being too numerous to be accommodated in any house or synagogue, our Lord went up into a mountain, and sat down after the custom of the Jewish teachers, in order to instruct them. Those disciples who were most eager for instruction, drew nigh unto him; whilst those who were more indifferent about it, con- tented themselves with remoter situations : but, for the benefit of all, " he opened his mouth " with pecu- liar solemnity, and taught them.
His design in this sermon, was to open to them the nature of that kingdom which he had before announced as about to be established, and to rescue the moral law from those false glosses which the Pharisees had put upon it. The people in general had an idea, that their Messiah should establish a temporal kingdom, under which they were to enjoy the highest privileges and blessings. To counteract this vain expectation, he tells them, that his subjects would be indeed most blessed; but that their cha- racter and blessedness were widely different from any thing that they supposed. They dreamed of riches and mirth ; but the persons whom he pronounced blessed, were the poor and mournful.
To illustrate and confirm the declarations of our Lord, we shall inquire,
L Who are depicted under these characters —
[Poverty of spirit, if viewed in all its extent, will include a variety of dispositions and feelings, which will more properly fall under our consideration in other parts of the Sermon on the Mount. On this account, we shall confine ourselves to one view of it, which, however, we consider as most appropriate and most important. It is thought by many, to import a dis- regard of riches and honours : but we consider it as designating a far more peculiar state of mind, not specified in any other part of this discoursed What poverty is, we need not be told. That man is poor who is destitute of all things needful for the body. From hence we may collect what poverty of spirit is : it is a sense of utter ivant and helplessjiess in relation to the sotil. All men by nature are poor, because they are destitute of
^ The parallel passage in Luke vi. 20, 21, 24, 25. cannot be understood of worldly poverty or sorrow, but of that which is spi- ritual.