that he of all Creatures should shew Mercy As it will Secondly if we consider what he expects Man has not yet received so much mercy but that he expects more The Mercy that he has receiv'd is by the Redemption of Christ to be put into a Capacity of Salvation but the Mercy that he expects is to be actually saved The Court of Mercy is the only Court where Man dares appear or can abide a Trial. Briefly Man expects Mercy both from God and from Man in this Life and in the next in Death and after Death and therefore there is great reason to conclude that he of all Creatures should be merciful and that Cruelty was as little made for Man as Pride Nor is this Affection less Useful than Reasonable The condition of Man in this World is such as makes it as necessary for him to be pitiful as to be a sociable Creature Man cannot subsist without the Guardianship and Protection of Society nor is Society any Security without this Affection For what signifies Strength and Ability and Society as such infers no more without Inclination to assist The Wise Man tells us that Wisdom is better than Strength and 't is very true but neither of them nor both of them signifie any thing without a tender and compassionate Temper Then only may we expect Happiness and Defence from Society when there is the same Sympathy in the Politick as there is in the Natural Body when there is a mutual Correspondency and Communication of Parts like the Sympathetick Answer of one Lute to another When the Heaven hears the Earth in the Prophets Phrase or as the Apostle more fully expresses it when If one member suffer all the members suffer with it or if one member be honour'd all the members rejoyce with it This would make a Millennium indeed nor is any thing further wanting but only that Men would agree together to make the Experiment And now if this Divine Affection for so we may now venture to call it be not yet sufficiently recommended from its Nobleness and Excellency and from its great Reasonableness and Usefulness let us further add the particular Blessedness here assigned to it Blessed are the merciful says our Saviour for they shall obtain mercy This they shall obtain from Men and from God here and hereafter First They shall obtain Mercy from Men here Not that this is to pass for an Absolute Rule without any Exception since as long as Men are but Men Mercy is capable of being abused and ill-requited as well as any other Vertue otherwise our Saviour would have been more kindly treated than he was by the Jews But the meaning is that nothing does more naturally recommend a Man to the good Will and Compassion of others than a Merciful and Benign Temper and that generally speaking if Men be but tolerably well disposed and have any Sense of Justice and Gratitude the merciful Man will actually find Mercy amon them However if not he has the greater stock of Mercy to come For Secondly The Merciful shall obtain Mercy from God hereafter And this does not depend upon so many Casualties and such uncertain Suppositions as the other Here 't is only required that Mercy and Truth meet together and that the Man be sincere and upright in all other moral respects And so much indeed is necessary For 't is not to be thought that Mercy alone any more than any other Solitary Vertue can qualifie a Man for mercy No the Man must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect and Intire and wanting nothing as to all the Integral Parts of Duty to be accepted in the Judgment of God Only there may I think be allow'd this further Sense in the Proposition that no one Vertue shall go so far towards the obtaining of full Mercy from God as this of mercifulness And that if the merciful Man for want of other necessary parts of Christian Perfection should not be able to stand in the last Judgment yet however his Fall shall be much the milder and he shall have great Abatements of Punishment made him for the sake of this one Excellency To which purpose 't is very considerable that our Saviour in the Description of the last Judgment makes all the Favour and all the Severity of that day to proceed according to the Practice or Omission of this Duty One way or other therefore the merciful shall be sure to obtain Mercy nor will God forget this Labour of Love Pray God we may not forget it our selves but may so love study and practise mercy here that we may hereafter not only receive a milder Sentence but find such a Degree of mercy as may finally rejoyce against Judgment Amen Discourse the Sixth Matth. V. ver viii Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God ONE of the most distinguishing Perfections of the Christian Institution above any other either Divine or Human is that it requires an inward Rectitude of Mind and Spirit and makes the Heart the Principle and Seat of Spiritual as it is of Natural Life The Heathen Morality went little further than the regulation of the outward Behaviour not much regarding the Sanctity of the Interiour