3. Insatiably — [Every other desire may be satiated ; but the more of spiritual nourishment we receive, the more will our hunger and thirst after it be increased. St. Paul himself could not sit down contented; but forgetting what he had attained, he reached forth for higher degrees of holiness''. It is only " when we awake up after the perfect likeness of our God, that we shall be satisfied with it^"]
Truly enviable will this state appear, if we consider, II. The blessedness annexed to it —
To be filled with good and nutritious food is the utmost that the bodily appetite can desire. It is in this sense that we are to understand the promise in the text. The person who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, shall be made,
1. Truly righteous —
[There is a negative kind of holiness, which is neither pleasing to God nor profitable to man : it consists merely in an abstinence from open sin, and a discharge of external duties. But real holiness pervades the whole man : it comprehends the whole circle of divine graces : it reaches to the thouglits and desires of the heart ; and assimilates us to God in all liis com- municable perfections. Now this is tliat with which tlie true Christian shall be filled : in all his dispositions towards God and man, he shall be changed : he shall not only be delivered from all that would injure his character among men, but shall be " transformed into the very image of his God in righteous- ness and true holiness."]
2. Progressively righteous —
[That degree of perfection to which Christians may attain, is not gained at once. All the members of the new man, as well as of the material body, do indeed exist at the moment of our birth: but they are then in a state of infantine weakness: and their arrival at a state of maturity is a gradual work. Now this work shall be advanced in the souls of those who earnestly desire it : " they shall hold on their way, growing stronger and stronger^;" and, like the risen sun, " shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect dayf^." " The Lord will perfect that which concerneth them^" and " carry on his work until the day of Christ'."]
3. Perfectly righteous —
[Though absolute perfection is not to be attained in this
1 Phil. iii. 13. « pg. xvii. 15. ( Job xvii. 9.
s Prov. iv. IS. h Ps, cxxxviii. 8. ' Phil. i. 6.