the last state of things and the All-concluding Scene of the World Perhaps it might then be strong enough to conclude what some are now so weak as to wish and believe But certainly with the supposition of an After-state the Objection is so far from being Desperate that I can see nothing Difficult in it And I think 't is here sufficiently answer'd by that ample Compensation promis'd by our Saviour to all those whose faithful adherence to a good Cause shall at any time engage them in Sufferings and Afflictions For says he Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Which last Words as our Saviour afterwards explains them contain not only a Promise of Heavenly Happiness in general but of a greater Degree and Measure of it and intitle the Sufferers for Religion those who undergo Persecution for Righteousness sake to a more than ordinary weight of Glory So that hence arise two Propositions to be distinctly consider'd First That there are Degrees in that Glory which shall be the Reward of Saints in Heaven Secondly That one of the Highest Degrees of it shall be the Reward of those who suffer Persecution for the sake of Righteousness That there are Degrees of Glory tho by some a much contested is yet I think a most certain and unquestionable Truth The certainty of which I shall endeavour to establish upon these few evident Principles First I consider that this must needs be the natural and necessary result of things And here I desire only it may be granted me That there are some certain Dispositions of Soul necessary to relish and enjoy the Happiness of Heaven This I think is a Supposition that need not be disputed since even to the enjoyment of sensible good there is requisite a proportion of sense The Ear must be tunably set to relish the Charms of Music and the Palate must be rightly disposed to find any pleasure in the sweetest Delicacies And if these grosser Objects that have a more natural Affinity with the Organs of Sense and strike hard upon them will not yet affect them without some more particular inward Preparation there is greater reason to think that the Delights of Heaven that are so far above the Level of our Natures so pure and so refined cannot be tasted but by a suitable Disposition of Soul The necessity of which appears so great that I am apt to think as a late worthy Writer of our Church does that the whole Moral Excellency of some Vertues is their Qualification for the Happiness of another State they being of no great consequence to the present Order of this World Well then if certain Dispositions of Soul be required to fit us for the Happiness of Heaven then it follows that the more disposed any Soul is for the Glories of Heaven the more happy she must needs be in the enjoyment of them And if so then 't will be necessary to say either that all Souls are equally disposed which would be to contradict the Sense and Experience of the whole World or if one be better disposed than another then in proportion one will also be more happy than another The Consequence is plain and necessary If there must be a Moral Qualification of Soul to fit a Man for Happiness then certainly the more qualify'd the more happy Which has made me often wonder at the self-inconsistency of those who allowing a virtuous Frame and Temper of Mind to be a Natural Disposition for Happiness do yet deny greater Degrees of Glory to greater of Degrees Vertue Indeed if a Moral Disposition of Soul did not fit us for Happiness the case were otherwise but since t is allowed to do that I cannot conceive but that the Degrees of Happiness must follow the Degrees of Virtue And indeed how can he that thinks at all think otherwise but that a Soul well purged and purified that has undergon a long course of Mortification till she is throughly awakened into the Divine Lise and Likeness and is arrived to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ must find more Happiness in the Vision of God than a Soul just pregnant with the Divine Form and that carries away with her only the first Rudiments of Spiritual Life Certainly that Soul which is most like God will be most happy in the fruition of him This is no more than what may be concluded from the meer natural necessity of things without having recourse to any Positive Order of God about it But neither may that be supposed to be wanting For Secondly I consider that the same may be concluded from the Justice and Goodness of God as well as from the Nature of things And first from his Justice Not that there lies an Absolute and Antecedent Obligation upon God to bestow greater Rewards upon greater Saints for if Eternal Life it self be as the Apostle represents it the Gift of God no doubt but the Degrees of it are so too God cannot become a Debtor to Man or to any other Creature but by a free Act of his own He may indeed oblige himself to us by a voluntary ingagement but we cannot pass any strict Obligation upon him by any thing we can do and to talk of Meriting in this sense is no less than Blasphemy and I can hardly believe that any man that understood himself ever thus held it But tho Good be not absolutely obliged to his Creatures but only upon Supposition and consequently cannot be Absolutely bound to reward greater Saints with greater Happiness yet if we once suppose him to ingage himself by Promise to be a Rewarder of Virtue in general there will be all the reason in the World to think that by the same Promise he has also Virtually obliged himself to crown