things. Take heed of those

things which will stop these channels of mourning; put yourselves upon the use of all means that

will help forward holy mourning. Take heed of those things which will stop the current of tears.

There are nine hindrances of mourning.

1 The love of sin. The love of sin is like a stone in the pipe which hinders the current of water. The

love of sin makes sin taste sweet and this sweetness in sin bewitches the heart. Jerome says it is

worse to love sin than to commit it. A man may be overtaken with sin (Galatians 6:1). He that has

stumbled upon sin unawares will weep, but the love of sin hardens the heart and keeps the devil in

possession. In true mourning there must be a grieving for sin. But how can a man grieve for that

sin which his heart is in love with? Oh, take heed of this sweet poison. The love of sin freezes the

soul in impenitence.

2 Despair. Despair affronts God, undervalues Christ’s blood and damns the soul. ‘They said there

is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of

his evil heart’ (Jeremiah 18:12). This is the language of despair. I had as good follow my sins still

and be damned for something. Despair presents God to the soul as a judge clad in the garments of

vengeance (Isaiah 59:17). The despair of Judas was in some sense worse than his treason. Despair

destroys repentance, for the proper ground of repentance is mercy. ‘The goodness of God leadeth

thee to repentance’ (Romans 2:4), but despair hides mercy out of sight as the cloud covered the

Ark. Oh, take heed of this. Despair is an irrational sin; there is no ground for it. The Lord shews

mercy to thousands. Why may you not be one of a thousand? The wings of God’s mercy, like the

wings of the Cherubim, are stretched out to every humble penitent. Though you have been a great

sinner, yet if you are a weeping sinner, there is a golden sceptre of mercy held forth (Psalm 103:11).

Despair locks up the soul in impenitence.

3 A conceit that this mourning will make us melancholy: we shall drown all our joy in our tears.

But this is a mistake. Lose our joy? Tell me, what joy can there be in a natural condition? What

joy does sin afford? Is not sin compared to a wound and bruise? (Isaiah 1:6). David had his broken

bones (Psalm 51:8). Is there any comfort in having the bones out of joint? Does not sin breed a

palpitation and trembling of heart? (Deuteronomy 28:65, 66). Is it any joy for a man to be a

‘magor-missabib’ (Jeremiah 20:4), a terror to himself? Surely of the sinner’s laughter it may be

said, ‘It is mad’ (Ecclesiastes 2:2), whereas holy mourning is the breeder of joy. It does not eclipse

but refines our joy and makes it better. The prodigal dated his joy from the time of his repentance.

‘Then they began to be merry’ (Luke 15:24).

4 Checking the motions of the Spirit. The Spirit sets us a-mourning. It causes all our spring-tides.

‘All my springs are in thee’ (Psalm 87:7). Oft we meet with gracious motions to prayer and

repentance. Now when we stifle these motions, which is called a quenching the Spirit (1

Thessalonians 5:19), then we do, as it were, hinder the tide from coming in. When the dew falls,

then the ground is wet. When the Spirit of God falls as dew in its influences upon the soul, then it

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is moistened with sorrow. But if the Spirit withdraw, the soul is like Gideon’s dry fleece. A ship

can as well sail without the wind, a bird can as well fly without wings, as we can mourn without

the Spirit. Take heed of grieving the Spirit. Do not drive away this sweet Dove from the ark of your

soul. The Spirit is ‘gentle and tender’. If he be grieved, he may say, ‘I will come no more’, and if

he once withdraw we cannot mourn.

5 Presumption of mercy. Who will take pains with his heart or mourn for sin that thinks he may be

saved at a cheaper rate? How many, spider-like, suck damnation out of the sweet flower of God’s

mercy? Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners, is the occasion of many a man’s

perishing. Oh, says one, Christ died for me. He has done all. What need I pray or mourn? Many a

bold sinner plucks death from the tree of life, and through presumption, goes to hell by that ladder

of Christ’s blood, by which others go to heaven. It is sad when the goodness of God, which should

‘lead to repentance’ (Romans 2:4), leads to presumption. O sinner, do not hope thyself into hell.

Take heed of being damned upon a mistake. You say God is merciful, and therefore you go on

securely in sin. But whom is mercy for? The presuming sinner or the mourning sinner? ‘Let the

wicked forsake his way, and return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, (Isaiah 55:7).

No mercy without forsaking sin, and no forsaking sin without mourning! If a king should say to a

company of rebels, ‘Whosoever comes in and submits shall have mercy’, such as stood out in

rebellion could not claim the benefit of the pardon. God makes a proclamation of mercy to the

mourner, but such as are not mourners have nothing to do with mercy. The mercy of God is like

the ark, which none but the priests were to meddle with. None may touch this golden ark of mercy

but such as are ‘priests unto God’ (Revelation 1:6), and have offered up the sacrifice of tears.

6 A conceit of the smallness of sin. ‘Is it not a little one?’ (Genesis 19:20). The devil holds the

small end of the perspective-glass to sinners. To fancy sin less than it is, is very dangerous. An

opinion of the littleness of sin keeps us from the use of means. Who will be earnest for a physician

that thinks it is but a trivial disease? And who will seek to God with a penitent heart for mercy that

thinks sin is but a slight thing? But to take off this wrong conceit about sin, and that we may look

upon it with watery eyes, consider that sin cannot be little because it is against the Majesty of

heaven. There is no treason small, it being against the king’s person. Every sin is sinful, therefore

damnable. A penknife or stiletto makes but a little wound, but either of them may kill as well as a

greater weapon. There is death and hell in every sin (Romans 6:23). What was it for Adam to pluck

an apple? But that lost him his crown. It is not with sin as it is with diseases. Some are mortal, some

not mortal. The least sin without repentance will be a lock and bolt to shut men out of heaven.

View sin in the red glass of Christ’s sufferings. The least sin cost ‘the price of blood’. Would you

take a true prospect of sin? Go to Golgotha. Jesus Christ was fain to vail his glory and lose his joy,

and pour out his soul an offering for the least sin. Read the greatness of your sin in the deepness

of Christ’s wounds. Let not Satan cast such a mist before your eyes that you cannot see sin in its

right colours. Remember, not only do great rivers fall into the sea, but little brooks. Not only do

great sins carry men to hell, but lesser.

7 Procrastination; or an opinion that it is too soon as yet to tune the penitential string. When the

lamp is almost out, the strength exhausted, and old age comes on, then mourning for sin will be in

season, but it is too soon yet. That I may show how pernicious this opinion is, and that I may roll

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away this stone from the mouth of the well, that so the waters of repentance may be drawn forth,

let me propose these four serious and weighty considerations:

First, do you know what it is to be in the state of nature? And will you say it is too soon to get out

of it? You are under ‘the wrath of God’ (John 3:36), and is it too soon to get from under the dropping

of this vial? You are under ‘the power of Satan’ (Acts 26:18), and is it too soon to get out of the

enemy’s quarters?

Second, men do not argue thus in other cases. They do not say, Is it too soon to be rich? They will

not put off getting the world till old age. No, here they take the first opportunity. It is not too soon

to be rich, and is it too soon to be good? Is not repentance a matter of the greatest consequence? Is

it not more needful for men to lament their sin, than augment their estate?

Third, God’s call to mourning looks for present entertainment. ‘Today, if you will hear his voice,

harden not your hearts’ (Hebrews 3:7, 8). A general besieging a garrison summons it to surrender

upon such a day or he will storm it. Such are God’s summons to repentance. ‘Today if ye will hear

his voice’. Sinners, when Satan has tempted you to any wickedness, you have not said, ‘It is too

soon, Satan’, but have immediately embraced his temptation. You have not put the devil off, and

will you put God off?

Fourth, it is a foolish thing to adjourn and put off mourning for sin, for the longer you put off holy

mourning, the harder you will find the work when you come to it. A bone that is out of joint is

easier to set at first than if you let it go longer. A disease taken in time is sooner cured than if it be

let alone till it comes to a paroxysm. You may easily wade over the waters when they are low; if

you stay till they are risen, then they will be beyond your depth. O sinner, the more treasons you

commit, the more do you incense heaven against you, and the harder it will be to get your pardon.

The longer you spin out the time of your sinning, the more work you make for repentance.

To adjourn, and put off mourning for sin is folly in respect of the uncertainty of life. How does the

procrastinating sinner know that he shall live to be old? ‘What is your life? It is but a vapour’ (James

4:14). How soon may sickness arrest you, and death strike off your head? May not your sun set at

noon? Oh then what impudence is it to put off mourning for sin, and to make a long work, when

death is about to make a short work? Caesar, deferring to read the letter sent him, was stabbed in

the senate house.

It is folly to put off all till the last in respect of the improbability of finding mercy. Though God

has given you space to repent, he may deny you grace to repent. When God calls for mourning and

you are deaf, when you call for mercy God may be dumb (Proverbs 1:24, 28). Think of it seriously.

God may take the latter time to judge you in, because you did not take the former time to repent

in.

To put off our solemn turning to God till old age, or sickness, is high imprudence, because these

late acts of devotion are for the most part dissembled and spurious. Though true mourning for sin

be never too late, yet late mourning is seldom true. That repentance is seldom true-hearted which

is grey-headed. It is disputable whether these autumn-tears are not shed more out of fear of hell

than love to God. The mariner in a storm throws his goods overboard, not but that he loves them,

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but he is afraid they will sink the ship. When men fall to weeping-work late and would cast their

sins overboard, it is for the most part only for fear lest they should sink the ship and drown in hell.

It is a great question whether the sickbed penitent does not mourn because he can keep his sins no

longer. All which considered may make men take heed of running their souls upon such a desperate

hazard as to put all their work for heaven upon the last hour.

8 Delay in the execution of justice. ‘Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,

therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil’ (Ecclesiastes 8:11). God forbears

punishing, therefore men forbear repenting. He does not smite upon their back by correction,

therefore they do not smite upon their thigh by humiliation (Jeremiah 31:19). The sinner thinks

thus: God has spared me all this while; he has eked out patience into longsuffering; surely he will

not punish. ‘He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten’ (Psalm 10:11). In infinite patience God

sometimes adjourns his judgements and puts off the sessions a while longer. He is not willing to

punish (2 Peter 3:9). The bee, naturally gives honey, but stings only when it is angered. The Lord

would have men make their peace with him (Isaiah 27:5). God is not like an hasty creditor that

requires the debt, and will give no time for the payment. He is not only gracious, but ‘waits to be

gracious’ (Isaiah 30:18), but God by his patience would bribe sinners to repentance. But, alas, how

is this patience abused! God’s longsuffering hardens. Because God stops the vial of his wrath,

sinners stop the conduit of tears. That the patience of God may not (through our corruption) obstruct

holy mourning, let sinners remember:

First, God’s patience has bounds set to it (Genesis 6:3). Though men will not set bounds to their

sin, yet God sets bounds to his patience. There is a time when the sun of God’s patience will set,

and, being once set, it never returns any degrees backwards. The lease of patience will soon be run

out. There is a time when God says, ‘My Spirit shall no longer strive.’ The angel cried, ‘The hour

of judgement is come’ (Revelation 14:7). Perhaps at the next sin you commit God may say, ‘Your

hour is now come.’

Second, to be hardened under patience makes our condition far worse. Incensed justice will revenge

abused patience. God was patient towards Sodom, but when they did not repent he made the fire

and brimstone flame about their ears. Sodom, that was once the wonder of God’s patience, is now

a standing monument of God’s severity. All the plants and fruits were destroyed, and, as Tertullian

says, that place still smells of fire and brimstone. Long forbearance is no forgiveness. God may

keep off the stroke awhile, but justice is not dead, but sleeps. God has leaden feet but iron hands.

The longer God is taking his blow, the sorer it will be when it comes. The longer a stone is falling,

the heavier it will be at last. The longer God is whetting his sword, the sharper it cuts. Sins against

patience are of a deeper dye; they are worse than the sins of the devils. The lapsed angels never

sinned against God’s patience. How dreadful will their condition be, who sin because God is patient.

For every crumb of patience, God puts a drop of wrath into his vial. The longer God forbears a

sinner, the more interest he is sure to pay in hell.

9 Mirth and music. ‘That chant to the sound of the viol, and drink wine in bowls’ (Amos 6:5, 6).

Instead of the dirge, the anthem. Many sing away sorrow and drown their tears in wine. The sweet

waters of pleasure destroy the bitter waters of mourning. How many go dancing to hell, like those

fish which swim down pleasantly into the Dead Sea! Let us take heed of all these hindrances to

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holy tears. ‘Let our harp be turned into mourning and our organ into the voice of them that weep,’

(Job 30:31).

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10. Some helps to mourning

Having removed the obstructions, let me in the last place propound some helps to holy mourning.

1 Set David’s prospect continually before you. ‘My sin is ever before me’ (Psalm 51:3). David,

that he might be a mourner, kept his eye full upon sin. See what sin is, and then tell me if there be

not enough in it to draw forth tears. I know not what name to give it bad enough. One calls it the

devil’s excrement. Sin is a complication of all evils. It is the spirits of mischief distilled. Sin

dishonours God, it denies God’s omniscience, it derides his patience, it distrusts his faithfulness.

Sin tramples upon God’s law, slights his love, grieves his Spirit. Sin wrongs us; sin shames us. ‘Sin

is a reproach to any people’ (Proverbs 14:34). Sin has made us naked. It has plucked off our robe

and taken our crown from us. It has spoiled us of our glory. Nay, it has not only made us naked,

but impure. ‘I saw thee polluted in thy blood’ (Ezekiel 16:6). Sin has not only taken off our cloth

of gold, but it has put upon us ‘filthy garments’ (Zechariah 3:3). God made us ‘after his likeness’

(Genesis 1:26), but sin has made us ‘like the beasts that perish’ (Psalm 49:20). We are all become

brutish in our affections. Nor has sin made us only like the beasts, but like the devil (John 8:44).

Sin has drawn the devil’s picture upon man’s heart. Sin stabs us. The sinner, like the gaoler, draws

a sword to kill himself (Acts 16:27). He is bereaved of his judgement and, like the man in the

gospel, possessed with the devils, ‘he cuts himself with stones’ (Mark 5:5), though he has such a

stone in his heart that he does not feel it. Every sin is a stroke at the soul. So many sins, so many

wounds! Every blow given to the tree helps forward the felling of the tree. Every sin is an hewing

and chopping down the soul for hellfire. If then there be all this evil in sin, if this forbidden fruit

has such a bitter core, it may make us mourn. Our hearts should be the spring, and our eyes the

rivers.

2 If we would be mourners, let us be orators. Beg a spirit of contrition. Pray to God that he will put

us in mourning, that he will give us a melting frame of heart. Let us beg Achsah’s blessing, even

’springs of water’ (Joshua 15:19). Let us pray that our hearts may be spiritual limbecs, dropping

tears into God’s bottle. Let us pray that we who have the poison of the serpent may have the tears

of the dove. The Spirit of God is a spirit of mourning. Let us pray that God would pour out that

Spirit of grace on us, whereby we may ‘look on him whom we have pierced and mourn for him’

(Zechariah 12:10). God must breathe in his Spirit before we can breathe out our sorrows. The Spirit

of God is like the fire in a still, that sends up the dews of grace in the heart and causes them to drop

from the eyes. It is this blessed Spirit whose gentle breath causes our spices to smell and our waters

to flow; and if the spring of mourning be once set open in the heart, there can want no joy. As tears

flow out, comfort flows in; which leads to the second part of the text, ‘They shall be comforted’.

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11. The comforts belonging to mourners

Having already presented to your view the dark side of the text, I shall now show you the light side,

‘They shall be comforted’.

Where observe:

1 Mourning goes before comfort as the lancing of a wound precedes the cure. The Antinomian

talks of comfort, but cries down mourning for sin. He is like a foolish patient who, having a pill

prescribed him, licks the sugar but throws away the pill. The libertine is all for joy and comfort.

He licks the sugar but throws away the bitter pill of repentance. If ever we have true comfort we

must have it in God’s way and method. Sorrow for sin ushers in joy: ‘I will restore comforts to

him, and to his mourners’ (Isaiah 57:18). That is the true sunshine of joy which comes after a shower

of tears. We may as well expect a crop without seed, as comfort without gospel-mourning.

2 Observe that God keeps his best wine till last. First he prescribes mourning for sin and then sets

abroach the wine of consolation. The devil does quite contrary. He shows the best first and keeps

the worst till last. First, he shows the wine sparkling in the glass, then comes the ‘biting of the

serpent’ (Proverbs 23:32). Satan sets his dainty dishes before men. He presents sin to them coloured

with beauty, sweetened with pleasure, silvered with profit, and then afterwards the sad reckoning

is brought in. He showed Judas first the silver bait, and then struck him with the hook. This is the

reason why sin has so many followers, because it shows the best first. First, the golden crowns,

then comes the lions’ teeth (Revelation 9:7, 8).

But God shows the worst first. First he prescribes a bitter portion, and then brings a cordial, ‘They

shall be comforted.’

3 Observe, gospel tears are not lost; they are seeds of comfort. While the penitent pours out tears,

God pours in joy. If you would be cheerful (says Chrysostom), be sad. ‘They that sow in tears shall

reap in joy’ (Psalm 126:5). It was the end of Christ’s anointing and coming into the world, that he

might comfort them that mourn (Isaiah 61:3). Christ had the oil of gladness poured on him (as

Chrysostom says) that he might pour it upon the mourner. Well then may the apostle call it ‘a

repentance not to be repented of’ (2 Corinthians 7:10). A man’s drunkenness is to be repented of;

his uncleanness is to be repented of; but his repentance is never to be repented of, because it is the

inlet to joy. ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ Here is sweet fruit from a

bitter stock. Christ caused the earthen vessels to be filled with water, and then turned the water into

wine (John 2:9). So when the eye, that earthen vessel, has been filled with water brimful, then

Christ will turn the water of tears into the wine of joy. Holy mourning, says Basil, is the seed out

of which the flower of eternal joy grows.

The reason why the mourner shall be comforted is:

(i) Because mourning is made on purpose for this end. Mourning is not prescribed for itself but

that it may lead on to something else, that it may lay a train for comfort. Therefore we sow in tears

that we may reap in joy. Holy mourning is a spiritual medicine. Now a medicine is not prescribed

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for itself, but for the sake of health. So gospel-mourning is appointed for this very end, to bring

forth joy.

