't is certain that it was a great Defect in the Law not to bind so perfect a Precept with a Penal Sanction Tho indeed the true reason was because 't was too perfect to be severely exacted in that Infant Age and state of the Church The Law therefore did not rigidly exact it tho it did plainly command it Which tho no defect with relation to that Time and State the Law being as perfect as the Gospel as to all the ends and purposes intended by it and every way accommodated to the Condition of those on whom it was imposed yet absolutely speaking it was a great Defect and Imperfection of the Law Then as to the Mahumetan Religion which indeed is only Heathenism pretending to Revelation this tho the last and assuming to it self the improvement of all that went before is yet really short even of Heathenism it self This is so far from requiring internal Purity that it does not require so much as external but allows and recommends too the grossest Impurities which has often made me wonder why the Turk should write upon the outside of his Alcoran Let no Man touch this Book but he that is pure I 'm sure the Book it self requires no such thing nor can I justifie the Reason of the Motto in any other sense but this That none but he that is pure is fit to be trusted with such a corrupt Institution But the Christian Law is pure indeed and none but such as are so are worthy to unloose the Seals of this Book This requires the utmost Purity that is consistent with the Measures of Mortality Purity without and Purity within pure Hands and pure Hearts It requires it more expresly and in a greater degree than either the Heathen or Jewish Religion and what was wanting in the other under the Sanction of Rewards and Punishments and those the greatest imaginable It does not only command inward Purity but incourage it too by the strongest Proposals that can affect either the Sense or the Reason of Man One of the greatest of which Encouragements is that our Saviour inserts it into the order of his Beatitudes and gives it a special Title to the Beatifick Vision in these Words Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God The Subject to be here discours'd of is Christian Purity or Purity of Heart Whereof I shall represent I. The Nature by a Character or Description II. The Necessity III. The Blessedness By Purity of Heart in general is to be understood an inward Conformity of all the Thoughts and Desires of the Soul to the Will and Law of God When not only the external Actions are according to the Rule but the whole inward Frame and Position of the Mind stands right and well order'd and as the Apostle describes it not only the Body but the whole Spirit and Soul is blameless And to make it so these two things are particularly requisite First That we do not consent to any unlawful Desires no not so much as to the first Motions of Sin whether proceeding from the corruptness of our own Nature or from Diabolical Suggestion Secondly That we do not entertain with any delight the remembrances of our past Sins But more particularly yet Purity of Heart may be doubly consider'd either in opposition to Pollution or in opposition to Mixture In the first Sense it removes Sensuality in the Second Hypocrisie This distinction of the Word Pure is acknowledg'd and withal applied to this place by our Learned Dr. Hammond illustrated by the Instances of Water and Wine the former of which is said to be pure when not mudded or defiled the latter when not mixt But tho the Word be equally capable of this Latter Sense yet I do not think it to be at all intended by our Saviour in this place there being no such particular Congruity between this sort of Purity and the nature of the Reward here assign'd Confining therefore our Discourse to the former Sense of the Word as more suitable to the Circumstance of this place from what has been premised we may collect this Idea or Character of the Pure in Heart That they are such as regulate not only the external Conduct of their Lives but also the inward Frame and Habitude of their Minds and conform not only their Actions but their Wills and Desires Thoughts and Designs to the Rule of the Law and to the Dictates of the Internal Light of God in the Soul Such as sanctifie the Lord God in their Hearts compose the inmost recesses of their minds into an Holy Awe and Reverence of the Divine Presence set a Law to all their Intellectual Powers and suffer not the least Thought or Passion to violate the Order either of Reason or Grace Such lastly as yield no consent either to the Being or Stay of irregular Motions nor give any entertainment to the Allurements of the World the Flesh or the Devil nor delight themselves with any pleasing recollections any imaginary Scenes of their past Immoralities but set themselves at the greatest distance from sin resist the very first Beginnings and as near as they can abstain from the least Appearances of Evil. This is the most resembling Idea that I can frame to my self of the Pure in Heart And now lest this should be taken for a meer Idea a thing of Notion rather than Practice I proceed in the next place to represent the Necessity of such a Disposition of Soul The Necessity of it is Double in order to a double End Holiness and Happiness And First This Purity of Heart is necessary in order to Holiness that is There can be no true Christian Holiness without it This will appear by considering First That the Christian Law expresly requires it For this I need appeal no further than to the progress of this same Discourse of our Saviour upon the Mount Where among several other improving Expositions of the Mosaic Law we find this Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart By which Lusting here I conceive must not be understood the bare natural Appetite of Concupiscence that being as such indifferent but the Appetite irregularly determin'd nor that neither as 't is a pure Natural and Mechanick Motion for so it has nothing Moral in it and can only be materially Evil but as it has the consent of the Will going along with it Which consent may be either to the very Desire it self or to the Acting of it If to the Act then the Man is in all Moral Accounts a compleat Adulterer and will be so esteem'd by God who as he Sees so he Judges by the Heart and will not think a Man the more innocent only for wanting an Opportunity of committing what he fully intended But if the Consent be only to the
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
Grace and Benediction But we dwell in God Essentially and Totally God dwells only in some certain Spirits such as are of a Dispositiont fit to receive and entertain him those who as the Jews love to speak are worthy to have the Shecinah rest upon them But all Spirits good and bad however qualified dwell in him For where else should they dwell since he is all and fills all Now both these Unions infer the Necessity of Purity of Heart in Order to Holiness For First if we consider the Soul of Man as dwelling in God what infinite reason is there that that part of him especially should be kept pure which is essentially joyn'd to touches and inhabits so pure and so awful an Excellence Put off thy shoes from off thy seet said God to Moses for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground And if so much Reverence be due to the Dwelling-place of God what Reverence is there then due when God-himself is the Dwelling-place How dares any Man lodge an impure Soul in the Bosom of so pure a Majesty Or how can he in any measure be esteemed Holy tho in all other respects never so unablamable who is polluted in that part which is so inwardly united to the Beauty of Holiness Then Secondly if we consider God dwelling in the Soul and Body of Man there is great necessity of Purity of Heart And that upon a double Account I. Because the Spirit of God which is the Principle of all Grace and Holiness will not enter but into a pure and clean Heart II. Because no other is worthy of so Divine a Presence And First the Holy Spirit will not enter but into a pure and clean Heart For this special and gracious Presence of God is not like his General and Essential Presence universal and unlimited but fixt and confined to certain Laws and depending upon certain Conditions and Qualifications And tho the first Addresses influential Visits and distant Overtures of the Holy Spirit prevent all previous dispositions of Man who as our Church expresses it in her 10th Article cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength yet to his fix'd Dwelling and residential Abode in us 't is necessary that there be an antecedent Preparation of Heart Which I conceive to be the reason that tho all Men are at some time or other Partakers of the common and ordinary Motions of the Spirit who is said to have striven even with the old World yet none but very good Men have the Priviledge to be the Temples of his Residence And this whole matter I take to be distinctly represented in these Words of St. John Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him Where by standing at the Door and knocking is meant common and preventing Grace And this indeed is used to all without any previous Qualifications But he does not come in and sup that is take up his Residence and be a familiar Ghest till his Voice be hear'd and the Door open'd that is till the Man has well attended to and complied with those his antecedent Motions and Suggestions till he has swept and made clean the inner Room of his Heart So that Purity of Heart is absolutely necessary tho not for the first preventing Influences yet for the residence and in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit who tho he visit those that sit in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death yet he will not Lodge but in a pure and bright Soul Nor Secondly Is any other than such worthy of so Divine a Presence Indeed the purest Soul has reason to say with the Centurion Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof if we consider the disproportion that is between the Purity of God and that of the purest Temple we can prepare for him For he putteth no trust in his Saints nor are the Heavens clean in his sight How much more unworthy then is the impure and polluted Soul of so pure a Presence Suppose the Spirit of God would enter into a Polluted Spirit yet what Soul that has any sense of Decency would dare to continue any longer so when once possess'd by so Divine an Inhabitant Holiness becomes thine house for ever says the Psalmist that is it is very meet and right decent and proportionable that the place of the Divine Residence should be kept holy and undefiled The Divine Presence is the greatest and most solemn Consecration of any place that can be and where-ever he fixes his Mansion there the Inscription ought to be Holiness to the Lord. And the reason of all this is by the Psalmist render'd elsewhere For thou art a God that hast no pleasure in wickedness neither shall any evil dwell with thee Having thus far shewn the Necessity of Purity of Heart in Order to Holiness to complete this part it remains that we further represent its necessity in order to Happiness Now this Necessity may respect either our Admission into Happiness or our Enjoyment of it when admitted That Purity of Heart is necessary to our Admission into Happiness is already sufficiently deducible from what has been premised concerning its necessity to Holiness without which we are expresly told No man shall see God We are therefore further concern'd only to shew that 't is necessary to the enjoyment of Happiness And here not to feign a long Hypothesis of a Sinners being admitted into Heaven with a particular Description of his Condition and Behaviour there we need only consider that the Supreme Good is of a Relative Nature as well as any other Good and consequently the enjoyment of it must necessarily require some Qualification in the Faculty as well as the enjoyment of any other Good does something that may render that Good a Good to that particular Faculty Otherwise tho it may be possess'd yet it can never be enjoy'd This again must be something that must produce some Likeness or Agreeableness between the Faculty and the Good to be enjoy'd Which because the Purest of all Beings leaves no room to doubt but that Purity of Heart must be that Agreeableness without which as a Man cannot resemble so neither can he enjoy God We see that even in this Life 't is very tedious to be in the Company of a Person whose Humour is disagreeable to ours tho perhaps in other respects of sufficient Worth and Excellency And how then can we imagin that an ill-disposed Soul should take any Pleasure in God who is to her infinitely more unlike and therefore disagreeable than one Man can be supposed to be to another For my part I rather think that should an impure Soul be afforded a Mansion in Heaven she would be so far from being happy in it that she would do Pennance there to all Eternity For besides that a sensualized Soul would carry such Appetites with her
