9. One cannot but observe here, that Christianity begins, just where Heathen morality ends: poverty of spirit, conviction of sin, the renouncing ourselves, the not having our own righteousness, the very first point in the religion of Jesus Christ, leaving all Pagan religion behind. This was ever hid from the wise men of this world: insomuch that the whole Roman language, even with all the improvements of the Augustan age, does not afford so much as a name for humility: (the word from whence we borrow this, is as well known, bearing in Latin a quite different meaning:) no, nor was one found in all the copious language of Greece, ’till it was made by the great apostle.
10. O that we may feel what they were not able to express! Sinner, awake! Know thyself! Know and feel, that thou wert shapen in wickedness, and that in sin did thy mother conceive thee; and that thou thyself hast been heaping up sin upon sin, ever since thou couldst discern good from evil. Sink under the mighty hand of God, as guilty of death eternal: and cast off, renounce, abhor all imagination, of ever being able to help thyself! Be it all thy hope to be washed in hisblood, and renewed by his almighty Spirit, who himself bare all our sins in his own body on the tree. So shalt thou witness, Happy are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11. This is that kingdom of heaven or of God which is within us, even righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And what is righteousness, but the life of God in the soul: the mind which was in Christ Jesus: the image of God stampt upon the heart, now renewed after the likeness of him that created it? What is it but the love of God because he first loved us, and the love of all mankind, for his sake?
And what is this peace, the peace of God, but that calm serenity of soul, that sweet repose in the blood of Jesus, which leaves no doubt of our acceptance in him? Which excludes all fear, but the loving, filial fear of offending our Father which is in heaven.
This inward kingdom implies also joy in the Holy Ghost, who seals upon our hearts, the redemption which is in Jesus, the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, for the remission of the sins that are past: who giveth us now the earnest of our inheritance, of the crown which the Lord, the righteous judge will give at that day. And well may this be termed The kingdom of heaven; seeing it is heaven already opened in the soul; the first springing up of those rivers of pleasure which flow at God’s right-hand for evermore.
12. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever thou art, to whom God hath given to be poor in spirit, to feel thyself lost, thou hast a right thereto, through the gracious promise of him who cannot lie. It is purchased for thee by the blood of the Lamb. It is very nigh: thou art on the brink of heaven. Another step, and thou enterest into the kingdom, of righteousness and peace and joy. Art thou all sin? Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. All unholy? See thy Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Art thou unable to atone for the least of thy sins? He is the propitiation for all thy sins. Now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and all thy sins are blotted out. Art thou totally unclean in soul and body? Here is the fountain for sin and uncleanness. Arise and wash away thy sins: stagger no more at the promise through unbelief. Give glory to God: dare to believe! Now cry out, from the ground of thy heart,
Yes, I yield, I yield at last,
Listen to thy speaking blood;
Me with all my sins I cast
On my atoning God!