Magicians of Pharaoh hic est digitus Dei this was the finger this was the Hand of God For by how much less of the Wisdom Power and Policy of man appears by so much the more is God manifested 3. A third Reason why poverty of spirit is so blessed a condition may be this For that it is a sure estate for according to that of the Poet cui jacet in terram non habet unde cadat your highest Towers and tallest Cedars are most often smote with lightning are most exposed to the Injuries and Inclemencies of weather to the rage and fury of Storms and Tempests We have often known a great and mighty Oak torn in pieces by the violence of a storm and made a trophy of the Winds fury when as lessertrees and smaller shrubs have Surviv'd the Tempest and remained untouch'd Hills are precipices and high places slippery and dangerous on high places our heads are apt to wax giddy When Satan tempted our Saviour he took him and set him on a Pinacle of the Temple High places are full of temptations they command too far a prospect of this Worlds glory of the glory of this Creation thus when the spirit of a man is elated and raised he is exposed to more danger to more temptations than the humble soul Many other Reasons might be added as that axiom in Philosophy which holds true also in Divinity that privation praeceeds habits emptiness preceds fulnesse It s a common saying That the way to heaven lies by the Gates of Hell and therefore this poverty is but as it were the taking of our Fees in order to preferment to the end we may take the higher the farther leap we must be emptied of our selves that is of all vain and windie conceit of our selves before we can be fil'd with the graces of Gods Spirit It is the Devils policy to blow and puff us up like bladers with the Wind of pride and self-conceit that we may not be capable of receiving the new wine of the spirit Now these bladers of pride must be prick'd this swelling wind of conceit this ventosity must be let out therefore it is Christ calls so often to us to sell all to part with all if we will become wise Merceants and traffique for eternal life if we will purchase that Pearl of price {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that inestimable Pearl mentioued in the Gospel Mat. 13. 6. We must part with all and follow Christ if we will have him or render our selves worthy of him This made the young man in the Gospel depart sorrowful full of sorrow he had a good mind to Christ but was very rich had much wealth was full of substance and had kept the commandements from his youth upwards This is that makes it so difficult for a rich man to be saved Oh how difficult a thing it is to stand still and see the Salvation of God as the Israelites were commanded at the red Sea and as all Christians are now that will pass through the red Sea of Christs Blood this is that makes it easier for Publicans and sinners to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven then the Scribes and Pharisees that are cumbred with a great deal of Righteousnesse of their own with a multitude of Religious duties and performances What must they part with all cast all over-board make shipwrack of their Righteousness too This is a hard Chapter durus sermo a hard saying who can bear it but I would ask such souls whether they think it a fitting thing that they should enter into the Kings feast to the Marriage of his Son in the filthy menstruous raggs of their own Righteousnesse and without the wedding Garment Would it not be construed an affront would they not be thought to disgrace reproach and defile the Marriage by so rude so uncivil an Action Would you sit down with Princes being cloathed with nothing but durt and raggs and yet be so morose as not to accept of a Robe out of the Kings Wardrope since it is his Royal pleasure to put so great an honour on you Would you be Courtiers to the King of Heaven and refuse to wear his Livery Let 's remember the end of him in the Parable the Catastrophe of his presumption that intruded into the Nuptials without a wedding Garment Moreover the way to Heaven is a narrow way and the Gate that leads to Eternal Life is a strait passage we must not thinktherefore to carry our Lumber with us that will but clog and retard our speed that will but cumber and trouble us and render our passage more difficult and uneasie It was a fond and ridiculous custom ignorance and serperstition had introduced among some of the Heathens That when any person of High rank or great quality amongst them dyed to sacrifice many of his Servants and great store of Cattel to the end they might wait and attend on him in the other world But I presume we who have the Light of Christianity are better inform'd then to expect to carry a crowd with us or togo in pomp state with a train at our heels and therefore what seoffing Lucian hath said merrily concerning Charons Boat how the passengers were prohibited to bring any thing in with them commanded to strip themselves stark naked and leave all on the other side the bank whether their riches Honours Wisdom Phylosophie or the like may be seriously said to those that would enter into the ark of the new Covenant they must carry nothing with them if they would have a safe and a quick passage a prosperous voyage to Heaven if they would shoot the Gulph arrive safe in the other World or rather what Christ said to the Apostles when he sent them forth to preach the Gospel throughout the whole World when he made them Catholick and Universal Bishops of the Earth to Preach and Teach all Nations they were to take no money in their purses they might take no wealth with them not so much as to be cumbred with two Coats So may we say to all those that would go unto Christ that would Learn the way to Sion we need not meet God as Iacob went to meet his iucensed Brother Esau after he had supplanted and beguiled him of the blessing with great heards and flocks of Cattel before us to be our peace offerings the price of our attonement and to appease his wrath for that is pacified already he having found out himself a Sacrifice we must not therefore go unto God with gifts with Sumpter Horses of rich and costly presents thinking to gratifie him for the redemption of our Captivity for he wil say as sometime Abraham said to the Kings he had delivered when he rescued his Brother Lot it shall not be said you have made Abraham rich alack what can we give unto God are not the Cattel on a Thousand Hills the Lords Is not the Earth and the fulnesse thereof his