the greatest Virtues with the greatest Rewards For since the reason why he ingaged himself to be a Rewarder of good Men was not as is already precaution'd any Absolute Merit of theirs but only to shew his great Love of Virtue and Goodness t is reasonable to conclude that by the same Motives and in persuance of the same End he also ingaged himself to be a more liberal Rewarder of greater Saints Since this is as necessary a means to shew his Love to Virtue and Goodness as the other And therefore tho we should grant which yet in the sequel will appear otherwise that God had expresly promised only to be a Rewarder of Virtue in general yet since the End and Reason of this His ingagement was to shew His great Love to Virtue this would be warrant enough to conclude That he had implicitly and virtually ingaged Himself to have an equal regard to the several Degrees of Virtue and to reward them after their respective Proportions But to rise higher yet tho God cannot be in Strict Justice obliged to reward the best of our Services but by an ingagement of his own much less to reward them
stand for is this that we ought not so to give our selves over to secular Mirth and Jollity but that we are still to remember that we are in the Vale of Tears that there is a time for Mourning as well as for Rejoycing and that this is that time now we are in our Exile and in the midst of Dangers and Fears and that therefore Sorrow must sometimes have its turn as well as Joy and that there is such a thing as Christian Mourning Nor need we be troubled that we have discover'd such an ungrateful Duty since there is a Beatitude annexed to it But because as was before remark'd all manner of mourning will not come within its Compass it will concern us in the second place to consider who these Christian Mourners are This I think cannot be resolv'd by any better measure than by considering what are the true and proper Causes why a Christian ought to mourn Now to this I shall answer I. In General II. In Particular In General I say that then a Christian mourns for a due and proper Cause when the Principle of his Sorrow is either Zeal for the Honour and Glory of God or a Concern for the Good of Mankind Nothing less than this can either deserve his Sorrow or derive any Vertue or Excellency upon it So that in short Piety and Charity will be the two Principles into which all true Christian Mourning must be at last resolv'd But because this may be exemplify'd in variety of Instances 't will not be amiss to consider some of the more remarkable of them I answer therefore more particularly That one very proper and reasonable Cause why a Christian should mourn is the Consideration of sin For a Man to consider seriously what a great and strange kind of Evil Sin is how contrary to God to his Nature to his Will to his Commands to his Goodness to his Justice to the wise Order of his Grace and Providence and especially to the great mystery of Godliness Then to consider how contrary 't is to Man to his Nature to his Reason to his rational Instincts and Inclinations to his inward Peace and Satisfaction and lastly to his Interest both Temporal and Spiritual Private and Publick Present and Future Then again to consider how prone we are to commit it and that we our selves are the Authors of this proneness And lastly how much of this great strange Evil there is in the World how Iniquity abounds and the Love of many waxes cold that the whole World as St. John says lies in wickedness that there are but few that pretend to any Strictness or Regularity of Living and yet fewer that discharge their Pretensions truly and sincerely I say for a Man to consider all this to consider it seriously and thoroughly must needs be a sad Scene of Contemplation and such as will justly call for his Sorrow and Mourning It was so to God himself who is brought in by Moses as griev'd at his very heart for the abundance of wickedness which he beheld in the Old World And I question not but that among the bitter Ingredients of our Lords Passion this was none of the least to foresee that there would be so many who by their final Impenitence and persevering in Wickedness would receive no Benefit from it And if we may judge by proportion the Angels in Heaven who rejoyce at the Conversion of one Sinner do also mourn and lament for the irreclaimable Wickedness of so many Millions as are in the World 'T is a thing worth our Considering and worth our Lamenting And therefore says the Psalmist Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law And again It grieveth me when I see the transgressours This is a vertuous and laudable Sorrow as proceeding from a good and noble Principle from Piety and Charity and he that mourns upon this consideration is a true Christian Mourner Again Seconly Another very proper and reasonable Cause why a Christian should mourn is the consideration of the Miseries of Human Life 'T is a most deplorable thing to consider what a deal and what variety of Misery there is in the World at once Many things must concur to make us tolerably Happy but One thing alone is oftentimes enough to make us very Miserable And how unhappy then must Humane Life be among such a multitude of Evils as are incident to it I shall not go about to recount or describe them They are too many to be numbred and too various to be reduced to any method This only I say That should a Man by some compendious Device have an united Prospect of the Miseries of the World as our Saviour by