And tho some few raised Spirits among them moved by a Diviner Impulse would now and then like men in Extasies talk above the World and themselves too recommending certain Purgations and Purifications of Soul as the Pythagoreans and Platonists yet this was not taught or known in the common Schools of Nature nor was it any where made the Ordinary Standard of Morality The Jewish Religion as it presented to the World a second and more correct Edition of the Law of Nature so was it in this particular respect more perfect than the Gentile Morality there being in the Moral Law one special Precept which directly concerns Purity of Heart But yet there was a great defect even here too because tho there was a Prohibition of inward Concupiscence yet it had no penal Sanction annex'd to it Every other Precept was so guarded as to be able to revenge it self upon those who transgressed it Idolatry was punish'd Perjury was punish'd Profanation of the Sabbath Disobedience to Parents Murther Adultery Theft and bearing false Witness were all punish'd only Concupiscence had no Punishment allotted to it Which as a Learned Person Conjectures gave some occasion to think that they might securely indulge their Concupiscence so it did not break forth into the outward and grosser act Certain it is that many among the Jews so thought and practis'd contenting themselves with external Conformity to the Law without any regard to the inward Purity and Holiness as may appear from our Saviours frequent reprehensions of the Pharisees upon this very account And 't is very probable that this their Fancy was occasion'd by there being no Punishment assign'd to the Breach of the Tenth Commandment as that Learned Person conjectures However
be the Object of my Love But when 't is said I am proud of my Vertue here 't is as plain that Vertue is taken Formally for my Habit of willing it whereby I am denominated vertuous For I cannot be supposed to be proud of Vertue in its abstract Idea but only of the Love I have towards it To be short Moral Vertue may be taken either for the things which are fit to be done or for the Habitual Will of doing them The former is the righteousness of the Law prescribing what ought to be done the latter is the righteousness of the Man willing to do what is so prescribed These are the general kinds of Righteousness Now to the Question What kind of Righteousness that is which if we hunger and thirst after we shall be fill'd I answer First That the Righteousness here intended cannot be Judicial Righteousness since the mere desire of Pardon or Justification is not of it self sufficient to procure it or to avert the Sentence of Condemnation It must therefore be Moral righteousness If you ask in what Sense Whether as materially or as formally taken I think either Sense may be admitted But then there will be difference in the Proposition according to the Sense presumed For if Righteousness be here taken materially then the hungring and thirsting after it will be a Simple and Direct Act of the Will but if Formally for that Righteousness whereby a Man is formally good and vertuous then the hungring and thirsting after it will be a Reflex Act of the Will that is a Desire not of material Righteousness but of the Love of material Righteousness which is a Man's formal Righteousness And this Sense of Righteousness I take to be most agreeable to the exigence of this place because the desiring material Righteousness by a direct Act of the Will actually makes a Man formally Righteous and so prevents and anticipates that Repletion which our Lord promises as a future Reward and Blessing Whereas the desiring formal Righteousness or the Love of material Righteousness by a Reflex Act supposes the Man not yet actually Righteous as he is also supposed in the Beatitude and so leaves him capable of having the Promise made good to him that he shall be filled Now as to the Degrees of Christian Righteousness the Masters of Spiritual Life usually assign Three By Degrees I suppose meaning not all those Advances in Righteousness whereby a Man may exceed either another or Himself for then they might as well have reckon'd 3000 there being an infinite Latitude in Goodness but only such Advances as imply different Periods and distinct States of the Divine Life These they assign to be Three grounding this their Division upon the Authority of St. John who they say represents Christians as under a threefold State by bespeaking them under the several Titles of Little Children Young Men and Fathers By little Children meaning young or new Converts who must be fed with the Milk of the Word with the plain Doctrins and Principles of Christianity By young Men those who are grown up to some strength in Holiness and have made some Progress in the Mortification of the Inferiour Life By Fathers those who are arrived to a perfect habit of Goodness and as far as Human Nature will admit are fully regenerated into the Divine Life But I think