those on whom a Sun of Prosperity shines on whom the favour of the world smiles But Oh how far and how high are Gods thoughts above ours even as high as the heavens are above the earth so far are his thoughts and his wayes above ours I know this is a great Paradox to the Learning a dark riddle to the wisdome of the World What are the poor blessed they that lye in the dust on whom all men trample that are contemn'd despis'd and made as it were the very off-scouring of the earth But God sees not as the World sees the byes of his Omnisciency see farther then the dark Opticks of our flesh are able to look He sees thorow things to the very pith and marrow of them whereas we see only the husks the shells of things we are able to look no farther than outward appearances than the Varnish Paint and Gilt the World hath set on things our eyes are detain'd on the superficies of things being able to comment on nothing but light and colours whereas the Eyes of the Almighty penetrate to the very heart and core of things He looks to the farthest end of them and discerns what 's behind the Curtain Exitus actum probat it s the End and Catastrophe of a thing that denominates it either good or evil that 's well that ends well that is crowned with a good event or issue as the Proverb saith Ante abitum nemo supremaque funera faelix Could the Heathenish Poet sing it is our short-sightedness the dulness of our understandings Opticks that makes us often judge envy those as happy who are the most miserable poor contemptible creatures in the world and such as if we knew them aright we should look on rather as objects of our pity than our envy Our eyes being dazled by the outward pomp and splendor of this life which is nothing but a meer Pageantry of gaudy shews judge those often the Proprietors of the greatest felicity who inherit nothing but misery But could we see those things we so often make the objects of our admiration the idols of our desires to the core and within the inmost râ—nd we should find they were but like the Apples of Sodom beautiful to the eye but such as being toucht drop to ashes or like the Fairies money that turns to dust or those beautiful Sepulchres of which our Saviour speaks in the Gospel that are full of nothing but rotteness and dead mens bones This is a truth so legible that many of the Heathen Phylosophers by the dark twi-light of their natural reason were able to spell it out viz. that mans happiness consists not in the enjoyment of these outward things witness the Doctrine of the Stoicks who plac'd the Spring of their Felicity in nothing without themselves who though they built not their Felicity on Christ of whom it was their happiness to be ignorant yet were not so foolish as to place it in riches or any of the other fading withering perishing enjoyments of this Life but on Virtue And though Aristotle and the Peripateticks whose weaker eyes were something more dazled with the pomp and splendor of Alexanders Court and the Varnish of the World were content to admit these outward enjoyments as Handmaids to wait and attend on Virtue yet did not like the bruitish Epicures that Phylosophical Herd of Swine place their Felicity in them though they acknowledg'd they might confer some ornament and lustre and it might receive some beauty and splendor from them But we are here taught another doctrine by Christ another Lesson in the Gospel Blessed are the poor in spirit In the words there is first a Proposition or an Assertion laid down Blessed are the poor in spirit {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of which a pregnant ground or reason follows in the next words For theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} As if Christ by his Divine Logick had thus argued for the words do carry in their womb this Syllogism of which without violence they may be deliver'd they are blessed whose is the Kingdom of heaven that are the Heirs of Salvation that are the Sons of God the Seed of the most High the Bloud-Royal of Heaven on whom Heaven Happiness and Eternal Life is intail'd but such are the poor in spirit they are the Heirs of Life of Heaven of Happiness which is the minor therefore they are blessed I shall speak to the Proposition and its Reason severally And first to the Proposition or Assertion blessed are the poor in spirit in which we shall consider First the subject Poor in spirit Secondly the predicate Blessed And first for the subject Poor in spirit in the Original {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith Beza Est proprie mendicus i. e. ad extreman inopiam redactus qui nil habet nisi quod ostiatim acceperit saith Stephanus the word signifieth one reduced to extreme Poverty or one that hath nothing but what he begs from door to door But for the better and more methodical assoiling this Question what is here meant by poor in spirit we shall first shew negatively who these poor in spirit are not and then give the true Criterion or Character whereby to discover who they are therefore by poor in spirit we are not to understand 1 They that are poor in respect of the fortunes of this life for in respect of this Poverty it is said by the Prophet David in Psalm 37. 25. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken or his Seed begging Bread For these outward enjoyments are also the gifts and blessings of God which he seldome denies his own people in such a competency as may relieve the necessities of nature and render their lives comfortable And though these outward blessings these common favours these mercies of the left hand are no distinguishing Characteristical marks of Gods special grace and favour though they are not the special pledges and Criteria of his Love for that the Sun of these common favours his goodness causes to shine upon the unjust as well as just and the rain of these vulgar mercies to fall upon the wicked as well as the good and perhaps in a more plentiful manner in more large and plentiful showres upon the wicked then on the good for their portion is not in the things of this life God reserves more rich more choice mercies for them their happiness not consisting in having the Sun of an outward prosperity shine upon them but in the shining forth of the light of Gods countenance But however he doth not usually altogether with-hold these outward enjoyments from them though he commonly doth not see it good for them to riot in the like excess as he often permits the wicked least too rank a fortune might cause their hearts to wax fat and forget God yet he usually denies them not food and rayment yea he
fills their hearts with food and gladness by blessing their small estates unto them and giving them a contented mind which is a continual feast Therefore it is not the poverty of Fortune here meant whether voluntary or through the tyranny of necessity and it is not that poverty of Fortunes that is upon compulsion and necessiâ—y by reason such poverty is commonly the Judgement of God and produc't of some enormous crimes 1 As first Poverty is usually the Daughter of Pride it s a common saying that Pride goes before a fall that Pride brings men to a morsel of bread is the Usher and Beedle to beggery and misery Thus God many times suffers mens tables to become their suares when their hearts wax fat that they forget him then he suffers their spirits to be elated above measure to swell with Pride like the Toad in the Fable into a bigness or grandure disproportionable to the model of their Fortunes till they burst the Nerves of their estate and at length expire in beggery and misery 2 But secondly Poverty is sometimes the daughter of vanity which betrays it self sometimes in costly apparel sometimes in sumptuous buildings some wear all their estates on their backs and may say with the Phylosopher though in a far worse sense Omnia mea mecum porto It is the Opinion of some that the non-reviving the ancient wholesome Statutes of this Land for moderating the excess of apparel is a great cause of that poverty and penury that hath crept into many Gentlemens Families and brought their posterity to want and beggery Others bury their Estates under the walls of stately Fabricks under the foundations of sumptuous Palaces The Italians count nothing a greater curse then a profuse humor of building and therefore imprecate it to their greatest enemies Now is it not just for God to stain the pride of such as are given to these vanities that are more studious of erecting for themselves stately houses and beautiful structures then to do any thing for God that more willingly lay out their estates on walls and buildings than the living stones of Gods Church Is it not just he should bring confusion on the estates of such for the pride and vanity of their Babel structures that he should humble them and cause them to sit in the dust that would build their nests in heaven that the towring pride and foolish imaginations of such as would hide their heads among the Clouds and fix their names among the Stars should bring ruine to their estates and bury their Fortunes under dirt and rubbish Thus through the just Judgement of God doth pride and vanity not un-often trip up the heels as I may so say of many mens fortunes and cast them into penury and misery whose fond ambition flatter'd them they should make their nests on high and not be moved 3 Poverty is sometimes the daughter of oppression covetousness and idleness are said to be the root of all evil when men wax covetous and fall to grinding the face of the poor and to prey upon their neighbour when they shut up the bowels of their mercy from the necessities of their poor brother and stop the ears of their charity to the clamorous cryes and importunities of those that are in want then God often blows upon their estates and blasts their Fortunes sends the moth and canker into their wealth causes the rust to prey upon their gold and devoure their silver causing their wealth to moulder and their treasure turn to dust It s reported of the Eagles Feathers that being put among those of other Fowls whether by heat or what other occult quality they prey and devoure the rest causing them to moulter and consume to dust The same truly may be said of wealth gotten by oppression and extortion by any unjust or indirect means it is like the Eagles Feathers or rather Pharoahs lean Kine that will eat and devoure all their fat and plentiful Revenues by drawing down the Curse of Heaven on their wealth and substance 4 Poverty is often the Daughter of Luxury some bury their Patrimonies in their bellies drink down whole Farms and Lordships or perhaps the price of Kingdomes like that voluptuous Queen of Egypt Cleopatra at one draught Some drown their estates together with all their parts and faculties in a deluge of Wine and strong liquor and so swim down a torrent of filthy pleasure to the Infernal