Purity of Heart is to be obtain'd But then To prevent Discouragements and to obviate the Mistakes and Objections of some pious serious Christians and to keep them from sorrow and dejectedness in their serious Prosecution of this Purity I must add here by way of Advertisement 1. That from an imperfect purity of heart a Christian must not therefore presently conclude he is a total stranger to it 2. That neither contemplation of sin nor unallow'd of blasphemous Thoughts defile the Heart 1. That from an imperfect purity of heart a Christian must not presently conclude he is a total stranger to it VVe do not think that Rome was built in a day no more do we imagine that this Purity of Heart is perfected in one Week Indeed when the seed of God is sown in the Heart there is an earnest desire and endeavour after perfection which discovers it self in a chearfull progress but it is not actually perfected but by degrees Ye that labour to remove sinfull Lusts and Desires and Designs and Passions from your hearts and to possess them with humble and meek and kind and charitable and religious Thoughts and to make God the darling and joy of your Souls be not dismay'd nor frighted if this Purity of Heart in you be not come up yet to that degree to which it is advanc'd in others Those other Christians in which that Diamond glisters and that Star doth shine have been many years to pollish it When you have labour'd so long as they and as hard as they your happiness will be the same with theirs Purity of Heart is that which will find us work will imploy us through the whole course of our Lives for it meets with many rubs with many clogs and impediments which to remove will find us work at all times Stop not stand not still the measure of Purity you are arrived to seek still to enlarge it to extend it make frequent journeys to Heaven with your Prayers and you will find it will spread forth as the Valleys as Gardens by the river side as the trees of Lignaloes which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar trees beside the waters Numb XXIV 6. II. That neither Contemplation of sin nor unallow'd of blasphemous Thoughts defile the Heart 1. Contemplation of sin doth not defile it But here we must distinguish for there is a Contemplation of sin that doth defile the Heart i. e. when a man acts his sin over again in his mind and having been in a vicious extravagant company the day before represents the scene of that folly meeting to his mind with delight thereby to whet his appetite into a desire of having such another opportunity and to confirm his love to that Sensuality Or when a man having committed Lewdness or been guilty of acts of Uncleanness by lively Thoughts of that sin makes the impure Pleasure skip and dance afresh in his memory thereby to prompt himself to new enterprizes in that Villainy Then indeed the Soul is stain'd with a witness and a Man becomes a Devil delighting in his own ruin But when the sins of our former life are thought on with sorrow and Contrition and the particular Circumstances of it rehearsed and represented with due Aggravations in order to work our selves into a detestation of that and all other sins here the Contemplation becomes wholsom and instead of defiling helps to purifie the Heart serves to keep it clean and to arm it against fresh assaults Such Contemplations are purgatives restore the soul to health give it new strength and courage to fight against the World and the Flesh and if this way were followed we should have purer Christians and the World would soon be better and men would learn to present their souls and bodies living sacrifices unto God which is their reasonable service I do not deny but this Contemplation may be driven too far into Terror and Consternation and into a belief that the sins are unpardonable but that is not the fault of Contemplation but weakness and infirmity of the Considerer 2. Vnallow'd of blasphemous or other wicked thoughts in the heart do not defile it This Doctrine must be often inculcated because of the great number of pious Souls who look upon themselves as the vilest Wretches in the World and are ready to run into Desperation because so many blasphemous thoughts and filthy suggestions present themselves to their minds and disturb them in their Devotions and other religious Exercises But not being allow'd of nor encourag'd nor consented to as dreadfull as heinous as they seem to be they do not defile the heart no more than boistrous Winds and the Commotion of the Water do fully the Pearl that lies at the bottom of the River That they are not their own Thoughts is evident because their Will is contrary to them their Understanding is convinc'd they are injurious to God and their hearts desire to be rid of them The Soul in this case is like the young Men in the fiery Furnace while a thousand Sparks fly about them not a hair of their head is singed Those blasphemous Suggestions as they are purely Satanical and thrown in by the Devil so when the Soul continues declaring War and Hatred and Resistance to them not all the Legions of the burning Lake not all the Whirlwinds they rouse not all the Dust they make can defile the Spirit which is secured by opposing its forces to those Hellish Troops and preserves its Purity by Contradictions 3. It may not be amiss to take notice here of the reason why the Soul is rewarded or punished before the body When men die the Body is laid in the Grave and returns to Dust and there it lies till the Arch-Angel's Trumpet rouzes it from its Slumber The Soul in the mean while is in a state of Bliss or Misery and the reason lies in the Text because of the Purity or Impurity of the Soul or Spirit The Soul was able to sin without the Body i. e. without the help and assistance of the Body could be lewd and proud and vain and envious and malicious without discovering it by bodily Actions This is the Impurity of the heart Therefore as the Soul did sin without the assistance of the Body so its fit it should be punished in the absence of the Body Again in sinfull actions when Soul and Body are concern'd the Mind sins first before the Body participates of the Poyson for the Will must consent before the outward Man can act As therefore the Soul is the first Actor in the sin so it 's fit it should be first in suffering the penalty of the Law And so it is in the future Reward or Recompence The Soul performs many excellent services in which the Body is not concern'd such as holy Thoughts and pious Meditations And the good which both Soul and Body are partners in begins in the Heart or Mind and from thence it runs down into the Actions as the precious Oyl
religious Exercises and not only there but in the civil Concerns of your Lives Custom hath made it fashionable before you eat and drink Let Religion and Conscience oblige you to use it in and before all your other lawfull worldly Concerns Before you go about your lawfull business let it be your earnest Prayer to God to bless you with Success if it be for his Glory and your own good and withall to furnish you with that even Temper of Mind that your obtaining your Desires may not swell or lift you up nor your miscarying in your Attempts deject or despirit you This is the way to sanctifie all your Actions and to preserve the Spirit of Religion For want of this spiritual Wisdom you fall too often into great Anxieties of Mind and very disorderly Passions when you miss of your prey Prayer will quiet your Spirits This is conversing with God and while a great and glorious God is the Object of our Thoughts we are arm'd against immoderate Sorrow can triumph over Losses find comfort in our Disappointments learn to despise the World and encourage our selves to set our Affections on the things which are above SERMON II. St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 2. And he opened his Mouth and taught them saying HAving resolv'd upon an Explication of Christ's Sermon on the Mount and begun already with the first Verse I proceed this Day to the second which is part of the Evangelist's Preface or Introduction and though this Passage as well as the preceeding is purely Historical yet it affords very usefull Lessons and Instructions Of this I have already given a Specimen or Proof in the first and do not doubt but I shall make good the Assertion in the Exposition of the second And he opened his Mouth and taught them saying For the understanding of which Expression you must know that this Phrase opening the Mouth is used in Scriprure when the Oratour or Speaker intends to speak something great and weighty and of mighty Importance To this purpose it is that when David was going to rehearse the wonderfull Works and Providences of God toward the Children of Israel he thus begins Give ear O my People to my Law and incline your Ears to the word of my Mouth I will open my Mouth in a Parable Ps. LXXVIII 1 2. so Ps. XLIX 1 2 3 4. Hear this all ye People give ear all ye Inhabitants of the World Both low and high rich and poor together My mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding I will incline mine Ear to a Parable I will open my dark saying upon the Harp So that this word and he open'd his Mouth bespeaks the Attention of all considerate Men and imports that the Lord of Preachers is going to publish things of the greast Consequence things of that Concernment that a Soul that hath any Sense of a future Salvation is bound to listen to the particulars and not to do it is as much as our life is worth To be sure the Son of God would not spend his sacred Breath in vain There never dropt any thing from his Mouth but what was grave and serious and being to teach the whole World as it were the way to Bliss we may suppose that matters relating to that Bliss are things of greater Concernment than all the Intrigues of Achitophel or any Politician in the World And therefore it will be neither unsuitable to Christ's design in this Sermon nor any way injurious to the Context or Connexion of these Words with the following To take notice here That Matters relating to the Bliss and Happiness of men's Souls are matters of the greatest weight and moment For of these Christ is going to speak here in the following Discourse and in order thereunto it 's said And he opened his Mouth which as it hath been already hinted imports uttering things of more than ordinary Consequence To be happy is that which most men seem to endeavour after for this the Souldier takes the Field and the Merchant plows the Sea for this the Husbandman dresses his Ground and the Artificer sits up late and rises early and puts himself into a sweat for this the Man of an Estate applies himself to variety of Sports and others run out into monstrous Sins and Vices According as Men fancy happiness one in one thing another in another so they follow hard after it and pursue it with very great Eagerness Thus all desire to be happy though the greater part mistake Pebbles for Pearls and the Meat which perisheth for that which endures to everlasting Life And yet all this does not make true Happiness a matter of fancy only for though the generality act as if it were so yet it is not and there are certain Laws and measures of real Happiness which like the Laws of the Medes and Persians alter not Men's mistaking the true Object of their Happiness shews indeed their Nature is corrupted and their Understandings vitiated but is no Argument that there is no true standard of solid Happiness no more than a blind Man's missing of the Mark proves there is none to shoot at Nothing can be call'd true Bliss with respect to Man but what makes the Soul happy for that being the great Agent that moves and orders and rules and actuates the Body it must needs be infinitely nobler than the Body and consequently if the nobler Part be destitute of its proper Happiness all the other Felicity the Body shares in must be nothing but shew and vanish This Happiness peculiar to the Soul cannot possibly consist in living or in having and enjoying Life for Plants and Trees and Herbs do that as well as the most Godlike and Angelical Spirits nor can it consist in smelling or tasting or seeing or hearing or feeling agreeable Objects or in eating and drinking or in gratifying a sensual Appetite for that Brutes can do as well as we nay better The Soul as it doth surmount all vegetable and sensitive Creatures in dignity and excellency so its Bliss must necessarily exceed theirs and it must be a Bliss that 's adaequate and suitable to her Nature which being rational it must necessarily follow that the happiness of the Soul consists in living up to the Dictates and Principles of right Reason But because Reason through the Fall of Adam is become dull and dim-fighted and hath lost much of its Beauty and Splendour God hath thought fit by the Revelation of his Will and Word to polish and brighten these Principles that we might not mistake in this reasonable Service and Christ particularly in this Sermon on the Mount hath set Reason on its Throne again and specified the true Principles of it shewing how and in what manner we are to live up to these Principles In this consists the happiness of the Soul while it sojourns in this World and this fits and qualifies her for a greater more lasting and more glorious Happiness hereafter