thither for which she could find no suitable Objects which would be a constant Torment those that she does find there would be so disproportionate that they would rather vex and upbraid than satisfie her Indigence So that this in short would be her case That which she desires and could relish that she has not and that which she has that she neither desires nor can relish the result of which must needs be a very high degree of Misery and Dissatisfaction So absolutely necessary is Purity of Heart both to the Acquisition and Enioyment of Happiness And yet there is something that recommends it further yet and that is the Blessedness that attends it the third and last thing to be consider'd Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God But before we come so far as this there is a Present Blessedness belonging to it in this Life which I shall briefly touch upon And here besides that inward Peace of Mind that Satisfaction of Conscience and Spiritual Joy and Complacency which are the common advantages of a good and well-order'd Life there are these three more peculiar Advantages of Purity of Heart I. That 't is more Innocent II. That 't is more Easie. III. That 't is more Safe More Innocent because 't is supposed to put a Bar against the very first Beginnings of Sin and consequently to be removed at a greater distance from it More Easie because t is easier to abstain from the first Beginnings of Sin than from a further Progress in it after you have once begun Nor is there so much pains required not to admit as to eject a Temptation Which made an ingenious Person say That the Prohibition of Concupiscenee was not so much a new or distinct Commandment as an Instrument of Security for the keeping all the rest Lastly More Safe because more Easie there being not so much danger of yielding to what a Man can easily forbear as to that which he must abstain from with pain and uneasiness But the greatest Blessedness of all is the Vision of God Which I suppose may be extended beyond that Beatific Vision of him which is the Happiness of Angels and Saints in Heaven and may signifie some peculiar advantage belonging to the Pure in Heart even in this Life namely the clearer Perception of all Necessary and Ideal Truths which may well be call'd seeing of God they being one and the same with the Divine Essence especially such Ideal Truths as are of a Moral and Spiritual Nature to the Discovery of which Purity of Heart is an excellent Preparative According to that of the Angel to Daniel Many shall be purify'd and made white and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand But having professedly discours'd of this * elsewhere I shall stay no longer upon this part but proceed to that other Vision of God which is called Beatific Here I remark that this is the only Beatitude to which the express Promise of the Vision of God is annex'd This indeed is implicitly contain'd in some others but there only openly expressed And because 't is reasonable to think that our Lord does suit his Rewards to the Natures of the Excellencies here specify'd We may well conclude that he intended some peculiar Honour and Priviledge to this holy disposition of Soul and to signifie that it has a more than ordinary Title to the Happiness of the Beatific Vision This will include two things I. That the Pure in Heart shall have a clearer and more inlarged sight of God II. That they shall take a greater delight in what they do see of him And First They shall have a clearer and more enlarged sight of God This will depend upon two Suppositions I. Upon the peculiar Aptness of this Disposition for the Vision of God II. Upon the Will of God to afford a greater and clearer manifestation of himself to a Soul so disposed That Purity of Heart has a peculiar aptness in order to the Vision of God we need not doubt if we consider that the only reason why we see not God now is the grosness of this Tabernacle wherein the Soul is incased This is that Glass through which we now see so Darkly and which makes us do so This is that black Skreen that parts the Material from the Intelligible World The more abstract therefore we are from the Body and from the Bodily Life the more fit we shall be both to behold and to indure the Rays of the Divine Light We find that even now the purer and finer our Blood and Spirits are the freer and clearer are our Thoughts The more bright and transparent this Glass is the more the Ideal Light will dart in upon our Souls And the same will hold in proportion hereafter The purer the Soul is the purer will all its Faculties and Operations be the less it will retain of corporeal Gusts and Relishes the more recollected and undivided will be its Powers for Unity of Thought follows Unity of Desire and the fewer things a Man desires the fewer will be his Thoughts and consequently the more strong and vigorous upon the Object where they fix To which we may add that the purer the Soul is the purer will also be her Resurrection Body which is of great moment to the Vision of God as well as to other Spiritual Operations For we must then see through a Glass as well as now only the Glass will be clearer according to the different Purity of the Soul which even in this Life gives a particular Brightness of Air to the Countenance and makes the Face to shine with an unimitable Lustre Purity of Heart therefore even upon this single account has a peculiar aptness in order the Vision of God But to this may be added Secondly the Will of God to afford a greater and clearer manifestation of himself to a Soul so disposed For 't is highly rational to believe that God who is so great a Lover will also be a liberal Rewarder of inward Purity and that he who delights to dwell in pure Hearts now will reveal himself in a very plentiful measure to such hereafter So that both from the aptness of the Disposition and from the Will of God we may conclude That the Pure in Heart shall have a larger share of the Beatific Vision Nor shall they only see more of God but Secondly take a greater Delight in what they do see of him And this is the principal Ingredient of their Happiness For 't is not the meer having but the delighting in a thing that makes a Man happy And this is the Condition of Pure Souls The same Purity which procures them a more inlarged sight of God will also make them to delight in the Vision of him so that they shall Tast as well as See how good God is For the purer the Soul is the liker it is to God who is Essential Purity and the more it resembles God
Prerogative of it in making those that have it Children of God Thirdly To conclude all with some Reflections upon the present Disturbers of the Peace of Christendom And first The general Excellency of a peaceable Disposition may be derived from these two Principles First From what it Argues Secondly From what it Causes And first It Argues a well-ordered Frame and good Habit of Mind Good by natural Disposition good by Deliberation and Choice and good by Gracious and Divine Operation It argues a Soul not only lightly tinctured but deeply season'd and throughly imbued with Goodness Incoctum generoso pectus honesto The same may be said of the peaceable Man that St. James says of him that offends not in his Tongue that he is a Perfect Man Not that the due Government of the Tongue alone does make a Man Perfect for there is a Body of Righteousness as well as a Body of Sin and to make it perfect the Members must have both a just number and Size but that considering the many requisites to so great and excellent a piece of Temperance it argues and supposes him to be so and as it there follows able also to bridle the whole Body And so here the peaceable Man may be said to be a perfect Man not that he is so made by this single Excellence but that this Disposition argues him to be so considering what a various Accomplishment of Soul is required before a Man can be capable of exercising so noble a Virtue There are some Degrees in Wickedness that necessarily suppose others the Man must first walk in the Counsel of the Ungodly and stand in the Way of Sinners before he can have the Forehead to sit down in the Chair of the Scornful And so there are some Degrees in Goodness that do also necessarily suppose others For there is a Scale of Perfection in both and we can neither be Good nor Bad by strides and jumps And this is such a Degree of Goodness as supposes many others to have gon before it being one of the Top-stones of the Spiritual Building and one of the last finishing strokes of the Divine Image of that Christ which is form'd in us For the Holy Spirit of God as was shewn in the preceding Discourse requires a Consecrated Abode a Chast Body and a Pure Soul and will not enter into us till the former be made a Temple and the later a Sanctuary And yet this Excellence is reckon'd by the Apostle among the special Fruits of the Spirit and consequently must presuppose all that Moral Preparation at least that the Entrance of the Holy Spirit does and must therefore argue a well-order'd Frame and good Habit of Mind But this being only a general tho' to one that attends the force of it sufficiently Conclusive Argument I will more distinctly shew that it does so by considering what particular Qualifications of Soul are required in order to a peaceable disposition whose presence must needs Argue whatever it Requires Now these Requisites are either Negative or Positive The Negative are First That the Man be free from all inordinate Self-Love it being impossible that he who prefers his own little private Concerns before the publick Interest should be at peace with the Publick when that tender part comes once to be toucht No Such a one will ballance Self against all the World will not care what becomes of the Publick when it stands in competition with that but will embroil all the World in War and Mischief if he can for the least Self-advantage Secondly That the Man