Lake Others sacrifice their estates in the fire and flames of lust at the Altars of base and filthy concupiscence till rottenness enters into their bones and their bodies be fill'd with sores and putrified boils Others suffer themselves as it is in the Fable like Lycaon to be devour'd by their dogs that is to become a miserable prey to their pleasures and inordinate desires unravelling the whole clew of their estates in a pleasing maze or labyrinth of pleasure and voluptuousness until they have left themselves nothing but Poverty for an inheritance and a stock of misery for their possession till they have intail'd penury on their Families and bequeath'd a name of obloquy and ignominy to their Posterity Lastly Poverty is the Daughter of Ease and Idleness it s not enough to be born to great Revenues to make out a good title or give a just claim to what the love and providence of our Ancestors hath bequeath'd unto us unless we make them ours by our industry and diligence in some profession or honest vocation we are to eat our bread in the sweat of our brows that 's the sawce we ought mix with all our dishes God is said to hate an idle person for that as I said before idleness is the root and seeds of all evil It s a good custome of a wicked Nation I mean the Turks and worthy the imitation of Ghristians for every man to the Grand Seignior to make profession of some trade or vocation so that their very Palace or Seruglio is like a Shop or Exchange It was a custome among the Romans for all the Citizens on some certain times to wear the badg of their trade or profession and if any were found without his badge or that could show the Livery of no trade he was severely punish'd by the Censors If the like custome were set a foot among us I wonder what badge or mark our Trepans ranting Hectors Kinghts of the Post with many other of that sort of Vermine together with other Caterpillers who may without a metaphor be term'd the very Pest and Plague of the Commonwealth I wonder I say what badge they would assume as the Livery of their Company and Profession It s reported by Naturalists that no creature can 〈◊〉 upon the ayr and therefore what the credulity of Antiquity hath delivered as a Phylosophical truth concerning the Camelion is now exploded as a vulgar and fabulous error But I am sure many of these live if not on ayr yet by a worse merchandise of Wind then that of the
condition of the Gospel this is not a Law that hath any force or obligation in foro conscientiae in the court of conscience for our right as I said to the things of this world is rather commenc'd than extinguish'd by our adoption and new-birth for whose is the earth and the fulness thereof but the Lords and who then have better right unto it then the Sons of God Or who may more truly be call'd the Lords and Princes of the Creation then they for whom the world was made and yet is not worthy of them though I must confess it is most commonly seen here that servants ride on horseback and the Princes go on foot c. Thirdly This poverty is not any low and base abjectness of spirit no sordidness or despondency of mind to be poor in spirit is not to have little poor narrow and contracted souls to have creeping and degenerate spirits that are alwayes grovelling in the dust that according to the curse of the Serpent creep on their bellies and lick the dust of the earth that are meer muck or dung-hill worms that have their heads and hearts bow'd down to the earth Os homini sublime dedit saith the Poet This therefore is unworthy and below the generosity of a man much more a Christian Religion doth not make men fools sheepish but admirably blends the innocency of the Dove together with the wisdom and prudence of the Serpent Religion is not that that clouds the mind with black melancholick and sad apprehensions if any think thus they seem guilty of the same absurdity with those Heathen that Deified their diseases and erected Altars unto Feavours or admit the like abuse that Mahomets Disciples did when they believ'd their Prophets Convulsions to be Extasies and Divine Raptures this is to intitle our melancholy to Religion and guild ore the distempers and infirmities of Nature with the title of Grace which is something like the humour of the Negroes who paint their gods black and the Devil white whereas Religion is so far from being any morose sower or tettrick thing that what the Philosopher said of virtue may with advantage be affirm'd of Religion viz. that could it assume Corporeity or render it self visible it would appear so lovely so amiable that it would at once both enamour and ravish the Whole world into the admiration of her Features and by the sole attractives of her transcendent Beauty and the powerful Charms of its comely Graces attract and captivate the hearts of all men and command both homage and affection from all that should behold her she would then need no other Eloquence than the silent Oratory of her own beauty to recommend her and invite the whole world unto her imbraces For is good nature a lovely thing there 's nothing more improves and meliorates mens natures than the ingrafting Religion therein there 's nothing more inlarges the spirit and gives it a more just and Noble Elevation then that there 's nothing fills the mind with a more Noble with a more generous scorn and contempt of low base and abject things than that that 's it that raises a mans thoughts from the earth on which they are naturally so apt to grovel and be bowed down unto that 's it that spirits and enobles a Soul that emancipates it from base slavish and pusillanimous fears and fills it with a high and Princely ambition and ambition more Noble and generous then that of Alexanders that so inlarges the heart that not only one earth but the whole world is