case the castle is already in possession of Gods enemy and therefore there is no entertainment for him whose purity is infinite for the law of this converse is with the mercifull thou wilt shew they self mercifull and with the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure Psal. XVIII 25. 2. As the impure cannot converse with God so they cannot appropriate him to themselves and therefore cannot be blessed for mans blessedness arises from being able to say That God is his God his Friend and peculiar Treasure It 's true the man whose heart is impure professes an interest in God as well as the purest souls but words and sayings and boastings do not make the title good God will not be his God that will not have him reign over him his indeed to judge him but not his to save him his to send him to Hell but not his to give him a right to the tree of Life He whose heart is impure le ts Sin and World reign over him offers the Throne of God i. e. his heart to an usurper puts the Scepter into a Traitors hand and sets open the Gates for Thieves and Robbers to come in and surely this cannot be the way to appropriate God to our selves or to take comfort in his love and therefore no right to blessedness 3. Such are not blessed because they cannot see God The sinfull worldly Lusts and Thoughts and Desires which like Vermin crawl in their hearts darken their sight There is a thick veil over their hearts that they cannot see and tast how sweet and gracious the Lord is Their Souls are oppressed there lies much earth upon them a very great weight of earthly carnal disorderly Thoughts and Desires that like Swine they cannot look up to things above them Their Souls indeed are in the nature of Glass but the Glass is greazy and sullied with the Smoak of vain Imaginations which hinders them from beholding his goings in the Sanctuary or at the best they look upon God as men do upon objects through the wrong end of a perspective which represents things great and near as little and afar off He that lacketh these things saith St. Peter is blind and cannot see afar off He that wants a pure heart is that person and wants that which must give him right apprehensions of God the impure Lusts he cherishes in his heart shut the eyes of his heart and understanding that he hath nothing but confused Notions and Ideas of God and his ways an estate very different from theirs who are pure in heart for they shall see God which calls me to the III. Third and last particular How the pure in heart shall see God and since this Vision relates both to this present Life and that to come we must take a distinct view of both And 1. How they see and shall see God in this present Life And here it must be taken for granted that God cannot be seen with the Organs of the body for he is a Spirit infinite immaterial uncompounded and though he fills Heaven and Earth with his presence and is not far from every one of us yet no man ever saw him and indeed none can see him 1 Tim. VI. 16. but this is still to be understood of the Eyes of the Flesh with the Eye of the Understanding without all peradventure he may be seen and that 's the seeing Christ aims at here for it 's evident he speaks of the purity of Heart and Mind and therefore what he says of seeing God must be meant of the Eyes of that pure Mind Even Heathen Philosophers required Purification of the heart from all gross lustfull covetous and worldly desires without which they said a man could never arrive to the brighter knowledge of Philosophy Christ leads his followers to a higher object and promises not so much a clear insight into the mysteries of Nature as a sight of the best of Beings God blessed for evermore And that no man may think that this blessedness reaches only Divines and other learned men whose Studies carry them to contemplate God his Nature Attributes and Providences I must tell you that this Blessing is pronounced with respect even to the meanest capacity and a poor man that follows his trade or gets his livelihood in the sweat of his Brows may see God as well as the learnedest Men alive nay many times better having none of the preferments of this World to blind his Eyes For this seeing God is an affectionate seeing him and such a seeing as assimilates the Soul to him This seeing is not a bare Speculation or being able to talk or write much concerning God but such a seeing as charms and ravishes and unites the Soul to God and as this seeing God relates to this present World such as are pure in heart shall see him more clearly more distinctly more to their satisfaction and edification than other men All men that say they believe in God and talk of his divine Attributes and have occasion to take notice and are sensible of his works pretend a share in the seeing God but none sees him so well as the pure in heart Their inward purity helps them to see him they see him in his Word in his Ordinances in his Providences in his Mercies and Afflictions They see him in his Word how equitable how just how reasonable all his precepts are how agreeable to the divine Nature how suitable to the Soul how glorious how sweet how precious all his promises are how just his threatnings They see him in his Ordinances what Profit what Advantage he intends by them how he designs them as Channels or Pipes whereby to convey his Grace and Spirit and Influences to their Souls They see him in his Providences how righteous how holy how potent how orderly he is in the management of the great affairs of the World They see him in his Mercies how he condescends how tender he is to them how like a Father how like a Shepherd he deals with them They see him in their Afflictions how wise how kind how good he is in sending them what Favour what Love what edification he designs by them They see him in all his Works how admirable how wonderfull how powerfull he is and all this they see with joy and delight and so see him as to love him more fervently and this is called Seeing him in the Sanctuary Psal. LXIII 2. Thus the pure in heart see God here But 2. There is a vision of God in the next life which surpasses all understanding Though they see him here to their comfort and edification yet at the best they see him but as it were through a glass darkly but then face to face 1 Cor. XIII 12. There that Sun will shine directly in their faces and their sight shall be made so strong that they shall be able to look upon that astonishing light without being weakned by its lustre Here they see but his back parts there his
or venting some charitable Wishes that he might be instrumental in their Reformation But as I said to do so a Man must have the Spirit of Christ to be touch'd with the Temporal Misfortunes and Calamities of Men a Man needs no more than common and natural Pity So the Persian Monarch fell a weeping when from a Hill he beheld his well disciplin'd Army to think that in less than a hundred Years all these brave Men would be dead and gone but to be touch'd with the everlasting Misery of Men's immortal Souls there must be an Illumination from above and the Spirit of Christ and a deep Consideration that must affect the Heart with a profound Sense of it A Soul taken up with the World and the Pleasures of it is unconcern'd who perishes or who is saved But he that understands what Salvasion means and labours hard after it himself and understands that the threatnings of the Gospel are no Bug-bears but very real things cannot but spend many a sad Thought about a concern of that consequence And oh that there were such a Heart not only in all the Ministers of the Gospel but in other private Men even in you all and that in your actual Endeavours to reclaim your wicked Neighbours you might discover the concern you have for their spiritual and everlasting Welfare If the World did not grow better under this Attempt your own Souls however would grow in Grace and in the Comfort of the Holy Ghost 2. The Multitude came to hear Christ so do you at this Day It 's true you cannot hear Christ in Person but you hear him in his Messengers of whom he hath said He that heareth you heareth me Take heed therefore how you hear Faith comes by hearing but if you hear and for all that hearing believe not your hearing will aggravate your Condemnation It 's true you do believe but it is after the common Rate By believing I mean obeying which is the true Scripture Notion of believing how you are to hear the Blessed Virgin hath taught you by her Example for hearing the wonderfull things spoken of her Son it is said she kept them and ponder'd them in her heart Luke II. 19. This is true hearing to ponder in our Minds what we hear to ponder the reasonableness of the things which are spoken to us in the Name of the Lord to ponder the consequences of them and what will become of us if we neglect things of that importance and to rouze our selves into to suitable Actions Actions that may bear witness of our deep Sense of our danger and that we are really concern'd about our everlasting State and that our resolutions are strong and invincible to secure God's Love Such men as they hear so they shall see in the City of our God They hear of very glorious things in the Mansions Christ is gone to prepare for all his true Disciples and their Eyes shall see them and they shall see more than their Ears did hear and look so long upon the charming Objects till their sight is turned into Ravishment and Extasie 3. The Multitude came to Christ to be healed So do you at this day come to the Ministers of the Gospel I hope with the same intent It 's true we cannot cure the Dropsie and Stone and Gout and Strangury and such other Diseases of the Body But we can cure Diseases in your Souls which are very like the Distempers I just now spoke of the Tympany of Pride the Fever of Lust the Dropsie of Covetousness the Leprosie of Sensuality the Consumption of Envy and the Stone in the Heart c. When I say we can cure all these the meaning is not by our own strength and power but by prescribing such Remedies and Medicines which if you will but take you will recover infallibly Infallible Medicines I know are matter of sport among Men but here we may talk for we have God on our side of infallible Remedies very seriously Cicero wonders since Man consists of Soul and Body that the Cure of the Body should be so industriously sought after and admired insomuch that they are not ashamed to referr Aesculapius into the Number of the Gods but few or none touble their Heads about curing their Souls but the Wonder will soon cease if we consider that Men feel the Diseases of their Bodies but have no sense of the Distempers of their Souls and indeed how should they feel them when they cover their sins with Names of Vertue and Titles of Innocence their Luxury by generosity their being ashamed of the Gospel of Christ by modesty their breaking their most solemn Vows and Promises by weakness and infirmity their notorious mispending their time and extravagance in their Speeches Dresses and Behaviour by Christian liberty their Covetousness by discretion c. To be cured of your Sins which are the Diseases of your Souls the first thing to be done is to take off the Vizour from them to abjure the false Glosses and to renounce the soft Interpretations you put upon them And yet after all one cannot but wonder that at this time of day there should be so many Souls sick Is there no Balm in Gilead Are there no Physicians there Yes yes There is Balm in Gilead there are Physicians and very faithfull ones But O Jerusalem Jerusalem How often would I have gather'd thy Children as a Hen doth gather her Chickens and you would not Ay! that 's the dreadfull Cause why so many of you are sick and sick to death and find no cure There are excellent Medicines given there are admirable Remedies prescribed but like untowardly Patients you will not make use of the Physick that 's administred to you and thus you perish and thus you are undone But 4. St. Luke takes notice that when Christ intended to deliver this Sermon he was a whole Night before engaged in Prayer to God Surely this was to teach us not to attempt or begin any thing of Concernment without Prayer This is to be observed both in rellgious and civil matters Even before you go to Prayer send up some short Ejaculations in your mind to God to give you Hearts to pray and Power and Wisdom to offer to him the desires of your Hearts Before you read a Chapter in the Bible beg of God to enlighten your Minds and to work upon your Wills that you may chearfully do what he requires of you in his Word and to bestow spiritual Wisdom upon you that you may understand what you read Before you go to Church beg of him to give you attentive Minds sober Thoughts and a great sense of his Presence in the Assembly of the Saints Before you begin a religious Fast beg of him to quicken your Hearts to raise your Devotion to assist you with humble thoughts and to accept of your Humiliation and teach you to perform it so that it may be acceptable in his sight This Rule is to be observed in all other
