blessed of my Father" He calls them " blessed," that all may understand the immensity of benefits that He has done, does, and will do throughout all eternity, fulfilling that of the Psalmist, that the "innocent in hands and clean of heart" should " receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour." [1] And he says not " Come, ye blessed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," nor " ye blessed of Moses," or of the patriarchs and prophets, but " ye blessed of my" eternal " Father, who hath blessed " you " with all kind of spiritual blessings," [2] communicating to you the goods of His grace, and now entirely those of His glory. And He says not "Ye blessed of God," but of "my Father, 19 that it may be understood that all these blessings proceed from the fatherly love which Almighty God bore them on account of His Son. And because His benediction is effectual, and immediately performs what it signifies, with this sweet word He will replenish them with new and extraordinary delights.
iii. " Possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" — Thirdly, He says to them, "Posess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! " In these words I am to consider what kingdom this is — how long a time has elapsed since it was prepared — that it is prepared for the righteous, and that to them is given the possession of it; in all which is resplendent the infinite charity of our heavenly Father. For, first, He would that the inheritance and patrimony of His children should be a kingdom, so sovereign that on account of its excellence it deserves the name of a kingdom; for it is not an earthly but a heavenly kingdom, whose riches are infinite, and whose pleasures so inestimable that they make their possessors blessed. This kingdom He prepared for them from all eternity, predestinating them of His mere