too little for it is not able to fill or satisfie it this is that refines the affections and causes them to fly a higher pitch than to be decoy'd by any thing here below than to stoop to any thing on this side immortality and life that causes the Soul to soare aloft and mount up as with Eagles wings till it makes its nest in the very bosom of God They therefore disparage Religion and cast a blot and scandal on the Profession of the Gospel who go all the day drooping and holding down their Heads like a bulrush there being none who have so much reason to be cheerful to have a merry heart and a cheerful countenance as Christians There is no reason why any ones face should shine so much as theirs who like Moses have seen God in the Mount 4 We are therefore by this poverty of spirit to understand something beyond anything that hath been yet mentioned And without doubt it s to be taken in a like sense as that place where Christ saith its harder for a Camel or Cable rope as some interpret it for the same word in the Original signifies both to passe thorow the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now we shall be best able to understand what is meant by these Riches that bar our entrance into blessednesse and this Poverty on which it is intail'd by comparing these with other places one Scripture being the best Key to unlock the sence of another Our Saviour saith Matt. 9. 13. That he came not to call the Righteous but sinners to Repentance and in another place the whole need not the Physitian but those that are sick So likewise where he saith He came to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel So likewise that Parable of the Pharisee that made so nigh and familiar approach to the Altar and blessed God he was not as the Publicane that stood aloof afar off and cried Lord be merciful to me a sinner and yet according to the virdict of Truth it self went away more justified than the Pharisee that was so pure and righteous in his own eyes I say this Parable may lend some light to the understanding of it Also when our Saviour took a little Child and setting him in the midst of his Disciples said unlesse ye be as little children ye cannot enter into the Kingdom Heaven he seems to have given a clear Comment on this Text Also when he said Suffer little children to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven he seems to Paraphrase on the same Doctrine From all which put together I think we may safely collect and spell out this or the like sence from the words viz. That poverty of spirit is a being little mean vile and contemptible in our own eyes to become as little children without strength and without courage helplesse and shiftlesse without counsel and without advice having neither wisdom prudence discretion nor understanding in our selves they therefore are the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the poor in spirit that are arrived at this resigned state or condition that have parted with their own strength their own wisdom their own Councils and their own Righteousnesse too and are become sensible of their own baseness their own unworthinesse their own nothingness that see and acknowledge the sinfulnesse of their natures the miserablenesse of their
conditions how that they have no righteousnesse of their own no holiness no purity no Sanctity of their own these I take to be the poor in Spirit here meant Having thus discoursed on the subject of the Proposition we are by the course of our method arrived at the predicate viz. Blessed The word in the Original is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} quasi {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} non sorti non morti subjectus a word in which the whole of felicity is summ'd up a word that reaches the Culâ—en top or fastigium of all happinesse a felicity that is not subject to the stroke of death to the sith of time a felicity which neither time shall wither nor the hour or approach of death be able to blast and so we have finished the proposition and shall now hasten to the ground or reason of it and that is For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Christ said sometime to his Dischples Luke the 10 20. verse Rejoyce not so much that the Devils are made subject to you but rather that your names are written in heaven that your names are written by the blood of Christ and finger of the spirit in the book of Life that your names are enrolled and registred in the Archives of Heaven Now from the words thus anatomized and unbowelled there seem naturally to spring these propositions 1 That Poverty of Spirit is a royal and blessed state or condition or in the concrete that the poor in spirit are blessed 2 That the ground or reason of all true happinesse or blessednesse is founded in an interest in the Kingdom of heaven or that they onely may be truly and without Ironie termed happy or accounted the real proprietors of all felicity whose is the Kingdom of heaven on whom heaven and happinesse is intail'd 1 Poverty of spirit is a blessed state and happy condition I should rather darken than illustrate the meridian brightnesse of this Truth that is wrot as with a sun-beam should I bring a cloud of witnesses for its confirmation it needing no other proof than the Authority of him that spake it having proceeded from the lips of him that is Truth it self that cannot lye But that no truth though of never so great evidence might be without witnesse the whole scope and tenour of the Gospel seems to bear its testimony and give in evidence to the confirmation hereof How frequent is it said in Proverbs besides other places That pride is an abomination to the Lord is not this the language and dialect of the scripture throughout that the Lord will dwel with an humble and