a far more ingenious thing to be able to supplant a mans own misfortune to raise himself by his own fall to find a crown in his own ruins we know Saul found a Kingdom as he was seeking his fathers asses and this is to find a kingdom in seeking poverty and want this is to convert by an excellent kind of Chymistry poysons into Cordials losses into gaines crosses into crowns and the wounds and injuries of fortune into blessings and favours it is a being in truth what the Phylosophers so much talked of beyond the reach of fortune and above the Empire of Chance I believe during the time of our late unhappy wars many that were skilfull at fishing in troubled waters have with good success experimented the truth of this doctrine in the letter How many a poor broken trades man with others of ship-wrack't and ruin'd fortunes who being quite bankrupt and reduced to the extremity of want and misery Have by betaking themselves to the wars thriven better and rais'd themselves to far greater and fairer fortunes than ever they could have expected with out a miracle in the way of their former vocations I am sure it s no lesse true but more safe in the spirit For there was never any poor broken spirit that being ship-strack't and bankrupted in himself that being lost and ruined in himself that being undone and beggard that being naked humble poor in spirit betook himself to this spiritual warfare entered into the Camp of the Saints militant that lifted his name under the Captaine of our Salvation Christ Jesus and served under the banner of the Cross but he was a gainer by it but he thrive better rais'd his fortunes to a higher pitch than if he had grasp'd the Scepters and possest the Empires of the whole Earth so thriving a thing is this poverty so great the advantages that are to be reap'd by it so great the honour and dignities to which it leads For to speak truth they are our riches that ruin and undo us what we account our riches is our poverty and our cloathing is our shame of which till we are strip'd its impossible for us to be either fortunate or truly happy But to proceed how much have many done suffered upon the single account of gratifying their ambition with the expence of how much sweat and travail at the losse of how many nights sleep and repose at the cost of how many cares and sorrows are men content to purchase a small Empire a little province of rule and dominion Whereas it were but a poor low and groveling ambition did they with Ceser grasp at the whole Earth or with Alexander mourn for that there is but one For what is it that we should either with the one prize it so much or with the other grieve there are no more Is it any other than a mole hill or any better than the dreges and sidency of the Creation or is it not infinitely below the worth dignity of the least celestial body of the least star that twinkles in the great vault of heaven Is it not then to play at small game a meer childish push-pin sport to contend for it Or can the great conflicts and struglings managed with so much passion and animosity about it amount to more or seem other in the eye of a truly soaring and rais'd ambition than a cock-fight or contest of fowls for the Empire of a dunghill or the bul rush encounter we meet with in the fable between the Frog and the Mouse or rather the stivings of those little animals we sometimes observe in mole hills so eagerly to contend for a grain of corn For is not the ambiency and circumference of the whole earth which is so noble a prize in the eyes of the sons of men and so great a ball of contention among them but as a punctum a small point or atomes in comparison of the dementions of the first and lowest Heavens And yet how much sweat how much oyl is dispended in the quest and acquisition of a small particle thereof There are others that will suffer much upon the account of love and friendship that can freely espouse poverty and court misery for the love and company of a friend that can sacrifice their lives their honours their crowns at the Altar and feet of friendship Can bid defiance unto Death the King of terrors in honour of their friend And to speak truth since friendship in the highest and most heroik degree thereof is so strict a League and Union of Souls that friends become a second self to each other I know not whether he may be thought worthy the title or not to profane the name by his pretensions thereto that cannot pawn his life for the honour and safety of his friend Shall now a rash and blinde passion boast greater trophies and be honoured with more victims than God Shall the Martyrologies of love and friendship be fuller than those of Saints Shall the votaries of Cupid be more numerous than those of Heaven Shall men do more upon a principle of good nature and on the account of a naturall passion of love and friendship to a creature than those that pretend to be saints by a principle of Grace and on the account of a Divine and Seraphick love to the Creator Shall the flames of love kindled by concupiscence and lust have more heat and burn brighter than those lighted by a beam of Heaven and kindled at the Altar Shall more boast the wounds they have received in the lists of friendship than those of piety for the love of a woman than of God for the sake of a friend than of Jesus Others are very passionate in the quest of honour and zealous of their reputations being willinger to loose their lives than the least punctilio of credit How many Gentlemen have sacrificed their lives on this score and offer'd up themselves as victims at the Altars of this chimerical and feigned Diety How great a spur to valour is this notion of Honour How great flames of courage will the least spark thereof kindle in a valiant breast With how great resolution will it steel a souldiers heart making him proof against the greatest perils What dangers will he not confront What hazards will he not attempt if his honour if his reputation be at stake And how many of these candidates of fame these sons of renown do watch with more jealousie ore their honour than their souls And are carefuller not to fully their reputations then defile their consciences Now shall any one be willinger to sell his life to redeem his own honour than Gods to vindicate his own reputation than the Gospels In defence of his Princes standard than the banner of the Crosse or to purchase the name of a valiant man than that of a couragious Christian Again many have suffered much for the love of wisdom in the quest and pursuit of knowledge With how