(ii) The spiritual mourner is the fittest person for comfort. When the heart is broken for sin, now it

is fittest for joy. God pours the golden oil of comfort into broken vessels. The mourner’s heart is

emptied of pride and God fills the empty with his blessing. The mourner’s tears have helped to

purge out corruption, and after purging physic God gives a julep. The mourner is ready to faint

away under the burden of sin, and then the bottle of strong water comes seasonably. The Lord

would have the incestuous person (upon his deep humiliation) to be comforted, lest ‘he should be

swallowed up with overmuch sorrow’ (2 Corinthians 2:7).

This is the mourner’s privilege: ‘He shall be comforted’. The valley of tears brings the soul into a

paradise of joy. A sinner’s joy brings forth sorrow. The mourner’s sorrow brings forth joy. ‘Your

sorrow shall be turned into joy’ (John 16:20). The saints have a wet seedtime but a joyful harvest.

‘They shall be comforted’.

Now to illustrate this, I shall show you what the comforts are the mourners shall have. These

comforts are of a divine infusion, and they are twofold, either here or hereafter.

They are called ‘the consolations of God’ (Job 15:11); that is, ‘great comforts’, such as none but

God can give. They exceed all other comforts as far as heaven exceeds earth. The root on which

these comforts grow is the blessed Spirit. He is called ‘the Comforter’ (John 14:26), and comfort

is said to be a ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:22). Christ purchased peace, and the Spirit speaks

peace.

How does the Spirit comfort? Either mediately or immediately.

(i) Mediately, by helping us to apply the promises to ourselves and draw water out of those ‘wells

of salvation’. We lie as dead children at the breast, till the Spirit helps us to suck the breast of a

promise; and when the Spirit has taught faith this art, now comfort flows in. O how sweet is the

breast-milk of a promise!

(ii) The Spirit comforts immediately. The Spirit by a more direct act presents God to the soul as

reconciled. It ’sheds his love abroad in the heart’, from whence flows infinite joy (Romans 5:5).

The Spirit secretly whispers pardon for sin, and the sight of a pardon dilates the heart with joy. ‘Be

of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee’ (Matthew 9:2).

That I may speak more fully to this point, I shall show you the qualifications and excellencies of

these comforts which God gives his mourners. These comforts are real comforts. The Spirit of God

cannot witness to that which is untrue. There are many in this age who pretend to comfort, but their

comforts are mere impostures. The body may as well swell with wind as with flesh. A man may

as well be swelled with false as true comforts. The comforts of the saints are certain. They have

the seal of the Spirit set to them (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13). A seal is for confirmation.

When a deed is sealed, it is firm and unquestionable. When a Christian has the seal of the Spirit

stamped upon his heart, now he is confirmed in the love of God.

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Wherein do these comforts of the Spirit which are unquestionably sure, differ from those which

are false and pretended? Three ways:

First, the comforts of God’s Spirit are laid in deep conviction: ‘And when he (that is, the Comforter)

is come, he shall reprove (or, as the Greek word is, he shall convince) the world of sin’ (John 16:7,

8).

Why does conviction go before consolation? Conviction fits for comfort. By conviction the Spirit

sweetly disposes the heart to seek after Christ and then to receive Christ. Once the soul is convinced

of sin and of the hell that follows it, a Saviour is precious. When the Spirit has shot in the arrow of

conviction, now, says a poor soul, where may I meet with Christ? In what ordinance may I come

to enjoy Christ? ‘Saw ye him whom my soul loves?’ All the world for one glimpse of my Saviour!

Again, the Spirit by conviction makes the heart willing to receive Christ upon his own terms. Man,

by nature, would article and indent with Christ. He would take half Christ. He would take him for

a Saviour, not a prince. He would accept of Christ as he has ‘an head of gold’ (Canticles 5:11), but

not as he has ‘the government upon his shoulder’ (Isaiah 9:6). But when God lets loose the spirit

of bondage and convinces a sinner of his lost, undone condition, now he is content to have Christ

upon any terms. When Paul was struck down to the ground by a spirit of conviction, he cries out,

‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?’ (Acts 9:6). Let God propound what articles he will, the soul

will subscribe to them. Now when a man is brought to Christ’s terms, to believe and obey, then he

is fit for mercy. When the Spirit of God has been a spirit of conviction, then He becomes a spirit

of consolation. When the plough of the law has gone upon the heart and broken up the fallow

ground, now God sows the seed of comfort. Those who brag of comfort, but were never yet

convinced, nor broken, for sin, have cause to suspect their comfort to be a delusion of Satan. It is

like a madman’s joy, who fancies himself to be king, but it may be said of ‘his laughter, it is mad’

(Ecclesiastes 2:2). The seed which wanted ‘depth of earth’ withered (Matthew 13:5). That comfort

which wants ‘depth of earth’, deep humiliation and conviction, will soon wither and come to nothing.

The Spirit of God is a sanctifying, before a comforting Spirit. As God’s Spirit is called the

‘Comforter’, so he is called ‘a Spirit of grace’ (Zechariah 12:10). Grace is the work of the Spirit.

Comfort is the seal of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit goes before the seal. The graces of the Spirit

are compared to water (Isaiah 44:3) and to oil (Isaiah 61:3). First, God pours in the water of the

Spirit and then comes the oil of gladness. The oil (in this sense) runs above the water. Hereby we

shall know whether our comforts are true and genuine. Some talk of the comforting Spirit, who

never had the sanctifying Spirit. They boast of assurance but never had grace. These are spurious

joys. These comforts will leave men at death. They will end in horror and despair. God’s Spirit will

never set seal to a blank. First, the heart must be an epistle written with the finger of the Holy Ghost,

and then it is ’sealed with the Spirit of promise’.

The comforts of the Spirit are humbling. Lord, says the soul, what am I that I should have a smile

from heaven, and that thou shouldest give me a privy seal of thy love? The more water is poured

into a bucket, the lower it descends. The fuller the ship is laden with sweet spices, the lower it sails.

The more a Christian is filled with the sweet comforts of the Spirit, the lower he sails in humility.

The fuller a tree is of fruit, the lower the bough hangs. The more full we are of ‘the fruit of the

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Spirit, joy and peace’ (Galatians 5:22), the more we bend in humility. St. Paul, a ‘chosen vessel’

(Acts 9:15), filled with the wine of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:5), did not more abound in joy, than

in lowliness of mind. ‘Unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given . . ’,

(Ephesians 3:8). He who was the chief of the apostles calls himself the least of the saints.

Those who say they have comfort, but are proud; who have learned to despise others and are climbed

above ordinances; their comforts are delusions. The devil is able, not only to ‘transform himself

into an angel of light’ (2 Corinthians 11:14), but he can transform himself into the comforter. It is

easy to counterfeit money, to silver over brass and put the king’s image upon it. The devil can silver

over false comforts and make them look as if they had the stamp of the King of heaven upon them.

The comforts of God are humbling. Though they lift the heart up in thankfulness, yet they do not

puff it up in pride.

Second, the comforts God gives his mourners are unmixed. They are not tempered with any bitter

ingredients. Worldly comforts are like wine that runs dregs. ‘In the midst of laughter the heart is

sad’ (Proverbs 14:13). Queen Mary Tudor once said, if she were opened, they would find Calais

graven on her heart. And if the breast of a sinner were anatomised and opened, you would find a

worm gnawing at his heart. Guilt is a wolf which feeds in the breast of his comfort. A sinner may

have a smiling countenance, but a chiding conscience. His mirth is like the mirth of a man in debt,

who is every hour in fear of arrest. The comforts of wicked men are spiced with bitterness. They

are worm-wood wine.

‘These are the men who tremble, and grow pale at every lightning flash, and when it thunders are

half-dead with terror at the very first rumbling of the heavens.’

But spiritual comforts are pure. They are not muddied with guilt, nor mixed with fear. They are the

pure wine of the Spirit. What the mourner feels is joy, and nothing but joy.

Third, the comforts God gives his mourners are sweet. ‘Truly the light is sweet’ (Ecclesiastes 11:7);

so is the light of God’s countenance. How sweet are those comforts which bring the Comforter

along with them! (John 14:10). Therefore the love of God shed into the heart is said to be ‘better

than wine’ (Canticles 1:2). Wine pleases the palate, but the love of God cheers the conscience. The

‘lips, of Christ ‘drop sweet-smelling myrrh’ (Canticles 5:13). The comforts God gives are a

Christian’s music. They are the golden pot of manna, the nectar and ambrosia of a Christian. They

are the saints’ festival, their banqueting stuff. So sweet are these divine comforts, that the church

had her fainting fits, for want of them. ‘Stay me with flagons’ (Canticles 2:5). In metonymy the

name of an accompanying thing is substituted for the thing meant. The ‘flagons’ are put for the

wine. By these flagons are meant the comforts of the Spirit. The Hebrew word signifies ‘all variety

of delights’ to show the abundance of delectability and sweetness in these comforts of the Spirit.

‘Comfort me with apples.’ Apples are sweet in taste, fragrant in smell; so sweet and delicious are

those apples which grow upon the tree in paradise. These comforts from above are so sweet that

they make all other comforts sweet; health, estate, relations. They are like sauce which makes all

our earthly possessions and enjoyments come off with a bitter relish. So sweet are these comforts

of the Spirit that they do much abate and moderate our joy in worldly things. He who has been

drinking spirits of wine, will not much thirst after water; and that man who has once ‘tasted how

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sweet the Lord is’ (Psalm 34:8), and has drunk the cordials of the Spirit, will not thirst immoderately

after secular delights. Those who play with dogs and birds, it is a sign they have no children; such

as are inordinate in their desire and love of the creature, declare plainly that they never had better

comforts.

Fourth, these comforts which God gives his mourners are holy comforts. They are called ‘the

comfort of the Holy Ghost’ (Acts 9:31). Everything propagates in its own kind. The Holy Ghost

can no more produce impure joys in the soul than the sun can produce darkness. He who has the

comforts of the Spirit looks upon himself as a person engaged to do God more service. Has the

Lord looked upon me with a smiling face? I can never pray enough. I can never love God enough.

The comforts of the Spirit raise in the heart an holy antipathy against sin. The dove hates every

feather that has grown upon the hawk. So there is an hatred of every motion and temptation to evil.

He who has a principle of life in him opposes everything that would destroy life. He hates poison.

So he that has the comforts of the Spirit living in him, sets himself against those sins which would

murder his comforts. Divine comforts give the soul more acquaintance with God. ‘Our fellowship

is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus.’ (1 John 1:3).

Fifth, the comforts reserved for the mourners are ‘filling comforts’: ‘The God of hope fill you with

all joy . . .’ (Romans 15:13). ‘Ask . . . that your joy may be full’ (John 16:24). When God pours in

the joys of heaven, they fill the heart and make it run over. ‘I am exceeding joyful . . .’ (2 Corinthians

7:4); the Greek word is ‘I overflow with joy’, as a cup that is filled with wine till it runs over.

Outward comforts can no more fill the heart than a triangle can fill a circle. Spiritual joys are

satisfying. ‘My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow, and I will praise thee with joyful lips’ (Psalm

63:5). David’s heart was full, and the joy broke out at his lips. ‘Thou hast put gladness in my heart’

(Psalm 4:7). Worldly joys put gladness into the face: ‘They rejoice in the face’ (2 Corinthians 5:12),

but the Spirit of God puts gladness into the heart. Divine joys are heart joys (Zechariah 10:7). “Your

heart shall rejoice’ (John 16:22). A believer rejoices in God: ‘My Spirit rejoiceth in God . . .’ (Luke

1:47). And to show how filling these comforts are which are of an heavenly extraction, the Psalmist

says they create greater joy than when ‘wine and oil increase’ (Psalm 4:7). Wine and oil may delight

but not satisfy; they have their vacuity and indigence. We may say as Zechariah 10:2, ‘They comfort

in vain.’ Outward comforts sooner cloy than cheer, and sooner weary than fill. Xerxes offered great

rewards to him that could find out a new pleasure, but the comforts of the Spirit are satisfactory.

They recruit the heart. ‘Thy comforts delight my soul’ (Psalm 94:19). There is as much difference

between heavenly comforts and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten and one that is painted

on the wall.

Sixth, the comforts God gives his mourners in this life are ‘glorious comforts’: ‘Joy full of glory’

(1 Peter 1:8). They are glorious because they are a prelibation and foretaste of that joy which we

shall have in a glorified estate. These comforts are an handsel and earnest of glory. They put us in

heaven before our time. ‘Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of the inheritance’

(Ephesians 1:13, 14). The earnest is part of the sum behind. So the comforts of the Spirit are the

earnest, the ‘cluster of grapes’ at Eshcol (Numbers 13:23), the first-fruits of the heavenly Canaan.

The joys of the Spirit are glorious, in opposition to other joys, which compared with these, are

inglorious and vile. A carnal man’s joy, as it is airy and flashy, so it is sordid. He sucks nothing

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but dregs. ‘Ye rejoice in a thing of nought’ (Amos 6:13). A carnal spirit rejoices because he can

say this house is his, this estate is his. But a gracious spirit rejoices because he can say this God is

his: ‘For this God is our God for ever and ever’ (Psalm 48:14). The ground of a Christian’s joy is

glorious. He rejoices in that he is an heir of the promise. The joy of a godly man is made up of that

which is the angels’ joy. He triumphs in the light of God’s countenance. His joy is that which is

Christ’s own joy. He rejoices in the mystical union which is begun here and consummated in heaven.

Thus the joy of the saints is a joy ‘full of glory’.

Seventh, the comforts which God gives his mourners are infinitely transporting and ravishing. So

delightful are they and amazing, that they cause a jubilation which, as some of the learned say, is

so great that it cannot be expressed. Of all things joy is the most hard to be deciphered. It is called

‘joy unspeakable’ (1 Peter 1:8). You may sooner taste honey than tell how sweet it is. The most

pathetic words can no more set forth the comforts of the Spirit than the most curious pencil can

draw the life and breath of a man. The angels cannot express the joys they feel. Some men have

been so overwhelmed with the sweet raptures of joy that they have not been able to contain, but as

Moses, have died with a kiss from God’s mouth. Thus have we seen the glass oft breaking with the

strength of the liquor put into it.

Eighth, these comforts of the Spirit are powerful. They are strong cordials, strong consolation, as

the apostle phrases it (Hebrews 6:18). Divine comfort strengthens for duty. ‘The joy of the Lord is

your strength’ (Nehemiah 8:10). Joy whets and sharpens industry. A man that is steeled and animated

with the comfort of God’s Spirit, goes with vigour and alacrity through the exercises of religion.

He believes firmly, he loves fervently, he is carried full sail in duty. ‘The joy of the Lord is his

strength’. Divine comfort supports under affliction: ‘Having received the Word in much affliction,

with joy’ (1 Thessalonians 1:6). The wine of the Spirit can sweeten ‘the waters of Marah’. They

who are possessed of these heavenly comforts can ‘gather grapes of thorns’, and fetch honey out

of the ‘lion’s carcass’. They are ’strong consolations’ indeed, that can stand it out against the ‘fiery

trial’, and turn the flame into a bed of roses. How powerful is that comfort which can make a

Christian glory in tribulations (Romans 5:3)! A believer is never so sad but he can rejoice. The bird

of paradise can sing in the winter. ‘As sorrowing, yet alway rejoicing’ (2 Corinthians 6:10). Let

sickness come, the sense of pardon takes away the sense of pain. ‘The inhabitant shall not say, I

am sick’ (Isaiah 33:24). Let death come, the Christian is above it. ‘O death, where is thy sting?’ (1

Corinthians 15:55). At the end of the rod a Christian tastes honey. These are ’strong consolations’.

Ninth, the comforts God’s mourners have are heart-quieting comforts. They cause a sweet

acquiescence and rest in the soul. The heart of a Christian is in a kind of ataxy and discomposure,

like the needle in the compass; it shakes and trembles till the Comforter comes. Some creatures

cannot live but in the sun. A Christian is even dead in the nest, unless he may have the sunlight of

God’s countenance. ‘Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the pit’ (Psalm

143:7). Nothing but the breast will quiet the child. It is only the breast of consolation quiets the

believer.

Tenth, the comforts of the Spirit are abiding comforts. As they abound in us so they abide with us.

‘He shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever’ (John 14:16). Worldly

comforts are always upon the wing, ready to fly. They are like a land-flood, or a flash of lightning.

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‘They will oftentimes pass away and glide from thy closest embrace’. All things here are transient,

but the comforts with which God feeds his mourners are immortal: ‘Who hath loved us and given

us everlasting consolation’ (2 Thessalonians 2:16). Though a Christian does not always have a full

beam of comfort, yet he has a dawning of it in his soul. He always has a ground of hope and a root

of joy. There is that within him which bears up his heart, and which he would not on any terms part

with.

Behold, then, the mourner’s privilege, ‘He shall be comforted’. David who was the great mourner

of Israel, was the ’sweet singer of Israel’. The weeping dove shall be covered with the golden

feathers of comfort. O how rare and superlative are these comforts!

But the question may be asked, May not God’s mourners lack these comforts? Spiritual mourners

have a tide to these comforts, yet they may sometimes lack them. God is a free agent. He will have

the timing of our comforts. He has a self-freedom to do what he will. The Holy One of Israel will

not be limited. He reserves his prerogative to give or suspend comfort as he will; and if we are

awhile without comfort, we must not quarrel with his dispensations, for as the mariner is not to

wrangle with providence because the wind blows out of the east when he desires it to blow out of

the west; nor is the husband-man to murmur when God stops the bottles of heaven in time of

drought; so neither is any man to dispute or quarrel with God, when he stops the sweet influence

of comfort, but he ought rather to acquiesce in his sacred will.

But though the Lord might by virtue of his sovereignty withhold comfort from the mourner, yet

there may be many pregnant causes assigned why mourners lack comfort in regard of God and also

in regard of themselves.

1 In regard of God: He sees it fit to withhold comfort that he may raise the value of grace. We are

apt to esteem comfort above grace, therefore God locks up our comforts for a time, that he may

enhance the price of grace. When farthings go better than gold the king will call in farthings, that

the price of gold may be the more raised. God would have his people serve him for himself and

not for comfort only. It is an harlot love to love the husband’s money and tokens more than his

person. Such as serve God only for comfort, do not so much serve God, as serve themselves of

him.