contrite heart that trembleth at his Word but that he hateth and resisteth the proud Doth not almost every page and Chapter thorowout the whole Book of God speak in the same Key Doth not God all along turn the edge of his threatnings against high things and high thoughts against proud and towring imaginations that exalt and lift up themselves hath he not denounced enmity against proud and high things hath he not threatened to level and bring down every high Hill till he make it become a plain Is not the quarrel of the Almighty with the great things of the Earth And hath he not on the other side pawned his Word and ingaged his promise to exalt the humble to give grace to the humble to lift up every valley c. Hath he not invited all those that hunger and thrust all those that are weary and heavy leaden promising that he will feed them that he will satisfie them that he will ease them that they shall finde rest unto their souls What are all these expressions but as so many proofs and confirmations of this Proposition it were endlesse to quote and cite places and therefore shall hasten to the Reasons whereof 1. The first is borrowed from a rule among Physitians with whom it is received as a Maxim that primus gradus sumitatis est nosse morbum the first degree of health is to know the disease for as our Proverb hath it a disease that is known is half cured Now this poverty of Spirit is a reflex act of the Soule discovering to men their wants that they may go to Christ to be supplied of his fulnesse to receive of his fulnesse Grace for Grace It discovers to men their own nakednesse that they may go to Christ to be clothed with the white robes of his Righteousnesse till Adams eyes were opened that he saw his nakednesse and his sin He had no shame nor sence of his guilt but so soon as his eyes were opened he began to sow fig leaves together to cover his sin and hide his shame This is the usual Method and progresse of God in the work of conversion first to alarm and awaken the Soul by a clap of Thunder so to rouse him from the Lethergie and sleep of sin to prick them to the quick and make them cry out like the Jaylor in the Acts men and brethren what shall we do to be saved This causes the scales to fall from off their eyes those scales of Ignorance with which their eyes were seal'd and then they see their sin and their shame and begin to loath and abhor themselves to cloath themselves with sackcloth and ashes and sit down in the dust Now when a soul hath thus seen its nakednesse it begins to think of a covering of a mantle or a cloak to hide its sin and begins first to sow together the Fig leaves of its own Righteousnesse of its own performances and so long as it thinks they will serve its turn it looks no further till at length a flash of lightening comes and smutes all their righteousnesse blacks all their beauty scorches their leaves and burns up all their Hay and Stuble and discovers a new light unto them that make they the borders of their own righteousnesse never so broad and let them with the Pharisees inlarge their Phylacteries never so wide yet they shall finde the skirts thereof too narrow too shallow to cover them then they begin to be out of conceit with themselves to fall in disesteem and disreputation with themselves then they begin to let fall those plumes and specious train that before they so much pleased and prided themselves in And indeed men will never desire to put on the Lord jesus till they have thus seen their own poverty that their own righteousnesse is but as dirty and menstruous rags till they are thus come acquainted with their own wants how empty their own exchequer is how low their own treasures run they will never desire to be supplied out of those treasures of Grace God hath laid up in Christ for poor sinners till men look up and discern the sword of vengeance hanging by a small hair over their heads ready to drop upon them they 'l not be sencible of the desperate peril and danger of their naturall state and condition till they see the filthinesse
what shall we then do Shall we marshal up our performances and Duties and set them in order to commend us to God to procure admission acceptance with God Will he be any better pleased therewith then he was with those Cattel Saul reserved for Sacrifice Will he not say as Samuel did What means the bleatings of these Cattel God takes no Bribes no we may not carry so much as a Peter pence in our Mouths as is the absurde practice of some Papists for Heavens Porter for Peter to open the door to us No there are none that take bribes in Heaven there are no Courtiers that expect Fees no Orators that have manus occulatas or bovem in lingua as we say And therefore hence it is that we are invited to buy Wine and Milk and Honey without Money and without price they that would drink of the Waters of Life must not think to purchase them for they are no more to be sold then that gift of the Holy Ghost We know what was replyed to Simon Magus that would needs have bought it that would needs be cheapning and bidding money for it thy money perish with thee This is the highest the rankest the grossest degree of Simony to think of purchasing Salvation for what shall we give the Lord should we give our Bodies to be burned for the sin of our Souls should we give our Bodies a Sacrifice a burnt offering it profits nothing merits nothing and God might cast back the dung thereof into the faces of our Souls The gift is of Gods free grace Did not Christ overturn the Table of the Money-changers and whip the buyers and sellers out of the Temple And shall we presume to introduce them again I have read that the Kingdom of Heaven is to suffer violence is to be taken by force but never that it was to be bought and sold This was the stone of stumbling at