6. *Whosoever then thou art, to whom God hath given to _hunger and thirst after righteousness_, cry unto him that thou mayest never lose that inestimable gift, that this divine appetite may never cease. If many rebuke thee, and bid thee hold thy peace, regard them not, yea, cry so much the more, _Jesus, Master, have mercy on me_! Let me not live, but to be holy as thou art holy! No more _spend thy money for that which is not bread_, nor thy _labour for that which satisfieth not_. Canst thou hope to dig happiness out of the earth? To find it in the things of the world. O trample under foot all its pleasures, despise its honours, count its riches as dung and dross: yea, and all the things which are beneath the sun, _for the excellency of the knowledge of_ Christ Jesus; for the entire renewal of thy soul in that image of God, wherein it was originally created. Beware of quenching that blessed hunger and thirst, by what the world calls religion: a religion of form, of outside shew, which leaves the heart as earthly and sensual as ever. Let nothing satisfy thee but the power of godliness, but a religion that is spirit and life; thy dwelling in God and God in thee, the being an inhabitant of eternity; the entring in by the blood of sprinkling _within the veil_, and _sitting in heavenly places with_ Christ Jesus.
III. 1. And the more they are filled with the life of God, the more tenderly will they be concerned for those, who are still without God in the world, still dead in trespasses and sins. Nor shall this concern for others lose its reward. _Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy._
The word used by our Lord, more immediately implies, the compassionate, the tender-hearted: those, who far from despising, earnestly grieve for those that do not hunger after God. This eminent part of brotherly love, is here (by a common figure) put for the whole: So that _the merciful_, in the full sense of the term, are they who _love their neighbours as themselves_.
2. Because of the vast importance of this love, without which, _tho’ we spake with the tongues of men and angels, tho’ we had the gift of prophecy and understood all mysteries and all knowledge, tho’ we had all faith so as to remove mountains_; yea, _tho’_ we _gave all_ our _goods to feed the poor, and_ our very _bodies to be burned, it_ would _profit us nothing_: the wisdom of God has given us by the apostle _Paul_, a full and particular account of it: by considering which we shall most clearly discern, who are the _merciful_ that shall _obtain mercy_.