2 That God’s mourners lack comfort, it is most frequency in regard of themselves.

(i) Through mistake, which is twofold. They do not go to the right spring for comfort. They go to

their tears, when they should go to Christ’s blood. It is a kind of idolatry to make our tears the

ground of our comfort. Mourning is not meritorious. It is the way to joy, not the cause. Jacob got

the blessing in the garments of his elder brother. True comfort flows out of Christ’s sides. Our tears

are stained, till they are washed in the blood of Christ. ‘In me peace’ (John 16:33). The second

mistake is that mourners are privileged persons, and may take more liberty. They may slacken the

strings of duty, and let loose the reins to sin. Christ has indeed purchased a liberty for his people,

but an holy liberty, not a liberty for sin, but from sin. ‘Ye are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people’

(1 Peter 2:9). You are not in a state of slavery, but royalty. What follows? Do not make Christian

liberty a cloak for sin. ‘As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness’ (v 16). If

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we quench the sanctifying Spirit, God will quench the comforting Spirit. Sin is compared to a

‘cloud’ (Isaiah 44:22). This cloud intercepts the light of God’s countenance.

(ii) God’s mourners sometimes lack comfort through discontent and peevishness. David makes his

disquiet the cause of his sadness. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted

within me?’ (Psalm 43:5). A disquieted heart, like a rough sea, is not easily calmed. It is hard to

make a troubled spirit receive comfort. This disquiet arises from various causes: sometimes from

outward sorrow and melancholy, sometimes from a kind of envy. God’s people are troubled to see

others have comfort, and they lack it; and now in a pet they refuse comfort, and like a forward

child, put away the breast. ‘My soul refused to be comforted’ (Psalm 77:2). Indeed a disquieted

spirit is no more fit for comfort, than a distracted man is fit for counsel. And whence is the mourner’s

discontent, but pride? As if God had not dealt well with him in stopping the influences of comfort.

O Christian, your spirit must be more humbled and broken, before God empty out his golden oil

of joy.

(iii) The mourner is without comfort for want of applying the promises. He looks at sin which may

humble him, but not at that Word which may comfort him. The mourner’s eyes are so full of tears

that he cannot see the promise. The virtue and comfort of a medicine is in the applying. When the

promises are applied by faith, they bring comfort (Hosea 2:19; Isaiah 49:15, 16). Faith milks the

breast of a promise. That Satan may hinder us of comfort, it is his policy either to keep the promise

from us that we may not know it, or to keep us from the promise that we may not apply it. Never

a promise in the Bible but belongs to the mourner, had he but the skill and dexterity of faith to lay

hold on it.

(iv) The mourner may lack comfort through too much earthly-mindedness; by feeding immoderately

on earthly comforts we miss of heavenly comforts. ‘For the iniquity of his covetousness was I

wroth, and I hid me’ (Isaiah 57:17). The earth puts out the fire. Earthiness extinguishes the flame

of divine joy in the soul. An eclipse occurs when the moon, which is a dense body, comes between

the sun and the earth. The moon is an emblem of the world (Revelation 12:1). When this comes

between, then there is an eclipse in the light of God’s face. Such as dig in mines say there is such

a damp comes from the earth as puts out the light of a candle. Earthly comforts send forth such a

damp as puts out the light of spiritual joy.

(v) Perhaps the mourner has had comfort and lost it. Adam’s rib was taken from him when he was

asleep (Genesis 2:21). Our comforts are taken away when we fall asleep in security. The spouse

lost her beloved when she lay upon the bed of sloth (Canticles 5:2, 6).

For these reasons God’s mourners may lack comfort, but that the spiritual mourner may not be too

much dejected, I shall reach forth ‘the cup of consolation’ (Jeremiah 16:7), and speak a few words

that may comfort the mourner in the want of comfort. Jesus Christ was without comfort, therefore

no wonder if we are. Our comforts are not better than his. He who was the Son of God’s love was

without the sense of God’s love. The mourner has a seed of comfort: ‘Light is sown for the righteous’

(Psalm 97:11). Light is a metaphor put for comfort, and it is sown. Though a child of God does not

have comfort always in the flower, yet he has it in the seed. Though he does not feel comfort from

God yet he takes comfort in God. A Christian may be high in grace and low in comfort. The high

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mountains are without flowers. The mines of gold have little or no corn growing on them. A

Christian’s heart may be a rich mine of grace, though it be barren of comfort. The mourner is heir

to comfort, and though for a small moment God may forsake his people (Isaiah 54:7), yet there is

a time shortly coming when the mourner shall have all tears wiped away, and shall be brim full of

comfort. This joy is reserved for heaven, and this brings me to the second particular.

‘They shall be comforted’. Though in this life some interviews and love tokens pass between God

and the mourner, yet the great comforts are kept in reversion. ‘In God’s presence is fullness of joy’

(Psalm 16:11). There is a time coming (the daystar is ready to appear) when the saints shall bathe

themselves in the river of life, when they shall never see a wrinkle on God’s brow more, but his

face shall shine, his lips drop honey, his arms sweetly embrace them. The saints shall have a

spring-tide of joy, and it shall never be low water. The saints shall at that day put off their mourning

and exchange their sables for white robes. Then shall the winter be past, the rain of tears be over

and gone (Canticles 2:11, 12). The flowers of joy shall appear, and after the weeping of the dove

‘tine time of the singing of birds shall come’. This is the ‘great consolation’, the Jubilee of the

blessed which shall never expire. In this life the people of God taste of joy, but in heaven the full

vessels shall be broached. There is a river in the midst of the heavenly paradise which has a fountain

to feed it (Psalm 36:8, 9).

The times we are cast into, being for the present sad and cloudy, it will not be amiss for the reviving

the hearts of God’s people, to speak a little of these comforts which God reserves in heaven for his

mourners. ‘They shall be comforted’.

The greatness of these celestial comforts is most fitly in Scripture expressed by the joy of a feast.

Mourning shall be turned into feasting, and it shall be a marriage-feast, which is usually kept with

the greatest solemnity. ‘Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb’

(Revelation 19:9). Bullinger’ and Gregory the Great understand this supper of the Lamb to be meant

of the saints, supping with Christ in heaven. Men after hard labour go to supper. So when the saints

shall ‘rest from their labours’ (Revelation 14:13), they shall sup with Christ in glory. Now to speak

something of the last great supper.

(i) It will be a great supper in regard of the Founder of this feast, God. It is the supper of a king,

therefore sumptuous and magnificent. ‘The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods’

(Psalm 95:3). Where should there be state and magnificence but in a king’s court?

(ii) It will be a great supper in regard of the cheer and provision. This exceeds all hyperboles. What

blessed fruit does the tree of life in paradise yield! (Revelation 2:7). Christ will lead his spouse into

the ‘banqueting house’ and feast her with those rare viands, and cause her to drink that spiced wine,

that heavenly nectar and ambrosia wherewith the angelic powers are infinitely refreshed.

First, every dish served in at this heavenly supper shall be sweet to our palate. There is no dish here

we do not love. Christ will make such ’savoury meat’ as he is sure his spouse loves.

Second, there shall be no want here. There is no want at a feast. The various fullness in Christ will

prevent a scarcity, and it will be a fullness without surfeit, because a fresh course will continually

be served in.

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Third, they who eat of this supper shall ‘never hunger more’. Hunger is a sharp sauce. The ‘Lamb’s

supper’ shall not only satisfy hunger, but prevent it. ‘They shall hunger no more!’ (Revelation

7:16).

(iii) It will be a great supper in regard of the company invited. Company adds to a feast, and is of

itself sauce to sharpen and provoke the appetite. Saints, angels, archangels will be at this supper.

Nay, Christ himself will be both Founder and Guest. The Scripture calls it ‘an innumerable company

. . .’ (Hebrews 12:22); and that which makes the society sweeter is that there shall be perfect love

at this feast. The motto shall be ‘one heart and one way’. All the guests shall be linked together

with the golden chain of charity.

(iv) It will be a great supper in regard of the holy mirth. ‘A feast is made for mirth’ (Ecclesiastes

10:19). At this supper there shall be joy, and nothing but joy (Psalm 16:11). There is no weeping

at a feast. O what triumph and acclamations will there be! There are two things at this ’supper of

the Lamb, which will create joy and mirth. First, when the saints shall think with themselves that

they are kept from a worse supper. The devils have a supper (such an one as it is), a black banquet.

There are two dishes served in, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Every bit they eat makes their hearts

ache. Who would envy them their dinner here, who must have such a supper? Second, it will be a

matter of joy at the ’supper of the Lamb’, that the Master of the feast bids all his guests welcome.

The saints shall have the smiles of God’s face, the kisses of his lips. He will lead them into the

wine cellar, and display the banner of love over them. The saints shall be as full of solace as sanctity.

What is a feast without mirth? Worldly mirth is flashy and empty. This will be infinitely delightful

and ravishing.

(v) It will be a great supper for the music. This will be a marriage supper, and what better music

than the Bridegroom’s voice, saying, ‘My spouse, my undefiled, take thy fill of love’. There will

be the angels’ anthems, the saints, triumphs. The angels, those trumpeters of heaven, shall sound

forth the excellencies of Jehovah, and the saints, those noble choristers, shall take ‘down their harps

from the willows’, and join in consort with the angels, praising and blessing God. ‘I saw them that

had gotten the victory over the beast, having the harps of God, and they sing the song of Moses

and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just

and true are thy ways thou king of saints . . .’ (Revelation 15:2, 3). O the sweet harmony at this

feast! It shall be music without discord.

(vi) This supper is great in regard of the place where it shall be celebrated, in the ‘paradise of God’

(Revelation 2:7). It is a stately palace. Stately: for its situation. It is of a very great height (Revelation

21:10): for its prospect. All sparkling beauties are there concentred, and the delight of the prospect

is propriety! That is the best prospect, where a man can see furthest on his own ground: for its

amplitude. This royal feast shall be kept in a most spacious room, a room infinitely greater than

the whole firmament, one star whereof (if we may believe astronomers) is bigger than the whole

earth. Though there be such a multitude as no man can number, ‘of all nations, kindreds, people

and tongues’ (Revelation 7:9), yet the table is long enough and the room spacious enough for all

the guests. Aulus Gellius in his thirteenth book, makes this to be one of those four things which

are requisite to a feast—‘a fit place’. The empyrean heaven bespangled with light, arrayed with

rich hangings, embroidered with glory, seated above all the visible orbs, is the place of the

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marriage-supper. This infinitely transcends the most profound search. I am no more able to express

it, than I can span the firmament, or weigh the earth in a pair of balances.

(vii) It will be a great supper in regard of its continuance. It has no end. Epicures have a short feast,

and a long reckoning, but those who shall sit down at the heavenly banquet, shall not rise from the

table. The cloth shall never be taken away, but they shall always be feeding upon those sweet

junkets and delicacies which are set before them. We read that King Ahasuerus made a feast for

his princes that lasted ‘an hundred and fourscore days’ (Esther 1:4). But this blessed feast reserved

for the saints, is ‘for ever’. ‘At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore’ (Psalm 16:11).

For your consolation, consider how this may be as Bezar stone to keep the hearts of God’s people

from fainting! ‘They shall be comforted’. They shall sit with Christ ‘upon the throne’ (Revelation

3:21), and sit down with him ‘at the table’. Who would not mourn for sin that are sure to meet with

such rewards! ‘They shall be comforted’. The marriage-supper will make amends for ‘the valley

of tears’. O saint of God, you who are now watering your plants and weeping bitterly for sin, at

this last and great feast your ‘water shall be turned into wine’. You who now mortify your

corruptions, and ‘beat down your body’ by prayer and fasting, shall shortly sup with Christ and

angels. You who refused to touch the forbidden tree shall feed upon ‘the tree of life in the paradise

of God’. You impoverished saint, who have scarce a bit of bread to eat, remember for your comfort,

‘in thy father’s house there is bread enough’, and he is making ready a feast for you, where all the

dainties of heaven are served in. O feed with delight upon the thoughts of this marriage-supper!

After your funeral begins your festival. Long for suppertime. ‘The delay is long which separates

us from our honey-sweet joys’. Christ has paid for this supper upon the cross, and there is no fear

of a ‘reckoning’ to be brought in. ‘Wherefore comfort one another with these words’.

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12. Christian meekness

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

Matthew 5:5

We are now got to the third step leading in the way to blessedness, Christian meekness. ‘Blessed

are the meek’. See how the Spirit of God adorns ‘the hidden man of the heart, with multiplicity of

graces! The workmanship of the Holy Ghost is not only curious, but various. It makes the heart

meek, pure, peaceable etc. The graces therefore are compared to needlework, which is different

and various in its flowers and colours (Psalm 45:14). In the words there is a duty, and that duty like

the dove brings an olive leaf in the mouth of it, ‘they shall inherit the earth’.

The proposition I shall insist on is that meet persons are blessed persons. For the right understanding

of this, we must know there is a twofold meekness. Meekness towards God, meekness towards

man.

1 Meekness towards God, which implies two things: submission to his will; flexibleness to his

Word.

(i) Submission to God’s will: when we carry ourselves calmly, without swelling or murmuring,

under the dispensations of providence. ‘It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good’ (1 Samuel

3:18). The meek-spirited Christian saith thus: Let God do what he will with me, let him carve out

what condition he please, I will submit. God sees what is best for me, whether a fertile soil or a

barren. Let him chequer his work as he please, it suffices that God has done it. It was an unmeek

spirit in the prophet to struggle with God: ‘I do well to be angry to the death’ (Jonah 4:9).

(ii) Flexibleness to God’s Word: when we are willing to let the Word bear sway in our souls and

become pliable to all its laws and maxims. He is spiritually meek who conforms himself to the

mind of God, and does not quarrel with the instructions of the Word, but with the corruptions of

his heart. Cornelius’ speech to Peter savoured of a meek spirit: ‘Now therefore we are all here

present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God’ (Acts 10:33). How happy

is it when the Word which comes with majesty is received with meekness! (James 1:21).

2 Meekness towards man. Basil the Great calls this the indelible character of a gracious soul.

‘Blessed are the meek’. To illustrate this, I shall show what this meekness is. Meekness is a grace

whereby we are enabled by the Spirit of God to moderate our passion. It is a grace. The philosopher

calls it a virtue, but the apostle calls it a grace, and therefore reckons it among the ‘fruits of the

Spirit’ (Galatians 5:23). It is of a divine extract and original. By it we are enabled to moderate our

passion. By nature the heart is like a troubled sea, casting forth the foam of anger and wrath. Now

meekness calms the passions. It sits as moderator in the soul, quieting and giving check to its

distempered motions. As the moon serves to temper and allay the heat of the sun, so Christian

meekness allays the heat of passion. Meekness of spirit not only fits us for communion with God,

but for civil converse with men; and thus among all the graces it holds first place. Meekness has a

divine beauty and sweetness in it. It brings credit to religion; it wins upon all. This meekness consists

in three things: the bearing of injuries, the forgiving of injuries, the recompensing good for evil.

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First, meekness consists in the bearing of injuries. I may say of this grace, ‘it is not easily provoked’.

A meek spirit, like wet tinder, will not easily take fire. ‘They that seek my hurt spake mischievous

things, but I, as a deaf man, heard not’ (Psalm 38:12, 13). Meekness is ‘the bridle of anger’. The

passions are fiery and headstrong; meekness gives check to them. Meekness ‘bridles the mouth’,

it ties the tongue to its good behaviour. Meekness observes that motto, Bear and forbear. There are

four things opposite to meekness.

(i) Meekness is opposed to hastiness of spirit. ‘Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger rests

in the bosom of fools’ (Ecclesiastes 7:9). When the heart boils in passion, and anger (as Seneca

says) sparkles forth in the eye, this is far from meekness. ‘Anger rests in the bosom of fools’. Anger

may be in a wise man, but it rests in a fool. The angry man is like flax or gunpowder. No sooner

do you touch him but he is all on fire. Saint Basil calls anger drunkenness, and Jerome says there

are more drunken with passion than with wine. Seneca calls anger ‘a short fit of madness’. Sometimes

it suspends the use of reason. In the best things we are cool enough. In religion we are all ice, in

contention all fire. How unbecoming is rash anger! How it disguises and disfigures! Homer says

of Agamemnon that when he moderated his passion, he resembled the gods. He was like Jupiter in

feature, like Pallas in wisdom, but when he was in his fury, he was a very tiger. Nothing of Jupiter

appeared in him. As Plato counselled the great revellers and drinkers of his time, that they should

view themselves in a glass when they were in their drunken humour, and they would appear

loathsome to themselves, so let a man disguised with passion view himself in the glass, and sure

he would ever after be out of love with himself. ‘The face swells with anger, the veins become

black with blood’. ‘Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil’

(Ephesians 4:26, 27). Oh, says one, he has wronged me and I will never give place to him; but

better give place to him than to the devil. An hasty spirit is not a meek spirit. Not but that we may

in some cases be angry. There is an holy anger. That anger is without sin which is against sin.

Meekness and zeal may stand together. In matters of religion, a Christian must be clothed with the

spirit of Elias, and be ‘full of the fury of the Lord’ (Jeremiah 6:11). Christ was meek (Matt. 11:29),

yet zealous (John 2:14, 15). The zeal of God’s house ate him up.

(ii) Meekness is opposed to malice. Malice is the devil’s picture (John 8:44). Malice is mental

murder (1 John 3:15). It unfits for duty. How can such a man pray? I have read of two men that

lived in malice, who being asked how they could say the Lord’s prayer, one answered, he thanked

God there were many good prayers besides. The other answered, when he said the Lord’s prayer

he left out those words, ‘as we forgive them that trespass against us’. But Augustine brings in God

replying, ‘Because thou dost not say my prayer, I will not hear thine’. Were it not a sad judgement

if all that a man ate should turn to poison! To a malicious man all the holy ordinances of God turn

to poison. ‘The table of the Lord, is a snare; ‘he eats and drinks his own damnation’. A malicious

spirit is not a meek spirit.

(iii) Meekness is opposed to revenge. Malice is the scum of anger, and revenge is malice boiling

over. Malice is a vermin which lives on blood. Revenge is Satan’s nectar and ambrosia. This is the

savoury meat which the malicious man dresses for the devil. The Scripture forbids revenge: ‘Dearly

beloved, avenge not yourselves’ (Romans 12:19). This is to take God’s office out of his hand, who

is called ‘the God of recompenses’ (Jeremiah 51:56) and the ‘God of vengeance’ (Psalm 94:1).