Laplanders that are reported to befriend Marriners with Gales tyed up in Napkins for whereas these traffick with the Elements they put to sale the wind of their oaths as if they were no more then small puffs of ayr yet such by which many are in a trice blown out of all their Estates and Fortunes into a gulph of poverty and misery and these are those Camelions that can cast themselves into all shapes and colours and witness pro or con to any business But to balance this custome of Antiquity our modern Ages delight rather to show their Coats of Arms and Atchievements taken out of the Heralds Office than the base badges of Mechanick Trades and beggarly Professions as if nothing would so much taint the 〈◊〉 and degrade a Gentleman as an honest imployment But to proceed there is the sweat of the mind as well as the body and to speak truth of all labours that of the mind is far the greatest and of all travel that of the Soul is the sorest under the Sun and therefore it is that Solomon so often lets fall such expressions as these Of writing books there is no end and much reading or study is weariness to the flesh Also where he sayes He that encreases knowledge encreaseth sorrow and the like but as it is the sorest travel so it is the Noblest difficilia quae pulchra the wayes that lead to Eminence are not strewd with Roses Now its fit that every one should have his share and portion of the one or the other of the sweat of the body or the travel of the mind for man is born to labour and travel as the sparks fly upward Iob 5. 7. And God hath forbidden him to eat that will not labour and therefore I wonder how such dare eat the sweat of whose brows in some lawful imployment hath not given them a right and title to what their plentiful Fortunes hath furnished forth unto their tables It s a laudible custome of some Countryes to make their children by some exercise of either body or mind to deserve and as it were earn their meat before they give it them whereby from their very Infancy and Cradles they are inur'd to labour and made familiar with industry To conclude no Patrimony no Revenues no Fortunes are large enough the riches of the Indies the wealth of Kingdomes nay the price of Worlds would fall short and not be able to supply or recruit the Exchequer of such persons expences as have no other imployment their devise how to spend which renders industry no less our interest than duty business being no less the food and entertainment of the mind than meat is of the body And as idleness is said to be the Devils Pillow and therefore none may expect Gods blessing that sleeps upon it so I am confident it is as uneasie as unsafe and dangerous Now when men refuse all labour and become unprofitable burdens to the earth when men live to eat when as they should only eat to live when men think they are born wholly for themselves to eat and drink and rise up to play is it not just with God to blast their Estates and to send the Gout the Dropsie or the judgement of some more sore disease upon the bodies of these Pigri ventri these slow bellies that are good for nothing but to feed and pamper a rotten carkass that must after a while be a banquet for worms that are good for nothing but like vermine to devoure the fruits of the earth that live as if they had their Souls given them as it s commonly said of Swines only as salt to keep the flesh of their bodies from putrifying and stinking To conclude this particular I am perswaded if greater entertainment and incouragement were given to industry and diligence it might prove the most effectual means to croud out that penury and poverty that hath so long dwelt amongst us of which we need not look far for a President so long as Holland is so nigh a Neighbour whose small spot of earth did it not lye so low and in the midst of waters I should liken to a Mole-Hill the Inhabitants being those Pismires from whom all the world might take lessons of industry and diligence Now upon the account of all these reasons from whence this poverty of necessity usually springs I am induc'd to believe this is not the poverty here meant but that this is rather a Judgement than a Blessing of God for were this the poverty that gave men title to the Kingdome of Heaven none could make a better claim or produce fairer evidence then a Prodigal Son that hath wasted and spent his Estate on Whores and Parasites or some Bankrupt person that hath split his Fortunes and ship-wrack'd his Estate by ill husbandry gaming or the like no Whoremongers Adulterers and dissolute persons must not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven We ought to be diligent and faithful Stewards even of these talents for of these also must we give an account if therefore God hath trusted any one with a fair estate a large and plentiful Fortune let him not think to spend it upon his lusts but so demean himself in his Stewardship that he may give a good account in the day of his Audit that so he may reap comfort not shame when the Harvest of the World shall approach Moreover our English Proverb saith That God never sends mouths but he also sends meat and that no man is so unfortunate but at one time or other hath been courted by an opportunity of growing rich at least in a competency God feeds the very crows and Ravens and cloaths the very grass and Lillies of the fields in so rich Liveries that they may vye with Solomon in all his glory and make the purple of our bravest Princes blush to see their gallantry so much out-stript by the native beauty of so contemptible a creature and shall we think that God who is thus bountiful to the Lillies of the field will deny his own people food and rayment But I would not have this interpreted to lock up the bowels of compassion and bar the door of our charity against such poor wretches that daily cry in our streets for though I think their poverty is commonly a Judgement of God upon them for some of the fore-cited sins yet this excuses not our charity and compassion for since we are all sinners as Christ said of the woman taken in Adultery who shall presume to fling the first stone at them should we not rather imitate the goodness of God that causes his Sun to shine and his Rain fall upon the wicked as well as the righteous Our English Proverb saith The Crows must live shall not then our poor Brother And the Scripture saith A righteous man is merciful to his Beast then much more to those that are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone I am perswaded when the sins of this Nation shall