be free from Covetousness which tho the Root of all Evil is yet more so of Strife and Dissention than of any other Covetousness and Peace can't dwell long together T is indeed a very Litigious Principle and one of the greatest Make-bates and Incendiaries in the World 'T is this that fills the Court with Brawls and Wranglings and the Field with Bloud and Slaughter And 't is a known Observation That in all Wars whether justly or unjustly undertaken the greatest part fight only for Plunder Thirdly That he be free from Ambition which is as great an Enemy to Peace without as it is to inward Tranquility The Ambitious Man is always advancing his aim at some higher mark of Honour and if Peace will not serve to raise him War shall Take an Instance of this from the Court of Rome What a World of Schisms and Disturbances in the Church and Factions Seditions Plots Massacres and Wars in the State have been from time to time occasioned by the Ambition of that See! But there 's an higher instance than this for 't was Ambition that made War in Heaven Fourthly That he be free from Envy which indeed spites every thing that is excellent but is of all things the most direct and sworn Enemy to Peace 'T was the Envy of the Devil that first disturb'd the peace and order of the World and set the whole Creation in Battail Array against Man And 't is the same Envious Being that still raises and foments all the Enmities and Dissentions that divide both the Church and State and may therefore be called the Father of Discords as well as the Father of Lies Envy is the greatest Enmity in the World and the Envious Man is the most universal Enemy There is no Man but whom by the very Principles of his Disposition he is obliged either to Hate or to Despise All his Superiors and Equals he hates and despises all his Inferiours which comprise the whole body of Mankind And both ways is Envy an Enemy to Peace and very destructive to Kingdoms and States Whereof there is a signal Instance in the Case of Hanno and Bomilcar who through Envy to the growing Glories of Hannibal deny'd him a Supply of Forces to carry on his Italian Conquests and so ruin'd him their Country and themselves too Fifthly That he be free from Revenge which is another great Trespasser against Peace and without which the rest would not be so mischievous as they are For this continues and foments those Enmities to which the other give Birth rivet and fastens Animosities in the Minds of Men and by fresh returns of provocation brings in what has in vain been attempted in Nature a kind of Perpetual Motion in Malice and immortalizes Quarrels and Contentions Sixthly and Lastly to comprize all at once 't is requisite that the peaceable Man be free from all manner of Lusts and Irregular Passions whether of the Sensual or Intellectual Part and from all Disaffection and Disorder of Soul This being the Spring and First Mover to all the Discords and Disorders that are without According to that of St. James From whence come wars and fightings among you Come they not hence even of your Lusts that war in your members Where these reign there can be no Peace and therefore the peaceable Man must be free from these These are the Negative Qualifications in order to a peaceable
GULIELMUS D Gratiae Angliae Scotiae Franciae et Hiberniae REX Fidei Defensor etc. F. H. V. Hove Sculp Christian Blessedness OR DISCOURSES UPON THE BEATITUDES Of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST Written by JOHN NORRIS M. A. Rector of Newton St. Loe in Somersetshire and Late Fellow of All-Souls-College in Oxford To which are added Reflections upon a late Essay concerning Human Vnderstanding By the same Author Licensed May 19. 1690. Rob. Midgley LONDON Printed for S. Manship at the Black Bull over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1690. To my much Honoured Friend and Patron JOSEPH LANGTON Esq SIR 'T IS a Maxim of Prudence given by some of the Nicer Describers of the Bounds of Gratitude That it ought to be temper'd between a total Neglect and a full and just Requital To strike off all Scores is they say as uncivil as to discharge none and every whit as disingenuous not to suffer as not to acknowledge an Obligation Now Sir 't is one of the proper Happinesses of my little Fortune to be necessarily cast upon this measure I am got too far in your Accounts to be able to requite to the full some part of them I must ever leave uncrossed as a standing Hold upon me and tho my Gratitude it self be never so strong and pregnant yet the most forward Instance of it can rise no higher than an Acknowledgment And as this is the utmost I can do so of doing this too I have so few Capacities and Opportunities that I am the less willing to let go any that offer themselves which indeed has given a speedier Issue to my Deliberation whether I ought to address these Discourses to your Patronage or no which perhaps without the Formality of a Dedication would of right belong to you as falling within your District and as being the Fruits of that Retirement which by your Free Bounty I enjoy As an Acknowledgment therefore of this and your other constant Favours I presume to put these Discourses into your Hands which I hope will be able to do both You and Me that Justice as to convince the World that as you proceeded by generous and uncorrupt Measures in disposing of this Publick Trust so you was not very much mistaken in your Choice when you thought fit to Oblige Your Humble Servant John Norrris Newton St. Loe April 21. 1690. TO THE READER I Here commend to thy serious Perusal a Set of Select Discourses upon the Beatitudes which were at first undertaken and are now publish'd for the Public Benefit of all well-disposed Christians The Subjects themselves are as Great and Noble as any perhaps that occur in all Practical Divinity being the Prime and Capital Aphorisms of our Saviour's Excellent Sermon upon the Mount and containing the Fundamental Principles of all Christ's Practical Instructions and of a True Christian Temper and Life Here we may see what the Philosopher so much desired the true Living Idea of Vertue and Goodness nay more what 't is to be a Christian an Interiour Christian a Christian indeed And I heartily wish that those whose Orthodoxy is chiefly employed in giving out Marks and Signs of Conversion and Saintship wherein their end seems rather to be the distinction of a Party than any real Promotion of Godliness would choose rather to dress their Interiour by this Glass and afterwards try it by this Measure For here they will find that Real Christianity consists in Poverty of Spirit Humility Self-denyal Mortification Meekness Mercifulness Purity of Heart Peaceableness and such like inward Dispositions of Soul and not in a few outward Formalities Sighs and Groans Looks and Postures Words and Phrases and such other affected Badges of a fond Distinction And as the Subjects themselves are Great and Noble so I hope these Discourses will be found in some measure to rise up to their Dignity I am sure there has been no care wanting on my part to make them worthy of their Subjects to which I have endeavour'd to do the utmost Justice But however I may fail of that yet I hope the Reader will not be altogether disappointed of his Expectations or repent of his Labour but will find here sufficient Entertainment both for his Speculation and for his Devotion It may perhaps be a Surprize to some to see me appear again so soon in public To this if there needs any Apology that which I shall offer is That if these Discourses be not worthy of publick View then 't is not fit they should ever be sent abroad but if they be I cannot understand how they can be published too soon The Truth is considering the shortness and uncertainty of Life I have been lately very much of Opinion That a Man can never live too fast the Heathen will tell you Never fast enough nor make too much haste to do good especially when a Man's Sphere is such that he has but Few ways and opportunities of doing it which by Experience I am well convinc'd to be my Case I am afraid where-ever the fault lies that it will not be my Happiness to be able to do good where I am which I might have done in some other Station Which makes me the more frequent in Public that I may supply this Defect by the Service of my Pen having some reason to hope that my Discourses will meet with better Liking Abroad than they usually do at Home and that there are some in the World to whom I shall not be a Barbarian What has been here the performance of my Pen was as I learn from Dr. Rust intended and in part performed by the Excellent Bishop Taylour who while he was meditating upon the Beatitudes was receiv'd up into the Enjoyment of them And I have lately spoken with a Gentleman who told me That he himself saw a Manuscript of it in the Bishop's own Hand I am very sensible how much the Subject has lost by the Change of its Author All that I can say is That I have done my Best and I hope God will accept of my good Intention and that the World will be something the better for my Performance John Norris Christian Blessedness OR DISCOURSES UPON THE BEATITUDES Discourse the First Matth. V. ver iii. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven THUS the Divine Angel of the Covenant Christ Jesus begins that Great and Noble Institution of Christian Philosophy his Sublime Sermon on the Mount This was he that was pointed at by that eminent Prophecy I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And now it was that this Prophecy had its full Accomplishment Christ was now entring upon his Prophetick Office and was to shew himself a Prophet like unto Moses This great Trust he discharged with as great Care and Fidelity and as the Author to the Hebrews observes was
faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his house As therefore Moses gave a Digest of Laws to the People with whom he was entrusted so it became this Divine Prophet also to give Laws and Precepts for the Instruction and Order of his Disciples He was to be a Law-giver as well as Moses And to carry on the proportion yet further he thought fit to imitate him in the very manner and circumstance of delivering his Law and accordingly ascended up into a Mountain from whence he showr'd down his Heavenly Manna upon his Hearers So also making good another instance of resemblance relating to Moses who speaks thus of himself My Doctrin shall drop as the rain my speech shall distil as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass But the Parallel will not run throughout For the Divine Oracles were not now accompanied with Thundrings and Lightnings with Blackness and Darkness and Tempest but were deliver'd in the small still Voice of Blessing and Consolation 'T was with a Beatitude that David began his Collection of Divine Hymns and in like manner does the Son of David usher in his sublime Instructions And this was very suitable and agreeable both to the Character of his Person and to the Genius of his Doctrin As to his Person Blessing became the Mouth of him who was the Reconciler of God and Man the great Embassadour of Peace the Author of Salvation and Happiness and at whose Nativity the Angels sang Peace on Earth and good will towards Men. And as to his Doctrin the Precepts he was to deliver were of so refined and high-raised a Nature so little agreeable either to the Maxims of the World or to the grosser Relishes of the Animal Life that they would have found but cold Entertainment had they not come recommended with a Reward and been guarded on each side with a Beatitude 'T was requisite therefore that the Duty and the Blessing should go hand in hand and accordingly our Lord who well understood the Temper of the Sons of Men how passionately we pursue any thing that looks like Happiness and how apt we are to ask that Question Who will shew us any good thought it expedient to joyn them both together in his Discourse as they will be in the Event and to pronounce them Blessed here whom he intends to pronounce so hereafter when he shall say Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World And the better to win us over to the practice of his Divine Sermon our Lord like a wise Master-Builder lays the Foundation of his Discourse where we must lay that of our Obedience and assigns the first place among his Beatitudes to Humility and Poverty of Spirit For Humility is the Foundation of Obedience we must be first poor in Spirit before we can be rich in Good Works first Humble before we can Obey and first Obey before we can Reign And therefore with good reason does our Lord lay down this as the first Principle and Ground-work of his Institution Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven In my Discourse upon these words I shall I. Resolve what we are to understand by Poor in Spirit II. Shew that this Poverty of Spirit is a Christian Duty and the reasonableness of it III. Shew the Happiness of those who are so disposed As to the Resolution of the first I consider that this Poverty of Spirit here recommended by our Saviour is not a state of Life but a state of Mind and we may take it either in Opposition to Covetousness or in Opposition to Pride and High-mindedness If in opposition to Covetousness then to be poor in Spirit is to have our Souls so disposed as first Not to be eagerly carried out in our Desires after any created good particularly the good things of this lower World whether Honors Pleasures or Profit especially not to be greedy and craving in our desire of Riches But Secondly To be so moderately and indifferently affected towards all these as to be well contented without them and also ready to resign and part with them when either God shall think fit to deprive us of them or when we can no longer retain them with a good Conscience This is to be poor in Spirit consider'd in opposition to Covetousness But it may also be considered as opposed to Pride or High-mindedness and then to be poor in Spirit will denote First A Just that is a low and mean Sense and Apprehension of our own selves of our Souls and of our Bodies of our Intellectuals and of our Morals of our Acquirements and of our Performances And Secondly as a Consequent of this a Contentedness whenever any or all of these are disesteem'd or disparag'd either tacitly and interpretatively by Affronts and dishonourable Treatments or else directly by express undervaluations a readiness to prefer others before our selves and a willingness that the same Preference should be given them by others an utter Captivation of our Understandings to the Obedience of Faith and a modest Submission of them in all doubtful Cases to the Dictates of our Superiours a declining of Fame and Popularity and a studious concealment of our own Praises and Excellencies but when either the Glory of God or the good of our Brother is concern'd in their Publication In short to use the Description of the Psalmist he is truly poor in Spirit who from his Heart can say to the Searcher of Hearts Lord I am not high-minded I have no proud looks I do not exercise my self in great matters which are too high for me but I refrain my Soul and keep it low like as a Child that is wean'd from his Mother yea my Soul is even as a weaned Child Having thus briefly shewn what it is to be Poor in Spirit both with respect to Covetousness and with respect to Pride and High-mindedness I come now in the second place to shew that this Poverty of Spirit is a Christian Duty and withal the great reasonableness of it And First That Poverty of Spirit according to the first acceptation of it is a Christian Duty 't would be Conviction enough to consider how often we are call'd upon in Scripture to withdraw our Affections from the Creature to seek those things which are above to set our affection on things above not on things of the earth to mortifie our members which are upon earth among which is reckon'd Inordinate Affection Evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry Again we are bid to beware of Covetousness and to have both our Treasure and our Hearts in Heaven to be as indifferent in the very enjoyment of any worldly Good as if we enjoy'd it not and if in the enjoyment then certainly much more in the desire Lastly to add no more we are caution'd by St.
of his Creator as Light does upon the Sun or the Image in the Glass upon the Presence of the Body If God does but turn his Face from him and cease to behold him he will vanish into nothing God spake the Word indeed before he was made but to unmake him there needs no contradictory Fiat he need only be silent and not sustain him by the Word of his Power And shall that Being be proud which was once nothing and has still such a Natural Bent towards Annihilation as to need only a bare Negative to make him nothing again No says the Wise Man Pride was not made for man nor furious anger for them that are born of a woman Man must forget his Extraction to give the least admittance to Pride and he need but study and consider that to have the most inward and feeling sense of Humility This Consideration is yet further improveable if we admit the Hypothesis of those who say that to be a Creature involves a State of Nothing as well as an Origination from Nothing that there is nothing Real or Positive in any Creature but what is from God and that though a Creature be something as of God yet he is nothing as of himself nor can exert any positive Act or Operation from himself as a distinct Principle of Action being still as to that as much a Nothing as before If this be true and he that shall consider and well understand what is alledged by M. Poiret in defence of this Notion will scarce find it in his Power to think otherwise certainly Man has infinite reason to be poor in Spirit and to descend into the lowest Abyss of Humility and Self-abdication as becomes a Being that not only was once but is still a mere Nothing Man therefore as a Creature has sufficient reason to be Humble and Poor in Spirit But if we consider him 2ly as a Sinner he has Cause not only to be Humble but to lie down flat upon his Face and look upon himself to be more base and vile than the very Dust whereof he was form'd and whereon he treads To be a Sinner is much more vile than to be the meanest Creature and the Non-Entity of Sin is more dishonourable than that of Nature This latter tho' it cannot actively conform yet 't is not disobedient to the Will of God But the former Nothing contradicts and resists his Will This is as one of the Fathers call it Nihil Rebelle in Deum armatum an Arm'd Nothing Indeed to be a Creature involves Weakness and Imperfection in it but then it also involves Good because nothing can be but by partaking of the Perfection of God But now to be a Sinner involves nothing but pure and unmixt Evil and is withal a further Remove from Good than to be nothing since 't is not only negatively but contrarily opposed to it 'T is indeed the greatest Monstrosity and Deformity in the World the greatest Contradiction to Order and Harmony to Reason and Proportion to Well-being and Happiness In one word 't is the only thing which God hates What great Reason then has Man to be Humble and Poor in Spirit poor even to Emptiness and Self-Annihilation who is not only a Creature but a sinful Creature Having now shewn the Duty and Reasonableness of Poverty of Spirit in the full Latitude of the Word I proceed to shew in the third place the Happiness of those who are so dispos'd Blessed are the poor in spirit says our Saviour for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven That 's the only Blessedness which is here expresly mentioned But they are happy also in other regards For in the first place What an happy disposition of Soul must it be always to carry about one such a strong and lively Conviction of the Vanity of all created Good as not to run out into vehement desires after it For Desire it self to go no further is always a great Torment 'T is the same to the Soul that Thirst is to the Body and Hope deferr'd as the Wise Man tells us makes the heart sick But that 's not all For here will come in the Trouble of Disappointment as well as of Desire Not that which the World generally understands by Disappointment the not compassing what you design'd tho' that also will often happen but the not enjoying what you have compassed the Disappointment of Fruition But now to be poor in Spirit is the way to avoid all this Such a Person expects no Happiness from the Creature and consequently not to find it there will be to him no Disappointment He does not lean upon any Created Good with any Stress and therefore tho' it should fail under him his Fall will be but slight and easie And indeed 't is not to be imagin'd what a deal of Anxiety Care Restlesness Disappointment Sorrow fruitless Labour and Endeavour are saved by this Poverty of Spirit And I think this is no small degree of Happiness Again Is it not a great Happiness to be so moderately and indifferently affected towards the World as to be contented with any Condition in it To be of a Quiet Sedate Resign'd and Disinteressed Disposition He that 's thus disposed is above or rather below the reach of calamitous Accidents The Storm flies over his Head he has no-nothing for Fortune to take hold of Nor will he be under the hazard of parting with his Religion to secure his Worldly Interest No he can do his Duty tho at the expence of Martyrdom and tho' highly deserving of the best Times may yet be trusted in the worst Then as to the Happiness attending upon Poverty of Spirit as it stands for Humility there is no one Vertue that is more her own Reward than this Pride is the most uneasie thing in the World and withal the most odious uneasie to the Patient and Odious to the Observer And as 't is uneasie in it self so is it the Parent of many Troublesom and Uneasie Passions such as Anger Contention Revenge Envy Impatience c. So that 't is hard to determin whether the Proud Man be more Ridiculous or Miserable But now to be Humble is to be Wise to understand the true Proportion and Measure of a Creature to be serene to be contented to be thankful to be pleasant and chearful to be calm and untroubled to be dispassionate and unconcern'd In short no Man enjoys what he really is so much as he that does not fancy himself what he is not And besides the Humble Man is sure to get that very Honour which he declines and because he declines it I end this with the Observation of Plato That a Man that does not rightly know himself can neither be prudent good nor happy which is all that goes to the perfection of Man and he that does is sure to be all this Thus far of the Happiness belonging to the two Kinds of Poverty of Spirit severally There remains yet one more belonging
