imports 1. A great sense that there is no true satisfaction either in sin or in a worldly carnal life This we must necessarily suppose for how should a man hunger or thirst after Righteousness except he be sensible that here is not his rest neither in sin nor in the contentments of this present world these being the grand impediments of that Righteousness That 's the reason why men who place their chiefest happiness in sublunary enjoyments have nothing of this hunger and thirst after Righteousness till they become sensible of the vanity of this world and the danger of a sinfull life their appetite after Righteousness is insignificant nor can their feeble wishes be call'd so but when they have a thorough view of the rottenness of the bottoms they have sailed in then they affect and desire this plank to swim out of the gulph of perdition 2. It imports a high esteem of this Righteousness and Goodness and without it it 's impossible to hunger and thirst after it for men do not use to long after things they do not value nor are their desires very strong after objects they see no satisfaction in A man hungry and thirsty prizes the meat and drink that is before him so must he the righteousness we speak of that doth truly hunger and thirst after it If he doth not prize it above Gold and Silver and Pearls and precious Stones his hunger and thirst after it cannot be considerable but when he comes to count all things dross and dung in comparison of it then he is most likely to hunger and thirst after it 3. It imports a very earnest desire to be righteous and good in all points Such a desire as men very hungry and thirsty have after meat and drink and that we know is not very faint The Scripture therefore expresses by a very emphatical similitude Psal. XLII 1. As the Hart pants after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God The Hart or Stag is a creature naturally hot but being chas'd and hunted his desire after the cooling streams becomes more earnest and vehement and such must be this desire after righteousness even as it is Psal. LXIII 1. My soul thirsteth my flesh longs for thee in a dry Land i. e. as a man or traveller spent with the labour or the trouble of his journey in a dry land where no water is These expressions import a very strong desire a desire which hath no reserves no sinister ends and designs but is sincere and lively and vigorous and importunate which will not be denied and prevails by its fervour and importunity 4. It imports actual and earnest endeavours to be truly good and righteous by a diligent and conscientious use of the proper means We do not look upon a man that talks of having a thing or pretends his heart set upon it as being in good earnest if his endeavours be not suitable to his desires The Merchant or Trades-man that desires to be rich we know what pains they take nay the Day-Labourer that desires a livelihood So he that hungers and thirsts after Righteousness indeed will enquire and hear and read the word of God and ponder it in his mind and pray hard and deny himself and break off from loose Company and meditate and think and shun occasions of evil and follow God as the man in the Gospel did his Neighbour at Midnight for three Loaves and will leave no stone unturn'd to compass this Goodness and Righteousness as a man who is very hungry or thirsty doth not sit still but bestirs himself to get Food and Drink which he stands in need of 5. It imports a Progress in this hunger and thirst and when we are arrived to such a degree of Righteousness then to hunger and thirst and endeavour after higher degrees of it To this purpose are those frequent exhortations Grow in Grace and see that ye abound more and more in faith in love and charity And give all diligence to add to your faith vertue unto vertue knowledge unto knowledge temperance unto temperance godliness unto godliness patience unto patience brotherly kindness and unto brotherly kindness charity 1 Thess. III. 12. IV. 1. 2. Pet. I. 5 6 7. II. 18. A Christians labour like the Husbandmans is never at an end when one lust is mortified he must begin to subdue and mortifie another and when he hath made one vertue his domestick he must take another into his Family The hunger and thirst here spoken of is not a momentary appetite which is to last for a day or so but an appetite perpetual which is to run through the whole course of our lives and which is still encreas'd by being filled insomuch that if a good Christian were to live here a thousand years he would still find degrees and acts of Righteousness to hunger and thirst after 6. It imports such a spiritual hunger and thirst or such a desire after Righteousness as is content to undergo and endure bodily hunger and thirst and other temporal inconveniencies both for the attainment and preservation of it He that is loath to be at any trouble for it or unwilling to abridge himself in any thing that 's pleasing to the flesh either for the gaining of it or the maintaining of it hath but a weak appetite after it to be sure no such appetite as the man of honour hath after worldly Glory who can dispence with scratch'd faces with scars and wounds and hard lodging and puddle-water and a homely dyet and all to attain to an empty name of a valiant man Surely righteousness deserves as generous a desire we see what men will do in a Famine even venture reproach and contempt and being abused and reviled to get food convenient such must be this hunger and thirst after Righteousness for to be truly righteous a Christian must reckon upon afflictions persecutions and calumnies and nick-names and being laught at and he that longs for the fragrant Rose must not stand upon its being encompass'd with pricks but resolve out of love to the one to dispense with the other And that which enforces the duty is the II. Proposition That without this hunger and thirst after Righteousness a man cannot be blessed or happy As the former Proposition made this hunger and thirst commendable so this makes it absolutely necessary for if he is blessed who hungers and thirsts certainly he is not so that wants this appetite And that there is no true blessedness without it will appear from the following considerations 1. Without this hunger and thirst the Soul is sick as much as we conclude a man is not well when his appetite is gone nay if he have no appetite at all we conclude him dead A Carkass hath not appetite and most certainly he that hath no hunger and thirst after Righteousness at all is dead in God's account dead in Law dead in the Law of the Gospel a sad condition and which deserves to have