this Computation must be retrench'd For with all the Invention which I have I can find but three States or Degrees for the whole Moral Condition of Mankind For all the Men in the World and every particular Man in several Periods of his Life may be reduced to one of these three Orders Either he is one of those who do not apprehend Sin as an Evil who either through want of understanding and reflection have not attain'd to any sense of its Malignity or through Debauchery and habitual Viciousness have lost it and so will and choose Sin purely and intirely with Unity of Consent and without any mixture of reluctancy which is the most exalted pitch of Wickedness that a Creature is capable of Or else one of those who indeed do look upon Sin as Evil and as such nill and are averse to it but not looking upon it always as the greatest Evil do oftentimes nill it only imperfectly and absolutely speaking do will and choose it to avoid as they then think some greater Evil. Or else lastly one of those who looking upon Sin not only under the Notion of Evil but as the greatest of all Evils nill and refuse it not only in some certain respect but absolutely and throroughly so as not by any means to be persuaded to commit it These Three Degrees will comprize the whole Moral State of Mankind And accordingly I observe that St. Paul makes mention of a three-fold Law The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of sin which is in the Members The Second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of the Mind or Conscience The Third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of the Spirit of Life These three Laws answer exactly to the three Moral States of Human Nature Under the first Law the Law of Sin are those who will and embrace Sin purely and entirely Under the Second Law the Law of the Mind are those who nill and stand averse to Sin in some certain respect as Evil but yet will and chuse it absolutely and effectually Under the third Law the Law of the Spirit of Life are those who absolutely and thoroughly nill the Commission of Sin The first of these States is a State of meer Sin and Death and those of this Order are they who are said to be Dead in Trespasses and Sins The Second is a State of Imperfect Life The Third is a State of Health and Vigour The first is a State of Rest and Acquiescence in Sin The Second is a state of Contention The third is a state of Victory In the first state the mind is laid fast in a deep sleep In the second she is between sleeping and waking In the third she is broad awake and well come to her self He that is in the first state is born only of the Flesh and has no higher Principle in him He is that Animal Man that perceives not the things of God He that is in the second has indeed some quickning Motions some ineffective Stirrings and Endeavours of the Divine Life But he that is in the third is born of the Spirit and of God and doth not commit Sin because his Seed remains in him From this Distribution of the Moral State of Man 't is evident that there can be but two distinct Degrees of Righteousness or states of the Divine Life For the first of the three as was before remark'd is a state of meer Death and Sin Righteousness and Life belong only to the two latter but with this great difference that the first of these two Degrees tho it has something of
first to engage Men's Affections to our Persons that we may the better win them over to the Acceptance and Entertainment of our Doctrins This indeed ought to be the Care and Endeavour of all Preachers but there was this more particular reason for it in our Lord because the Love of his Person was not only an Indearment of Obedience but also a very considerable part and instance of it He therefore instead of using an Imperative Style by downright commanding such and such things chose rather in a more gentle and condescending way to insinuate what was his Will and our Duty by pronouncing them Blessed that do so and so Secondly I consider that our Lord Christ being to act the Counter-part to Moses and to relax the rigour of his Law by being the Author of a milder Dispensation thought fit to give an early and a solemn Specimen of his greater Mildness by varying the Style of his Legislation from that used by Moses And therefore whereas Moses deliver'd his Law after an Imperatorial way by saying Thou shalt not do this and Thou shalt not do that Our Good Lord chose rather to express his Law more tenderly and Humanly by declaring the Blessedness of those that should observe it And the rather because Moses had arm'd and immured his Law with Curses and Maledictions First in General Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Secondly more particularly by annexing a Curse to particular Transgressions as in that famous Commination in the 27 of Deuteronomy to every Clause of which the People were to say Amen And therefore to shew of what a different Spirit the Christian Institution was from that of