already done to him whether we have not been guilty of the same or greater er Injuries towards him than those which we so warmly resent from him Then lastly with reference to our selves consider First how much by our unjust Anger we expose our selves to the just Displeasure of God who by his Son has told us that Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment Consider again that we may easily and do often mis-interpret Men's Minds and Intentions by their outward Demeanour and think our selves affronted by them when there is no such thing intended and that therefore even upon this account 't is very reasonable we should be slow to wrath Consider again how much causless and intemperate Anger unfits us for all the parts of Divine Worship which can neither be well perform'd by nor will be accepted from a Heart flaming with this strange Fire And therefore says the Apostle speaking of Prayer Lifting up holy hands without wrath implying that a vacancy from Wrath is a necessary Qualification for Prayer To which purpose 't is very considerable that when King David would have erected a Temple for the Public Worship of God tho a Man otherwise of a sweet and gentle Disposition and only accidentally and innocently too ingaged in Circumstances of Anger and Contention yet he was refused and the Work imposed upon one not of a more meek Spirit but only of a calmer and more serene Life And if God would not accept an House of Prayer from a Man of a Military way and Character much less will he accept those Prayers which proceed from a Soul disturb'd with Anger Consider again how it unfits us for the business of our Calling how it hinders the free exercise of our Thoughts how it prejudices our Health disturbs the Tranquility of our Minds renders us odious and uneasie to all about us in one word how utterly it unfits us both for enjoying our selves and from being delighted in by others Consider lastly to what mean and sordid Principles within us this Passion owes its rise such as Pride Self-love vain Curiosity and Suspicion rash Credulity Negligence and Inadvertency Ambition Lust Envy and the like So that besides its own proper illness 't is further to be detested upon the Scandal of its Parentage Having thus far discours'd of the Duty of Meekness First By shewing what it is Secondly By shewing that 't is a Christian Duty Thirdly By stating the general Measures of its Obligation And lastly By proposing such Considerations as may recommend its Practice I come now briefly to discourse of its Blessedness which may also serve as another distinct Consideration to inforce the Practice of it Blessed are the meek says our Saviour for they shall inherit the earth The only Beatitude which has a Temporal Promise annex'd to it wherein our Lord seems to imitate Moses who in his Law had also one Commandment with a Temporal Promise And there seems to be great resemblance between them One is that thy Days may be long in the Earth and the other They shall inherit the Earth Here therefore We are to do two things First We must enquire into the Sense and Meaning of the Beatitude Secondly Into the Truth of it That is We must first enquire What is meant by the Meek's inheriting the Earth and secondly shew that they do so inherit it And first by their inheriting the Earth I suppose cannot be meant that they shall have large Portions of it that they shall raise great Estates that they shall take root and spread and as the Prophet expresses it joyn House to House and lay Field to Field This I suppose cannot be meant I. Because this is not true the Meek do not inherit the Earth according to this Sense II. Because if they did this would not be a proper Ground for their being pronounc'd Blessed And first this Sense is not true the Meek do not thus inherit the Earth We rather find that the World is made for the Bold and the Violent for the rough-spirited and turbulent for the furious and boisterous and that they have commonly the greatest share of it who deserve the least And therefore we commonly urge this as one Argument against the goodness of Riches that they frequently fall to the Lot of the worst Men. And therefore says the Psalmist Lo these are the ungodly these prosper in the world and these have riches in possession While in the mean time the Meek are oppressed and devoured by these Beasts of Prey and are so far from inheriting the Earth that 't is as much as many of them can do to Live upon it and more than some of them can do to find room under it But Secondly Suppose they did thus inherit the Earth by having great Portions of it yet this would not be a proper Ground for their being pronounc'd Blessed For are Clods of Earth a suitable Good for Man Or is Happiness to be measur'd by the Acre Do we find that Rich Men are so very much Happier than others Or do we think that the Earth has Mines of Happiness as it has of Gold But whatever we think is it at all probable that our Blessed Lord who himself made choice of Poverty who but in a Line or two before pronounc'd the Poor Blessed who tells us that his own Kingdom was not of this World who bids us beware of Covetousness and warns us of the great danger of Riches by telling us how hard it is for one that has them to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven who dehorts us from laying up Treasures on Earth and who lastly recommends to his Disciples nothing more than the contempt of the World by assuring them that the Life of Man does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses I say is it imaginable that our Lord after all this should therefore pronounce the meek Man blessed for having great Possessions This therefore cannot be the thing meant by the Meek's inheriting the Earth which I take rather to signifie the manner of possessing than the greatness of their Possessions and to import thus much That the Meek shall enjoy what they have be it little or great with comfort and satisfaction and tranquility of Mind whereas those of a contrary disposition tho they may possess a great deal can yet be truly said to enjoy little or nothing And this seems to be the Sense of the Psalmist when in Words directly parallel to these of our Lord he says The meek-spirited shall possess the earth and shall be refreshed in the multitude of Peace That is they shall have Comfort and Pleasure Peace and Content with whatever they have which how little soever shall yet carry a true Rellih and yield more real satisfaction to them than the otherwise affected can reap from their ample Revenues According to what the Psalmist in the same place immediately subjoyns A small thing
and effectual that which passes into act and ends in a thorough Determination of the Will Since nothing less can either be signify'd by such strong Metaphors as these of Hungring and Thirsting or consist with the sincerity of a Christian Spirit 'T is not enough therefore to have oues face set towards Jerusalem and to cast some amorous Glances upon the Beauty of Holiness 'T is not enough to have some faint ineffective Wishes some kind resentments towards Righteousness there being but few so wretchedly wicked and unmoraliz'd as not to have some such little Velleities of being Good and no question Balam that desired the Death did also at this rate desire the Life of the Righteous But the Desire must be strong and active vehement and importunate absolute and peremptory without any Reserves or Conditions It must bear the same proportion to the Soul that the Keenest Hunger and Thirst does to the Body that is it must be a great deal sharper as much as the Appetites of the Spirit are more quick and exquisite than those of the Body It must be such a desire as our Saviour had to celebrate the Passover and institute his last Supper when he says With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer Briefly it must be such a Desire as carries in it the full bent and stress of the Soul such as is accompanied with the most earnest and hearty endeavours and with the most passionate and Devout Prayers and Aspirations to God Such as that of the Psalmist O that my ways were made so direct that I might keep thy statutes With many more such throughout the whole 119 Psalm which I commend to the Meditation of the Pious This is that Hungring and Thirsting after Righteousness intended in this Beatitude And accordingly 't is observable what Solomon in a place almost parallel to this of our Lord says concerning the Love of Wisdom which generally in Scripture especially in Solomon's Writings signifies the same with Righteousness My Son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding yea if thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of thy God Here the Wise Man makes the most searching Diligence and the most vigorous exertion of Soul necessary to the finding of Wisdom And he that so seeks her shall find her Which brings me in the last place to make good the Proposition it self That those who do thus hunger and thirst after Righteousness shall be fill'd But before I proceed to this I beg leave by way of Digression to speak something of another sort of Hunger and Thirst which all Christians are concerned to have Our Saviour tells us that Except a man eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood he has no life in him Now if the Flesh and Blood of our Lord be necessary to the Life then certainly the Hungring and Thirsting after it is necessary to the Health and good Habit of a Christian. There is not a more open Sign of a distemper'd Constitution either in the Natural or in the Spiritual Man than either to long for what is not his proper Food or not to have an Appetite for that which is And therefore since the Body and Blood of Christ is the proper Food and Aliment of a Christian it concerns him as he values the Health and prosperous State of the Divine Life not only to feed upon it but to keep up in himself a due Hunger and Thirst after it More especially this he ought to do when-ever he approaches the Holy Altar to partake of this Divine and Heavenly Feast He ought then by all the Arts of the Spirit and by all the Methods of Grace to quicken and raise this Hunger and set an edge upon this Thirst. St. Austin discoursing of the Disposions of a Worthy Communicant reckons this Hunger and Thirst among them and makes them as Necessary Qualifications as any And there is a great deal of reason for it This Holy Sacrament is generally set out in Scripture by meat and Drink 'T is call'd expresly by the name of the Lords Supper And says our Saviour to the Jews My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed And as 't is expressed so also was it prefigur'd by Types of the like nature such as the Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise the Bread and Wine of Melchisedeck the Manna the Paschal Lamb the Shew-bread the Bread wherewith the Angel fed the Prophet and particularly by the Waters springing out of the Rock whereof the Fathers drank in the Wilderness Now I consider that as these Figures represent the Nature and Efficacy of the Holy Sacrament that 't is the Food of the Soul and the Life and Strength of the Spiritual Man so they do also represent to us our Duty and the proper Measure and Argument of Preparation For if Meat and Drink be the Entertainment what more convenient Preparation than Hunger and Thirst We ought indeed to come to these Springs of Salvation as the Hart is represented to do by the Psalmist to the Water-brooks panting and thirsty longing and impatient Or rather to use a nearer Emblem as those thirsty Israelites did to the Waters that issued out of that Mystic Rock in the Wilderness 'T is impossible to give a just Description of this Sacramental Thirst but if we could but so far advance our Fancy as to represent to our selves with what eagerness and greediness those thirsty and scorch'd Travellers in the Wilderness did apply their Mouths to the springing Stone that was now more indear'd to them by the Benefit than by the Miracle then and then only may we have some Notion of that Hunger and Thirst wherewith we are to approach and receive these Divine Mysteries For if that Rock and miraculous Water was a Type of our Sacrament as the Apostle assures us it was telling us expresly that that Rock was Christ then by the like proportion that Thirst was also a Symbol of our Duty a signification of our Sacramental Thirst. And as he that will come to this Divine Feast must come Hungry and Thirsty so he that is truly Hungry and Thirsty as he ought will be sure to come and not as too many do study to find out Pretences to excuse his Absense But why do I say Study to find Excuses There are some Men that will be hinder'd by any thing nay by every thing There is nothing there can be nothing so little and inconsiderable but what will hinder some Men from the Holy Sacrament That which would not hinder them from any thing else things of much lighter Weight than what were pretended by those in the Parable