the Devils Artifice had of the Glories of it 't would be the most dismal Landfcape that ever was drawn or can be imagin'd 'T was for this that some of the Ancients reckon'd an early Death among the greatest Blessings of Heaven Quem Dii diligunt Adolescens moritur The Favourite of the Gods dies young says the Comedian But Solomon goes further and prefers an untimely Birth before a Man that has spent many years in this World To be short such is our Condition here that we see God has not thought fit to trust us with the least fore-knowledge of what is coming upon us lest like Men upon a deep Precipice we should be amazed confounded and fall down at the dreadful Prospect And if the private Circumstances of each single Man's Life be so black and disconsolate that 't is thought fit he should see no further than he goes what shall we think of the miseries of all Mankind put together If any thing be worth our Sorrow certainly this is Our compassionate Saviour wept over the approaching Ruin of perishing Jerusalem and shall not a Christian mourn for the miseries of the whole World We suspect the good Nature of him that can endure to sit out a deep Tragedy with dry Eyes and can we stand and look upon a miserable World without mourning There are some Men of Rocky Hearts and impassible Tempers that could stand by and see the whole World in Flames without any concern were but their own little selves secure from the Ruin And this some are pleas'd to call Philosophy But certainly Christian Charity that obliges us to sympathize with the miseries of each particular Man to weep with those that weep as the Apostle speaks does much more require us to lament the common Miseries of Human Life This therefore is a very proper Cause of Christian Mourning As is also in the Third place the Consideration of the Vanity and Emptiness of all Worldly and Created Good The general Cause of most of the Discontent and Melancholy that is in the World is because Men can't get so much of Worldly Good as they desire not at all questioning its Vanity but on the contrary supposing that if they could compass such and such things they should be Happy and their only
learnt either by the Precept or by the Example of him whose Religion and Imitation too they profess and by whose venerable Name they have thought fit to distinguish themselves who instead of this Meekness and Gentleness are all made up of Passion and Violence Fury and Outragiousness meer Firebrands in Society that kindle and lay wast where-ever they come and seem more like Granadas shot into a Town than Inhabitants of it by thus raging where they light by thus burning destroying and tearing all about them How unlike are these Men to the Temper of the meek Lamb of God! As unlike certainly as Wolves and Tigers And yet 't is an unlikeness they are so little sensible of that they will yet pretend to the Name and Practice of Christians yea to the very Name of Jesus and he had need be a bold Man or at a good distance from them that shall dare to contradict them But certainly as Wrath worketh not the righteousness of God so neither is such an allowed course of it consistent with it And as he cannot be a good Man who is so inordinate in the use of a Passion wherein both his own and his Neighbours Peace and Quiet is so much concern'd so much less can he be a good Christian who is of a Frame of Spirit so directly contrary to that of the Holy Jesus and who wants this great Christian Qualification the Spirit of Gentleness and Meekness which is so considerable an Instance of Charity and so strictly enjoyn'd by the Precept and so strongly recommended by the Example of Christ. But because the Limits of this Duty are not so plain as the Obligation of it I proeced in the Third place to state the Measures of its Obligation in its more General Cases And here in the first place it may be demanded Whether all Anger be contrary to Meekness and consequently unlawful The Affirmative is stiffly contended for by the Stoic but I think the Negative sufficiently warranted by that Apostolical Caution Be angry and sin not Which plainly implies that there may be anger without Sin And 't is also plain from the nature of the thing that there may For Anger is a natural Affection implanted in us by God from whom nothing can proceed that is simply and as such Evil. And besides the Office of Meekness is not utterly to destroy this Passion but only to regulate it whereby 't is supposed that 't is not in its whole kind evil for what is so cannot be regulated and must be destroyed Since then Anger is supposed not wholly to be destroy'd by Meekness as being Evil but only to be regulated lest it become so the next thing to be consider'd is by what Measures Now these Measures may either respect Anger as to the inward Passion as within a Man 's own Breast or as to the outward Acts Effects and Expressions of it And first As to those Measures which respect Anger as to the inward Passion as lodg'd within a Man 's own Breast These I think will be sufficiently comprized within these Four Circumstances the Cause or Occasion the Object the Degree or the Time As to the Cause to render that justifiable 't will be requisite First That it be something weighty and considerable something wherein either the Glory of God or the publick Good or else some very great private Interest is concern'd 'T is not every little impertinent Trifle that can warrant our Anger Secondly 'T will be requisite that our Anger owe its Birth to