8. Above all, with what amazing love does the Son of God, here reveal his Father’s will to man! He does not bring us _again to the mount that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest_. He does not speak as when he _thundered out of heaven; when the Highest gave his thunder, hail-stones and coals of fire_. He now addresses us with his still, small voice. _Blessed_ or happy _are the poor in spirit_. Happy are the mourners, the meek; those that hunger after righteousness; the merciful, the pure in heart: happy in the end and in the way; happy in this life, and in life everlasting! As if he had said, Who is he that lusteth to live, and would fain see good days? Behold, I shew you the thing which your soul longeth for; see the way you have so long sought in vain! The way of pleasantness; the path to calm, joyous peace, to heaven below and heaven above! 9. *At the same time with what authority does he teach! Well might they say, _Not as the Scribes_. Observe the manner, (but it cannot be expressed in words) the air, with which he speaks! Not as _Moses_, the servant of God; not as _Abraham_, his friend; not as any of the prophets; nor as any of the sons of men. It is something more than human; more than can agree to any created being. It speaks the Creator of all,――a God, a God appears! Yea, ὁ ὢν, the being of beings, _Jehovah_, the self-existent, the supreme, the God who is over all, blessed for ever! 10. This divine discourse, delivered in the most excellent method, every subsequent part illustrating those that precede, is commonly, and not improperly divided, into three principal branches: the first, contained in the fifth, the second in the sixth, and the third in the seventh chapter. In the first, the sum of all true religion is laid down in eight particulars, which are explained and guarded against the false glosses of man, in the following parts of the fifth chapter. In the second are rules for that right intention, which we are to preserve in our all outward actions; unmixt with worldly desires, or anxious cares for even the necessaries of life. In the third, are cautions against the main hindrances of religion, closed with an application of the whole. I. 1. Our Lord, first, lays down the sum of all true religion in eight particulars, which he explains and guards against the false glosses of men to the end of the fifth chapter.