the buying of a Farm or the Trying of a Yoke of Oxen or the Marrying of a Wife If the Heavens do but frown or if they themselves are never so little out of humour if a Visit be intended a day after or if a Domestick Jar happen'd a day before then presently keep off from the Sacrament Nay some are so very absurd that tho they themselves are in perfect Charity with all the World and have not the least Tincture of the old Leven remaining in them yet if another Person happen to be out with them they shall think this a sufficient Warrant to stay away from the Sacrament which amounts to as much as if a Man should say Because another Person has sinn'd against God and my self and so be sure to out-do him But there is a degree of Folly beyond this There are some that cover over this gross Neglect which comes the nearest of any thing to what the Apostle calls Trampling upon the blood of the covenant and doing despite to the spirit of grace with the specious Pretence of Reverence They have forsooth so profound a Reverence for the Holy Sacrament that they can't find in their Hearts to come to it A very odd way of expressing Reverence to any Divine Institution by turning ones Back upon it This is such a Reverence as the Jews pretend towards the Tetragrammaton or Name Jehovah which consists in their never using it Such a Reverence if so much as the Papists shew to the Host when they carry it in Procession to be gazed upon and stared at But do these Men indeed Reverence the Sacrament Then one would expect at least that when-ever they do come they should behave themselves there with more Devotion and Reverence than others that are more constant But there is nothing like this to be observ'd Nor do I at all wonder at it since the way to Communicate well is to Communicate often And I further remark That those who behave themselves most irreverently at all other parts of Divine Worship are the very Men that stay most away from the Holy Altar upon the pretence of Reverence But how comes it to pass that this is the only part of Religion that must be neglected upon the account of Reverence Do they do so by any other part of Religion 'T is true indeed that all the other parts of Divine Worship are too much neglected as well as this but I do not find that ever any were so absurd as to pretend Reverence for the neglecting of them and why then should they do it here But do these Men indeed Reverence the Holy Sacrament Why then do they not pay some regard to the Command it self as well as to the Matter of it Do this says our Saviour in remembrance of me Why should all the Reverence be fixed upon This and none upon Do Or if they do Reverence the Command how are they not affraid of breaking it Or how can a Command be reverenc'd by not observing it Do this in remembrance of me If the doing this be in Remembrance of our Saviour then the not doing it is to forget him And how can he pretend Reverence to the Institution that forgets the Author of it And here I cannot but take notice of another gross Notion that I find passes very current among common People They think all the danger lies in coming unprepared If they eat and drink unworthily then nothing but Death and Damnation But if they stay away all is safe and well As if a Man might not destroy himself with Fasting as well as by taking Poison These Men ought to consider that there is such a thing as an Unworthy Non-Communicant as well as an Unworthy Communicant And I wish they would read a certain Book that bears that Title The Unworthy Non-Communicant They would then perhaps be sensible of some other Danger besides that of coming without sufficient Preparation In themean time all that I shall further say to those Men is That what-ever Pretences they make to Christianity 't is certain they have not that Hunger and Thirst which is so necessary to the Life of a Christian and which if they had it would bring them oftner to this Spiritual Banquet and procure them the Blessing of being fill'd and Replenish'd To the consideration of which I now return Now there are two ways of being fill'd Either Absolutely and Simply so as not to be any more in Desires Or with respect to some certain Object so as not to desire any more of the same tho simply speaking you do desire still The first of these is Satisfaction the second is Satiety And those that duely hunger and thirst after Righteousness shall be filled both ways That is they shall be fill'd with Righteousness and they shall be fill'd with Happiness First They shall be filled with Righteousness For since the Spirit of God which sheds his Love abroad in our Hearts is a good and loving Spirit and knows no other Bounds in his Communications than what are set him by the Capacity of the Subject it follows that he will not fail to replenish all those with his Graces who are duly qualify'd to receive them But now nothing can be supposed to be a greater Qualification than such Hungring and Thirsting as I have described This is the utmost Man can do to dispose himself for the reception of the Divinest Impressions This therefore is that Sacred Lure that powerful Charm which draws down the Holy Spirit into the Hearts of Men as the Platonists say of aptly disposed matter that it sucks a Soul into it by a kind of Natural Magick from the World of Life This Hunger and Thrist after Righteousness is the very same to the Life of the Soul as that Organical Aptness is to the Life of the Body 'T is the Congruity of the Soul in order to Spiritual Life That Soul therefore that is so qualify'd for Righteousness cannot miss according to the Order of Grace of being fill'd with it The short is God desires the Righteousness of Man more than Man himself does or can do he delights to see his own Image reflect from him and stands ready to sow the Seeds of the Divine Life in every capable Soil and therefore we need not doubt but that the truly Hungry and Thirsty Soul shall be fill'd with the Bread of Life and with the Waters of Comfort Not that he shall be so fill'd with Righteousness in this Life as not to desire any more of it for we are now in a state of Proficiency not of Perfection but in the next he shall He shall then be so replenish'd with it as not to desire any one further degree of it and shall be perfectly possessed of that Divine Life and Nature whereof he is now only Partaker Secondly These hungry and thirsty Souls shall be fill'd with Happiness This is a certain Consequent of the other there being both a Natural and an Establish'd Connexion between
Righteousness and Happiness Some indeed have gone so far as to make them one and the same as to Kind and distinguishable only as to Degree Hence that common Theological Effate Grace is Glory begun and Glory is only Grace finish'd But I think there is more prettiness in the Expression than truth in the Notion nay there is one Instance which plainly demonstrates it to be false For 't is most certain that the Human Soul of our Saviour was always in a state of perfect Grace having as the Scripture says received the Spirit of God without measure and yet 't is as certain that he was not while on Earth in the State of Glory being then a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief Much less was he in the state of Glory at the hour of his Passion and during his dreadful Dereliction Which yet could never be if perfect Grace and Glory were as some contend one and the same thing But our Proposition will stand well enough without the help of this Notion For tho Righteousness be not the same thing with Happiness yet there is such a Connexion between them that they who are fill'd with the former shall certainly be so with the latter And this depends upon the nature of things as well as upon the Order of God For a Righteous Frame of Spirit not only gives us Admission to the Supreme Good but also disposes us for the Enjoyment of it without which all the other Materials of Happiness would signifie nothing 'T is the disposition of the Soul that makes the Vision of God truly Beatific and when we awake up after his likeness and behold his presence in righteousness then and then only we shall be satisfy'd with his Glory And here we may stand still a little and reflect what a great Priviledg those that hunger and thirst after Righteousness have beyond all those who make secular and carnal things the Objects of their Desire These things can never fill them Absolutely so as to extinguish all Desire being neither themselves the Good of Man nor leading to that which is Nor can they always satisfie that particular Appetite which is conversant about them Sometimes because the things themselves cannot be had Nature having not provided enough for the Covetousness and Luxury tho she has for the Necessities of Men. And sometimes because they are too deficient when we have them by reason of their disproportion to the inlargement of the Faculty as in the Objects of Sight and Hearing wherewith neither the Eye nor Ear is satisfy'd as was remark'd before And when these things do fill any particular Appetite 't is only for a time till the next Fit of Longing comes as the ground is for the present refresh'd with a transient Sh owr But for those that hunger and thirst after Righteousness as their Desires are more Noble so their Satisfaction shall be more Abundant 'T is their great and peculiar Blessedness to be fill'd in all Senses and in all Capacities and to all Eternity Discourse the Fifth Matth. V. ver vii Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy OF all the Passions which God has planted in Human Nature there is none which at once carries so bright a resemblance of God and is so fitted to the present Condition of Man as that of Pitifulness and Compassion And if when God made Man he consulted his own Eternal Essence certainly when he drew this part of him we may suppose him to have reflected upon the Divinest of all his Ideas and to have stamp'd upon him the most Lovely Feature of the Divinity All the other Passions are in their own simple Natures indifferent neither good nor evil in themselves but equally determinable to either and for the most part are actually determin'd to the wrong They are generally irregular either in the Degree