which the faith of the Pharisees fell the Rock of offence on which the Religious Jews split themselves and ruined their Salvation they would needs lean to the broken reeds of their own righteousnesse and thereby wounded and pierc'd themselves they thought to have purchas'd Heaven by their Alms by their fasts by their long prayers by the tythe of their Mint and Annis And do not the Papists at this day run into the same Errour dos not their Doctrine of Merits of Pardons of Indulgences c. set up the Tables of the money-changers in the Temple of God Have they not introduced a Mart or Fair into Religion and turn'd the Temple into a Shop or Exchance in which things spiritual are bartered for Temporal and things incorruptible for silver and gold that is corruptible Nonne fecerunt omnia venalia coelum Christum totâ—m denique Religionem Have they not done by Heaven as Hanibal is reported to have sometime done by old Rome viz. exposed it to sale but we know he paid dear for his presumption it cost him the losse of his Camp And I would advise these to have a care that make so bold with Heaven that are so rich in works of supererogation that have merits not onely for themselves but others that are so rich they can purchase Mansions and Crowns of Glory not only for themselves but others That are able to purchase large Patrimonies and whole Provinces in Heaven Nay that can sell Heaven Reversions of Glory to purchase vast Territories here upon earth No to entertain such thoughts as these so high an esteem of our own works our own merits is no lesse than madnesse and folly Or to think that we shall not be welcom to God unlesse we bring our own entertainment with us no they that are invited to the marriage Supper to the kings feast must not bring their entertainment with them They that will be sav'd must suffer losse the hay and the stubble of their own righteousnesse of their own works must be destroy'd consum'd and burnt up We must not build our Faith and expectations of Heaven upon the old rotten crazy tottering foundations of our own performances for this is but sand If we would have our foundation stand sure if we desire the Pillars of our Salvation should stand fast and not be moved But the last Reason and that which leads us to the other part of the verse to the remaining words and which are the Reason laid down in the Text is this for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Their happiness doth not consist in their poverty but in the Right and Title they have to the Kingdom for that they are the heirs apparent to the Crown of Glory for that they are of the blood Royal of Heaven the most high born Seed of God Oh most blessed most happy most fortunate and Royal Poverty on which is intayl'd a Kingdom that hath the reversion of a Crown and Scepter This life is the nonage of a Saint we are here under pupillage and wardship under Guardians and Tutors the first Epistle of John 3. 2. Now are ye the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what ye shall be A Saints portion is not in this life his Kingdom is not of this world his happinesse is in reversion Oh who would not part with all he hath for a Kingdom It s reported that when Cesars ambition courted the Romans monarchy and began to bid for the Empire of the whole Earth that he left himself nothing but hope Oh who would not part with all he hath for a Kingdom so he may but retain not a bare uncertain hope but the sure reversion of a Kingdom What shall Cesar bid more for the bare naked hopes of an earthly Empire than Christians for not the hopes but certainty of a spiritual a Heavenly Kingdom Shall Cesar venture more for a temporal Crown than Christians for an eternal weight of Glory Is he accounted unworthy of terrestrial empire that will not venture his life for it is not he much more unworthy of a Caelestial Throne that will not adventure and part with his all for it It is reported of a fortunate King that he accounted it his sole misfortune that he never had misfortune and therefore being minded industriously to seek and court that which other men endeavour most to shun and avoid he cast a Ring of great value into the Sea and after a while found it in the belly of a fiâ—h served up to his table I am sure it is the greatest the sadest misfortune of the greater part of the World that they have not this misfortune to fall into this poverty of spirit And they that have it may justly take up the words of him that said periissem nisi periissem I had been eternally unfortunate and miserable had it not been for this misfortune I know this hath been an age too skilful and ingenious in supplanting one another in raysing themselves by the falls of others in building their fortunes on the ruins of other mens But this is
much hunger and cold with the losse of how many nights rest and sleep do men hunt after learning and purchase to themselves a few flight notions of things How will men rack and serue their thoughts torture and distresse their apprehentions with a problem or theorem in Phylosophy How will many macerate and consume their bodies spend and wast the taper of their lives in watchings abstinencies and a thousand other austerities to gain a superficial inspection into the secrets of Nature into the nature of things How will many rob and defraud nature of its due and pine away their bodies to satiate their thirst after knowledge to feed and gratifie the inquisitive searching humor of their mindes How hath the eagernesse of some mens thirst after learning drunk up their strength and the very marrow of their souls How hath the fiery spirit and activity of their mindes fretted consum'd and eaten up the flesh of their bodies reduc'd them to Anotomies and living Skellitons looking more like spectres Ghosts or walking shaddows