Moses our Lord chose to administer his Law in a form of Blessing in Opposition to Moses his Cursings thereby verifying those farewel words of St. Peter's Sermon to the Jews in a larger sense than he intended them God having raised up his Son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his Inquities Thirdly I consider that our Saviour was to deliver a Law of Love a Law that required Love both as the Matter and as the Principle of Obedience Love was both the thing to be done and the Motive of doing it The Son of God was to be the great Prophet of Love T was reserved for him as being the Express Image of him who is Love it self and therefore the only Master fit to teach it This was the Fire which he came to kindle upon Earth the most ardent and affectionate Love towards God and towards Men. This was to be the Substance and Accomplishment of his Law and the distinguishing Badge of those that profess'd Devotion to it By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples c. But now 't would not have been agreeable for a Law of Love to begin its recommendation from such Arguments as should work upon the more Servile part of Man Moses indeed deliver'd his Law with all the Circumstances and Arguments of Fear and the Nature of his Law required such an Address but 't was fit that a Law of Love should come recommended to the World by Motives of Love Fourthly and Lastly It may be further consisted that this solemn Instruction of our Lord upon the Mount consisted of Precepts So very sublime and elevated and withal so strange and unusual as having had not Credit if Reception in the World before that 't was but necessary for the Prevention of Prejudice to set a Beatitude in the Front of every Duty and to bribe the Passions of the Hearers with a forward Anticipation of Happiness lest Men should say of the Commands of Christ as the Prophet brings them in saying of his Person that there is no Form nor Comeliness nor Beauty in them that we should desire them For these and other like Reasons that may be added our Divine and gracious Lawgiver was pleased to deliver his Laws rather by asserting the Blessedness than the Obligation of them Which while I consider I cannot but enter into a profound Admiration of the strange Goodness and Condescension of our Lord that he should so far lay aside the Majesty of a God and a Lawgiver that he might the better act the part of a Friend and of a Redeemer And to seâ— this Consideration the more home upon our Minds let us by the aids of Fancy draw the Curtains of this Intellectual Scene and imagin to our selves that we saw our Saviour seated upon the Mount of Blessing with his Eyes devoutly sets towards Heaven and his Hands affectionately stretch'd forth over the adoring and attentive Multitude and with Looks full of concern for the good of Souls gravely and pathetically distilling down upon them the Dew of his Heavenly Doctrin and tempering his Authority with the Style of Goodness and Kindness as well as his Divinity with the veil of Flesh. Who can with sufficient Wonder contemplate so pleasing a Scene of Love and Sweetness And who that well contemplates it can find in his heart to transgress a Law delivered with so much Condescension or offend a Lawgiver so infinitely so amazingly good Now concerning the Number of the Beatitudes why our Lord should assign Eight and no more t is not easie to offer what shall satisfie all Minds Were I minded to amuse my Reader I could tell him that in the Mystic Philosophy 8 is the Number of Justice and Fulness because it is first of all divided into Numbers equally even namely into 2 Fours which Division again is by the same reason made into 2 times 2 that is 2 times 2 twice reckon'd And by reason of this Equality of Divisions it received the Name of Justice But I do not believe our Saviour intended any Rosie-Crucian Mystery in this matter tho a certain Gentleman of that Order would fain insinuate that he did reckoning this among other Observations upon the Number 8 that there are 8 kinds of Blessed Men in the lesser World The Poor in Spirit the Mourners the Meek they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness c. But I think all that can here be warrantably and safely said is that our Saviour intending as he signify'd by his Ascent into the Mount a Discourse of Perfection and Excellence consisting of such Divine Vertues as were most perfective of Human Nature and for the Practice of which he himself was most exemplary was by his Design concern'd to instance only in the most select and excellent Duties both to God and Man Whereupon premising Humility as being a Duty common to both and withal the Foundation of all the rest he found remaining three extraordinary Duties relating to Man Meekness Mercifulness and Peaceableness and four to God Mourning for Sin Hungring and thirsting after Righteousness Purity of Heart and Suffering of Persecution for Conscience Sake So that our Saviour seems rather to have been directed by a