or in the Object are either mis-govern'd or mis-plac'd and when most orderly manag'd the highest Character they can pretend to is only to be Instruments and Servants to Vertue They are as a gusty Wind and Sail to a Ship if she steer right they prosper and further her course but if wrong they serve only to strike her against the Rocks with more Speed and Force But now this Affection of Pity and Compassion rises higher than Indifferency and is not content with a bare state of Innocence It is of it self a vertuous Disposition and needs only actual exertion to make it a Direct Vertue and then its own Native Excellency will place it among the highest Orders And therefore tho our Saviour by assuming our intire Nature justify'd the innocency of all our Natural Passions yet as Mercy was that Attribute of God which he came chiefly to display so is that the Affection which he chiefly commends to Man by his Practice and by his Discourses by open Commands and by Parabolical Insinuations but chiefly by selecting and adopting this alone of all the Passions into the Sacred Number of his few Beatitudes by telling us that Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy This great and peculiar Honour done by our Lord to this Affection will invite us to consider First The Nobleness and Excellency of it Secondly It s great Reasonableness and Usefulness Thirdly The particular Blessedness assign'd to it But before we can well enter upon these Considerations we must first premise something concerning the Notion of Mercy or Compassion By which I suppose is commonly understood a trouble or uneasiness of Spirit conceiv'd at some Evil that has befall'n another with a desire to help him out of it whereby it may be perceiv'd that this is a mixt Passion compounded of Sorrow and Desire Sorrow for the Evil of the Patient and Desire of Delivering him from it If it be askt What kind of Evil that must be which is the Object of this Sorrow or which may recommend a Man to our Pity I know no reason why we should except against any There are I know some considerable Divines and Moralists among whom is Curcellaeus who will allow no other Evil to be capable of Pity but only Evil of Pain nor that neither if it be deserv'd But for my part I do not understand why Sin may not fall under our Pity as well as any other Evil. Nay I think that the greatest Object of Pity in the World is an irreclaimable Sinner And as for Affliction tho the thing it self be most pitiable when joyn'd with Innocence Yet I think upon the whole the Guilty Sufferer is more to be pitied than the Innocent since I can pity him for his Demerit and for his Misery too whereas the latter is pitiable only for his Misery Indeed the guilty Patient is not to be pitied so much for his direct Misery because he deserves it but then he is more to be pitied for his Desert and Misery together than the other is for his Misery only And I question not but that our compassionate Saviour when he
Which things the Angels desire to look into An Allusion no doubt to the Propitiatory or Mercy-lid upon the Ark whereupon two Angels Cherubins who are the Angels of Knowledge did abide with their Faces one toward another and their Eyes bent down to the Ark. Which by the way is also a sufficient Argument of the Unfathomableness of this great Dispensation of Mercy which can still find further Employment for the Study and Curiosity even of Angels But perhaps 't will be said that Mercy in God is of another kind than what is call'd by that Name in Man that it comes nearer the Stoical Notion of Mercy importing only a bare Will to help the Miserable without any compassionate Resentment for his Misery It may be so I wont dispute that now tho I can hardly believe but that such strong and flaming Expressions of the Divine Mercy in Scripture must needs signifie something more than what such cold Interpreters affix to them But however to be more convincing I further instance in the Human Soul of our Saviour Jesus Christ. 'T is most certain that of all Human Spirits his was the most excellent Adam in his Innocence was not comparable to him He was excellent only by way of Nature but our Saviour's Human Spirit to the same or greater Excellence of Nature had also superadded the Excellency of Grace not common Grace but that great and transcendent Grace of the Hypostatick Union And 't is as certain that as he had the Best so he had the Best-natured and most tenderly compassionate Soul in the World I need not produce Instances his whole Life is but one Argument of it Only one Passage when he saw the multitude scattered abroad like Sheep that have no Shepherd 't is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was moved with compassion on them so we render it but indeed the Expression is too high and pregnant to be verbally translated 'T would require a long copious Paraphrase to drain the Sense of that one Word which signifies all that inward Feeling and Yerning of the Heart and Soul at a pitiful Object that melts and turns the very Bowels of the Good-natured Spectator And the same Tenderness of Spirit which he had on Earth he retains still in Heaven tho in all other respects Impassible and incircled with Divine Glories Whereupon he is call'd in Scripture our merciful High-Priest and to convince any Opposer that this is not meant of Mercy improperly so called a bare Will to help without any Compassionate resentment says the Author to the Hebrews We have not an High-Priest which cannot be touch'd with feeling of our Infirmities And these two Considerations by the way give a clear defeat to the Pretences of both the foremention'd Adversaries For whereas the Stoic traduces this noble Vertue for a piece of Weakness and Infirmity fit only for soft and effeminate Persons to him I oppose the instance of our Saviour's Human Soul while on Earth And whereas the Aristotelian makes the only ground of Pity to be a fear of falling into the like Calamity to him I oppose the same Instance of our Saviour but in another Capacity when he was altogether Impassible in his glorify'd State and above the possibility of partaking with us in our Miserie 's any other way than by Sympathy and Compassion To this I may add that among meer Men the most generous and braveSpirits those whom Paganism has Deifi'd and Christianity has Sainted those Heroes whom History has mark'd with Honour and whom Envy it self is asham'd to calumniate have all along been signal for their Mercy and Good Nature As on the contrary the most base timorous and low-spirited Breasts are always observ'd to be the Seats of Cruelty and Hard-heartedness But 't is no wonder that this Disposition is found in the Best of Natures since in the Second Place it proceeds from the Best of Principles For it proceeds from Charity with which the least thing a Man can think or do is excellent and without which the greatest even Martyrdom it self is nothing worth It has that for its Parent which is the Mother of all Vertues and which is of it self the fulfilling of the most perfect that is of the Christian Law And that it proceeds from Charity is plain For the more we desire the Happiness and well-being of Mankind the more we shall be troubled to see any of them in Misery and be the more willing to procure them Ease and Deliverance And this tho we do not apprehend our selves in danger of the like Calamity there being no necessity of making that the ground of Pity as appears from the instance of our Saviour's Human Soul in its Glorified State I deny not but that the generality of Men are moved to Pity upon the consideration of common Danger and that it may be their own turn next to suffer and stand in need of help but it is not necessary that they should and 't is their imperfection that they are I say their Imperfection not that of the Affection it self whose Idea involves no such selfish Principle and which may really be separated from it as by the fore-alledged Example is certain and evident And now if to be found in the Best of Natures and to proceed from the Best of Principles be any Argument of Excellence we may hence conclude what a Noble and Excellent Disposition of Mind this is and that when the Roman Orator told Caesar That of all his many Vertues none was either more acceptable or more wonderful than his Mercy and Clemency he might perhaps Complement the Emperour but said nothing extraordinary of the Vertue As will further appear by considering Secondly the great Reasonableness and Usefulness of it As to the Former besides that all that which may be said in the behalf of Charity and Universal Love may be alledged as well for this there are these two more proper and peculiar Grounds to prove and inforce it I. To consider what Man has Receiv'd II. To consider what he Expects And First If we consider what Man has already receiv'd this Vertue of Mercy will appear to be highly reasonable Man has receiv'd innumerable Mercies of God some of which are so great so surprizing and incredible that 't is made one of the greatest Trials and Commendations of his Faith to believe them Such as the Honour of the Hypostatick Union the Redemption from Sin and Misery by the Death of the Son of God the Grace of Repentance and the like All which are yet improv'd and heightned by this further Consideration that they are proper and peculiar to him no other Creatures not so much as the Angels themselves being Partakers with him The Angels indeed as all other Creatures partake of the Goodness of God but Man alone among all the Creatures has the Priviledge to be the Object of his Mercy Since therefore Man and Man only has receiv'd so much Mercy of God it appears very reasonable
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
Disposition The Positive I need but just name the Proof of them being virtually contain'd in the other They are therefore First Charity or universal Love that seeketh not her own but the Common Good Secondly Generosity and a noble inlargement of Soul that sets a Man above the little petty Occasions of Quarrel and Contention Thirdly Humility and Modesty that makes a Man possess himself and his station with Contentedness and Thankfulness Fourthly A candid sweet and benign Temper that thinks no evil but is well pleased in the Prosperity of every Man and every State or Community Fifthly A mild meek and forgiving Spirit that does not keep up the Circulation of Injuries but lets the Quarrel fall and dye Sixthly and Lastly a serene and well-composed Soul one that rules well her own inward Charge having her Passions in Subjection with all Gravity Peace and Tranquility of Mind All these excellent Qualifications are required to furnish out a peaceable Disposition which will not come into the Soul as the Soul will not into the Body till after it be duly tempered and prepared for it Whence the Proposition to be made out is sufficiently concluded that it argues a well-order'd Frame and good Habit of Mind Which is the first Ground of its Excellency The second is taken from the consideration of what it Causes The Effects of it are as great and noble as its Principles and Prerequisites It s great and general effect is Happiness upon which no one Virtue has so large an influence as this Some Happiness it causes immediately and directly and contributes to secure whatever Happiness it does not cause Some Blessings it originally procures and preserves the possession of all So that some way or other all our Blessings are Blessings of Peace since to this we