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This I urge against those who challenge one another to duels. Indeed, spiritual duels are lawful. It

is good to fight with the devil. ‘Resist the devil’ (James 4:7). It is good to duel with a man’s self,

the regenerate part against the carnal. Blessed is he that seeks a revenge upon his lusts. ‘Yea, what

revenge!’ (2 Corinthians 7:11). But other duels are unlawful. ‘Avenge not yourselves’. The Turks,

though a barbarous people, in ancient times burnt such as went to duel, applying hot coals of fire

to their sides. They who were in heat of revenge were punished suitably with fire.

Some may object. But if I am thus meek and tame in bearing of injuries and incivilities, I shall lose

my credit. It will be a strain to my reputation. I answer: To pass by an injury without revenge is no

eclipse to a man’s credit. Solomon tells us it is the glory of a man to ‘pass over a transgression’

(Proverbs 19:11). It is more honour to bury an injury than revenge it; and to slight it than to write

it down. The weakest creatures soonest turn head, and sting upon every touch. The lion, a more

majestic creature, is not easily provoked. The bramble tears. The oak and cedar are more peaceable.

Passion imports weakness. A noble spirit overlooks an injury.

Again, suppose a man’s credit should suffer an impair with those whose censure is not to be valued.

Yet think which is worse, shame or sin? Will you sin against God to save your credit? Surely it is

little wisdom for a man to venture his blood that he may fetch back his reputation, and to run into

hell to be counted valorous.

Not but that a man may stand up in defence of himself when his life is endangered. Some of the

Anabaptists hold it unlawful to take up the sword upon any occasion (though when they get the

power, I would be loath to trust them, their river water often turning to blood), but without question

a man may take up the sword for self-preservation, else he comes under the breach of the sixth

commandment. He is guilty of self-murder. In taking up the sword he does not so much seek

another’s death, as the safeguard of his own life. His intention is not to do hurt, but to prevent it.

Self-defence is consistent with Christian meekness. The law of nature and religion justify it. That

God who bids us ‘put up our sword’ (Matthew 26:52) yet will allow us a ‘buckler, in our own

defence, and he that will have us ‘innocent as doves’ not to offend others, will have us ‘wise as

serpents’ in preserving ourselves.

Though revenge may be contrary to meekness, yet not but that a magistrate may revenge the quarrels

of others. Indeed, it is not revenge in him, but doing justice. The magistrate is God’s lieutenant on

earth. God has put the sword in his hand, and he is not ‘to bear the sword in vain’. He must be ‘for

the punishment of evildoers’ (1 Peter 2:14). Though a private person must not render to any man

‘evil for evil (Romans 12:17), yet a magistrate may; the evil of punishment for the evil of offence.

This rendering of evil is good. Private men must ‘put their sword into the sheath’, but the magistrate

sins if he does not draw it out. As his sword must not surfeit through cruelty, so neither must it rust

through partiality. Too much lenity in a magistrate is not meekness, but injustice. For him to indulge

offences, and say with a gentle reproof as Eli, ‘Why do you such things? Nay, my sons, for it is no

good report that I hear’ (1 Samuel 2:23, 24), this is but to shave the head that deserves to be cut

off. Such a magistrate makes himself guilty.

(iv) Meekness is opposed to evil-speaking. ‘Let all evil-speaking be put away’ (Ephesians 4:31).

Our words should be mild, like the waters of Shiloah which run softly. It is too usual for passionate

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spirits to break out into opprobrious language. The tongues of many are fired, and it is the devil

lights the match. Therefore they are said in Scripture to be ’set on fire of hell’ (James 3:6). Men

have learned of the ‘old serpent, to spit their venom one at another in disgraceful revilings.

‘Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire’ (Matthew 5:22). Under that word

‘fool’, all vilifying terms are by our Saviour forbidden. Let us take heed of this. It is hateful to God.

God is not in this fire, but in the still small voice (1 Kings 19:12).

Some may say, But did not the apostle Paul call the Galatians fools? (Galatians 3:1). I answer, Paul

had an infallible spirit, which we do not have. Besides, when Paul uttered those words, it was not

by way of reproach, but reproof. It was not to defame the Galatians but to reclaim them; not to

vilify them but to humble them. Paul was grieved to see them so soon fall into a relapse. Well might

he say ‘foolish Galatians’ in an holy zeal, because they had suffered so much in the cause of religion,

and now made a defection and fell off. ‘Have ye suffered so many things in vain?’ (verse 4). But

though Paul, guided by the Spirit of God, did give this epithet to the Galatians, it is no warrant for

us when any have wronged us to use disgraceful terms. Meekness does not vent itself in scurrility.

It does not retaliate by railing. ‘Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he

disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The

Lord rebuke thee’ (Jude 9). Some understand by Michael, Christ, but more truly it is meant of one

of the chief of the angels. The contest or dispute between the archangel and the devil was about

the body of Moses. Some divines say that when God disposed of Moses’ body, he employed the

archangel to inter him so secretly that his burying place might not be known. It is likely if his dead

body had been found, the Israelites might have been ready in a preposterous zeal to have adored

it. The devil opposes the archangel and contends about the dead body, but the archangel ‘durst not’,

or, as some read it, he could not endure to ‘bring a railing accusation’. It seems the devil provoked

him with evil language, and would fain have extorted passion from him, but the archangel was

mild, and said only, ‘The Lord rebuke thee’. The angel would not so much as rail against the devil.

We may learn meekness of the archangel: ‘Not rendering railing for railing’ (1 Peter 3:9).

Not but that a Christian ought prudentially to clear himself from slanders. When the apostle Paul

was charged to be mad he vindicated himself. ‘I am not mad, most noble Festus’ (Acts 26:25).

Though a Christian’s retorts must not be vulnerating, they may be vindicating. Though he may not

scandalise another, yet he may apologise for himself. There must be Christian prudence, as well

as Christian meekness. It is not mildness but weakness to part with our integrity (Job 27:6). To be

silent when we are slanderously traduced, is to make ourselves appear guilty. We must so affect

meekness as not to lose the honour of innocence. It is lawful to be our own defenders. The fault

lies only in this, when we retort injuries with reproachful terms, which is to pay a man back in the

devil’s coin.

The second branch of meekness is in forgiving of injuries. ‘And when ye stand praying, forgive’

(Mark 11:25); as if Christ had said, It is to little purpose to pray, unless you forgive. A meek spirit

is a forgiving spirit. This is an Herculean work. Nothing more crosses the stream of corrupt nature.

Men forget kindnesses, but remember injuries. I once heard of a woman that lived in malice, and

being requested by some of her neighbours when she lay on her deathbed, to forgive, she answered,

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‘I cannot forgive though I go to hell’. This is cutting against the grain. Some can rather sacrifice

their lives than their lusts, but forgive we must, and forgive as God forgives. Forgiveness must be:

(i) Really. God does not make a show of forgiveness and keep our sins by him. He ‘blots out’ our

debts (Isaiah 43:25). God passes an act of oblivion (Jeremiah 31:34). He forgives and forgets. So

the meek spirit not only makes a show of forgiving his neighbour, but he does it from the heart

(Matthew 18:27).

(ii) Fully. God forgives all our sins. He does not for ‘fourscore write down fifty’, but he gives a

general release. ‘Who forgiveth all thy iniquities’ (Psalm 103:3). Thus a meek-spirited Christian

forgives all injuries. False hearts pass by some offences, but retain others. This is but half forgiving.

Is this meekness? Would you have God deal so with you? Would you have him forgive your

trespasses, as you forgive others?

(iii) God forgives often. We are often peccant! We run every day afresh upon the score, but God

often forgives. Therefore he is said to ‘multiply pardon’ (Isaiah 55:7). So a meek spirit reiterates

and sends one pardon after another. Peter asks the question, ‘Lord, how oft shall my brother sin

against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?’ (Matthew 18:21) Christ answers him, ‘I say not

unto thee, Until seven times, but until seventy times seven’ (verse 22).

Some may object that such an affront has been offered that flesh and blood cannot put up? I answer:

‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God’ (1 Corinthians 15:50). Christians must walk

antipodes to themselves, and with the sword of the Spirit fight against the lusts of the flesh (Galatians

5:24).

Again, you may say: But if I forgive one injury I shall invite more. I answer: It argues a devilish

nature to be the worse for kindness; but suppose we should meet with such monsters, yet it is our

duty to be ready to forgive (Colossians 3:13). Shall we cease from doing good because others will

not cease from being evil? If the more you forgive injuries, the more injuries you meet with, this

will make your grace shine the more. Another’s vice will be a greater demonstration of your virtue.

Often forgiving will add the more to the weight of his sin, and the weight of your glory. If any shall

say to me, I strive to excel in other graces, but as for this grace of meekness, the bearing and

forgiving of injuries, I cannot arrive at it; I desire in this to be excused. What do you talk of other

graces? Where there is one grace, there is all. If meekness be wanting, it is but a counterfeit chain

of grace. Your faith is a fable: your repentance is a lie; your humility is hypocrisy.

And whereas you say you cannot forgive, think of your sin. Your neighbour is not so bad in offending

you as you are in not forgiving him. Your neighbour, in offending you, but trespasses against a

man, but you, refusing to forgive him, trespass against God. Think also of your danger. You who

are implacable, and though you may smother the fire of your rage, yet will not extinguish it, know

that if you die this night, you die in an unpardoned condition. If you will not believe me, believe

Christ. ‘If you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses’

(Mark 11:26). He who lives without meekness, dies without mercy.

The third branch of meekness is in recompensing good for evil. This is an higher degree than the

other. ‘Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use

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you’ (Matthew 5:44). ‘If thine enemy hunger, feed him’ (Romans 12:20). ‘Not rendering evil for

evil, but contrariwise blessing’ (1 Peter 3:9). This threefold cord of Scripture should not easily be

broken. To render evil for evil is brutish: to render evil for good is devilish; to render good for evil

is Christian. The heathens thought it lawful to wrong none unless first provoked with an injury, but

the sunlight of Scripture shines brighter than the lamp of reason. ‘Love your enemies.’ When grace

comes into the heart, it works a strange alteration. When a scion is engrafted into the stock, it

partakes of the nature and sap of the tree and brings forth the same fruit. Take a crab, engraft it into

a pippin, it brings forth the same fruit as the pippin. So he who was once of a sour crabby disposition,

given to revenge, when he once partakes of the sap of the heavenly olive, he bears generous fruits.

He is full of love to his enemies. Grace allays the passion and melts the heart into compassion. As

the sun draws up many thick noxious vapours from the earth and sea, and returns them in sweet

showers, so a gracious heart returns all the unkindness and discourtesies of his enemies with the

sweet influences and distillations of love. Thus David, ‘They rewarded me evil for good; but as for

me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting . . .’ (Psalm

35:12, 13). Some would have rejoiced; he wept. Some would have put on scarlet; David put on

sackcloth. This is the rarity or rather miracle of meekness. It retorts good for evil. Thus we have

seen the nature of meekness.

Meekness shows us the badge of a true saint. He is of a meek, candid spirit. ‘He is not easily

provoked’. He takes everything in the best sense and conquers malice with mildness. I would to

God all who profess themselves saints were bespangled with this grace. We are known to belong

to Christ when we wear his livery. He is a saint whose spirit is made so meek that he can smother

prejudices and bury unkindnesses. A passion of tears better becomes a Christian than a passion of

anger. Every saint is Christ’s spouse (Canticles 4:8). It becomes Christ’s spouse to be meek. If any

injury be offered to the spouse, she leaves it to her husband to revenge. It is unseemly for Christ’s

spouse to strike.

Let me beseech all Christians to labour to be eminent in this superlative grace of meekness. ‘Seek

meekness’ (Zephaniah 2:3). Seeking implies we have lost it. Therefore, we must make an hue and

cry after it to find it. ‘Put on therefore as the elect of God, meekness’ (Colossians 3:12). Put it on

as a garment, never to be left off. Meekness is a necessary ingredient in everything. It is necessary

in instruction: ‘In meekness instructing . . .’ (2 Timothy 2:25). Meekness conquers the opposers of

truth. Meekness melts the heart. ‘Soft words’ are softening. Meekness is necessary in hearing the

Word. ‘Receive with meekness the engrafted Word’ (James 1:21). He who come to the Word with

either passion or prejudice gets no good, but hurt. He turns wine into poison, and stabs himself with

the sword of the Spirit. Meekness is needful in reproof. ‘If a man be overtaken with a fault, restore

such an one with the spirit of meekness’ (Galatians 6:1). The Greek word is ‘put him in joint again’.

If a bone be out of joint, the surgeon must not use a rough hand that may chance break another

bone. But he must come gently to work, and afterwards bind it up softly. So if a brother be through

inadvertence overtaken, we must not come to him in a fury of passion, but with a spirit of meekness

labour to restore him. I shall lay down several motives or arguments to meeken the spirits of men.

Let me propound exam pies of meekness

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(i) The example of Jesus Christ. ‘Thy king cometh unto thee meek’ (Matthew 21:5). Christ was the

sampler and pattern of meekness. ‘When he was reviled, he reviled not again’ (1 Peter 2:23). His

enemies’ words were more bitter than the gall they gave him, but Christ’s words were smoother

than oil. He prayed and wept for his enemies. He calls us to learn of him: ‘Learn of me, for I am

meek’ (Matthew 11:29). Christ does not bid us (says Augustine) learn of him to work miracles, to

open the eyes of the blind, to raise the dead, but he would have us learn of him to be meek. If we

do not imitate his life, we cannot be saved by his death.

(ii) Let us set before our eyes the examples of some of the saints who have shined in this grace.

Moses was a man of unparalleled meekness. ‘Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the

men which were upon the face of the earth’ (Numbers 12:3). How many injuries did he put up?

When the people of Israel murmured against him, instead of falling into a rage, he falls to prayer

for them (Exodus 15:24, 25). The text says, they murmured at the waters of Marah. Sure the waters

were not so bitter as the spirits of the people, but they could not provoke him to passion, but to

petition. Another time when they wanted water, they fell a chiding with Moses. ‘Wherefore is this

that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children with thirst?’ (Exodus 17:3).

As if they had said, If we die we will lay our death to your charge. Would not this exasperate?

Surely it would have required the meekness of an angel to bear this, but behold Moses, meekness.

He did not give them an unbecoming word! Though they were in a storm, he was in a calm. They

chide, but he prays. Oh that as the spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha, so may some of the spirit of

Moses, this meek man (or rather earthly angel), rest upon us! Another eminent pattern of meekness

was David. When Shimei cursed David, and Abishai, one of David’s lifeguard, would have beheaded

Shimei. No, says king David, ‘Let him alone, and let him curse’ (2 Samuel 16:11). And when Saul

had wronged and abused David and it was in David’s power to have taken Saul napping, and have

killed him (1 Samuel 26:7, 12), yet he would not touch Saul, but called God to be umpire (verse

23). Here was a mirror of meekness.

(iii) The examples of heathens. Though their meekness could not properly be called grace, because

it did not grow upon the right stock of faith, yet it was very beautiful in its kind. When one reviled

Pericles and followed him home to his gate at night, railing upon him, he answered not a word, but

commanded one of his servants to light a torch, and bring the railer home to his own house. Frederick,

Duke of Saxony, when he was angry, would shut himself up in his closet and let none come near

him, till he had mastered his passion. Plutarch reports of the Pythagoreans, if they chanced to fall

out in the day, they would embrace and be friends ere sunset. Cicero, in one of his Orations, reports

of Pompey the Great that he was a man of a meek disposition. He admitted all to come to him so

freely, and heard the complaints of them that were wronged so mildly, that he excelled all the

princes before him. He was of that sweet temper that it was hard to say whether his enemies more

feared his valour, or his subjects loved his meekness. Julius Caesar not only forgave Brutus and

Cassius, his enemies, but advanced them. He thought himself most honoured by acts of clemency

and meekness. Did the spring-head of nature rise so high, and shall not grace rise higher? Shall we

debase faith below reason? Let us write according to these fair copies.

2 Meekness is a great ornament to a Christian. ‘The ornament of a meek spirit’ (1 Peter 3:4). How

amiable is a saint in God’s eye when adorned with this jewel! What the psalmist says of praise

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(Psalm 33:1), the same may I say of meekness. It is ‘comely for the righteous’. No garment is more

becoming to a Christian than meekness. Therefore we are bid to put on this garment. ‘Put on

therefore as the elect of God, meekness’ (Colossians 3:12) A meek spirit brings credit to religion

and silences malice. It is the varnish that puts lustre upon holiness, and sets off the gospel with a

better gloss.

3 This is the way to be like God. God is meek towards them that provoke him. How many black

mouths are opened daily against the Majesty of heaven? How do men tear his Name! vex his Spirit!

crucify his Son afresh! They walk up and down the earth as so many devils covered with flesh, yet

the Lord is meek, ‘not willing that any should perish’ (2 Peter 3:9). How easily could God crush

sinners, and kick them into hell! But he moderates his anger. Though he be full of majesty, yet full

of meekness. In him is mixed princely greatness and fatherly mildness. As he has his sceptre of

royalty, so his throne of grace. Oh how should this make us fall in love with meekness! Hereby we

bear a kind of likeness to God. It is not profession makes us like God, but imitation. Where meekness

is wanting, we are not like men. Where it is present, we are like God.

4 Meekness argues a noble and excellent spirit. A meek man is a valorous man. He gets a victory

over himself. Passion arises from imbecility and weakness. Therefore we may observe old men

and children are more choleric than others. Strength of passion argues weakness of judgement, but

the meek man who is able to conquer his fury, is the most puissant and victorious. ‘He that is slow

to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city’ (Proverbs

16:32). To yield to one’s passion is easy. It is swimming along with the tide of corrupt nature, but

to turn against nature, to resist passion, to ‘overcome evil with good’, this is like a Christian. This

is that spiritual chivalry and fortitude of mind that deserves the trophies of victory and the garland

of praise.

5 Meekness is the best way to conquer and melt the heart of an enemy. When Saul lay at David’s

mercy and David only cut off the skirt of his robe, how was Saul’s heart affected with David’s

meekness? ‘Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lift up his voice and wept, and he said to

David, Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded

thee evil; forasmuch as when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not;

wherefore the Lord reward thee good . . .’ (1 Samuel 24:16, 17). This ‘heaping of coals’ melts and

thaws the heart of others. It is the greatest victory to overcome an enemy without striking a blow.