that the righteous has is better than great riches of the ungodly This I take to be the Sense and Meaning of this Beatitude As to the Truth and Reality of it there is this Double Security for it the natural tendency of the Vertue of Meekness and the Blessing of God upon it As to its natural tendency Meekness is a very decent amiable and winning thing and accordingly the Apostle calls it the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit And by this in all probability the Meek Man will sweeten and endear even his very Enemies to him and so gain himself Peace without by his quiet and inoffensive Behaviour But however this be yet yet he is sure to have Peace within with himself and with God And having this he is in a very fit condition of Mind to enjoy himself and to take comfort in what he possesses Which he will be farther enabled to do Secondly by the Blessing of God And this again the Psalmist takes notice of some few Verses after the forecited ones Such as are blessed of the Lord shall possess the Land says he implying that as the Meek whom he just before spoke of should possess the Earth so 't is through a special Blessing of God that they should do so And these are two great Securities for a Life of Comfort and Self enjoyment the Peace of a sedate Spirit within and the Blessing of God without And both these the meek Man has whom therefore we may venture to pronounce Blessed and therefore Blessed because he shall thus inherit the Earth Which yet shall be but a Type and Pledge of his Future Inheritance with the Saints in Light Discourse the Fourth Matth. V. ver vi Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be fill'd THO God has provided Entertainment for all the Appetites which he has made yet there are but two Appetites of Man which he intends to gratifie to the Height and to bless with a full and lasting satisfaction And those are the desire of being Happy and the desire of being Good There are some Appetites of Man which are never satisfied for says the Wise Man The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear fill'd with hearing Seeing and Hearing are the most refined of all the Senses and those Appetites which are most Spiritual and refined and come nearest to the Elevations of the Intellectual Nature are always hardest to be satisfied And the Intellectual Nature it self when 't is more raised and elevated as in the state of Separation will have a more inlarg'd Appetite and a sharper edge of Desire and so will be harder to be satisfied than 't is now Which by the way I take to be the Reason why those Sensual Spirits which now feel no great uneasiness from the Absence of the Supreme Good will notwithstanding hereafter be extremely miserable in being exiled from his Beatific Presence As for the Grosser Appetites of the Animal Nature such as Hunger Thirst and the like these indeed have this advantage above the Finer that they may be satisfied for some time and such is the bruitishness of Man are too often overcharg'd But then they will return again in certain Periods like the Tide and be as importunate as ever for new Supplies and as our Saviour told the Woman of Samaria Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again The Appetite may be laid asleep for a while but it will infallibly awake again into its former eagerness But 't is not the unhappiness of Man to have all his Appetites like these such as will either never or not finally be satisfy'd There are two that are design'd for a full and lasting Satisfaction The Desire of being Happy and the Desire of being Good and Vertuous But still with this material difference between them That the Desire of Happiness is not absolutely secure of Satisfaction but only upon condition The Satisfaction of this Desire is suspended upon the Quality of our Moral Conduct But now the Desire of Goodness and Vertue has by the Grace and Indulgence of God an absolute Title to Satisfaction and is sure to be throughly gratified For says our Saviour Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be fill'd Shall be fill'd without any further Condition or Reserve That we may the better comprehend the Sense and Truth of this Beatitude it will be necessary I. To inquire what Righteousness that is which if we hunger and thirst after we shall be fill'd II. What kind of Hunger and Thirst that is to which this Promise of Repletion is made III. To make good the Proposition it self that those who do hunger and thirst after Righteousness shall be fill'd To satisfie the first Inquiry I shall not critically weigh all the acceptations of the Word Righteousness in Scripture thinking it sufficient to the business in hand to consider the general Kinds and Degrees of Righteousness This therefore may be consider'd either in a Judicial or in a Moral Sense Righteousness in a Judicial Sense imports as much as a Legal Discharge whereby the Person impleaded becomes Right in the Court or Righteous Which