some competent measure of previous Counsel and Deliberation For if all our Actions are to be govern'd by Reason certainly our Passions ought not to be wholly exempted from it I 'm sure they need it most of all and if a Man thinks not before he gives himself leave to be Angry though the ground of it should prove never so just and proper in it self yet as to him his Anger was bruitish and unreasonable As it will also be if Thirdly it be not conceived for a due end such as either the Vindication of the Divine Honour and Glory the procurement of good to our Neighbour or the prevention and suppression of sin And so much to qualifie our Anger with respect to the Cause But Secondly to the further Regulation of it 't will be requisite that it have a due Object For all are not so There are some things that cannot some that ought not to be the Objects of Anger That cannot with Reason and that ought not for Religion Thus we ought not to be Angry with God as 't is said Caligula was who being vext at the Thunder for disturbing his Banquet rose up from the Table and provoked Jupiter to fight with him Neither ought we to be angry with inanimate senseless things as Cyrus was with the River for drowning one of his Sacred Horses It argues a Mind overcome and blinded with Passion to be so prodigal of it where it can signifie nothing Nor ought we to be angry with those who either by Chance or Necessity or probable Ignorance or common Frailty have offended us Nor are we to be angry with those who though they have none of these excuses to qualifie their Trespass yet acknowledge their Fault beg our Pardon and promise Amendment Repentance is the measure of God's Forgiveness and so it ought to be of ours Nor Lastly should we let loose our Anger against Brute Creatures Children Fools or Mad-men or any other that are under any great defect or disorder of Understanding But we are to be angry with such only as are impious and wicked and that are neither ashamed nor repent of their wickedness And even here also we ought rather to be angry with the Fault than with the Person For so Moses was exceeding angry at the Idolatry of the Israelites when at the same time he prayed for the Idolaters And thus far of the Object The two last circumstances whereby our Anger is to be qualify'd are Degree and Time As to Degree this may receive a double Measure one from the Person who is the Object of Anger and another from the Person who is the Subject of it That with reference to the Object is this That our Anger should not exceed the quality of the Offence committed That with reference to the Subject will be this That it should not be so great let the Offence be what it will as to discompose the mind of him who conceives it and thereby unfit him for the discharge of such Offices as he own either to God his Neighbor or Himself Then as to the time of our Anger this we find already stated by the Apostle who limits it within the Compass of a Day 'T is a Passion that ought to be so short lived that the Sun must not go down upon it For indeed 't is not safe trusting our selves with such a dangerous Guide in the Dark nor to nourish a Passion which tho in its own Nature innocent
through a course of Sorrow and Affliction they presently began to behave themselves more orderly and seem'd like Gold to refine upon the Trial of the Furnace For we don't read that after that time they ever fell into Idolatry And accordingly God began to deal with them now no longer as Children but as Persons of some maturity by withdrawing from them his Visible Presence and the Spirit of Prophecy thinking them to have learnt enough already in the School of Affliction to supersede all other methods of Instruction and Disciplin And from that time forwards the Minds of Men began to be more generally erected towards Heaven and the good things of a better Life when they saw that the strictest Observers of the Law fell oftentimes into those Evils which were denounc'd against the Transgressors of it By which means they were by degrees prepared for the reception of the Gospel This is the present Blessedness of those that mourn What the future is we are told by our Saviour who says they shall be comforted that is shall be received into a State or Place of Bliss and Happiness Joy and Delight and be infinitely rewarded in Heaven for all their Pious and Charitable Mourning upon Earth According to that of the Psalmist He that now goes on his way sorrowing and bringeth forth good seed shall doubtless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him They shall be receiv'd into the City of God the new Jerusalem where there is no more Mourning nor cause of Mourning and where not only all Sin but even those very Vertues which are founded upon the least Imperfection shall be done away Here therefore there will be no room left even for Godly Sorrow but all shall be Joy and Gladness Harmony and Thanksgiving And Blessed are they who so mourn here that they may enter into this Joy of their Lord hereafter Discourse the Third Matth. V. ver v. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth THE Judgment of God differs so very widely from that of Man that his Thoughts are seldom as our Thoughts nor his ways as our ways But in nothing is the difference so signal as in the Conclusions concerning Good and Evil Happiness and Misery Our Judgments are seldom conformable to the Divine in matters of meer Truth and Notion but much seldomer in Practical Maxims and Moral Resolutions Here if any where is chiefly to be found that Vain Philosophy which we are caution'd against by the Apostle and that Tradition of Men and those Rudiments of the World which are not after Christ. Herein 't is that the Wisdom of God and the Wisdom of the World which seldom meet in one point stand yet most divided and opposed to each other and tho the latter be always in some respect or other Foolishness to the former yet never so much as in her Resolutions concerning Good and Evil Happiness and Misery The World for the most part calling that Evil which God calls Good and those miserable whom God pronounces in an especial manner Happy This is very remarkably verify'd in the matter now before us For tho there has been great diversity of Sentiments in the Gentile Philosophy about the Objects of Human Happiness some placing it in one thing and some in another yet among all their variety we don't find any that placed it in Humility or Meekness These they scarce acknowledged as Vertues much less to be such as wherein the Happiness of Man should in great part consist Nay they rather look't upon these as mean servile Dispositions such as were fit for Men of low Fortunes and lower Minds and which were so far from conducing to Happiness that they rather exposed Men to misfortunes and miseries But now these are the Dispositions of Mind which our Lord and Saviour who was the Wisdom of his Father and the Light of the World singles out and marks for a peculiar Excellency and Happiness Nor need we wonder overmuch at the singularity of this Christian Paradox since the whole course of our Saviours Life and Doctrin was a direct Contradiction to the Maxims and Practice of the World Thus Men hate to unsay or undo what they have either done or said and to confess their former Folly by an after-retractation But now this is the principal thing of our Saviours Institution whose whole Gospel is a Doctrin of Repentance which is a Retractation of Judgment and Choice Thus again Men love Riches but Christ chose to be Poor They are altogether for Honours and Greatness but he hid himself that he might not be made a King They again greedily pursue after Pleasures but both his Life and Doctrin was all over Rigour and Mortification The World thinks Affronts intolerable and 't is reckon'd a piece of Gallantry and Honour to revenge them but our wise and good Lord chose to be reviled and spit upon They are impatient of Calumnies and Slanders but he chose to be condemn'd being innocent They lastly as the Prophet complains call the proud happy and despise the meek Man as a miserable Slave and Fool whereas says our Lord in Opposition to the former Blessed are the poor in spirit and in opposition to the Latter Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth From the Words I shall discourse of these two things in general the Duty and the Blessedness of Meekness In treating of the first 't will be requisite I. To consider what Meekness is II. To shew that it is a Christian Duty III. To state the Measures of its Obligation in its more general Cases IV. To inforce the Practice of it as far as it Obliges First therefore as to the Notion of Meekness Aristotle has long since defined it to be a Mediocrity about Anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are his Words in the Fourth of his Ethicks This Definition tho it be true as far as it goes yet like the rest of his it runs in such general Terms that a Man is little the wiser for it And indeed it rather serves to tell us the meaning of the Word than to discover the Nature of the thing To do this therefore I should rather think fit to say that 't is such a Temper or Disposition of Mind whereby a Man so moderates and commands the Passion of Anger as not to be carried to any such degree of it as may either discompose himself or injure his Neighbour Call this a Definition or Description or what you please I think 't is such as may give a sufficient Idea of the thing we are discoursing about This therefore being setled our next business is to shew That to be thus meek is a Christian Duty That it is so might sufficiently appear from this General Consideration that 't is an Instance of Charity which as we well know is the Life and Substance of the Christian Law And 't is a very considerable Instance too For since Charity obliges us to promote both our own
Disposition The Positive I need but just name the Proof of them being virtually contain'd in the other They are therefore First Charity or universal Love that seeketh not her own but the Common Good Secondly Generosity and a noble inlargement of Soul that sets a Man above the little petty Occasions of Quarrel and Contention Thirdly Humility and Modesty that makes a Man possess himself and his station with Contentedness and Thankfulness Fourthly A candid sweet and benign Temper that thinks no evil but is well pleased in the Prosperity of every Man and every State or Community Fifthly A mild meek and forgiving Spirit that does not keep up the Circulation of Injuries but lets the Quarrel fall and dye Sixthly and Lastly a serene and well-composed Soul one that rules well her own inward Charge having her Passions in Subjection with all Gravity Peace and Tranquility of Mind All these excellent Qualifications are required to furnish out a peaceable Disposition which will not come into the Soul as the Soul will not into the Body till after it be duly tempered and prepared for it Whence the Proposition to be made out is sufficiently