watchfull and sober at least live in-offensive and without scandal and the ground upon which this piece of Humility rises is partly the secret defects the humble Man finds in himself and which he hath a greater sense of than of the faults of others and which really appear greater to him than the offences of other Men partly the secret Gifts and latent Vertues that may be for ought he knows in another Man Upon this Account the humble Person is to think of others better than of himself yet with this caution so to think of others better than of himself as not to run into despair nor to conceal or hide the Grace of God bestow'd upon him when the Edification of others requires a declaration of it as is evident from Psal. LXVI 16. and 1 Cor. XV. 10. And from hence flows 5. A holy Contentedness in the mean Condition God hath placed us in Humility is particularly seen in outward Poverty and he whom Providence hath brought to a very mean and low Estate in the World and who is contentedly poor is truly humble For he humbles himself under the mighty hand of God submits to his Will and bears it chearfully because he is confident it will work for his good The same is to be applied to other outward Afflictions The humble Man gives his back to the smiter and when he suffers he threatens not only from a sense of the Demerit of his sins which he knows have deserv'd worse Usages but from consideration of the mighty alteration of his condition when the Lord Jesus shall appear from Heaven to be admired in all his Saints Humility is more seen in bearing Afflictions and Reproaches and Injuries than any where In these cases for our thoughts to work downward and to strike the Soul into an humble Sense and to quiet her as a weaned Child this looks like the Humility of a Disciple of Christ 1 Pet. II. 19 20 21. But 6. And lastly This Humility is not complete without a chearfull and humble Submission to what God requires to be done Pride is the cause of Disobedience and because Men insolently oppose their Wills to God's Will They walk in the imagination of their hearts Hence we read Jer. XIII 15. Hear this and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken To shew that Pride causes Men to turn their backs to the wholsome Commands and Admonitions of the Lord And if this be the Nature of Pride it must necessarily be the Temper of Christian Humility chearfully and humbly to take Christ's Yoak upon us and let the Commands of the Gospel be never so contrary to the interest of Flesh and Blood where Humility reigns there none of those Commands will be grievous 1 John V. 3. This as near as I can guess is the true Idea of Christian Humility commanded in the Text for though it be no formal Command yet a Blessing being entailed upon the Vertue which Blessing is not to be had without the qualification it must be Tantamount to a Command But Why is this Humility call'd poverty in Spirit I answer Poverty it 's call'd 1. Because the humble Man hath no good thing of his own He carefully distinguishes what is God's and what is his own He is sensible that all the Evil he hath is his own and if what he may call his own be consider'd he will appear a very poor miserable Wretch destitute of Mercy and Favour and Comfort and fit only to fall a Prey to the rage of the Devil What good he hath or finds in himself he ascribes to the true cause God blessed for evermore Not I but the grace of God which was in me I Cor. XV. 10. He freely and feelingly acknowledges that he is nothing hath nothing and can do nothing that 's good without the power and influence of God He sees nothing in himself that can help or save or secure him All his riches hope life and power and strength and vertue is in Christ Jesus And having nothing of his own that he can boast of he may trâ—ly be call'd poor 2. Poor because he is always in want always in want of God's grace and goodness to guide him to lead him to conduct him to strengthen him to keep him to preserve him He is always begging always imploring the Divine goodness to remember him Begging is his Trade and Profession I mean begging the Mercy and Charity of the Father of Mercy and he gives not over begging till his Prayers be turn'd into everlasting Praises But he is not only poor but poor in Spirit 1. Because Humility must take up its chief Residence in his Spirit and inward Man Outward prostrations humiliations cringings bowings raggs a sordid habit sackcloath and the course cloath he wears signify nothing except the Soul or the Mind be lowly If that be so the outward Man will be truly so if the inward Man be a stranger to this Humility the leathern Girdle and the Garment of Camel's-hair without will soon be seen thorough And therefore the young Man in Cassian for all his frequent aggravations of his sins and wonderfull semblances of an humble mind discover'd his Hypocrisie when he could not endure a reproof from Serapion Lucian makes himself very merry with a Cynick a Man who pretended to more than ordinary Humility and Austerity of life A friend of his searching his Pockets and thinking to find there some old Raggs and mouldy Bread and the Parings of Cheese or some such stuff to his surprize found there a Bale of Dice a Box of Perfume and the Picture of his Mistriss A very fit Emblem of a Person who makes a shew of Humility without but within is self-conceited and an admirer of his own worth The heart must feel the power of this Virtue That 's the Garden where the Flower must grow and there it must take root if not it 's not a Plant of our heavenly Father's planting and a Christian may easily perceive that it is lodged in his inward Parts by the lowly and humble Thoughts he cherishes within It was from what he felt within that the Martyr said Lord I am Hell Thou art Heaven and another I am the most hypocritical Wretch not worthy that the Earth should bear me and a third I am the unfittest Man for so high an Honour as suffering for Christ that ever was appointed to it and a fourth writing to his Friend that was going to be burnt at the Stake for the Gospel of Christ O that my life and a thousand such Wretches lives might go for yours Why doth he suffer me and such other Caterpillars to live who can-do nothing but consume the Alms of the Church and take you away a mighty Workman and Labourer in his Vineyard The inward Humility sanctified these Expressions and whatever indiscretion might be in such Speeches the humble Sense of their own vileness within made them rational and elegant 2. Poverty in Spirit because this Humility is an
effect of God's spirit the Holy Ghost breathes upon the Soul and plants it there The Spirit of God disposes and inclines the Soul to these humble Sentiments scatters the strong holds of iniquity and the vain imaginations that exalt themselves against the Obedience of Christ Jesus throws down the high Conceits the man did formerly harbour in his mind and suggests to the Soul arguments to baffle and resist the Reasons of Flesh and Blood and of the World for where a Person endeavours to bring his Heart to an humble Temper the Devil is present with his Baits What will you be a Fool will you be laught at by your Neighbours what put up such affronts which no Flesh is able to endure what shew your self tame under such an Aspersion what will Men say of you But the Spirit of God teaches the Soul how to answer all such Objections with the Example and Command of Christ and the hope of the Grace and Glory of God And therefore this Humility is justly call'd Poverty in Spirit II. How the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs and upon what Account it belongs to them By the Kingdom of Heaven in Scripture particularly in the New Testament is meant sometime the Kingdom of Grace sometime the Kingdom of Glory The Kingdom of Grace is that sweet and gentle Government which Christ Jesus the Son of God the Head of his Church and the King of Saints doth by his Spirit exercise over his Disciples Followers and such as have given themselves up to his Conduct by which Spirit he teaches enlightens guides assists strengthens and comfort and preserves them makes them willing and obedient and communicate strength and life and power to them more or less according to the improvement of the Stock committed to their Trust. This is the Kingdom of Grace and in this Sense the Expression is used Matth. III. 2. Matth. XIII 44. and in other places The Kingdom of Glory is the future reward and recompence God intends and designs for those who have resolutely taken Christ's Yoak upon them even that Glory Honour and Immortality St. Paul speaks of Rom. II. 7. consisting in seeing God face to face and triumphing over Hell and Devils and enjoying him in whose Presence there is fulness of joy for ever This is the Kingdom of Glory and in this Sense we find the Phrases used Matth. VII 21. Matth. XIII 43. Matth. XIX 23. In both Senses the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the Poor in Spirit or to the Humble I. The Kingdom of Grace and this you cannot doubt of if you reflect upon the signal Favours God on this side Heaven confers on the Soul that 's truly humble To the humble he gives Grace saith St. Peter 1 Pet. V. 5. Nay more Grace as St. James notes Ch. IV. 6. according as this Humility takes deeper root or runs out into larger Branches The humble Man is dispos'd to receive the warmer and stronger influences of God's goodness and mercy The Soul that purifies and cleanses her self from all high and losty thoughts or rejoyces in her meanness and low Estate and being nothing renders her self apt and fit for the Almighty's abode in her and invites him to take possession of her and from God's dwelling there a Man may date a thousand Blessings To such a Person the Father of Lights communicates wonderfull Treasures to such there arises a light in darkness and into such low and humble Valleys the richest Showers and the clearest Rivers flow O that you were all sensible of this Truth O that you did but feel this Christian Humility working in your Souls You would find what Wisdom what spiritual Wisdom God would infuse into your Souls even that Wisdom which is from above first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated without partiality without hypocrisie full of good works James III. 17. I thank thee O Father that thou hast reveal'd these things unto Babes saith our Saviour Matth. XI 25. These Babes are the humble the poor in Spirit To these God reveals the heighth and breadth and depth and length of the love of God such may promise themselves the larger Portions of God's Spirit such Persons are most likely to grow in Grace to advance in Goodness to a rise to perfection and to be satisfied with the Corn of Heaven with Angel's Food Such a Soul is fitted for Universal Obedience the severest Laws of the Gospel go down with her and she embraces the Yoak with Joy Who can express the Comforts the Peace the Satisfaction that the humble feel It must needs be so for it 's the lowly in heart that are promised Rest for their Souls Matth. XI 29. Such get strength against their Corruptions Temptations Lusts and sinfull Inclinations such make a mighty progress in Goodness and get Courage in the greatest fiery Trials For this I might appeal to the Examples of the Saints of Old but I need not go so high I will appeal to the Experience of some pious Christians among us who feel what David said of himself O God mine heart is not haughty nor mine eyes losty surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a Child that 's wean'd of his mother Ps. CXXXI 1 2. Let such among you tell me when they have been in a very humble frame when they have had a lively sense of God's greatness and goodness and holiness and a very deep Sense of their own vileness have not you seen more of God than ever have not your Souls been satisfied as with marrow and fatness have not you been ready to go through Fire and Water for God have not you baffled and scorn'd the strongest assaults of the Devil and torn the snares and grins that were laid for you with as great ease as Sampson did his Bonds Have not your hearts been ready to leap within you and your joys like mighty Rivers been ready to overflow your Souls This is the Kingdom of Grace and this belongs to the humble But II. The Kingdom of Glory is theirs too their 's by purchase theirs by possession taken already in their Names theirs by promise theirs by way of earnest 1. Theirs by purchase and therefore call'd the purchased Possession Eph. I. 19. Purchas'd by whom Even by Christ Jesus the great Shepherd of the Sheep who laid down his life for them and thereby obtain'd an everlasting inheritance for them None could purchase it but he for whoever undertook the Work must be not only a Man innocent spotless and without sin and die but of that Divine excellency too as to be able to give his Death an infinite value the vertue whereof might extend it self to all Ages and to all sorts of Persons too This none could do but he that was the Son of God and the Son of David too He did it and wonderfull was the Enterprise nothing was ever attempted like it He died and purchas'd this Kingdom of Glory for the humble his purchase makes it theirs He was both able to
purchase it and when he had done to apply it to those for whom it was purchas'd If a rich Man buys an Estate for a Beggar the Beggar may justly call it his for he that had right and means and power and ability to buy it bought it for his Use. 2. Theirs by possession taken already in their Name The same Jesus that purchas'd this Kingdom for them he it is that hath taken possession of this Kingdom for them and in their Name For in my Father's house are many mansions If it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you saith Christ John XIV 2. All the Christian World knows that Christ ascended into Heaven There he actually enjoys the Kingdom of Glory which he keeps for the humble He is the great Trustee that secures and manages that vast Estate for their Use So that it may juâ—â—ly be call'd theirs because of the forerunner Jesus who is enter'd into Heaven being made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck as it is said Heb. VI. 20. There he appears for them as their Advocate and keeps their places for them against they come thither As a Guardian takes care and possession of the Orphan's Estate till the Pupil comes to Age so Christ takes possession of this Kingdom with an intent to deliver it up to the humble when they come in the Unity of the Faith unto a perfect Man in Christ Jesus to the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. IV. 13. 3. Theirs by promise for so we read Matth. XVIII 3 4. Except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Whosoever shall humble himself as this little Child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven He hath promis'd it who is able to give it even God who cannot be worse than his word The humble Man may depend upon this Promise more than he can upon Bonds and Bills and Securities that Men can give him of an Estate in the World God cannot fail him he cannot disappoint him He not only will not but cannot as the Apostle saith He cannot lye Tit. I. 2. because that would imply an imperfection If a Man of Honour doth faithfully promise his Neighbour a living a place or an office in his gift the Man makes bold to call it his for he hath confidence in his honesty and word knowing him to be a Person that stands upon his credit and reputation and scorns to do any thing that 's base and mean How much more then may the humble Soul call the Kingdom of Glory hers since the God the Fountain of Truth and Truth it self hath peremptorily said it shall fall to her share and though such Persons do not actually as yet enjoy it yet they shall enjoy it as surely as if they did already walk through that Jerusalem and view the Towers and Bullworks and all because they have to deal with a God who changes not Mal. III. 6. 