Legal Discharge may be again two ways either by remitting a Criminal or by acquitting suspected or accused Innocence These are the two ways of a Legal Discharge and then is a Person Judicially Righteous when he is discharg'd either of these two ways either by the remission of his Guilt or by the Declaration of his Innocence The Latter of these is properly Justification tho the former be that Justification whereby Christians must expect to stand in the Judgment of God since in the other Sense no Man Living shall be Justify'd For we are not Justify'd as Innocent Persons but as Sinners and accordingly are not Acquitted but Pardon'd Righteousness in a Moral Sense may be supposed to import all those Divine and Moral Vertues which are required by the Christian Law consisting of the whole Duty of Man to God Himself and his Neighbour This latter kind of Righteousness may again be consider'd either Materially and Abstractedly for the bare Vertues themselves as they are certain supposed Actions which naturally tend to the good and perfection both of Human Nature and of Human Society Or else Formally and Concretely for such and such Vertues as subjected in Man or for the Habitual Will of doing such supposed Actions which is formal Vertue and whereby the Man is denominated Vertuous or Righteous This is not one of those Distinctions which are without any Difference For the Difference is very clear and great As for instance when 't is said I love or practise vertue and I am proud of my vertue 't is plain that the word Vertue does not bear the same Notion in both Propositions For when 't is said I love and practise vertue there 't is plain that Vertue is taken Materially for the Abstract Idea of Vertue which is supposed to
Desire then tho the Man be not a compleat Adulterer yet he may be truly said in the Style of the Psalmist to be a Partaker with the Adulterer to have enter'd within some degrees of Unchastity and to have transgressed against that Christian Purity which forbids all Consent not only to the compleat Acts but also to the first Motions of Sin Secondly The necessity of this Purity of Heart in order to true Holiness will appear by considering the Nature of God who is both a Spirit and a Discerner of Spirits and ought therefore for a double Reason to be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth Our Saviour thought the former sufficient but the latter adds a further degree of strength to it God as a Spirit cannot be worthily served by any thing less than the Sacrifice of the Spirit which perhaps was one of the Reasons why our Saviour when he was to become a Sacrifice to his Father took upon him not only Human Flesh as some of the Ancient Hereticks would have believ'd but also an Human Soul And as a Discerner of Spirits he cannot be put off with a Bodily inst ead of a Spiritual Service or accept of a polluted and unsanctified Spirit The Psalmist had a due sense of this when he said Thou requirest truth in the inward parts and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly And when he pray'd Make me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Thirdly This Purity of Heart may be further concluded necessary to true Holiness from the Nature of Man himself in whom as the Soul is in all respects the Principal so in all Moral respects is it the only part concern'd This Inner Man is that Man who is the Immediate and proper Subject of all Good and Evil Vertue and Vice and accordingly this is the part to which our Sanctification and Regeneration is always ascribed and from which the Man receives his whole Moral Distinction And therefore says the Apostle To be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace Where you see 't is the inward Disposition of the Mind that makes all the difference If this be Pure and Holy the whole Man is so but if this stand not right to God and Goodness 't is not all the external Conformity in the World that can supply the Defect 'T was the Conceit of the Antient Jews as we are told by Mr. Selden that every Proselyte of Justice at the very instant when he became so had a new Soul infused into him to which Opinion our Saviour is supposed to allude in his Discourse with Nicodemus Now tho Christianity does not acknowledge a New that is another Soul in its Converts yet it requires that the same Soul become new it requires a new Frame and Temper of Spirit The Christian Man is to be Born again and to become a New Creature a Creature of another Rank and Order And 't is the Mind and Spirit upon which this great Transaction is to pass and which is to be the immediate Subject of this extraordinary Change And accordingly our Regeneration is expressed in Scripture by our being renew'd in the Spirit of our minds We must be renew'd and where Not in our Body or outward Man but in our Minds And in what part of the Mind Not in the Inferior part whether Sensitive or Plastic that which is exercis'd about Objects of Sense or that which moves and