Matthew 5:7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Blessed are the merciful— Those who feel for the sorrows of others as their own, and with tender sympathy hasten to relieve them. Dr. Heylin remarks excellently upon this beatitude, nearly in the following words; that the frailty of human nature renders men continually liable to abuse, and perverts the good dispositions which religion would excite;thus mourning for sin may degenerate into a gloomy melancholy and moroseness of temper; and some, because they are displeased, as they have reason, with themselves, become peevish and fretful at all about them; and again, with regard to the hunger and thirst after justice, that is to say, universal holiness and virtue (see on ch. Matthew 3:15.), men, when called to Christ and true religion, have commonlypowerfulconvictions concerning the turpitude of vice, with the danger and guilt of neglecting Christ and holiness, of stopping short of the pardon of their sins, and the sanctification of their natures. And they ought studiously to cultivate these convictions, and impressthem deeply upon their minds by assiduous meditation; but, above all, by going to Jesus Christ in ardent prayer, as the only refuge of the penitent soul. But, notwithstanding, as the speculations of justice are pleasing, and the practice of it laborious; and as it is much easier to desire that others should be holy, than to become so themselves; it too often happens that they misapply their concern for the interests of religion to the morals of other men, and are more intent upon their neighbour's faults than their own. Thus they turn their zeal the wrong way, and suffer it to evaporate in chimeras of reforming the public; while they themselves are under the dominion of sin. But hunger and thirst are personal; for no man hungers for another's want, but for his own. Those holy desires which the Spirit of God excites in his servants, chiefly tend to their own pardon, and theirown purification: and in the progress of that work, I mean while they grieve for their own folly, and pine for their own want of justice, they willcompassionately bear with the follies of other men, and be very indulgent to their want of justice; a want which they so sensibly experience in themselves. To ripen this good disposition to which, through almighty grace, the state already described leads them, Christ here so seasonably pronounces his benediction, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. See the Reflections for farther views on this subject.

Matthew 5:7

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.