4. Theirs by way of earnest In humane Contracts men give earnest and that makes the Bargain sure and tho' the Covenant God makes with Men is not such a formal Contract as is betwixt Man and Man in buying and selling yet some resemblance there is in that God a most bountifull Master is willing to give earnest to the humble Soul to assure her that this Kingdom of Glory shall be hers This earnest is his Spirit which is therefore call'd The earnest of our future inheritance Eph I. 14. This Spirit is no fancy but a real thing which the humble Soul feels as much as other Men do the moving of the Wind by the effects This Spirit of God is discover'd by its operations which are kindly and great and powerfull and make a very wonderfull alteration in the Soul for the better This Spirit works Grace and that Grace is the earnest of Glory III. How and in what manner a Title to this Kingdom makes the poor in Spirit or the Humble blessed In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men that may rejoyce much or who have very great reason to rejoyce or as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men not subject to Death or Corruption the word answers to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports a perfection or confluence of all good things The Isle of Cyprus was anciently call'd Macaria because of the mighty affluence and abundance of all good things that wer to be had there which was the cause why the Romans seiz'd it for their use But what is all this to the Kingdom of Heaven to the Kingdom of Grace and Glory Where all things that can make a Man truly and eternally happy do concur where there is no want of any thing that Reason can desire and all things that fill and satisfie the Soul are present where God gives himself the perfection of Beauty and Wisdom and Greatness and Love and Delight which gift as it is begun in the Kingdom of Grace so it shall be perfected in the Kingdom of Glory The humble Man is blessed 1. Blessed in himself 2. Blessed in the sight of God 3. Blessed in the Eyes of all good Men 4. blessed in the midst of all his outward Miseries 5. Blessed in the opinion of all Reprobates 6. Blessed because he hath a Title to the Kingdom of Heaven 1. Blessed in himself He hath reason to rejoice His humility gives him that content and secret Satisfaction that it may justly be call'd the Philosopher's-stone Content which surpasses all the Satisfaction that the luxurious the proud the voluptuous the sensual the carnal part of Mankind boasts of He hath Riches within and Pleasures within and a new Name within him even the white Stone which no Man knows save he who receives it Nor is he subject to corruption for when he dies he dies into an immortal life There is nothing of him dies but the garment of flesh nothing of him corrupts but the Clay and Dust he wears about him the earthly Tabernacle in which his Soul that noble Inhabitant lived decays and moulders and falls but his Soul at his Death is born again gets new life new light new irradiations nay and his Body must at last follow his Soul to Glory and therefore blessed blessed in himself for he feels that Bliss within which all the Gold of Ophir cannot purchase So true is that saying of our Saviour He that believes in me shall never die Joh. XI 26. 2. He is blessed in the sight of God God counts him so God looks upon him as happy and he must needs be so whom God judges to be so God cannot be mistaken He cannot be out in his Verdict He sees his heart sees the lovely the amiable the charming Vertue he is most enamour'd withal a Vertue very agreeable to his Divine Nature a Vertue which very much resembles the
of Charity And 4. It must be after that we find gentler means useless and ineffectual There are indeed some extraordinary occasions which require a present indignation as it was in the case of Zimri and Cozbi when Phineas executed Judgment Numb XXV 7. but ordinarily the rougher remedy is not to take place till the softer medicine be refused and scorn'd Matth. XVIII 15. And from hence 2. You may easily guess at the nature of that Meekness which my Text saith makes its Votaries blessed It s Definition or Description rather is briefly this It is a temper of Mind a Grace or Gift of God's Spirit whereby a man is enabled to curb and subdue and moderate his Anger Wrath and Passion and Peevishness and cholerick Disposition when it is necessary and to behave himself with Calmness Gentleness and great Modesty and Moderation in his Speeches and Answers in his Actions and Transactions with his Neighbours I call it a gift of God's Spirit because though some are naturally meek and no Choler seems to mingle with their Blood and Complexion and though they are born as it were into Vertue yet even this natural Meekness must be resin'd and polish'd by Grace and the Spirit of God before it can be truly acceptable to God in Christ Jesus This Spirit must inspire it with Wisdom and Discretion when and where it is to keep within and when and where it is to go beyond it 's natural bounds when and where it is to use a Staff and when and where it is to turn that Staff into a Rod. Divines do commonly reckon up five degrees of this Christian Qualification 1. Conversing with and speaking to all sorts of persons calmly gently modestly without Wrath or Anger or Rage or Fury according to the command Tit. III. 2. Shew all Meekness unto all men 2. By our calm and soft Speeches and Answers to endeavour to break and asswage the Rage and Anger of our incensed and offended Neighbours according to Solomon's rule Prov. XV. 1. A soft answer turns away or ought to turn away Wrath. 3. Calmly to bear and to endure injuries and affronts offered to us in word or deed without rendring railing for railing or reviling for reviling for so we read 1 Pet. III. 8 9. Love as Brethren be pitifull be courteous not rendring evil for evil nor railing for railing 4. Even to rejoyce in this calm bearing and enduring of injuries according to the Precept we have 1 Pet. IV. 13 14. which imports Rejoycing in such cases in as much as we are partakers of Christ's sufferings for so Christ suffered Reproaches Threatnings Calumnies Injuries c. and committed himself to him that judges righteously 1 Pet. II. 23. 5. By acts of Meekness to endeavour to overcome our enraged and ill-natured Neighbours according to the rule Rom. XII 20 21. If thine Enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Be not overcome with evil but overcome the evil with wood These are the degrees of which I shall have occasion to speak more particularly when I come to explain v. 22. In the mean while give me leave to tell you that he that arrives to one of these degrees must not rest there but proceed till he come to the top of the Ladder This is the race a Christian is to run in He that will not go on to the furthermost Stage of his course hath reach'd the first and second in vain The difficulty of the task must be no discouragement if it be we are not truly sensible of the blessedness which attends this Meekness which is the second point I am to speak to II. Wherein the blessedness of meek Christians doth consist 1. This Vertue renders us acceptable to God and Man How acceptable it makes us to God St. Peter shews 1 Pet. III. 4. where we read that a meek and quiet Spirit is in the Sight of God of great price God sets a mighty value upon it and the vertue makes men great and honourable in his Eyes What pains do poor Mortals take to gain credit and reputation with men of high rank and quality when they are to act or speak or do any exercise before them they do their best and all the powers of their Soul are employ'd to come off with Applause But how few take the way to gain credit and reputation with God the great rewarder of them that diligently seek him To be meek is the way to his esteem and to gain his approbation and commendation Meekness exalts the Soul and hath such charms about it as make a glorious God look with a very favourable Eye upon the person adorn'd with this wedding Garment It s the very Livery of Christ's Disciples the mark of his Sheep and therefore cannot but be acceptable to the great Shepherd of Mens Souls Add to all this That it makes us acceptable to men too not only because most men had rather deal with a meek than with a fiery or cholerick Person but because the vertue hath such advantages in it as even force esteem and veneration Brutish and sensual Men esteem nothing that serves to aggrandize the Soul and indeed their Verdict is so inconsiderable that it is not worth regarding But Men of Sense and Reason and Understanding cannot but value the Person in whom this Meekness shines it being an argument of the noblest Conquest greater certainly than Pompey or Caesar could boast of Esau though a profane Person could not but admire it in his Brother Jacob Gen. XXXIII 4. And if the great Saviour of the World was justly counted blessed because he grew in favour with God and Man the meek Christian must needs be so for his Meekness hath the same Vertue and renders him acceptable to God and Man 2. It fits and dispose a man for the influx of Celestial Wisdom for it is of the same nature with Humility and that as I said before prepares for the richer influences of God's Communications Humility and Meekness like Twins live and die together He that would be meek must first learn to be humble for it's Pride makes men fretfull and fly out into Passion and as these two Vertues go hand in hand together so they participate of the same blessings Elisha 2 Kings III. XV. was unfit for the Illapses of God's Spirit while he was in a Passion and therefore a Minstrell was brought to play before him to compose his Thoughts to allay the Storms his Soul was in and to rock the Waves of his disorder'd Passions into a calm and when this was done the Spirit descended upon him in gifts of Prophecy It is this Spirit of God that must illuminate the Mind and fill it with Celestial Wisdom and no subject so fit for it as a meek and quiet Spirit This is no new Divinity but as old as David's time for thus he saith Psal. XXV 9. The meek will he guide in judgment the meek will he teach his ways And this even some Heathen Philosophers
have been sensible of and with them agrees the Author of the Wisdom of Solomon ch I. 4. Turbulent Passions keep out this Spirit of God But where the Soul is calm this Spirit spreads his wings over it as a Hen over her Brood and teaches her the mysteries of Godliness displays to her the glories of the Gospel represents to her the designs of God's Providences given her a lively sight of God's Goodness and the Reward to come and at once discovers to her and presses upon her the powerfull arguments of the Love of God which prevail with her to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes And since the meek have the honour of being blessed with this Celestial Wisdom whatever the World thinks of them they must be blessed and happy III. Blessed they are because they shall inherit the Earth and how they do that must be our last enquiry 1. Some by inheriting the earth understand the millennary Reign or the Reign of the Saints here on Earth for a thousand Years But surely this cannot be the meaning of it for if there be such a millennary Reign which I will neither affirm nor deny it is evident from Rev. XX. 4. that that Reign is confin'd to Martyrs and those that have been beheaded for the Testimony of Jesus and surely men may be meek and expect a reward of God without being Martyrs Therefore others more justly understand it of the present Earth we all inhabit and referr the blessedness here spoken of to the quiet possession the meek enjoy or have of the blessings God's liberal hand bestows upon them For though sometimes they lose all they have in the world though they are harrass'd by their enemies though their Meekness is sometime their loss though barbarous men sometime take advantage of their meekness to undo them yet for the most part they quietly and contentedly enjoy what God gives them be it more or less to be sure they have the best means in their hands to possess what they have in peace And that 's their Meekness which makes them recede frequently from their right for peace and quiet 's sake and God will not suffer them to be losers by their Meekness and therefore rewards that with content which they seem to want in other things it being his method to take care of and to fight for those who will not fight for themselves But though the meek may in this sense be said to inherit the Earth 1. With respect to their quiet Possession of the temporal things God gives them 2. With respect to the favour of men God makes them Heirs of 3. With respect to the success that some times attends their temporal concerns as a present recompence of their Vertue as it was said of a great man in this Kingdom that rose from a small to a very great Estate and used to overcome the malice of his Enemies with Meekness and Patience that he never sued any man nor any man ever sued him Though I say we must grant that in this sense the meek may be said to inherit the Earth Yet 2. This sense methinks in this place is not great enough where we find our Saviour intends to encourage his followers to the noblest Enterprizes by the noblest and most excellent Rewards When David spoke these words The meek shall inherit the earth it 's like he meant the Land of Canaan and a quiet Possession of their own in that