forms the Body but in the highest and noblest part in the Spirit of our Minds which answers to the Platonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Flower and Essence of the Soul Here 't is we are to be renew'd as indeed we must if we be renew'd at all this being in all regards the Principal and the only moral part of Man To this purpose it may be further consider'd that this Intellectual Heart the Spirit and Soul of Man is the Fountain and Source of all Action This is that which sees in the eyes and hears in the ears This is that which understands and wills loves and hates Here are all the Springs and Powers of Life and Motion here is the last resort of all outward Impressions and from this Central Point are derived all the Lines of Action and Motion even as all the Arteries and Veins are from the Natural Heart which it diffuses and disperses throughout the Body and has its Pulses in every part If therefore this general Head-Spring be not kept pure and clean how can the Streams run clear And upon this was grounded that signal Advice of the Wise Man Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life Parallel to which I find a passage in the Meditations of the Royal Philosopher Marcus Antoninus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look within for within is the fountain of good Further yet this Intellectual Heart is not only the Fountain of Action and Motion but the most active and most rapidly moving thing in the World This Heart is always Beating the Pulses of it never rest Thought rises upon Thought and Desire succeeds Desire The Motion is perpetual constant and vehement so vehement that the swiftest Bodily Motion no not that of the Starry Orb is comparable to it so vehement that it cannot be discern'd or number'd and comes nearer to a Rest than a Motion as the swiftest turnings round of a Globe look like standing still Now what a dangerous thing is such a Motion as this if not rightly determin'd Of what vast heights in goodness is it capablel And to what vast heights of wickedness may it rise if not well-govern'd There is therefore great necessity that this Heart of Man should be kept with all Diligence and that it should be kept pure and undefiled Fourthly and Lastly The Necessity of Purity of Heart in order to Holiness will appear as from the Christian Law the Nature of God and the Nature of Man so also from the intimate Vnion that is between the Divine and Human Nature All things are full of God who is therefore call'd in the Sacred Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Place But there is nothing so intimately united to him as the Spiritual part of the Creation God is the Immediate Place of Spirits and Souls who all live move and have their being in him and are joyn'd to him by a Central Touch as the great Plotinus speaks The Apostle says that even our Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost our Souls then must be at least his Sanctuary and most Sacred Recess But what was not God just now supposed the Place of Spirits and are Spirits now made the Place of God Yes and without any Absurdity For so St. John describes our Union with God by our dwelling in God and by God's dwelling in us The Union is Double on God's part and on Ours God dwells in us by his special Presence by the Spirit of
natural Measure and to take things as he found them than to proceed by any Arbitrary Measure of his own And this I think is the only ground of his assigning eight Beatitudes and not that he had any Fondness to the Number it self Then lastly as to the Order of the Beatitudes Dr. Hammond in his Practical Catechism remarks two ching First That the Grace first named is a general Principal Grace and the Foundation of all the rest as he there shews in particular Secondly That there is an interchangeable Mixture of these Graces one towards God and another towards Man so interweav'd that the first respects God the next Man the next God again till you come to the last which respects God again To Verify which Remarque he begins his Computation not from Humility which is a general Fundamental Grace but from Mourning which is the first particular one and respecting God So that the First and the Last both respect God who is the true Alpha and Omega the First and the Last and those between divide between our Neighbour and God To teach us that to God belongs the Chief the First and the Last of our Love and that our Neighbour is to be regarded after and in subordination to God To this I further add that there is also a gradual and descending connexion between all the Beatitudes the latter still depending upon the former as well as all the rest upon the first For from Humility 't is an easie descent to Mourning When a Man takes a just Survey of his own Nothingness and Unworthiness by contemplating himself as a Creature and a Sinner 't will be so natural for him to mourn and be sorrowful that the danger is of being overwhelm'd with too much Sorrow