owe either the Blessings themselves or at least the secure enjoyment of them And all this it does by giving Strength Beauty and Pleasure to Society First Strength Peace is as much the Sinew of Society as Mony is of War and without it Society is so far from obtaining any of its just and natural Ends that 't is a far less eligible State than that of perfect Solitude For in perfect Solitude Men only want the mutual assistance of one another but in a divided and inraged Society Every Man is in the condition of Cain in fear lest the next that meets him should do him a mischief 'T is Peace that makes Society a Defence and that distinguishes the Congresses of Men from the Herds of Beasts or which is worse from the Confusions of the Rabble And as it strengthens Society within so it strengthens it without too nor would War be any Security abroad without Peace at home Briefly 't is Union and Coherence that makes every thing strong and Peace is the Cement that holds all fast together And what Society is there that can subsist without it when even a Kingdom divided against it self tho it be that of the Devil himself cannot stand Secondly Beauty There is indeed a certain Beauty in Strength and every thing that is strong is so far beautiful But besides this Peace gives a more proper and peculiar Beauty to Society the Beauty of Order and Proportion of Decency and Agreeableness For a peaceable Disposition inclines every Man to mind his own proper Business and to contain himself within that place and station wherein God and his Superiours have fix'd him and not to aspire to what is above him or invade what does not belong to him For indeed Peace it self cannot subsist without this any more than Society can without Peace Where-ever therefore there is Peace there will also be this Order and Proportion The Hand will not affect the Office of the Eye nor the Foot the place of the Head but every Member will be contented with and intent upon his own Office and Place in the Body The result of which must needs be the greatest Beauty and Harmony Thirdly Pleasure This indeed is necessarily consequent to the two former since it cannot but be a great pleasure to every particular well-affected Member of Society to reflect upon the Strength and Beauty of the whole But besides this a peaceable Disposition derives a more immediate and direct Pleasure upon Society For who can express the Pleasure that is in Love and Joy Sweetness and Dearness in mutual Kindness and Confidences in Union of Minds and Universal Friendship They that have had the Happyness to tast of this Pleasure know they cannot express it which made the Psalmist break forth into that abrupt Extasie Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity Having thus far set forth the general Excellency of a peaceable Disposition from what it Argues and from what it Causes I now proceed in the second place to consider that more particular Prerogative of it in making those that have it Children of God To be Children of God is indeed common to all good Men who being begotten anew by the immortal Seed of the Word do bear Gods image in Holiness endeavouring in all things to do their Father's Will But there are some Dispositions that give a more peculiar Right to this Title than others as they are nearer Resemblances of the Divine Excellencies Among which is the Disposition now under our Consideration whereby a Man becomes in a special Degree and Manner like God and so evidences himself to be his Child and may upon the consideration of that likeness fitly be so called And this is the constant use of this Phrase in Scripture Ye are of your Father the Devil says our Lord to the unbelieving Jews and the Lusts of your Father ye will do And so again Love your enemies and do good c. and ye shall be the Children of the Highest for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil And says the Apostle Be ye followers of God as dear Children They are the Children of God who are Followers of God who purifie themselves as he is pure and who are perfect as he is perfect So that to be the Child of God or the Child of the Devil signifies as much as to carry a particular resemblance of either When therefore 't is said that the Peace-makers shall be call'd the Children of God it comes to as much as that they carry a particular Character of the Divine Likeness whereby it may be known to whose Family they retain and that they are the True Sons of God And so indeed they are For God is the God of Peace and the greatest Peace that which passes all Understanding is called the Peace of God For God is the greatest Lover of Peace the Author and Giver of Peace and the Rewarder of all such as live in Peace Indeed under the Jewish State which as in other things so in this was very peculiar that 't was a State of Theocracy God was known by the Name of the Lord of Hosts
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
be avoided where shall we find room to receive such a numerous Company of Corporeal Images And upon what part will you have them impressed Upon the Soul or upon the Brain But who can understand either of these How can an Indivisible Substance as the Soul is receive any Stamp or Impression And how can such a fluid Substance as the Brain is retain any The least jog of a Mans Head must needs obliterate such slight and Aerial Traces as the Wind does the Figures that are written upon the Sand Not to say that these Impressions coming on so thick one upon another must needs work out themselves almost assoon as they are in and in a short time consume the very Brain too But suppose we could get over all this yet the greatest Difficulty is yet behind How will such Corporeal Effluvias be able to represent immaterial and intellectual Objects They will at the most be able but to represent Material Objects and not all of them neither but only those whose Emanations they are And what shall we do with Ideas that will not do their Office that cannot represent a quarter of the things which we are concern'd to understand These and a thousand more Absurdities must he wade through that will assert our Ideas to be Corporeal Effluvias derived from external Objects It remains then that they must be Immaterial Substances And so without all question they are All of them as to their Essence and most of them as to their Representation But how shall Bodies send forth such Immaterial Species They can emit nothing but what is Corporeal like themselves How then shall they commence Immaterial Body can no more emit Spirit than it can create it And what is there after Emission that shall be the Principle of Transformation Some I know talk of strange Feats done by the Dexterity of Intellectus Agens and Patiens which they say refine and spiritualize these Material Phantasms but I suppose our Author is of too Philosophical a Faith to admit of such a Romantick Transubstantiation The short of this Argument is If our Ideas are derived from sensible Objects then they are Material Beings because Matter can send forth nothing but Matter But they are not Material Beings for the Reasons alledg'd above Therefore they are not derived from Sensible Objects Which I think has the force of Demonstration And to this purpose it may be further consider'd what I hinted before that as our Ideas are all of them Immaterial as to their Essence and Substance so many perhaps most of them are also immaterial as to their Representation that is they represent after an immaterial manner as the Ideas of Truth Vertue and the like which Cartesius makes to be the difference between Imagination and Pure Intellection and whereof he gives an Instance in the Example of a Chiliagon whose Angles we cannot represent in a distinct View but may clearly understand it But now how can that which represents after an immaterial manner come from sensible Objects Again we have Ideas of things that are not to be found in the Material and Sensible World as of a Right Line or an exact Circle which our Author himself confesses pag. 283. Sect. 6. not to be really extant in Nature And what does he think of the Idea of God Will he say that that is also derived from sensible Objects Yes For says he pag. 147. Sect. 33. If we examin the Idea we have of the Incomprehensible Supreme Being we shall find that we come by it the same way that is by Sensation But in the first place how does this agree with what he says pag. 341. Sect. 2. That we have the knowledge of the existence of all things without us except only of God by our senses So then it seems we do not know the Existence of God by our Senses No then neither have we the Idea of him by our Senses For if we had why should we not know his Existence by Sensation as well as the Existence of other things which as he says we know only by Sensation For says he pag. 311. Sect. 2. speaking of the knowledge of Existence We have the knowledge of our own existence by Intuition of the existence of God by Demonstration and of other things by Sensation Then it seems we do not know the Existence of God by Sensation but that of other things we do But why are other things known by Sensation but only because their Ideas come in at our Senses For I suppose he will not say that the things themselves come in at our Senses for then what need is there of Ideas at all And if other things are therefore known by Sensation because their Ideas come in by the Senses then why is not God also known by Sensation forasmuch as his Idea according to him comes also the same way and yet he will not allow that God's Existence is known by Sensation Which indeed is very true but then he should not have said that the Idea of God comes in by the Senses But what a strange Adventure is it in Philosophy to make the Idea of God to come in by our Senses and to be derived from Sensible Objects For besides the Difficulties and Absurdities already touch't upon what is there in the Material World that can resemble God Nay what is there in the whole Creation that can represent him to our Thoughts God himself cannot make an Idea of himself For such an Idea what-ever it be must be a Creature and can a Creature represent God! Nothing certainly but God himself can do that He must be his own Idea or he can have none There is but one possible Idea of God and that is his Son the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal World the brightness of his Glory and the express Image or Character of his Person 'T is he that is the Idea of God and of the whole Creation that both is and represents all things And since the way of knowledge by our Senses turns to so poor an Account I would desire our most Ingenious Author to consider whether it be not abundantly more rational and intelligible not to say pious to suppose that we see all things in God or the Divine Ideas that is in the partial Representations of the Divine Omniformity For our Author himself confesses pag. 315. Sect. 10. that Whatsoever is first of all things must necessarily contain in it and actually have at least all the Perfections that can ever after exist Nor can it ever give to another any perfection that it has not either actually in it self or at least in an higher degree God then even according to him is all Beings or has the whole Plenitude of Being And I wonder that this Principle had not led this Sagacious Person further I know whither it would have carried him if he had follow'd the Clue of it For why should we seek any further and puzzle our selves with unintelligible