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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52427	Practical discourses upon the Beatitudes of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Vol. I written by John Norris, M.A., Rector of Bemerton near Sarum ; to which are added, Reflections upon a late Essay concerning human understanding ; with a reply to the remarks made upon them by the Athenian Society.	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Norris, John, 1657-1711. Cursory reflections upon a book call'd An essay concerning human understanding.	1699 (1699)	Wing N1260; ESTC R15878	122,509	273

shall have a proportionable Accomplishment he must needs be shrewdly tempted to think that the time of the promised Messias is not yet come and that the Religion which now goes for his is as false as its Professors are evil and wicked Thirdly and Lastly with respect to the Mahumetan who indeed allows Christ to have been a true Prophet and his Religion to have been once a true Religion only he says it has had its Time as well as that of the Jews and is now as superannuated to give place to a more perfect Institution that is to Mahumet's who as he came after Christ so was he to fill up his Defects and to deliver the last and standing Will of God And will he not find pretence to be confirmed in this his Opinion and to prefer his Master Mahumet as much before Christ as we do Christ before Moses when he shall perceive as quickly he may that there is not half so much Unity and Agreement among Christians even concerning their very Religion which is to be the Bond of their Unity as there is among Mahumetans Certainly he will and tho he perish in his Error yet I fear his Blood will be upon those who administer the occasion of it These are great Scandals and Objections both to the Heathen Jew and Mahumetan and Woe be to them by whom this great Offence comes Our Saviour pronounces a severe Woe against them that shall offend even one of his little ones Mat. 18. 6. and what then shall be the doom of those that scandalize so great a part of the World I heartily wish that the present Disturbers and Dividers of the Christian State and Church would seriously consider these things and how they act the part of Antichrist in thus letting and hindring the Course of the Christian Religion In the mean time I shut up all with this Prayer that God would give Light to those Heathens Jews and Mahumetans that sit in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death and that in order to this he would first guide the Feet of us Christians into the Way of Peace Amen Discourse the Eighth Matth. V. ver x xi xij Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kindom of Heaven Or as it may be read from the Close Great is their Reward in Heaven IT has been ever a great occasion of Dissatisfaction to some Men that there should be any such thing as Evil in the World A greater yet that this Evil should often fall upon good and sometimes upon the best of Men. But the greatest of all is that not only good Men should meet with Evil but that their very Goodness should betray them into it that suffering should not only be the Portion of the Righteous but that Men should suffer for the Sake of their Righteousness It seems hard indeed that a Righteous Man should suffer but much more that he should suffer for his being Righteous and that Affliction should not only be the Lot but also the Effect and Consequence of his Vertue For if Honesty and Integrity cannot be a Defence and Priviledge against Evil yet one would expect it should not be a Procurer of it and that if the Man were not the better for his Virtue yet at least he should not be the Worse These have been always as perplext Appearances in the Moral as any that arise in the Natural System of the World a frequent Trouble and Discouragement to the Good and Pious and a more frequent Occasion of Triumph to the Atheistical and Prophane who have raised from hence their most plausible Objections both against the Being and the Order of Divine Providence which by these greatest Difficulties of it they have been incouraged either to Deny or to Condemn With the two first of these Difficulties I am not at present concern'd nor shall I determin of what force the last and greatest might be were this 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 Musick 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