than men Some mens souls being like a sword too sharp and keen for the scabbard of their bodies in which they are sheath'd Or like Mercury or Quicksilver so penetrating and acture that nothing can contain them And all this upon the sole account of knowledge to which their affections are kindled with such ardent desires and have conceiv'd such sprightly flames as commonly soon reduces their bodies to ashes and rendes them the victims of their desires causing them to expire like the Phenix in their own flames It s reported of as I take it Cleanthes a poor Phylosopher that he pawned his nights rest to purchase his dayes studies that he drew water by night to earn a small pension to maintain himself in the muses service by day to maintain himself in the study of Phylosophy And of another it is reported that having quitted and forsaken his house and possessions to take a pilgrimage for the better improvement of his stock of knowledge and finding at his return all things thorow the injury of time gone to decay and his house almost buried under its own ruins brake forth into these expressions sihaec non paeriissent ego paeriissem had not these perish'd I had perish'd had I not made Ship-wrack of my estate I had shipwrack'd and lost my self Now shall the sons of humane wisdom the candidates of a little naturall knowledge that but puffeth up and profiteth not except sanctifi'd by grace which will be but as a torch to light men to Hell I say shall men for the love of what the Apostle calleth vain Phylosophy be content to welcome poverty and entertaine penury without any assurance of better estate in revertion or future happinesse to compensate and reward their former miseries And shall we grudge to do that for the wisdom wch is from above for a Crown of Glory which they do for the shaddow of wisdom for a wreath of withering and fading palms to obtain a name among the learned Shall not we do that to be made partakers of those Eternal fountains of wisdom and knowledge that the Heathen did for the adorning their understandings with a little dark fading counterfeit knowledge To conclude the lower the foundation is laid the higher the superstructure may be raised We have received on the credit of naturalists and those that are best read in the observations of nature that your tallest trees shoot their roots deepest into the Earth and commonly as far downwards towards the Center as their tops reach upwards towards Heaven As if nature would teach us that the foundation of the best and surest fortune is laid low is laid in the dust and the Scripture teaches us that poverty is the way to a Crown beggery to a Kingdom So that we see here the harmony and consent that 's between the Book of God and that of nature between the Scriptures and the greater volumn of the World And both of them giving in their evidence to this Truth bearing testimony to this Doctrine commending and reading lectures to us of this poverty of Spirit Shall we now be so childish as not part with our counters for gold With the menstruous rags of our own righteousnesse for the glorious princely robes of Christs Shall we prefer our coats of fig leaves before the righteousnesse of God And that this way and method of salvation may not seem strange to us Christ the Lord and Captain of our Salvation hath trod it before us For was not he humbled before he was exalted Was not he poor not having where to lay his head before he receiv'd the Kingdom of his Father Was not he crownd with thorns before he was crownd with Glory Finally was not he crucifi'd before he was Glorified Shall we now refuse to drink of the same cup that he hath drunk before us Do we who are but the children of Adoption expect a Kingdom a Crown a Scepter a Throne of Glory on easier terms than the Heire the son by nature and the first begotten than Chrrist our Elder brother receiv'd them on should we not rather rejoyce and glory in our poverty for that we are poor in Spirit because to such is given the Kingdom of Heaven FINIS Books Printed and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at the black-spread Eagle at the VVestend of Pauls THe Scripture Directory for Church Offices and People Or a Practical Commentary upon the whole Third Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians To which is annexed The Godly and the Natural Mans Choyce upon Psal. 4. ver. 6 7 8. By Anthony Burgesse Pastor of the Church of Sutton Coldfield in Warwick-shire {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Temple of Solomon Pourtrayed by Scripture Light wherein all its famous Buildings the Pompous Worship of the Jews with its Attending Rites and Ceremonies the several Officers imploied in that Work with their Ample Revenues And the Spiritual Mysteries of the Gospel vailed under all are treated of at large by Samuel Lee The History of Diodorus Siculus containing all that which is most memorable and of greatest Antiquity in the first Ages of the World until the War of Troy in Folio Renodaeus his Dispensatory containing the whole body of Physick discovering the Natures and Properties and Vertues of Vegetals Minerals and Animals in folio Gadburies Doctrine of Nativities Doctor Pordages Innocency appearing through the Dark Mists of pretended guilt in folio Cornelius Agrippa his Occult Philosophy in 3 Books in quarto Henry Laurence Lord President his Book Entituled Our Communion and War with Angels in quarto Christopher Goad his Sermons Entituled Refreshing Drops and Scorching Vials in quarto Samuel Gorton his Exposition on the fifth chapter of Iames in quarto Samuel Hartlib of Bees and Silk-worms in quarto Williams his Book called the Bloody Tenet of Persecution for cause of conscience in quarto Doctor Gells Sermon Entituled Noahs Flood returning in quarto Several Pieces of