The fire will go where the wedge cannot. Mildness prevails more than fierceness. Passion makes

an enemy of a friend. Meekness makes a friend of an enemy. The meek Christian shall have letters

testimonial even from his adversary. It is reported of Philip, king of Macedon, that when it was

told him Nicanor openly railed against his Majesty, the king instead of putting him to death (as his

council advised), sent Nicanor a rich present, which so overcame the man’s heart, that he went up

and down to recant what he had said against the king, and highly extolled the king’s clemency.

Roughness hardens men’s hearts; meekness causes them to relent (2 Kings 6:22). When the king

of Israel feasted the captives he had taken in war, they were more conquered by his meekness than

by his sword. ‘The bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel’ (2 Kings 6:22)

6 Consider the great promise in the text. ‘The meek shall inherit the earth’. This argument perhaps

will prevail with those who desire to have earthly possessions. Some may object, If I forbear and

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forgive, I shall lose my right at last and be turned out of all? No! God has here entered into bond,

‘The meek shall inherit the earth’. The unmeek man is in a sad condition. There is no place remains

for him but hell, for he has no promise made to him either of earth or heaven. It is the ‘meek shall

inherit the earth’.

How do the meek inherit the earth when they are strangers in the earth? (Hebrews 11:37).

The meek are said to inherit the earth, not that the earth is their chief inheritance, or that they have

always the greatest share there, but:

(i) They are the inheritors of the earth because, though they have not always the greatest part of

the earth, yet they have the best right to it. The word ‘inherit’, says Ambrose, denotes the saints,

‘title to the earth’. The saints’ title is best, being ‘members of Christ’, who is Lord of all. Adam

not only lost his title to heaven when he fell, but to the earth too; and till we are incorporated into

Christ, we do not fully recover our title. I do not deny that the wicked have a civil right to the earth

which the laws of the land give them, but not a sacred right. Only the meek Christian has a

Scripture-title to his land. We count that the best title which is held in capite. The saints hold their

right to the earth in capite, in their head, Christ, who is ‘the prince of the kings of the earth

(Revelation 1:5). In this sense, he who has but a foot of land inherits more than he who has a

thousand acres, because he has a better and more juridical right to it.

(ii) The meek Christian is said to inherit the earth, because he inherits the blessing of the earth. The

wicked man has the earth, but not as a fruit of God’s favour. He has it as a dog has poisoned bread.

It does him more hurt than good. A wicked man lives in the earth as one that lives in an infectious

air. He is infected by his mercies. The fat of the earth will but make him fry and blaze the more in

hell. So that a wicked man may be said not to have what he has, because he has not the blessing;

but the meek saint enjoys the earth as a pledge of God’s love. The curse and poison is taken out of

the earth: ‘The meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace’

(Psalm 37:11), on which words Augustine gives this gloss: Wicked men (says he) may delight

themselves in the abundance of cattle and riches, but the meek man delights himself in the abundance

of peace. What he has he possesses with inward serenity and quietness.

When it is said the meek shall inherit the earth, it does not intimate that they shall not inherit more

than the earth. They shall inherit heaven too. If they should only inherit the earth, then (says

Chrysostom) how could it be said, ‘Blessed are the meek’? The meek have the earth only for their

sojourning-house: they have heaven for their mansion-house. ‘He will beautify the meek with

salvation’ (Psalm 149:4). The meek beautify religion, and God will beautify them with salvation.

Salvation is the port we all desire to sail to. It is the harvest and vintage of souls. The meek are they

which shall reap this harvest. The meek shall wear the embroidered robe of salvation. The meek

are lords of the earth end ‘heirs of salvation’ (Hebrews 1:14).

7 Consider the mischief of an unmeek spirit. There is nothing makes such room for the devil to

come into the heart and take possession, as wrath and anger. ‘Let not the sun go down upon your

wrath, neither give place to the devil’ (Ephesians 4:26, 27). When men let forth passion, they let

in Satan. The wrathful man has the devil for his bedfellow. Passion hinders peace. The meek

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Christian has sweet quiet and harmony in his soul, but passion puts the soul into a disorder. It not

only clouds reason, but disturbs conscience. He does not possess himself whom passion possesses.

It is no wonder if they have no peace of conscience who make so little conscience of peace.

Wrathfulness grieves the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30, 31), and if the Spirit be grieved, he will

be gone. We do not care to stay in smoky houses. The Spirit of God does not love to be in that heart

which is so full of the vapours and fumes of distempered passion.

8 Another argument to cool the intemperate heat of our cursed hearts, is to consider that all the

injuries and unkind usages we meet with from the world, do not fall out by chance, but are disposed

of by the all-wise God for our good. Many are like the foolish cur that snarls at the stone, never

looking to the hand that threw it; or like the horse, who being spurred by the rider, bites the snaffle.

If we looked higher than instruments our hearts would grow meek and calm. David looked beyond

Shimei’s rage: ‘Let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him’ (2 Samuel 16:11). What wisdom were

it for Christians to see the hand of God in all the barbarisms and incivilities of men! Job eyed God

in his affliction, and that meekened his spirit. ‘The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of

the Lord, Job 1:21). He does not say, The Chaldeans have taken away, but ‘The Lord hath taken

away’. What made Christ so meek in his sufferings? He did not look at Judas or Pilate, but at his

Father. ‘The cup which my Father hath given me’ (John 18:11). When wicked men revile and injure

us, they are but God’s executioners. Who is angry with the executioner?

And as God has an hand in all the affronts and discourtesies we receive from men (for they but

hand them over to us), so God will do us good by all if we belong to him. ‘It may be’ (says David)

‘that the Lord will look upon mine affliction, and requite me good for his cursing’ (2 Samuel 16:12).

Usually, when the Lord intends us some signal mercy, he fits us for it by some eminent trial. As

Moses’ hand was first leprous before it wrought salvation (Exodus 4:6), so God may let his people

be belepered with the cursings and revilings of men before he shower down some blessings upon

them. ‘It may be the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.’

9 Want of meekness evidences want of grace. True grace inflames love and moderates anger. Grace

is like the file which smoothes the rough iron. It files off the ruggedness of a man’s spirit. Grace

says to the heart as Christ did to the angry sea, ‘Peace, be still’ (Mark 4:39). So where there is grace

in the heart, it stills the raging of passion and makes a calm. He who is in a perpetual frenzy, letting

loose the reins to wrath and malice, never yet felt the sweet efficacy of grace. It is one of the sins

of the heathen to be ‘implacable’ (Romans 1:31). A revengeful cankered heart is not only heathenish,

but devilish. ‘If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, this wisdom descendeth not from

above, but is devilish’ (James 3:14, 15). The old serpent spits forth the poison of malice and revenge.

10 If all that has been said will not serve to master this bedlam-humour of wrath and anger, let me

tell you, you are the persons whom God steaks of who hate to be reformed. You are rebels against

the Word. Read and tremble: ‘Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it

may be for the time to come for ever and ever; that this is a rebellious people, children that will not

hear the law of the Lord’ (Isaiah 30:8, 9). If nothing yet said will charm down the wrathful devil,

let me tell you, God hath charged every man not to meddle or have any league of friendship with

you. ‘Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go’ (Proverbs

22:24). What a monster is he among men, that every one is warned to beware of, and not to come

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near, as one who is unfit for humane society! Make no league, says God, with t h a t m a n. If you

take him into your society, you take a snake into your bosom. ‘With a furious man thou shalt not

go’. Will you walk with the devil? The furious man is possessed with a wrathful devil.

Oh that all this might help to meeken and sweeten Christians, spirits!

But some will say, It is my nature to be passionate! I answer:

(i) This is sinful arguing. It is secretly to lay our sin upon God. We learned this from Adam. ‘The

woman whom thou gayest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat’ (Genesis 3:12);

rather than Adam would confess his sin, he would father it upon God. ‘The woman thou gayest

me’. As if he had said, If you had not given this woman to me, I had not eaten. So, says one, It is

my nature; this is the froward, peevish nature God has given me. Oh no! you charge God falsely.

God did not give you such a nature. ‘He made man upright’ (Ecclesiastes 7:29). God made you

straight; you made yourself crooked. All your affections at first, your joy, love, anger were set in

order as the stars in their right orb, but you misplaced them and made them move eccentric. At first

the affections like several musical instruments well tuned, made a sweet consort, but sin was the

jarring string that brought all out of tune. Vain man, do not plead that it is your nature to be angry;

thank yourself for it. Nature’s spring was pure till sin poisoned the spring.

(ii) Is it your nature to be fierce and angry? This is so far from being an excuse, that it makes it so

much the worse. It is the nature of a toad to poison that makes it the more hateful. If a man were

indicted for stealing, and he should say to the judge, ‘Spare me; it is my nature to steal’, were this

any excuse? The judge would say, ‘You deserve the rather to die’. Sinner, get a new nature. ‘Flesh

and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of God’.

What shall I do to be possessed of this excellent grace of meekness?

1 Often look upon the meekness of Christ. The scholar that would write well has his eye often upon

the copy.

2 Pray earnestly that God will meeken your spirit. God is called ‘the God of all grace’ (1 Peter

5:10). He has all the graces in his gift. Sue to him for this grace of meekness. If one were patron

of all the livings in the land, men would sue to him for a living. God is patron of all the graces. Let

us sue to him. Mercy comes in at the door of prayer. ‘I will yet for this be enquired of by the house

of Israel to do it for them’ (Ezekiel 36:26, 37). Meekness is the commodity we want. Let us send

prayer as our factor over to heaven to procure it for us; and pray in faith. When faith sets prayer

on work, prayer sets God on work. All divine blessings come streaming to us through this golden

channel of prayer.

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13. The nature of spiritual hunger

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after

righteousness

Matthew 5:6

We are now come to the fourth step of blessedness: ‘Blessed are they that hunger’. The words fall

into two parts: a duty implied; a promise annexed.

A duty implied: ‘Blessed are they that hunger’. Spiritual hunger is a blessed hunger.

What is meant by hunger? Hunger is put for desire (Isaiah 26:9). Spiritual hunger is the rational

appetite whereby the soul pants after that which it apprehends most suitable and proportional to

itself.

Whence is this hunger? Hunger is from the sense of want. He who spiritually hungers, has a real

sense of his own indigence. He wants righteousness.

What is meant by righteousness? There is a twofold righteousness: of imputation; of implantation.

A righteousness of imputation, namely, Christ’s righteousness. ‘He shall be called the Lord our

righteousness’ (Jeremiah 23:6). This is as truly ours to justify, as it is Christ’s to bestow. By virtue

of this righteousness God looks upon us as if we had never sinned (Numbers 23:21). This is a

perfect righteousness. ‘Ye are complete in him’ (Colossians 2:10). This does not only cover but

adorn. He who has this righteousness is equal to the most illustrious saints. The weakest believer

is justified as much as the strongest. This is a Christian’s triumph. When he is defiled in himself,

he is undefiled in his Head. In this blessed righteousness we shine brighter than the angels. This

righteousness is worth hungering after.

A righteousness of implantation: that is, inherent righteousness, namely, the graces of the Spirit,

holiness of heart and life, which Cajetan calls ‘universal righteousness’. This a pious soul hungers

after. This is a blessed hunger. Bodily hunger cannot make a man so miserable as spiritual hunger

makes him blessed. This evidences life. A dead man cannot hunger. Hunger proceeds from life.

The first thing the child does when it is born, is to hunger after the breast. Spiritual hunger follows

upon the new birth (1 Peter 2:2). Saint Bernard in one of his Soliloquies comforts himself with this,

that sure he had the truth of grace in him, because he had in his heart a strong desire after God. It

is happy when, though we have not what we should, we desire what we have not. The appetite is

as well from God as the food.

1 See here at what a low price God sets heavenly things. It is but hungering and thirsting. ‘Ho,

every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, buy without money’ (Isaiah 55:1). We are not bid

to bring any merits as the Papists would do, nor to bring a sum of money to purchase righteousness.

Rich men would be loath to do that. All that is required is to bring an appetite. Christ ‘hash fulfilled

all righteousness’. We are only to ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’. This is equal and

reasonable. God does not require rivers of oil, but sighs and tears. The invitation of the gospel is

free. If a friend invites guests to his table, he does not expect they should bring money to pay for

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their dinner, only come with an appetite. So, says God, It is not penance, pilgrimage,

self-righteousness I require. Only bring a stomach: ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’. God

might have set Christ and salvation at an higher price, but he has much beaten down the price. Now

as this shows the sweetness of God’s nature he is not a hard master so it shows us the inexcusableness

of those who perish under the gospel. What apology can any man make at the day of judgement,

when God shall ask that question, Friend, why did you not embrace Christ? I set Christ and grace

at a low rate. If you had but hungered after righteousness, you might have had it, but you slighted

Christ. You had such low thoughts of righteousness that you would not hunger after it. How do

you think to escape who have neglected ’so great salvation’? The easier the terms of the gospel

are, the sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy of who unworthy refuse such an offer.

2 It shows us a true character of a godly man. He hungers and thirsts after spiritual things (Isaiah

26:9; Psalm 73:25). A true saint is carried upon the wing of desire. It is the very temper and

constitution of a gracious soul to thirst after God (Psalm 42:2). In the word preached, how he is

big with desire! These are some of the partings of his soul: Lord, thou hast led me into thy courts.

O that I may have thy sweet presence, that thy glory may fill the temple! This is thy limping house;

wilt thou draw some sacred lineaments of grace upon my soul that I may be more assimilated and

changed into the likeness of my dear Saviour. In prayer, how is the soul filled with passionate

longings after Christ! Prayer is expressed by ‘groans unutterable’ (Romans 8:26). The heart sends

up whole volleys of sighs to heaven; Lord, one beam of thy love! one drop of thy blood!

It reproves such as have none of this spiritual hunger. They have no winged desires. The edge of

their affections is blunted. Honey is not sweet to them that are sick of a fever and have their tongues

embittered with choler.’ So those who are soul-sick and ‘in the gall of bitterness’, find no sweetness

in God or religion. Sin tastes sweeter to them; they have no spiritual hunger. That men do not have

this ‘hunger after righteousness’ appears by these seven demonstrations:

1 They never felt any emptiness. They are full of their own righteousness (Romans 10:3). Now ‘the

full stomach loathes the honeycomb’. This was Laodicea’s disease. She was full and had no stomach

either to Christ’s gold or eye-salve (Revelation 3:17). When men are filled with pride, this flatulent

distemper hinders holy longings. As when the stomach is full of wind it spoils the appetite. None

so empty of grace as he that thinks he is full. He has most need of righteousness that least wants

it.

2 That men do not hunger after righteousness appears because they can make a shift well enough

to be without it. If they have oil in the cruse, the world coming in, they are well content. Grace is

a commodity that is least missed. You shall hear men complain they lack health, they lack trading,

but never complain they lack righteousness. If men lose a meal or two they think themselves half

undone, but they can stay away from ordinances which are the conduits of grace. Do they hunger

after righteousness who are satisfied without it? Nay, who desire to be excused from feeding upon

the gospel banquet (Luke 14:18). Sure he has no appetite, who entreats to be excused from eating.

3 It is a sign they have none of this spiritual hunger, who desire rather sleep than food. They are

more drowsy than hungry. Some there are who come to the Word that they may get a nap, to whom

I may say as Christ did to Peter, ‘Couldest thou not watch one hour?’ (Mark 14:37). It is strange

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to see a man asleep at his meat. Others there are who have a ‘deep sleep’ fallen upon them. They

are asleep in security and they hate a soul-awakening ministry. While they sleep, ‘their damnation

slumbereth not’ (2 Peter 2:3).

4 It appears that men have no spiritual hunger because they refuse their food. Christ and grace are

offered, nay, pressed upon them, but they put away salvation from them as the froward child puts

away the breast (Psalm 81:11; Acts 13:46). Such are your fanatics and enthusiasts who put away

the blessed ordinances and pretend to revelations. That is a strange revelation that tells a man he

may live without food. These prefer husks before manna. They live upon airy notions, being fed

by the ‘prince of the air’.

5 It is a sign they have none of this spiritual hunger who delight more in the garnishing of the dish

than in food. These are they who look more after elegance and notion in preaching than solid matter.

It argues either a wanton palate or a surfeited stomach to feed on salads and fancy dishes, neglecting

wholesome food. ‘If any man consent not to wholesome words, he is proud, knowing nothing . . .’

(1 Timothy 6:3, 4). The plainest truth has its beauty. They have no spiritual hunger that desire only

to feast their fancy. Of such the prophet speaks: ‘Thou art to them as a very lovely song of one that

hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument’ (Ezekiel 33:32). If a man were invited

to a feast, and there being music at the feast, he should so listen to the music that he did not mind

his meat, you would say, Sure he is not hungry. So when men are for jingling words and like rather

gallantry of speech than spirituality of matter, it is a sign they have surfeited stomachs and ‘itching

ears’.

6 They evidence little hunger after righteousness that prefer other things before it, namely, their

profits and recreations. If a boy when he should be at dinner is playing in the street, it is a sign that

he has no appetite to his meat. Were he hungry he would not prefer his play before his food. So

when men prefer ‘vain things which cannot profit’ before the blood of Christ and the grace of the

Spirit, it is a sign they have no palate or stomach to heavenly things.

7 It is a sign men have no spiritual hunger when they are more for disputes in religion than practice.

Robert of Gaul thought he saw in his dream a great feast, and some were biting on hard stones.

When men feed only on hard questions and controversies (1 Timothy 6:3, 4) (like some of the

schoolmen’s ‘utrums’ and distinctions), as whether one may partake with him that does not have

the work of grace in his heart, whether one ought not to separate from a church in case of

mal-administration, what is to be thought of paedobaptism, etc. When these niceties and criticisms

in religion take men’s heads, neglecting faith and holiness, these pick bones and do not feed on the

meat. Sceptics in religion have hot brains but cold hearts. Did men hunger and thirst after

righteousness they would propound to themselves such questions as these, How shall we do to be

saved? How shall we make our calling and election sure? How shall we mortify our corruptions?

But such as ravel out their time in frothy and litigious disputes, I call heaven to witness, they are

strangers to this text. They do not ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’.