conditions how that they have no righteousnesse of their own no holiness no purity no Sanctity of their own these I take to be the poor in Spirit here meant Having thus discoursed on the subject of the Proposition we are by the course of our method arrived at the predicate viz. Blessed The word in the Original is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} quasi {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} non sorti non morti subjectus a word in which the whole of felicity is summ'd up a word that reaches the Culâ—en top or fastigium of all happinesse a felicity that is not subject to the stroke of death to the sith of time a felicity which neither time shall wither nor the hour or approach of death be able to blast and so we have finished the proposition and shall now hasten to the ground or reason of it and that is For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Christ said sometime to his Dischples Luke the 10 20. verse Rejoyce not so much that the Devils are made subject to you but rather that your names are written in heaven that your names are written by the blood of Christ and finger of the spirit in the book of Life that your names are enrolled and registred in the Archives of Heaven Now from the words thus anatomized and unbowelled there seem naturally to spring these propositions 1 That Poverty of Spirit is a royal and blessed state or condition or in the concrete that the poor in spirit are blessed 2 That the ground or reason of all true happinesse or blessednesse is founded in an interest in the Kingdom of heaven or that they onely may be truly and without Ironie termed happy or accounted the real proprietors of all felicity whose is the Kingdom of heaven on whom heaven and happinesse is intail'd 1 Poverty of spirit is a blessed state and happy condition I should rather darken than illustrate the meridian brightnesse of this Truth that is wrot as with a sun-beam should I bring a cloud of witnesses for its confirmation it needing no other proof than the Authority of him that spake it having proceeded from the lips of him that is Truth it self that cannot lye But that no truth though of never so great evidence might be without witnesse the whole scope and tenour of the Gospel seems to bear its testimony and give in evidence to the confirmation hereof How frequent is it said in Proverbs besides other places That pride is an abomination to the Lord is not this the language and dialect of the scripture throughout that the Lord will dwel with an humble and contrite heart that trembleth at his Word but that he hateth and resisteth the proud Doth not almost every page and Chapter thorowout the whole Book of God speak in the same Key Doth not God all along turn the edge of his threatnings against high things and high thoughts against proud and towring imaginations that exalt and lift up themselves hath he not denounced enmity against proud and high things hath he not threatened to level and bring down every high Hill till he make it become a plain Is not the quarrel of the Almighty with the great things of the Earth And hath he not on the other side pawned his Word and ingaged his promise to exalt the humble to give grace to the humble to lift up every valley c. Hath he not invited all those that hunger and thrust all those that are weary and heavy leaden promising that he will feed them that he will satisfie them that he will ease them that they shall finde rest unto their souls What are all these expressions but as so many proofs and confirmations of this Proposition it were endlesse to quote and cite places and therefore shall hasten to the Reasons whereof 1. The first is borrowed from a rule among Physitians with whom it is received as a Maxim that primus gradus sumitatis est nosse morbum the first degree of health is to know the disease for as our Proverb hath it a disease that is known is half cured Now this poverty of Spirit is a reflex act of the Soule discovering to men their wants that they may go to Christ to be supplied of his fulnesse to receive of his fulnesse Grace for Grace It discovers to men their own nakednesse that they may go to Christ to be clothed with the white robes of his Righteousnesse till Adams eyes were opened that he saw his nakednesse and his sin He had no shame nor sence of his guilt but so soon as his eyes were opened he began to sow fig leaves together to cover his sin and hide his shame This is the usual Method and progresse of God in the work of conversion first to alarm and awaken the Soul by a clap of Thunder so to rouse him from the Lethergie and sleep of sin to prick them to the quick and make them cry out like the Jaylor in the Acts men and brethren what shall we do to be saved This causes the scales to fall from off their eyes those scales of Ignorance with which their eyes were seal'd and then they see their sin and their shame and begin to loath and abhor themselves to cloath themselves with sackcloth and ashes and sit down in the dust Now when a soul hath thus seen its nakednesse it begins to think of a covering of a mantle or a cloak to hide its sin and begins first to sow together the Fig leaves of its own Righteousnesse of its own performances and so long as it thinks they will serve its turn it looks no further till at length a flash of lightening comes and smutes all their righteousnesse blacks all their beauty scorches their leaves and burns up all their Hay and Stuble and discovers a new light unto them that make they the borders of their own righteousnesse never so broad and let them with the Pharisees inlarge their Phylacteries never so wide yet they shall finde the skirts thereof too narrow too shallow to cover them then they begin to be out of conceit with themselves to fall in disesteem and disreputation with themselves then they begin to let fall those plumes and specious train that before they so much pleased and prided themselves in And indeed men will never desire to put on the Lord jesus till they have thus seen their own poverty that their own righteousnesse is but as dirty and menstruous rags till they are thus come acquainted with their own wants how empty their own exchequer is how low their own treasures run they will never desire to be supplied out of those treasures of Grace God hath laid up in Christ for poor sinners till men look up and discern the sword of vengeance hanging by a small hair over their heads ready to drop upon them they 'l not be sencible of the desperate peril and danger of their naturall state and condition till they see the filthinesse