every thing that is good But many who are in this
state, are far enough from poverty of spirit; they think they are " rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing" When they are become poor in spirit the}' are
of a very different mind; they know that " they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and bhnd, and naked." They feel
themselves altogether destitute of wisdom'^ goodness*^
strength^ and every good thing*"
Nearly allied to these are " they that mourn." As poverty of spirit implies a sense of want and helplessness, so " mourn- ing" implies a sense of guilt and corruption.
All men are guilty, and all corrupt but, as in the
former case, so in this, many are insensible of their state, and " think more highly of themselves than they ought to think." Not so " the mourners in Zion :" they know their real cha- racter : they look back through their whole lives, and see that they have been altogether " alienated from God," and have " lived without him in the world." They see that their trans- gressions have been multiplied beyond the sands upon the sea- shore. They behold their iniquities set, as it were, in array against them ; their rebellions against their God and Father
their contempt of Christ and his salvation
their resistance to all the motions of the Holy Spirit
the particular evils to which they have been more especially
addicted — : the evils that yet cleave to them, in spite of
their better judgment, and repeated endeavours to cast them
oiF the mixture that there is in all their principles —
the defect in all their duties — and the iniquity even of their holiest actions — and, in the view of all these things, " they groan, being burthened ;" they " blush and are confounded;" they " abhor themselves in dust and ashes ;" they cry day and night, *' O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" It appears to them a miracle of mercy, that they are out of hell ; and that too, not only for the transgressions of their for- mer lives, but for the opposition which their flesh, or corrupt nature, is daily and hourly making to " the spirit," or heavenly principle, which has been imparted to them^.
These two characters, " the poor in spirit," and " the mourners," though distinguished in the text, are so nearly allied, that they are united by the prophet Isaiah'', and there- fore are united by us. In fact, they are never separate : they
<= Job viii. 9. and xi. 12. They feel their want of spiritual dis- cernment, 1 Cor. ii, 14. and pray, Ps. cxix. 18. ^ Job xl. 4. Isai. vi. 5. and Ixiv. 6. e John XV. 5. 1 Cor. xii. 3. 2 Cor. ill. 5. *■ Rom. vii. 18. Isai. i. 6. s Gal. v. 17.
'' Isai. Ixvi. 2.