Country but as the Land of Canaan was an Emblem of the Land of eternal Glory so Christ whose Province it was to bring Life and Immortality to light must be supposed to speak of this Earth in a more sublime and exalted sense and therefore by the Earth here must be understood something greater even the happy Regions of immortal Bliss call'd sometimes the new Heaven and the new Earth Rev. XXII 1. sometimes a heavenly Country Heb. XI 16. sometimes the Land of the living at least in the sense of some of the Fathers Psal. CXVI 9. even those Regions which were prefigured by the Land of Promise by the Land that flow'd with Milk and Honey In a word the Holy Ghost in Scripture loves to express those happy Regions of eternal Love and Felicity by various Names sometimes by a River because the Joys are in a perpetual Flux and Motion there sometimes by a Mountain or Hill because the glorified Saints will be exalted to Seats high and lofty and overlooking all the World sometimes by a City because of the Unanimity of the Inhabitants sometimes by a Kingdom because of the Splendor and Glory of that State and here by the Earth because of the affluence of all things that can make the Meek rich and blessed and happy And they are said to inherit this glorious Land 1. Because as Children they have a right to it while they live here as a Son hath a right to his Father's Land 2. Because after death they shall actually possess this Estate of their Father which is in Heaven so that their inheriting speaks them Children Sons and Daughters of the Almighty to whose share the rich Demesnes of the other World will fall not after their Father's death who is immortal and cannot die but after their own death and this shews the difference betwixt inheriting Estates here on Earth and inheriting the Regions of eternal Bliss There Men inherit after their Father's death here after their own death Inferences 1. It 's evident from hence how improper and unfit a solitary life is for the practice of the noblest Precepts of Christianity Meekness and subduing our wrathfull cholerick peevish and angry Inclinations is certainly one of the most excellent rules of our holy Religion But how shall he that retires from all company lives in a desart in a wilderness in a wood where he lives ' out of all converse how shall he live up to the strictness of this rule who hath none to offend him none to displease him none to affront him none to do him an injury none to talk impertinently before him none to oppose or cross him Its temptations must try this vertue To be chast upon Mount Athos where no Women come to be sober in Scythia where no Wine no strong Liquors grow is pitifull and mean and at best but a negative innocence but with Lot to be chast in Sodom sober with Anacharsis in debauch'd Athens with the Salamander to lie in the Fire without being consumed and like Fishes to swim in the Salt Sea and to contract nothing of its Saltness this is vertue this is heroick this is Christian like Provocations Insolencies Injuries these are the Touchstone that must shew whether our Meekness be genuine or not The most cholerick Man alive may fansie himself to be the meekest Creature under Heaven while there is none to disturb or disorder his Passions But in your Trade in your Commerce in your Traffick in your Callings and Employments in Company in Society of others when you are slighted
the Motto of the Plague written over it Lord have mercy upon him The Scripture generally makes him who is dead to Righteousness a very miserable man gives so dismal an account of him that nothing can be supposed more wretched You know the Parable of the Prodigal till he got a hunger and thirst after Righteousness the holy Ghost represents him as a very contemptible person as one sent into the field to keep swine and that would have fill'd his belly with the husks the swine did feed on but none gave unto him Luke XV. 14 15. nay v. 32. he is pronounced a dead man dead to the favour of God and the influences of God's Spirit and to any right to the precious promises of the Gospel so is the man that hath no hunger at all after Righteousness and if his appetite to it be weak and feeble still it s an argument of sickness and neither the one nor the other is a sign of bliss and happiness 2. He that doth not hunger or thirst after Righteousness is a Fool so Solomon tells us Prov. I. 7. For the wisdom he speaks of there is this Righteousness and he that despises it hates his own soul and loves death Prov. VIII 36. than which there cannot be a greater argument of madness and surely this is no sign of blessedness Wisdom indeed such a man hath who is a stranger to this hunger and thirst but it is earthy sensual devilish Jam. III. I5 Earthy i. e. he minds nothing but earth his contrivances are altogether how to compass the contents and pleasures of this life the world is his highest and chiefest good the fashions of this world are the rules of his life he governs himself by the punctilio's of State and Honour and worldly Policy he doth as the world doth and what worldly men say or do he imitates and in endeavouring after temporal advantages he stands not upon the stricter rules of Conscience It is sensual too all his caterings are for the flesh and how to live easie and delicately is all his care He suffers himself to be discourag'd from things truly good by carnal reasons and if his flesh and carnal desires be but gratified he is pleased and more than pleased than with all the comforts of the Holy Ghost His flesh is his sovereign and the Lord that rules in him and its Dictates are the Law he lives by It is devilish too for having no hunger no thirst after Righteousness the Devil is his friend his companion though he sees him not but he may feel him by the suggestions which he yields to and whereby his mind is rendred vain and averse from real Goodness That Aversion comes by the Devils Instigation and in rellishing nothing but what pleads in favour of the brutish part about him he suffers himself to be made a Prisoner to that Conqueror becomes his Slave and Captive and surely such a man cannot possibly be happy and consequently without this hunger and thirst after Righteousness the only thing that can make a man truly wise a man is a stranger to real Bliss to be sure he is not capable of being enrich'd by the Consolations of God nor is God concern'd to fill him in order to this bliss which leads me to the III. Proposition viz. That the happiness of those who truly hunger and thirst after Righteousness consists in being filled Filled How 1. Their very hunger and thirst after Righteousness shall be and is a satisfaction to them For it is a sign of Grace a sign that God loves them a sign that he visits them with the favour he bears to his own people and that they are born again that there is a signal alteration wrought in their natures and that their deceitfull lusts and unruly desires of the flesh are abated in order to a total destruction This hunger and thirst after Righteousness being predominant in them is an item that God's Spirit hath got the better of corrupted nature and from hence flows a calmness and serenity into their Souls and when the enemy beats them out of all their strong holds and they can fasten on nothing to give themselves comfort this hunger and thirst after Righteousness upholds their hope and supports their confidence when they are so weakned that they dare not pretend to St. Paul's having labour'd more than all to the Apostle's invincible patience under injuries to Zacharias and Elizabeth's walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless to Anna's serving the Lord with fasting and prayer Night and Day to the faith of the Thessalonians which grew exceedingly to the Galatians readiness to pluck out their own eyes and give them to their Teachers or to the Charity of the Macedonians who did to their Power nay beyond their Power though I say the hungry Soul from an humble sense of her frailty dares not pretend to these Accomplishments yet this Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness in the midst of all assaults of the Devil is the sacred Anchor which she can make use of and thereby preserve her Vessel from sinking so that this very Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness is filling 2. They shall be filled with Righteousness that goodness they did thirst after they shall have great store of all their faculties shall be filled with it and like the rich ointment poured out on Aaron's Head and running down upon his Beard and from thence into the very Skirts of his cloathing it shall perfume their outward and inward Man and fill both their Hearts and Lives what they ask for they shall have what they seek they shall find and the Door they knock at shall be open'd to them They shall find goodness growing in them as the Lilies and spreading its Roots as the Cedars in Libanon Their desire is that God may totally subdue their hearts and accordingly their Souls shall become Temples of the Holy Ghost they earnestly with that every imagination which exalted it self against the obedience of Christ Jesus may become subject to him and they shall have their Heart's desire and the request of their Lips shall be granted them They shall be filled with the spirit by degrees so filled that in time they shall be abounding in the Work of the Lord flourish in the Courts of the Lord's House bringing forth fruit in old Age till they become full of good Works and Alms-deeds as Dorcas was Acts IX 36. and old Disciples as Mnason was Acts XXI 16. The duties they perform but weakly now they shall perform with greater vigour and with their vertues their comfort shall encrease and the consolations of Christ shall abound in them 2 Cor. I. 5. Thus they shall be filled in this Life But is this promise ever fulfilled to any will some say all I shall say is go and ask those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness and they will tell you by Experience in the Psalmist's Language Psal. LXXXIV 11. The Lord is a Sun and Shield he will give
mercifull shall obtain Mercy And here what I noted in the preceeding Beatitudes holds good here too that the recompence here promised relates both to this and the other Life And as to this present World 1. The mercifull Man may promise himself great Comfort in his Trouble whether it be sickness or some other sad accident to this purpose we have an excellent saying Psal. XLI 1 2 3. Blessed is he that considers the poor the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon Earth and thou wilt not deliver him into the hand of his enemies The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness These words are not much regarded because the generality of men have but a very low opinion of the promises of the Bible though they believe it to be the Word of their God to which God will stand yet they dare not trust his Promises and so it fares with this that I have mention'd and yet would you make the experiment with an humble Confidence in God's veracity you would certainly find extraordinary Assistances in the time of sickness I will not say that you would recover without means or Physick but your sickness would either become more easie and tolerable or you would recover sooner or you would prepare for a long life your Acts of Mercy would be your security that you should find mercy in your distress This is a great truth and as loath as some of you may be to believe it I might furnish you if it were needfull with variety of Examples and instances of men who have found it by experience but God having asserted and promis'd it it is enough to engage you to believe it and to make the Trial. 2. This mercy God rewards signally even in this present World by blessing the mercifull Man's endeavours not only by turning the hearts of other men toward him into mercy when he stands in need of it but by encreasing or prospering his Substance Mercifulness is the true Art of thriving in the World what a multitude of examples could I alledge here of Persons who have given away either the tenth or the fifth Part or more of their incomes to pious Uses and have been blessed even to admiration It is a mighty mistake that you will be losers by being very mercifull Every thing you take in hand will prosper the better for it except your unbelief or wavering and trembling faith should hinder God from doing any mighty Works for you In shewing mercy you make God your debtor you lend him and he is concerned even in this life to repay you with Usury Prov. XVIII 17. Men that consider not the operations of God's hand will continue Infidels under all these asseverations but we know and find it so and are confident that there is one That scattereth and yet increases scatters in Charity and encreases in Temporal mercies The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be water'd himself Prov. XI 24 25. But 3. The greatest mercy is yet behind even the everlasting Mercy of God in the next life which the mercifull Man will certainly obtain God drops only some mercies on the mercifull man here but he will visit him with Showers in the other World He will take him into the bosom of mercy encompass him with mercy on every side and make mercy his Crown and Diadem He will be mercifull to his sins and remember them no more The mercies the Father of mercy sheds on him here are Items of larger mercies hereafter and what is but a Brook and a River here will be all Sea and Ocean there The mercifull Man will find God exceeding mercifull to him when he dies and his Soul enters into the Regions of Eternity a mercy which surpasses all the mercies he enjoy'd here to be sure the Souls in Hell the Spirits in the Everlasting Prison would value God's mercy upon their leaving this World at a higher Rate than all the rich Blessings they glutted themselves with on this side the Grave Here the mercies God sends upon the mercifull Soul are mixt with Clouds and Crosses in the next life they will be pure uninterrupted endless high and like the God that bestows them infinite and the mercifull Man will see and taste and feel the meaning of that glorious Promise Isa. LIV. 8 9 10. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee For this is as the Waters of Noah unto me as I have sworn that the Waters of Noah should no more cover the Earth so have I sworn that I will not be wrath with thee nor rebuke thee For the Mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my Peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Inferences I. If mercy be the duty of every private Christian it must be the duty of whole Churches too Cruelty can be no mark of a true Church that 's not the Livery of the Prince of Peace but of him whose Name is Legion To destroy men's lives upon the Account of Religion can never be agreeable to the Nature of that God who waits to be gracious and to call for Fire from Heaven upon Samaritans because they will not acknowledge the High-Priest of Jerusalem to be infallible surely is not to know what manner of Spirit we are of A late Historian of the Roman Communion in his Life of Sixtus Quintus tells us of a very strange Maxim the Court of Rome makes the great Rule of her Practice That the Turks must be set upon with Arms Heathens with Arguments and Doctrine but Eretici col fuoco Hereticks with Fire If by Fire were meant that lambent one of Love and Charity we could not but highly extol the Motto but when that Church hath used so much material Fire whatever her Language may be at this present we have still reason to suspect that this Maxim is to be understood in the worst sense and when her unmercifull Practices and which she yet never publickly disown'd and renounc'd stand still upon record when we read of her proceedings against the poor Waldenses and Albigenses of whom more than a hundred thousand were destroy'd her St. Dominick being the Leader and Incendiary when we know the dreadfull Court of Inquisition is in force in Spain in Italy and in Portugal when we read of the fatal St. Bartholomew the Massacre of Paris in the Year 1572 where above 70000 Protestants were barbarously murther'd for which the Pope with his Cardinals gave solemn Thanks to God and when a Massacre nearer home lives still in our memories even that of Ireland in the Year 1641 where according to the common Account 200000 innocent Protestants were inhumanely butcher'd for which
the shining and burning Lights of our Reformation and I chuse to alledge their Examples because I have spoken just before in the Praise of that Reformation But I fear Examples will do no good if God's Command and Christ's Promise and your Duty and everlasting Interest cannot prevail with you And yet when by the Grace and Assistance of God you are become bountifull according to this Rule the other Acts of Mercy I mention'd in the beginning of this Discourse must not be neglected particularly the Acts of Mercy to the Souls of your Neighbours There is nothing no Vertue that abounds more in incouragements both Temporal and Eternal than this mercifull Temper God hath dress'd it in such Charms that it cannot but appear amiable to the Attentive Considerer To shew mercy to others is the way to be mercifull to your selves We call upon you often to have mercy on your Souls and your mercy to others is a sign that you study Self-preservation Hereby you secure your own Mercies make them firm and durable and you establish your selves in the favour of God and the good opinion of sober Men And therefore what should hinder you from taking fire by this Discourse and suffering your Hearts to be warmed into Mercy and Compassion How chearfully may you go about it when there is a Voice behind you calling upon you Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtain mercy SERMON VIII St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God PVritan was once a Nick-name a Name of Reproach intended I suppose to traduce those who made a great shew of external Piety but were strangers to good Morals stumbled at a Straw and leapt over a Block strained at a Gnat and swallow'd down Camels prayed to God and reviled his Church scrupled a Ceremony and cheated the next Neighbour they met withall What justice there was in giving this Title to a certain Party whether they deserved it or not and whether many of those that were called so were not very upright and truly pious Men I shall not now enquire but sure I am that this Name rightly understood and taken in that sense it naturally bears or should bear is what every Christian ought to be ambitious of Purity is what every good Man must and doth desire and indeed his goodness is mere vanity and shew if Purity be not the great object of his love A true Puritan and a true Christian are convertible Terms and he that laughs at this Character understands not the Religion he is baptized into He that renounces Purity renounces his Baptism and whatever his outward Profession may be he is a meer Infidel under a borrow'd Title Purity is that which the Christians of old did triumph in not in the Name but in the Thing and he that neglects it must needs continue a stranger to all solid Consolation As ridiculous as it appears to carnal Men it is our greatest security pur-blind Souls may not see the Beauty of it but he that is Truth it self assures us that it is the way to real Bliss Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God The method in handling these words must be the same with that I used in the Explication of the preceeding Beatitudes and that which any Man that hears or reads these words would naturally desire to be satisfied in is I. The Nature of this Purity wherein it consists and who the pure in heart are II. Upon what account we cannot suppose those blessed who are not pure in heart for that 's implied here III. How the pure in heart shall see God I. The Nature of this Purity wherein it consists and who the pure in heart are Children know that by the Heart in Scripture is for the most part meant the Soul the Spirit and the inward Man and so a pure Heart is a pure Mind a pure Soul and a pure Conscience as we find it called 1 Tim. III. 9. 2 Tim. I. 3. 2 Pet. III. 1. and the true ingredients of this inward Purity are as follows 1. An antipathy to sinfull Thoughts or a setled abhorrency of such thoughts desires passions and affections as are manifestly contrary to the Will of God Purity imports cleansing and that the thing which is cleansed is pure from something and the unclean thing here is evil thoughts not their bare coming in but concurring with them which the Heart must be pure from A pure Heart is an Enemy to impure Speeches and all impure and sinfull Actions but more immediately to sinfull Thoughts and Desires which are the Parents and Causes of the other so that the pure Heart nips the Evil in the Bud and is so far from yielding deliberately to a bad Action or an undecent Expression that it dreads an evil Thought All men it's true hate some evil Thoughts or other and there is scarce any Man so debaucht or vitious but hates the thought of murthering his Father and Mother or the thought of some monstrous ingratitude or the thought of doing hurt to an innocent Babe in the Cradle but this doth not make them pure in Heart and therefore this Purity must extend to other indeed all the Laws of God without which there would be no distinction no difference betwixt the Saint and the Sinner the latter pretending to the hatred of some evil Thoughts and Desires as well as the other So then this Purity imports an antipathy not only to thoughts of unnatural Crimes but to lascivious covetous malitious revengefull proud foolish vain imperious romantick Thoughts even before they break out into Words and Actions to thoughts whereby wronging defrauding slandering abusing reviling of our Neighbours and neglect of our spiritual and everlasting Concerns are suggested to us in a word to all thoughts which are injurious to God to our Neighbour or to the interest of our Souls for these assented to defile the heart Mark VII 21 22. Such thoughts like Flies or Bees may buz and hum about the Mind but if the Mind drives them away as Abraham did the Birds from the Sacrifice the Heart loses nothing of its Purity The mind may be assaulted with evil Thoughts the Assaults do not presently render it impure for if it hold out against them gives no consent no approbation shews them no countenance no favour no respect but that like Bullets shot against a Wall of Brass they fall off as fast as they are shot the Heart still continues pure and therefore David expresses the Purity of his Heart by this very Character I hate vain thoughts Psal. CXIX 113. and to this purpose is that Expostulation of God in Jeremy Chap. IV. 14. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee It 's giving them lodging and entertainment that pollutes the Mind but if they knock at the Door and are either permitted no entrance or are thrust out the Heart preserves its Purity 2. A pure Heart imports also a Purity from sinister Ends
or Aims or Intentions especially in religious Actions This must needs be the intent of our great Master here since we see he finds fault so often with Men that aimed to be seen of Men to have Glory of Men to gain the Applause and Commendations of Men and designed their Profit and Gain in Actions relating to Devotion The Christian that 's free from such sinister Aims in praying praising fasting giving of Alms preaching speaking to others of his Experiences and hath nothing before his Eyes but the Glory of God the good of his Neighbour the peace of his own Conscience and the Salvation of his own Soul may justly be said to be pure in Heart and this is agreeable to that simplicity which we hear so often press'd and which the Apostles did so much rejoyce in 2 Cor. I. 12. Without this our services want that Sincerity which must make them amiable to the searcher of hearts and the Apostle insists upon it Rom. XII 9. when he saith Let love be without dissimulation and since love to God is expressed by our religious exercises it must necessarily follow these must be free from sinister ends which if they be not they fall under the brand and character of Dissimulation 3. A pure heart delights in holy Thoughts These are Meat and Drink to it and such a person delights in thinking of the works of God and the operations of his hands of his will and of his commands of his promises and of his threatnings of his various providences and dispensations of Heaven and eternal happiness These Thoughts wonderfully purifie the heart and keep it clean these keep up the Spirit of Religion and make the soul a fit temple for the Deity to lodge in it 's true there is no man so holy and who lives in the world or hath a lawfull calling but must think of his concerns in the world how to manage them to the good of his family and relations and others such thoughts are very necessary in order to a prudent ordering of our affairs and without doubt are allowable and lawfull for which of you intending to build a tower sits not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it saith our Saviour Luk. XIV 28. But all this may be done and yet the heart delight in holy thoughts in these more than in the other in these for pleasure in the other for necessity to this purpose Solomon The thoughts of the righteous are right Prov. XII 5. but St. Paul more emphatically 2 Cor. IV. 18. We look not so much at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen Looking here is thinking and there is no beholding things invisible but by contemplation of the Heart and Mind Contemplation represents things eternal in lively colours and in seeing these the primitive Believers rejoyced more than in gazing on the riches and glories of this visible world temporal things they thought on by the by but the strength of their thoughts was reserved for the other A pure heart is a heart enamour'd with God a heart that loves nothing like him a soul whose secret desires are after him and whose desires are strong and vehement and though it hath obligations to love the creature yet it is in subordination to him and for him who is altogether lovely a heart which discovers its love not only by external obedience but by inward breathings and sighs and groans which cannot be uttered and loves any thing that belongs to him his word his laws his sacraments his faithfull ministers and those that truly fear him what this inward love is the admirable David describes at large Psal. CXIX and when in this Psalm you read such expressions as these With my whole heart have I sought thee v. 10. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times v. 20. Horror hath taken hold of me because of the wicked that forsake thy law v. 53. The law of thy mouth is dearer unto me than thousands of gold and silver v. 72. my soul fainteth for thy salvation v. 81. O how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day v. 97. How sweet are thy words unto my mouth yea sweeter than honey unto my taste v. 103. I say when you read such expressions as these you may guess at the nature of this love which purifies the heart Cassianus hath an observation which I cannot pass by without making some remarks upon it and it is this That the greatest sign of a pure heart is when that inward purity influences our very dreams and that a man instead of dreaming of trifles and impertinencies dreams of God and spiritual objects The observation seems a little odd because in dreams the fancy plays her Mistress reason because the bodily organs the tools whereby she works are asleep suspending her operations and dreams we know depend much upon the constitution and complexion of the body and yet there is some truth in it for if as Solomon notes Eccles. V. 3. A dream comes through multitude of business Men have been engaged in in the day time or from things they have heard or seen or discours'd of it may very well be that a person who hath got a habit of contemplating things divine and heavenly whose thoughts are taken up all day with spiritual objects may find a tincture of all this in his very dreams and the things he most delighted in and was most conversant with may present themselves to his fancy and there appear in lively shapes and dresses in the night and I do not doubt where a man could arrive to that felicity as to dream for the most part of Heaven and a future Happiness and pray and praise God in his dreams whenever his Imagination wakes in his sleep as it would argue that the person makes religion his business so it would be a very good sign of Purity of heart and that his heart and affections are truly set upon God but I will lay no stress upon this observation because it hath not the Scripture for its guide the characters I have given of the pure in heart are warranted by the word of God and in these we cannot be mistaken and those who are so are certainly blessed But then II. If the pure in heart are blessed those that are not so or will not be so cannot be happy which is the second point I am to speak to and I shall evince it by these following familiar arguments 1. Such persons cannot converse with God in this converse mans happiness consists and the reason why they cannot is because their hearts are impure Can two walk together except they be agreed saith God Amos III. 3. Purity and Impurity are incapable of communion When God converses with man he takes possession of the heart there he dwells there is his seat but if that be impure and full of darkness God avoids the infected place In this