The Word reproves them who, instead of hungering and thirsting after righteousness, thirst after

riches. This is the thirst of covetous men. They desire mammon not manna. ‘They pant after the

dust of the earth’ (Amos 2:7). This is the disease most are afflicted with, an immoderate appetite

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after the world, but these things will no more satiate than drink will quench the thirst of a man with

the dropsy. Covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Too many Protestants set up the idol of gold

in the temple of their hearts. This sin of covetousness is the most hard to root out. Commonly, when

other sins leave men, this sin abides. Wantonness is the sin of youth; worldliness the sin of old age.

The Word reproves them who hunger and thirst after unrighteousness. Here I shall indict three sorts

of persons:

1 It reproves such as thirst after other men’s lands and possessions. This the Scripture calls a ‘mighty

sin’ (Amos 5:12). Thus Ahab thirsted after Naboth’s vineyard. This is an hungry age wherein we

live. We have a great deal of this hungering and thirsting, which has made so many state-thieves.

Men have fleeced others to feather themselves. What a brave challenge did Samuel make; ‘Behold,

here I am, witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: Whose ox have I taken?

Or whose ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Of whose hand have I received any bribe?

…’ (1 Samuel 12:3). Few that have been in power that can say thus, Whose ox have we taken?

Whose house have we plundered? Whose estate have we sequestered? Nay, whose ox have they

not taken? ‘Goods unjustly gotten seldom go to the third heir’. Read the plunderer’s curse: ‘Woe

to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled’

(Isaiah 33:1). Ahab paid dear for the vineyard when the devil carried away his soul and the ‘dogs

licked his blood’ (1 Kings 21:19). He that lives on rapine dies a fool. ‘He that getteth riches, and

not by right, at his end shall be a fool’ (Jeremiah 17:11).

2 It reproves such as hunger and thirst after revenge. This is a devilish thirst. Though it were more

Christian and safe to smother an injury, yet our nature is prone to this disease of revenge. We have

the sting of the bee, not the honey. Malice having broken the bars of reason grows savage and

carries its remedy in the scabbard. Heathens who have stopped the vein of revengeful passion when

it has begun to vent, will rise up against Christians. I have read of Phocion who, being wrongfully

condemned to die, desired that his son might not remember the injuries which the Athenians had

done to him, nor revenge his blood.

3 It reproves such as hunger and thirst to satisfy their impure lusts. Sinners are said to sin ‘with

greediness’ (Ephesians 4:19). So Amnon was sick till he had defiled Tamar’s chastity (2 Samuel

13). Never does an hungry man come with more eagerness to his food than a wicked man does to

his sin. And when Satan sees men have such an appetite, commonly he will provide a dish they

love. He will set the ‘forbidden tree’ before them. They that thirst to commit sin shall thirst as Dives

did in hell and not have a drop of water to cool their tongue.

Let us put ourselves upon a trial whether we hunger and thirst after righteousness. I shall give you

five signs by which you may judge of this hunger.

1 Hunger is a painful thing. Esau, when he was returning from hunting, was almost dead with

hunger (Genesis 25:32). ‘Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them’ (Psalm 107:5). So a man

that hungers after righteousness is in anguish of soul and ready to faint away for it. He finds a want

of Christ and grace. He is distressed and in pain till he has his spiritual hunger stilled and allayed.

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2 Hunger is satisfied with nothing but food. Bring an hungry man flowers, music; tell him pleasant

stories; nothing will content him but food. ‘Shall I die for thirst?’ says Samson (Judges 15:18). So

a man that hungers and thirsts after righteousness says, Give me Christ or I die. Lord, what wilt

thou give me seeing I go Christless? What though I have parts, wealth, honour and esteem in the

world? All is nothing without Christ. Shew me the Lord and it will suffice me. Let me have Christ

to clothe me, Christ to feed me, Christ to intercede for me. While the soul is Christless, it is restless.

Nothing but the water-springs of Christ’s blood can quench its thirst.

3 Hunger wrestles with difficulties and makes an adventure for food. We say hunger breaks through

stone walls (cf. Genesis 42:1, 2). The soul that spiritually hungers is resolved; Christ it must have;

grace it must have. And to use Basil’s expression, the hungry soul is almost distracted till it enjoys

the thing it hungers after.

4 An hungry man falls to his meat with an appetite. You need not make an oration to an hungry

man and persuade him to eat. So he who hungers after righteousness feeds eagerly on an ordinance.

‘Thy words were found, and I did eat them’ (Jeremiah 15:16). In the sacrament he feeds with

appetite upon the body and blood of the Lord. God loves to see us feed hungrily on the bread of

life.

5 An hungry man tastes sweetness in his meat. So he that hungers after righteousness relishes a

sweetness in heavenly things. Christ is to him all marrow, yea the quintessence of delights. ‘If so

be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious’ (1 Peter 2:3). He that spiritually hungers tastes the

promises sweet, nay tastes a reproof sweet. ‘To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet’ (Proverbs

27:7). A bitter reproof is sweet. He can feed upon the myrrh of the gospel as well as the honey. By

these notes of trial we may judge of ourselves whether we hunger and thirst after righteousness.

The words may serve to comfort the hearts of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; I

doubt not but it is the grief of many a good heart that he cannot be more holy, that he cannot serve

God better. ‘Blessed are they that hunger’. Though you do not have so much righteousness as you

would, yet you are blessed because you hunger after it. Desire is the best discovery of a Christian.

Actions may be counterfeit. A man may do a good action for a bad end. So did Jehu. Actions may

be compulsory. A man may be forced to do that which is good, but not to will that which is good.

Therefore we are to cherish good desires and to bless God for them. Oftentimes a child of God has

nothing to show for himself but desires. ‘Thy servants, who desire to fear thy name’ (Nehemiah

1:11). These hungerings after righteousness proceed from love. A man does not desire that which

he does not love. If you did not love Christ, you could not hunger after him.

But some may say, If my hunger were right then I could take comfort in it, but I fear it is counterfeit.

Hypocrites have their desires.

In reply, that I may the better settle a doubting Christian I shall show the difference between true

and false desires, spiritual hunger and carnal.

1 The hypocrite does not desire grace for itself. He desires grace only as a bridge to lead him over

to heaven. He does not so much search after grace as glory. He does not so much desire the way

of righteousness as the crown of righteousness. His desire is not to be made like Christ, but to reign

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with Christ. This was Balaam’s desire. ‘Let me die the death of the righteous’ (Numbers 23:10).

Such desires as these are found among the damned. This is the hypocrite’s hunger. But a child of

God desires grace for itself and Christ for himself. To a believer not only is heaven precious but

Christ is precious (1 Peter 2:7).

2 The hypocrite’s desire is conditional. He would have heaven and his sins too, heaven and his

pride, heaven and his covetousness. The young man in the gospel would have had heaven, provided

he might keep his earthly possessions. Many a man would have Christ, but there is some sin he

must not be uncivil to, but gratify. This is the hypocrites’ hunger; but true desire is absolute. Give

me, says the soul, Christ on any terms. Let God propound what articles he will, I will subscribe to

them. Would he have me deny myself? Would he have me mortify sin? I am content to do anything

so I may have Christ. Hypocrites would have Christ, but they are loath to part with a lust for him.

They are like a man chat would have a lease, but is loath to pay down the fine.

3 Hypocrites’ desires are but desires. They are lazy and sluggish. When one excited Lipsius to the

study of virtue, says he, ‘My mind is to it’. ‘The desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands

refuse to labour’ (Proverbs 21:25). Many stand as the waggoner in the fable crying, ‘Help, Hercules’,

when his wain stuck in the mud, when he should rather have put his shoulder to the wheel. Men

would be saved but they will take no pains. Does he desire water that will not let down the bucket

into the well? But true desire is quickened into endeavour. ‘With my soul have I desired thee in

the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early’ (Isaiah 26:9). The ‘violent, take

heaven by force (Matthew 11:12). The lovesick spouse, though she was wounded, and her vail

taken away, yet she follows after Christ (Canticles 5:7). Desire is the weight of the soul which sets

it a going; as the eagle which desires her prey makes haste to it. ‘Where the slain are, there is she’

(Job 39:30). The eagle has sharpness of sight to discover her prey, and swiftness of wing to fly to

it. So the soul that hungers after righteousness is carried swiftly to it in the use of all holy ordinances.

4 The hypocrite’s desires are cheap. He would have spiritual things, but will be at no charges for

them. He cares not how much money he parts with for his lusts; he has money to spend upon a

drunken companion; but he has no money to part with for the maintaining of God’s ordinances.

Hypocrites cry up religion, but cry down maintenance of ministers. But true desires are costly.

David would not offer burnt-offerings without cost (1 Chronicles 21:24). An hungry man will give

anything for food; as it fell out in the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 6:25). That man never hungered

after Christ who thinks much of parting with a little silver for ‘the Pearl of price’.

5 Hypocrites’ desires are flashy and transient. They are quickly gone, like the wind that does not

stay long in one corner. Or like an hot fit which is soon over. While the hypocrite is under legal

terror, or in affliction, he has some good desires, but the hot fit is soon over. His goodness, like a

fiery comet, soon spends and evaporates; but true desire is constant. It is observable that the Greek

word in the text is in the participle: ‘Blessed are they that are hungering.’ Though they have

righteousness, yet they are still hungering after more. Hypocrites desire it like the motion of a watch

which is quickly down. The desire of a godly man is like the beating of the pulse which lasts as

long as life. ‘My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath to thy judgements’ (Psalm 119:20). And

that we might not think this pang of desire would soon be over he adds, ‘at all times’. David’s desire

after God was not an high colour in a fit, but the constant complexion of his soul. In the temple the

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fire was not to go out by night. ‘The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar’ (Leviticus 6:13).

There was, says Cyril, a mystery in it, to show that we must be ever burning in holy affections and

desires.

6 Hypocrites’ desires are unseasonable. They are not well-timed. They put off their hungering after

righteousness till it be too late. They are like the foolish virgins that came knocking when the door

was shut (Matthew 25:11). In time of health and prosperity the stream of the affections ran another

way. It was sin the hypocrite desired, not righteousness. When he is to die and can keep his sins

no longer, now he would have grace as a passport to carry him to heaven (Luke 13:25). This is the

hypocrite’s fault. His faith is too early and his desires are too late. His faith began to bud in the

morning of his infancy; he believed ever since he could remember, but his desires after Christ begin

not to put forth till the evening of old age. He sends forth his desires when his last breath is going

forth; as if a man should desire a pardon after the sentence is passed. These bed-rid desires are

suspicious; but true desires are timely and seasonable. A gracious heart ’seeks first the Kingdom

of God’ (Matthew 6:33). David’s thirst after God was early (Psalm 63:1). The wise virgins got their

oil betimes before the bridegroom came. Thus we see the difference between a true and false hunger.

They who can find this true hunger are blessed and may take comfort in it.

But some may object: My hunger after righteousness is so weak, that I fear it is not true.

I answer: Though the pulse beats but weak it shows there is life. And that weak desires should not

be discouraged, there is a promise made to them. ‘A bruised reed he will not break’ (Matthew

12:20). A reed is a weak thing, but especially when it is bruised, yet this ‘bruised reed’ shall not

be broken, but like Aaron’s dry rod, ‘bud and blossom’. In case of weakness look to Christ your

High Priest. He is merciful, therefore will bear with your infirmities; he is mighty, therefore will

help them.

Further, if your desires after righteousness seem to be weak and languid, yet a Christian may

sometimes take a measure of his spiritual estate as well by the judgement as by the affections. What

is that you esteem most in your judgement? Is it Christ and grace? This is good evidence for heaven.

It was a sign that Paul bore entire love to Christ because he esteemed this Pearl above all. He

counted other things ‘but dung, that he might win Christ’ (Philippians 3:8).

But, says a child of God, that which much eclipses my comfort is, I have not that hunger which I

once had. Time was when I did hunger after a Sabbath because then the manna fell. ‘I called the

Sabbath a delight’. I remember the time when I hungered after the body and blood of the Lord. I

came to a sacrament as an hungry man to a feast, but now it is otherwise with me. I do not have

those hungerings as formerly.

I answer: It is indeed an ill sign for a man to lose his stomach, but, though it be a sign of the decay

of grace to lose the spiritual appetite, yet it is a sign of the truth of grace to bewail the loss. It is sad

to lose our first love, but it is happy when we mourn for the loss of our first love.

If you do not have that appetite after heavenly things as formerly, yet do not be discouraged, for

in the use of means you may recover your appetite. The ordinances are for the recovering of the

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appetite when it is lost. In other cases feeding takes away the stomach, but here, feeding on an

ordinance begets a stomach.

The text exhorts us all to labour after this spiritual hunger. Novarinus says, ‘It is too small a thing

merely to wish for righteousness; but we must hunger for it on account of a vast longing making

itself felt.’ Hunger less after the world and more after righteousness. Say concerning spiritual things,

‘Lord, evermore give us this bread. Feed me with this angels’ food’. That manna is most to be

hungered after which will not only preserve life but prevent death (John 6:50). That is most desirable

which is most durable. Riches are not for ever (Proverbs 27:24) but righteousness is for ever

(Proverbs 8:18). ‘The beauty of holiness, never fades (Psalm 110:3). ‘The robe of righteousness’

(Isaiah 61:10) never waxes old! Oh hunger after that righteousness which ‘delivereth from death’

(Proverbs 10:12). This is the righteousness which God himself is in love with. ‘He loveth him that

followeth after righteousness’ (Proverbs 15:9). All men are ambitious of the king’s favour. Alas,

what is a prince’s smile but a transient beatitude? This sunshine of his royal countenance soon

masks itself with a cloud of displeasure, but those who are endued with righteousness are God’s

favourites, and how sweet is his smile! ‘Thy loving-kindness is better than life’ (Psalm 63:3).

To persuade men to hunger after this righteousness, consider two things.

1 Unless we hunger after righteousness we cannot obtain it. God will never throw away his blessings

upon them that do not desire them. A king may say to a rebel, Do but desire a pardon and you shall

have it; but if through pride and stubbornness he disdains to sue out his pardon, he deserves justly

to die. God has set spiritual blessings at a low rate. Do but hunger and you shall have righteousness;

but if we refuse to come up to these terms there is no righteousness to be had for us. God will stop

the current of his mercy and set open the sluice of his indignation.

2 If we do not thirst here we shall thirst when it is too late. If we do not thirst as David did ‘My

soul thirsteth for God’ (Psalm 42:2) we shall thirst as Dives did for a drop of water (Luke 16:24).

They who do not thirst for righteousness shall be in perpetual hunger and thirst. They shall thirst

for mercy, but no mercy to be had. Heat increases thirst. When men shall burn in hell and be scorched

with the flames of God’s wrath, this heat will increase their thirst for mercy but there will be nothing

to allay their thirst. O is it not better to thirst for righteousness while it is to be had, than to thirst

for mercy when there is none to be had? Sinners, the time is shortly coming when the drawbridge

of mercy will be quite pulled up.

I shall next briefly describe some helps to spiritual hunger.

1 Avoid those things which will hinder your appetite: As ‘windy things’. When the stomach is full

of wind a man has little appetite to his food. So when one is filled with a windy opinion of his own

righteousness, he will not hunger after Christ’s righteousness. He who, being puffed up with pride,

thinks he has grace enough already will not hunger after more. These windy vapours spoil the

stomach. ‘Sweet things’ destroy the appetite. So by feeding immoderately upon the sweet luscious

delights of the world, we lose our appetite to Christ and grace. You never knew a man surfeit himself

upon the world, and at the same time be ’sick of love’ to Christ. While Israel fed with delight upon

garlic and onions, they never hungered after manna. The soul cannot be carried to two extremes at

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once. As the eye cannot look intent on heaven and earth at once, so a man cannot at the same instant

hunger excessively after the world, and after righteousness! The earth puts out the fire. The love

of earthly things will quench the desire of spiritual. ‘Love not the world’ (1 John 2:15). The sin is

not in the having, but in the loving.

2 Do all that may provoke spiritual appetite. There are two things that provoke appetite. Exercise:

a man by walking and stirring gets a stomach to his meat. So by the exercise of holy duties the

spiritual appetite is increased. ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness’ (1 Timothy 4:7). Many have left

off closet prayer. They hear the Word but seldom, and for want of exercise they have lost their

stomach to religion. Sauce: sauce whets and sharpens the appetite. There is a twofold sauce provokes

holy appetite: first, the ‘bitter herbs’ of repentance. He that tastes gall and vinegar in sin hungers

after the body and blood of the Lord. Second, affliction. God often gives us this sauce to sharpen

our hunger after grace. ‘Reuben found mandrakes in the field’ (Genesis 30:14). The mandrakes are

an herb of a very strong savour, and among other virtues they have, they are chiefly medicinal for

those who have weak and bad stomachs. Afflictions may be compared to these mandrakes, which

sharpen men’s desires after that spiritual food which in time of prosperity they began to loathe and

nauseate. Penury is the sauce which cures the surfeit of plenty. In sickness people hunger more

after righteousness than in health. ‘The full soul loathes the honeycomb’ (Proverbs 27:7). Christians,

when full fed, despise the rich cordials of the gospel. I wish we did not slight those truths now

which would taste sweet in a prison. How precarious was a leaf of the Bible in Queen Mary’s days!

The wise God sees it good sometimes to give us the sharp sauce of affliction, to make us feed more

hungrily upon the bread of life. And so much for the first part of the text, ‘Blessed are they that

hunger.

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14. Spiritual hunger shall be satisfied

They shall be filled.

Matthew 5:6

I proceed now to the second part of the text. A promise annexed. ‘They shall be filled’. A Christian

fighting with sin is not like one that ‘beats the air’ (1 Corinthians 9:26), and his hungering after

righteousness is not like one that sucks in only air, ‘Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be

filled.’

Those that hunger after righteousness shall be filled. God never bids us seek him ‘in vain’ (Isaiah

45:19). Here is an honeycomb dropping into the mouths of the hungry, ‘they shall be filled’. ‘He

hath filled the hungry with good things’ (Luke 1:53). ‘He satisfieth the longing soul’ (Psalm 107:9).