Then from Mourning t is easie to advance to Meekness it being one of the chief Properties of Sorrow to soften and melt down the Spirit which when meekly disposed will also be in a fair disposition to Hungring and Thirsting after Righteousness The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God says the Apostle that is is no way a Friend to the promoting of Righteousness whence on the contrary we may gather that Meekness is a Friend to Righteousness As it must needs be since a calm and sedate Soul is most fit for attending to the Beauty of Holiness and for admitting the Spirit of Holiness which as the Jews say will not rest upon a turbulent Mind And when once the Soul is wrought up to a quick and lively relish of what is Good and Righteous 't is then an easie step to Mercifulness it being a very just and Righteous thing to shew Mercy Which also leads a Man to Purity of Heart as that without which even Mercy it self will not find Mercy From whence the very next step is to Peaceableness to which nothing more conduces than a Pure Heart free from those Lusts and Sensual Affections which are the Seeds of Strife and Contention And when a Man has attain'd to a peaceable temper then is he fit for the greatest thing in the World to be a Martyr and will readily suffer Persecution rather than occasion any Disturbance either in the Church or State and with the generous Prophet be content to be thrown overboard to appease the Tempest So admirably well contrived and full of Order was our Saviour's Discourse as it became him who was the Wisdom of God as well as the Light of Men and in whom were hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge All now that further remains is that by a strict Conformity to these Excellent Measures of Christian Perfection we endeavour to bring our selves within the Number of these Blessed Persons whom our Saviour pronounces Happy here and to whom he will say in a more Emphatical Accent Come ye Blessed hereafter THE END Cursory Reflections UPON A BOOK CALL'D AN ESSAY CONCERNING Human Vnderstanding Written by JOHN NORRIS M.A. Rector of Newton St. Loe in Somersetshire and Late Fellow of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford In a Letter to a Friend LONDON Printed for S. Manship at the Black Bull over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1690. Cursory Reflections upon a Book call'd An Essay concerning Human Understanding SIR YOU obliged me so highly by acquainting me with the Publication of so rare a Curiosity as Mr. Lock 's Book that should I dispute your Commands when you desire my Opinion of it I should hazard the Credit of my Gratitude as much as by my ill discharging them I am like to do that of my Judgment This Sir already reduces me to an even Poise But to this the just Authority you have over me and the Right your other Obligations give you to all the Service I can do being added and thrown into the Scale do quite weigh it down and leave no room for any Deliberation whether I should obey you or no. Without therefore any further Demur or Delay I shall apply my self to the Task you set me in giving you my Free Censure of Mr. Lock 's Essay which I shall do by reflecting upon what I think most liable to Exception in the same Order as the things lie before me Introduct Pag. 1. Sect. 1. The Vnderstanding like the Eye whilest it makes us see and perceive all other things takes no notice of it self What the Ingenious Author intends in this Period or how to make out any consistent Sense of it I do not understand For if his meaning be That the Understanding while it is intent upon other things cannot at that time take notice of it self this comes to no more than that when 't is intent upon one thing it cannot attend to another which is too easily and obviously true of all Finite Powers to be any great Discovery But if his meaning be as it rather seems because of the Particle All and the Comparison here used that the Understanding like the Eye tho it maks us see all other things yet it takes no notice of it self then 't is a Contradiction to his whole following Work which upon this Supposition must needs be very unaccountably undertaken Introduct Pag. 2. Sect. 3. First I shall enquire into the Original of those Ideas which a Man observes c. But sure by all the Laws of Method in the World he ought first to have Defined what he meant by Ideas and to have acquainted us with their Nature before he proceeded to account for their Origination For how can any Proposition be form'd with any certainty concerning an Idea that it is or is not Innate that it does or does not come in at the Senses before the meaning of the Word Idea be stated and the nature of the thing at least in general be understood If the Nature of Ideas were but once made known our Disputes would quickly be at an end concerning their Original whether from the Senses or not But till that be done all further Discourse about them is but to talk in the Dark This