concluded that it argues a well-order'd Frame and good Habit of Mind Which is the first Ground of its Excellency The second is taken from the consideration of what it Causes The Effects of it are as great and noble as its Principles and Prerequisites It s great and general effect is Happiness upon which no one Virtue has so large an influence as this Some Happiness it causes immediately and directly and contributes to secure whatever Happiness it does not cause Some Blessings it originally procures and preserves the possession of all So that some way or other all our Blessings are Blessings of Peace since to this we owe either the Blessings themselves or at least the secure enjoyment of them And all this it does by giving Strength Beauty and Pleasure to Society First Strength Peace is as much the Sinew of Society as Mony is of War and without it Society is so far from obtaining any of its just and natural Ends that 't is a far less eligible State than that of perfect Solitude For in perfect Solitude Men only want the mutual assistance of one another but in a divided and inraged Society Every Man is in the condition of Cain in fear lest the next that meets him should do him a mischief 'T is Peace that makes Society a Defence and that distinguishes the Congresses of Men from the Herds of Beasts or which is worse from the Confusions of the Rabble And as it strengthens Society within so it strengthens it without too nor would War be any Security abroad without Peace at home Briefly 't is Union and Coherence that makes every thing strong and Peace is the Cement that holds all fast together And what Society is there that can subsist without it when even a Kingdom divided against it self tho it be that of the Devil himself cannot stand Secondly Beauty There is indeed a certain Beauty in Strength and every thing that is strong is so far beautiful But besides this Peace gives a more proper and peculiar Beauty to Society the Beauty of Order and Proportion of Decency and Agreeableness For a peaceable Disposition inclines every Man to mind his own proper Business and to contain himself within that place and station wherein God and his Superiours have fix'd him and not to aspire to what is above him or invade what does not belong to him For indeed Peace it self cannot subsist without this any more than Society can without Peace Where-ever therefore there is Peace there will also be this Order and Proportion The Hand will not affect the Office of the Eye nor the Foot the place of the Head but every Member will be contented with and intent upon his own Office and Place in the Body The result of which must needs be the greatest Beauty and Harmony Thirdly Pleasure This indeed is necessarily consequent to the two former since it cannot but be a great pleasure to every particular well-affected Member of Society to reflect upon the Strength and Beauty of the whole But besides this a peaceable Disposition derives a more immediate and direct Pleasure upon Society For who can express the Pleasure that is in Love and Joy Sweetness and Dearness in mutual Kindness and Confidences in Union of Minds and Universal Friendship They that have had the Happyness to tast of this Pleasure know they cannot express it which made the Psalmist break forth into that abrupt Extasie Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity Having thus far set forth the general Excellency of a peaceable Disposition from what it Argues and from what it Causes I now proceed in the second place to consider that more particular Prerogative of it in making those that have it Children of God To be Children of God is indeed common to all good Men who being begotten anew by the immortal Seed of the Word do bear Gods image in Holiness endeavouring in all things to do their Father's Will But there are some Dispositions that give a more peculiar Right to this Title than others as they are nearer Resemblances of the Divine Excellencies Among which is the Disposition now under our Consideration whereby a Man becomes in a special Degree and Manner like God and so evidences himself to be his Child and may upon the consideration of that likeness fitly be so called And this is the constant use of this Phrase in Scripture Ye are of your Father the Devil says our Lord to the unbelieving Jews and the Lusts of your Father ye will do And so again Love your enemies and do good c. and ye shall be the Children of the Highest for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil And says the Apostle Be ye followers of God as dear Children They are the Children of God who are Followers of God who purifie themselves as he is pure and who are perfect as he is perfect So that to be the Child of God or the Child of the Devil signifies as much as to carry a particular resemblance of either When therefore 't is said that the Peace-makers shall be call'd the Children of God it comes to as much as that they carry a particular Character of the Divine Likeness whereby it may be known to whose Family they retain and that they are the True Sons of God And so indeed they are For God is the God of Peace and the greatest Peace that which passes all Understanding is called the Peace of God For God is the greatest Lover of Peace the Author and Giver of Peace and the Rewarder of all such as live in Peace Indeed under the Jewish State which as in other things so in this was very peculiar that 't was a State of Theocracy God was known by the Name of the Lord of Hosts