returned him this sharp and warm Answer God shall smite thee thou whited wall For sittest thou to judge me after the law and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law There was indeed nothing in his Answer but what perhaps might have been justified by the Oddness of the Provocation but yet you cannot but observe a great Difference between the Behaviour of the Disciple and of the Master But if you would see a perfect Example of Meekness look upon him under the Shame and Dishonour and Pains of the Cross encountring at once with the Agonies of Death the Contradictions and Revilings of Sinners and the Vengeance of an Almighty God and all this without any the least Shew of Impatience or Discomposure of Spirit So that I think I may well enlarge the Question of the Prophet and to that Is there any sorrow like to my sorrow add this also Is there any meekness like to my meekness And here I cannot but make a Stand and with Sorrow reflect upon a certain Order of Men how little they have of the true Spirit of Christianity how little they have 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 Out-rageousness mere Fire-brands in Society that kindle and lay waste where-ever they come and seem more like Granada's 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 Tygers And yet it 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 Jam. 1. 20. 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 Neighbour's Peace and Quiet is so much concerned 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 enjoyned 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 proceed 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 the Apostolical Caution Be angry and sin not Eph. 4. 26. Which plainly implies that there may be Anger without Sin And it 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 it 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 destroyed by Meekness as being Evil but only to be regulated lest it become so the next thing to be considered 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 lodged 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 it 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 concerned '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 governed by Reason certainly our Passions ought not to be wholly exempted from it I am sure they need it most of all And if a Man thinks not before he gives himself leave to be Angry tho' the Ground of it should prove never so just and proper in it self yet as to him his Anger was brutish 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 farther 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 it is said Caligula was who being vex'd 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

we never read that he ever laughed Once indeed 't is said Luk. 10. that he rejoiced but then it was not with an outward sensitive and tumultuous Joy but with an inward spiritual and silent Exultation He rejoiced in Spirit And what was it for Not upon any Animal or Secular Account but upon an Occasion altogether Spiritual and Divine 'T was for the abundant Grace of his Father bestowed upon his Disciples and for their good use of it and improvement under it I do not intend in all this such rigid Measures as are practised and exacted by some of the Religious Orders of the Roman Church where a Man is not allowed so much as to laugh or to say any thing but Frater memento mori for several Years together This would be to turn Society into a dumb Shew to make Life a Burthen and withal to bring an ill Report upon the good Land of Promise and to discourage Men from the Christian Religion But that which I 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 Vail of Tears that there is a Time for Mourning as well as for Rejoicing 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 discovered such an ungrateful Duty since there is a Beatitude annexed to it But because as was before remarked 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 resolved 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 Virtue 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 resolved But because this may be exemplified in variety of Instances it 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 it 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 Joh. 5. 19. lies in wickedness that there are but few that pretend to any Strictness or Regularity of Living and yet sewer 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 grieved 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 Lord's 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 rejoice 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 Psal 119. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law And again It grieveth me when I see the transgressors 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 Secondly 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 Human Life be among such a Multitude of Evils as are incident to it I shall not go about to re-count or describe them They are too many to be number'd 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 Devil's Artifice had of the Glories of it 't would be the most dismal Landscape that ever was drawn or can be imagined 'T was for this that some of the Ancients reckoned 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 farther Eccless 6. 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 farther 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 perising 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

Neighbour for Mercy and Compassion for Repentance and the like It is also hereby made more serious more considerative and reflecting more recollected more setled and composed which is to be considerably better For as Sorrow is the Principle of Consideration so is Consideration the Principle of Repentance and Well-living according to that of the Psalmist I considered my own ways and turned my feet to thy testimonies Psal 119. And of all this we have a very signal Example in the Nation of the Jews who till the Time of the Babylonish Captivity were very gross and carnal notwithstanding so many Miracles of God both in their Deliverance out of Egypt and in their Passage through the Wilderness And when they were brought into the Land of Canaan tho' they had such open and clear Testimonies of the Divine Presence among them so many Prophecies so many Miracles and so many Apparitions of Angels yet we find them ever now and then relapsing into Idolatry But after the Captivity when they had gone through a Course of Sorrow and Affliction they presently began to behave themselves more orderly and seemed like Gold to refine upon the Trial of the Furnace For we do not 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 Discipline 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 denounced 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 Psal 126. 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 received 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 mere 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 cautioned against by the Apostle Col. 2. 8. and that Tradition of Man and those Rudiments of the World which are not after Christ Herein it 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 verified 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 do not 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 looked upon these as mean servile Dispositions such as were fit for Men o● 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 over-much at the Singularity of this Christian Paradox since the whole Course of our Saviour's Life and Doctrin was a direct Contradiction to the Maxims and Practice of the World Thu● 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 Saviour's 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 it is reckoned 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 condemned being innocent They Lastly as the Prophet complains Mal. 3. 15. 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 it will be requisite 1. 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 Difinition tho' it be true as far as it goes yet like the