face That seeing him in the everlasting kingdom imports a comprehension They comprehend in some small degree here what is the depth the height the length and breadth of the love of God but then they will understand perfectly all the mysteries of his nature providence attributes and love to them in Christ Jesus And from this sight must necessarily arise joy inexpressible Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor is the heart of man able to conceive The Sun beams are amiable and pleasing here but how would a man be surprized if he were at the spring of that universal fire and saw how it rises and how it is managed So God is very lovely to the pure in heart when they see him here but when they shall come near that inaccessible Light and be perfectly united to him who can express the satisfaction indeed it cannot be express'd for it is immense and infinite Inferences 1. Here we see what a jewel that man enjoys that is possess'd of this inward purity This purity of heart is a treasure which no man knows save he who receives it Comfort your selves Christians with it comfort your selves having this Purity you are rich in the midst of your Poverty and enjoy more than those who boast of Lands and Houses I know the world laughs at this but let them laugh on the time will come when this Purity will stand you in better stead than your carnal Friends and Relations Men may think they shall be able to deal with God as they do with men here on Earth whose mouths they can stop with fair words or with a Bribe But this is vain and foolish to a Prodigy Is God a Man Is he to be imposed upon Can Gold blind his Eyes or if it could where would you have it when you are depriv'd and dispoil'd of all Is not he the searcher of hearts Can you deceive him who sees through all your hypocrisie Purity of heart is that which he requires and not only requires it but is willing to assist you in the getting of it and without this inward Purity he will know none of you but if this be the dress of your minds and souls the doors of his banqueting house will fly open to you and all the enemies you have on earth or in Hell shall not be able to keep you out 2. Here is the spring of true Religion a pure heart If that be pure the outward man will be so too If that be unclean the outward whiteness will never pass for currant in Heaven The Pharisees exceeded all the men of the age they lived in in outward sanctity notwithstanding all this the son of God who saw their hearts and the impurity of their souls calls them serpents and a generation of vipers Matth. XXIII 33. There are some sins so purely the sins of the heart that the heart can consummate and finish them without the help of the body such are Pride Lust Covetousness and Discontent because Providence crosses our designs and bitter Envy and black malice and rejoycing at our Neighbours misfortune c. These lying at the heart and being cherished there shed a poisonous influence upon the outward devotion and consequently render the external worship though never so specious ineffectual and a sacrifice of Fools To pray like a Saint and to breath revenge like a Turk outward Love to good men and secret fondness to sinfull Lusts and Pleasures of the world outward strictness and inward loosness complying with God without and with the Devil within a punctual observance of outward duties and neglect of mortifying our secret Lusts such as Ambition Self-conceitedness Self-admiration lascivious Thoughts and Desires c. is the true complexion of Hypocrisie Therefore To be a Saint the heart must be purified for sins like fatal diseases invade the Vitals first before they appear outwardly And as in such dangerous distempers of the body which first seize the Heart and the Garrison of Life and then discover themselves in little blisters and boyles in the skin he that should lay a Plaister to those boyles and use repercussives to strike them in cannot be said to cure the distemper So he that is diseased with sin which creeps inwardly and infects the soul and becomes manifest at last in the outward man he that doth only restrain the outward acts and uses means of grace only to cut off the outward excrescences but takes nothing inwardly to eradicate the distemper out of his heart and mind makes but an imperfect cure and for all the outward applications will still be in danger of Death even Death eternal It 's true the wise man crys out Prov. XX. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin which seems to imply an impossibility of making the heart pure But this he speaks with respect to the rigour of the law not with regard to the equity of the Gospel Go to the strictness of the thing no man can say he hath so purified his heart that he is perfectly free from all vain and evil thoughts or that he is never surprized into an impertinent and foolish imagination This the holiest man alive cannot say But then in a Gospel sense it is not only possible to purifie the heart but a duty i. e. so to purifie it as to arrive to an habitual delight in holy serious and heavenly thoughts and to an habitual aversion of the Mind and Heart and inward Man from any thing that is directly contrary to the Will of God And this habitual Purity is consistent with surprizes of evil Thoughts and Desires when a bright gilded Temptation strikes the Heart and dazzles the Mind and inclines the Will to consent But then in Persons where the Grace of God works within a very little while the Spirit doth recover out of the Surprize puts by the thrusts of Fancy and the stabbs of Temptation and reasons its self into Health and Resolution and Resistance again He that is regardless of this Purity hates his own Soul knows not what Religion means and his outward performances will never make him blessed or happy Christians Do you believe this and will not you labour after it I mean after this Purity of Heart Look into the Gospel examine the Places where the Mind the inward Man the inside of the Cup and Platter are commanded to be purified Consider how frequently this is press'd Do not you see what a stress the Holy Ghost lays upon it Why should you deceive why should you delude your selves Why should you think it needless Is it not Wisdom to believe him who is the Fountain of Truth and Wisdom Does not Reason nay doth not Sense tell you that if the Waters in the Spring be muddy the Streams and Rivulets cannot be clear What would you have the Fruit good when the Tree is nought How can your Actions be pleasing to God when your Minds are full of weariness and unwillingness and backwardness
in his Service Can the outward Man be good when the inward is rotten and putrefied Are you wise Builders do you think do you hope to make a good piece of work of it to build the Top of the House when you have not laid the Foundation This purity of heart produces a great sense of God and another World a great sense of the Love of God which constrains the Soul to live in conformity to his Will and this is the Foundation of all true Religion If this sense be setled in the Heart if this Ground be well manured the whole Garden of your Lives will abound with Flowers and Fruits of all Sorts Ay! but how is this Purity to be attain'd I answer not with Laziness not with crying There is a Bear there is a Lion in the way Not by being over curious about the Purity and Ornaments of the Body When People spend more time at the Glass than at their Prayers take more than ordinary satisfaction in dressing and adorning the Body seek more to please Men than God do all they can to pamper the Flesh the Mind will run out into a thousand Vanities But 1. By studying the Word of God For the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes Psal. XIX 7 8. What made David wiser than his Enemies What made him understand more than the Antients What made him know more than his Teachers He tells you Psal. CXIX 97. Oh how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day Vers. 104. Through thy Precepts I get Vnderstanding Vers. 140. Thy word is very pure And it is so pure that if digested and ponder'd on it will purifie the Heart too 2. By taking notice of God in every thing While other Men talk of chance and take notice of the Shell and Outside and of the little Wheels whereby their own and other Men's affairs are turned about do you look still upon that God that hides himself behind the Curtain and turns all according to his good Pleasure Take notice of him in every Blessing whether you eat or drink or whatever Conveniency Mercy Providence comes upon you have an Eye to him and you will find your hearts will become very pure They looked upon him and were enlightened and their faces were not ashamed Psal. XXXIV 5. 3. By calling in the aid and assistance of his Holy Spirit For it is the proper Province of that Spirit to enlighten the Mind and Understanding and to purifie it from gross terrestrial and brutish Idea's and Imaginations and to replenish and fill it with a sense of spiritual things And this Spirit is ready to come ready to enter ready to lend his helping hand when he finds the Soul willing to be purified willing without Tricks without Reserves without Proviso's without Conditions Such as Lord suffer me first to go and bury my Father or suffer me first to go and take leave of those at my house In a word this Spirit loves to deal with down-right honest Men that mean what they say and think what they speak in their Addresses to God 4. By acquainting your selves with the true Nature of Sin For a principal part of this Purity of Heart consisting in an Aversion from sinfull Thoughts and Desires it is not possible a Person should arrive to that Aversion that sees not that Evil in Sin which is really in it What Shall I hate a thing I see no harm in Shall I dread the Appearance of a thing which I spy some Beauty and Satisfaction in The best the plainest and easiest way to acquaint our selves with the Nature of Sin is by reflecting on the Wages of Sin which is Death even everlasting Death and Misery It may be my Understanding is dull and weak and I cannot dive into all the Tendencies of Sin nor find out all the Indignities it offers to God's Attributes but this I know Eternal Misery is threatned to it This seems indeed to be unproportionable to its short duration But still God having certainly threatned it there must be something in it very nauseous very grievous very odious very dreadfull very injurious to God and to his infinite Purity the very shadow of it must be poysonous and infectious and by this the Heart will take fire and hate the very thoughts of it even every false way 5. By representing to your minds the infinite Purity of God with whom your Souls are to converse and who offers to make your Heart his Temple and the Place of his Residence If you are to receive a King a Sovereign Prince or a Person of extraordinary Quality into your House do not you make all clean and handsome and take care there may be nothing wanting that may give him content and satisfaction every Chamber every Room in the House is set out and garnish'd and adorn'd as far as your ability reaches and Neatness is a thing that at such a time you glory in But what is a great Man to Almighty God What is a Prince or a King to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords This Sovereign Majesty is willing to lodge nay to dwell in your Souls A God purer than Angels purer than the Sun and Stars and dwelling in Light inaccessible to whom ten thousand times ten thousand minister and by whose Order and Direction the whole Creation stands and falls And then how holy how pious how clean how pure ought your thoughts to be to give so great so rich so magnificent a Guest suitable Entertainment 6. By representing to your selves the vast advantages that come by this inward Purity I shall name some of them by and by In the mean while I will mention but this one It will make you pray without wandring worldly and base troublesome thoughts Many People complain that they are mightily troubled with wandering thoughts in Prayer Purity of Heart is a remedy against that distemper for that consists in a great measure in an habitual delight in holy serious thoughts And when you go to Prayer your thoughts will delight to fix upon that lovely and amiable object And the secret love to God which is another ingredient of this Purity will force your desires upward and keep your thoughts together and they 'll willingly quit all other hold and with cheerfulness gather about that All-sufficient Being to whom you pray and offer your Devotions For indeed wandring thoughts in Prayer come for the most part from want of fervent Love to God what we love we think of Therefore as this Purity of Heart teaches and inclines you to be enamour'd with that excellent Being so it will procure steddiness of thoughts and affections in Prayer will keep your thoughts in a great measure from roving and wandering up and down among Briars and Thorns meaner and baser Objects Thus