love and affection to the World c. may be gone that God would arise and that these Enemies may be scatter'd they use means they enquire what they must do to mortify these unruly desires they deny themselves they fast they are angry with these Corruptions yet ever and anon before they are aware they fall and imprudently yield to Temptations of this nature they would feign be Masters of those vertues accomplishments and perfections which did shine so bright in the primitive Saints but cannot as yet arrive to that excellent Temper for this they mourn and are dejected and sorrow seizes upon their hearts and minds yet still blessed are these mourners 5. Such as mourn because their stay in this World is long because they are kept out of Heaven and from the perfect enjoyment of God because they are obliged to continue in this barren Wilderness of the World where they must see their God dishonoured his Name profaned his Creatures abused his Ordinances derided his Providences disregarded his Precepts slighted his Promises undervalued his Threatnings scorned and Charity grow cold and Iniquity abound This draws from them David's complaint Wo is me that I must dwell in Mesech and have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar Ps. CXX 5. Indeed such mourners are but few most Men being desirous to enjoy the World as long as they can yet some there are that have made their Calling and Election sure and long to be gone long to be dissolved and to be with Christ and to be cloath'd upon with their House from Heaven long to join the Quire of Angels long to be freed from this Earthly Tabernacle and all this upon the excellent Principle of the love of God not from impatience under their pain and sickness or frowns of the World or their mean condition here but because the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts and because they are kept from enjoying their desire because the amorous Needle is with-held from clinging to the beloved Magnet they mourn blessed mourning But what You 'll say do no mourners under Temporal losses and crosses come into the Number of these blessed Men I answer yes 1. If the cause for which and in which they suffer losses of their Goods or Friends be great and noble if they sulfer for the Gospel's sake upon the Account of Righteousness and a good Conscience in this case their mourning under their Temporal losses may intitle them to blessedness provided that their mourning be mingled with faith and hope and a holy self-resignation and that they mourn more for the wickedness of the Person who are the instruments of their Persecution than for the want of their Corn and Wine and Oil and the Garlicks and Onions of Egypt 2. If under their Temporal losses they mourn chiefly for their sins which have both caused and deserved these sufferings Sorrow barely for Temporal losses and for being deprived of the satisfactions of the flesh cannot be reconciled to that Spiritual life the Gospel presses something there must be to sweeten that sour Sop as it stands alone it comes under the notion of sorrow of the World and that we are told works death 2 Cor. VII 10. And consequently happiness cannot be the fruit or effect of it The Soul therefore that mourns under such outward Calamities must look off from the Calamity to the cause of it or Sin which hath procured it and that sanctifies the sorrow and makes the mourner blessed Yet to prevent mistakes I must necessarily add these following cautions 1. We are not to think that in order to arrive to this Blessedness a Man or Woman must do nothing but mourn There is a time for every thing and there are other things to be done besides mourning even the particular Duties and Vertues and Self-denials required and commanded in this Chapter so that when it is said here blessed are they that mourn the meaning is blessed are they that do so as they have occasion to reflect either upon the Spiritual Evils which are present or upon the Spiritual Blessings that are absent from them It 's enough that there be a disposition or aptitude to mourn which exerts it self whenever any opportunity offers it self to consider and to think of such Objects as deserve and require our mourning else Spiritual Joy would be no Duty and if our lives were to be fill'd with mourning the Apostle's Exhortation had been useless Phil. IV. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord always i. e. upon all occasions and again I say Rejoyce Neither 2. Must the stress be laid upon the bare mourning as if the mourning and weeping and sadness alone were pleasing to God and groans were the only livery of Heaven but this mourning must be in order to a greater end even to establish our Souls in the love of God to strengthen our graces to corroborate our repentance and aversion from sin and to purifie our outward and inward Man more and more and therefore it is emphatically call'd sorrowing to Repentance 2 Cor. VII 9. Nor 3. Are we to think that a certain degree of mourning is always necessary even mourning expressed in so much weeping and sorrowing as we find in other Christians of our Acquaintance All men's conditions are not alike a Person that hath been profane and lewd hath reason to mourn more than he whose Sins have been of a lesser size not but that it was commendable to weep bitterly even for infirmities but the obligation of mourning is greater certainly upon a rapacious Publican than upon the pious Couple Zacharias and Elizabeth Besides all men's Constitutions are not alike some being of that tender Complexion that the least touch or sense of things makes them weep others of a hardier make who may be astonish'd and concern'd at great things but cannot make that outward shew of mourning that others can It 's enough therefore that the sorrow be rational and that the mind be so affected with the object that causes or deserves mourning as to work in us a willingness to mourn more if we could and an indignation against the Spiritual Evils which are present and an earnest longing and endeavour after the Spiritual Blessings which are absent and we stand in need of Having set down these cautions I proceed to the second Part to acquaint you II. Wherein the Blessedness of such mourners consists 1. This mourning is the Character of Saints Ezek. IX 4. 2 Cor. XII 21. Why what Blessedness is there in this will some say How no Blessedness in being a Saint what 's the reason then that Kings and Princes wish they were so what 's the reason that most wicked Men when they come to die would fain be of that Number Nay what 's the reason that in your Creed you believe a Communion of Saints Is it not in this Creed that you profess the greatest Blessings that were ever bestow'd upon the Children of Men And if the Communion of Saints be one must it
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