God will not let us lose our longing. Here is the excellency of righteousness above all things. A

man may hunger after the world and not be filled. The world is fading, not filling. Cast three worlds

into the heart, yet the heart is not full. But righteousness is a filling thing; nay, it so fills that it

satisfies. A man may be filled and not satisfied. A sinner may take his fill of sin, but that is a sad

filling. It is far from satisfaction. ‘The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways’ (Proverbs

14:14). He shall have his belly full of sin; he shall have enough of it, but this is not a filling to

satisfaction. This is such a filling that the damned in hell have. They shall be full of the fury of the

Lord. But he that hungers after righteousness shall be satisfyingly filled. ‘My people shall be

satisfied with my goodness’ (Jeremiah 31:14). ‘My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow’ (Psalm

63:5). Joseph first opened the mouth of the sacks, and then filled them with corn and put money in

them (Genesis 42:25). So God first opens the mouth of the soul with desire and then fills it with

good things (Psalm 81:10). For the illustration of this, consider these three things: that God can fill

the hungry soul; why he fills the hungry soul; how he fills the hungry soul.

1 That God can fill the hungry soul. He is called a fountain. ‘With thee is the fountain of life’ (Psalm

36:9). The cistern may be empty and cannot fill us. Creatures are often ‘broken cisterns’ (Jeremiah

2:13). But the fountain is filling. God is a fountain. If we bring the vessels of our desires to this

fountain, he is able to fill them. The fullness in God is an infinite fullness. Though he fill us and

the angels which have larger capacities to receive, yet he has never the less himself. As the sun,

though it shines, has never the less light. ‘I perceive that virtue is gone out of me’ (Luke 8:46).

Though God lets virtue go out of him, yet he has never the less. The fullness of the creature is

limited. It arises just to such a degree and proportion; but God’s fullness is infinite; as it has its

resplendence, so its redundancy.’ It knows neither bounds nor bottom.

It is a constant fullness. The fullness of the creature is a mutable fullness; it ebbs and changes. I

could, says one, have helped you, but now my estate is low. The blossoms of the fig-tree are soon

blown off. Creatures cannot do that for us which once they could. But God is a constant fullness.

‘Thou art the same’ (Psalm 102:27). God can never be exhausted. His fullness is overflowing and

ever-flowing. Then surely ‘it is good to draw nigh to God’ (Psalm 73:28). It is good bringing our

vessels to this spring-head. It is a never-failing goodness.

2 Why God fills the hungry soul. The reasons are:

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(i) God will fill the hungry soul out of his tender compassion. He knows that else ‘the spirit would

fail before him and the soul which he has made’ (Isaiah 57:16). If the hungry man be not satisfied

with food he dies. God has more bowels than to suffer an hungry soul to be famished. When the

multitude had nothing to eat, Christ was moved with compassion and he wrought a miracle for their

supply (Matthew 15:32). Much more will he compassionate such as hunger and thirst after

righteousness. When a poor sinner sees himself almost starved in his sins (as the prodigal among

his husks) and begins to hunger after Christ, saying, ‘there is bread enough and to spare in my

Father’s house’, God will then out of his infinite compassions bring forth the fatted calf and refresh

his soul with the delicacies and provisions of the gospel. Oh the melting of God’s bowels to an

hungry sinner! ‘Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled’ (Hosea 11:8) We cannot

see a poor creature at the door ready to perish with hunger, but our bowels begin to relent and we

afford him some relief. And will the Father of mercies let a poor soul that hungers after the blessings

of the gospel go away without an alms of free grace? No, he will not; he cannot. Let the hungry

sinner think thus, Though I am full of wants, yet my God is full of bowels.

(ii) God will fill the hungry that he may fulfil his Word. ‘Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye

shall be filled’ (Psalm 107:9; Jeremiah 31:14; Luke 6:21). ‘I will pour water upon him that is thirsty,

I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed . . .’ (Isaiah 44:3). Has the Lord spoken and shall it not come

to pass? Promises are obligatory. If God has passed a promise, he cannot go back. You who hunger

after righteousness have God engaged for you. He has (to speak with reverence) pawned his truth

for you. As ‘his compassions fail not’ (Lamentations 3:22), so ‘he will not suffer his faithfulness

to fail’ (Psalm 89:33). If the hungry soul should not be filled, the promise would not be fulfilled.

(iii) God will fill the hungry soul because he himself has excited and stirred up this hunger. He

plants holy desires in us, and will not he satisfy those desires which he himself has wrought in us?

As in the case of prayer, when God prepares the heart to pray, he prepares his ear to hear (Psalm

10:17); so in the case of spiritual hunger, when God prepares the heart to hunger, he will prepare

his hand to fill. It is not rational to imagine that God should deny to satisfy that hunger which he

himself has caused. Nature does nothing in vain. Should the Lord inflame the desire after

righteousness and not fill it, he might seem to do something in vain.

(iv) God will fill the hungry because of those sweet relations he stands unto them; they are his

children. We cannot deny our children when they are hungry. We will rather spare it from our own

selves (Luke 11:13). When he that is born of God shall come and say, Father, I hunger, give me

Christ; Father, I thirst, refresh me with the living streams of thy Spirit, can God deny? Does God

hear the raven when it cries, and will he not hear the righteous when they cry? When the earth

opens its mouth and thirsts God satisfies it (Psalm 65:9, 10). Does the Lord satisfy the thirsty earth

with showers and will he not satisfy the thirsty soul with grace?

(v) God will satisfy the hungry because the hungry soul is most thankful for mercy. When the

restless desire has been drawn out after God, and God fills it, how thankful is a Christian! The Lord

loves to bestow his mercy where he may have most praise. We delight to give to them that are

thankful. Musicians love to play where there is the best sound. God loves to bestow his mercies

where he may hear of them again. The hungry soul sets the crown of praise upon the head of free

grace. ‘Whoso offereth praise glorifies me’ (Psalm 50:23).

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3 How God fills the hungry soul. There is threefold filling: with grace; with peace; with bliss.

(i) God fills the hungry soul with grace. Grace is filling because suitable to the soul. Stephen was

‘full of the Holy Ghost’ (Acts 7:55). This fullness of grace is in respect of parts, not of degrees.

There is something of every grace, though not perfection in any grace.

(ii) God fills the hungry soul with peace. ‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace’ (Romans

15:13). This flows from Christ. Israel had honey out of the rock. This honey of peace comes out

of the rock, Christ. ‘That in me ye might have peace’ (John 16:33). So filling is this peace that it

sets the soul a-longing after heaven. This cluster of grapes quickens the appetite and pursuit after

the full crop.

(iii) God fills the hungry soul with bliss. Glory is a filling thing. ‘When I awake I shall be satisfied

with thy image’ (Psalm 17:15). When a Christian awakes out of the sleep of death then he shall be

satisfied, having the glorious beams of God’s image shining upon him. Then shall the soul be filled

brimful. The glory of heaven is so sweet that the soul shall still thirst, yet so infinite that it shall be

filled. ‘They who drink of thee, O Christ, being refreshed with sweet torrents, shall not continue

to thirst yet they shall thirst’.

What an encouragement is this to hunger after righteousness! Such shall be filled. God charges us

to fill the hungry (Isaiah 58:10). He blames those who do not fill the hungry (Isaiah 32:6). And do

we think he will be slack in that which he blames us for not doing? Oh come with hungerings after

Christ and be assured of satisfaction. God keeps open house for hungry sinners. He invites his

guests and bids them come without money (Isaiah 55:1, 2). God’s nature inclines him and his

promise obliges him to fill the hungry. Consider, why did Christ receive ‘the Spirit without measure,?

(John 3:34). It was not for himself. He was infinitely full before. But he was filled with the holy

unction for this end, that he might distil his grace upon the hungry soul. Are you ignorant? Christ

was filled with wisdom that he might teach you. Are you polluted? Christ was filled with grace

that he might cleanse you. Shall not the soul then come to Christ who was filled on purpose to fill

the hungry? We love to knock at a rich man’s door. In our Father’s house there is bread enough.

Come with desire and you shall go away with comfort. You shall have the virtues of Christ’s blood,

the influences of his Spirit, the communications of his love

There are two objections made against this.

The carnal man’s objection. I have (says he) hungered after righteousness, yet am not filled.

You say you hunger and are not satisfied? Perhaps God is not satisfied with your hunger. You have

‘opened your mouth wide’ (Psalm 81:10), but have not ‘opened your ear’ (Psalm 49:4). When God

has called you to family prayer and mortification of sin, you have, like the ‘deaf adder’, stopped

your ear against God (Zechariah 7:11). No wonder then that you have not that comfortable filling

as you desire. Though you have opened your mouth you have stopped your ear. The child that will

not hear his parent, is made to do penance by fasting.

Perhaps you thirst as much after a temptation as after righteousness. At a sacrament you seem to

be inflamed with desire after Christ, but the next temptation that comes either to drunkenness or

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lasciviousness, you fall in and close with the temptation. Satan but beckons to you and you come.

You open faster to the tempter than to Christ; and do you wonder you are not filled with the fat

things of God’s house?

Perhaps you hunger more after the world than after righteousness. The young man in the gospel

would have Christ, but the world lay nearer his heart than Christ. Hypocrites pant more after the

dust of the earth (Amos 2:7) than the ‘water of life’. Israel had no manna while their dough lasted.

Such as feed immoderately upon the dough of earthly things, must not think to be filled with manna

from heaven. If your money be your God, never look to receive another God in the sacrament.

The godly man’s objection. I have had unfeigned desires after God, but am not filled.

You may have a filling of grace, though not of comfort. If God does not fill you with gladness, yet

with goodness (Psalm 107:9). Look into your heart and see the distillations of the Spirit. The dew

may fall though the honeycomb does not drop.

Wait a while and you shall be filled. The gospel is a spiritual banquet. It feasts the soul with grace

and comfort. None eat of this banquet but such as wait at the table. ‘In this mountain shall the Lord

of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees well refined. And it

shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him; we will be glad and rejoice

in his salvation’ (Isaiah 25:6,9). Spiritual mercies are not only worth desiring, but worth waiting

for.

If God should not fill his people to satisfaction here, yet they shall be filled in heaven. The vessels

of their desires shall be filled as those water pots (John 2:7) ‘up to the brim’.

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15. A discourse of mercifulness

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Matthew 5:7

These verses, like the stairs of Solomon’s temple, cause our ascent to the holy of holies. We are

now mounting up a step higher. ‘Blessed are the merciful . . ’. There was never more need to preach

of mercifulness than in these unmerciful times wherein we live. It is reported in the life of

Chrysostom that he preached much on this subject of mercifulness, and for his much pressing

Christians to mercy, he was called of many, ‘the alms-preacher, or ‘the preacher for mercy’. Our

times need many Chrysostoms.

‘Blessed are the merciful’. Mercy stands both in the van and rear of the text. In the beginning of

the text it stands as a duty. In the end of the text it stands as a reward. The Hebrew word for ‘godly’

signifies ‘merciful’: the more godly, the more merciful. The doctrine I shall gather out of the words,

which will comprehend and bring in the whole, is this:

That the merciful man is a blessed man; as there is a curse hangs over the head of the unmerciful

man. ‘Let Satan stand at his right hand; when he shall be judged let him be condemned, and let his

prayer become sin; let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow; let his children be continually

vagabonds and beg; let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and let strangers spoil his labour; let

there be none to extend mercy to him. Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following

let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord, and let

not the sin of his mother be blotted out’ (Psalm 109:69). Why, what is this crime? ‘Because he

remembered not to show mercy’ (verse 16). See what a long vial full of the plagues of God is poured

out upon the unmerciful man! So by the rule of contraries, the blessings of the Almighty crown

and encompass the merciful man. ‘The merciful man is a blessed man’ (2 Samuel 22:26; Psalm

37:26; Psalm 41:1). For the illustrating this I shall show, first, what is meant by mercifulness;

second, the several kinds of mercy.

1 What is meant by mercifulness? I answer, it is a melting disposition whereby we lay to heart the

miseries of others and are ready on all occasions to be instrumental for their good.

How do mercy and love differ?

In some things they agree, in some things they differ, like waters that may have two different

spring-heads, but meet in the stream. Love and mercy differ thus: love is more extensive. The

diocese that love walks and visits in is larger. Mercy properly respects them that are miserable.

Love is of a larger consideration. Love is like a friend that visits them that are well. Mercy is like

a physician that visits only them that are sick. Again, love acts more out of affection. Mercy acts

out of a principle of conscience. Mercy lends its help to another. Love gives its heart to another.

Thus they differ, but love and mercy agree in this, they are both ready to do good offices. Both of

them have soundings of bowels, and healing under their wings.

Whence does mercy spring?

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Its spring-head rises higher than nature. Mercy taken in its full latitude proceeds from a work of

grace in the heart. Naturally we are far enough from mercy. The sinner is a bramble, not a fig tree

yielding sweet fruit. It is the character and sign of a natural man to be ‘unmerciful’ (Romans 1:31).

A wicked man, like Jehoram, has ‘his bowels fallen out’ (2 Chronicles 21:19). Therefore he is

compared to an adamant (Zechariah 7:12) because his heart does not melt in mercy. Before

conversion the sinner is compared to a wolf for his savageness, to a lion for his fierceness (Isaiah

11:6), to a bee for his sting (Psalm 118:12), to an adder for his poison (Psalm 140:3). By nature we

do not send forth oil, but poison; not the oil of mercifulness, but the poison of maliciousness.

Besides that inbred unmercifulness which is in us, there is something infused too by Satan. ‘The

prince of the air works in men’ (Ephesians 2:2). He is a fierce spirit, therefore called ‘the Red

Dragon’ (Revelation 12:3). And if he possesses men no wonder if they are implacable and without

mercy. What mercy can be expected from hell? So that, if the heart be tuned into mercifulness, it

is from the change that grace has made (Colossians 3:12). When the sun shines the ice melts. When

the Sun of righteousness once shines with beams of grace upon the soul, then it melts in mercy and

tenderness. You must first be a new man before a merciful man. You cannot help a member of

Christ till you yourself are a member.

2 The several kinds of mercy, or how many ways a man may be said to be merciful. Mercy is a

fountain that runs in five streams. We must be merciful to the souls, names, estates, offences, wants

of others.

We must be merciful to the souls of others. This is a spiritual alms. Indeed soul-mercy is the chief

of mercies. The soul is the most precious thing; it is a vessel of honour; it is a bud of eternity; it is

a sparkle lighted by the breath of God; it is a rich diamond set in a ring of clay. The soul has the

blood of God to redeem it, the image of God to beautify it. It being therefore of so high a descent,

sprung from the Ancient of days, that mercy which is shown to the soul must needs be the greatest.

This soul-mercy to others stands in four things.

1 In pitying them. If I weep, says Augustine, for that body from which the soul is departed, how

should I weep for that soul from which God is departed? Had we seen that man in the gospel cutting

himself with stones and fetching blood of himself it would have moved our pity (Mark 5:5). To

see a sinner stabbing himself and having his hands imbrued in his own blood should cause relenting

in our bowels. Our eye should affect our heart. God was angry with Edom because he ‘cast off all

pity (Amos 1:11).

2 Soul-mercy is in advising and exhorting sinners. Tell them in what a sad condition they are, even

‘in the gall of bitterness’. Show them their danger. They tread upon the banks of the bottomless

pit. If death gives them a jog they tumble in. And we must dip our words in honey; use all the

mildness we can: ‘In meekness instructing those . . .’ (2 Timothy 2:25). Fire melts; ointment

mollifies. Words of love may melt hard hearts into repentance. This is soul-mercy. God made a

law that whosoever saw ‘his enemy’s ass lying under a burden, he should help him’ (Exodus 23:5).

On which words, says Chrysostom, we will help a beast that is fallen under a burden; and shall we

not extend relief to those who are fallen under a worse burden of sin?

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3 Soul-mercy is in reproving refractory sinners. There is a cruel mercy when we see men go on in

sin and we let them alone, and there is a merciful cruelty when we are sharp against men’s sins and

will not let them go to hell quietly. ‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any

wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him’ (Leviticus 19:17). Fond pity is no better

than cruelty. ‘Rebuke them sharply’, cuttingly (Titus 1:13). The surgeon cuts and lances the flesh,

but it is in order to a cure. They are healing wounds. So by cutting reproof when we lance men’s

consciences and let out the blood of sin, we exercise spiritual surgery. This is showing mercy.

‘Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire’ (Jude 23). If a man were in the fire, though you

did hurt him a little in pulling him out, he would be thankful and take it as a kindness. Some men,

when we tell them of sin say, ‘O this is bitterness’. No, it is showing mercy. If a man’s house were

on fire, and another should see it and not tell him of it for fear of waking him, were not this cruelty?

When we see others ’sleeping the sleep of death’ and the fire of God’s wrath ready to burn about

their ears, and we are silent, is not this to be accessory to their death?

4 Soul-mercy is in praying for others. This is like physic used in a desperate case and often it

recovers the sick patient. ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much’ (James

5:16). As it cures the sick body, so also the sin-sick soul. There is a story of one who gave his soul

to the devil, who was saved through the prayers of Luther. When ‘Eutychus fell down from an high

loft and was taken up dead, Paul fell on him’, that is, he effectually prayed over him and he prayed

him alive (Acts 20:9-12). By sin the soul is fallen from an high loft, namely, a state of innocence.

Now fervent prayer oftentimes fetcheth life in such a dead soul.

See what a blessed work the work of the ministry is! The preaching of the Word is nothing but

showing mercy to souls. This is a mighty and glorious engine in the hand of the Lord of hosts for

the beating down of the devil’s strongholds. The ministry of the Word not only brings light with

it, but eye-salve, anointing the eyes to see that light. It is a sin-killing and soul-quickening ordinance.

It is the ‘power of God to salvation’. What enemies are they to their own souls that oppugn the

ministry! They say, the people that live ‘under the line’, curse the sun and are glad when the sun

sets because of its burning heat. Foolish sinners curse the sun-rising of the ministry and are offended

at the light of it because it comes near their sins and scorches their consciences, though in the end

it saves their souls.

It reproves them that have no mercy to souls: evil magistrates; evil ministers.

Evil magistrates who either ‘take away the key of knowledge’ (Luke 11:52), or give a toleration

to wickedness, suffering men to sin by a licence. The meaning of toleration is this, that if men will

themselves to hell none shall stop them. Is not nature enough poisoned? Do not men sin fast enough,

but must have such political engines as serve them up higher in wickedness? Must they have such

favourable gales from the breath of great ones as serve to carry them full sail to the devil? This is

far from soul-mercy. What an heavy reckoning will these ’statists’ have in the day of the Lord!