Thoughts upon this Reward and move him to dwell upon it The Bitterness of his Affliction gives that Reward a greater Sweetness and is the same that makes him relish it the more Hence comes this Joy and the nobler the Cause is in and for which he suffers the greater is the Joy But 5. Though all this helps yet the Holy Spirit of God must work with it and work in and upon the Heart and make the Impression of the future Reward so lively that it shall cause Joy and Rejoycing much depends upon the Spirits mingling those Rewards with the Thoughts of the Mind whereby the Affections are affected and rouz'd and elevated into Joy and Rejoycing and such Joy as shall carry the Soul above her Sufferings and make her contentedly want those Accommodations and Conveniencies and Advantages that others do enjoy For this Spirit as it must assure us of our Right to that Reward Rom. VIII 16 17. so it is from that Assurance that this Joy rises which is the Reason why it is emphatically called Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. XIV 17. And yet after all it must be confessed that good Company doth not a little contribute toward their Joy Which leads me to the Second Proposition viz. It 's comfortable to suffer in good Company so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you That 's the Comfort Christ gives here to Persons suffering and bids them solace themselves with the Company of the antient Prophets And this Proposition also I shall explain in these following Paragraphs 1. Solitariness in Affliction aggravates Affliction which is the Reason that Jeremy makes it an Ingredient of the greatness of Jerusalem's Misery Lam. I. 1. How doth the city sit solitary which was full of people how is she become as a widow that was great among the nations she that was a princess among the provinces how is she become tributary All the Heathen Nations round about swam in Plenty Prosperity crown'd their Labours and Ease and Liberty was their Companion Jerusalem alone sigh'd under her Load and groan'd under her Burthen and wept while her Neighbours rejoyc'd and triumph'd in the Success of their Attempts and Enterprizes Company in Affliction is a kind of Balm which supplies the Spirit and gives some Refreshment to a wounded Soul it takes off from the greatness of the Grief and makes the Burthen lighter Solitariness looks strange like a stinking Weed in a curious Flower-garden and coming in the shape of that which is unusual it surprizes more and consequently afflicts more and that 's the Reason may be why Men bear a common Calamity where many fare alike better than they do a private where they have no Partners in their Sorrows And yet 2. It 's hard to conceive how a Man can be solitary in Affliction except by Solitariness we mean that in the Parish or Street or House or Family we live in there is none that is afflicted as we are Set this aside there can hardly any Affliction be named but some or other in the World have been and are as great or greater Sufferers than we are and in this sense a Man cannot want Company in Affliction But then in this case the Mind must call the Company in and the Understanding represent their Sufferings to the Thoughts and Meditation must make their Afflictions present which being a thing generally neglected by Persons who suffer they are very apt to sink into this Fancy That none are miserable in the World as they are as we see Jerusalem complained Lam. I. 12. Behold and see whether there be such a sorrow as my sorrow is wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his anger And yet 3. It is not suffering in every Company that is comfortable To suffer with Evil-doers is a Grief rather than a Consolation and to be afflicted with Malefactors is made an Ingredient of the Bitterness of our blessed Saviour's cup Mark XV. Nor will Company in Hell be any Ease to the Sufferers but rather increase their Torments none being able to help the other The Comfort arising from suffering in Company is confined to this present World and in this case the Company must be such as a Man hath no reason to be ashamed of and that must be the Company of truly pious Men whether they be present or absent whether they have lived lately or a thousand or two thousand Years agone whether they dwell in the same Town or City or Village we are of or a hundred Miles off for this Company of good Men with whom we suffer are either as good as we are or better than we 1. If they be as good as we our selves are the Reflexion is very natural If this be the Lot and Portion of Persons under the same Circumstances I am under then no strange thing happens to me then God deals with me as he doth with his other Children If I am not better than they why should I expect more favourable Dealings at his hands and yet these Dealings are favourable too If Men as good as my self have look'd upon the Crosses that have befallen them as Marks of God's Favour why should not I look upon mine thro' the same Glass How can it be said that I am as good as they if I make not the same pious Constructions of these Providences if I fall short of these rational Interpretations of God's Dispensations I must needs fall short of their Goodness Or 2. The good Men in whose Company I suffer are better than I and then the Argument of Comfort will be stronger still Have the Heroes of Religion suffered so much and shall I a puny Christian complain Have the great Champions of the Gospel endured as much or more than I and shall a Christian of an ordinary size find fault Have such Men as St. Paul and the Holy Apostle's gone thro' firy Tryals and shall I a Disciple of those great Masters tremble at the Fire Have the Fathers the strong Men in Grace old Disciples been scratch'd and wounded with Briars and Thorns and shall I a Babe look to tread on Carpets Have the Generals the Captains in Christ's Army gone thro' a Sea of Adversity and shall I a common Soldier shrink at the Waves Have such Men as Samuel Elijah and Elisha Men that could in a manner command Heaven by their Prayers been reviled traduced reproach'd and shall I a Shrub take it ill that I am call'd out of my Name This is a very strong Argument of Comfort So that you see that the Comfort arising from suffering with other good Men lies partly in the Ease the Mind receives by their Society and partly in that their Examples give us opportunity to make use of the same Motives to Patience which held them up 1. In the Ease the Mind receives from the suffering Society It gives a sort of Content which all the Physick in the World cannot give especially if the suffering Company be present for then the
own Souls must be absolutely necessary Religion exalts Nature and the kindnesses which the Law written upon our Hearts requires of us toward the Bodies of our Neighbours Religion bids us exercise to their Souls which are the nobler substances Religion as it makes us concerned for our own Souls so it raises a desire to do good to the Souls of others Till a Man comes to be concerned about spiritual Affairs he is a Stranger to Religion As things unseen are the proper Object of the Soul so to be truly concerned about things unseen is the proper Character of a Religious Man And as Religion in imitation of its Author is communicative so the Soul of another Man comes to be very dear to us if our care and solicitude be once seriously employ'd about our own and this is the ground of the great Duty pressed here viz. preserving others from Sin and Corruption to which purpose our Saviour tells Peter with respect to his resurrection from his Apostacy when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren Luke XXII 32. And St. Paul in larger terms Exhort one another daily taking heed lest any of you be harden'd through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. III. 13. This being the true import of the similitude used here Let us II. Consider how this Salt comes to lose its Savour And this happens 1. When a Man after he comes to know his Duty either by reading or hearing the Word preached in season and out of season acts contrary to his Profession and enticed or overcome by the Cares Riches and Pleasures of this Life grows sensless of the weighty Concerns of his own and other Mens Souls and willfully and obstinately maugre all the Checks of his Conscience to the contrary continues so We all know that when Salt hath lost its Picquancy and Sharpness and Quickness it is gone and it can be call'd Salt no more Just so it is with a Man that owns himself a Christian if taken with these outward things that please the Flesh and pamper the Body and gratifie his Carnal Interest he boldly neglects exerting his Zeal and Fervour for his own and other Mens Souls which his Religion presses and urges him to he ceases to be a Christian for a Christian is a Person active that acts according to the Rules of his Profession Where it is so that the love of the World doth so blind and intoxicate him that he looks neither after his own Soul nor the Soul of his Neighbour and feels no love to either or if he feels something of it choaks it again with the Bryars and Thorns of this Life he loses the Spirit of Religion and then as the Body without the Soul is dead so his Christianity without this Love becomes dead also Indeed we call the dead Men still but that 's only a Name Properly speaking they are no Men and so it is here he that is a stranger to this Love is no Christian for this Love is as much of the Essence of Christianity as sharpness or quickness is to Salt 2. This Salt loses his Savour When a Man hath been for some time solicitous about his own Soul and the spiritual Concerns of his Neighbours and grows weary of it or for Carnal Reasons quits those hearty Endeavours of preserving others from Sin and Corruption This the Holy Ghost calls departing from the Holy Commandment delivered to us 2 Pet. II. 21. Though losing in Scripture imports sometimes neglecting that which is a Mans greatest interest to mind yet for the most part loss supposes having and that we once had that which is now gone from us and this is an aggravation of the fault and consequently of the Sin mentioned in the Text And he loses his Savour as a Christian i. e. loses his Christianity and Sense of God with a witness that begins in the Spirit and ends in the Flesh runs well for a time and suffers himself to be stopt in his Race hath endeavour'd to do good to the Souls of others and taken care that his Life and Actions might be edifying to those who conversed with him but having laid his hand to the Plough looks back with Lot's Wife who became a Pillar of Salt and of Disgrace and Infamy too Salt is used in Scripture for permanency that 's the reason of the expression Numb XVIII 19. A Covenant of Salt i. e. a lasting Covenant and a Christian that is to be Salt in one sense i. e. preserve others as much as he can from sinning must be Salt in the other sense too i. e. continue patiently in well-doing if he doth not he loses his Savour and Religion and then if the Salt hath lost its Savour wherewith shall it be salted Whether Salt can lose its Savour I leave to Naturalists to enquire and determine if it cannot the possibility of it may however safely be supposed for the instruction of the ignorant as St. Paul supposes an Angels Preaching a new Doctrin If an Angel from Heaven should Preach another Gospel to you than what we have Preach'd unto you let him be accurs'd not that its possible an Angel can do so but such a supposition makes the Argument in hand more powerful and convincing And having considered how the Salt or the Persons represented by Salt lose their Savour le ts go on and consider III. The nature of the Commination here spoken of which is That the Salt after that cannot recover its taste but is cast forth and troden under foot of Men. To explain this 1. As Salt when it hath lost its Sharpness is render'd incapable of recovering that Sharpness there being nothing in Nature that can give it the taste of Salt again so where People will not be perswaded either by good Examples or by other means to endeavour the preservation of others from Sin God very often hardens them and takes away from them a Heart and Will to do it for the future When Men neglect their known Duty or delay applying themselves to it though they have many Motions of God's Spirit to that purpose and hope to do it this time and that time and yet still find Impediments there it is just with God to put them in an incapacity of doing it at all and to take from them that Grace and Power he gave them to preserve others from Corruption or to bring upon them an impossibility of recovering that Grace and Power as much as Salt cannot be Salted again or recover its Sharpness when it hath once lost its Acrimony God cannot endure to see Men play with his Gifts He makes anotherguess account of his Gospel he vouchsafes to Men than the generality do and those who give up their Names to him and will not by the strongest Arguments be prevail'd with to act according to their Profession shall be in danger of being so infatuated that they shall not be salted again with the Salt of Grace and Favour and influences of his Spirit for this is to bury our Talents