Evil ministers are such as have no bowels to the souls of their people. They do not pity them or

pray for them. They seek not them but theirs. They preach not for love but lucre. Their care is more

for tithes than souls. How can they be called spiritual fathers, who are without bowels? These are

mercenaries, not ministers.

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Such men feed not the souls of their people with solid truths. When Christ sent out his apostles, he

gave them their text, and told them what they must preach, ‘Preach, saying the kingdom of heaven

is at hand’ (Matthew 10:7). Upon which place, says Luther, the ministers of Christ must preach

‘things that pertain to the kingdom of God’ — pardon of sin, sanctification, living by faith not

otherwise, at the bidding of the church. They are unmerciful to souls who, instead of breaking the

bread of life, fill their people’s heads with airy speculations and notions; who rather tickle the fancy

than touch the conscience and give precious souls rather music than food.

Some there are who darken knowledge with words, and preach as if they were speaking in ‘an

unknown tongue’. Some ministers love to soar aloft like the eagle and fly above their people’s

capacities, endeavouring rather to be admired than understood. They are like some crabbed authors

which cannot be read without a comment. Indeed God calls his ministers ‘ambassadors’ (2

Corinthians 5:20), but they must not be like those outlandish ambassadors that cannot be understood

without an interpreter. It is unmercifulness to souls to preach so as not to be understood. Ministers

should be stars to give light, not clouds to obscure the truth. Saint Paul was learned, yet plain.

Clearness and perspicuity is the grace of speech. It is cruelty to souls when we go about to make

easy things hard. This many are guilty of in our age, who go into the pulpit only to tie knots, and

think it their glory to amuse the people. This savours more of pride than mercifulness.

Such there are, too, as see others going on in sin but do not tell them of it. When men declare their

sin as Sodom, it is the minister’s duty to ‘lift up his voice like a trumpet and show the house of

Jacob their sin’ (Isaiah 58:1). Zeal in the ministry is as proper as fire on the altar. He who lets

another sin and holds his peace is a man-slayer. That sentinel deserves death who sees the enemy

approaching, and gives not warning (Ezekiel 3:20).

Some ministers poison souls with error. How dangerous is the leprosy of the head! A frenzy is

worse than a fever. What shall we say to such ministers as give poison to their people in a golden

cup? Are not these unmerciful? Others there are (unworthy the name of ministers), itineraries, the

devil’s journeymen, who ride up and down, and with Satan compass the earth to devour souls. It

would pity one’s heart to see poor unstable creatures misled by rude and illiterate men, who diet

the people with blasphemy and nonsense, and make them fitter for bedlam than the New Jerusalem.

All these are unmerciful to souls.

Let me beseech all that fear God to show soul-mercy. Strengthen the weak; reduce the wandering;

raise up them that are fallen. ‘He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save

a soul from death’ (James 5:20).

We must be merciful to the names of others. A good name is one of the greatest blessings upon

earth. No chain of pearl so adorns as this. It being so, we ought to be very tender of names. They

are to be accounted in an high degree unmerciful, who make no conscience of taking away the good

names of their brethren. Their throats are open sepulchres to bury the fame and renown of men

(Romans 3:13). It is a great cruelty to murder a man in his name. ‘The keepers of the walls took

away my vail from me’ (Canticles 5:7). Some expositors interpret it of her honour and fame which

covered her as a beautiful vail. The ground of this unmercifulness to names is

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1 Pride. Pride is such a thing as cannot endure to be out-shined. It loves not to see itself exceeded

in parts and eminency; therefore it will behead another in his good name that he may appear

something lower. The proud man will be pulling down of others in their reputation, and so by their

eclipse he thinks he shall shine the brighter. The breath of a proud man causes a blast or mildew

upon fame.

2 Envy (1 Peter 2:1). An envious man maligns the dignity of another, therefore seeks to mischief

him in his name. Religion teaches us to rejoice in the esteem and fame of others. ‘I thank my God

for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world’; it is ‘divulged with fame’

(Romans 1:8). A good report is a credit to religion (Hebrews 11:2). If persons professing godliness

do not have a good name, religion will not have a very good name, but envy consulting with the

devil lays a train and fetches fire from hell to blow up the good name of another.

In how many ways may we be unmerciful to the names of others?

Divers ways. First, by mis-reporting them, a sin forbidden. ‘Thou shalt not raise a false report’

(Exodus 23:1). Eminency is commonly blasted by slander. ‘Their tongues are as arrows shot out’

(Psalm 64:3). The tongue of a slanderer shoots out words to wound the fame of another and make

it bleed to death. The saints of God in all ages have met with unmerciful men who have fathered

things upon them that they have not been guilty of. Surius, the Jesuit, reported of Luther that he

learned his divinity of the Devil and that he died drunk; but Melanchthon, who wrote his life, affirms

that he died in a most pious holy manner and made a most excellent prayer before his death. It was

David’s complaint, ‘They laid to my charge things which I knew not’ (Psalm 35:11). The Greek

word for ‘devil, signifies slanderer (1 Timothy 3:11). ‘Not slanderers’ — in the Greek it is ‘not

devils’. Some think that it is no great maker to defame and traduce another, but know, this is to act

the part of a devil. O how many unmerciful men are there, who indeed pass for Christians, but play

the devil in venting their lies and calumnies! Wicked men in Scripture are called ‘dogs’ (Psalm

22:16). Slanderers are not like those dogs which licked Lazarus, sores to heal them, but like the

dogs which ate Jezebel. They rend and tear the precious names of men. Valentinian the Emperor

decreed that he who was openly convicted of this crime of slander should die for it. And Pope

Gregory decreed that such a person should be excommunicate, and not have the communion given

him. I think it was a just decree.

Second, we are unmerciful to the names of others when we receive a slander, and then report what

we hear. ‘Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people’ (Leviticus 19:16). A

good man is one that ‘doeth not evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour’

(Psalm 15:3). We must not only not raise a false report, but not take it up. To divulge a report before

we speak with the party and know the truth of it is unmercifulness and cannot acquit itself of sin.

The same word in the Hebrew, ‘to raise a slander’, signifies to receive it (Exodus 23:1). The receiver

is even as bad as the thief. It is well if none of us have (in this sense) received stolen goods. When

others have stolen away the good names of their brethren, have not we received these stolen goods?

There would not be so many to broach false rumours, but that they see this liquor pleases other

men’s taste.

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Third, we deal unmercifully with the names of others when we diminish from their just worth and

dignity; when we make more of their infirmities and less of their virtues. ‘Speak not evil one of

another’ (James 4:11). I have read a story of one, Idor, an abbot, that he was never heard to speak

evil of any man. Augustine could not endure that any should eclipse and lessen the fame of others,

therefore he wrote those two verses upon his table:

Whoever loves another’s name to blast,

This table’s not for him; so let him fast.

Wicked men are still paring off the credit of their neighbours, and they make thick parings. They

pare off all that is good. Nothing is left but the core, something that may tend to their disparagement.

Unmerciful men know how to boil a quart to a pint. They have a devilish art so to extenuate and

lessen the merit of others, that it is even boiled away to nothing. Some, though they have not the

power of creation, yet they have the power of annihilation. They can sooner annihilate the good

which is in others than imitate it.

Fourth, we are unmerciful to the names of others when we know them to be calumniated yet do

not vindicate them. A man may sometimes as well wrong another by silence as slander. He who is

merciful to his brother is an advocate to plead in his behalf when he is injuriously traduced. When

the apostles, who were filled with the wine of the Spirit, were charged with drunkenness, Peter

vindicated them openly (Acts 2:15). A merciful man will take the dead fly out of the box of ointment.

Fifth, they are in an high degree unmerciful to the names of others who ‘bear false witness against,

them (Psalm 27:12). ‘Put not thy hand with the wicked to be a false witness’ (Exodus 23:1). ‘Putting

the hand, is taking an oath falsely, as when a man puts his hand upon the book and swears to a lie.

So Tostatus expounds it. This ‘false-witness’ is a two-edged sword. The party forsworn wounds

another’s name and his own soul. A false witness is compared to a maul or hammer (Proverbs

25:18). It is true in this sense, because he is hardened in impudence he blushes at nothing and in

unmercifulness. There is no softness in a maul or hammer, nor is there any relenting or bowels to

be found in a false witness. In all these ways men are unmerciful to the names of others.

Let me persuade all Christians, as they make conscience of religion, so to show mercy to the names

of others. Be very chary and tender of men’s good name.

Consider what a sin it is to defame any man. ‘Laying aside all envies and evil speakings’ (Titus

3:2; 1 Peter 2:1). Envy and evil speaking are put together: ‘laying aside’, ‘putting away’, as a man

would put away a thing from him with indignation; as Paul shook off the viper (Acts 28:5).

Consider also the injuriousness of it. You, who take away the good name of another, wound him

in that which is most dear to him. Better take away a man’s life than his name. By eclipsing his

name you bury him alive. It is an irreparable injury; something will remain. A wound in the name

is like a flaw in a diamond or a stain in azure, which will never die out. No physician can heal the

wounds of the tongue.

God will require it at men’s hands. If idle words must be accountable for, shall not reproachful

slanders? God will make inquisition one day as well for names as for blood. Let all this persuade

to caution and circumspection. You would be loath to steal the goods of others. A man’s name is

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of more worth, and he that takes away the good name of another sins more than if he had taken the

corn out of his field or the wares out of his shop.

Especially take heed of wounding the names of the godly. God has set a crown of honour on their

head, and will you take it off? ‘Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant

Moses?’ (Numbers 12:8). To defame the saints is no less than the defaming God himself, they

having his picture drawn upon them and being members of Christ. Oh think how ill Christ will take

this at your hand another day! It was under the old law a sin to defame a virgin, and what is it to

calumniate Christ’s spouse? Are the names of the saints written in heaven, and will you blot them

out upon earth? Be merciful to the names of others.

Be merciful to the estates of others. If a man be your debtor and providence has frowned upon him

that he has not wherewithal to pay, do not crush him when he is sinking, but remit something of

the rigour of the law. ‘Blessed are the merciful’. The wicked are compared to beasts of prey that

live upon rapine and spoil. They do not care what mischief they do. ‘He lieth in wait secretly as a

lion in his den; he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net’ (Psalm 10:9). Chrysostom

says the drawing into the net is when the rich draw the poor into bonds, and in case of non-payment

at the day, the bond being forfeited, seize upon all they have. It is not justice but cruelty, when

others lie at our mercy, to be like that hardhearted creditor in the gospel who took his debtor by the

throat saying, ‘Pay me what thou owest’ (Matthew 18:28). God made a law, ‘No man shall take

the nether or the upper millstone to pledge, for he taketh a man’s life to pledge’ (Deuteronomy

24:6). If a man had lent another money, he must not take both his millstones for a pawn. He must

show mercy and leave the man something to get a livelihood with. We should in this imitate God

who in the midst of anger remembers mercy. God does not take the extremity of the law upon us,

but when we have not to pay, if we confess the debt, he freely forgives (Proverbs 28:13; Matthew

18:27).

Not but that we may justly seek what is our own, but if others be brought low and submit, we ought

in conscience to remit something of the debt. ‘Blessed are the merciful.’

We must be merciful to the offences of others. Be ready to show mercy to them which have injured

you. Thus Stephen the proto-martyr, ‘He kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not

this sin to their charge’ (Acts 7:60). When he prayed for himself he stood, but when he came to

pray for his enemies, he kneeled down, to show, says Bernard, his earnestness in prayer and how

greatly he desired that God would forgive them. This is a rare kind of mercy. ‘It is a man’s glory

to pass over a transgression’ (Proverbs 19:11). Mercy in forgiving injuries, as it is the touchstone,

so the crown of Christianity. Bishop Cranmer was of a merciful disposition. If any who had wronged

him came to desire a courtesy from him, he would do all that lay in his power for him, insomuch

that it grew to a proverb: Do Cranmer an injury and he will be your friend as long as he lives. To

‘overcome evil with good’, and answer malice with mercy is truly heroic and renders religion

glorious in the eyes of all. But I leave this and proceed.

We must be merciful to the wants of others. This the text chiefly intends. A good man does not,

like the snake, twist within himself. His motion is direct, not circular. He is ever merciful and

lendeth (Psalm 37:26). This merciful charity to the wants of others stands in three things.

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1 A judicious consideration. ‘Blessed is he that considereth the poor’ (Psalm 41:1); and you must

consider four things.

(i) It might have been your own case. You yourselves might have stood in need of another’s charity

and then how welcome and refreshing would those streams have been to you!

(ii) Consider how sad a condition poverty is. Though Chrysostom calls poverty the highway to

heaven, yet he that keeps this road will go weeping thither. Consider the poor; behold their tears,

their sighs, their dying groans. Look upon the deep furrows made in their faces, and consider if

there be not reason why you should scatter your seed of mercy in these furrows. ‘For a cloak he

has a tattered vesture, for a couch a stone.’ The poor man feeds upon sorrow; he drinks tears’ (Psalm

80:5). Like Jacob, in a windy night he has the clouds for his canopy and a stone for his pillow.

Nay further, consider that oftentimes poverty becomes not only a cross but a snare. It exposes to

much evil, which made Agur pray, ‘Give me not poverty’ (Proverbs 30:8). Want puts men upon

indirect courses. The poor will venture their souls for money, which is like throwing diamonds at

pear-trees. If the rich would wisely consider this, their alms might prevent much sin.

Consider why the wise God has suffered an inequality in the world. It is for this very reason, because

he would have mercy exercised. If all were rich, there were no need of alms, nor could the merciful

man have been so well known. If he that travelled to Jericho had not been wounded and left half

dead, the good Samaritan who poured oil and wine into his wounds had not been known.

‘Had ilium stood, who’d known of Hector’s name’?

Consider how quickly the balance of providence may turn. We ourselves may be brought to poverty

and then it will be no small comfort to us that we relieved others while we were in a capacity to do

it. ‘Give a portion to seven and also to eight, for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth’

(Ecclesiastes 11:2). We cannot promise ourselves always halcyon days. God knows how soon many

of us may change our pasture. The cup which now runs over with wine may be filled with the waters

of Marah. ‘I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty’ (Ruth 1:21). How

many have we seen like Bajazet and Belisarius invested with great lordships and possessions who

have on a sudden brought their manor to a morsel?

‘Suddenly he becomes Irus, he who was formerly a Croesus for wealth.’

So that it is wisdom (in this sense) to consider the wants of others. Remember how soon the scene

may alter. We may be put in the poor’s dress and, if adversity come, it will be no trouble of mind

to us to think that while we had an estate we laid it out upon Christ’s indigent members. This is the

first thing in mercifulness, a judicious consideration

2 A tender commiseration. ‘If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry’ (Isaiah 58:10). Bounty begins

in pity. The Hebrew word for ‘mercy’ signifies ‘bowels’. Christ first ‘had compassion on the

multitude’. Then he wrought a miracle to feed them (Matthew 15:32). Charity which lacks

compassion is brutish. The brute creatures can relieve us in many ways, but cannot pity us. It is a

kind of cruelty (says Quintilian) to feed one in want and not to sympathise with him. True religion

begets tenderness. As it melts the heart in tears of contrition towards God, so in bowels of compassion

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towards others. ‘My bowels shall sound as an harp’ (Isaiah 16:11). Likewise, when our bowels of

pity sound, then our alms make sweet music in the ears of God.

3 Mercifulness consists in a liberal contribution. ‘If there be a poor man within thy gates, thou shalt

open thy hand wide unto him’ (Deuteronomy 15:7, 8). The Hebrew word to ‘disperse’ (Psalm

112:9) signifies ‘a largeness of bounty’. It must be like water that overflows the banks. ‘Not a

meagre dispersing of a mere trifle’. If God has enriched men with estates and made ‘his candle (as

Job says) to shine upon their tabernacle’, they must not encircle and engross all to themselves but

be as the moon which, having received its light from the sun, lets it shine to the world. The ancients,

as Basil and Lorinus observe, made oil to be the emblem of charity. The golden oil of mercy must,

like Aaron’s oil, run down upon the poor which are the lower skirts of the garment. This liberal

disbursement to the wants and necessities of others God commands and grace compels.

God Commands. There is an express statute law, ‘If thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay

with thee, then thou shalt relieve him’ (Leviticus 25:35). The Hebrew word is ‘Thou shalt strengthen

him’; put under him a silver crutch when he is falling. It is worth our observation what great care

God took of the poor, besides what was given them privately. God made many laws for the public

and visible relief of the poor. ‘The seventh year thou shalt let the land rest and lie still, that the poor

of the people may eat’ (Exodus 23:11). God’s intention in his law was that the poor should be

liberally provided for. They might freely eat of any thing which grew of itself this seventh year,

whether of herbs, vines or olive trees. If it be asked how the poor could live only on these fruits,

there being (as it is probable) no corn growing then, for answer Cajetan is of opinion that they lived

by selling these fruits and, so converting them into money, lived upon the price of the fruits.

There is another law made: ‘And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap

the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest’ (Leviticus 19:9). See

how God indulged the poor. Some corners of the field were for the poor’s sake to be left uncut,

and when the owners reaped they must not go too near the earth with their sickle. The Vulgate

Latin reads it, ‘Thou shalt not shear to the very ground’. Something like an after-crop must be left.

The shorter ears of corn and such as lay bending to the ground, were to be reserved for the poor,

says Tostatus.

And God made another law in favour of the poor. ‘At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth

the tithe of thy increase the same year, and thou shalt lay it up in thy gates: and the Levite and the

fatherless and the widow which are within thy gates shall come and shall eat and be satisfied’

(Deuteronomy 14:28, 29). The Hebrews write that every third year, besides the first tithe given to

Levi which was called the perpetual tithe (Numbers 18:21), the Jews set apart another tithe of their

increase for the use of the widows and orphans, and that was called ‘the tithe of the poor’. Besides,

at the Jews, solemn festivals, the poor were to have a share (Deuteronomy 16:11).

And as relieving the necessitous was commanded under the law, so it stands in force under the

gospel. ‘Charge them that are rich in this world that they do good, that they be rich in good works

…’ (1 Timothy 6:17, 18). It is not only a counsel but a charge, and non-attendance to it runs men

into a gospel-praemunire. Thus we have seen the mind of God in this particular of charity. Let all

good Christians comment upon it in their practice. What benefit is there of gold while it is

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Part  Two

This page has the following sub pages.

• Thomas Watson-The Beatitudes Part two
• Thomas Watson-The Beatitudes Part three